021 | "What are you going to do? Bark at me?"
After Ella's shift at the Kafe and the three went home, the brunette had spent her evening playing the violin while waiting for her brother to return.
Finally, she sensed him approaching her door, and she stopped playing. She could hear his heart beating rapidly as he got closer to the door. When it clicked open, she span around in her seat, "How'd it go?" She asked the boy.
"It's sorted."
"How sorted?" Ella challenged.
"It's done, El." The boy replied, his tone low, his heart beating faster.
Ella pretended not to notice the clear signs of him lying, and nodded instead, "Good. Because Imara's solution would have been a lot worse."
TJ gulped at that sentence, and nodded once before slipping out of the doorway. Ella clenched her jaw, turned back around in her chair, and continued to play.
So, TJ hadn't told Selina's parents, clearly. She just hoped that he would soon, otherwise, he could rather be putting Selina in even more danger, even if he was trying to help her.
☾︎
It was the next morning, and Ella was sitting on a bench near the school entrance with the Covaci siblings, the three of them waiting for TJ to finally drag himself out of bed and come to school.
The boy had gone to bed practically the minute he had returned from Selina's house - he clearly had a lot to think about.
Eventually, the three spotted the boy in the hoodie glumly making his way over to the group. Ella smiled as he walked over, "Finally! I thought you were never going to leave that man-cave."
TJ shook his head at the comment as Emilia spoke up, "How'd it go?"
"Uh..."
"We all wolf out sometimes." Emilia continued with a reassuring smile. Matei leaned in, "Yeah, but we know we're doing it."
Ella laughed, "Well, wouldn't you wolf out if you had TJ panting after you?" She joked, giving him a cheeky smile. Matei laughed a little, "If that happens, we're definitely going back to Romania." He replied, looking to his sister who nodded in agreement.
The three laughed, while TJ gave them all a look, "Right, this isn't about me."
Before he could finish what he was going to say, Selina showed up and was heading in their direction. Once she was close enough, Emilia called her over, "Hey, Selina, can we do more training tonight?"
"Yeah, course," Selina smiled, before turning to look at TJ, "Can we talk?" She asked him, her eyes flickering to a quiet spot for a moment. TJ nodded, and the two walked a couple of meters away, but they could still pick up on their conversation.
TJ began rambling, "If you're going to have a go at me..."
"TJ."
"...just get it over and done with, I was only trying to help..."
"TJ."
"And-"
"TJ!" Selina finally shouted to shut him up, "Doesn't your mouth ever stop for a rest?"
The boy was silent for a moment, thinking up a reply, "When I sleep I imagine it slows down a bit."
The girl laughed a little at the comment before getting to the point, "I wanted to say thank you, for covering for me."
Ella sighed, looking down at her hands. She could already tell that Selina's situation was going to get a lot worse from thereon. Even if her brother thought he was doing some good, he was in fact doing the opposite. Selina could get into a lot of trouble, dangerous trouble, if she continued.
TJ smiled, "It's okay... but, Selina, why don't your parents know that you do Taekwondo?"
Selina's smile dropped, "Oh, not this again. I came here to say thanks."
"I was only trying to help..."
Selina scoffed, "You can help by butting out."
And with that, she stormed away, walking towards the entrance of the school building. But, unluckily for her, she had to pass her enemy's table, "Aw, spat with the boyfriend?" Hannah asked her.
"He's not my boyfriend." Selina replied, crossing her arms over her chest.
"I don't know why I'm surprised," Hannah laughed, looking the girl up and down with a scrunched-up nose, "You don't even have any friends, let alone a boyfriend."
Ella rolled her eyes at the comment. Could this girl be any more cliche?
Emilia leaped up from her seat and stormed over to the two girls, "We're her friends."
"I mean friends that you actually want to look at."
That was enough to make Ella and Matei stand up. Matei walked over to the girl, his jaw clenched, his eyes dark, looking as if he was about to rip the girl up into pieces, but his sister pushed him back, "I don't need you fighting my battles."
"What did you say?" Selina asked Hannah.
"You heard." She replied smugly.
That was enough to make Selina shove the girl back, nearly knocking her over. Ella's emotions quickly changed from anger and annoyance to concern and worry. She and the rest of the pack pushed Selina back so that she wouldn't try and attack Hannah again, no matter how much they wanted to let her do so.
