In a school, one nearly the size of a small city, walked a boy with an air of complete anger and hostility.
It was strong, and intense. Any student hanging around the grassy plains suddenly felt the compulsion to return to their classrooms, something their individual homeroom teachers were thankful for, even if they didn’t know the reason for it. And so there was silence, why wouldn’t there be, if the only person left was the one who had no intention of talking to anyone?
It was a short-lived thought. “Ahh! I’m late!” said a feminine voice. ‘To my left–’
Sylas felt something warm impact his shoulder. Only a second later, there was the sound of falling books. It made him think about a few things. Firstly, his reaction time is pretty good, so he realized what was going to happen the moment he processed where the voice came from. Secondly, as expected, he wasn’t the one who fell out of the two of them.
“Ack!” The same voice muttered, “that hurt…” The girl with long, dark hair, with two segments tied into ponytails, rubbed her head, in a manner that reflected her frustration.
‘A waste of time. I need to go before I’m late.’
Sylas observed the scene once more. The dark-haired girl was on the concrete ground, sat down. Around her were textbooks that she carried on her arms not too long ago. On her back was a small, red, fashionable bag, hastily zipped closed. ‘Given my calculations, it’s unlikely for her to get to class late at this time. Well, before this happened at least,’ Sylas thought, turning to the direction of the main building. ‘Now she’ll actually arrive late.’
But that’s not his problem; he has no obligation to help.
He took a step forward, then another. Silently, he noted the sounds the girl made. There were the sounds of pages being flipped as they were thrown into a stack, the sounds of pens and pencils being shoved into the small pockets of her bag. Suddenly, Sylas found his stride stopped.
There was no external opposition, he just stopped. He could feel his body turning around and walking a few steps even as the sensation of a lump slowly sliding up from his throat invaded his body at the thought of helping. He didn’t want to— he didn’t want to waste his time!
And as he swiftly picked up fallen notebooks and textbooks — the school sure asks for their students to have a lot of these — Sylas didn’t meet the girl’s eyes, or her thankful smile, even if he watched her from his peripheral vision.
“Oh, what’s your name? You’re a new student right?” The girl asked, standing up and offering her hand to Sylas. With said teen standing just as quickly, and leaving even quicker. The girl was left with a mouth agape, she only caught a glimpse of his face and the facial expressions that rapidly flashed by and disappeared from it.
It was a reaction that confused her; frustration, disappointment, then anger. Before eventually settling down to a blank, cold indifference.
‘I wonder if we’ll be classmates,’ she thought, seeing him from far away walking, with self-assurance and the same intimidating aura, towards the direction of her classroom. ‘Well, there’s my answer.’ She smiled, more friends.
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“Wooh! Hey guys! Man, I’m starting to get tired of seeing your faces!” a smiling, blonde-haired teen boy said to the unamused class. “Hey I’m just joking! Obviously, I’m just saying we’ve known each other for a long time now! It’d be cool to see new classmates.”
“That is true,” started a magenta-haired girl. “We are a rather tight-knit group, but it would be interesting to have someone new,” she finished, crossing her long legs as she sat with her hands on her lap. Her short, shoulder-length hair was in somewhat loose, medium-sized braids, seldom two portions that hugged the sides of her face, and her bangs, which had a white-cup-of-tea hair clip.
“Whaddyou think, Luca?” A brown-haired, light-blue-eyed girl asked the one seated beside her.
“Hm, I think we’re going to get a surprise today.” While replying to her friend, Luca held fingers against her small smile. By far, she was the shortest in their class, and probably the entire school. She had almost silver but brown hair that reached just below her chin, framing her face.
“Eh? What does that even mean?” The others in the classroom also stared at her in question, but she gave no answer.
“Well! Nevermind that! C’mon girls, look at my gains from the gym!” A well-endowed silver-haired girl cut in, going to each of the groups that contained girls and asking them out, with the exception of Luca, and promptly getting rejected.
It was noisy here, but Luca considered it home. Whenever she thought about it, from the way they acted and the way they would always be there for each other, she knew her classmates— her friends, did too.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Suddenly, the girl dropped her smile, remembering something. She looked at her watch and saw that it was 7:59:55 AM, almost time for class.
Luca stood up from her chair. She went to stand next to one of the two doors to their classroom. In particular, the one closest to the entrance. Glancing at the two empty chairs in the front, she concluded that Maia likely overslept again. ‘I see, the new student is probably late,’ she thought.
