Temptation Not Included

“The light precedes you well, Princess.”

Meru, who had been busying herself with the tangling mess of Halloween precautions and settling the debt the seniors somehow found themselves in, slit her vision out of the corner of her eyes. She was situated at a table desk in the spare Student Council room, painfully a ways away from the underclassmen who sought work refuge in the spare and silent room. Those who found themselves in this room usually found the room for a reason that any other room didn’t provide. One of which being peace. The main student council room was for the entire class during gathered meetings. This room was for peace, and that was the one thing Meru could not grasp. Her fingers swiveled up and down the inept coding of the seniors’ spending toll for the past seven months, her mind barely hanging on to mesh the math together for a final deliverance. Her current role as student body Vice President did not halt to the findings of debt; in reality, it belonged to Kyler. All of the trivial matters that either bored Meru or irritated her belonged to Kyler and his royal stature. But he left their shared sixth period early. He didn’t even bother to wait up for her while she collected her notes that Sauvageau was handing back just seconds shy of the bell ringing. And now, instead of him performing his brilliant task, it was her in his replacement.

When she should be eating lunch with Aeron. Or anything remotely important other than scanning and filing through the spending of the seniors’ budget. It ominously reminded her of sorting through taxes during the Spring season.

To have Dimitri, of all people, to be smirking at her the way he was, with steaming food at hand, was not a sight she wanted to see. She made sure in the short look she gave him of her standings for the current moment. Listlessly, she was only mildly aware of his approaching footsteps as she returned her focus to ‘her’ work. Only when the warm scent of barbequed pork and barbeque sauce infiltrated her sense of smell did she realize he was near. She involuntarily shivered when the scent tickled her empty stomach to a tango.

“What is it, Dimitri?” she questioned bitterly, creasing her hair behind her ear while flipping through various notebooks kept under his writing. “If you haven’t noticed, I’m kind of busy here. If you want something to do, go find that useless ass Kyler and bring him to me.”

Dimitri cackled lowly before bowing mockingly towards Meru’s back. “Right away, Your Majesty. Shall I prepare the royal steed for your prance around the town square? Or should I cancel the tickets to theatre for you to make a complete ass of yourself in private?”

Before Dimitri could blink Meru whirled around, ready to slap him as clear as day. But, his physical tactics were not proven just for show during the sports he enrolled in throughout the years at McElderrey. He was quick to grab a steady hold on her forearm and as she stumbled in her surprise, he gently skid-tossed the plastic carry-go platter onto the table beside Meru’s work to envelope Meru in his arms. She put all of her strength in her feet to keep her from bashing her face into his chest, and all of her strength struck a chord within her brain just before her nose met the fabric of his shirt that was hidden beneath a heavy hoodie. Sucking in all the air she could, Meru quickly blinked off her astonishment and released her anger along with her compatible hold on Dimitri. He eyed her warily as she made her way back to the table, definitely more shaken up than she had been just two minutes before.

“Do I earn the time to finally ask what’s wrong?”he questioned quietly, not giving the underclassmen so much as a wandered eye after their display.

Meru’s hands were facing the tabletop, the only pillars to her standing. Her shoulders were taut and if it weren’t for her hair cascading over the sides of her face, Dimitri would have been able to see her threading her lips in and out of the fasten of her teeth.

“I’m having a bad day.” she answered tightly, turning her head away. The venom on her tongue was just as fresh as it had been during sixth period. “Simple enough, right?”

Dimitri hunched over to rest his arms beside Meru, focusing his sight on her. He shook his head. “Not quite. Not for the day after your birthday. This morning, you were your normal smiley self. What happened to that?”

She looked up from admiring the space in between the table she was preoccupying and the one beside it. She shook off the haunting feeling and fixed her stance to where she began tapping her fingers, her hands looking damaged at their new proposal. She had been having a good day up to match Dimitri’s account. Normally Wednesdays were always the off days for her. She always felt she was stuck in a limbo of time when Wednesdays rolled around, no matter what positive element presented itself, or the negative, for that matter. She just felt off when the day approached, and Thursdays had never been the brighter relief after those sulky days. However, no matter how deep and damp those Wednesdays were, she never got angry. She never released her tension on someone, much less a close friend. As she mulled over just what happened in the past few hours, she couldn’t bring herself to believe that she almost struck someone. Especially Dimitri. So, it was only natural that the first thing that came from her was an apology.

“I’m sorry.” Meru spoke softly, sighing much heavier. “I-I don’t know, I think I just blanked out just now.”

“That’s not what I’m asking about.” Dimitri avoided the apology altogether. “What’s got you so pissed? If you don’t tell me, I’m going to have to result to desperate measures.”

He sounded completely serious, which made Meru feel all the more uncomfortable with her sudden rage. She did get little sleep the night before, due to birthday extravagates with her parents, but that was no excuse. Straightening her posture, she tilted her chin up with the rising unease filtering in her stomach before resting her gaze on the table. “You’re right -- I was having a normal day, a good day, if you will. But,” Meru cringed, portraying just how much she wanted to avoid the topic. “I swear, Mr. S finds ways to rub me the wrong damn way. I’m a student, for crying out loud -- does he have no morals?”

Dimitri narrowed his eyes at her, raising an eyebrow in slight mystification. “It’s about him, again?”

Meru rolled her eyes at his disbelief. “Yes; when isn’t it?”

Dimitri sighed and straightened up, bringing his lunch towards him. “I guess you have a point.”

Meru finally waved off the negative energy that clung to her and watched Dimitri eat, back to his hunched positive beside her. Sighing, she rest her arms on his shoulder blade and cradled her cheek on her new pillow, closing her eyes. “Are you still curious?”

He shrugged. “I guess I am. Go for it.”

Meru licked her fiery lips before leaning as much appropriate weight onto him. “Sixth period was going well. Mr. S was giving out our scores on our tests, right -- hey, what’d you get?”

Dimitri finished swallowing the barbeque before nodding up in thought. “I got a seventy-six; not my best score of the quarter.”

“Hmm. Well, I got a C and I was happy, right? So I was quiet throughout the remainder of the class, just minding my own business and being happy that I was actually understanding -- well, no; the right would word be comprehending. So, comprehending; I was comprehending everything that he put on the PowerPoint. And then, Tenaya Stan walks in with permission to steal Kyler in and out throughout the period. I presume, it was StuCo business, but he didn’t pick up on my rather obvious hints so he didn’t tell me, nor do I still know. Miss V is out and I have no idea where she is, but Tenaya caught up with me, somehow, before I could make my way downstairs. She told me—”

“Tenaya? Miss V’s sixth period student aid, Tenaya?”

“Yep. And she told me before I could go to lunch that Miss V wanted me to take care of a few issues concerning the senior class. Obviously, I panicked because Kyler was in and out of class, so I make my way, completely forgetting what happened just seconds before.”

“And what happened seconds before?”

Dimitri held his fork with barbeque up to Meru’s face. She inhaled the scent before she opened her eyes to see the offer, and smiled before wrapping her mouth around the fork. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Well, Kyler left again right before the bell rang and I was taking my time with finishing my preparation for the next class lab, and I guess I was the last person in the room because I’m sure if I wasn’t, he wouldn’t have said that.”

Meru took a breather to accept another fork-full of Dimitri’s sultry barbeque. She settled herself back on his shoulder, now more relaxed than she felt she had been in a while. Which she didn’t want to stir with her distaste for her AP Chemistry teacher. “So, I’m gathering all of my junk up, right, and I look up to see if Kyler’s waiting for me at the door -- like he usually does when I can’t match my average-legged speed with his arachnid speed. And before I can even process that Kyler didn’t come back for me after he left for the umpteenth time, I notice that I’m being watched. I look up and see Mr. S giving me this odd as hell look from behind his desk with a bunch of papers in his hands. And you know, he’s just staring at me, like as if I’ve done something that shocked him or profound him or directly insulted him. In short, it was weird. And I was going to give him a look as well, because you know, I argued with him enough last week and I didn’t want a repeat with Principle Roeth. But, before I can even push my chair in, he comments on my… ensemble.”

Meru sighed, her core of being spiraling at the mere flashback of just how Sauvageau looked at her. Recalling the smooth words befallen victim to his French accent made prickly shivers crawl up and down her back. She could feel the ill-omened words of her teacher breathe deep into the hollows of her spine, bringing Meru to shortened breaths. She couldn’t shake the distaste she had for him, not even her own body could deny her initial reaction when the man came into mind. Perhaps Yvette was right – maybe she needed to pray more often; to smite the evilest of Earth’s creations onto Daniel Sauvageau. That would be her only reform of prayer if she ever found the willpower.

“He basically called me ugly and told me to never wear red again.” Meru finalized, disregarding telling Dimitri the finer details.

Her heavy eyelids that had become too accustomed to the lack of daylight, or prosthetic lighting, lifted to reveal a pair of lazy brown eyes. They drifted downwards until they landed on Dimitri and his ever present silence. Subtly, she nudged him in which he responded with one of his own.

Finally, after finishing off his lunch, he spoke, “Aeron’s a saint.”

Meru’s brow knitted together, her eyes now more alert, but still in much need of sleep. “What?”

“Aeron’s a saint.” Dimitri clarified. “I mean, do you tag him along just for stuff like this? From the get-go, I never understood why you two were so close. If this is why, I guess I should have suspected so.”

“What?”

“If anyone should listen to your ridiculous ramblings, why not a helpless soul, right?”

Meru ground her teeth lightly against the other, resulting in mimicking a hula-hoop wind with her jaw. Eventually, she rose from Dimitri’s back, which in turn, made Dimitri rise and stretch. He gave a fixed look to Meru before leaving her side to toss away the non-existent barbeque sauce platter into the nearest waste bin. Meru watched him walk as leisurely as he always did across the room. On his way back to her, she caught the rest of the student body members walk through the open doorway. Meru instantly turned away from the traitors. It didn’t matter that they didn’t directly offend her; if Kyler was among them, then so were his discrepancies.

“Hey, Meru, can you-- oh, wow, you actually did it! Miss Viola and I weren’t sure.” Kyler spoke enthusiastically, practically sliding to stand beside her. “Fantastic. Well, would you mind—”

“Yes, I mind.”

Kyler recoiled, blinking in surprise – as well as Yvette and Ellison who stood behind him – merely taken aback from the pure venom in her tone. However, Kyler bounced back quickly. “But you don’t even know what I’m about to say. Okay, so I was wondering if you—”

“No.” Meru stated flatly, the tinge of impatience heavily coating her voice. “No, Kyler. No, no, no. Okay?”

Kyler took his time observing Meru before he launched his mystification onto Dimitri, who was hiding behind gulps of Gatorade. “Am I missing something?”

Dimitri nodded and removed his lips from the rim of his plastic bottle. “Yeah, she hates you.”

Chuckling, Kyler turned back to Meru with a confused smile. “Why?”

A smoldering coil struck Kyler dead in the eye when Meru looked up from glaring at the rolled papers in his hand. “Because you left me all to my lonesome last period to be insulted by the man I hate most on planet Earth.”

Kyler ignored her anger altogether and tilted his head at her. “I thought the person you despised most was Aria.”

Meru gave an exasperated look and arm gesture towards the teenage boy in front of her while shaking her head at the girls behind him. “Along with his wits, he must have lost his hearing. I said man, right? Not girl.”

