(Tw: anxiety attack, implied dissociation)
The two human thirds of the cleaning squad ran after Grim, unsurprisingly finding him in the middle of a battle with Ace. A crowd of students had already formed around them.
Elle sighed as her building stress was suddenly washed away by a wave of apathy. She didn't want to deal with this. Fine. Let the cat learn consequences the hard way. She has washed her hands of the matter. She turned on her heel, picking up a broom and beginning to sweep.
"E-Elle?!"
"Hm?"
"You're just going to...let this happen then?"
"I'm not good with people, and I don't have the magical ability to interfere with those two. All I could really do would be blindly throw myself between them, and I like living, thank you very much."
"A-Ah..."
Yu nodded. Her reasoning was...sound, but as someone who was unceremoniously handed responsibility for the weasel, he didn't have the same luxury as her. Guess he had to handle it himself, then. He made his way through the crowd to try and mediate.
"Hey, now! Let's all take this down a notch!"
Despite his protests, the fight continued. With Ace taunting Grim, and the fire weasel only getting angrier, things were getting out of hand, fast.
"Awww... can't hit me with your little fireballs?"
"Grrr... You better believe I'm about to! Take that!"
While Yu desperately attempted to stop whatever horrible catastrophe was about to occur, Elle quickly finished her apple, throwing the core into her trash bag. She tuned out the sounds of fighting, almost on autopilot, as she swept any leaves that had fallen onto the path into a neat pile next to one of the statues. She had started sweeping them into a bag when she heard Yu shout.
"Elle! Look out!"
The world suddenly sharpened back into focus as she saw a blue fireball careening directly towards her. She ducked down, immediately throwing her arms over her head, and felt the heat of the flames against the back of her hands as the ball whizzed by, barely missing her. Immediately after, she heard multiple footsteps headed closer to her. She glanced up and saw Yu, along with a few other students with animal ears who she didn't recognize.
"Holy crap! Are you okay, miss?"
"That fireball nearly crashed right into you! You didn't get scorched or anything, did ya?"
"Man, what were those guys thinking?"
"Elle! You're okay, right? I'm sorry, I should have stopped them sooner..."
The girl waved her hands in front of her, unused to all of the attention.
"I-I'm perfectly fine, if not a little shocked. It was surprising, to be sure, but I survived and that's what matters. Um, Thank you very much for your concern. Yu, don't you dare blame yourself. You could not have done anything to change that outcome. You blame yourself for this and I will blame myself for the mattress."
The animal-eared students seemed satisfied with her response, and soon wandered off after confirming she was okay. That was nice of them, she thought. Also, animal people existed. That...certainly was a thing.
Yu puffed up his cheeks, but relented. This actually was all Ace and Grim's fault, now that he thought about it. Speaking of the two troublemakers, they were currently frozen in place, staring in horror at the now burnt statue of the Queen of Hearts. Of course they felt bad for nearly torching the girl, but frankly, hitting the statue wasn't much better than landing someone in the infirmary.
"Oh no! Now the Queen of Hearts's statue looks like it's been flame-broiled!"
"That's your fault for tryin' to divert it! You shoulda just let it burn you to a crisp!"
"Who in their right mind would ever do that?!"
"What is going on here? Cease this at once!"
A booming voice interrupted their squabbling. Elle immediately slipped out of sight before her mind could even catch up with her body. She couldn't just stay out in the open with an angry adult around. Her chest ached. She felt like she was abandoning Yu. She wanted to help him. She wanted to protect him. But she was scared. At the end of the day, she was a coward who only fended for herself. She fought back tears as she stood rooted in place, trembling slightly. Hopefully Yu would be alright.
"Oh no! The headmage!"
"Not more lashings of love! We gotta get outta here!"
Elle cringed as she heard the sound of a whip. She hated that he so quickly resorted to violence. Ace and Grim's shouts of pain didn't do anything to ease the sick feeling in her chest, either. She so badly wanted to protect. She just didn't have the strength.
"As if the likes of you could ever flee from me! Haaah... Did I not just warn you "no more incidents"? And now you've charred one of my statues?! It's almost as though you WANT to be expelled!"
Elle's eyebrows furrowed. They were employees, they could be fired, not expelled. Ace could be, but he specifically brought up their conversation from earlier, so he had to be referring to Grim. Does...does the headmage have any clue what he's doing? That only scared Elle further. She didn't have enough leverage to go against this man's decisions, so the fact that he could be so carelessly harsh...
"No! Forgive me!"
"And you, Yu. You were specifically told to keep Grim under control!"
"I tried to stop him, but..." Yu trailed off. Elle clutched her arms in front of her chest. She should be helping him. He shouldn't be in trouble. He did his best. It wasn't fair.
"This will not do. And you! State your name and grade."
"Ace Trappola... Freshman."
Elle took note of his name, storing it away for later use. She had no clue what the later use was, but she was sure it would come in handy at some point. Ace Trappola...
"Then listen well, Trappola. You too, Grim and Yu. As punishment for today's infractions, you are hereby ordered to wash a hundred windows!"
Again, they were employees, not students. Was he allowed to do that? She didn't know. Maybe employees could get detention. It just sounded strange to her.
"Myah?! That's what you get for makin' fun of me! This is all your fault!"
"Whaaat? I have to do it too?!"
