Chapter 17 ~ Group of enemies

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"Seriously?" Ms sunny asked in her usual depressive voice , to dead silence from the group, "all of you got sent out of the class for disrupting...only to start a fight in the hall?" She asked and sighed ,scratching the bridge of her nose.

"Ms sunny , it was Chara who started the whole thing" Bel objected to an uproar of disagreement from the others.

"You liar!!!" Chara shouted at Bel and tried to kick her but was to far away for the subtle kick to even come close.

"Well she's not exactly lyi..."

"Shut up Arloh!!" Chara snapped ,cutting him off immediately.

"Alright, be quiet" Ms sunny said ,tapping her ruler on the desk to make a loud noise.

"And you three..." She said dragging her words and pointing the ruler at Hote,Mac and Flora.who all jumped up a bit in shock like they had forgotten where they were,"... you're the student council for crying out loud what kind of example are you setting for the juniors?"

Hote cleared her throat and explained "Miss sunny, we were not part of the fight and only tried to seperate them before anything worse happened, I believe that is what any model student would do in such a situation,right guys?" She said turning to Mac and Flora for confirmation , to which they agreed and nodded enthusiastically.

"You idiots..." Miss sunny said and facepalmed, ".....of all the classes, why did you three have to be in my class, hmm? Why am I your homeroom teacher?!!" She snapped almost childishly, making the students quietly move back slightly.

She recomposed herself and continued. "Look I don't even care about if you guys were part of the fight or not, but why are the student council members getting sent out of class?"

"The teacher thought we were playing a board game in the middle of class, but you see miss sunny, we were only strategizing for school development" Flora spewed randomly.

"Oh my goodness, how did you three even get elected for the spot" Miss sunny sighed and studied the six teenagers in front of her for a few seconds.

"Ahh you guys are annoying to look at, get out of here and go apologize to the teacher whose class you ruined" she said tiredly and waved the ruler at them .

"Yes ma'am" they all echoed and scurried out of the classroom.

"Wait, you, ummm, what's the name,Chara.."

"Yes miss sunny?" Chara said as she stopped in her tracks and turned around slowly.

"Where are your friends? .... The cousins". Sunny asked.

"Ughhh..why does everyone ask me about them, I'm not their keeper" Chara complained and peeped at miss Sunny hoping she didn't get offended by her complaining.

"Ahh stop whining you rat child,I just want to know how there's two students filling in for the spot of one and they both manage to be absent, at least ask about your friends' wellbeing" Sunny complained back at Chara , her voice growing even more weary than usual.

"Miss sunny ,are you allowed to call your students a rat child?" Chara asked with a mischievous look on her face.

"Get out you rat child"

"Yes ma'am" Chara complied immediately and left quietly.

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On a yacht out in the middle of a huge calm sea, Reuben stepped out of the cabin to take some fresh air.

"Ahhhhhh I guess I'll have to say goodbye to this break soon, I have a job to do" He said to himself just before his phone rang loudly from the pocket of his swimming shorts.

The trinkets and jewelry on his face and hands tinkled loudly as he quickly reached for the phone.

"Yes?" He asked short and simply as he picked up the call.

"Are you on your way back?" The voice from the phone asked.

"Yes the flight is this evening, I'll be back before you know it" Reuben replied , playing with the diamond ring on his left middle finger.

"Good, remember if you get this right you will get back on track with the Allfather and maybe he will even remove your..."

"I know....father" Reuben cut off the man on the phone , not interested in his words.

"But I am not doing this for the Allfather's approval,.." He took off the diamond ring he was playing with and threw it into the sea. "...I'm doing it for myself"

The voice on the phone stayed quiet for a few seconds before bursting out yelling. " Boy!!!! That way of thinking is what has you where you are now, we don't try funny business with the Allfather, you do your job and...."

*Beep. Reuben simply hung up the phone in the middle of the man's screaming.