Kyler was now perceiving Dimitri’s demeanor from when he first came into contact with Meru and her sour mood. “Meru, regardless of whatever’s got you twisted, you’ll do this. As your superior, you’re entitled to carry out what I demonstrate as befitting.”

“So now you’re pulling rank on me?” Meru questioned, baffled. When Kyler didn’t answer, Meru scoffed and turned back around to ‘her’ work at the table. “This day just keeps getting better and better. What the fuck do you want?”

Kyler’s jaw clenched. Unwinding the papers in his hand, he placed them in front of her. “I don’t appreciate your snarky attitude. I need you to take this to all the administrators that are not marked off the list. We need at least six to sign off on this, and if we get more, we get more. It’ll benefit the slum we’re in.”

Meru placed aside the notebooks she had just finished organizing to roam her eyes over the formal plea and as her eyes continued their way down the letter they widened and narrowed to their own accord. Meru slowly slid out of her slump to take into account of just how much of in need the senior class was. “We’re this desperate, are we?” she questioned to no one in particular.

Kyler nodded and crossed his arms, still with precautious eyes on the shorter student body member. “Yes. We had to donate over two hundred percent of our funds to the sophomores over the summer, and we’ve only received thirty percent of what they owe us from the festivities they’ve upheld so far into the year.”

“We’re sailing up shit creek, basically.” Ellison added, trying to discreetly catch Meru’s attention. She didn’t.

Meru sighed, picking up the papers and fingering through them. She took one look at the clock and her eyes returned with the malicious tinge in them. Of course, pointed to Kyler. “I hope you don’t expect me to finish this off with the seal before lunch ends. Because it ends in ten minutes.”

“I don’t.” he answered firmly. “I expect you to finish as much as you can. And right now, you’re wasting time.”

Kyler turned his back on Meru and as he made his way to walk out of the room, Meru’s eyes widened in anger from being disregarded so quickly. Her nostrils flared, her breathing escalated, along with her blood pressure, and the tight clamp of her fingertips on the papers had begun to shake. She didn’t speak a word, instead grabbing the pen she used for re-evaluating the funds in the notebooks without so much as a second look to the rest of the student body, or members of the underclassmen working as diligently as they could. The moment she walked out of the room, the rushing and clamoring of the McElderrey Masons clashed against her sense of hearing. It did nothing to calm her spirits, or solidify them. Her jaw was still taut as she made her way towards the first administrator on the list that had yet to be deemed reliable or not. The room in which the administrator was located was on the first floor, which was blocked out by the students who were attending lunch for the allotted period. When she walked in, she realized class was in session and instantly, her heavy mood left her in a heartbeat. Luckily, the teacher was not in the middle of a lecture, but busying herself behind the desk computer and had her attention on Meru the moment she walked through the door. Unfortunately, after Meru explained just what the papers entailed, Levu could not appeal to the requirements and signed off as illegitimate. Meru left with a pleasant smile and sighed, looking through the list once again to find the next source of hope.

She had visited two more administrators, both of which would decline just as regretfully as Levu had. Meru did the math quickly in her head and noticed she would have to stay after school in order to obtain answers for the rest of the members on the list, which had been narrowed down to seventeen administrators. Meru did not look at the lasting pages in the paper-clipped plea. She knew it was only for the administrators’ eyes, and all she knew was that their time was needed for the upcoming Saturday. She wasn’t in the least bit interested, since during her pass over of sight, she didn’t catch notice that the senior class or student body was required. However, once she took a quick glance at her watch and made a compromise that she had just enough time for conversing with one more administrator, and once she looked down the list of who was next, she was completely mortified and intrigued with the circumstances of the plea. Quickly, she made her way back to the spare StuCo room and gathered her belongings. She instructed a passing freshman to sort the stack of notebooks into the personal cabinet marked under Systems & Budgets behind Viola’s desk before he left, and before the both of them could leave the spare room, the smiling face of Ellison prevented them.

She took one look at the papers in Meru’s hand before she slouched onto the edge of the doorway in front of Meru, granting the young freshman passage to freedom. “I see it that a little work for the greater good has turned you around, huh, Hulk?”

“If you don’t want me to do what I did to Dimitri, move.”

Ellison chuckled and stood back, hands waving in front of her defensively. “I thought we agreed we’d only get feisty in the bedroom.”

The mischievous smile the blonde girl sent Meru instantly wore out her demeanor for her to slump and give in with hugging her friend. Meru ended up rolling her eyes from the chuckles that overtook the blonde girl, and as they released each other, Ellison kissed her cheek for good luck. “Yeah, I’ll need all I can get. It looks like I’ll be staying after today.”

Ellison followed in step with Meru’s casual, but quick-footed, walk. “How much more do you have to go?”

Meru unfolded the flap and Ellison let out a sour ‘ooh’. “I can stay after with you, if you want. We can knock it out twice as fast.”

Meru smiled at her friend and shook her head. “Nah, it’s fine. Maybe if Mr. Osaka doesn’t have anything for me to do next period, I’ll just use my badge and go around to finish this.”

Ellison smiled and wagged a finger at her. “That’s one way of handling it. After all, you are his little pet.”

“I am not. It’s just, I’m relatable.” Meru began making wide gestures with her arms, a light in her eyes that had not been there since the early hours of the morning now finally aglow. “I’m a relatable person. And besides, Mr. Osaka is very fun to talk to.”

“Yeah, if you can get past his thick accent. Which the general population of this school can’t.” Ellison commented in a whisper, a smirk on her lips from the elbow Meru gave her arm. “Maybe that’s why he only speaks to Asians.”

“Just because he’s Asian does not mean he’s a selective racist.” Meru said, opening the door that led to the corridor of the science wing. “You coming?”

Ellison looked down the hall and pursed her lips, shaking her head. She began taking slow steps backwards before nodding over her shoulder. “Nah, I still gotta get my stuff from the room. Yvette and I left our stuff there while we ate downstairs. Yes, while we left you to your dismay. We actually saw the load Miss Viola left for you and we booked it before you got there. Brutal.”

Meru rolled her eyes, a smile ever present on her lips. “Talk to you later, Sonny.”

“Love ya Meru!”

“Yeah, yeah.” Meru groaned, disappearing behind the heavy doors as they came to a close.

Walking with a definite purpose, Meru tucked the papers under her arm and rummaged through her birthday gift bag from Yvette in search of the white chocolate truffles given to her by Kyler yesterday. She may have a personal vendetta out for him with every breath that left her, but she wouldn’t ignore the gifts given her. For the moment, they blocked out the intensity of the evil words spoken to her by the foreigner her teacher. However, it seemed she couldn’t scourge enough by the time she stopped just outside his classroom. She dropped the wrappings of her chocolate into an empty inside zipper pocket of her bag before retrieving the paper-clipped papers under her arm. Her dark eyes roamed over the computer fonts until they landed on the room number of Sauvageau’s classroom. In the slightest, her dark brown eyes narrowed.

“What could they possibly want with you?” she murmured to herself. “You don’t even celebrate holidays and social events with the rest of the school. What could be so important this time around?”

Meru rolled her eyes and sighed out heavily, clicking her tongue for whatever purpose of expelling the negative energy causing her heart to pump. She was sure if Aeron were around, he would call her an evil, little child. Other than the passion serving her breaths and solace was her unfiltered hatred, it was her only source of focus. Meru was near positive that if she didn’t let Sauvageau get to her so much, she probably would excel greatly in her academics. But, she failed to remind herself of that. By doing so she would be playing the blame game, and what adult did that with distinction? She would take a double shot of rat poison before she admitted to being just like her parents. The mere thought sent disgusting kisses down her arms and neck. She had a full-blown twitch tingling up and down the right side of her neck when she rapped her knuckles gently upon the face of Sauvageau’s door. A quick glance to the bottom of the door distinguished that the lights were out, and so possibly Sauvageau himself. More frustrated - more by her disturbing thoughts more than her teacher - she huffed and puffed out the impatience that was raising her blood pressure. She only had two and a half minutes - tops - before the bell for eighth period rang. She knew she had leverage with Osaka - or, with any and every teacher with the exception of Sauvageau, really - but she fought against her reputation anytime it presented itself.

Out of the two and a half minutes she had left, nearly one minute was lost with her back pressed against the brick wall separating the pillar windows opposite of the classrooms. Under Meru’s understanding, the windows used to be barred when McElderrey was a privatized academy. She heard various stories relating to a specificity as to why there were barred windows in the first place, but with every person she heard it from, only one truth remained: safety. From what, Meru could never be too sure. Neither did she care enough. However, whenever the storms acted up and seemed more dangerous than let on, she wondered if the barred security would have any effect whatsoever if the windows faltered and gave in.

As she lounged casually against the pillared walls, her gaze drifting high above her, that’s where her thoughts lingered: false security. Before her thoughts could writhe and destroy her conscience, her excellent sense of hearing perked her nerves up to where she stood straight up and watched the end of the hallway. She heard the door from the opposite end of the corridor open and close rather loudly. Within seconds, the provocateur was revealed. At first Meru had to squint, but within seconds, she made the figure out to be a female. Meru instantly disregarded the figure and kept her sight on the door across from her. Both classrooms on either side of Sauvageau’s had light skittering from underneath the locked doors. It only made Meru more irritated; not even in the lack of physicality of the two together could prevent her hatred.

Just as Meru began to slouch against the wall, her eyes caught the sight of the female walking from the opposite end of the corridor. The dark haze clouding over her eyes disappeared the moment she recognized the girl. Yei Chu was a foreign exchange student from Korea and out of the eight classes Meru had, she shared three with the eighteen year old girl. Around Meru, she hardly spoke English, but in the classes they shared, speaking was irrelevant. The main being their shared second period Chamber Orchestra class they had just this morning. If anyone had the talent Yei had for producing the sounds she did on a cello, no one needed the luxury of voice. On more than one account, Meru lost herself in a daydream when she listened to Yei play her music from across the room during second period and in after school rehearsals when the cellists and violinists found themselves scheduled on the same afternoon. Meru only knew her for two and a half months, but in the short time, Yei’s talent convinced Meru that she should broaden her span of talents and seek out a cellist instructor.

The other two classes they shared were first period Creative Writing with Dunst, and fourth period Government with McGraw. Creative Writing was typically known as a leisure period, and points were awarded if words were cleverly organized into lyrics, poems, or short stories. To Meru’s amazement, half of the class had trouble doing just that. As for their Government class, talking was absolutely on a must-need-to-do basis, and fortunately for Yei, she had a translator that opted refusal out for her chances. It was also obvious that teachers favored Yei, or any foreign exchange student, for that matter. Meru was positive that if she didn’t speak a lick of English, teachers would look at her differently as well.

Meru smirked. She wondered if Sauvageau would treat her any different if she had an accent. She hummed at the positive outlook before joining Yei beside Sauvageau’s door. She wore a pleasant smile that caught Yei’s eye from behind her thick, red hair. “Hello Yei.”

Meru knew the girl couldn’t speak English, but she was still curious on how her learnings were advancing. Yei only held the disgusting, heavy textbooks in her arms; no translator contraption at hand. Instead of impressing Meru’s innermost thoughts, Yei acknowledged her with a head nod and feeble smile of recognition. Meru smiled in return, not faltering in the least from her disappointment. Instead, curiosity leeched its multiple tethers onto the forefront of her mind. She cast a look towards Sauvageau’s locked door before looking back to Yei.

“Why are you here?”

