"Test. Tomorrow. Need. To study." Angela didn't even bother to look at me as she replied robotically, scaring the hell out of me.

I gasped. This is bad. This is super duper bad.

This study nerd. Who always finishes her assignments on time. Practically our down's number one model student. When faced with a test. Studies like a madwoman!

I quickly dial Cody's number. "Hey, it's me. We have an emergency." I said with a serious tone. On the other side of the line I heard a sluggish reply, followed by something falling, then an anxious Cody. "Lumina, it's late. What level of emergency are we talking about?"

"Level 3. Ange switched into study maniac mode."

"What?!" I heard yet another tumble. "Get that girl away from any study related material ASAP! I'm on my way!"

"Roger that sergeant. I'm already dragging her down stairs." I put my phone in my pocket, already pulling Angela away from the desk. But it's like this girl was fused together with this thing!

Minutes passed and I somehow managed to get Angela downstairs, covering her with a warm jacket. I looked into her eyes. They were still as bloodshot as before. "Ange..." I whispered worriedly. I could still hear the faint mumbles as she recited whatever she was studying.

Just as I was contemplating on how to snap Angela out of this trance, an eye-catching red sports car stopped right in front of us. I don't know how many minutes passed as I stared at it with my mouth open like an idiot when Cody suddenly rushed towards us.

"...you...wha...? How...? When...?" Since when was this bookworm filthy rich?! Am I still dreaming? I pinched myself, only to receive a weird look from Cody.

He sighed tiredly, "I borrowed it from my roommate okay?"

"Ouch! The hell?!" I held my forehead that had turned slightly red. Why does everyone like to physically abuse me?!

"Get in, you sleepy head." When I looked up Cody had already helped, or more like pushed Angela into the back seat. With a shrug, I followed into the passenger's seat. I will have my revenge. One day.

We drove along the highway streets. Behind us, I could still hear Angela reciting tomorrow's test. If this keeps up, instead of acing she'd be straight out failing it when she falls dead asleep. And I thought I was the weirdo.

"Times like this...there's only one solution."

"You thinking what I'm thinking?"

We both smirked. "Dessert!"

As such, within less than five minutes we arrived at one of Angela's favs places. Thank god they run till midnight. With Cody on one shoulder and me on the other, the two of us 'dragged' Angela inside. The waiter gave us a weird look, but we pretended not to notice. Once Angela was settled in, we didn't even look at the menu and directly ordered a heap of desserts.

Bam

The moment the waitress placed the sorbet and other various delicacies in front of her, Angela's eyes which were almost lifeless a few blinks ago glinted. I didn't even have time to thank the waitress when she was already stuffing her face. Elegantly.

Why does everyone have such a refined way of eating? Was I just born in the wrong era?

"Whelp, emergency solved." Cody and I high-fived one another. "But geez Ange, can't you tone it down a teeny weeny tiny bit with the studying?" For crying out loud you have perfect scores so far in all your major subjects.

Of course, there was no reply from a certain study maniac. I turned to Cody who sat opposite of me. As usual, he had an elegant way of eating even if it was just cake. His head was slightly lowered and his bangs messy, nonetheless drawing my attention to his entire person.

"What is it?" He looked at me with a slight frown.

"Uh...dude, you look pretty cool without your reading glasses." I said with a deadpan expression to which Cody choked on his ice-cream, his cheeks slightly flushed. "Pfft, oh man you should see your face right now!" I burst into laughter.

"Not funny. You almost gave me a heart attack." He growled under his voice.

"Huh? Sorry pfft, haha, I didn't catch pfft, that."As the two of us ended up bickering again, a certain study maniac was staring intently at us without our notice.

"Heh, should I call this progress?" Angela quietly savoured the remainder of her sorbet before switching to her torte, studying her friends who resembled an old married couple. A cunning smile flitted across her lips before focusing back on her torte, making sure not to draw attention as the third wheel. When her torte was finished, she moved on to her flan and when that was finished, she stealthily ordered a few more desserts, patiently waiting for the old married couple to finish while reviewing her studies. Maybe she over did it a tad bit?

