Storms of the Heart [Code Geass Fanfiction; LelouchXOC]

Ch7: An Old Friend

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 Adelice tapped her pencil against the desk, the wait was getting annoying but she couldn't help but smile at her daydream. She missed those days and wished they still lived within the palace among the nobles. Her blue eyes traveled around the classroom. She noticed that groups of students had begun to huddle together closely, whispering to each other and then turning to look at Suzaku out of the corner of their eye. A frown came to her lips as she heard what they were saying.

 “What's an eleven doing here?”, she heard one male student comment, a hint of disgust in his voice. She felt her heart fall a little. How could they be so rude? Suzaku was sitting right there, she knew that he was probably hearing all these comments. How he kept a straight face and was absolutely quiet was beyond her. She wanted so desperately to say something but bit her tongue, no one knew of her past and she was very much inclined to keep it that way.

 “He was a suspect in Prince Clovis' murder! I remember his face on the news.”, a female voice whispered, anger coating her words. “But the teacher said that it was dropped.”, a male student whispered back, shaking his head slightly. She balled her hand into a fist, not wanting to hear anymore of these foolish comments from her fellow peers. She wanted to scream at them to bite their own tongues and keep their comments to themselves.

 Adelice bit her bottom lip, she just wanted to be out of this place, the thought of hearing anymore nasty comments about her friend would make her explode. She was starting to suddenly feel claustrophobic, almost like the room was growing smaller with every comment she heard. She winced as one of Kallen's came beside Kallen and herself. She leaned over the desk, resting her palms against it and whispered, “You don't think he's a terrorist, do you?”, looking at both of them.

 Adelice frowned and shook her head slightly, making some hair fall in her face. “No, no I don't.”, she answered, looking down at the ruffles in her black skirt. She was trying her hardest to not sound angry but someone the words still came out sharp. Kallen looked at Adelice out of the corner of her eye and looked back at her friend.

 “I don't think they would allow a terrorist into the school.”, Kallen answered her friend. Adelice quickly stood up from her chair, making Kallen and her friend look at her quizzically. At the moment she didn't care, she just wanted to be out of the room. Anywhere was better then there. She quickly walked to the back of the classroom where Shirley, Rivalz and Nina had made their own little huddle.

 She prayed that they weren't discussing this like everyone else was but she sincerely doubted it. Making extra sure to not look anywhere in Suzaku's direction, she walked past him and continued her route to her friends. “An eleven? Here at school?” Adelice winced as she heard the words come out of Nina's mouth. “He is a Honorary Britannian.”, Rivalz answered.

 Adelice's eyes looked up at Nina's face. “I know but still all the same...”, Nina whispered, wrapping her arms around her like she was trying to protect herself from some invisible physical harm. She looked absolutely bothered by just looking at the sight of Suzaku. Adelice frowned, she was not so close to Nina. She wanted to but she could not forgive Nina's xenophobic attitude toward the Japanese, and now it was affecting one of her closest friends. It took all of her strength to not defend Suzaku.

 She had always known that Nina acted different whenever anyone mentioned the Japanese. She would almost sink into herself like she was trying to hide from the word “Japanese” itself. She hadn't yet seen how being around an “eleven” made Nina act, but now that she had.. she could see that Nina would never change. Anger filled Adelice a little as she looked at Nina's face. She had a worried, almost vulnerable expression.