Meru’s eyes widened in surprise when Yei answered her question in a language non-compatible to English. She guessed Korean. Not knowing any other way to respond, Meru shook her head faintly. Yei smiled in response and balanced her textbooks in one arm while she rummaged through her shoulder bag. Within moments, she retrieved a metal contraption that resembled a sleek calculator. Enthused, Meru watched the Asian girl type away at the contraption and before Meru knew it, Yei was holding it out to Meru. She took it gingerly and awed at all the symbols and etchings onto the face and buttons of the translator.

“I need to leave in assignment missed previously Friday.” Meru read aloud, snapping her fingers in realization the moment the words left her tongue. “Ah, so you want to drop something off for him?”

Meru was sure Yei had no idea what she said, but the pleasant smile on her face won over Yei’s understanding and she nodded, tapping her finger against the translating screen. Meru let a laugh slip from her before she handed the translator back. “I guess we’ll wait here together. What’s your next class? Is it here?” she pointed to the door.

Yei looked to the door and shook her head, shrugging her shoulders. Meru nodded slowly, still smiling softly at the girl. Yei grinned in return and placed her translator in Meru’s hands, tapping the translator screen. She pushed a few buttons before speaking a demand in Korean. Meru shifted all of her weight onto her left leg before fidgeting with the electronic contraption. It only took two wrong calculations for her to figure it out, and before she handed her question to Yei, Yei pressed the ‘silence’ button. An electronic voice spilled out from the tiny speaker holes on either side of the translator screen. Meru looked up from the translator in her hands and watched for Yei’s reaction. Judging by her bright-eyed smile once the voice ended, and the sudden snatch for the translator and the foreign gestures Yei was giving Meru, she had worked it correctly.

“I have Calculus. Mister Lennox’s.” the electronic voice informed Meru.

Meru’s eyes bugged as she looked at Yei’s smiling face. “But his second and eighth period classes are AP Calculus classes. AP.”

Yei continued to smile. She took back her translator, pressed a few buttons, and slid it into her bag. Meru chuckled at her actions and shook her head good-naturedly. Before Meru could ask her another question, the door behind her opened. The both of them looked to the light filtering into the hallway. From the lab tables scattered throughout the room, Meru deducted the woman was also a science teacher. Although, most of the classrooms in the back corridor were occupied for scientific purposes. Meru didn’t know the woman, but she could have sworn she recognized her from somewhere. After all, they attended the same domain for eight hours.

“Hello Meru. Is there something I can do for you? I think Mr. Sauvageau is still at lunch. He doesn’t have an eighth period, you know, so he takes his time.”

Meru slumped and was visibly defeated by the knowledge. She only snapped out of it so quickly from Yei creeping up to her side, looking back and forth between her and the unknown woman. Meru mumbled an ‘oh!’ before placing her hand on Yei’s arm. “Well, we both need to see him, but you know when he comes back, right?”

The woman nodded. She watched Meru speak broken Korean she picked up on from the translator before Yei slipped her a green folder, clearly marked in English for Sauvageau’s class. The woman smiled and took the green folder from Meru, giving Yei a comforting smile as well from her cautious look at the folder.

“It’s an assignment she needed to turn in on Friday, but Mr. S said she could turn it today before he left for the day. Can you make sure he gets it before he leaves?”

“Of course, Meru. Now, what is it you need with him? I can relay a message for you.”

Meru chuckled and did her best to smile as naturally as she could, but she could feel the tension in her cheeks at the thought of obtaining a ‘favor’ in the likes of the person she despised most. “Uh, no that’s alright. I’ll just visit him later.” she said just as the bell rang. Yei looked up in surprise, quickly spewing out a few quick Korean words to Meru. “Oh, yeah sure, I’ll make sure he gets it.” Meru spoke, having no distinction whatsoever as to what Yei was saying. “Just make sure you get to class on time. No worries.”

Yei rolled her eyes and playfully swatted at Meru’s arm. The action slightly startled Meru, but it was her perfect English that halted all motor functions. “Thank you, SBVP Meru. Goodbye.”

It wasn’t until Yei was halfway down the hallway that Meru regained her senses and quickly spit out a ‘goodbye’ as well. Yei turned around and smiled before disappearing around the corner. Shifting the weight on her shoulder from her bag, Meru returned her delightfully stunned expression onto the woman who continued to stare expectantly at the student body vice president. “Huh. I usually get ‘Miss Lang’, ‘Vice President Lang’, or something ‘Lang’ this, or ‘Lang’ that - never Meru. It sounds prettier with an accent, though, you know?”

The woman laughed, nodding in agreement. “Are you sure you don’t want me to give Mr. Sauvageau a message? I’ll be more than happy to.”

Meru’s smile slowly faded and her eyes distinctively narrowed at the woman. Of course, if all of the foreigner’s teacher’s students fell for him, why not some of the teachers? Everyone knew he was handsome and he had some type of attitude to him, so it was completely understandable that the majority of the female population at McElderrey looked at him in some sort of fashion. It just so happened that the only young female at the school that looked at him in disgust and made it more apparent than what the current weather status was, was Meru.

“Uh…” Meru shook her head, slowly walking away from the woman. “Nah, it’s fine. I’m sure if I left a message with you saying that I needed to talk to him, it would only make him leave school quicker. But thank you anyway.”

The last thing in her mind was Sauvageau as she left the hallway, heading for her eighth period. She didn’t want to begin to think how she would waste away ninety minutes. Better things awaited Meru, and all of her wandering occupying desires required the solace and gratitude of four, homey walls. None of which resulted from after school activities, which she most definitely did not want to divulge in today.



Lennox had made it perfectly clear that Meru was to study whenever she had the free time. He stressed that even though she was only physically present in his class every other day she was to treat their extra-curricular sessions as though he was always teaching her. He wanted his methods pinned into her brain, to the point that repetition was no longer required. He wanted his voice to always be whispering logic whenever she was left stumped. He assured her that it would be instinct in a matter of no time and she would soon come to ignore the irritating bounds. She believed him, and she was willing. However, he didn’t seem to gather. No matter what he said to convince her that his methods were normal, he still progressed in one of his rants. Once envisioned, Meru found it all that more difficult to focus. She couldn’t help herself when her mind would take a wrong turn and end up stuck, broken over the misty thoughts of Lennox in a promiscuous entanglement. He had said he wanted his voice stuck in her mind, and after only one session with him yesterday, it was. Just not in a way he would approve of.

Therefore, instead of studying in one of her slack classes, she was primping herself.

It was the last period of the day, and she was most definitely not looking forward to spending hours she could be sleeping comfortably at home at school doing StuCo work that wasn’t even assigned to her. Aside from her orchestra and dance practices, she wasn’t very fond of staying after school; not this year. Especially not today after the direct insult given to her by her least favorite person. Even though his only competition was Aria Matsumoto, he quickly garnished the first place title. There would be no hope for him after today. She had been so shaken up over it, and after letting her sharp temper nearly explode, she was mentally exhausted. She hated coffee, aside from the sweet stuff Dimitri usually brought her, but she knew she needed a pick-me-up if she was going to face Sauvageau after school.

Usually she paid attention to Osaka’s lectures on the country’s history and even though she had aced the course last year, she fancied the way the elderly Japanese teacher wound his words to enchant his students with their home’s ancestors. He wasn’t very extravagant in closing in on special activities that drew students out of their desks. He hardly strayed from the textbook and PowerPoint tactics, but it was still early in the year. He still had time to obscure any views on a lacking regiment. What was obvious, though, was that he had his students tightly encased under his finger. Meru knew for a fact that when she was a junior, she was hardly as obedient and accepting as Osaka’s students were. Even though she was their senior and had some strength in ordering them around, she admired them. Not every single one, but in the first half of the quarter as Osaka’s assistant, she figured most of the good apples were in his classes. While they gave their undivided attention to him, trusting every single word he said they scripted onto paper, she was ignoring her teachers’ orders and schoolwork and instead, smoothing lotion onto her limbs and plotting how to sneak into one of the teachers’ lounges and steal a cup or two of coffee. As a senior, she was no different than when she was a junior, and so on.

Instead of wasting her energy on fuming over the day’s incidents, she pondered over her mother’s wits and if she knew that Meru had stolen one of her lotions. Meru’s and her mother’s relationship was hardly average, and the only person outside their family who knew was Aeron. Before there was even the Sauvageau complication, Meru’s temper inexplicably raged solely on her mother. That was her only problem before. On some occasions, Aeron would even plot against Ivy Lang along with Meru. Lately, she had been too exhausted to emotionally torture her mother that would normally add a kick to her weekly undertakings. She had found a way around it, and in its place, she was borrowing things she knew her mother appreciated more than she did Meru. Her mother had plenty of silly skin creams for the woman’s increasing age, so she wouldn’t miss a few cases of them. At first, Meru was under the impression the lotions she was stealing were make-up creams, due to the obsessive impulses that overtook her when she inhaled one too many wafts. Only when she actually took the time to read the labels on them, she realized they weren’t. As simple as it was to covet something and eventually fall under its spell to advert to ill impressions, Meru did so, unbeknownst to her.

Her thoughts weren’t present when someone knocked on Osaka’s door. One of the students seated near the door and the student aid’s desk noticed this and quietly snuck away from her seat to answer the quiet knock. The lights were out and Osaka was in a full blown lecture about foreigners migrating to the promise land, its believed illustrations shown through one his PowerPoints. As soon as the girl answered the door, allowing a stream of golden light to slither through the darkness and alerting the room that she wasn’t as slick as she had thought, she quickly scurried to her desk and hurried to interpret her thoughts of the projected slide onto her paper. Although she felt embarrassed, most of the class’ attention wasn’t on her, but on Meru.

“Yvette?” Meru whispered, pulling a lever underneath her seat to lower her special chair. She lowered, but still had to hunch to be level with the student body treasurer who was kneeling instead of occupying the sister chair of Meru’s special seat. “Aren’t you supposed to be with Principal Roeth?”

Both Yvette and Meru shared a slack class being student aids, but Yvette took things more serious than Meru ever would. She always did. Entailed as the school’s principle’s one and only student aid might add onto the maturity aspect, though. “We finished early,” she whispered, her thick Caribbean accent influencing the silence of the limited lighting. “So now I’m on messenger duty.”

Meru looked to Yvette’s hands and noticed they were empty. “Do you have something for Mr. Osaka?”

Yvette shook her head and smiled. “Cinderella told me the Hulk was stuck after school for something we should have done. So, I brought you a present.”

A lavender iPod was pulled from one of Yvette’s sweater pockets and Meru instantly smiled. Meru had her own iPod – a few, actually – yet she still liked borrowing her friends’. She enthused the rouse that her curiosity could not impede her instincts of impending humility, but after so many years of using that line, she was sure her friends caught onto the fact that Meru was just too lazy to bring her precious electronics to school.

Before Meru could graciously thank Yvette and accept the gift, Yvette gently dropped the iPod in her lap before yanking Meru closer to her. Her surprise was halted when Yvette reached around Meru’s neck and slipped off her necklace. The dark-skinned girl then took off her own necklace before placing it over Meru’s head.

“There, collateral.” Yvette deemed Meru’s appearance formidable.

