Chapter 15: Chapter 15
During lunch, the next day, The Rejects gathered at their usual spot. "I'd say screw it" Jackson says, "if she doesn't want to get along, then it's fine. I'm not about to go above and beyond for someone who doesn't want or need my assistance".
"It's not about just getting along though" Emma says. "If Emily doesn't want to be friends, that's her choice. She just... seemed like she really needed the help, is all...".
"Does she remind you of yourself?" Aeris asks.
"I..." Emma says, then pauses.
"Look" Aeris says, "it's nice to help people, but sometimes you have to let people fight for themselves".
"But, what if she's stuck like that for the rest of her life?" Emma asks.
"Her problem..." Jackson says.
"But..." Emma says, then thinks for a moment. "I don't think I can accept letting someone just... continue going through that. I'm not sure what it is, but if her situation is going to keep making her a bitter person for the rest of her life... then-".
"It's not our business to intervene" Aeris says. "I hate to say it, but I'm actually with Jackson on this. It's her problem. Just because we might've gone through something similar, doesn't mean it's our job to fix it for everybody. Her situation might be a little... different than what you may be thinking".
"She's got a point" Jessica says.
Emma thinks for a little while, then looks at Wyatt. "Wyatt?..." She asks.
Wyatt thinks for a second, then finally says "Truth is, we don't really know about her. If it's truly something that she can't handle, then one of two things will happen. She'll either let it get to her, changing her outlook on life in a negative way, or she'll realize that she'll need help and look for help. I think trying to force help upon her might be making it harder on her... so for the time being, if you still want to help her, we just have to wait and see what happens. Until then, just try... I dunno, being polite... Jackson".
"Why are you looking at me?" Jackson asks, "I haven't done anything to her".
Wyatt looks back at Emma and asks "Do you get what I mean? I don't want to sound like I'm picking sides, because I'd like to help where I can. For now, we just have to wait for her to realize whether or not she can take care of her current situation".
"No... I get it" Emma says. "After all, I think I was like that before too. I didn't really want to accept help when I knew I couldn't handle everything myself, but eventually... Well, Matilda happened".
"Right" Wyatt says, "it's probably the same with Emily".
"What even is the problem with her?" Jessica asks. "You guys are starting to talk like you know something here...".
"No idea" Emma says.
"But then..." Jessica starts to ask.
"Just... don't" Jackson says to Jessica, "those two are just a little crazy...".
Meanwhile, Emily ate alone in the classroom. As she ate, she thought about what Refus had told her the day before. "I don't want to be here..." Emily says to herself, "but I'm also tired of being so alone. I don't really like that girl though... but maybe... maybe I can at least tell her about my parents, without being judged for my parents being laibah".
Refus wasn't there at the time, for he was in the Principal's office. He was talking with the Principal, Ryan Schafold. "She's not integrating well with school life?" Ryan asks.
"Unfortunately" Refus says, "Emily has been... well, really negative with her outlook towards the school. So far, she's at least having conversations with me. I'm not sure if I'm right about this, but she may only be comfortable with having conversations with laibah".
"Strange child..." Ryan says, "breaks my heart to hear that, really. You remember meeting her parents before the semester began, don't you?".
"Yeah" Refus says, "they were polite, and seemed really friendly with humans. I can't imagine why Emily would feel that way".
"They wanted to enroll her at the start of the semester, but she refused. It may be that she herself had received criticism for living with a laibah family" Ryan says, "or has seen her parents hated for being laibah, and had built up anger since then. If this were the case, then... I guess it really is important that I help watch over her, though I do hate playing favorites".
"Wait..." Refus asks, "why is that?".
"I know her parents" Ryan says, "both adoptive and biological".
"You know her biological parents?" Refus asks.
"Indeed" Ryan says. "Though, Emily doesn't know them. It's a rather ironic situation, really. As one of her family members work here as well".
"Emily's related to one of the teachers!?" Refus asks. "Who!? Which one!?".
"Not so loud" Ryan says. "Not even that staff member knows, so I'm not telling you about it either. All I can say is, now that this situation has been laid out in front of me, I do want it taken care of. The reason I've told you anything up until now is because I'm counting on your help".
"Help... with?" Refus asks.
"Making sure the girl doesn't stick out too much" Ryan says. "If no one needs to know about anything, then no one shall know. Understand?".
"Yes... sir" Refus replies. "Oh, before I forget... You remember this one girl who enrolled really early in the year? Goes by the name of Emma Frey?".
"I don't think I recognize the name" Ryan says, "So I can't necessarily picture a face with it".
"She's one of the laibah students in the first year" Refus says, "I'm her home room teacher. White hair, purple eyes, hair tied in a bun and used to wear what looked like a really worn down uniform?".