"Gosh it's already so late." When I turned to Angela, she more or less seemed to have returned to normal. Good. We called the waitress to pay the bill, which Cody beat me to it again. Damn, next time I'll win for sure!

=

[....As the sun was enveloped by the moon once more, shadows once again increased. The brave warriors...]

Let's change that, [The brave fighters united once more, fighting for their freedom in this world. Where darkness prevailed and humanity at its mercy, only they, who had been gifted with special abilities by the random eclipses, had the power to fight back_]

I leaned back in my chair, reviewing the first chapter of the epilogue of [Eclipse]. Maybe a bit too cliché...?

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

As I wondered in my thoughts the door opened and closed behind me. "Lumina, I'm back." Angela cheerfully walked up behind me, one hand on my shoulder and her chin resting on my other shoulder. "Interesting. So, is this where the happily ever after finally arrives?"

"Eh?" What is she talking about? "No, I plan on letting the protagonist raid into a swarm of Shadows and die tragically."

She gave me a weird look. "Don't tell me, you're planning on...k-killing him?" I nodded in a manner of fact, "He'll get infected, slowly agonizing?" I nodded again, "And then, he'll see his companions...who were trying to rescue him...die miserably in front of his eyes, as their limbs are torn apart...?" I nodded a bit faster with a slight smile, "And...then...his lover get's taken over and stabs him? He then kills her to put her out of her misery, slowly falling under the poison's effects as well, then gets teared apart slowly himself while seeing his dead lover's horrified face?!"

I nodded enthusiastically, "How did you know?! Ange, can you read minds?!"

"Lumina, Zeon!"

*Twack

"Ouch?!"

"Where on earth is your bloody humanity?! You just killed of the entire planet without batting an eyelid!" Angela's face was pale from fright, lecturing me again. What did I do wrong this time?

Like an obedient child who had been wronged I quietly sat as I listened to her talk on and on about human moral and so forth. I gently rubbed the top of my head that was still itching from that last sneak attack. Ugh, I really seem to get abused physically a lot lately...

Seeing an opening, I quickly interrupted before she could continue, "So, Ange~ how did your test go?" I tried to pull off my cutest kitten face, rubbing my cheek against her arm.

"...." she sighed. Good, looks like kitty emergency escape did its wonders again. "Of course, it was a piece of torte." she proudly said with a smile. Uhm...shouldn't it be 'a piece of cake'? "Oh yeah. Lumina, if I remember correct, you said you'd be free these two days, right?"

"Y-yeah...?" Why are you going deep in thoughts? Ange, this is exactly the face you pull when you're plotting something. "W-why did you ask?" I'm getting a bad premonition here.

"Oh its nothing really." She waved her hand nonchalantly, no trace of that dangerous look left. "Just that, you know, I heard there would be a huge sale these two days. Now that I'm done with my test, we should hang out together and go shopping, just us girls. What do you say?"

"I say you're up to something again." Oops, did I say that out loud? "I mean, sure! Why not?! Haha."

"Yeah, you could definitely use some something more...feminine." she sized me up and down before shaking her head. "Yup! Let's go!"

"Huh? Now?"

I couldn't even look in the mirror before Angela dragged me away to the elevator. Like a kidnapped heroine, I reached out my hand while screaming 'noooo' dramatically as the elevator door shut.

Crap. My gut feeling is telling me something dangerous will happen. And my gut feeling has never been wrong before. I was biting on my nail as I anxiously sat next to Angela inside the taxi. I didn't even realize we had arrived when I was shoved into this dark confinement box.

Oh wait, it's a dressing room.

"What the hell are these things?!"

"Lingerie, duh." Angela sounded from the other side. "Oh, and you could use some more chic dresses. Your whole closet is full of those unisex clothes. Hmm, yeah, this one too. Oh, and this one." One by one dresses more blinding then the former were tossed into this little jail, my face turning paler and paler.

Damn. I knew it. This, is a disaster level danger...

Like someone who had their soul sucked out of their body, I walked out in the 6cm high silver heels, a wide skirt dress with a choker top of pale pink. As if that wasn't enough, after forcing me into the rest of those things, Agnela bought every single piece of clothing I had tried on, then dragged me into a salon and did my hair in a cute girly side swept ponytail with soft curl. But wait, why is she still dragging my half dead body around?!