If light were present, a question would have arisen from the gentle, frilly-haired girl upon noticing the shadowing glaze that overtook her friend’s haze. Meru was a very tolerant person. When it came to Dimitri’s horrible taste in girls, Meru was a reliable voice to turn to when he sought out advice. When it came to Kyler’s family uproars, Meru was always available to listen to him rant and rave and eventually offer a spare room in her home for the night. When it came to Ellison’s impulsive spending and minor addiction, Meru would always be the first to come running to knock her back into place. However, when it came to Yvette and her strong religious beliefs, Meru could neither say she was tolerant or not tolerant; she was just silent. Meru supported the people around her the best she could, and always did so with a flare many others lacked, in which, she believed, was a genuine heart for being disgusted with the human suffering. And heartache – Meru absolutely hated that; especially when it came so close to home, affecting the people around her. With Yvette, Meru had no idea what her intentions were. A few years ago Yvette had found out Meru’s religious standings, and only two years ago, Yvette finally voiced her concerns and proposed an innocent suggestion of attending Sunday church with her and her family once a quarter. At least once a semester, were her final words, Meru suddenly remembered.

Meru sighed softly, doing her best to fend the looming hesitation away. She would save that for a day when her bounds were pushed far beyond their limitations of light. However, since there was no light, Meru was in the clear. Partially. To make the more important confusion known, she twirled her finger around the rosary beads and held them up in between the two of them.

“Return these to me after school,” Yvette answered, tapping her iPod and gesturing to the necklace. “And I’ll return this.”

Meru stared at her necklace that now hung around Yvette’s neck. Her stare was unwavering, just as were her thoughts. “Why two for one?”

“I’ve had a weird feeling since halfway through second period. The only feeling I could distinguish is to give you something of mine.”

“I’m perfectly fine stealing your iPod for the rest of the day.”

Yvette shook her head, slowly standing to her five foot nine stature. Meru’s neck angled upwards just as slowly as Yvette’s ascent, her eyes leaving her face for a moment when Yvette ran her hands up and down her thighs. “You don’t have any kind of practice today, do you? And you ended your after school tutoring with Mr. Lennox, right? Last week?”

“Right. Actually, I—”

Yvette quickly bent down and kissed Meru’s cheek. “Alright, then. Meet me downstairs in room 217 when you’ve finished with the administration plea.”

Meru watched Yvette leave and the moment the door closed behind her, Meru slumped into her seat. The necklace wasn’t all that heavy, but it felt as if it were compressed onto her chest – permanently. She fingered it for a moment before allowing it to untangle from her finger and drop. She enjoyed every member of the student body’s company, but after the incident she had with Yvette a few years ago, she had always been cautious of spending one-on-one time with her. Within seconds, Meru was planning an escape route.

Only six minutes passed when Osaka ended his presentation and gifted his class with lights. The moment they were turned on, though, the corner light nearest the exit and Meru flickered before giving out completely. Most of the class was aware and saw the invention fail, the majority of them staring stupefied at such a miscarriage. After a few trial and errors with flipping the lights on and off by Osaka, every sharp attention span of the thirty-eight students were focused on the lights. Opinions were amplified, hands were raised – though, those who rose them awaited not to be called upon and immediately spoke the moment their hands were in the air –, and those who were completely engrossed in their classwork neglected it altogether to watch the scene before them unravel. Soon enough, the students submerged themselves into a debate; whether to leave the lights on, off, or withdraw the curtains and open the windows. Most of the class was in favor of leaving the lights off and working in peace for the remainder of the period, whereas the few troublemakers drew out the proposition of playing a guessing game to which light would be next to burst while flipping them on and off. Once one of them arose to try out the experience, Osaka immediately rejected the idea and nearly tossed the student to his desk at his frivolous behavior.

Eventually Osaka settled on leaving the class absent of light. For about five minutes. As he circled his quiet class, admiring their obedient work ethics, he took one glance at his windows and imagined the idea of freeing their locks would be harmless. Especially after hearing a few murmured complaints with the lack of light and being able to read from their textbooks. However, a slight breeze was in the air and thirty feet from the windows were Aspens. Noticing the second trial and error by their teacher, a cluster of students, whose opinions were highly regarded by the junior class – so Osaka was under the impression of –, suggested returning to the lights on proposal.

This provoked another spout once another light burst, this time, in the back left corner of the room where the room was the darkest. Noticing the forlorn posture of their teacher, a few students suggested to call on the assistance of a janitor to replace it. Immediately, hands flew up to antagonize the opportunity of excusing themselves from the class to search for one. Withdrawing from the last period of the day seemed tempting, although when a few of the more boisterous students volunteered to tear it down and fix it, Osaka firmly stated the obvious.

“There is forty minutes left in class. Do you really think you can get away for that long?”

The student, now sinking into his chair at the humiliation of being put on the spot, made a face and grumbled something beneath his breath. Osaka nodded matter-of-factly. “Finish your work, Nathan, and we’ll see about giving a two percentage boost to the D on your last test.”

At the hope of raising a letter grade, the students were once again in a fuss. Osaka let them be on their own seeing as they were no longer daydreaming over lights and shadows. He returned to his desk and began to shuffle around one of his drawers before stumbling upon what he was searching for. Toying with one of the levers beneath his seat, he adjusted to its former comfort and slid down the length of the room towards Meru’s special workplace. The student aid badge easily slid from in between his fingers to the empty space in between her. As he turned around to wheel himself back to his own space, he realized she wasn’t paying him any attention. His almond eyes drifted from one side of the table to the other; from her bag resting on the flat workspace, the neatly organized papers at the corners of her table, the rubrik cube paperweights she brought at the beginning of the year to pose a sense of personality, to the scrapings of age across the top of the mahogany table until they finally landed on the stack of papers right in front of her. He leaned back in his chair and eyed them peculiarly.

“What is this?”

Meru’s eyes immediately splintered to where a finger invaded the space she knew a finger wasn’t supposed to be. Leaning forward, she did her best to disguise the fact that she was daydreaming. “Oh, this? This is just StuCo work. I haven’t read it yet, but I don’t think I’m supposed to. I just have to get as many of the administrators on this list to sign off on this.”

Osaka picked through the stack, reading every word down every line of each page until he got the gist of what it was. He skipped the last few pages and, picking up a stray pen that lay nearby, signed off below the last teacher Meru got to sign off. The exuberant shock was clearly evident on Meru’s features when Osaka handed her the stack of papers, after stapling the mess together, of course.

“Mr. Osaka, really?”

He laughed at her voice nearly cracking and smiled. “Of course, SBVP Lang.”

She caught the sweet wink he sent her before she flipped to the plea page and instantly, a smile decorated her plump, cherry lips. “Aw, Mr. Osaka, you’re not even up for the nominations. Are you sure you want to volunteer?”

“If it’s for the senior class, I’ll do it. It’ll be fun, right?”

“Of course it will, Mr. Osaka. If we’re planning it, you don’t have to worry about that.”

“Good.” He concluded with a head nod, gesturing to the student aid badge. “Do you want to complete the rest of the list for the rest of the class?”

Meru sighed, staring at the packet and nodding slowly. She was very comfortable in her chair, as was every time she sat in it, but now was not a time to prompt her laziness. “I definitely don’t want to stay after school over this…”

Osaka smiled. “Then I’ll let you go. I wanted you to ask one of the school’s guards to let you use the ladder to fix the lights.”

“Lights?”

Osaka pointed a finger above them. While Meru stared up admiring the blank canvas above her, as well as the quiet buzzing a few light placements away, Osaka was packing her things neatly into her bag. Meru began to wonder if the lights blew out just as they did two years ago in her Zoology class. Observing the lack of fiberglass on the ground and flickering lights hanging by a cord from a gaping hole, she assumed they didn’t need immediate care. However, she was confused.

Meru was completely unaware.

“Just return in time to turn in your badge before the bell rings, okay?”

Meru nodded, smiling gratefully as he placed her papers atop her now packed bag. “Well, I do have a lot of names to check through, but I can go downstairs and see about getting your lights fixed. I think Sly Chelevski should be assisting the other guards in the cafeteria right now.”

One of the students recognized as a highly regarded junior was just about to drop off his assumed finished work until catching the end of Meru’s sentence. “You know Sly?”

Meru nodded, the head bodyguard of the McElderrey Masons coming to the forefront of her mind. The Asian boy gargled a dumbfounded grumble before dropping his papers into one of the baskets. “Wow, he’s scary. He never lets me or my friends into the cooking class during lunch. What does he think I’ll do in there? Blow this place to bits? It’s a giant kitchen, what else am I supposed to do in there during lunch?”

Meru smirked, recalling the same room being nearly set on fire in the Spring. “You look just like the senior who did it last year.”

The boy looked up and fingered his obviously dyed blonde hair and frowned. “That’s discrimination.”

Meru waved it off, doing her best to recall the boy’s name. She was excellent at remembering faces – she had to being a student aid, for this period, anyway – but was absolutely dense when it came to remembering names. She can hardly pinpoint her cousins; dubbing them the “cheap cousin”, the “tall and hairy cousin”, or the most common one – “one that doesn’t live near here”. With as much as Aeron pestered her when they first met, she had an absolutely delightful time trying to forget him and remember him altogether. “You probably just confuse him. By next month, he’ll probably remember you enough to trust you. When I was a freshman here, I couldn’t persuade him at all until the end of the year. But he’s loosened up some since then, so I wouldn’t worry so much.”

“Hm, get on his good side, huh?” the boy questioned, tilting his head in the lightest. Meru mentally snapped her fingers; she instantly recognized him by his quirk. “Hey Mr. Osaka, what if I bring up the ladder and lights? I’ve helped my brother renovate a few of his projects in the past.”

Osaka seemed skeptical. “The lawyer? Your brother?”

The boy nodded. “Yeah. We were a pretty hands-on family when I was younger.”

Osaka looked to Meru and Meru smiled, putting her hands up defensively. When he didn’t speak and made it perfectly evident that he valued her opinion, she shrugged and looked to the boy as he shoved his hands into his pockets. “Min Suk’s finished his work, right?”

The boy nodded and jutted an elbow out towards the basket in front of them. Meru gestured to it and smiled. “It beats having to come in thirty minutes early tomorrow morning if you request it after the end of the day.”

Debatably, Osaka nodded. Min Suk shot a thankful grin at Meru before he was handed the student aid badge by his teacher. While Osaka tossed out a set of “be careful” rules Meru gathered her belongings and left her eighth period.

There was a one hundred percent chance that the next teacher on her list would shoot her down, so she avoided heading towards her sixth period classroom altogether and ventured towards the staircase. She had been at McElderrey long enough to know most of the teachers and in which wing the rooms were located. By chance, if there were a few of her former teachers as enthusiastic and delightful as Osaka were as spun under Meru’s infectious charm, then there was a slight chance that a few volunteers would make up for the loss Sauvageau was in the popularity’s eye.

Meru rolled her eyes. ‘Whatever kind of loss he is.’

