By Your Side: One
It was the start of her second year at Shin Preparatory School, and she couldn't be more excited. She was currently fidgeting with whether or not she should have her hair up or down, and finally opted for a half-up hairdo.
As she braided one half of her hair on each side, Rosemary stared at herself in the mirror and wondered if she was truly ready for her next phase in high school. Though she thought she was prepared, she also felt as if this year would present with many challenges she wasn't sure she was ready to face. She didn't know what those could be, but she just had a gut feeling that things might go awry.
Finally, Rose finished with her hair and moved on to her face. Should she bother with makeup? She shook her head at the thought; though she wanted to look older – she felt she might have a baby face with her long wavy hair and round face with large blue eyes– but at the same time the thought of putting so much effort into something that would eventually melt away made the idea of makeup unappealing.
Bare face. Hair done. She thought her heart would burst out of her chest as she proceeded to adjust the red bow on her dark navy blue uniform and tried to straighten her slightly wrinkled skirt. She knew she was excited, but at the same time terribly nervous.
She just wanted this year to go well – even though deep inside she felt that it would go a little sideways.
Exiting the bathroom, she turned to her barren bedroom – with just a bed, a closet, a bedside table, and an old used desk and chair – and fixed the blanket on her bed, just to have something nice to come home to after a no-doubt long day at school. She then looked at herself in the mirrored doors of her closet, observing how the skirt she wore made her legs look longer than they were; she was rather short for her age, she knew, but she liked how accentuated her legs looked.
Rose then took the uniform jacket off her desk chair and buttoned it on, heaving a heavy breath before grabbing her book bag beside her desk and her lunchbox from the kitchen and finally – finally – leaving the house.
She was one of the few students that drove to school, she knew. So much so that people typically asked her for rides – with the exchange of gas money, of course. She didn't mind; she liked the company of her classmates and friends, and driving was one of her favorite things to do as a young person. It provided her an inkling of freedom from the mundane and otherwise vice grip of being a lowly teenage girl.
She had a job – a babysitter for a woman in her building – but all her money typically went back into her rundown apartment on the bad side of town that she lived in with her uncle – so any freedom in that area was pretty much diminished as soon as she got her paychecks. She didn't talk about her home life a lot – mostly because it was rather embarrassing and hard to explain – so in that regard she was a mystery to her classmates. She never invited anyone over; she usually insisted on studying or hanging out at other people's houses or somewhere public like the library or the mall.
Anywhere but her house.
Rose reached her friend, Annabelle's – usually called Bunni – house in just a matter of ten minutes flat, a new record for her. Usually traffic inhibited her from getting there earlier than twenty or sometimes thirty minutes from her home. She texted quickly that she was outside, then a couple minutes later Bunni came bounding out, seemingly as excited about school as Rose felt sick about it.
Bunni was a rather stunning individual – and appeared the opposite of Rose. She was tall, for one, and had dark hair and dark eyes, as opposed to Rose's blond hair and bright eyes. She also had a ton of piercings in her ears – she said she would get more, if the school allowed them; she already got into enough trouble with how many she had in her ears. Bunni normally wore dark clothing, whereas Rose wore brighter, more pastel colors.
Bunni also had a big family – three other brothers and both her parents. Rose was jealous of that fact sometimes, even though Bunni complained about all the noise. Rose usually came home to a quiet apartment; her uncle was always out on "business" and hardly ever came home, except to pay rent and utilities with their landlord. Rose always wondered it would be like to have a loud house, and she thought that despite how much it might annoy her on the surface, deep down she would always appreciate the noise, like it would provide a security blanket from the rest of the world somehow.
They were truly opposites in every regard yet they somehow became the best of friends about four years ago, and became absolutely inseparable since, for which Rose was grateful.
Now with Bunni in the car, it was time to pick up their friend, Jake, then they would be heading to school. Rose pulled up to Jake's home, which was bigger than her whole apartment complex. Jake had a car, and could drive, but he said he liked sharing a ride with the girls a lot better. Rose didn't mind; she liked Jake, as since they met last year he provided a sort of hummingbird's wing flapping of comfort: reliable, soothing, sure he was always talking but it was nice conversation.
It was hard to explain.
"Hello, ladies," Jake said as soon as he entered the backseat of the tiny green VW Beetle. "Ready for a new year?"
"Yes!" Bunni exclaimed excitedly. "Though, I'm not going to take any of the teachers calling me a boy or by that name," she continued, threateningly. "Or any of those crappy preppy girls."
"I don't want you to get into trouble on your first day," Rose said as she put her car in drive and continued on their short journey to school. "If you get suspended this early on, I think I'd be rather lost."