"That's it. Run away with your little friends!" Hannah mocked from behind.
Ella grabbed Selina's hand, putting it in front of her face, "Look at your hand."
The girl breathed heavily, her eyes glowing yellow, black veins creeping up her arms. Selina noticed this, and immediately calmed herself down, before shoving her pack out of the way and running into the building.
Hannah giggled at the sight, but soon stopped when she saw the glare Ella was giving her, "What?"
Ella stepped forward, "You proud of yourself now? Want a prize?"
Hannah laughed carelessly at the comment, "You going to start with me too, hon?"
Ella smirked, "Oh, come on. We both know that I'd beat you so there's really no point."
Hannah looked taken aback for a moment, but spat out the first comment that came to mind, "You're a bitch."
"Then run before I bark at you." Ella quickly replied. Hannah rolled her eyes and walked away with her group of friends, not wanting to argue with the girl any longer.
The brunette turned back to her pack, to see them all with their mouths hanging open. Her eyebrows furrowed, "Close your mouths, you all look stupid." She commented, before turning and walking into the building.
The pack soon followed, and as they walked, Ella heard someone laughing.
She spun around, stopping dead in her tracks, only to see Matei chuckling to himself. Ella sighed loudly, "What is it, Covaci?"
"'Then run before I bark at you?'" He mimicked, raising an amused eyebrow.
Ella held back her smile, "Well, what did you expect me to say?"
He shook his head at the ground, still laughing. Ella smiled to herself, playfully hitting him on the chest as they continued walking down the corridor. Matei nudged her back, and she did the same. That continued until the boy eventually got fed up and chased the girl down the corridor, wide smiles on both their faces.
Unknown to both of them, their siblings gave each other a high-five in victory.
Matei eventually caught the girl, wrapping his arms around her waist and holding her up in the air with a grin.
"Matei Covaci! Put me down!" Ella exclaimed through laughter, her legs drawing aimless, invisible circles in the air.
"What are you going to do? Bark at me?" Matei replied, a smirk tugging at his lips.
"If you're not careful, then I might." She replied, trying to wriggle out of his grip. Eventually, he let the girl down, and she reached up to smack the back of his head, "I'll get you back for that, Covaci." She told him, hiding her smile as she turned away and began walking down the corridor.
Matei shook his head with a smile, an unmissable blush heating up his cheeks when he saw the look on Emilia and TJ's faces. He scratched the back of his neck, as he did when he was embarrassed, and walked in the opposite direction towards his classroom.
Ella shook her head as she walked down the corridor.
Stupid Italian arsehole.
Despite focusing on that thought, she was still smiling. But she soon switched her focus to tracking Selina's scent. She knew how much pressure the girl was being put under, and Hannah wasn't helping.
Eventually, she located her scent. She peered through the thin strip of glass on the classroom door and peered inside. She saw her sitting alone on the floor in a classroom, the lights switched off. Ella sighed quietly. She felt terrible that her best friend had to go through so much in the matter of a few days. She didn't deserve it.
She opened the door quietly, closing it behind her. The brunette sat beside the girl, both of them silent for a short while. Selina sniffed, "What am I going to do, Ella?"
Ella looked down at her lap for a moment. She didn't have an answer for that - Selina's situation was practically impossible, "It could be worse... you could have Hannah's personality."
"I feel sick." Selina expressed, a tear running down her cheek, "Why couldn't you and TJ keep your noses out of it?"
Ella's heart dropped, "I'm sorry, Sel. We thought we were doing you a favour but... maybe we should have talked with you first." She admitted. She did feel guilty about going behind her back. The pair were as thick as thieves. They told each other everything.
Selina shook her head, "I could have torn her to pieces."
"As much as I would have loved to watch that, you would gotten at least a suspension." Ella told her, trying to lighten the mood. Selina smiled a little at the comment, but her smile soon faded, "Taekwondo is the only thing that's really mine. Do you know what I mean?"
Ella nodded in understanding. She knew exactly what she meant. Even after living in the UK for several months, she still felt out of place. But, when she discovered her love for fighting, that soon melted away. She felt comfort in it, as strange as it sounded.