“Ick, whatever. Forget him. That foreign bastard.” She seethed, her hairline digging into her eyebrows. She growled lowly, shaking off the insurrecting anger associated with any and all thoughts of her science teacher. Regaining the strength to endure the end of the day required through the last twenty minutes had diminished entirely, almost making those moments spent in contemplation fruitless. “That f– ooh,” she breathed, holding the side of her head as she descended the stairs, rather slowly at the sudden revelation. “Calm down, Meru. You’re in school!” she hissed, chiding herself with a slap to her arm. “Save the bad language for later… Aeron knows he’ll want to hear all about this…”

Meru lost herself to methodical ploys of rearranging Sauvageau’s face and Aerosmith’s classic rock and her guilty pleasure of Keith Urban. Even though there were plenty of things she and Yvette couldn’t see eye-to-eye on Meru had always been persuasive, and eventually, the notion of aversion blindsiding Yvette settled with expanding her musical awareness. Of course, just as influenced as Yvette was in every aspect of her life, her interests in music were the same as led by her parents. After a few months of stealing or swapping iPods, Meru grew a curiosity for the blues and a very, very guilty pleasure for country, more pointedly, Keith Urban. A few years ago, Yvette only had a few songs of his on her iPod, but now, almost every album of his was found on it. Even though Meru reveled in the fact that the only reason Aerosmith’s greatest hits’ album was on Yvette’s iPod was because of her, Meru couldn’t help but listen to all of her favorites from the country star. Her heart trembled at his voice, and every time she listened to something of his, she hoped her future husband would have a voice she would be completely smitten by.

Something one of the administrators that had just signed off on the plea agreed on. “Whenever I and my husband get into a little lover’s spat I always play Defying Gravity and anything after that, he is no more than a grain of sesame in my hands.”

“Fixed delusions, right?”

Meru was slightly startled and nearly flinched when the female teacher let out a boisterous laugh. “Ah, yes, I guess in that light, it is, isn’t it? Well, as long as it prevents me doing the laundry and winning, it could be said as anything.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Koma. If you have any questions, just ask for Miss Viola.”

Koma made a simple gesture before reaching for a notepad and pen at the opposite end of her desk. She tipped the pen over and tapped the end against her chin, angling her body towards Meru. “Right. Miss Viola… Student Council…” she trailed off lightly. “What room can I find her in?”

“Room 071, second floor. She has a free fourth period and that would be the best time to catch her throughout the day.”

“Okay. Thank you, young lady.”

Meru returned the smile and quickly left the sophomore English class. She readjusted the lonesome earphones resting on her shoulder to her ears, and once raising the volume and checking the time on the vividly colorful iPod, she skimmed through the papers, mulling over numbers and profits while organizing the remaining administrators. She knew beforehand that even with a few extra volunteers, Kyler wouldn’t be at all pleased if she didn’t follow the implied indications on the plea. She still hated him for the moment, but she was never too fond of apologizing, and long ago she realized her actions always cleared up misconceptions of her lacking words. She already apologized once today; if she had to do it again today or even tomorrow under the pretense of the same malicious intent, she would eventually grow distaste for the conception. She definitely did not want to make a habit out of reprimanding her actions.

Eventually, if not today, she would need to sway the remaining two teachers on the list. She knew for a fact that Quill, her counselor and junior year Italian teacher, adored her, so Meru could save her for tomorrow. However, there was no way around avoiding Sauvageau. Besides, there was only fifteen minutes left before the final bell rang, and Meru had no intentions of staying after, not after all the crunching she just committed to in the past forty minutes.

For the final time, she hoped, she swallowed her pride and made her way to the staircase leading to the second floor back hallway. She slighted imagining just how long it would take to persuade a foreigner teacher she despised into doing something she wanted. Well, perhaps, if she said she needed it, he would hesitate before saying no.

Within a moment’s dismay, the thought drowned in itself. There was no predicting what he would do. If in any case doubt had an opposing force, rectifying the benefit would be a rejection altogether. No was such a simple word, and in most cases, Meru’s favorite, so she knew better than anyone how perfectly it could be disguised or decorated. There were so many ways; most of his, though, violent and crude. Meru found herself shaking her head. She just didn’t get it. The more and more she observed Lennox and Sauvageau, she just didn’t understand how they could be friends. The best, even, after following on the course of Sauvageau’s indifferent persona.

One look at the necklace she was fingering disavowed her skepticism. Suddenly aware of the atrocity between their differences, she removed the necklace and let it stride between whirls of her delightfulness. She watched it twirl in peaceful loops around her finger as she contemplated the demise of such an occurrence between the two teachers whose existence piqued her interest. A first impression, of sorts, no matter how illogically twisted or fatefully demeaned by the abundance of one another’s presence, Meru couldn’t envision on just how the two stumbled upon each other. What was their first meeting like?

In the end, though, after careful analysis of Lennox and Sauvageau, of what little she knew of them, she wondered if Sauvageau were clumsy. Or absent of a conscience. He had to be lacking something, definitely. Why else would someone as exponentially opposite as Lennox allow someone so mean and ugly as Sauvageau to be so close to him? Apparently.

Her thoughts were chasing circles in her head. She had never been so confused before by polar opposites and she felt the unbalances take a literal toll on her. The heel of her left foot slid out from under her, resulting in her right foot nearly carrying her back straight to the floor. However, she sensed the misfortune and righted her balance just enough for her to skid and grab onto the wall for support. Luckily she was shadowed by the fact that everyone was in class, minding their own business. Unfortunately, no one was able to see just how quick she was on her feet. Although, she would never confess to anyone just how clumsy she could be and how incidents of the like were more common than she liked to admit. She smirked to herself, shaking off any adrenaline remnants before righting herself up and continuing down the hallway. Before she could turn the corner, though, the adrenaline boiled and soared almost instantly before she could realize just what happened.

A man, much, much bigger than her, had turned the corner at the same angle Meru was turning, resulting in whatever was in his hands to be thrown into her, as well as whatever was in her hands to be thrown into him. While she stumbled back from the impact, he seemed to remain unfazed, only slightly aware that he wasn’t paying attention just moments before. His dark eyes looked to his empty right hand where a cup of coffee used to be, trailing the dripping mocha liquid creasing down his knuckles. Deducing from his empty right hand, and the cold air occupying his left hand, he ignored confirming the obvious and watched the young girl in front of him. She did her best to brace for the fall, as she wasn’t laid out on the floor, but crouching and steadying herself with what was now in her hands. Accompanying a stack of papers in her left hand was his cup of coffee, more of it on her arm, hand, and leg than in the cardboard cup. The scent of the roasted Colombian beans was more prominent airborne than it was when he bought the coffee nearly half an hour ago. Luckily, the steam had lost its lure at least ten minutes ago, but the scowl etched through the girl’s brow clearly vowed for the five stars rating of the blended warmth and mix.

The girl continued to frantically process just what happened to her. Either she was too freaked out and shocked that she flew back nearly six feet, or she was leaving out the variable of impact and hardly recognized the man. Ever so slowly, his rich, almond-molded eyes trailed over everything scattered around her. Lying beside a fallen iPod was a pack of cigarettes, the packaging halfway torn through his efforts of trying to free a nicotine stress relief just moments ago. It was a fresh pack, and he had been chasing solo for the past two days. His lighter remained safely tucked into the breast pocket of his brown, leather jacket, and as his eyes lazily trailed to its whereabouts, he was relieved to find that nothing had splattered onto his clothing. The heat of the liquid would do nothing to the fine exterior. However, he was positive he would rather prefer a coffee burn over an ominous scowl, leeching its searing vengeance into his oracle of life, sewing its thinly veiled betrayal through every single pore on his body.

Instead of taking a step back as he felt he should, he slid his right hand into his jacket pocket and looked over his shoulder. His stare answered the torturous seams splitting in half, nearly orchestrating a vocal symphony of a millennia of rage. Twenty years ago, he would be answering the call on his knees, cries of his own torture misleading the betrayal. His head, too immature and famished of the right one’s light, would be jerking to and fro, his suicidal thoughts bending at the will of praising his temples to the concrete walls and floors of his benign surroundings. While his pain would be minimal, his insides would be swishing and swashing with the consistency of lava, melting the containment with every passing second, along with every mistaken action taken to suppress the abnormal pain. Over his immature body would be beads of sweat, underlying a canvas of oozing blood.

The memories would have arisen had he not completely forgotten how common the episodes were for his kind. Twenty years ago, he would have been nearing the edge of suicide. Now, instead of avoiding it, he walked over to it and knelt in front of it. The necklace looked as if it had been projected from a catapult into the stone wall. It didn’t glare at him like most did since it was absent of light for it landed in the shadows away from the nearest windows. He would have smirked and taunted its diminished façade had he not had the will of an adolescent. Although, most he had seen gleamed at him, luring him closer and closer until only he and it were enclosed in a stiffening box. Only when it clenched his skin dearly, kissing an impression of its metal imprint into his svelte skin, could he breathe freely. Oxygen was unlimited, more than the reminder of its physical presence that had been permanently engraved into the culture of his kind. The unlimited supply wound his oracle with the pretense of remaining impervious for the rest of his solitude. It was a bittersweet debauchery. Now, however, he was able to acknowledge the betraying addiction. He was no longer curious or fearful.

He tilted his chin up, a handful of chocolate brown hair easing carelessly into his line of sight. It had been a while since rosary beads lay lone before him.

Faintly, he could hear the girl behind him mumbling about favoring useless commodities before he picked it up.

“Oh, gosh, it’s even dripping into my socks!” Meru gaped in horror, her mouth perfecting a circle at the sight of the thin liquid trailing an intricate pathway down her left leg.

Finally surpassing her limits, she gave up with a safety pose she learned in Dance and let herself drop to the floor, disgusted. The smooth fashion of pampered skin wrinkled itself into a disappointment of expressions. She couldn’t help the tossing of her head, her thoughts suddenly tired. She couldn’t even fathom an explanation; she couldn’t even envision the sourness Yvette would express once she found out one her iPods was defeated by a random cup of coffee. How was she going to explain that? What the hell even happened?

Meru sighed. Yvette was going to kill her.

Sucking in her lips – for another sigh failed her – she set aside the papers and focused on the iPod. She caught the coffee with both of her hands, and luckily for her reputation as student body vice president, the papers were hardly tarnished by the liquid. Unfortunately for her relationship with Yvette, the iPod was dripping and sticky of the sugary, sweet, sublime combination of sugars and foreign beans. It was still playing Keith Urban, only twelve seconds remaining of I’m In, but she feared even after an impatient, desperate episode of cleaning, it would not work later when it would be returned. Meru’s brow narrowed.

‘As if I really need another reason to hate coffee.’

With intentions to forbid herself of anymore of Keith Urban’s voice, she moved her thumb over the pause indention of the circular disk only for her breath to shiver in its ascent from her esophagus. Her thumbprint hovered above the indention, immediately hesitating at the shadow glooming in front of her. It suddenly darkened and her heart stopped. She dropped the iPod in her lap and placed her hands beside her on the cold, smooth tiles – making to crawl backwards – but when her head snapped up from her curious instincts, she froze in her attempts to get to safety.

Meru knew people were imperfect, and because she was a girl and bias, she believed men were more so. Even through her past boyfriends she never reached a mutual understanding of herself as a person and them as a person. It was obviously contributed to the fact that she was young and so were they, and she pictured she would never be able to obtain that kind of sensuality until she was in her mid to late twenties, hopefully ready enough for marriage. It was probably one of the very few things she looked forward to when she daydreamed about her future. The daydreams may be selfish in the fact that she can only envision herself far more mature and lovable than she is now, instead of fixating on a probable success line following behind her and before her and a novel-worthy man by her side like most girls her age would. She couldn’t say she didn’t daydream, though, because everyone who knew her knew she spaced out quite frequently and most have witnessed the luscious gaze in her eyes when a fantasy would take the reins of her mind. While most desired her talents of easy fantasy-scaping – and over her actual fantasies if they knew how off-track they were – her only present desire was the man in front of her. Because she knew people were infinitely flawed and battered with the burden of fulfilling a purposeful life, she never once thought the tilting balance of her specie was beautiful. Every once and a while she would swoon at the sight or sound of a model’s voice, or be smitten by the media darling actor, but she never once thought they were beautiful. Her heart didn’t possess the vulnerability.