You name it. Be it a perfume store, jewelry store or shopping for purses, do my make-up or nails...I was dragged everywhere...

"Hey~ Come on, it's not that bad? Just look at yourself! I can't even see a shadow of that sloppy gender-unknown-person. Tch, you actually look prettier than me when you dress up..." She mumbled the last part as I couldn't hear. No, I wasn't even listening to begin with.

"Angela! Can you tell me what you're pulling at this time?!"

"Whoaw, chill, luv. I just said I wanted to have a girl's field trip to go shopping didn't I?"

DAMNITTT! I was practically trembling with rage. If not for the fact she was a girl and my best friend, I'm not even sure myself how much I would have beaten her up.

"Well, will you look at the time. Stay here for a bit, I need to take care of something real quick." She winked at me before making a quick escape.

This...isn't over...

Tired with no strength left in my body, I helplessly slump into the public bench, counting the number of people and birds that passed me as I had nothing else to do at the moment.

"Hey." A familiar voice drew me back from dreamland. I sat up straight, lightly rubbing my eyes as I looked at whoever disturbed my beauty nap. It was Cody. He sighed, like a gentleman, placed his jacket over my bare shoulders. "What are you doing dozing off here? Didn't you know people get kidnapped like this?"

"Ugh, blame it on Ange if I did." I still kept rubbing my eyes, trying to get rid of my drowsiness. I keep feeling like I forgot something important, but what is it?

"You'll damage your eyes if you keep this up." Cody covered my hands with his, successfully stopping me. "Come on, or do you want me to carry you bridal style?"

"Tch, keep dreaming." Nonetheless, he helped me get up with a light pull. Still not fully awake and forgetting I was wearing heels I stumbled a few times, bumping into Cody's chest. I frowned, "where is Ange?" That girl said she'd be real quick.

"She told me she had an emergency and asked me to pick you up. I was in the area so..." His eyes shifted away from me.

Not being suspicious in the least, I broke free from his arms, steadying myself on these torture devices. Luckily, this wasn't the first time something like this happened and I once again familiarized myself with these things known as heels.

Sight fully focused on the ground below me so I didn't fall miserably in public, Cody held me by the hand as he led me to the car he borrowed from his friend. For the first time in a long time, there hung an awkward silence between us. When the car finally came to a stop, I turned to look at Cody, my face full of question marks. "Why did we stop at a theme park?"

Cody cleared his throat awkwardly several times for who knows why. Before I could question him further he had already led me by the hand into the not too crowded theme park.

For the first time, I felt that the hand that always carelessly held mine felt warm, hot even. For the first time ever, I minded that people looked at us. For the first time ever, I felt awkward in his presence, if awkward was even the right word to describe my emotions at this moment.

"Ange told me you were free the next two days. Coincidentally, I don't have anything to do these days so I thought we might as well hang out." even now, Cody kept averting my gaze, pointing at the direction of a shooting booth. "Wanna give it a go?"

Weird. I tried not to pay attention to these weird feelings. Maybe it was because I was dressed like a Lolita that I was feeling weird? Definitely that Ange's fault. "Sure!"

Regaining some of my competitive spirit, it was now my turn to drag Cody by the hand as we made our way to the booth. That weird feeling I had slowly faded as we strolled around the theme park, a bright smile plastered across my face that even I myself wasn't aware of. Out of all the games I played I managed to get three prizes which, all involved food. Not that I'm complaining.

"Here." I looked up to see Cody holding out a cute white teddy towards me. Puzzled, I pointed foolishly at myself. Gaze averted, he stuffed the head-sized teddy in my arms. "I accidentally won it. If I brought this back to the dorm, those guys would make fun of me."

Sounds reasonable. I nodded in understanding, cuddling the teddy in my arms. I guess it is kind of cute. "Thanks. It's cute."

"Anyway! Let's go to the next one." Too distracted by my new teddy, I didn't notice the blush on Cody's face as he led me by the hand. Finally, when we stopped to wait in line, I looked up to see where we had stopped.

"Farris wheel?"