Selina sighed quietly, "I should have listened to you. All of you."
The brunette nudged her, "We all make mistakes. But, it's not the mistakes that matter... it's what you do about them that counts."
Selina looked over to her friend, smiling softly, before pulling her into a much needed hug. Ella chuckled, returning the hug, before pulling away. She wiped the girl's tears away with the pad of her thumb, "Look, things have a way of working out, yeah?"
Selina nodded, looking down at her hands, "The thing is... if I carry on... I put everything at risk. Everyone. That's not going to happen."
The girl abruptly stood up and walked out of the room. Ella immediately followed, and found the girl looking up at a poster with her name on it. The poster for her upcoming Taekwondo tournament. Ella's eyes widened, "What are you going to do?"
Selina's eyes didn't move away from the poster as she replied, "The only thing I can."
She pulled a black marker out of her pocket, and drew lines over her own name, crossing it out. Ella felt a lump rise in her throat.
She was quitting.
It was just then that none other than Hannah turned the corner. She looked up at the poster with a smirk, "Wow. Well, it's for the best. This competition is for people who take this competition seriously, not just amateurs looking for a fight."
Ella's fists clenched at her sides, "Drop it, Hannah."
Selina put the pen back in her pocket, bumping shoulders with Hannah as she walked away. Ella scowled at the smirking girl, before making her way to her first lesson. It was then that it seemed nothing was right.
☾︎
A little later that day, school had finished, and Ella and Matei had walked over to the Kafe together as Ella had her shift there.
The boy sat at the counter, twirling the straw of his drink around the rim of his glass as he watched the brunette dash around the cafe, serving food and drinks to customers, every one of them receiving a smile when they were served. A smile twitched at his lips as he watched her little black, heeled boots click against the ground as she rushed around the cafe, skillfully balancing full trays in her arms in an attempt to keep up with the evening rush.
"And, finally, do you find it hard to tell the object of your emotion how you feel?"
He turned around at the voice, snapping back into reality as he looked at the peppy blonde sitting beside him, a magazine in front of her, turned to the page of a quiz, "What? Oh... yeah. Great." He replied, clearly distracted and having no interest in the quiz whatsoever.
He turned around, looking back over at the hazel-eyed girl, "Ella." He called.
The brunette span around, giving him an apologetic smile, "One minute." She turned back around, continuing to take an order from some customers.
The boy sighed quietly, turning back to his drink, fiddling with the straw as an excited Katrina spoke up, wafting her sparkly pen in the air, "Okay, the results are in. You are..." She looked down at the magazine and calculated the results, "Country and Western Taylor Swift! Your heart's in the right place, but you need help finding the right words."
The boy almost laughed at the irony. Isn't that true enough...
Just as Ella was making her way to the other side of the Kafe with some empty trays, TJ walked in, looking more dispirited than ever. Katrina looked up at the boy with an enthusiastic smile, "Want to find out what era Swifty you are?"
TJ shook his head, "No, thanks. I'm here to see Ella."
Matei stood up from his seat, "Yeah, well, I hope you have better luck than me, mate." He told the boy, patting his shoulder before glumly walking out of the cafe.
Ella's eyebrows furrowed as TJ walked over to her, "Hey, where did Matei go?"
"Home, I'm guessing. Why?"
The brunette blew out a breath, "Don't know... I think he wanted to talk to me about something," She told him, looking regretfully towards the door before looking back at her brother, "What do you need?"
"I need to talk to you." TJ replied.
"It seems I'm very popular today, huh?" She joked, her eyes drifting to Katrina.
The blonde turned around, "Ah, fine! You've more than earned a break. I'll take over."
The brunette thanked the girl, handing her the checkered apron and sat down at the counter. Ella looked up at him, "So?"
TJ looked down at the table, "So... I didn't talk to Selina's parents."
Ella snorted, "Yeah, I figured. You know that she's given up Taekwondo altogether?"
TJ's eyes widened at her words, "What?"
The brunette pressed her lips together, "Yeah," she let out a sigh, "I just don't know how to help her, Jay. She's given up something she loves because of a problem we can't solve."
"There is one way we can help her." TJ told the girl - and Ella knew exactly what he was referring to.
Parents.