The Heart Does Go On

Things were rolling around smoothly come the transition between November and December. We had some unusually nice weather for the last week of November, around 23-25 degrees celcius, with one 27-degree day. However that was short lived, and it was not FREEZING as winter usually is. Most of our time was spent inside.

For the first time in a while, Kathryn came up to me and spoke to me in homeroom. I knew it was a matter of time by the music she was listening to when she blared her music in her ears while ignoring everyone. She went from playing ‘Give ‘Em Hell Kid’ by MCR constantly to ‘Since U Been Gone’ by Kelly Clarkson, and I knew she would come around soon.

She laid down a gossip in front of me and smirked. Gossip magazine? Yep, emo Kathryn has gone.

On the front cover there was a picture of Joey and I, and we were holding hands. The caption was ‘Ella Campbell – back in Joey Wheeler’s arms’ and had a story on page 7.

I said nothing to Kathryn as I read the article, and after I read the last line I fell to the ground laughing.

“I know, right?” Kathryn said, flashing me a smile.

Basically, the article had taken my side, and guessed why Kaiba and I broke up, that he used too much time in the company than with me. It wasn’t a hard guess. It also sympathised with Joey, giving him a very positive image.

Kathryn and I made small talk during homeroom, but I was still a little weary of her. What she has done to friends is not good, and probably as soon as her and her other friends make up she will go back to them.

***

I trudged to my locker after my period 4 classes. Kaiba was going out of his way to make my life a living hell, I guess he had seen the magazine and it had somehow affected him.

In math class he was constantly giving me evil glares, and kept telling the teacher if I put a toe out of line. The teacher got sick of him and told him to stop picking on me, and that made him even sourer. After maths he quickly stormed out of the room, and knocked me to the ground, scattering my books everywhere.

This seemed his favourite attack for the day, as I found myself being knocked to the ground or shoved into walls whenever I passed Kaiba. I had bruises on my sides, and I felt really down.

Luckily Joey was escorting me to my locker, after I told him at recess what Kaiba was doing to me. However, Joey’s presence wasn’t enough to stop Kaiba from shoving into me, as he went to as we made our way to the gang. Joey jumped in front of me to absorb Kaiba’s shove, which only resulted in Joey losing his balance a little.

Kaiba let a low growl out, and quickly stormed off as quickly as he arrived.

I just looked at Joey who shrugged, and we made our way to the gang.

Kathryn was in the middle of showing everyone the magazine article, with everyone all laughing themselves silly.

While the gang was still reading it, Kathryn asked Duke and I to follow her for a second. We did, and all sat at a few tables away from everyone else.

“Look guys, I’m sorry for ditching you both. It was uncool; both before the Sam break up and after the Sam break up. My old friends wanted to only know me because they thought Sam was cool, when he’s not. Part of my emoness was because I knew I had lost and ditched my 2 best friends over Sam, and that was not cool. P.S. Duke, your cousin Sam is the biggest douche.” Kathryn giggled, and I knew she was back to her old self.

“Group hug!” I said, wanting to forgive Kathryn but make this as less sappy and awkward as I could.

Duke and I giggled and hugged Kathryn, who seemed all smiles that we had forgiven her.

We made our way back to the group, ready to see what they had to say about the article.

***

After lunch, I had double English with Kathryn and Duke. After Joey had stepped in, Kaiba had stopped shoving into me but I was still intimidated of him, and scared of what would happen in the limo ride to work tonight.

I was sitting in the front row with Kathryn and Duke, when the teacher quickly waltzed in.

“Don’t get comfortable, a new project is coming up for you all. It is a partner task, and I will be assigning your partners. So stand up and you will be seated with your partner,” The teacher said, and I sighed with relief as I stood up.

As much as I think partner tasks with people you’re not friends with are awkward, I was glad that Kathryn, Duke or I would have to be left out in this task.

“The task is boy – girl and the partners are as follows.” The teacher began to call out.

Duke was partnered with the ginger girl Michelle that was obsessed with him! HAHA.

Kathryn was partnered with the head of the baseball team, Mark. She seemed happy with that, and gave me a wink as she sat down.

“Ella Campbell, you’ll be with Seto Kaiba.” The teacher informed me, and both Kaiba and I looked at each other with looks of horror.

I reluctantly followed Kaiba to our desks, and I tried to avoid his gaze as the teacher read the remaining names.

“You are to do an oral presentation with your partner, describing a conflict scenario and how you would fix this. The way you present your presentation is up to you. I will write the details on the board. Good luck.” The teacher said, and turned her back on us to write on the board.

“This is stupid.” I sighed, turning to Kaiba.

“I agree. This has nothing to do with English.” Kaiba replied.

“No, us. I didn’t try to dump you because I didn’t like you. I just thought we were better off as business co-workers, rather than in a relationship. We got along really well, things just weren’t going where I would have liked them to go in a relationship.” I said to him.

“What are you proposing then, Miss Campbell?” Kaiba asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I think we should try and get along again. If we can’t be friends, we should at least be civil towards one another. It will do better for us both when I need to report to you at work.” I explained.

“You may have a point.” Kaiba replied, sounding like he was coming around to the idea.

“Besides, if we’re civil to each other, and the media sees us together, I can give some BS statement to the media working in your favour, so we can use that gossip magazine article in our favour. Free publicity for your public image, as well as Kaiba Corp.” I said, trying to convince him fully.

“That’s actually a very good idea, Ella. I quite like it. You’ve got yourself a deal.” Kaiba said, offering his hand and I shook it.

I smiled at his proposal. Not only did he offer peace, which would make my life a lot easier, he called me by my first name. He hadn’t done that since the break up. Things were finally getting back on track.