"Of course you do. You will meet up n the cafeteria after class. Are we clear?"
"...Yes sir."
"Ugh, I just can't catch a break!"
The headmage eventually left, but Elle remained frozen in place. She couldn't move. She couldn't make a sound. She felt like crying. Crying would only get her in trouble for being dramatic, though, so she bit her lip and pushed it down.
"You need to apologize to Elle for nearly roasting her, Grim."
"Myah... I guess so... but... where'd she even go?"
Yu blinked. Come to think of it, he hadn't seen or heard from Elle for a while now. He looked around the area, not seeing any trace of the girl. He called out to the student that was grumpily marching away.
"Hey, Ace?"
The boy groaned, turning to Yu with an annoyed look on his face.
"Waddaya want?"
"Did you see where Elle went?"
Ace paused. Then his eyes narrowed, then they widened.
"........EHHHHH?! Are you telling me she managed to duck out of punishment? Where the hell did she go? Hold on."
Ace stormed back over to the group, immediately poking his head around behind the statues. No way was the girl who had so thoroughly shot down his fun earlier getting away scot-free. Oh no, if he was going down with the ship, he was dragging her down with him.
Yu and Grim glanced at each other, before beginning to look around as well. Surely she hadn't run off or anything, right?
"Elle? Where did you go? The headmage is gone, it's safe to come out now!"
But Elle was paralyzed. She was curled into a ball at the base of a tree surrounded by bushes. She knew there was no point in hiding anymore, but she felt that stepping out into the open would be like admitting defeat. Like she would be attacked the moment she left the safety of her hiding spot. She should have stepped out earlier, but now it was too late, and she wished Grim and Yu would simply forget about her and move on.
She didn't want to hide, though. She didn't want to hide from them. She wanted to protect them. Yu and Grim were the only people she could help, and she wanted so desperately to help. What could she do...?
"I'm here......"
A small whisper was what came out. Her chest tightened. She felt like her voice had been locked away, and no matter how hard she strained, it wouldn't reach anyone's ears.
"I'm here.... I'm here.....! Please......I'm here........"
A tear rolled down her cheek. She felt trapped.
".......please..."
Ace was peering around the brush behind the statues, when he heard the slightest whisper. He might have mistaken it for the wind, were it not for the sniffle that followed it immediately after. He noticed a small slightly trampled area by the base of one of the trees. Bingo.
"Man, there you are! What's your deal, sneaking off like.......that...."
He trailed off once he noticed the state the girl was in. She was looking up at him, completely still. Her eyes looked terrified, yet resigned. They almost looked glossed over. Like she wasn't fully there.
"What's got you so freaked out? Is the headmage that scary to you? You were fine with him yesterday..."
Elle shook her head. She was scared of him, that was true, but the headmage was manageable. She had strategies to fight him should he turn on her. No, Crowley wasn't the problem.
Guilt was clawing at her chest. She wanted to see Yu. She wanted to apologize to him. She was terrified he would be mad at her. There was no way she would tell any of that to Ace though, even if she could find the strength to speak.
Ace, meanwhile, was not equipped to deal with this situation. He had no clue what was going on, and Elle wasn't giving him any answers. He wasn't about to try to comfort the girl either. He was still annoyed with her. Most of all though, he just had no idea how to proceed. So he fell back on good old reliable deflection.
"Uh...Okay, well, we're supposed to clean 100 windows, and since it only hit the statue 'cause you dodged, you're doing it too. Capiche?"
Elle stared at the heart mark on the boy's face. It kept her focused. She studied his features, using any detail to keep her grounded. His eyes were an orangey red. The heart mark covered his left eye. His bangs covered the top half of the heart when he tilted his head. His eyebrows were sharp, and curved slightly further down near the inward ends. The bangs over his forehead crossed over each other, and his hair curled at the ends.
She took a deep breath, closing her eyes. Bark on her back, dirt underneath, the fabric of her sweater against her palms, the feeling of the wind. The rustling of the leaves, the voice of Ace, the sigh of her breath. The smell of plants and wet soil. The sweet taste of an apple. She slowly opened her eyes. She was okay. She could handle it.
"I....yeah. I'm not about to ditch Yu to do all of the work. You should head to class, Ace. Sorry you had to spend time searching for me."
Ace blinked at the complete 180 in attitude. This girl was weird. The problem seemingly solved itself, so he wasn't about to complain about that. He was, however, still going to complain.
"What the heck are you talking about? I didn't want you to get away with skipping out, and you're apologizing? Are you a pushover or are you not a pushover? Decide!"
"Wouldn't you like to know, weather boy."
She brushed herself off, making her way back to Main Street. Ace stood there, dumbfounded. What was this girl's damage?!
~~~
I absolutely did not almost forget that today is Monday, thank you for asking! Yeah, Elle is just straight up not having a good time this chapter. Good luck with that one, Ace. Sorry for getting heavy on y'all, but this is about the heaviest it'll be for a while. I think. I'm actually pretty bad at gauging that kind of thing.
I have been thinking of this for a while, and I am finally remembering to do it! If any of y'all want to be my friend on the Twst English servers my player ID is: BcGXjy2Y
Thank you to everyone who has left comments and feedback on my fic! I enjoy reading them (:
Also thank you for 50 votes! I appreciate y'all!
Have fun out there today!
~Astroleap