He forgot to breathe when he zeroed in on her, no idea she was coming today. The announcement that was made last week had only mentioned she was found. Not when she was going to return.
He watched in amazement as she sat with her best friend who had never looked so happy.
'What is this?' He wondered, unable to look away. The sudden lightness that came from nowhere, mixed with a tenseness that compelled him to to do something, but he didn't know what.
Was he sick?
"Welcome back, Miss Forger." Professor Henderson said warmly, a heartbeat before the second bell rang.
"Good morning, class. I trust you've done the assigned reading." He addressed them. "Turn to page two hundred and ten in your textbooks." He said as he wrote on the board.
"Hey." Ewen whispered, absent-mindedly doing as the professor said. "Did you guys know Forger was coming?" He asked, Desmond, not the only one stunned by her attendance.
Emile and Damian shook their heads, flipping through their books.
"What do think happened?" Emile murmured conspiratorially. The stories that had been going around had made everyone wonder.
"Ransom?" Ewen guessed, a speculated theory at the moment.
"No." Damian answered distractedly, his attention still on Forger.
"What?" Asked Emile, genuinely surprised he offered an opinion.
"Um." He uttered, realizing he spoke it, not thought it. "She's a commoner. They didn't go to all that trouble for a few measly coins." He scorned, his cold attitude, a big fat lie.
"What else could it be, then?" Ewen wondered and Damian pondered the same thing.
He'd been asking that question since she was kidnapped and the answer was impossible to find. The nurse could have taken any one of them, but it was all too planned. Too targeted on Forger. If she wanted any of the students she could have easily planned something less complicated. She didn't need to plant herself as a nurse at the school and set the alarm off.
But she did. And she went for Forger. A nobody.
Or so he once thought.
What kind of importance did Forger hold to this person to warrant that much scheming? To warrant that much effort? Maybe it was a personal thing and she was the regular person he thought she was. The other option, that she held a high status of some sort and someone was after her? If that was the case, the nurse was probably hired. People in high positions don't do that sort of thing themselves.
But that didn't work, either. If they just wanted her dead, they could have hired a regular hitman. And if they were going to sell her off somewhere, it would've already happened. She was gone long enough, that it would've been too late to rescue her. And if it was personal. . .they still could've wanted her dead, and it still didn't make sense.
The only other thing he could think of, was maybe she had something they wanted, but what could a kid like her have? Or sometimes parents would track down their runaway children, but that was automatically ruled out.
Her parents already had her.
So what in the world happened? None of this made sense! If the nurse was going to kidnap her, the least she could have done, was leave some clues!
. . .
. . .
. . .
Wait a second, he backtracked.
They planted a nurse and set off the fire alarm. They planted a nurse. And set off a fire alarm.
How did he not think to question this before?
Anya had passed out that day, the reason she was sent off with the nurse in the first place. Did the nurse know that was going to happen? Did the nurse do something to Forger? How? When? Wouldn't Forger have noticed if she did? But Anya was accounted for the whole morning, nothing could have happened. So what was wrong with her, then?
That was a question too; Why was Anya sick? Until the alarm went off, she was fine. Damian presumed she didn't like the blaring, but then she was still sick when it stopped.
There were too many weird things about her he couldn't piece together and loathed that it took as much attention as it did. He reasoned it with is incredible intelligence. That he was just so smart, he should be able to figure this out. And that if he did, he could use it to lord over her head.
He couldn't help the peek at her, sitting in her seat. The disbelief she was actually here after getting so used to her absence.
He saw Blackbell pointing out a page, trying to help her keep up. The six weeks of missing out on schoolwork, leaving Anya in the dust.
He didn't think he'd looked at her long, but he saw her stiffen. A slight movement of her head to the right, like she'd caught herself from looking back.
It happened again.
He hadn't forgotten about it.
Damian knew there had to be something more to that, but it continued to elude him.
The idea that it was really anything, made him feel foolish. He wanted to chalk it up to her weird personality, but he couldn't.
