Feeling a light touch on her left shoulder, Ari made a soft sound of discontent. She was just about to get to the part where she could release the orphan quokkas from captivity, and she was certainly not about to leave before all those quokkas had been freed.
Another light tap, a little more insistent this time. "Mm, no," she said, burrowing her face further into her arms. "One min'..."
Just as she had her hand on the latch of the final cage, mere seconds from freeing the last group of quokkas smiling hopefully up at her, she felt a much sterner hand take hold of her other shoulder and shake her awake.
"Oi, Ari Lim. Wake the hell up."
Ari finally raised her head, no longer able to cling to her dream. Unhappy with being woken, she squinted at the offending hand on her shoulder and then at the boy who owned it, lounging indolently in the seat to her right.
"Zack," she mumbled, her eyes unfocused and bleary. "What's going on?"
He raised one fine, dark brow at her. "Teacher's here," he said.
"Okay." Ari reached up to rub the sleep-tears away with a half-closed fist. "Thanks."
"Yeah, whatever."
Remembering that there had been a couple far gentler attempts before Zack had taken things into hand, Ari tilted her head towards the boy sitting at the desk behind hers. She gave him as sweet a smile as her meagre energy could manage, her drooping eyes curved into half-moons. "Thank you, Jay."
Jay smiled shyly back at her, and then inclined his head towards the front of the room as a reminder that the teacher was there.
With great effort, Ari undertook the immense challenge of listening to what the teacher was saying rather than going back to sleep. Only, the teacher wasn't even saying anything of worth. He had only come to announce that there was a transfer student.
Ari disgruntledly thought to herself that this had better be a hell of a transfer student to foil the daring rescue she'd taken an entire quarter of an hour to successfully plot. Except that it wouldn't even matter who it was---it wasn't as if it would make a difference, unless the transfer was Daniel Park.
Amidst the rising noise of the classroom, Ari watched a tall boy enter the room and stiffly take the teacher's place at the front of the class. For a moment, she wondered to herself if perhaps he looked familiar. But no, it couldn't be. She had never seen him before in this entire life.
As Ari pressed down another yawn, the boy clasped his hands behind his back and opened his mouth.
"I'm Daniel Park," he said. His voice was clear and carrying, his enunciation so absolute that it was impossible to mistake his words. "Nice to meet you."
Ari froze in place, suddenly very awake.
Well then. That changed a few things.
• • • •
For a few days, Ari just watched him, neither introducing herself nor giving him the opportunity to introduce himself.
She knew that Daniel would settle into class like a rock thrown into a small pond: at first turbulently, then, in the midst of endless, rippling tides, with a gradual sink into peaceful integration. But it was hard to imagine that the class could ever be peaceful again when every one of her classmates was in such a furor. The break times and study blocks, which had been valuable resources for her to catch up on sleep, were now thrown into complete mayhem because of Daniel's mere presence. Every single thing he did was a hot topic, whether it was sitting down or eating lunch or accidentally swearing at a girl.
Even Zack, who had until now been a fairly decent neighbour when not crowded by any of his bootlickers, was so restless that he seemed to have been bitten by ants.
Case in point:
Ari awoke with a startle at the large bang.
"Nn, what now," she mumbled. She looked dazedly around for the source of the sound. It was easy to find: the desk next to hers had gone crashing to the ground, kicked down by an angry Zack.
But why was he angry? Ari tried to rub together the two braincells that had woken with her, but failed to create the necessary spark of realization. She could only blink confusedly at Zack, especially when she felt his hand drop on top of her head. Bemused, she allowed him to gently press her head back down into her folded arms.
"Just go back to sleep," he said, his voice deceptively calm. "I'll wake you up when it's class."
"Oh," Ari yawned into her sleeve. She pulled her hood back over her head and turned her face down into the dark cradle of her arms. "Okay."
Ari felt someone drape something over her head, muffling the sounds of the classroom around her. Satisfied with her warm, dark bubble, she fell gladly back to the welcome arms of sleep.
Except it wasn't even ten minutes later that a loud roar of voices pulled her back out from her dream. She slowly straightened up, the thing on her head slipping down to her shoulders. It was a luxury brand jacket---just looking at it, she knew it must have been Jay's. She placed it neatly back on his desk and stood.
A quick scan of the room revealed a whole host of students who didn't belong in the class. They, as well as all her usual classmates, were crowded around the back of the room, shouting loudly about something. Ari made her way to the front of the crowd, sliding effortlessly through the gap between bodies.
To absolutely no surprise at all, at the heart of the spectacle were Daniel Park and Zack, standing opposite one another.
Well, to say that they were standing was a bit misleading. Daniel was standing. Zack was hunched on the floor, coughing breathlessly.