"I've seen too many faces to remember that in specific" Ryan says.
"Oh... well" Refus says, "I realized when she entered, there was never a note, message, or even a mention of her parents... Have you... ever heard anything about that?".
"Are you concerned?" Ryan asks.
"I'm always concerned about all of my students" Refus says.
"Well..." Ryan says as he thinks to himself, "the students are all adults, so it's true that they wouldn't need any permission from their parents... though, it is also true that most of the students here don't have a lot of money and are taken up to the school by their parents at least once. It is strange that someone wouldn't show up at least once with their parents, while also showing up to school with what you called 'worn down uniform'. Maybe she had moved out of her parent's house before attending college".
"Is she listed in the dorms?" Refus asks.
"Let me check..." Ryan says as he turns to his computer. After a few minutes, he says "Nope. No 'Emma Frey' listed anywhere in the dorms. There weren't a whole lot of female laibah that got a dorm, since there were too many female students to house. It's hard trying to get humans and laibah to get along, let alone live together. I tried to house the second and third year students before the new students, while also trying to prioritize which students could live together based on school history. Looks like here, she hadn't attended school for about a year after graduating, so she's likely to have some problems staying with other first years, with her being the oldest in her year. Also, probably would've had some conflict with the second years, since their schedules are different. Unfortunately, we had to leave a lot of our female students out, both laibah and human".
"Do you think... she's homeless?" Refus asks.
"I'd hope not..." Ryan responds. "You should ask her about it though. If she requires immediate assistance, then we'll see what we can do".
After Refus leaves the office, Ryan says to himself "A laibah student who spent an entire year out of school... why would a student take that long to enroll themself in a college like this? Usually when they wait, it's because they don't have the money... but she was accepted for free due to her grades. Record shows she was a straight 'A' student in high school... so what happened between then and now?".
"Heya, grandpa" Rose says as she enters the office.
"Hey, how's my favorite non-biological granddaughter?" Ryan asks. "By the way, you should stop calling me grandpa around the school. The other staff might actually begin to think we're family".
"Oh, it's just an inside joke..." Rose says.
"Yes, a formality" Ryan says, "but that's what makes it easier to misunderstand".
"So... when you gonna retire?" Rose asks, "I'll take the seat of principal, if you wanna retire any time soon".
"I'm afraid you'll have to wait" Ryan says. "I may be old, but I'm not too old to work".
"Dang!" Rose says as she snaps her fingers and laughs. "Anyways, I needed to ask about a student in one of my second year classes. He said his family has to move further away from the city and won't tell me why. Anyways, long story short, he asked me earlier about getting a dorm. He said he's not giving up on college, but he won't have transportation available after his parents move. Are there still free spots available for him?".
"Ah, yes" Ryan says, "let me check to find the best availability". Ryan taps away on the computer for a few seconds and says "We have one male dorm room with no students, and two with only one student. You said he was a second year, correct?".
"Yes" Rose says.
"Alright" Ryan says, "I'll try putting him in one of the dorms with only one student registered. The one with a second year, not the one with a first year".
"What about the empty room?" Rose asks.
"Why that room in particular?" Ryan asks. "Are you concerned that he won't get along well with another student?".
"Well... he is a laibah" Rose says, "but... he also doesn't know that I'm aware that he's a laibah. I don't know if he'll get along that easily with another student".
"My main concern is..." Ryan says, "there's a possibility that we may need to reserve the empty room for another purpose. I'll try putting him with someone in his grade. The only other option besides those two would be sticking him with a first year student. A student by the name of... Wyatt Bogan".
"Well, I guess it's better to have the students in the same grade share a dorm" Rose says, "so go with second year instead".
"Alright, I'll have him registered right away" Ryan says. "You can tell him that's he's welcome to move in at any time convenient to his schedule. I just need his name, so I can type it out".
"It's Darren Forray" Rose says.
"Consider it done" Ryan says.
"Thank you, grandpa" Rose says.
"You're welcome, problem child" Ryan says with a childish laugh.
"Hey!" Rose complains.
Ryan waves his hand playfully and says "I'm kidding, I'm kidding!".
After school, while Wyatt and Emma were leaving together, Refus stopped them just outside. "Hey, Emma!" Refus calls out, "sorry for stopping you, but I need to talk real quick. It's nothing bad, I promise".
"Oh, uh..." Wyatt says as he points towards the dorms, "I've gotta go to work, so I'll go on ahead. Is that okay?".
"Yeah, that's fine" Emma says. "I'll see you later, Wyatt!". Wyatt waves at Emma as he walks away. "What did you need, Mr. Maloney?" Emma asks.
"I'm probably just being a little too paranoid" Refus says, "but how are your living conditions?".
"My... what?" Emma asks, confused about what Refus was referring to.
