By Your Side: Six
The school festival was in full swing on its first day. Even though it was a Thursday, people from around the neighborhood seemed to be swarming in to see what everyone was doing. There were food booths lined up along the courtyard, all leading toward the school building where the classrooms and one of the hallways – the third years'; they decided to do a haunted house – were carefully decorate with their themes.
The first years were doing a circus-themed room, with people performing tricks in the front of the classroom as well as showing off certain talents like with an instrument or something; they dressed as acrobats, clowns, the like; Rose thought it was rather creative, and surely would be very popular among those coming to the festival. Even Rose was curious about it and wanted to see the show for herself, but with her being class president, her responsibilities – unfortunately, in this case – came first. Which meant she would be spending pretty much the whole weekend in her classroom.
Speaking of which, her classroom was decorate with flowers and nature decorations, to create a sweet, warm atmosphere. There were flowers on the desks – shaped into squares with four desks each – in vases, garlands all over the classroom, and even a few butterfly "chandeliers" – they were made of plastic, so of course not real at all – on the ceilings.
The girls wore traditional French maid outfits; Rose, however, opted on a longer skirt, as opposed to the shorter skirts that everyone else in her class wore. The girls all looked very cute, Rose had to admit, and she silently thanked herself for the idea to do this. But while the girls looked adorable, the boys looked absolutely handsome in their butler uniforms – button downs, vests, black slacks. They looked regal and very professional.
She didn't know why, but she loved it when boys wore clothes like that. With that in mind, she had to admit to herself that Jake appeared probably the best out of everyone in their classroom. Since he was taller than her – five feet eight to her barely touching five feet – and he also had his hair slicked back, he looked… attractive to her.
She couldn't allow herself to get distracted by that, though. She had a job to do today – all weekend, actually – and she needed to focus on that right now.
The café took off in full-swing, and by the afternoon their classroom was full of wandering students and curious neighbors. They served cakes, cookies, pocky as well as tea and coffee; things that were simple to make but still would fill bellies with something that emulated the room – the sweet and warm that was described before.
Finally, at about two o'clock, there was a reprieve from the crowd, with just a couple people in the room. Rose turned to Jake, her vice president, and said, "I'm going to go for a walk. I'll be right back."
"Don't have too much fun," Jake replied with a smile. Along with his appearance, the smile was truly the icing on the cake.
Rose nodded, unable to speak suddenly, and left the room, heaving a heavy breath as soon as she crossed the threshold. She was really taking Bunni's words to heart; though she believed she didn't have feelings for Jake, she knew Bunni was right in the fact that Levi – with his great intelligence level – would be leaving to wherever he chose next year, and she didn't know if she could follow him there. Whereas Jake, she knew that they were on the same level – in the brain department but also with the fact they were in the same grade. It just seemed easier.
Should she consider it?
Somehow, she'd found herself to the third year hallway, and she froze. She wanted to venture into the haunted house, but didn't want to go alone; she knew that it wouldn't be that scary – right? – but still, she wanted someone to keep her company.
"Lost?"
Rose turned her head to face whoever was speaking to her; it was Levi. He was dressed in his school uniform, however he had a yellow apron on. That was right – the Cleaning Club was serving hamburgers to raise funds for the club. And from what she could see from the window of her classroom, they were rather popular.
"No – yes? I don't know." She instantly felt like an idiot, her brain unable to comprehend a single sentence, as it seemed to do when Levi was around. "I wanted to go through, but…" She glanced back at the dark hallway again, the unprecedented fear she thought was deep down now coming to the surface.
"Let's go, then." Levi moved to walk past Rose and into the hallway, but when Rose didn't follow, he looked back at her. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing – just… I think I'm scared." She hated to admit it aloud, but she knew that Levi wouldn't judge her for saying that.
"Then come on." He then extended a hand to her, expectantly. "It really isn't that bad. And you know most of these people."
Rose stared at his hand for a moment before she finally took it, joining him at his side. She was now looking up at him, hoping and praying he couldn't feel her heart pulsing in her hand at all, revealing just how rapidly it was beating.
They walked in together then, slowly, and Rose kept close to Levi, as if he was a safety net from anything that could jump out at her. And in this case, he kind of was. A few of his classmates, dressed as various creepy creatures like zombies or vampires, jumped out from behind obstacles laid out in the hallway – one of them even came out of a barrel – while others popped out from closed doors, wearing serial killer costumes.
A few times Rose jumped, and once she even gave a short scream, still keeping hold of Levi's hand, squeezing it a little when she felt particularly afraid.
Finally, they made it to the other end of the hallway, and Rose felt like she could breathe again, now bathed in the fluorescent light of the school.
"Thank you," she sighed, giving Levi a small smile. "I appreciated that a lot."