And Mira stood not too far away, watching everything.
Without a second thought, Ari slipped off her zip-up hoodie and darted in front of Mira to block her from seeing the boy prostrate on the ground. Then, reaching out, Ari threw her hoodie over Zack's slumped shoulders so that the hood would fall over his face. The white fleece drowned her, but it fit just right on Zack. It was her favourite fall hoodie---not only was it comfortably warm and unbelievably soft, it also had a deep hood that, when the wearer's head was down, hid everything from view.
Once she was sure no one could see Zack's face, Ari lifted her chin high and announced to the crowd, "You'd better thank me for this. The transfer student might have surprised Zack with that shot, but that doesn't mean you can." She looked at everyone watching the spectacle, slowly dragging her eyes over their faces one by one. "Get outta here before Zack's back up. I know you don't want him to remember your face."
That seemed to knock sense back into most of the witnesses. They began to quickly disperse. Ari turned her eyes towards Daniel, who was watching her curiously.
"And you... You're not even fighting the right person," she told him with a little sigh. She shook her head and, not giving him a chance to respond, turned on her heel to hook her arm into Mira's. "Come on, Mira," she said, dragging the other girl away. "I wanted to ask you about the homework for math class."
Mira opened her mouth, seemingly about to protest. But with a glance back at Zack, who was now scraping to his feet with a gloomy look, she hesitantly closed her mouth again and followed Ari to the other side of the classroom.
• • • •
The day was so hectic that Ari almost forgot to get her hoodie back before leaving school. Or rather, she had forgotten, and would have left without it if Jay hadn't stopped her from strolling out the school doors without a care in the world.
"You're worried that I'll be cold?" Ari glanced down at the jacket he was proffering to her, surprised. The surprise soon melted into a small, warm grin. "That's really sweet of you, Jay. But I'll be okay, it's been pretty warm for September!"
Jay continued to look worriedly at her; her personal preference for hoodies and cardigans seemed to have convinced him that she had a cold constitution. She was about to persuade him otherwise when she heard a familiar voice calling out, "Hey, you."
As she turned towards the voice, she felt a rush of cloth settling over her shoulders. It was a familiar weight, and warmth, and texture. It was, however, not quite a familiar scent; beneath the sweet citrus scent of her own laundry detergent and body wash, there was a thread of something colder and mintier. It smelled, she thought, kind of like Zack.
"I didn't need your fucking help." Rough hands swiftly tugged the collar of her hoodie closed around her shoulders, and then, still holding her collar, jerked her forward aggressively. "You damn busybody."
Pulled almost up to her tiptoes, Ari peered at Zack, who stared down at her with his jaw set proudly. His eyes were dark and fierce.
Reaching out, she put a quelling hand on Jay's arm before he could try to tear Zack away from her. Calm as anything, she said, "Well, I know."
Zack pinned her with a hard stare. For a very long moment, he held her there, looking as if he was teetering on the edge of another furious outburst. Ari only looked back at him, steady and serene.
At last, his grip on her collar relaxed.
"As long as you know," Zack said gruffly, carefully lowering her to her heels.
Ari smiled lightly at him. "Mm, of course," she agreed.
Turning his face away, Zack let go of her, and she finally allowed Jay to hold her shoulder to help her regain her balance.
"No it's okay," she reassured, at his anxious fluttering. "It's not like I was hurt or anything. Zack was actually very gentle." And he was, actually. He hadn't even yelled at her. And she hadn't felt any risk to herself even once, because she knew Zack didn't hit girls, even with flowers.
Although he'd learned to be an asshole because of the entitlement of his social position, Zack Lee had the make of a decent boy at heart. He knew where his limits were, and he knew how to feel remorse for his wrongs and try to right them. This was, unfortunately, more than she could say for a score of other young men she'd met. But she could deal with all of them with only little issue, so of course she wouldn't even blink at Zack.
"And, look!" Ari added cheerfully, fluttering the over-long sleeves of her hoodie at Jay. "I got my jacket back! So we can both wear our own, and no one will be cold."
She laughed in response to Jay's exasperated smile. Looping her arm into one of his, she began to march towards the school doors with Jay helplessly, happily, in tow.
Just as she was about to pass the threshold of the school, she heard, "Oi, Ari Lim!"
Ari looked back.
Still standing in the same spot, Zack glanced at her, then away. "Thanks, I guess," he said.
Ari blinked, surprised. Then she smiled, a dimple flashing in one of her cheeks.
"Mm! Of course!"
___
[ Author's Note ]
I wanted to be like everyone else here and happily write a mindless fic about a self-indulgent SI-OC. Hopefully this'll be fun and resolve my writer's block.
Samuel next chapter.