Thing taps the writing on his hand expectantly with a long forefinger.
Back in Saturday and Ethan's Dorm, Saturday sits at Ethan's colourful desk in front of his silver Macbook (which had colourful stickers on the cover) and fumbles his fingers.
He had no idea what he was doing.
He hurriedly presses a key and, thankfully, the video call whooshes.
Taylor's face of shoulder length light brown hair and soft green eyes pops up on the screen.
"Uh...hi." she says awkwardly.
"That's Thing." returns Saturday emotionlessly.
Thing stands proudly on Taylor's wooden table.
"Is he, like, your pet?" asks Taylor, making a confused expression while holding her phone in one hand.
Thing sticks up the rude finger at the girl.
"He's sensitive." returns Saturday coldly, on Taylor's phone screen.
"Look, I know Nevermore is ground zero for all things weird, but this is next-level." Taylor says, while giving a wry chuckle. "So, what happened to not wanting to be a slave to technology?"
"Desperate times." returns Saturday calmly. "Are you still willing to help me escape?"
"Well after what happened today, I figured they'd have you and your girlfriend in solitary."
"Kochō is not my girlfriend." says Saturday coldly and Taylor could feel that cold tone piercing through her skin.
"Whew, keep telling yourself that." she teases, while Saturday gives her a wry look.
"There's the Harvest Festival this weekend. Attendance is mandatory. I'm going to use it as a cover. If you're still willing to drive me to the train station, I can make it worth your while." Saturday says all of this very quickly and flatly.
Taylor gives him another confused expression which he admits, he was starting to get more annoyed of. "I'm in. And no charge." she shakes her head, making her loose brown hair wave beautifully. "Consider it a freebie." she smiles at the pale boy on the screen.
"Why?" questions Saturday coldly.
"'Cause I wish I was going with you." she smiles a little. "At least one of us will get out of this hellhole town."
Saturday looks back at the girl in the screen intently.
☟☟☟
The crowd chatters and laughs under the dark sky as the lights from the rides illuminated the Harvest Festival.
There, unmoving stood the slightly shorter Saturday black floppy hair and sunken eyes, in his black and white striped shirt and black (white inside) jacket, and Ethan, smiling, white-blonde hair dyed with pink and blue at the tips and crystal blue eyes, in a pale pink turtleneck and dark pink jacket with a chevron pattern.
Misaki stood behind them, in her maid uniform with her long black dress and white headband, with her petite head bowed.
"Are you sure you can trust that normie?" he asks an unmoving Saturday in his deep voice as they look at Taylor and her father, standing next to a car that had the Sheriff's badge and the word 'Sheriff' imprinted in big bold letters on it.
"Dad, I didn't know they were gonna be here." they could hear Taylor desperately trying to convince her father.
"I trust that I can handle myself." returns Saturday tartly, both still staring at Taylor and her mother.
"I don't want you talking to him. I want you home by 12:00." the three of them could hear the man in the hat and Sheriff's badge scolding his daughter.
"1:00." she protests.
"12:30." the man finishes, pointing a finger at his daughter as he walks off.
"Well, good luck and safe travels." Ethan says to Saturday as the two boys turn to each other, Ethan smiling as he opens his arms for a bear hug.
Saturday steps back.
"Still not a hugger. Got it bro." he says, defeated again and walks off into the fair, winking at Misaki as he goes past her.
"Call me." he says as smiles at her and hands to the beautiful petite maid a piece of paper with his phone number written messily on it.
Saturday glances at Principal Weems, the white-blonde man sitting there with a pale green coat, trousers and tie and off-white leather dress shoes looking at the pale boy intently as he smiles warningly at his student.
Saturday glances away, then glances back at his Principal, then hurries off, his maid in his wake.
"Stop following me Kochō." he warns the petite girl with unmatched beauty.
"I am under strict orders to do so Master Saturday, I'm sorry." she returns to the unparalleled handsome boy.
"Then you will experience hell with me." says Saturday as he brushes past her, coldly.
Taylor turns to look at the both of them and silently follows.
A man takes a small black and white panda from a rack of prizes, all pandas and hands it to a girl as her boyfriend wraps an arm around her.
Saturday and Misaki stalk to the stall. Saturday immediately takes the black darts and starts to pop the red balloons with deadly precision, neat black hair flopping with his moments.
"Jeez, you get any better at this, you'll be taking home a whole pack." teases Xaviera as she leans against the counter.
"Pandas don't travel in packs. They prefer solitude." returns Saturday coldly and with no emotion, while continuing to hit every single one of the balloons he targets.
"Hi little maid!" she smiles coyly at Misaki, who only looks blankly back at her.
"You two sure are a pair." she chuckles wryly, to no response either from the handsome pale boy or the beautiful petite girl.
"All right. Subtle hint taken."
"You should know I'm waiting for someone." says Saturday cooly to Xaviera.
Someone? Thinks Misaki with slight panic. Who?
"Oh yeah, who's the lucky girl...or guy?" asks Xaviera in a somewhat defeated tone, looking at the handsome pale boy.
"What does it matter to you?" Saturday looks at her as he replies in his luscious deep voice, that sounded like melted chocolate.
Xaviera glances up to see Taylor behind the pale boy.
"Didn't mean to interrupt." Taylor says awkwardly to the three of them.
"You're not." assures Xaviera, who had stopped smiling. She walks off.
"This is gonna be trickier than I thought. Mum hit me with a curfew. We need to go if I'm gonna make it back in time." says Taylor, looking at the pale boy.
"I see you've brought your little girlfriend. I forgot to say this before but she's really...beautiful." she says, looking directly at Misaki's eyes. "Her golden eyes surely are...something..." she trails of not knowing what to say.
"I return the compliment." the petite maid says softly and melodically to Taylor, bowing her head.
"That's not your real father." Saturday suddenly cut in coldly.
"Wh-what? What...do you mean-" Taylor stammers back, looking a shade paler.
Misaki's golden eyes glanced nervously from her young Master to Taylor.
"The slight widening of your eyes, the slight trembling of your hands- symptoms of which if not the beginnings of a highly unlikely Parkinson's disease as you are neither in middle or old age, could only mean a deeply buried subconscious discomfort to the person in question, in this case, likely caused by parental neglect, that you have tried desperately to mask for a period of years, making it near to unnoticeable." Saturday returned logically and coldly.
"So...you felt something was off and automatically assumed that I was a bastard child?" though her voice was choppy there was a slight tone of exasperated amusement.
Saturday's obsidian eyes glinted. "It was a logical observation but yes. That, or you're adopted."
"Pfft-" A little laugh escaped her lips. "Well...if you must know, yes. I'm not blood related to Dad, but I'm not a bastard child either."
"He adopted you? Interesting." Saturday replied curtly.
Taylor gave the tall, pale boy a small smile.
"I've got some dead weight I need to lose first." says Saturday quickly and coldly.
"You...don't mean her do you?" asks Taylor, gesturing by her head at Misaki.
"I wish but no, annoyingly, she's coming with me." says Saturday nonchalantly.
Misaki bowed her head. Taylor looked slightly disappointed.
Saturday looks over at Principal Weems, who smiles at him and holds up a burger in his gloved hand.
"Meet me behind the parking lot when the fireworks start." orders the lean, pale boy.
☟☟☟