"He thinks the Allfather is ever impressed by just doing a job for him?" Reuben muttered leaning on the boat's railing. "He detests eyeservice" he added and took off another ring from his left hand, studied it a bit ,sighed in dissapointment and tossed it into the sea as well.

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Later that afternoon Remi arrived home after a busy day greeting fans and meeting sponsors, it was back to school the next day and he wondered if he should just skip again, but knew people might get suspicious.

*Having a fake cousin that fills in for me actually makes it even more obvious when I'm absent* He thought as he opened the door to his flat and dragged in the bag of gifts and letters from fans, letters he was surely not going to read. He slumped into his couch in the living room and heaved in relaxation,he took out his phone and looked at the screen ,noticing the notifications of Chara's missed calls.He stared quietly at the screen for a few seconds ,placed the phone down on the couch next to him and rested his head to take a nap.

As Remi drifted into sleep he was transported into a dream...in this dream it was night time, a calm cool spring night. Remi watched from afar as two figures sat atop the roof of an old fashioned building ,in an era before there was technology that made things easier and when the nights were much quieter. He floated closer to the two people on the roof who were both fully clothed in black gear with masks that covered half of their faces, he ignored how suspicious they looked and started to listen in on their conversation,it was his dream after all.

"Sometimes I wonder if I'm broken" said the one which seemed to be a young lady .

"What do you mean broken?" The male partner of the pair asked,then took a sip of wine from the large gourd he had in his hand.

"Doesn't it feel strange to you when you watch a person just....die" the young lady said.

The young man paused a bit before answering "No it doesn't, I quite enjoy it".

"I don't find it fun at all" the young lady said as her voice suddenly began to echo and disperse.

Remi was startled as he was randomly swept away into a vortex that distorted the space around him ,with echoes of overlapping voices, saying random things , he fell through the vortex but did not scream or panic, he was aware it was a dream, after a few seconds the falling stopped and he was placed in an empty space that glowed with bright light, he frantically looked around and there the young lady from earlier was again, by herself this time.

She sat on the ground,legs crossed and arms tucked into her large robe-like shirt with her back turned to Remi ,quietly in a corner just humming. Remi furrowed his brows and approached the girl slowly ,upon inspection she had unusual silver hair ,just like him.But as he hovered closer and closer, she seemed to shrink smaller and get younger, by the time he got within arm's reach she had shrunk to look like a 5 year old child.

"Who are you?" Remi asked as he extended an arm towards the girl.

She turned around, still sitting legs crossed, putting one hand on the floor to support her weight. "Father has sent me here..." She said with no expression on her face .

"...he says I will be let out when I learn to do what I'm told" she added and smiled at Remi ,who just listened in confusion.

"And what is that?...what you were told to do" Remi asked the child.

"He says...kill the bird"the child said with a heavy sadness in her voice as she took her other hand out of her robe and in it there was a little baby bird.

Remi just watched quietly,not knowing what to say.

The girl started to sob."I don't want to kill my friend" she cried with her head down.

"Umm don't, don't cry...child" Remi said in a poor attempt at comforting the child. But then the sobbing child looked up at Remi and her face started to change.

Remi moved back ,dazed by the sudden development, but as he moved closer to study her face a bit more he was shocked when he saw her face had changed, looking kind of like....him?

He fell over backwards, startled. The girls voice started to echo around the bright room over and over.

Kill the bird, kill the bird, kill the bird, kill the bird..

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Remi jumped out of his sleep and out of the couch ..

"What the hell!" He said feeling a bit shaken by the dream. "That didn't feel like a dream at all", he added and swiped his face with his palm.

He stood still and took in his surroundings for a bit before staring at the clock he noticed the time and picked up his phone , the notifications of Chara's missed calls were of course still there, he never cleared off notifications on his phone.

"I guess the school day's almost over" he mumbled and went to the fridge to find a snack. "Ahh I have no snacks...I should go buy some".

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Chara dragged her feet as she walked. It had been a long day at school but now she had to go do some work, she still needed the extra money and it was really boring being at home by herself. She arrived at the store where she worked and it was so familiar to her she even felt relieved and comfort in seeing its doors.