Or so she thought.

The very sight of the man in front of her made her breathless. Unbeknownst to her, her lungs could no longer function with the fixed supply of exchanging oxygen through her nose and her lips sagged from one another to allow a more accessible way of the delicate necessity. Even when the man knelt to her level, and even when he spoke and withdrew a smooth, white cloth from one of his pockets, she didn’t notice that she was taking her sweet time eyeing every single angle there was to the man. She hadn’t met very many Asians living in Baltimore, but the small handful she did meet were her age or younger. The oldest Asian man she knew was her father. His parents passed away when she still a toddler, and even though she remembers her father telling her her grandparents spent a lot of time with her as a baby, she barely remembers what they look like in their family’s old family albums. However, no matter how many times she’s spread acclaimed stories about how handsome her father is, which sight doesn’t betray her words to in the least, there was no one in the entire world who could be more beautiful or handsome or sexy than the man in front of her.

Her father was a very fit man. Meru and her mother knew there was no denying that fact. On most occasions when she wasn’t busy, Meru would join in on his daily routine. She knew if she wasn’t an important participant with her student council duties or so dedicated with her dancing she would be in tip-top shape with his fitness habits alone. He could confidently walk around in nothing but his underwear and he was well into his forties. Meru had no idea how old the man in front of her was but it was obvious he was half her father’s age. She couldn’t tell if the underlying layer beneath his leather jacket was thick but even if so or not, his muscles were practically begging to be seen. By her or by any other available eye that can appreciate fine art – it didn’t matter. His protuberant muscles seemed to be of ancient marble, coated in human flesh to disguise – what, exactly? That he is the result of perfection, possibly blessed by myth? From what she could tell, the muscles of his shoulders, neck, collarbone – her favorite physical turn-on on a man –, and arms were bulging, definitely an alluring aspect of redefined beauty. Her eyes lingered over his neck and collarbone, and then as her eyes drifted, her hypnotized stare stained a spot just below his ear. His skin that was revealed from the exposing neckline cut of his shirt and ends of the sleeves of his jacket glimmered. It wasn’t oily or shiny as if coerced by the world’s population of dirt that filtered freely through the air. His skin, instead, was the exact opposite. Even though there was a very thin piece of material separating his hand from touching her coffee-stained leg, she could not feel the warmth he exuded. She felt, though, that his skin could be as delicate and strong as it looked. So far, his skin was her favorite physical trait of his.

Admiring more of his unambiguous muscles, her eyes slowly scaled away from his torso and arms to his face. He wasn’t looking anywhere near her face, but she could tell he was concentrating on touching her, even though she couldn’t process the fact. Instead, her brain could only conduct just enough sensitivity to analyze the direct beauty of his face. In contrast to his fair skin, framing his face – which seemed just as delicate and strong as the rest of him – were thick, dark, brown locks of hair. Each strand entwined with one another, streaming smoothly over his head in a pattern Meru found breathtaking. His hair was short, but the ends of his hair hung just above his ears and caressed the edges of his eyebrows. As if the ends of his hair feared the impending fall, they clung to the airy edges almost desperately to enhance inveigling points, radiating as much perfecting mist as they could onto the skin of his cheeks. Though she knew she probably would never see him smile, but if and whenever he did, the envy-worthy perfection of his hair would enact a small role. So she hoped. The man was already a tempting fool for being so close to her, yet so new and strange for her not to touch. Perhaps because the only Asian man she has ever known is her father and looking at him as an astoundingly beautiful man is completely impossible, she couldn’t determine what was so divinely different.

In the light of stumbling upon resolution, his face was mature. Yet, a second longer could betray the conclusion. His line of sight didn’t move, as with the upper half of his body, but as he inhaled and exhaled – quite elegantly, so Meru thought – the sharp angles of his face would modestly victimize a misplaced ray of sunlight. Light had no flaw on him. Although most of him was caught in the shadow of the corner, she knew he would be just as alluring in the dark. As he angled his neck, repositioning himself to remove the locks of his deliciously, dark brown hair from his eyes, she knew that for sure with just one stolen glance at his eyes.

She only caught a glimpse, but the slight glimpse she caught would be with her for an eternity, she believed. His eyes could lie. The misleading pupil most species are accompanied with within the gift of sight swirled in a darkening abyss of brown. There were only a few shades of difference between the iris and pupil. She wasn’t given the extra privilege of seeing his eyes – karma’s way at getting back at her for her hazardous curiosity tendencies, more than likely – so she felt a slight twang of regret. However, she knew they were much darker than the breathtaking strands of hair atop his head. If she could look him directly in the eye, she would be done for. Regardless if he was a humble citizen, he would deceive her. She didn’t believe in people searching other’s souls through their eyes. The eyes could only tell so much about a person’s ingenuity and heart. However, she did believe one look could seal a forfeiting voice astray of a person’s true self. The moment her eyes dared to look into his, even for the slightest of a second, she knew even though he was a man, he would be able to withdraw the secrets of her innocence, vulnerabilities, wrongdoings, and aspirations and betray her until all that remained of her were forgotten figments of reality. Because she was so imperfect, he would probably chalk her remains up to the elegance of perfection that conceived him.

The more and more her mind wandered around the pulpit of myth, the very simple sight of the man deceived her basics of common sense and she could envision the scene of ancient gods; their lips stained in an amber gold liquid, kissing his mold until he was disguised in a beautiful, silky veil humans envy as flesh.

Her senses were very sensitive. She could feel her heart beat, almost too prominently against her chest. It was as if the delicate organ were hinting subtly that her whirling, provoking thoughts were too much to handle. For the moment, anyway.

“You’re holding onto that pretty tight.”

Meru nearly gasped from two things. The man spoke, and his voice enticed a strange paralysis to persuade her to listen. Second, she could hear. She wasn’t so sure she was so obsessed with an awakening to an exotic beauty to think his voice could snap her senses in half and stir them alive. She was sure, though, that she had no idea how to form a positive within her head. Now that she wasn’t so fixated on the man’s exterior she could feel the uprising headache from how messy her thoughts were and how hard her brain was working to process light, sound, and sight.

Startled and still, she couldn’t bring herself to stare at his lips and watch him speak or into his eyes and admit defeat, so instead she focused on the only thing that was moving. His hands were folding a piece of cloth, and the moment Meru understood what the cloth’s importance between them was and why it had golden brown stains on them, she flinched away. He was touching her! And for who knows how long in her stupor. If Meru was in her right mind, no matter how handsome the man was, she would never allow a stranger to touch her.

“Don’t worry.” The man spoke again, his voice embracing her in a soothing paralysis just as solidly as the appeasement behind his words. “I won’t hurt you.”

His hands, now that they were in plain sight for her to see freely, were much larger than she had originally thought. They set aside the cloth and they both came directly for her. She inhaled slowly and held it, feeling her entire world pause as she watched him grab the iPod from her hands. She didn’t mean to, but her grip around the feeble contraption wouldn’t break loose, and for a split second, she was afraid her grip would only continue to exaggerate. Until his hands easily pried the contraption from in between her hands. He leaned back, picked up the cloth, and cradled the contraption in it, his hands generously working small circles over the cloth. Meru swallowed and discreetly exhaled the breath she had been holding, not so discreetly wringing her hands behind her knees.

The man looked up, his dark eyes carefully trailing over the girl. She wasn’t paying attention whatsoever. She was either still in shock, not at all interested in him helping her clean up, or she had a mental condition where she couldn’t pay him any interest even if she was interested in doing so. He didn’t ponder over the matter. He was concerned over his own lacking of senses. Either he was too absorbed in the meeting he just had with an old friend or exhausted of sleep, and even that was no excuse. He should have heard the girl walking down the hall and into his direct path. He should have sensed her the moment he walked out of his friend’s safe haven. Evermore, he should have caught her scent. Even if his mind was reeling more than it normally should be, he should have at least caught wind of her scent. Only now he could easily perceive her scent – the wispy buds of vanilla that clung to her skin, misting the subtly of a clementine orchid. Her scent was the strongest at her legs, and now that he would be able to define her, he could also smell the same scent coming from within the bag that lay near her side. She reached for it to pull it off from her right elbow, and as he watched her, he noticed her hands were trembling.

“See?” he spoke, returning his attention to wiping clean her iPod. “You held on too tight; your palms are red.”

Meru looked to her hands and stared in wonder, not focusing on the fact that her hands were red, but because her hands were still shaking. She bit her lip and sat up, burying her arms into her legs. At the wet, semi-warm, cold sensation on her thighs, she immediately withdrew her arms.

“Oh.”

She knew the coffee spilt onto her hand and leg, but she didn’t know that most of the coffee spilt onto the left arm of the jacket. Horror and confusion fissured her face in two. The jacket was Aeron’s letterman’s jacket for the year, and he already had a few patches saved up to be sewn onto it. Normally it took a lot to persuade Aeron out of his clothing, but earlier in the morning, he easily gave it up. If she got it dirty, or even worse, stained, under her watch, she knew he would regret ever giving anything of his to her and would do so to prevent history repeating itself in the future, especially over something as treasured as his letterman’s jacket.

After Yvette killed Meru for the iPod, Aeron was going to murder Meru all over again for the jacket.

Before Meru could go ballistic or befall a panic attack, the iPod was placed in her lap. She snapped out of her frantic daze and looked to it before to the man. She held her breath for the split second she saw his eyes and the moment both of his hands reached for her left arm, she froze entirely. She had an odd idiosyncrasy for forcing all of her tension into her lips whenever she panicked and shutdown. For the first time, she hoped her lips didn’t purse and make her look even more uncoordinated.

Her lips did purse, unbeknownst to her. However, the man didn’t pay attention to it. He carefully picked her arm up and rubbed a clean section of the cloth over the stain. Her arm was limp in his gentle embrace. If he let go, her arm would drop as a dead weight onto the floor. He was aware of that, and he also wasn’t blind to the fact that the muscles in her arm were tense. He wound his hands around her wrist and then loosened his grip to watch her muscles instinctively react. He leant back and held her wrist daintily in his.

“Take your jacket off.”

His gaze was dark and unwavering when he looked into her eyes. Instead of holding her breath or her brain shutting down on her without her permission, she blinked in surprise and stared at him.

She just stared at him.

And in return, he smiled.

She couldn’t help the bright, foolish smile from crawling its way onto her lips. And after her brain processed that he made a demand of her, she immediately unbuttoned the jacket and slid it off.

He took it from her and began to rub the cloth along the stains on the sleeve. “It won’t stain, don’t worry. I’ll rub most of it out, but since the jacket is white, you should take it to a dry cleaner. Luckily, my coffee only got your leg and not your shorts either.”

Suddenly, Meru felt a humiliating heat coat the back of her neck. She wasn’t sitting in the most flattering of positions to be sitting in front of someone so beautiful, let alone, for how short her shorts really were. She righted her wrong, and only slightly comfortable, she eased up the tension in her body and watched the man do his best at righting another one of her wrongs. However, the moment she tilted her had at his works and before she could fall victim of his beauty once again, she realized just how vulnerable she was. The science hallways were always much colder than any other hallway in the school, and despite her nerves warming her hands and the previous kiss from the coffee to her legs, her torso was now revealed to the cold.