"Well, when you enrolled into Harrison, we've never seen or heard any mention of your parents" Refus says, "and I know how the other students were teasing you during the first week about your uniform. Is everything okay at home? You didn't have to move far away from your parents to attend school, did you?".
"Oh... right" Emma says, then thinks for a while. "D-Don't worry, I'm fine".
"You're fine?" Refus asks, "are you sure?".
Emma nods and says "Mm-hmm! It's just... well, I'm doing better now than I was before. There's no need to worry".
"I sure hope not" Refus says, "but if you ever need living assistance from the school, let me know. I can talk with Principal Schafold about arranging something if you need the help".
"No thank you, Mr. Maloney" Emma says, "that won't be necessary".
As Emma begins to walk away, someone suddenly bumps into her. Another student ran out of the doors, looking rather excited. He stopped and turned around to look at Emma. "Oh, sorry" he says, "that was my bad!".
"O-oh, you're fine" Emma says, "sorry for standing in the way".
The man holds out his hand for a handshake and says "The name's Darren, nice to meet you".
"Emma..." Emma says as she awkwardly shakes his hand. Immediately after, Darren continues running. "Darren..." Emma says to herself, "why does that sound so familiar?".
Emma sneaks into the dorm alone, and begins to work on her clothes again. "Maybe Aeris and Jackson are right..." she thinks to herself, "maybe I should be worrying about more important things, rather than be trying to help Emily. I should be worrying about getting closer to Wyatt. Maybe if we can get close enough, he won't be able to reject me for being a laibah!... but at the same time, maybe the longer I take to tell him, the more angry he'll be at me for lying...". Emma begins to get frustrated with herself. "Mmmm! I don't know what to do!" She yells at herself. "What am I supposed to do?...". As Emma looked down at her hands, she noticed that she messed up on the stitching, and now had to undo a mess. "Oops" she said, then let out a sigh, "I really need to focus".
The night passed, and the next morning started like any other. However, after a while, Emily began to start listening in on The Rejects' conversation. "We're finally halfway through the week!" Jessica says, "this week has been dragging on forever!".
"Maybe for you" Wyatt says, "it's been a fun week for me".
"Yeah, that figures" Jessica says, "you two started dating finally. But the rest of us are still having boring lives".
"No, just you" Aeris says, "Jackson and I are still dating too".
"WE ARE!?" Jackson panics.
"Hey, Wyatt" Aeris says, "how about another double date?".
"WHAT!?" Jackson panics.
"Really?" Emma asks, "I mean, I was thinking...".
"What is it, Emma?" Wyatt asks.
"I was thinking that maybe we could go on a regular date?" Emma asks, softly. "We haven't gone to the festival again yet, and I'd hate for you to have to buy those passes to only go once... so I was thinking that maybe we can...".
"Definitely!" Wyatt says quickly, "I'm down! Should we go on Friday, after school? That way, we don't have to worry about leaving early on the last day of the festival".
"When is the last day?" Jackson asks.
"Saturday" Wyatt says. "They begin to close everything during the evening of the last day, or so I've heard. Apparently, they plan on holding a concert on the last day too".
"Really?" Jessica asks.
"Yeah" Wyatt says, then pauses for a second. "Wait, I have a better idea. Emma, do you wanna go on both Friday and Saturday? Date on Friday, then see the concert together on Saturday?".
"Yeah!" Emma says, "I'd love too!".
"Lucky..." Jessica says.
"Well, it looks like you got lucky too, Jackson" Aeris says, "you've avoided a date".
"Yes!" Jackson says as he pumps his fist into the air. Then he looks over at Aeris and noticed she was laughing, but her face also expressed disappointment. It was like she was fake laughing to try and avoid how she really felt. Now Jackson felt guilty "... You know" Jackson says, "if you want to go on a real date, try not pairing us with those two".
Aeris looks up and asks "What do you mean?".
Jackson sighs and asks "Do you want to try a regular date... just you and me, maybe Friday or Saturday?".
"Heh heh, yeah" Aeris says, her face trying to hide a nervous smile.
"You know" Jackson says, "if you're more honest with people, and not hitting them preferably, it's easier for people to understand what you really want".
"What do you mean?" Aeris asks.
"Ah, never mind..." Jackson says. As Aeris begins to look down, Jackson says "So... Saturday then?".
A smile grew on Aeris's face as she tried to hide the redness of her cheeks. "Y-Yeah" she says.
"You're ridiculous" Jackson thinks to himself. "If you were more honest, then I would've asked you out sooner. Instead, you have to act like the other two idiots...".
"Definitely strange people..." Emily thinks to herself as she listened to their conversation. "As if I should talk to people like that! Why would I ever associate myself with people that are this strange?".
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