"You're so independent, Rosie, I doubt you'd be that lost," Bunni commented, and Rose could just hear the eye roll. "What did you bring the Cleaning Club today?"
"Oh, no!" Rose said, then sighed, as if defeated. "I forgot, I left them all in the fridge. I made them cupcakes."
"You could always give them tomorrow," Jake suggested, and Rose saw him shrug in the rearview mirror.
"I suppose, but it was supposed to be a small surprise for the first day of school…" Rose pouted a little; she couldn't believe she'd forgotten the cupcakes she'd made last night, an assortment of vanilla and chocolate with strawberry icing. But Jake was right, she could just give them tomorrow. They would still be special.
Rose parked in the back of the student parking lot, always afraid to park close to anyone else. Jake and Bunni complained about it sometimes last year when she first got her license but after awhile they understood her fear about it. They got out of the car and headed to the small school building.
Shin Prep was separated into three different sections – the first years, the second years, and the third years, one class of each; it was an extremely exclusive school. Even though every other high school had four years, this one had three to emulate schools overseas, as the founder felt they were more superior. They also ran classes that way, which was definitely an adjustment that Rose had to get used to after going to a regular high school her initial freshman year.
When she got accepted by Shin Prep, she couldn't have been more excited. She had worked so hard to get in, acing classes and even being part of her school's running government.
She was class president last year, by majority vote when people got to know her – she stayed after school and tutored some of the students some nights, and she also helped teachers with miscellaneous tasks, making her the responsible choice.
She was accepted with a scholarship, which was the only way she would have been able to afford to go. Most – about ninety percent of the school – was here on family money of some kind, though – including her closest friends that now walked her to homeroom. A lot of her classmates didn't feel the need to have a job, and usually when she talked about what she did, they didn't understand why she would need one.
But, as said before, she didn't discuss her home life often – if ever – for the sake of saving face. She was already one of the few scholarship kids in school, she didn't want to add insult to injury by adding the fact she lived in the poorest area of the city.
Just as they entered the class, people immediately came up to approach Rose, swarming her like gnats. She tried to greet everyone to the best of her ability, but it seemed that they weren't around her to exchange pleasantries, but go over their schedules and tutoring sessions they would inevitably have do. She promised everyone that she would have an idea of when she could tutor them by tomorrow – the woman she babysat for was getting a new schedule herself for work – and went to sit in her assigned seat once she found her name on the desk.
Unfortunately, Jake and Bunni were seated in the center of the classroom, whereas Rose was placed in the very front corner – thanks to her name. Oluo, a member of the Cleaning Club she'd gotten to know, was sat behind her, and the other members she'd gotten to be friends with – Petra, Eld, and Gunther – were seated close to her other friends.
"Looks like it's just the two of us again," Oluo said, leaning forward in his seat to talk to her, running a hand through his wavy light hair.
"That's fine with me – there's always lunch period." Though she wished that more people she knew were near her, she was still okay with the fact at least Oluo and her were placed together. He was nice enough – a little cocky sometimes, but not unbearable, at least to her. The others… might disagree with that sentiment.
"Alright, everyone, calm down," ordered their homeroom teacher, Mr. Pixis. He was a thin, balding older man, but he was nice enough. Rose was glad to have him again as a homeroom teacher, and that he decided to move up with them as they shifted grades – at least, he said it was his decision. By the way his tired face looked, that may not be the entire truth.
Rose turned away from Oluo and faced forward, folding her hands before her on her desk. The rest of the class seemed to follow suit, all eyes ahead now. Pixis ran through roll-call, then proceeded to go over the classroom schedule with everyone. When they would do what subject, and who would be coming in to teach them. Some of the teachers were new to her, but for the most part she recognized the names. That was a relief; that would take some of her anxiety off her shoulders.
The rest of the morning went about the same, each teacher coming in and introducing themselves, then the subject, then what it would entail. By the time lunch came around, Rose's phone had blown up with a million messages, and she could only guess it was anxious classmates trying to get with her soon for their first study session.
By the sound of it, they would need as much studying as possible.
Lunch was something she looked forward to more than she cared to admit. Not because she was desperately hungry, but because of who she got to see on her lunch break.
Rose hadn't spoken to him all summer, and she assumed that it had to do with the fact they both worked quite a bit. It left her a little disheartened, but she would never admit to that to anyone – except Bunni, who knew all about her little crush.
Their group went to an area outside underneath one of the few trees that grew on the school lawn, most of them having packed their lunch. Rose had brought something simple – a salad with a side of ranch, and a bag of chips with her large bottle of water – while everyone else seemed to have something a little more elegant. As to be expected of those who could probably afford more food. They sat in a half circle, the third years from the Cleaning Club undoubtedly going to close it.
