Ace fiddled absentmindedly with her watch, her feet kicked back and resting upon a table as she listened to Faith and Akia's normal gossip. Everything had gone back to normal and they no longer talked about bullies.
"I'm telling you to give Ethan a chance! The poor boy's been rejected by you multiple times and still has the willpower to continue! That just proves how determined he is. It's perfect!" Akia complained while Faith scowled.
"No. There's a reason why he's been rejected so much." The blonde reasoned.
"But-!"
"Hey, Ace. I've got some news for ya." Mr. Ken walked into the backroom.
The female retracted her feet off of the table. "What's up, Mr. K?" Faith and Akia paused their conversation to questioningly glance at the teacher.
"Well, it's not exactly great news." He stated, a frown adorning his facial expression. He handed the girl a slip of paper.
Tentatively taking it out of his hands, Ace stared at her schedule- a class had been highlighted in yellow. "Wait- what?"
She frowned as she stared at the highlighted words.
4th Period: Service- Mr. Sabri
"Yeah." Mr. Ken sighed. "Administration thought it would be for the best to balance out some classes. Apparently, there had been a mistake with your schedule. They deemed that three service students in a single class period is too much."
The female blinked. "So, they've decided to move me out of this class and have service for another teacher."
"What?! No!" Akia cried out, running to the girl and encasing her with her arms. "You can't leave us! But everything was just so perfect with you here with us!"
The female gently placed her hand on top of the brown-haired girl's head.
"Unfortunately, that seems to be the case." The teacher shook his head in disapproval. "I'm sorry, Ace. I can't do anything about it."
"I understand." Ace sighed. "Should I get going?"
Mr. Ken solemnly nodded his head. "Yeah. Even though there is around thirty minutes left of class, Mr. Sabri's been informed of the circumstances and is expecting you."
The female dropped her hand off of Akia's head and her friend sadly retracted her arms away from the girl. Faith watched with a frown.
Picking up her things, Ace forced a small smile. "Well, it's been an honor serving you, Mr. K. I've only had you for one full day and I enjoyed being here. I'll come by and visit if I could."
Her teacher nodded, smiling in return. "I'll see you later, Ace."
The female gave a small wave to her disheartened friends. "See you guys later." As she headed out of the backroom, she waved at Mr. Ken one last time before exiting the classroom.
The girl frowned as she walked through the hallways, her shoes clacking against the floor, already wishing to be back with her friends. When she looked up, she saw a girl with long black hair standing still, seemingly waiting for her.
As she approached, the girl spoke. "So.. you're Ace, right?"
Startled, the girl frowned. "Yes..? Can I help you?"
"No." The girl answered. "I just heard about this new transfer student and I wanted to have a chat with her."
Ace stared at her blankly. "Okay? I sorta gotta get to class though."
"Whatever. First thing's first, I don't understand why the guys are willing to hang out with someone like you- Too much ego and eager to get into fights."
Ace looked at her in confusion. "Excuse me?"
"Second thing's second, realize that you're at the very bottom of this school." She smiled. "You're nothing but a runt."
"I see." Ace shrugged, pushing the girl aside with her free hand and beginning to walk away.
Surprised, the girl stumbled to the side a bit. "Are you serious?" She clenched her fists.
"I am serious. You stop me in the middle of a hallway during class time and begin telling me bullshit. What's wrong with you?" Ace called back, not bothering to turn her head.
"You're nothing but a rat in this school!"
Ace stopped walking. Turning around, she smiled rather coldly at the girl. "If you say I'm a rat, then so be it."
~
Opening the door to her new service class, she walked inside, attracting the attention of silently working students.
As she awkwardly shuffled towards the front of the classroom where Mr. Sabri resided by his wooden desk, a few of the students looked up at her and murmured something to their peers before looking back down at their papers.
The tall man nodded as he noticed her standing by his desk. "Did you find your sketchbook?" He asked curiously.
Ace nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I did. Someone returned it to me."
"Well, that's good. I'm glad you found it." He smiled. "Alright, you could sit in the backroom, where Ryoma is. The only work that I'll be asking of you is for you to help me grade papers occasionally."
"Okay." The female walked to the backroom of the classroom and pulled up a chair beside the light purple-haired male who was busy working on a few sketches.
His red eyes glanced at her. "What are you doing here?" He grunted.