She pushed the doors open and the little bells rang as she walked in, she made her way to the changing room but noticed a figure among one of the rows of shelves, the person was wearing a heavy brown cloak and just stood there,hunched over. *Maybe it's an elderly customer* she thought ,but couldn't quite ignore the motionlessness of the person standing there.

"Hello?...can I help you...sir... ma'am?" She asked and approached cautiously.

"Well yes actually.. I've been trying to reach the pickles on the top shelf over here" the old woman? Said with a shaky voice and pointed at the top of the shelf , without turning around.

"Oh, I can help with that" Chara said and walked over to assist the old woman. She arrived at the shelf and the old woman still just stood there, not turning around. Chara felt suspicious but decided to help anyways,

"Excuse me, so I can get it for you" she said trying to peek over to see the woman's face. The old woman said nothing this time, just standing quietly. Chara's alert systems were on full blow now, this person was definitely suspicious. She moved back from the old lady.

"Can you turn around please?" Chara asked with one hand in her bag already holding on to her bottle of pepper spray.

"Why of course dear, but first, would you like an apple?" The old lady asked and offered an apple,with one hand peaking out of her cloak , but the rest of her body hidden.

"What?" Chara asked confused.."please show your face or I will have to call the police" Chara said ,now taking the situation seriously.

"Uggghgh!! well at least we know you're smarter than snow white" Remi said and dropped the cloak, turning around and revealing himself.

"Apple stays mine though" he added and took a huge bite out of the apple.

"Remi?!" Chara asked ,surprised, shocked and relieved all at the same time. "What are you doing? Where did you even get a cloak?" She asked and started laughing, dropping her guard and trying to make sense of the 'prank'.

"You must have been scared for a second back there, I could sense it you know" Remi said as he picked up the cloak from the floor.

"What is this? Why?" Chara said random words as she just kept laughing at the randomness and absurdity of Remi being an old woman in a cloak.."wh..why did you sound like a real old woman?!! Bahahahaha!!!" She added leaning on the shelf,still laughing out loud like she just heard the funniest joke ever.

"Ahh calm down, it's not even that funny, the prank wasn't complete cause you refused to come close and just climb the shelf...you're no fun" Remi said and pouted as he now struggled to find where to place the giant cloak in his hand.

"It was a good prank I was really worried for a second, but were you just standing there waiting for me to show up?" Chara asked as she finally calmed down from the laughter.

"Oh my goodness, I had been here for thirty minutes, your boss almost kicked me out the first time, I had to tell him the cloak was from a school play and I was just here to wait for you" Remi explained.

"And he let you stay?" Chara asked ,knowing her boss wasn't one who'd care to play along with shenanigans .

"Well I did buy all these snacks" Remi said ,shaking the cloak as it rattled with the noise of packets of candy and other snacks.

"Jackpot!" Chara said and reached for the cloak.

"Wait wait wait" Remi said moving the cloak out of reach, holding it above his head.

"What now? Don't hog the food" Chara said ,squinting in mild annoyance.

"I just wanted to say .. I didn't actually mean to ignore your calls, or not call back...or text.... I um...jusr had the game and you know...I am so.. I..."

"You're sorry?" She asked, completing the words for him.

"Yes ...that" He said scratching his chin and showing his teeth in a silly grin.

"Whatever it wasn't anything serious anyways, I was just bored...but thanks for coming to check on me" Chara said and smiled softly.

"Now....hand over the offerings!!!" She said and snatched the stashed cloak from Remi and bolted off into the staff dressing room before he even realized what was happening.

"What the?"..."hey!!!! You glutton, don't eat everything!!!I actually planned to have some of that...hey!!!" Remi yelled as she ran off, almost moved to tears.

"Ahhh I should have thought of that, I really wanted some snacks myself" Remi said bitterly

"Please do come back out with some for me!!!" He shouted again in hopes Chara wasn't planning to eat everything herself....she could do that rather easily.

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