Rose's heart leapt a little as she saw them approaching; only because her eyes immediately honed in on one of them.
Levi Ackerman was a stoic, tough person to deal with, for sure. But when she first met him, for some reason, she was drawn to him. She had been introduced by Petra to the then-second years, as Petra was trying to recruit her for the Cleaning Club. Though she was busy with student council, she wanted to oblige her friend and check it out anyway.
And she was so glad she had.
Their initial meeting was a little rough, as he'd kind of regarded her a little harshly, however as time went on, and she visited more often with treats and promise of helping them with their homework as she did with the rest of her classmates, he'd softened up to her. Though, for some reason, while everyone else called her "Rose", he insisted on calling her by her full name, "Rosemary".
If it was anyone else, she would have been a bit annoyed by it; coming from Levi, the few times he'd address her by name, it was almost like a song. Her sick little heart always lurched at the sound of it.
"You guys got here fast," he now commented, taking a seat beside Rose.
"We kind of rushed here," Eld admitted to him, chuckling.
"Not that we wouldn't have moved whoever sat here first, anyway," Oluo added with that air of arrogance. The others kind of gave him a look at his comment, but he seemed to pay them no mind.
Everyone dove into conversations, discussing what all they did and where all they went. Rose wished she could join in, but she didn't do anything extravagant at all.
"And you?" Levi asked, addressing Rose directly. "What did you do this summer?"
"I just babysat Emma," Rose answered, her face growing a bit hot. Now that she was talking to him for the first time in three months, she felt suddenly nervous. "She's walking now, and trying hard to talk."
"Oh?" Levi said, sounding interested. Rose wanted to believe he was, to some degree, but this wasn't a very appealing conversation, she knew.
So she switched the subject to him. "What about you?"
"Nothing special. I went with Hange and Erwin out of town a couple of times, but I mostly stayed home or worked at the shop."
Levi worked at a small, but popular, tea and coffee shop. He never said so, but Rose felt he was happy and comfortable there. As a tea enthusiast, she imagined it was just the right place for him to work while in school.
She smiled as she thought about it, and she felt Levi nudge her. "What are you smiling about?"
Like Rose would ever admit to the fact she was thinking about him happy, or thinking about him at all, so she simply said, "I'm just glad to be back with you guys, is all."
"Aw – always so sweet," Hange Zoe – a third year who also was co-head of the Cleaning Club – said, now beaming at Rose.
She couldn't help the blush that colored her cheeks, and now she wished that she'd worn makeup to hide moments like this one.
"She even made you guys a special treat," Bunni said, lightly shoving an elbow into Rose's side. "But she was silly blonde and left it at home."
Hange pouted a bit, their shoulder slumped. "I always look forward to your snacks."
"I – I'll bring it tomorrow," Rose promised, a rise in determination suddenly.
Lunch was over before she knew it, to her behest, and they were off to class, Rose and her friends waving to the third years as they went to their designated hallway. The rest of the day droned on, same as the morning, and Rose continued to dread all the requests for study sessions that she couldn't quite schedule yet – unfortunately for her classmates.
After school, Rose went with Petra to greet the upperclassman real quick before she took off home, and luckily for her, Levi, Erwin and Hange were already seated in their club room, a piece of paper in front of them.
"What's that?" Petra asked, standing at the edge of the long table and leaning forward to see the piece of paper in question.
"It's a roster – there's a few first years that want to join our club this year," Hange answered, sounding a little exasperated as they peered at the list over their glasses.
"Probably because they think it's the easiest," Petra mumbled, crossing her arms and rolling her light brown eyes. "They're in for quite the wake up call."
"Are you going to join us this year?" Erwin Smith – a third year that Rose quite admired – asked Rose, looking at her expectantly.
"Only if I don't get dragged into the student council again." Though, it was quite fun last year, so she wouldn't mind one way or another.
"As long as you bring us food, I don't care if you join or not," Hange confessed with a broad smile, their mood obviously shifted.
"Don't sound greedy, stupid glasses," Levi told them, then to Rose he said, "Is second year treating you alright?"
"I… have a lot of studying to do." She rubbed her arm nervously, chagrin at talking to the boy she liked taking over. "But – I think it'll be fun."
"Huh," Levi answered simply, gaze fixed on her.
"I – I just came to say hello. And good luck, I guess," she added, pointing to the roster. "I have to take Bunni and Jake home. I hope the first years surpass your expectations."
"So do we, Rose," Erwin said, tapping the paper with a finger. "So do we."