Ace set down her bag onto the table and shrugged. She took a seat beside him. "They apparently switched me into this class for service." She smirked at him. "Guess you're stuck with me now."
Ryoma scowled at her, hiding the fact that he felt his heart flutter in happiness. "Well, don't bother me."
After a moment, he tilted his head towards her. "..Are you.. okay?"
She raised an eyebrow at him. "You're talking about the fight?"
He nodded.
"Yeah, I'm fine." She replied nonchalantly.
He shook his head. "Then why are you rubbing your wrist?"
Surprised, the girl became aware of her left hand, subconsciously gently rubbing her sprained wrist. "Oh! Uh.."
He shook his head his disapproval. "Let me see." He offered his hand towards her palm-up, waiting for her to put her wrist in his hand so he could have a closer look.
"No, it's okay. It's perfectly fine." She forced a smile. Unfortunately for her, he wasn't buying anything she said.
"Your wrist is not fine. I can see it in your eyes." He scowled. "Let me see. Now."
"But-"
"Ace. I'm not letting you go on this one."
Sighing she placed her sprained wrist onto his hand. Gently, he brought her wrist towards him so he could have a better look. He narrowed his eyes as he examined it, telling her to rotate her wrist so he could see the other side. "Have you asked for ice? It's not looking too good. It's beginning to swell."
When she didn't answer, he met her eyes and sighed. "Of course not." He let go of her hand. "I don't want you to put any sort of pressure on your wrist. Stay put and I'll come back with an ice pack."
He proceeded to stand up. Feeling a sort of panic, she stood up as well. "Wait, I don't need it."
When he was at the door, he glanced back at her. "Yeah, you do." Then he left.
Sighing, she stared at her wrist. It was red and beginning to feel tender. Will it hurt.. If I try to use a pencil..?
She looked on the desk and noticed a few mechanical pencils laying about. Reaching towards one, she picked it up and put her hand in a position as if she were going to write something down. Applying pressure onto her hand, she pressed the lead down onto a piece of scratch paper.
She flinched. It stung. Great... On my right hand too..
A moment later, the male returned with an ice pack and a wrap bandage. He took his seat, his eyes catching his mechanical pencil that lay close to her hand, as well as a tiny scribble on a piece of paper next to her.
He sighed. "I told you not to apply any pressure on your wrist."
How did he.. Know that? She stared at him in surprise. "Uh.. I just wanted to test out my wrist. I haven't paid much attention to it."
"You're such a handful." He grumbled as he applied the ice pack to her wrist. She yelped from the sudden coldness of the ice, but he didn't bother to remove it for a second.
"Ace, why did you decide to fight someone twice your size?" He frowned.
"I.. I'll admit I acted impulsively." She lowered her eyes in shame.
"Just stay out of trouble, okay?" He sighed.
"Okay.."
He met her eyes intently. "You can't just say okay and do exactly that. You need to be faithful this time."
"Fine." She grumbled.
"Good."
"Why do you care about me all of a sudden?"
"That's none of your business."
"It involves me, so it is my business."
"Shut up."
"..Okay."
He proceeded to bandage her wrist tightly, limiting her wrist movement.
The female watched as the boy diverted his attention back onto his sketchbook, where she couldn't help but peek at the character designs and environment sketches that were etched all along the pages. Besides those characters and environment scenes were words that she'd assumed were written to accompany their respective drawings.
The sketchbook was suddenly snatched back, protectively covered by the male's hands. "Didn't I tell you before? You didn't get permission from me to look at my sketchbook."
The girl stared blankly at him. "And you didn't get permission from me to look through mine either."
She pointed her index finger at his sketchbook. "And besides, I really like your drawings." Her eyes glided over to his wrists, where she saw a new set of designs drawn onto his skin. She moved her finger to point at his wrists. "And those too."
The male scowled at her. "Stop being so nosy, would you?"
Ace gave him a puppy-eyed look. "But I'm hurt and getting bored. Can't you help me dispel this cursed boredom? Do it for someone who's in pain?"
Ryoma fidgeted in his seat, unable to shake off the effect her eyes had on him. He sighed. "Do you want me to teach you some things about drawing then?"
The female shook her head. "No, I already get enough of that in class even though I don't ask for it."
The male let his sketchbook drop back onto the table. "Well then, what do you want me to do?" He asked in an annoyed voice.
The girl smiled brightly at him. "Tell me about your drawings."
He glowered at her. "No."
Ace's smile fell. "But why?"