"Don't mention it." When he said that, Rose really wondered if he meant it; that he didn't want anyone to know about his kind gestures toward her.
They lingered in silence for just a moment longer, just looking at one another, when Rose realized they were still holding hands. As if startled by the realization, she took her hand back, folding her fingers together and looking down nervously. "W-well, I better get back to my class."
"Yeah, I have to head back too." Levi's eyes lingered on her for a second more, as if he wanted to say something else, but seemed to think better of it. "Good luck."
"Yeah, you too." And she watched him go, until he disappeared through the front door of the building and she couldn't see him anymore.
It was then that it really occurred to her – she liked Levi too much to bring herself to even consider liking someone else. She just knew that, in admitting that to herself, she would inevitably get hurt somehow in the end.
By the end of the first day, they'd run out of half of their supplies. Rose went to go tell an administrator in the office, so they could get more for the rest of the weekend. After doing that, she headed to the Cleaning Club's room, and was happily surprised to see a few of the members within, all appearing exhausted.
"Hard day?" she asked, leaning against the door frame.
"Busy for sure," Armin, a blond-haired boy with a strange bob cut and big blue eyes, answered. "But we're pretty successful so far."
"I think we're going to win that award," Jean, a boy with short light brown hair who was rather tall, said.
The most popular booth also got to win a night at the karaoke place, meaning regardless of grade, they could join whichever class also won that prize.
"I'm rooting for you," Rose said with a smile, then waved good-bye, now ready to leave for the day.
Out front, her friends waited for her, gladly so, it seemed.
"We were just talking about homecoming," Bunni said as they headed to Rose's car.
"Really? Why? It's not for another month."
"Well… people are already starting to ask each other out. Do you know who you're going with?" Jake asked, his voice sounding rather soft for some reason.
"Uh…" Rose had hoped that Levi would ask her again, but he didn't seem interested in doing that this year. Feeling her heart grow heavy with the thought, she responded, "No one, yet. But if no one asks me, I figured I'd just go with you guys."
"I've got a date," Bunni said matter-of-factly.
"Really?" both Jake and Rose said simultaneously, sounding almost incredulous.
"Yeah, Joseph McCallen in our class asked me, and I figured why not? He's cute enough, and it's someone I know. Kind of."
"Huh." That was all Rose had to say as they drove from the school, her thoughts riddled with the fact that, if she was alone with Jake all night, it might give off the wrong idea.
But that was a month away. Anything could happen by then.
The maid café was truly a success, to say the least. They had to actually shut down early on Saturday, the last day of the festival, because they'd run out of supplies. That had to be a good sign, right?
Come Monday, the whole school was anxious and excited at the same time, ready to hear just who all had one the prize. Lined up in the gym, the classes stood silently as the Dean, Dhalis Zachary, now took the podium, a sheet of paper in this hand.
"The votes are in," he said, peering down at the piece of paper in his hand before formally addressing the room. "For the food booths, the Cleaning Club won by a landslide."
There was cheering from the younger first years, seeming glad that their efforts had paid off.
"And as for the classroom with the most votes," Zachary continued, his voice demanding silence once again, "That award goes to – the second year class, with their maid café."
Rose clasped her hands together in excitement, peering around at her jeering, happy classmates.
It also meant, that she would be creating the memories she had wanted to not only with her friends in her class, but also with her other friends that she cherished.
She couldn't wait for the weekend to come.
And when it did, she had a hard time figuring out what to wear.
Rose stood in front of the mirrored closet doors, checking herself one way then the other. She had changed her clothes three times now, not liking anything she tried on. She would be spending the night with her friends, so she planned on taking plenty of pictures, which in that case, she wanted to make sure she looked good in them.
Finally, she opted for a white skirt and a light blue top, putting on a white cardigan in case it got cold into the night. Slipping on her normal pair of black tennis shoes, she nodded at her reflection, finally satisfied with how she looked. She then went to put her essentials from her book bag into her purse – keys, wallet, nitroglycerin.
Now she was ready to go.
Rose arrived at the karaoke bar just before she was expected to – around six fifty, ten minutes before everyone else was apt to show up. However, to her surprise, a lot of her classmates were waiting just outside the bar, she supposed waiting for it to allow them inside. The school had rented it out just for them for the night, after all, so she imagined that the employees within were waiting to serve a bunch of rabid, probably hungry, teenagers.
She approached her friends, who were also waiting, the Cleaning Club also close by.
"Rose!" Petra exclaimed, going to meet her. Petra wore a long skirt and a cute floral top, which definitely fit her personality, Rose could tell. "Everyone thought you weren't going to show up. You're late compared to everyone else, Madam President."
Rose grimaced at the old nickname, but opted not to say anything about it. "Yeah, just running a little behind."
"Come on, everyone's waiting." Petra grabbed her wrist and led her to where their friends stood.
