Chapter 7
Tokyo Dome, Japan
“Chaste?” Sasuke and I sat down next to her in the cafeteria. “You all right?”
The three of us had become friends since the day we’d gathered by chance in the infirmary, and it had been close to two weeks since then. Chaste and I had identical subjects, so we were always hanging out, and, while Sasuke’s timetable differed slightly from ours, he’d stick around whenever we had the same class.
“Yes,” said Chaste absently, shoving her tiny amount of lunch around the plate, “I am.”
“You’ve been dozing off a lot in Chemistry lately,” Sasuke pointed out, biting into the first of his two sandwiches quickly. “Insomnia?”
Our plan to exchange Chemistry for something else had failed thoroughly when we were told it was a compulsory subject in Black Gold. But really, I should have known better—Chemistry was an important subject. Our fate in Ms. Psychotic’s class afterward had, of course, been beyond painful—I didn’t even want to think about it.
“No, not at all.” She shook her head slightly, looking disoriented. “I haven’t got a clue why I keep nodding off...”
“Our Chemistry lessons are pretty lame, but you probably should do something to stay awake,” said Sasuke. “She hasn’t called on you yet, but we all know there’s a limit to her patience.”
“You’re so lucky,” I tossed in with a sigh. “I can totally imagine her wrath if I were the one not paying attention in her class.”
Chaste set her fork down and pushed her plate away. “I’ll do my best,” she said, offering us an unconvincing smile then went back to staring into space.
Sasuke glanced over at me, his eyes nudging me to do something about the heavy atmosphere.
“We’ll help to keep a closer eye on you,” I suggested. “Right, Sasuke?”
“Yeah, of course.” Sasuke played along readily before getting up—the human vacuum had finished all his sandwiches already. “I’ll see you guys later. I need to get to Music early.” He waved at us briefly as he rushed off.
“See you,” I said, waving back.
This was the norm every Thursday—always rushing off to his Music class after lunch. For what, I wasn’t sure, but I would remember to ask him next time.
“Averie,” said Chaste suddenly. “Have you ever been in love?”
“Er, no leh,” I said, biting into my lunch—a small ham and cheese sandwich. Although I’d been working out a lot these days, I hadn’t been able to eat as much as I used to. I didn’t feel sick or anything, so it must’ve been stress.
“Oh,” she sighed.
“Have you?” I asked suspiciously. Chaste sounded like she was in love and hoping to get advice from a more experienced friend.
“Averie?” She swivelled to me and looked into my eyes.
“Yeah?” Watching her fixedly, I waited for her to speak while she appeared to struggle, seemingly trying to decide whether to tell me whatever that she was thinking.
“Recently right,” she said tentatively, “something very weird has been happening to me in Chemistry. I keep seeing this young couple in my dreams and—”
“Whoa!” I jumped in surprise as a young, ebony skinned girl bumped into me, tipping my food onto the floor.
“Sorry,” the petite girl with long, rebonded hair—a first or second year at most—said to me in a whisper before scurrying off. Coming from behind her were Acacia and friends.
I knew it.
Ever since that ugly episode with the pond, Acacia had been making trouble for me every day without fail and, as usual, Asa had been avoiding me at school—even though I’d made it very clear that I didn’t care what his sister think and still wanted to be friends.
“What do you want this time?” I said irritably, but they merely dished out quick glares before strutting off.
Sighing tiredly, I bent down to clean up the mess on the floor.
Chaste came around to help me. “I can’t believe she’s still on your case,” she muttered, her forehead deeply furrowed. “It’s been a week. Can’t we do something?”
I nudged Chaste, and she looked up. “Don’t worry about me, okay?” I flashed her a wide smile. “It’s really no big deal lah. Just kind of annoying, that’s all.”
She smiled back. “Good to hear,” she said then her smile dimmed. “But Asa—”
Mrs. Bernadette spoke behind me. “Is there a problem?”
Not now, please.
I groaned under my breath. Tomorrow would be my last corrective work session, and it couldn’t come soon enough. Trailing around the school to do housekeeping with a petulant Jace and an unyielding Mrs. Bernadette first thing every morning had got old fast.
We turned around to look at Mrs. Bernadette, and she didn’t look as accusative as she sounded—she merely appeared curious. It seemed she hadn’t seen what happened, so I decided it was best to lie. Solving the problems between Acacia and me by involving a teacher was definitely a bad idea.
“I dropped my lunch by accident,” I said, my back as stiff as a board.
“Be sure to clean up properly,” said Mrs. Bernadette in her usual firm voice.
“I will,” I said eagerly, and she walked off.
“No wonder Acacia left you alone so quickly,” said Chaste, suddenly enlightened.
“If only I could be that lucky every day,” I moaned. “Oh, what were you saying before ah?”
“Never mind.” Chaste waved my question off, her lips forming an unconvincing tight-lipped smile. “It’s nothing important.”
Judging by her unusual behaviour, what she was saying had to be important, but since she wasn’t ready to share, I didn’t push her. “Oh, okay,” I said, picking the last bit of wasted sandwich off the floor. “Since my lunch is ruined, and you don’t seem interested in yours, why don’t we get back to class?”
She nodded. “That’s what I had in mind.”