3Disclaimer: I do not own MBAV, nor any characters that appear within.
Aeternal
Chapter 3: Almost First Day
"Deloria!" Gma called from the bottom of the stairs.
Deloria put down her book and started toward the door.
The young woman in question quickly put her book aside and opened up the door. "Coming," she called, so that her guardian knew that she was on her way. She trotted down the steps and found Gma in the living room, holding a bookbag in her hand.
"Time for school," she said smiling like it was the best thing in the world, even though she knew perfectly well that it wasn't.
Deloria had to resist the urge to groan. She had greatly enjoyed her week without homework or teachers or any other students. "Can't I be homeschooled instead?" She walked down a few stairs and took a seat on the step.
Gma shook her head. "Nope! If Benny has to go, then you do." Her grin warmed up a bit. "Besides, you need to make some friends." Her fingers were twitching; Deloria was sure that if she had been close enough, she would have wrapped her up in a tight hug.
The girl in question saw the motion and started back up the stairs. "I'll go," she replied begrudgingly, then stopped at the top. Something had occurred to her "Why didn't you send me with Benny if I was going to his school?"
"I have some last minute paperwork to fill out, and I thought you'd enjoy the extra sleep on this joyous day." Gma smiled coyly and waved Deloria up the steps. "Go on. Hurry up. You'll be really late then."
Deloria shrugged. "Who knows, I might not even technically start till tomorrow," she murmured to herself while ascending the stairs. "In fact, I'll bet that's exactly what will happen."
()()()()()
Naturally, she was correct. The administration filled in Deloria's information and asked her to choose her classes. She was stuck with Art 1 and two Study Halls in addition to her required classes. She would have preferred not to have Art at all, but there weren't too many choices, and she couldn't have three study halls. Tomorrow would be fun.
In the car on the way back home, Gma asked Deloria to read her schedule to her for the fifth time. Deloria humored her her and read the first column again. "Study Hall, Chemistry, English, Geometry, Lunch, Study Hall, Art, History."
"Sounds like a full day, sweetheart. Are you excited?"
"Not really. It's going to be pretty embarrassing." She paused. "Actually, probably more on the annoying side. I've been the new girl in school before. It's a lot of not-so-secret looks and whispers. It gets kinda old."
Gma rubbed Deloria's shoulder with one hand. "I'm sorry, sweety."
Deloria shrugged. "You get used to it."
()()()()()
"So then the ninja pops around the corner and says 'Hi-ya' and something else in Japanese, but there are no subtitles in the game so I have no clue what, but I think it was something like 'You killed my father, prepare to die!'"
Ethan rolled his eyes at his best friend. He had been playing the same game, and the scene that Benny was blathering about to their non-geek friends was barely two seconds of screentime total. Ethan proceeded to stew in his irritation for the rest of the trip off campus, which was basically ten minutes of listening to Benny rattle on and on and on.
And on and on and on.
He kept rattling to just Ethan as they said goodbye to the gang. If he didn't stop soon Ethan was going to pop.
And on and on and on.
"STOP!" Ethan froze in the middle of the street and shouted. "Just tell me what you're really thinking about."
"What do you mean?" Benny replied, unperturbed.
"You! All you've been talking about is a video game that wasn't even that good and making it sound like it was the next coming. Why don't you just tell me what's really going through your head. Is it your new sister?"
"She's not my sister." His reaction was so fast that Ethan practically had whiplash. He blinked a few times to reset.
Ethan raised an eyebrow. Looks like he'd hit the start button. Now to play the game till he won. "Really?"
"Yes really. She's just a girl that my grandma happens to be fostering right now. If anything, she'd be my foster… aunt." He made a pretty disgusted face and shook his head. Ethan didn't have to be a mindreader to know that he'd had a pretty unpleasant image in his head.
"Gross. But that's not what was on your mind?" They started walking again.
Benny looked sideways at his friend and sighed. "It wasn't, but it does bring up a good point. Like you said before, the feelings I'm having, this whole situation, it's illegal."
Ethan was dumbfounded. That's what he had been thinking about this whole time? "I said that you were screwed because having a relationship beyond platonic is illegal. The feelings themselves seem perfectly normal. You like her."
"But it's wrong," Benny insisted. Ethan could tell that his friend was only trying to convince himself of that. "I can't…"
They stopped in front of their houses. "Benny," Ethan sighed. Benny was hopeless. "I think that you need to talk to Deloria. Get to know her better, and if the feelings go beyond just… attraction, tell her."
Benny stared at him for a bit, thinking, then nodded slightly. "Okay."
()()()()()
"Deloria, why don't you show your schedule to Benny. Maybe he had some of the same teachers," Grandma said over dinner.
Benny blinked at his grandmother. "Huh?" Spaghetti was dripping from his mouth. He'd flat-out refused to look at Deloria all afternoon, which, to be fair wasn't hard when she'd hidden in her room the entire time. He couldn't help but wonder what she was doing in there. It's not like she had a computer or anything yet, only those musty old books.
"Deloria is going to your school. She starts tomorrow."
"So Benny's a Junior?" Deloria asked, twirling the noodles on her fork. Benny fixated on the motion. He slurped on his dinner and choked a little bit.
Grandma nodded. "He and Ethan both."
"Ethan? The friend he had with him last week?"
"And whose house he's been hiding at all week," Grandma replied pointedly.
Benny coughed and pointed his fork at his grandma and said, "I resent that. E and I have been tearing up Ni-our homework." He backed off quickly and stuffed a meatball in his mouth.
"Nice save," Grandma replied. "So how is Ninja Pirates III?"
"Pretty awesome," Benny answered, a grin plastered on his face.
"Mmmmmhmmmm." Grandma took a bite of food and stared at her grandson. "Did you get your homework done?"
"Yes," Benny replied, completely honest. He and Ethan had actually finished their work at lunch. He switched his attention to Deloria, she was pulling her hair back behind her so that her hair wasn't mixing with her food. "So, what classes do you have?"
She recited them to him, in order, with little to no emotion, much like she did earlier with Grandma. He listened attentively, without trying to seem attentive. He found that he really liked to hear her talk.
"I can show you around tomorrow, if you want," he offered, feeling very awkward as he did so. He had a hard enough time looking at her, or talking to her. How was he going to manage walking her around his school?
She looked a bit shocked, crystal eyes latched on him and freezing his more cognitive functions. "Sure," she replied eventually. "That would be nice."
End of Chapter 3.
Sorry that this has taken so long. Been busy.
Beta: TiredofBeingNice
Ever,
Yumi