Rose really liked Petra's warm, inviting demeanor. It was definitely different from Bunni's chaos, though she knew she could appreciate both.
Finally, they were allowed inside, and everyone carefully picked their seats, ensuring they'd be sitting next to their friends. Rose sat between Bunni and Petra, both of them gabbing about – whatever. Rose wasn't paying attention; she was too busy basking in the light of the moment.
"You seem happy," Bunni commented, nudging Rose's side. "What's got you smiling like that?"
"Just… glad to be here." And she meant that.
The night buzzed on, and the conversations went from the various people they saw and met during the festival, to the food that some of them got to try, to then Bunni switching to the subject of homecoming.
"Who are you guys going with?" she asked. Most of the table had finished their meals and were now just sitting and chatting or up on stage singing.
"The Cleaning Club were just going as friends this year," Petra told her with a shrug. "Just seemed easier, since we'll be together at the end of the night and into the next day cleaning the gym anyway."
"What about you, Rose? Anyone ask you yet?" Bunni had that mischievous smile on her face, which Rose didn't really like, but she ignored it for now.
"Yes… but I turned them down." It was just a couple of boys in her class that she didn't really know well – besides, she wanted a particular person to ask her. However, if the Cleaning Club were just doing friends only this year, that meant that Levi probably had no intention of asking anyone to be his date to the dance.
With this being his last year, she had hoped that maybe they could spend just a few more moments together.
They really were closer last year than this year, though Levi was in on her two biggest secrets – her home situation and her heart condition. That made her a little sad.
"Really? Why?" Petra asked, sounding truly curious and surprised by what Rose had said.
"Ah – just want to go with friends, too, is all," she said quickly, waving her hands innocently in front of her. "Maybe next year I'll accept their offer."
Since the person she'd want to be with wouldn't be at her school anymore, anyone would be applicable at that point.
"Sure, sure," Bunni muttered, to which Rose gave her a dirty look briefly. Bunni snorted at her friend's expression but said nothing else.
As the night wound down and people started filing out, Rose stood up from her seat, ready to head to the door herself. She had to babysit all day tomorrow, which meant she needed as much rest as humanly possible.
Levi stood at the same time, pushing in his chair but not yet moving from his spot behind it.
"You two leaving?" Erwin asked.
"Yeah. Long day tomorrow," Levi answered simply, then he turned to Rose. "I'll walk you out."
Rose blinked at that, but didn't object at all – like she'd ever reject Levi. They walked outside together, Rose keeping her hands folded before her.
"After homecoming is our class trip," Rose told him as if he didn't know. "Where is your class going?"
"San Franscisco," Levi told her with a shrug. "It's a quick drive, apparently. Nothing fancy like last year."
"Yeah, they're taking us to New York City." She chuckled nervously then, admitting to him aloud, "I've never been on a plane before. I'm kind of freaking out."
"Just don't look out the window when you're taking off," Levi advised her.
"Noted."
They reached her car, and she turned to him then. "Do you live far from here? I can take you home."
"I don't mind the walk." Levi seemed to linger before her, hands in his pockets, eyes watching her carefully like they always seemed to – like they were searching for an answer on her face or something. "Good night, Rosemary."
So he had nothing else to say? Huh. "Good night, Levi. Get home safe."
After what seemed like several minutes of staring at one another – but couldn't have been more than a few seconds – Levi turned to the left and walked down the street toward his home. Rose watched him until he was a dot in the distance, then she climbed into her car and heaved a breath, as if she'd been holding it this entire time.
She felt a little determined, suddenly, as she wanted to figure out – why weren't they talking as much? What had changed?
She pulled out her phone and searched for Levi's number. Then she pressed on his name and put her phone to her ear, listening to it ring once, twice –
"Yes?"
Her tongue went dry at the sound of his voice, and her courage from before seemed to dissipate. However, she had to ask him, so she did: "Why… didn't we talk this summer?"
A long pause. Then, "I thought you were busy."
"I wasn't." As she then added, "I thought the same about you, though."
"Busy doing what?" He sounded almost insulted.
"Working. Hanging with Hange and Erwin. Doing… anything else."
Another pause before he said, "You weren't doing the same thing?"
She chuckled, shaking her head. "Not a lot. But still, I wanted… to talk to you. I was just… afraid of getting in the way somehow. Annoying you, I guess?"
"Rosemary, you don't annoy me." Silence; Rose had nothing to say to that. "What's got you busy tomorrow?"
"I… babysit until five."
"Come to the shop after." Then he quickly said, "Have a good night, Rosemary." And he hung up the line.
Rose pulled her phone away from her ear, staring at it. Did Levi just ask her out? Did he want to study? Should she bring her books with her? She shook her head – he would have said that was what they were doing.
Well, she'd find out tomorrow, she supposed.