The shirt she was wearing was one of her favorites that hadn’t been torn to shreds in her family’s previous drying machine before they updated to new machinery two years ago. She treasured it and did her best to avoid wearing it as much as she could because of two predicaments. One: it was so fragile and she treated it like an infant after all the trauma it had been through. Second: in part with the first oddity of hers, was the fact that she needed a second layer over it to hide all the scars given by her previous drying machine. Two years ago, the dreadful machine had tested its foul play out on Meru’s orchestra clothing as well as her Dance uniforms. She remembers the afternoon so vividly, even without the physical reminder of what remained of her favorite jeans and shirts.

She had been left alone for the afternoon while her parents went out for dinner. Her and her mother had gotten into yet another argument, the argument almost getting out of control to the point to drive Meru to physical distress and her mother to tears. Before the scale could be tipped over entirely, her father stepped in and immediately broke the two up. When the ten minutes following led to no absolution for the two, only spouts for a round two, he suggested the two to be broken up for the rest of the night. Well, as Meru remembers it, her father didn’t suggest it – it was a direct command, because she didn’t even have enough time to vow in her opinion for her father dragged her mother out the door and within seconds, their car left the driveway. Meru watched them disappear, and in order to console her anger, she did her best to vent her emotions through storming around the house until she physically wore herself out and dropped to sleep for the night. In her attempts, however, she lost the anger and her curiosity for her untouched rehearsal clothing convinced her to wash everything.

It wasn’t her fault entirely for the washing machine and drying machine to wreak vengeance upon her most treasured clothing. She knew the machines had been acting up beforehand but kept it to herself, knowing her parents would blame it on her due to her past with misbehaving machinery and just about every other thing in their home. In the end, though, just like the final result within her family, they bent to her will and replaced the machinery after a few more trial and errors.

She hadn’t worn the shirt in over seventeen months. The cotton felt so familiar to her skin that she overlooked the tears and holes scattered throughout the shirt to wear it in public. Before Aeron picked her up for school in the morning, though, she asked him rather sweetly to allow his jacket to tag along for the ride. In the back of her mind she knew she had to hide if she was going to wear the shirt, and now that she was exposed, she felt absolutely ashamed for ever thinking she could wear the shirt outside her home. There were so many things wrong with the shirt, aside from the holes and tears. Before the wreckage, she only wore the shirt in public twice since noticing the smug and suggestive looks from her older male peers were only from the plunging neckline of the shirt. Even when she wore it around the house, both her father and mother made her wear a sweater over it. After it was nearly destroyed by their machinery, they gave up on trying to cover it up and let Meru prance around the house in whatever damaged clothing she had. Although her parents, mostly her mother, had been concerned with her style of clothing for years, the destroying of clothing incident was just one of the stressors to make her parents nearly demand her to pass off on what she considered decent wear.

Aeron had seen Meru in bummish clothing before, and she didn’t mind, but she knew just as well as he, that if she left the house in anything remotely similar to what she was wearing now with the mindset ignorant of layers and modesty, he would never approve of her style again. Although, he hardly did now.

If he knew she wore one of her damaged shirts underneath his jacket and his jacket was no longer a variable in front of a stranger of the opposite sex, there was no telling what he would do. The first scenario to paint itself in mind was him telling her crazy mother about it.

Or, even worse, her father.

Meru’s eyes widened in horror. Goosebumps immediately coated her skin and instinctively, she wrapped her arms around herself. Upon noticing her breasts pleading to be noticed and itching to peak through the shirt, she did her best to ball herself into a subtle fetal position. However, the position was not flattering for her legs due to the minimal length of her shorts. Halfway through rearranging her position, she realized that there was a gaping slash on her right side, and in the process she was through, could reveal her bra, whose color did not correspond in the lightest with her red and white color canvas for the day.

The flaming heat of embarrassment continued to swarm its possession onto her, spreading throughout her entire body.

Before the man could finish rubbing away most of his coffee from Meru’s jacket, he noticed her fussing and looked up. For a moment, he observed her fussing and before she pulled away from her fidgeting, his eyes trailed over her for a final time.

“Are you alright?”

Meru nodded profusely, her lips suddenly pursing. His eyebrows furrowed in the slightest until he ignored it and finished off rubbing as much of the coffee out of the sleeve. Tracing a fingertip over the stains, he deemed it well enough from the disappearance of the wet liquid. The plain white and black design was virtually painful to the eye when held to admire the depth of the stain. He accepted his mistake in not subjecting to his senses and placed it in Meru’s arms. Before she could cloak herself with it and hide from the man, he pulled the rosary beads from his pocket and let the necklace dangle from his forefinger. The action halted any and all attempts from Meru.

“Is this yours?”

It wasn’t, but Meru was taken by the presumption that whenever he asked her something or spoke to her, she needed to respond immediately. So she nodded. “Yes.” She answered quietly, despite her will to speak confidently in front of him.

He flicked the necklace onto his thumb and pinky before leaning into Meru and delicately placing it around her neck. He felt her shiver when he untucked her hair from underneath the beads before he leant back and looked at her. “You’re better off with it on.”

Meru nodded, only processing half of what he said while she tried to calm her nerves down. Against her nature, the past few minutes deemed her multitasking qualifications dull and lower than the expectations of an amateur.

Impulsively, she rose her hand to her chest and traced her fingertips over the beads and cross. She was staring at the man’s chest, doing her best to control her erratic and impulsive lung operations. Nothing was communicating correctly with her brain; everything was such a mess, she didn’t even know if what she was doing raw was right. The overwhelming sensation was definitely something new for her.

The man still couldn’t decipher if her condition was still within a mental disability but what caught his eye was the ring on her finger. Intrigue grappled with his senses until, eventually, it won. “Are you fond of owls?” he questioned, his genuinely interested tone different from before. As expected, instead of voicing her opinion, Meru just nodded. “Did you know that most cultures value the presence of an owl, even though most believe it to be a sign of death? Some cultures believe the owl has a divine sense, usually dubbing the presence of an owl at a crop field definite of prosperous cultivation for the upcoming season. Typically, though, the owl would only show up at fields that had lost most of its crops.”

His insight paused for just a moment to reassure himself that he had Meru’s attention. When he did, he continued on.

“Also most cultures, mainly Native American Indians, believe that owls bestow the gift of life or death. They believe that if you lock eyes with an owl, and it stares at you without moving, or blinking, that you’ll die very soon. It’s just myth.” He clarified when he noticed her pupils dilate. “The general population though believes owls to be a grace of good luck.”

He nodded to her ring which drew her attention to her hand that rest flat against her chest. She admired her ruby-eyed owl ring a moment longer until snapping out of her daze and nodding. “Most winters, owls nest themselves in the trees near my house.” Meru revealed her thoughts softly, keeping her gaze far from the man’s direct line of sight. “I’ve seen at least two every winter since I’ve lived here.”

“That’s cool.”

Her skin chilled and once again, goosbumps littered her skin. As long as his voice, very light of an exotic accent, spoke of a sass that sounded so deep, profound, and yet, so candid, reactions as such were going to be inevitable.

“Thank you.” She finally found her natural voice, immediately replacing the jacket to where it should be. “I’m… not usually so clumsy. I’m sorry about your coffee.”

She rose to her feet and brought with her the half empty cup. Slowly following her, the man rose and accepted the cup. He took one look at the cup and decided discarding it would be best instead of finishing it off or finishing it on another person’s clothing. Sighing, he relaxed and watched Meru pick up her belongings. He stepped to the side to bend down and grab his pack of cigarettes, but before he could reach for them, Meru whirled around and snatched them up. She didn’t see what she was doing, but her impulsive actions resulted in her almost tripping backwards and butt smashing into the man’s face. He was only slightly startled, but he still took a minute to shake off the almost incident.

When Meru had her things in proper order, she smiled and shrugged her bag onto her shoulder. Just before she could sheath what was left in her hands, the man delicately slid his possession from her hands. The moment the cigarettes pack left her fumbled grasp did she realize it wasn’t hers. She didn’t know why, but the oath she took three years ago to be sworn into the student council slithered into her mind.

Her eyes were glowing with fascination and bewilderment as she watched the man flick open a lighter and awaken the dull cigarette. His hand smoothed over a breast pocket, and before he slid the lighter into the pocket, his eyes found Meru’s. He inhaled the smoke, watched her, blinked, and blew the smoke out of her way before realizing she was watching him. He gestured to the pack of cigarettes he held in hand with his cup of coffee.

“Do you want one?”

Meru shook her head. “No thank you.” She declined softly. He nodded and inhaled again as he hid the cigarettes into an inside pocket of his jacket. “But, u-um…” she stammered, immediately choking up when his eyes trailed back to her. “Thank you for offering. It was kind of you.”

He nodded again. “You’re welcome.”

“Uh– um… cigarettes aren’t… really allowed in this school. You know.” She stated, berating her words and faulty voice the moment she opened her mouth.

“Are hall monitors still a general pain in the ass, even in today’s young generation?”

The smile he graced her with was teasing, and even if he hadn’t have spoken, his smile alone would have thrown her off course. Absent of an exotic accentuated smile, traced with the unlikely foreign mannerisms of a gentleman, his words would have knighted a staggering effect on her had he not chosen the words he did. Even so, of the opposite. He was so beautiful; even a creature of his specie can allude to humor and slang?

What he was speaking, was it even humor? Did it have any sense? And wasn’t he speaking proper English? Was there any ounce to betray him?

‘What the hell is going on up there?’ she thought, shaking her head slightly to rid her unfocused train of thought.

“Well,” she voiced, rubbing her lip-glossed lips against the other. “You could get in trouble.”

The man tilted his chin up towards her. “You shouldn’t worry about me. You should be in class. Instead of running into cups of coffee and staining your delicates.”

Meru didn’t know this, for she swore up and down that her anatomy was incapable of doing so, but every once and a while, on the rare occasion if provoked correctly, she blushed. It was because her mind finally trailed the right gears alongside her brain for her mind to process various meanings of delicates that she blushed. And it deepened when he smiled from noticing her cheeks slowly tint to a light pink. It was rather obvious his comment made her blush, in despite of her makeup.

His smile was still present when he walked past her. “Make sure to take care of that jacket. And your sock.”

“Oh?” Meru mumbled, tilting her left food towards her to look at her sock which had been definitely been tripped with coffee. “Okay.”

She turned and watched the man leave the hallway, and until he was finally gone from her sight, she threw herself against the wall and swooned. She giggled, she replayed the last few minutes on a mental reel, she shivered which awoke a fresh set of goosebumps, she thanked whatever luck she had; she did it all. His skin, his muscles, his hair, his eyes, his voice; she was taken by everything of his. Her heart and mind were swirling in a rare aftermath which even took Meru by surprise. She wasn’t sure she could ever be so taken by a man before. But there, in itself, lies the astronomical difference.

He was a man, whereas everyone else around her, were boys.

Biting her lip, Meru sighed as she slowly slid back up the wall. If she left the wall one moment too soon, she would find herself in the dizzy loop all over again. After the incident, she didn’t have another minute to spare if she needed to prevent Yvette and Aeron from going ape-shit on her. Her first priority was finishing her duty.

