継続は力なり

Something wasn't sitting well with Amelie that next day; It had been too long since she had heard an insult, a snide remark, or felt the feeling of being shoved just because of where she had came from.

However, what piqued her interest that morning was a crowd of students that had gathered outside of the hallway close to the lunch room; Her own curiosity pushed her to see what was amiss:

The moment she walked in, she regret that decision with all of her being.

"That's her, isn't it?", a girl whispered as the short, blonde foreigner passed by.

"Un! Don't get too close to her..!", a male voice whispered loudly. Amelie rolled her eyes as she pushed through the crowd.

"What the hell is going on now?? This place is exhausting...", she muttered in her native tongue.

She heard an exaggerated gasp of disbelief; It had to be one of those bitches.

"So cruel, ne~?", she heard a voice stage whisper.

"so, so cruel..."

"What is it?", asked the non-native, only to be answered by her own voice as she read the scrawlings on the window. "WHAT THE HELL?!!"

"Oh, it's the gaijin..", Emi remarked with a look of high disgust.

"Still can't read it, ne~", Kairi spoke quickly then turned to read what was written on the windows:

"Murrei-san, the gaijin transfer student is a filthy, dirty American. Here is her number, she charges by the hour--", she gasped, and looked at Amelie.

"No way!", Kairi remarked with a gasp of false disdain.

Amelie's eyes widened. "How did they get my...", she started to say, but was silenced by the tears she had held back for so long. "You... all have such ugly faces...

"Our faces are not ugly!", Emi said, crossing her arms. "Such a filthy girl!!"

"I am not filthy!! Someone better paint over that right now!!", the blonde shouted as she glared all around. Not a face in the crowd was sympathetic to her plight.

"Why don't you do it yourself, filthy girl?!", spoke the tallest girl.

"Un!", the shortest one said in agreement.

'Hell no, I'm not getting on a ladder so they can push me down...', the girl thought to herself.

"WHAT THE HELL?! WHY ARE YOU ALL BLOCKING MY WAY?!", bellowed a male voice down the hallway. Amelie groaned; This just wasn't her day...

"Madao-sama~", Emi sang out as her eyes lit up. The short male looked less than pleased with what was going on, and the two taller men behind him looked on in slight confusion.

"It's been a while~", Kairi sang after giving the smaller girl a one-second glare.

"What's going on in here...?", Musa asked.

"It looks like...", Marshy was about to unveil his opinion, but was cut off by the foreigner.

"SOMEONE BETTER PAINT OVER THIS RIGHT NOW OR ELSE!!!", Amelie screeched. The ones closest to the girl winced with the pain of a rattling eardrum.

"Eh?", Musa muttered as he looked at the painted message. "Whoa..."

"Oi, someone clean that up, it's an eyesore!", her worst nightmare barked orders at the crowd.

"... He didn't tell them to do this..?", Amelie whispered in disbelief.

"Gah, are you all still 'kotomo'?! You shouldn't paint over walls that aren't your own!!", the man continued ranting.

"..'Kodomo'... It's koDOmo...", Musa muttered quietly.

"But we were only trying to drive the gaijin away like you asked, Madao-sama..."

"Yes, Madao-sama! You DO want her gone, ne?"

"I JUST WANNA KNOW HOW THE HELL THEY GOT MY DAMNED CELL PHONE NUMBER!!", Amelie shouted, exasperated at being ignored after being the center of bad attention.

"Shut up! Don't talk to me as if you know me so well!!", Madao yelled.

"B-but, it's just what you wanted us to do, ne? I don't understand!"

"Shut up! Just get it cleaned up, understand?!" , he barked, then turned on his heel and walked off. The other two followed suit.

"Weird...", the American girl muttered, but looked at the bitch squad. "Oi, shouldn't you be cleaning? Your Ouji-sama has spoken. How pathetic~", she said with a smirk.

The two shorter girls looked at Amelie indignantly as they stuck their noses in the air and traipsed off. The golden-haired foreigner reached out and pulled the tallest girl by her sleeve. "My phone, please. I know you have it. How else did anyone get my number?!", she spoke as calmly as was possible for such an unwelcome subject. The tall one returned the request with a glare and a swat at Amelie's hand as she also stormed off.

"I should have known this would happen...", the girl muttered under her breath as she finally pushed through the crowd.

"Alright, break it up, nothing to see here!", a male teacher called out as the crowd of students walked off muttering toward their respective classes.
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"GODDAMN IT ALL!!!! I HATE THOSE THREE BITCHES!!! I KNOW THEY WERE BEHIND THAT STUPID MESSAGE!!!! HIDING BEHIND THOSE STUPID MASKS!!! UGLY FACES! ALL THREE OF THEM HAVE SUCH UGLY MASKS!!", the foreign female shouted, overlooking the fire escaped, much to the distaste of the only one within ear shot. Upon hearing his lazy mutter, Amelie froze as her eyes widened.

"Yasu--san? I'm sorry, I didn't think anyone would be out here..!", she murmured apologies to the man as he finally took the magazine off his face and sat up. "It's fine..."

"...You didn't hear about the latest... um... Never mind...", the girl trailed off as a slight smile graced her face.

"I try... to stay away from that...", he replied, looking deep in thought. "Ah, it's been a while..."

"It has been a while... I guess. You've been gone a few days, haven't you?", she asked, far too willingly.

"Yes..."

"...I see... It's not my business, is it? I'm sorry...", she said, kicking herself about how nonchalantly she could find herself making nosy remarks.

"It's fine..."

"As much as I want to leave this place, I'm not going to... I have no choice but to be here now...", the girl spoke, looking out at the autumn leaves in the trees nearby. The man layed back again and propped his head with his arms.

"Oh, really?"

"Well...", she began, "I'm not exactly here because I want to be.. It's complicated, I would just like to keep the reason to myself, for now...", Amelie stated, looking up. "I'm sorry, Yasu."

"You don't have to apologize to me...", he said, stretching his lanky arms out over his head and yawning.

"...Yes... A little cold, isn't it?", Amelie remarked. She was going to suffer through the winter that year, where she had lived before didn't even get snow.

"Really? Well..."

"I'm not used to it being this cold.. I'll probably freeze to death in the winter..", she rubbed her arms in effort to create some warmth.

"... Then you should wear a jacket...", the tall man remarked.

She flashed a fake-feeling smile as she turned around to face him. "I'll let you get back to your 'reading' then. Have a good nap, Yasu-san.", the blonde said as she bowed her head, walked over to the door slowly and let herself back inside the building. Raising his eyebrow, the man closed his eyes and drifted back off to his dreamland, where nothing would bother him.

After all, the more he slept, the faster it would be until he saw Rei.

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