ɪ ʜᴀᴛᴇ ʙᴇʟʟ ᴘᴇᴘᴘᴇʀꜱ [𝓐𝓺𝓾𝓪 𝔁 𝓚𝓪𝓷𝓪] {𝒪𝓈𝒽𝒾 𝓃𝑜 𝒦𝑜}

ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝟙𝟛 ~ 𝔸𝕟𝕘𝕖𝕣, 𝕁𝕖𝕒𝕝𝕠𝕦𝕤𝕪, 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝔼𝕧𝕖𝕣𝕪𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕚𝕟 𝔹𝕖𝕥𝕨𝕖𝕖𝕟

Kana POV:

I managed to get off the hook when I showed everyone the results of my shoot at dinner. Nobody suspected anything- not the way I rushed out the door, or the way I had jogged home.

The next morning after cleaning and changing into my uniform, I brushed my hair until the remaining curls from yesterday were gone. 

But just as I set the brush down, I realised I still had a bracelet on my wrist- I had forgotten to take it off in the dressing room yesterday!

I had to return it, but I couldn't now. There was no time to go to Machistar's studio and then to school. 

So I removed the bracelet and stuffed it in a drawer that nobody usually touched. 

"Kana? What are you doing?" 

I jumped as I heard Ruby's curious voice behind me.

"N-nothing! I just- I was just looking for a post-it-note. I wrote something important on it and I left it here."

"Oh, okay." Ruby's eyes were suspicious but she left the room without another word. I breathed a sigh in relief, then left the bracelet in the empty drawer.

I would pick it up after school.

Ruby POV:

I watched Kana's room carefully as I absentmindly ate my peanut butter toast. Aqua had left half an hour ago, saying he needed to go somewhere.

MEM-cho was in her room filming a Youtube video and when I finally saw Kana dash out of her room and into the kitchen, then did I set my plan into action.

I knew Kana had been hiding something, and I was going to find out what. It might even be evidence that she was lying about Aqua's relationship with Frill!

So after Kana sat down with her fig jam toast, I quickly put my plate in the dishwasher. "I'll just be up to grab an extra hairtie," I fibbed, "Mine feels loose."

"Okay," Kana murmured as she enjoyed her toast. 

I hurried up the stairs and, pretending to go into the bathroom, slid into Kana's room.

Not wanting to be caught, I quickly went to the drawer she had been hiding something in and pulled it open.

It was empty except for a pretty gold bracelet discarded in it.

I picked it up gently, wondering if this was what Kana had been hiding or maybe the post-it-note was actually in there and she had already found it?

I studied the bracelet. It was made of an adjustable gold chain and a pretty quartz stone dangling from the strap. From far away, it looked rather expensive, but up close I could tell the quartz was just plastic and the metal that looked like 'gold' already had shiny yellow paint chipping off the edges.

Even if this was what Kana had been hiding.... why would she hide this? I thought, confused. It really was just a common, cheap rip-off bracelet that probably had millions of it's kind elsewhere in the world.

But just for safekeeping and further research, I sneaked it into my pocket and then quickly closed the drawer, concealing any evidence that I had ever opened it.

I felt bad for taking Kana's bracelet if she was innocent- but if she really had been hiding something, then I wasn't going to let her get away with it. 

Not again.

Kana POV:

It was finally lunchtime. 

The bell ringing felt like bliss to my ears and I almost jumped out of my seat before the teacher dismissed us. And when she did, I immediantly ran to my bag where I pried my wallet open and took out my lunch money.

Today, I treated myself to cafeteria lunch- they were serving sushi today and there was no way I would miss that! Especially not when there were so many rumours about how good it was.

I rushed to the cafeteria before all the sushi was gone. I grabbed a ruby-red tray from the cafeteria and joined the already stretching line. 

Almost every student at the front said to the lunch lady, "Sushi please." I hoped they wouldn't run out before it was my turn.

After a painful ten minute wait, I finally got to the front. 

"What will you be having?" The slim lunch lady smiled at me. She had short, straight black hair and was different to the usual lunch ladies. 

"Tuna sushi, please." I replied and while she was taking care of my order, I asked her, "Are you a new staff member?" 'Lunch lady' was often assumed to be a rude term to use and once a daring older kid got sent to the office for calling the lunch lady a 'lunch lady'. 

"Oh, yes," the lady smiled. "My Annie just enrolled here and I would love to be a help to this school for her."

Annie.... that sounded familair. 

"I think I'd like to be friends with her," I said sweetly, "Might you show me where she's sitting?"

"Why, you're such a sweet girl," the lady gushed, "She's just over there." Then she pointed to the empty table in the corner where one lone girl was sitting.

The girl looked just a little taller than me, with impossily straight ink-black hair just  like her mother, except her's was long and up to her back. She was rather pretty, with cat-eyes and full lips, but her nose was slightly crooked and her face shape was round, throwing off the model-like aura about her.

After the lady gave me my sushi, I set off to my usual table. Despite what the lady thought I was doing, I didn't want to approach Annie. She had a guarded expression on her face and her fierce eyes glared at whoever went near her, so I thought it might be best to avoid her for now.

I sat down at a table with a few of my other friends- not with Ruby and her pink-haired model bestie. I didn't know why- I just didn't like the pink-haired girl. She looked like a murderess seductress- for no particular reason. She just looked too innocent to be true. Usually I would have tried to advise Ruby to steer clear of her, but today I didn't bother.

As soon as I set my tray down next to my friend Himi, I heard another thump of a tray beside me.

I spun around to see the Annie girl I had been talking about with her mother. Up close, she wasn't as pretty as I had initially thought- quite average, actually. But I didn't want to be rude, so I smiled as I sat down and said, "Hi! I love your hair!"

Annie frowned and cast her hair a murderous look for a second before turning back to me. "Your hair looks familair as well. What's your name?"

I laughed and teased a strand of my red hair. "It sure is an unnatural colour, huh? I'm Kana Arima. You're Annie, right?"

"Annie Yamamoto." She replied, but her cat eyes were fixed on me. "You're Arima?"

"Yes-"

"So you're the one who took my job." Annie snarled.

I gasped. And for a fleeting moment, I wanted to run away.

Because this was the Annie Ophelia had told me about.

This was the girl I had wanted to avoid.

A/N: Here is my promised weekday streak. Today I managed to write three chapters- maybe even one more if I can manage to finish!