Chapter 8 – Brothers
"Miss Duck!" Duck crushed the note in her hands and looked up at Mister Cat who stood over her work, "may I?" He gestured to the note and Duck looked at Fakir who remained completely oblivious to the event unfolding before him. Duck knew she shouldn't show him the note so; of her body's own accord, shoved the paper in her mouth. *What the hell am I doing?* Mister Cat stared oddly at the girl who had just consumed a piece of paper. He adjusted his glasses and muttered to himself as he opened the French book he was holding in front of him, "Une fille étrange faute effet… A strange foul indeed…" she spat out the paper and saw her tongue was black from the ink of the pen on the paper *Oh boy…*
The door closed and the students' heads turned almost simultaneously. Duck gawked in surprise. Mister Cat looked up from his book and smiled with pleasure, "Mademoiselle Rue, how pleasant of you to re-join our class once again!" Rue looked terrible; her hair was more messy than usual and her eyes were surrounded by huge, dark rings and if her face were to be compared with a white sheet, Rue's skin would be twice as pallid; Rue obviously hadn't had sleep in a very long time. Fakir stood abruptly upon her arrival. She uttered him a small glance of acknowledgement, "Monsieur Fakir please be seated!" Fakir reluctantly sat down never breaking eye contact with Rue as she passed him at a leisurely pace.
Duck wandered around the courtyard during the lunch break trying to reacquaint herself with serenity; which now seemed almost impossible. The crunching of the snow beneath her shoes sounded crisp and the faint taste of quietude nibbled on her lips softly.
*I think everything is starting to make some sort of sense now… I am a main character in a story; along with three others, which was written by the librarian or story master Drosselmeyer (who has a sick obsession with tea), the story is controlled by him and his thoughts and that magical pen. The story was supposed to be a romantic tragedy but now it is seeming more like a tragic failure considering the story has been infiltrated by a demon!* Duck sat on the edge of the frozen fountain and sighed to herself deeply. *Mister Drosselmeyer said that we have been given special powers to help us… but how am I supposed to find out what it is? There must be some special trigger of some sort! And Mytho is really very sick… I wonder if we'll ever find a cure for him, poor Mytho lying in bed all sick* She placed her head in her hands and massaged her temples staring at her feet blankly, *and Rue doesn't look too well either. She needs to get some sleep and relax too! Maybe she had a rough night taking care of Mytho and trying to realise she was now a character in a story too! But then there's Fakir…* she shivered and pulled her jacket around her more tightly, *I can't tell if he is going to turn and hurt me again or if he's going to start acting all rude! I don't think I like the normal Fakir OR the creepy Fakir! Perhaps I don't like him at all! But then… when I'm a duck he's so different, so nice and gentle; I feel so happy with him like that. When he kissed me in the music room I felt so weird and warm, it was so incredibly wrong and gross of him to do that! What am I thinking! He would never kiss me and mean it! No nonononononooo…. He wouldn't. He couldn't and most importantly he didn't! Did he?* a cold gust of wind blew open her jacket and she pulled in closed instantly, *No. That's crazy. The way he looked at me this morning was like he was trying to find something inside of me, like he was digging deep into my heart… maybe he-* Duck's thoughts were interrupted when She was hit in the back of the head with a large snowball.
She face-planted into the snow groaning in pain, "Yo Duck!" Piqué and Lille strolled up beside her, "any news on lover boy?" Piqué chuckled tossing another snowball at her butt.
Duck flinched, "I don't know what you're talking about?"
"Fakir silly!"
"Oh she's oh so forgetful! It's so cute!"
