Chapter 13 - Part II

(Haruka)

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I watched Caelum depart with Caprice as soon as afternoon homeroom came to an end.

I had no idea where they were headed, and it didn’t bother me until I felt something uncoil and coil in my mind.

For a moment, I considered following them, but my attention was pulled back to the on goings in the classroom.

During homeroom, it appeared every second year high schooler had received a hasty mail message to their school account from the Countess, informing them of a change in plans, and this had stirred up the proverbial bees’ nest. Or was it hornets’ nest?

Either way, the Countess now declared that she would invite twenty girls and twenty guys from the second year ranks to join her, Caelum, Caprice, and Crais Shepherd, at Water Wilderness this Saturday. The lucky winners would be decided through a ticket raffle. All those that send their names to Simone would be entered into a raffle program that would then choose the forty winners.

I looked up at Alistair seated in front of me. “Are you going to enter?”

She shrugged lightly. “Yeah, I sent my name. Those tickets are expensive. Might as well try my luck.”

I took deep breath, then sent my name to the Countess’s account.

What the Heck. I’ve got nothing to lose, and if I win I’ll invite Duncan.

I leaned forward over my smart desk, and asked Alistair, “So the numbers went up from twelve to twenty?”

Alistair turned around and sat sideways on her chair. “Maybe she gets a discount if she buys the tickets in bulk.”

I read the mail message again. “It says she’ll churn out the names at five pm and then mail the lucky the winners.”

Alistair snorted. “To think the Countess would go this far to piss off Caprice. This is like a victory celebration for her.”

I felt something wrap itself around my thoughts. “It just proves what I’ve been saying all along. Caprice is better off without Caelum.”

Alistair half frowned at me. “Yeah, but this isn’t about Desanto. This about two girls having a very public spat.”

“Well, I’m glad it’s over,” I declared. “Caprice is better off with Shepherd. Much better off.”

I ignored the complicated look Alistair gave me.

“If you say so….”

Wanting to change the subject, I glanced at the girl sitting to my right. Siobhan was busy scrolling through something on her smartdesk’s screen that looked suspiciously like an online catalogue.

“What are you doing?” I asked her.

“Picking out a new swimsuit,” Siobhan muttered in reply. “Just in case I get lucky….”

Alistair snorted. “What’s wrong with your old swimsuit?”

“They were all one-piece styles. I think I’ll try a bikini this time. Something to show off my curves.”

Alistair snorted again and crossed her arms unhappily. “Well, lucky you….”

“Maybe not,” Siobhan said distractedly as she continued scrolling through the pages on the smartdesk’s screen. “I’m kind of hoping I don’t get any bigger.”

“Huh?” Alistair sounded strangled.

Siobhan blinked a couple of times, then looked up and over at Alistair and I. “You’ve seen my mother. She’s a curvy hour glass”—she mimed the shape with her hands—“like a pin-up poster girl.”

That was true. Siobhan’s mother, Layla St. Clare, was definitely poster girl material. When younger, she’d modelled everything from swimsuits to sexy lingerie, which is how she met Siobhan’s father, the son of the owner of a clothing brand. After a passionate romance, they married, and Siobhan was born a year later. Her mother continued to model, but gave it up with the birth of her second child, Siobhan’s younger brother, Lukas.

Having met her mother, it was clear to me that Siobhan had inherited her genes. The girl’s curves weren’t as pronounced, but she had a top quality figure, and her bust was a firm cee-cup.

Siobhan’s shoulders sagged. “I really don’t want to grow as big as my mother. She used to complain that her breasts grew way too large after her pregnancy. In fact, she claimed they were only good for one thing and that was attracting men. When she mentioned having them reduced, dad almost fainted before pleading with her on hands and knees to reconsider. He said something about her body being a temple to the gods, and that she shouldn’t commit sacrilege.”

Alistair eyes grew lidded. “Your dad reminds me of someone in our class.”

“Ah—!” Siobhan choked. “Don’t you dare lump my dad with Pervert Desanto.”

Planting my left elbow on my smartdesk, I rested my head on the palm of my left hand. “So what did your mother do?”

“She made him buy her gifts.” Siobhan shrugged. “He does that all the time anyway. My dad adores her, so I think mum is stupid for getting jealous of the women at his company, especially the young models.”

I nodded faintly to myself. “Your dad’s quite the hunk.”

Siobhan sneered. “Yeah, well, my annoying pest of a younger brother takes after him. Thank the gods he’s not attending school at Galatea. I think I would have killed him by now. The little shit strings girls along like a violin. He’s the Pied Piper of Calista Academy.”

I pressed my lips together for a moment. “Have you ever considered the possibility those girls genuinely like him?”

Siobhan looked annoyed. “No. Never. They’re just as stupid as the models that float around my dad at work, thinking they’ll ever have a chance with him.”

Alistair’s face contorted slightly. “How did we get onto the topic of your family?”

