THIEVES

Identity

"On any day, anything can happen."

- Apolo Ohno

Ace pryed Athena's hand with emergency. "Athena, it's not you, is it?"

Athena shook her head, yet a precarious gulp made Ace skeptical.

Being her best friend has its perks so he wasn't oblivious to her forgetful nature. Though there might be multiple Belle in the room, somehow his instincts descended, allowing a legion of certainty that it was in fact his best friend. "Tell me now, Athena, the Belle he's here for is you, right? God, Athena! Why won't you listen? I told you not to get close to them! What did you do?"

"You think I want to? It was a gravely coincidence! I ran into him by accident," Athena confessed, the guilt that trapped in her chest were greater than she anticipated.

Ace's eyes shifted around, recollecting. "What?! Like when? There's no way. We were always together."

"That's not important!" Athena retorted, both knuckles collided her temples in panic, thinking a scheme to escape the frightening beast that was hammering the double door.

Ace looked haggardly hassled compared to Athena, the real person Xerus was looking forward to meet, for he knew Xerus wouldn't come all the way here for something trifle. "You must have did something! What, did you kicked him in the balls or send him flying across the room with your monstrous strength?"

Athena's lips splitted. "You really think of your friend that way?" She tilted her head, pushing Ace in the shoulder.

"Well at this point, I don't know. You don't even tell me things anymore. How do you expect me to help you?" Dissapointment layered Ace's confused and worried look.

The students around them weren't afraid to show their suspicion of Athena, in sooth, they wished she would quickly put an end to her coward frame of mind and confront the upset Xerus so they wouldn't have to get involved with a messy encounter.

Thea was in the front discussing with the geeky guy privately, flipping through pages in her hands, incontrovertibly was the name list.

"There isn't any Belle here, though there's Elise Belle." Thea's eyebrows crinkled to its extremity, her words slowed at the last part as she looked up, gazing directly at Athena.

"Umm... Elise? Do you have any business with Xerus? Would you like to speak to him? I can ask him to go if you don't want to." Noticing the aggression Xerus exude at the door, she suggested, hoping Athena would agree.

The people started empty rumors in which Athena mayhap was Xerus' meal last night and something went really wrong.

Before anyone was prepared to face Xerus' unbreakable and boundless spleen, the doors slammed wide, its handles crashed into the wall, causing it to have permanent holes.

"Where is she, Thea? Are you trying to hide her? What took you so long?!" Xerus fumed as his voice reflected off the walls of the room.

"Xerus! I told you many times not to barge into-" Xerus put on a deaf ear, even acted as though Thea wasn't the person who the cheer team respected nor the person who controls the gym sector, not even did he cared if she was Theo's only sister.

He came straight for the big assemble of students in which some of them pushed the weaker ones as frontliners.

Athena was being pushed here and there, almost separated from Ace but he seized her in a deathly embrace.

Xerus stomped forward, drawing in every energy within to bellow, "BELLE! How long do you plan to hide?!" He began scrutinizing unfamiliar faces, turning them to their backs, the only thing she abled him to have a picture of, as he pushed those who he didn't discern to a side.