When she got no response from the male, she clasped her hands together awkwardly in a pleading manner. "Please? You wouldn't torture me by not remedying my curiosity, would you?"
"Yes." He replied bluntly.
The female's eye twitched. She sighed, giving up the useless attempt. She turned her attention onto her backpack and unzipped it, grabbing a small notebook and her pencil case.
Ryoma watched her with hidden interest, his lips pressed into a firm line, refusing to show anything but a neutral expression.
Ace flipped open the journal, revealing around half of the booklet to be filled with text. The female thoughtfully scanned her eyes over what she had written last before sighing in frustration as she realized she wouldn't be able to write for a while.
Ryoma couldn't help but let his eyes wander to the very top of the page.
Chapter 24- The Spectrum
He couldn't help but let his question escape from his lips. "What's that?"
The female glanced at him. "What's what?"
"..What are you writing?" He forced out.
Ace looked over the title of the page. "It's a small story that I've been working on for the past few weeks. I haven't had much time to write the story, but it's been on my mind for a while now."
"What's it about?" He questioned, intrigued.
The female couldn't help but smile at the male in amusement. "It's about a royal family of ghouls, living in a kingdom that isn't aware that ghouls exist. The protagonist revolves around the daughter of the King of Ghouls. She doesn't necessarily agree with her family's ways, so she decides to refuse her father's commands and ends up getting thrown into jail, secretly kept a captive from the rest of the world.
They think she's a traitor. While in jail, her sanity deteriorates from how poorly she's treated, often being deprived of the necessities she desperately needs.
So one day, when the guard opens her door to deliver her food, she murders the guard and escapes the facility, being branded as a traitor to her family.
With her sanity lost and her ghoul nature, she becomes the leader of a cult whose main focus is taking down the royal family- her family- for revenge, while her family seeks to capture her and bring her back into their castle."
"That's a bit.. twisted, don't you think?" Ryoma furrowed his brow but still remained immensely intrigued.
The female nodded. "Yes, of course. The protagonist's own family kept her as a captive and treated her terribly. That's why she wants revenge over her family's betrayal."
"She turned into a cult leader." He added.
"Yes, mainly because she needs assistance in assassinating her father." Ace replied.
"And her family wants to capture her because..?"
"Because she's a ghoul and their own daughter." The girl answered. "You can't just have a ghoul running around a kingdom that doesn't know ghouls exist. She and her cult members are leaving behind a trail of corpses in their wake."
"..Interesting." Ryoma muttered. "Can I read your story?"
The female stared at him momentarily, contemplating over his question before smirking. "If you tell me about your drawings, then yes."
The male frowned and sighed in defeat. "Fine."
Ace's spirits rose as she excitedly looked at the male's fingers flipping open his sketchbook to the very first page. A sketch of a teenager in ragged, dirtied clothes and a few scars running up and down his skin greeted her.
"I should tell you that every sketch in this book is concept art for a story I've been writing." Ryoma sighed.
The male pointed at the ragged teenager while the female watched and listened intently to his words.
"The story I'm writing is about a boy who had been granted the power of creation- the ability to create anything he desired at his will. As you can imagine, someone with that type of ability would be considered a God and would be sought out by others so they can exploit his power." He flipped the page, the next sketches were of the ragged boy making use of his ability.
"So he would have to stay in hiding. He hid at the bottom of a mountain, deep underground within one of the many labyrinth-like caverns."
Ryoma frowned, unsure of how to continue, unsure of how to explain his own story. He gave the girl a side glance before looking back down. "The story is essentially about the teenager trying to avoid being captured by the government."
The girl smiled. "Seems like a solid story idea. I like it."
He perked up at her words, his red eyes hopeful. "You think so?"
"Yeah!" She grinned. "I don't know all the details about your story, but for the most part, you put a lot of time and effort into the concept, so I'm sure it's solid. I'd be really interested in reading about it."
The male hid his face when he felt heat creeping into his cheeks. "Ah, well.." He couldn't help a smile spreading across his lips. "Do you.. want to look at my sketchbook?"
Ace immediately felt excitement run through her veins. "Yes! Can I?"
"Sure.." Ryoma slid his sketchbook over to her and watched as the girl delved deep into looking at all his sketches, amazement lining her features.
He looked at her.. excitedly looking at everything he had drawn in astonishment. He was amazed that there even existed a person that would show interest in him, no matter what he did.