Siobhan sighed. “Because I said I didn’t want to grow as big as my mother. I’d be happy to remain a Cee-cup all my life.” She squirmed a little. “Although, that may be wishful thinking….”

With lidded eyes, Alistair groused, “Please tell me why we’re still friends.”

Someone ran into the room, and bounced along the way to a group of girls milling near the front of the classroom. The buxom pixie, Éclair Faltome, spoke in an excited manner to the girls who soon shared in her enthusiasm.

Alistair made a clicking sound with her tongue. “Gods, I hate that midget.” She got up and packed her belongings into her bag.

As I watched her, I remembered promising to help the Student Council Secretary, Carmen Medina Sora, with the mountain of paperwork that had built up during the time the Academy was closed.

Alistair zipped up her carry-bag. “I have to get to the dojo, so I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”

Her words reminded me that Alistair trained at her parent’s Aikido dojo. She’d mentioned qualifying for an upcoming tournament that she was determined to win, though realistically she didn’t think she’d place higher than third.

Pausing for a moment, Alistair looked down at me. “Haruka, did you know Pervert Desanto was skilled in the martial arts?”

I bit my lower lip, then shook my head. “No. I mean, I knew he had a Fragment and that he’d spent months training since he Awakened as a Familiar, but I’d never seen him in action.”

Alistair looked thoughtful and averted her eyes for a moment. “Well, I thought he moved pretty well, but he wasted a lot of energy.”

I held back a frown, and refrained from biting my lower lip again.

After another moment of silence, Alistair shrugged lightly. “I was thinking of inviting him to our dojo. Do you think he’d come?”

“Honestly,” I replied, “I don’t know.”

“Hmm…okay. I’ll chat to him tomorrow.” She slipped the straps of her bag over her left shoulder. “Catch you tomorrow.”

She turned to walk out of the classroom, but slowed to a stop when Éclair called out to her.

“Hey Alistair, I have something for you.”

“What? Your breasts?”

“No.” The girl shook her head as she pulled out a pair of safety scissors from a skirt pocket, and offered them to Alistair. “Here. You can use these to cut your hair.”

“Why the Hell would I do that for?”

Éclair made snipping gestures with it. “Because if you miss out winning a ticket as a girl, you can try winning as a boy.”

Alistair dropped her carry-bag and cracked her knuckles. “Twin Peaks, I’m going to pop your breasts here and now.”

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Éclair bounced on her heels, which in turn made her chest bounce as well. “Ooh, Alistair. Why not go topless to Water Wilderness? No one will notice anything out of place—eek!”

Éclair turned to run, but she simply wasn’t fast enough.

Alistair leapt like a panther over a smartdesk, landed lightly on her feet, and caught the fleeing pixie a heartbeat later, trapping her in a headlock.

Éclair struggled like an antelope caught in the jaws of a lioness. In other words, there was a lot of arm waving and leg kicking, but it was futile. Alistair used her superior size, strength, and training to drag the helpless buxom girl to the back of the room.

I thought someone might come to Éclair’s aid, especially since there were a handful of guys still in the room, but everyone shied back, unwilling to incur Alistair’s wrath.

“Stop…can’t breathe…lemme…go….”

“Not this time, Twin Peaks. Not this time.”

Alistair dragged the girl to the lockers standing at the corner closest to the windows. She yanked one of them open, shoved Éclair into the locker, then slammed it shut and quickly turned to the lock.

Afterwards, she dusted her hands. “There. Done. I’ve always wanted to know if she would fit inside one of these.”

From inside the locker came the sounds of banging and crying.

Siobhan and I stared at each other in disbelief.

“Did that just happen?” Siobhan asked.

“Yeah, I think it did,” I answered.

The banging and crying grew louder, and Éclair screamed hysterically from inside the locker. This galvanized a handful of the girls to hurry to the back of the room.

Alistair stood in their way. “I don’t think so, ladies.”

One of the girls, Farrah, pointed at the locker. “Alistair, don’t you know about Éclair’s condition?”

Alistair snorted and folded her arms across her chest. “What condition?”

“She’s claustrophobic,” Farrah replied, sounding genuinely worried. “I’m serious. She has a letter in her bag from her physician that she takes with her all the time.”

Chantel demanded loudly, “Get her out of there now, Alistair!” She raised a fist angrily. “Or I swear I will hurt you.”

Alistair glared a challenge at the slender blonde, while behind her the banging grew to a crescendo then abruptly stopped.

The ensuing silence was eerie, and all of us stared at the bent and distended locker in growing trepidation, before Siobhan stood up and ran to the back of the room, pushing Alistair harshly out of the way.

“What the Hell have you done, Ali,” Siobhan hissed as she twisted the lock on the door and yanked it open. But the locker door was so badly bent out of shape that it failed to open. Applying her Aventis strength on the lock, Siobhan snapped it clean off the door.