"Hey, do you think she's okay?" Emile asked, dragging Damian back to the present.
"She was gone for a long time, what if something happened?" He continued, stabbing a jolt into Damian's heart he didn't understand.
"You think?' Ewen replied. "She looks fine, though?"
Emile shrugged. "I dunno. Doesn't a person get hurt when they're kidnapped?"
It was pure curiosity that drove the question, but it dug a new hole in Damians mind.
He was very aware of it, and knew why the question bothered him now. He rationalized his concern for her away. That it was terrible it'd happen to anyone.
Yeah. That was it. He wasn't worried about her specifically. It was just a bad thing to happen to anyone. He could recognize when something called for at least the minimum of humanity.
The boys went back to their books before they were caught chatting and listened to the professor talk, the lesson starting to drone on.
Damian stole another couple shots at Forger, who was still there. He half-expected her to vanish, or that he was hallucinating.
But she was still there and could sense him looking at her. She sensed others snatching glances as well.
It was normal, Anya supposed. She expected the kidnapping that grabbed their attention, to fizzle out soon enough.
But, Damian.
She'd forgotten he'd been picking up on her quirks, the issue drowned out by everything else. She figured he'd let it go after some time (if she acted normal), leaving her rather unconcerned.
She was more worried about Becky who'd been looking to her quite often.
Telepathy wasn't needed to know she had a lot of questions. She knew Becky would ask them, eventually and Anya had no clue what she'd tell her. She would probably try to avoid them completely.
It comforted her to know, that despite Becky's curiosity, her happiness was more prominent. That her glances were also to assure her that Anya was sitting next to her.
And Anya very much agreed to the sentiment.
It had to be a miracle that she was able to sit with her in school again. The pure joy, enabling her to ignore the other kids all through class. The Professor was writing homework assignments on the chalkboard when the bell rang.
"Alright, copy this down and you're dismissed." Henderson said as he tapped a stick on the board and tidied his desk before leaving Cecil Hall. Presumably, having something to attend to in his limited time between teaching.
The chatter sprouted up among students as soon as he left, the scratching of hurried writing before they shuffled books into bags.
"Don't worry, I'll catch you up during study hour." Becky offered as she fastened her bag's clasp. She was aware of Anya's less than stellar grades and worried the school's leniency wouldn't be guaranteed.
"Thanks, Becky." Anya said sheepishly and was thankful for the chance she'd make it through the rest of the semester after all.
"Doubt it'll help." Damian scoffed from the step behind her and Anya turned to see him descend the rest of the way, followed by his friends. He carried the same arrogance and entitlement he always had. Carried the same smirk he always gave when he taunted at her. He acted like she'd never been gone, back to the usual quips, but his mood appeared better than usual. He was about to speak again when someone interrupted. The voice, causing him to tsk in annoyance.
"Hey." A girl with brown, curly hair appeared in front of her. A student who sat on the left side of the room with her friends. She hefted her backpack as she came to stand in front of her desk.
"Paige?" Anya guessed. She had never really spoken to her.
"You're actually here. After all the rumours floating around, I'm glad you're okay. Everyone was really worried." Paige smiled, not correcting the name, so it must've been right.
"Oh. . . thanks." Anya replied, baffled. "Rumours?" She repeated, looking to Becky who shrugged. She hadn't heard anything.
"You don't know?" Paige said. "I guess it is only the first period. But a bunch of kids thought you were dead, or sold off somewhere and some thought you were taken for your organs. That's a couple of em, anyway, there's a few going around." She said.
"What?" Anya laughed nervously.
"Yeah, you should hear some of the crazy ones. But you're okay, right?" Paige asked, leaning against the front of her desk.
This was weird.
Anya didn't know why Paige was talking to her. Her friendly smile asked something Anya couldn't determine. She understood the kids might be curious, but didn't expect any to actually approach her. They never had before, so why start now?
Anya dipped into Paige's thoughts at the apprehension building. At the voice that advised caution.
She didn't like what she found.