Red String of Fate

Secret Wish

Pierre's introduction to his third class had been pleasantly short, with the instructor simply asking him to introduce himself and saying where he was from. Then they'd gotten straight to work. Since Pierre had transferred very late into the semester, he had a lot to catch up on. The teacher, who had to be six feet tall when she wasn't wearing her 6 inch heels, patiently guided him through the process of their current assignment, and took a moment to assess where Pierre's skill level was at. Having taken other computer classes before, he knew "enough to be dangerous," but as he had sheepishly confessed, digital art wasn't really his forte. He explained that he was more comfortable in the physical realm of art instead of digital, but the teacher didn't seem to mind.

"The things you learn in a painting class apply to a digital design class," she told him, "and vice versa. I'm sure you can learn many valuable things in here that could apply to your painting class. And I hope that you'll find a way to bring your knowledge and expertise from your other art classes into the digital realm." Pierre came to the conclusion that she was a strict, no-nonsense kind of person, but that she cared a lot about her students. He had a feeling that he would really enjoy being taught by her.

Class was over before he knew it, and he hastily cleaned up his belongings. He called a quick goodbye to her over his shoulder, and she returned his departing words with a small smile. He met Henry outside of his History classroom, and proceeded to tell him about his teacher. "I had her for a basic computer tech class last year," Henry said with a fond smile. "You're right, she's a really cool teacher. As long as you do your work and show her respect, you'll get along with her just fine."

The two boys followed the crowd into the lunchroom, where they both forced their way into one of the lunch lines. Pierre's fingers made their way between Henry's, and they held hands loosely as they waited in line. Their hands only separated when they grabbed their trays. After paying for their lunches, Henry led Pierre through the crowd to the table he'd spotted Ryan lounging at. Michael was sitting down in a chair as the two boys came up and set their lunches down. "Em's finishing up an assignment in Chemistry," he said as Henry gave the empty chair beside him a confused look. "She'll be here in a little bit."

"It shouldn't take her very long," Henry said with a small shrug. "She's got the same teacher Pierre and I have, so it's probably the worksheet we worked on in our class." Out of the corner of his eye he saw Abby waving frantically at Pierre as she sat with a group of her friends. Pierre didn't see her, and Henry wasn't about to point her out to him. Instead, he slipped his hand into Pierre's under the table and smiled to himself as Pierre gave his hand a little squeeze. Ryan pretended to drop something and bent down to "pick it up." When he reemerged he was grinning from ear to ear and raised an eyebrow at Henry. "I think Haydn was trying to pick a fight with Erik before class today," Henry told him, pointedly ignoring Ryan's significant look.

Ryan tried not to be thrown by Henry's obvious distraction, but his curiosity got the better of him. "Seriously?" he asked incredulously. "What was he doing?" Henry briefly gave him a rundown of what had transpired before class, watching as Ryan's eyebrows slowly crept towards his hairline. When he described how Erik had booked it after Haydn when he'd left, Ryan gave a low whistle. "Hopefully he was running after him to patch things up," he said. "Does anyone know why they're fighting with each other like this? Or are we still making guesses when both of them can't hear us?"

"Still making guesses," Henry replied. "I think one of the seniors in the class was talking about starting a betting pool on what the actual reason for the fight is." Ryan snickered into his hand while a smile played on Michael's lips. Pierre cocked his head to the side, curious, and Henry hurriedly explained. "My choir teacher and the pianist have been giving each other the cold shoulder since yesterday," he said. "And Haydn's being unusually...vindictive. Since they haven't fought in a long time, we're all kind of wondering what happened between the two of them." Pierre hummed thoughtfully to himself as he ate.