She stared at it in disbelief. “Shit!” she cursed. “It’s stuck. I need something to cut it with.”

“I’ll get the janitor,” Chantel said, and started to hurry out of the room.

Siobhan continued struggling with the locker door. It flexed, then edged open by a couple of centimeters. “What the Hell is this thing made of?”

“They make them stronger because we’re Aventis,” Farrah explained. “If it was a Regular locker you would have torn the door off by now.”

Suddenly one of the boys hurried to the locker.

Haruto Kurokami Lorian urged Siobhan aside. “Let me try.”

Grabbing the door through the gap, he pulled at it with more strength than Siobhan could muster, and I soon heard the metal creak and groan, before it suddenly gave way and the door ripped free of the warped locker. Haruto stumbled back, landing hard against a smart desk, and cursed in pain. He was still holding onto the locker door, but he cast it aside quickly as he stood up and hurried back to the locker where Siobhan was already reaching in to pull out Éclair.

Together they lay the girl on the floor of the classroom, and a handful of her classmates quickly crowded around her, but Alistair wasn’t amongst them.

She took several steps back, and stared uncertainly at the scene before her.

Unable to hold myself back, I too ran to the back of the classroom, and grabbed a nearby chair. Using it to stand on, I looked down over my classmates’ shoulders at the buxom pixie.

Éclair’s eyes were half-open but she was unconscious, and didn’t respond when Siobhan patter her cheeks. There was a greyish pallor to her face, and the scent of urine in the air.

In her terror, Éclair had peed herself.

Haruto snapped quickly. “Get my gym bag. My alcove’s twenty-two.”

Farrah asked, “What? Why?”

“I have towel in there,” he explained.

“Oh.” Farrah hurried off then returned with the bag a few seconds later, which she placed beside Haruto who was kneeling on the floor.

Haruto hastily unzipped it, pulled out the towel, and handed it to Siobhan. “Here—you do it. Wrap it around her waist.” He fished around some more inside his gym bag, but shook his head a few seconds later. “Damn, I left the other one at home.”

“I have one,” Felicity said, carrying a towel in her hands. She dropped to her knees opposite Siobhan. “I’ll dry her up.”

Haruto gently eased Éclair’s head and shoulders up onto his lap, while the two girls worked on Éclair’s lower body. Siobhan wrapped the towel around the girl’s waist, while Felicity removed Éclair’s soaked underpants, and used her towel to dry the girl up.

Bowing his head over her, Haruto spoke to Éclair, patting her cheeks lightly. “Éclair? Éclair? Can you hear me? It’s Haruto? Can you hear me?” He shook his head, then looked up at the girls. “Does anyone know if she’s on medication—anything that she would take to counter her claustrophobia?”

Farrah shook her head, but said, “I’ll check her bag.”

I cleared my throat. “I’ll call the school nurse.” Pulling out my palm-slate, I rang the number for the nurse’s station on the first floor of the high school building.

Haruto took a deep breath. “I’m going to carry her there.”

Siobhan tightened the towel around Éclair’s waist, and then Haruto carefully picked up the comatose girl. Carrying her Princess style, he made his way cautiously to the classroom’s back door. Felicity pulled aside the sliding door, and the boy stepped into the broad corridor with Éclair in his arms.

For a moment, all the girls and guys remaining in class stood rooted to the floor, before they began walking in Haruto’s wake. Farrah hurried behind them, carrying what I presumed was Éclair’s carry-bag.

I watched them leave, and a heartbeat later the school nurse answered my call.

With a troubled breath, I explained to her about Éclair’s mishap.

A few feet away, Alistair sat down on an empty chair and buried her face in her hands.

Stepping down from the chair, I walked up to her with soft steps. “Ali…did you know?”

Alistair shook her head, her face palmed in her hands, and I watched her shoulders shake.

I realized she was crying.

“…didn’t know…I didn’t know…I didn’t know….”

I sighed, and glimpsing motion at the classroom’s front door, I looked toward it.

Severin Kell Avenir peeked inside, then caught sight of me. “Miss Amiella, just the young lady I was looking for. Carmen is on the hunt for you. I thought I might spare you her wrath.”

I started to reply, but then realized I didn’t know what to say, and closed my mouth quietly.

The Student Council President noticed my distracted state of mind, and approached us smoothly. “Is something the matter…?”

His words trailed away when he noticed Alistair sobbing quietly.

Kell cast me an inquiring look. “Dare I ask?”

Reaching out, I placed a hand on Alistair’s shoulder, and sighed again. “She did something stupid. Something very stupid. And someone was hurt.”

The President looked faintly alarmed. “Should I hear it from her, or from you?”

Pulling up a chair, I sat down beside Alistair and threw an arm around the sobbing girl’s shoulders.

Looking up at Severin Kell, I said in a weary voice, “Mister President, please take seat.”