As if thinking about him attracted his presence into the same realm of existence, the door slammed open, but it didn’t quite slam, although it definitely opened. It opened with a lot of force, but stopped just before it hit the wall. It nearly hit Luca but thankfully didn’t, though she still had a bad feeling.
Stepping in, Sylas was the epitome of dramatic, even if his face was blank. He glanced at every face in the room and held a composure that screamed confidence. When he opened his mouth, Luca could sense his desire for his words to be memorable.
And memorable, it was. “My goal is to lead this class to the top, with competence and power.” He placed his right hand over his heart and lifted his left slightly.
‘Oh? This is interesting,’ Luca thought. The air from the classroom was tense and silent; a period of uncertainty about someone who will either fit perfectly into the class or stick out like a sore thumb.
“Although you may not believe me, or even think of me as childish, I plan to give out my best attempts and beyond—”
Luca was still listening. A thought came up in her mind however, ‘I wonder if he would make a good rival?’ Now wouldn’t that be exciting?
“---- in order to fulfill this goal,” he said with a subtle, but impactful change of tone. Luca looked around, seeing some students impressed, and a few even holding themselves back from clapping. ‘What a speech,’ she thought.
He was definitely not lacking in body gestures, though she could see a bias towards hand or arm gestures. “Thank you for listening, and I hope—” Sylas swung his right arm wide as he spoke, hyperfocused on his words.
The next thing Luca knew, she was lying on the floor.
Replaying the previous few seconds in her mind, she realized what had happened. While speaking his ending words, he swung his arm and accidentally hit her in the cheek with the back of his hand and ‘oh wow, tall people have really hard bones huh?’ she mused. She was hit with around half the force as he had opened the door, so you’ll have to forgive her humor.
Instantly, the class was left shocked. Their faces ranging from bored to curious were wiped off in favor of disbelief, worry, and gaping mouths. Even so, no one was as stunned as the accidental executioner himself. But ‘stunned’ did not mean ‘inactive.’
“Are you okay?!” Hands flew and shifted her hair, looking for blood, yet they did not feel invasive, and found none. Then, those two hands turned into one as the other swiftly opened the zipper to the backpack on the floor. ‘Huh, when did he put that down?’ Luca refocused on the unoccupied hand, which now hovered over her, as if asking to be grabbed should she need it while he was occupied with getting whatever was inside his bag. “Do you feel like you have a concussion?”
It took Luca a moment to realize the question was directed to her. “No… definitely not.”
Not even a full second after she began speaking did he pull out what he was looking for. ‘What a cute bag…’ ZIP! ‘Those are…’ she squinted her eyes. ‘Medical supplies?’
Wordlessly, he did a recheck on her body two times. The first with his eyes rapidly flickering through her entire body. The second was a closer examination on her arms, wrists, head, neck, feet, and finally ankles. The whole time his face was void of any perviness or pleasure.
Sylas took a step back and held a glass, cylindrical object. “It seems you don’t have any external injuries on the spots most likely to have gained them from a fall. Except your right palm, which took the force of your fall.”
By now, the class regained composure, judging it to be nothing serious. Although Sylas remained firm.
“This.” He shook the cylinder slightly. “Will offer you temporary pain relief on the spots applied. However,” he began with a neutral tone, with said tone being replaced from the last word to a more logical, commanding one. Luca smiled, beginning to get up.
“I still recommend visiting the school nurse, as there is the possibility of internal injuries, including head trauma. Am I clear?”
Luca nodded, part of her commented that the tone sounded right with him. And in spite of the sternness, she could tell that his worry was genuine.
“Ah,” as if catching himself speaking in a way he didn’t plan to, he shifted his eyes. “Anyways, I apologize. I really didn’t mean to do that.”
Luca grabbed his still somewhat-outstretched hand and pulled herself up. Sylas blinked in a moment that she felt contained a bit of shock before locking eyes with her. “It’s fine, all’s well, right?” she replied, “although, I might take your suggestion about the nurse’s office.” With a smile, she offered her mildly-bruised hand. “Accompany me?”
For a moment, Sylas seemed completely on-board with walking with her to the clinic. It was likely he had already anticipated and expected the request and would’ve done so if asked.
It was when she presented her hand to him that left him wide-eyed.
[AN: This is not the full chapter, as I am still working on it. Lots of things are still subject to change, like the title or some of the scenes. Most of what I've written here will likely stay though. Other than that, I would appreciate the finest, most honest criticism with only a dash of sass, please. Thank you.]