Meru did her best to compose herself when reality slowly ghosted itself to mind when she caught sight of light softly beaming from underneath the door to her sixth period class. She closed her eyes, inhaled deeply, and slowly exhaled through a small moon of her lips. Inhaling afresh, she tapped her knuckles against the face of the door and cautiously seized the handle.

“Mr. S?” she inquired carefully.

Not hearing a response, she inched her body closer to the door. She didn’t hear anything. For the slightest of a moment she wondered if the mystics of whatever justice she favored had smite the teacher and he lay dead behind his desk, his cold cheek placating the even colder tile floors. The crimson symbol of her shirt embodying the oozing liquid from whatever spores leeched onto his skin, degrading his flesh in the simplest of wounds, creating a pool of his ailment.

Meru tilted her head at the vivid picture already forming in her mind.

In a crumple, probably feigning off the mysterious projection of vague evil, Sauvageau may have tossed a few of his personals that surrounded his private space. In his confusion, of course. He probably had no idea that the one person he arranged thoughts of with fragility and vicious innocence would be responsible for the strange last moments of his life. She had complete reign over him. And his anger. Although bounds of which were unknown to her, she wouldn’t put it past him that he had a terribly short temper. And in it, he unleashed confusion and fear to the minuscules around him. To his dismay, however, his short-lived last fuss had defeated him. Amidst the favorables for the advanced educationalist – the nick-knacks varying from his foreign degrees, physical memoirs of where his feet once treaded, inked writing utensils, the thinned skin of trees fastened in leather binds – lay his massive corpse, unresponsive. The most inauspicious feature of his, also. Just as vacuous as the rest of him, his eyes, as cold as his chosen representing color and void of humanity, searing blank holes into the vacant trajectory of his careless sight.

And then, the deed would be done upon sight of confirmation. The enchanted justice would leave the scene, travel its fortuned weight to Meru, whisper its findings on her demands, and once she smiled, it would disappear.

Unbeknownst to her, a smile twitched its way onto Meru’s features.

Within a blink, the fantasy had faded and was diminished from thought.

Retreating from the safety provided by the metal fortress of the science door, she pulled the door open and it willed freely against her strength. The lights, naïve of harm and wear, beamed brilliantly above as she slowly advanced into the familiar surroundings. It was completely empty and silent. Only faintly, she heard the door close behind her. Her eyes encircled in one of the school’s colors, enlightening her curiosity and impending fear, leered over every table, stool, and book unoccupied by students. And its teacher. Meru glanced at the clock and her lips curled in dissatisfaction. Her hands found their respective place on her hips and she stomped her foot in frustration.

“Just what the hell can he be doing that’s more important than staying put?” she mumbled, dropping her head onto her shoulder. “He didn’t even lock his door. So irresponsible. Did he not know that Mrs. Charelynne got ripped off last year because her door was always unlocked during her free period? And lunch? Wait, does he?” she suddenly questioned herself, just remembering that the now retired teacher used to occupy the room just next door. The same room belonging to the teacher she spoke to over an hour ago concerning Yei’s schoolwork.

Meru contemplated interrupting the teacher and her class to inquire about Sauvageau’s whereabouts. She didn’t feel comfortable in the room even when surrounded by her peers. With the entire classroom vacant of a soul but just of her own creeped her out even more. Her nose scrunched at the very thought of staying one minute longer than necessary. Clearing her throat determinedly, she squared her shoulders and nodded her head, finalizing the thought of leaving the papers with the teacher next door even if she couldn’t avow Sauvageau’s current whereabouts to Meru. She was not about to play cat and mouse with the foreigner teacher after school. She only did that with boys she was interested in, if they were even all that interested in games, in the first place.

What a waste of time that would be.

Meru only took three steps towards the door when she heard a swooshing sound across the room. She immediately whirled around and nearly screamed from seeing Sauvageau walk in through the back door. Her appearance seemed to catch him off guard, but not nearly enough as his to Meru’s surprise. She had to cover her mouth from allowing her sudden skittish nature to take a full swing at her jittery nerves, provocation all thanks to the beautiful stranger she had just met.

Sauvageau stared confoundedly at her, although most of his expression projected what would be perceived as scowling. “Miss Lang.” he spoke, his very familiar tone easing Meru back in her place. “Why are you here? This is not your eighth period.”

‘Yeah, no shit.’ Meru thought, the temptation to roll her eyes erupting her train of thought.

Instead of ejecting any kind of malicious feelings towards him for his actions earlier in the afternoon, Meru ignored looking at him and instead, focused her concentration on unraveling the papers in her hands. It took a lot of still focus to speak about her terms of physicality and why she needed his signature, regardless of yay or nay. She took her time, though. Every mustered word counted, and her heartbeat was slowing down, fortunately. The last thing she needed from Kyler was reprimand for snapping at a teacher. And if she did, and he scolded her, she would definitely get it from Viola. She would probably be put on suspension. Again.

“The depth of your appearance is not apparent, but so far, there are nearly thirty teachers who have—”

“Miss Lang, go to the principal’s office.”

Meru, deeply enthralled with repeating what she had been for the majority of the past hour and half, bit down on her tongue from being interrupting. The pain was minimal, but her confusion skyrocketed. “Huh?” she blurted, slowly looking to the clock. “This is serious student council business. I’m not lying. School lets out in a few minutes, anyway. Principal Roeth won’t be there; he’s outside by now, directing traffic like he always does.”

“Don’t aggravate me, Miss Lang. Drugs are prohibited at McElderrey.”

Meru guffawed. Her hands dropped to her side, her eyes daring their best to stare into Sauvageau’s foreign eyes. Humorlessly, she laughed. “Yeah, no duh. I know that. I was there when the rules were signed and laminated and posted on the courtyard’s wall.”

Her bold words did their best to slither back to her lips and force their way down her throat when Sauvageau advanced towards her. She had watched a fair amount of Animal Planet and Animal Discovery to know when one animal, in its rightful habitat, would strike with every means to kill the intruder – actions or not, spoken quietly or embolden by the grace of the sun or shadow of the moon. If she and Sauvageau were animals in the wild, and she a coyote or hyena evoking her footsteps through the barriers surrounding a lion’s den, she would be dead. The stare her teacher had on her was a sight that chilled her boiling bone to a halt. She felt her body temperature drop phenomenally. If he didn’t kill her, and he reported this to Viola or Roeth, and they passed it onto her parents, she would be well beneath six feet under before she even left school grounds. With just one look, she knew she was in deep. Through very many arguments she had with her mother, Ivy Lang always said Meru would get in trouble because of her mouth. Usually her mother spoke with ire and disappointment, but Meru only spoke the way she did around her mother. No one else knew how disgusting her words and methods were with her mother. Aeron didn’t even have a full understanding. And Meru was ashamed of it.

Now, however, Meru was terrified of it. Not ashamed. Absolutely terrified.

“Smoking is entailed, yes?”

Sauvageau stopped until he was right in front of Meru, forcing her to angle her neck backwards to meet their gazes. She didn’t like how curly his hair was from afar, or how bright and dark his eyes were either from a distance. Being so close further enclosed her disgust for him. In despite of, she found her will and disgust being overthrown by fear and anxiety. Surely, a teacher wouldn’t hit a student… right? Their close proximity would hardly say otherwise.

Meru dared a sly look at his hands. They were large. And they weren’t looking so relaxed. “Yes.” She answered diminutively.

“Are you above those rules, then? Just because you were present at the inconsequential managing of the lamination?”

“No.” she murmured stubbornly, retreating her gaze from Sauvageau.

“Then I am in the right to send you to for disciplinary action for smoking. Now go. I’ll be nice enough not to write up a report, for I am sure Principal Roeth will favor you in your misjudgment.”

It finally clicked.

“What?” Meru blubbered quite inappropriately. “Smoking? I don’t smoke.”

‘Sure, I do weed, but I haven’t touched my birthday present yet.’ She thought indignantly.

“Lying isn’t going to evade the smell from you or your clothes, Miss Lang. Do I have to escort you myself?”

His tone had darkened to the very, very familiar disgruntled resonance he used whenever he and Meru butted heads. Controlling her anger was unbound whenever that tone made such ease around his words. Her ears could barely tolerate listening to his useless words, wound and trapped in that annoying French accent of his. There was no short trip when he advanced his lure onto her. She thought she was going to lose her mind when he yanked her hat from her head, and that was closest he had come to her. Meru knew she was progressing well with her tolerance when she didn’t, though.

When he grabbed her arm – rather roughly – she knew that limited tolerance had dissolved, all indication of it a small work of fiction. Her surprise with his actions rooted her still, and for the first time in weeks, all she saw was red.

Meru pulled her arm, but his grip was tight on her bicep. Instinct kicked in and she dropped the papers in her hand, and gritting her teeth, she balled her fist and every ounce of displeasure and hatred she had for Sauvageau misplaced itself from her mind and immediately formulated into her right hand. Upon exhaling, she released her tension and punched the closest part of Sauvageau nearest to her, which happened to be his chest. His grasp on her was released in an instant when he staggered backwards. She felt the recoil from his chest, and was slightly surprised to feel blossomed muscles beneath his sweater, and knew he was probably more stunned than afflicted that she had actually resorted to physical means.

Still clutching her fingers in a tight fist, she took one step towards him, her eyes gleaming with every shade of anger pointed directly at him. “Who the hell do you think you are to touch me like that – to touch me period!” she yelled at him, disregarding the fact that the classrooms on either side of his could probably hear her outburst. “I don’t lie very easily, Mr. Sauvageau.” She spat his name, ninety percent of her knowing she pronounced it wrong. “I don’t smoke, and whether I do or not, is none of your damned business. You may be my teacher, a teacher I can’t tolerate whatsoever, but there is an infinitesimal amount of respect I regard for you. All of that is now irrelevant.”

Meru wasn’t sure if her scowl was convincing, because the stare Sauvageau had pinned in on her penetrated through her fortress of hatred reserved for him and still managed to evoke fear. She had never feared a teacher before, but she had never hit one before, either.

It was obvious Meru’s anger had skyrocketed her blood pressure, her heartbeat no doubt dancing in a frenzied, downward-spiraling vortex. The scents clinging to her skin and clothing were now exploring the depths of budding as far away from her body without being dislocated. Sauvageau could now recognize the misplaced scents of vanilla, coffee beans, eucalyptus oil, and orchids amongst others she doused herself in, some fresher than others. Overtaken by raw emotion eluded his judgment, and he faintly remembered his friend withdrawing a pack of cigarettes before he left his classroom ten minutes ago.

The bell rang, awakening Sauvageau’s wronged accusation. Meru couldn’t tell, but his acknowledgment softened his glare. She was still fuming, her stare just as unwavering as his, and although he was loosening his misjudgment, hers was still and resolute. He didn’t need to apprehend heightened senses to know he had royally pissed her off.

“I fucking hate you.” She seethed, her words low and scaling the edges of an unfortunate evil. Her fist loosened for her to point downward where she assumed her papers remained. “I’m done with your bullshit.”

She turned her back on him and made her way for the door. Her accentuated strength resulted in her flinging the door open, shocking a few of the students already in the hallway and those flocking from within the next classroom over. Meru’s anger wasn’t as apparent on her facial features as it was just seconds ago, but if someone were to touch her, their next position of their face to the wall would. Meru didn’t care; she couldn’t anymore. Her mind could barely distinguish the need to be safe and sound at home, and she was only slightly aware that she was making her way towards the back lot where the buses awaited the anticipating McElderrey Masons.