Even though we left in time towards the next lesson we still managed to get delayed by five minutes due to hallway congestion. Me and Claire walked into the classroom, completely expecting to get scolded by the Geography teacher but to our surprise Miss Turgenev wasn’t there yet.

“Ah, there you are Rora!” Ria-chan waved me over. “How did your chat go?”

I looked at Claire who just smiled. “It was pretty good.”

Emma was standing next to her sister with her arms crossed and just replied with a hmm.

“Where’s the teacher?” Claire asked the group.

“No clue.” Emma shrugged. “Pres said she didn’t get a notice that we had free study today but she went back to the student admin office to make sure.”

“Ah, alright.” Claire put down her bag and sat down next to me. “If you want we can finish that round of cards now to decide the winner.”

“Hmm, I don’t know, what if the teacher shows up?” Emma doubted Claire’s proposition.

“When did Pres leave?”

“Three minutes ago.”

“So we have at least seven to ten minutes before she gets back from the student administration.”

“I guess… You are paying for a new deck if she takes it from me though.”

“Fine, fine.”

Emma took the deck of cards from her bag as our little group formed a circle to play.

“Good luck Rora!” Ria-chan was enthusiastically watching along.

“Thanks Ria.” Emma handed me my cards.

-Hmm, this definitely could be a lot worse.-

I looked around at the other players. Emma’s poker face didn’t reveal a thing, although she did start blushing a little when she noticed I was looking at her. As for Claire, it appeared to be that she had an incredibly bad hand of cards, but then again she’s an actress for a reason. I looked back at Ria-chan and smiled. Ria wasn’t very good at most card games, especially not those where you had to hide your emotions. She was pretty much an open book there.

“Aurora, your turn.” Emma put down a card on the discard pile.

“Right.” I quickly took my turn, trying to betray as little as I could.

Sadly, at the end of the round, it was Claire who snatched victory.

“Shit, I just needed a three of hearts. Urghh” Emma threw her cards on the desk in defeat, her competitive spirit clearly showing.

I was even further away from thirty-one.

Ria was rubbing my back, not that I was sad for losing but it did feel pretty nice.

“You’ll win next time Rora!” She encouraged me, to which I just smiled.

“Well, congratulations Claire.” I congratulated the victor.

“Thank you. That was fun, we should do that more often.”

“Eh, I’d rather play with Corelia. I have the feeling she’s a lot worse at these kinds of games.” Emma took back her cards and put them in her bag.

“Hey! That’s not true.” Ria pouted.

“Wellll….” I butted in. “Remember last time we played together?”

“That was just one time!”

“And the time before that?”

“Hmmph.” She pouted even more cutely. “Next time I’ll win for sure!”

I nodded “Then let’s practice a bit at my place.”

“Ok, but only after we’ve studied though!”

“Yeah, yeah, after we’ve studied.”

Claire just watched us in silence with a content look on her face before someone pulled her attention at the back of the classroom.

“Ah, Pres, back already? That was fast.”

Pres pulled out her bottle of tea and drank from it before addressing the entire class. “Ahum,” She started. “The school administration made a slight mistake and didn’t notify us of the absence of Miss Turgenev, who is currently at home with the flu. A teacher will soon come to supervise.”

When she finished her sentence the supervising teacher walked in, to our surprise it was Miss Verde.

“Long time no see students.” She winked and walked to the front of the classroom. “Miss Turgenev didn’t leave any task for you to do, so please use this time to study. And with studying I don’t mean studying the chance to pull four aces in a row, am I clear Miss Franchimont?”

“Yes ma’am.” Claire saluted.

“Alright then, get to work.” She sat down on her chair and took some paperwork out of her bag. “Oh, and one final thing. If one of you has any questions about the titration we did last lesson period, feel free to come to me.”

After that the class started to divide in the usual study groups.

“Might as well do our homework now so we don’t have to do it at home.” I took my French bundle out of my bag.

“pfff, I didn’t bring it with me today…” Emma rested her head on the table. “Guess I’ll just sleep.”

Karin tapped her sisters’ shoulder, making her look at her.

“What’s wrong sis?”

Karin showed Emma her French bundle. “Help with mine, copy later?”

“Karin, you truly are the best sister ever.” Emma’s mood was immediately brightened.

She took out two pages and handed it two her sister. “You do these two, I’ll do the others.”

Emma nodded and got to work, while I looked at Ria.

“Can we do the s…” But before I could finish my sentence she cut me off.

“No Rora, no shortcuts, you need the practice.” She put her hands on her hips while she lectured me. -I need more stern Ria-chan in my life, she looks so cute like this!-

“Awh… not even a little bit?”

“No!” She pouted.

Her pose had me smiling from ear to ear.

“Ok, let’s do it then.” Even though we did it ‘legitimately’ we progressed pretty smoothly through the French assignment and could even get in some very good study time.

“If we revise it on Thursday you should be plenty prepared for the test on Friday!.” Stern Ria-chan had made place for beaming Ria-chan.

“Yeah, I think so too. Thanks for your guidance Ria-chan-sensei.”

“Hm hm hmm.” She mimicked the smug laugh of one of her favourite anime characters.

Riiiiinnnnggg

The bell marked the end of the third lesson period, so Miss Verde took her paperwork together and left the classroom but not before stopping next to Claire. “You’ll be coming to theatrical practice tomorrow, right?”

“Yes, Miss.” Claire happily nodded.

“Great, don’t forget to look at the script beforehand.”

“I will.”

Miss Verde nodded happily and also waved the rest of our group goodbye.

“Is it a difficult script, Claire?” I asked while taking Philosophy books ready for the next period.

“Not really, I like the part so remembering the script comes pretty natural to me.”

“What kind of role is it?”

“Hmm, the role of a tomboyish princess of a neighbouring country who falls in love with the villainess from an otome game, that villainess is actually someone who got isekai’ed.”

“Wow, they make plays like that already?”

“Someone from the writing club wrote it, it’s actually really well done. If you want to come and watch one of our rehearsals, visitors are always welcome.”

“Maybe next time.” I smiled. “But it does sound fun.”

“Uhm, Auro?” Emma poked my shoulder. When I looked up to her from my seat it was clear she was a bit nervous by the way she was shifting her balance from one leg to the other almost constantly.

“What’s wrong, Em?”

“Could I quickly speak to you for a second? Before the next class starts?”

My mind immediately started racing. -W-why does she look so nervous?-

“S-sure... Want to get out of the classroom?” I looked over to Claire again whose eyes were sparkling. She must be thinking the same as me.

“That’d be best...”

I looked at the clock, we still had approximately 10 minutes before the next lesson would start.

“Alright, let’s go.” I stood up from my seat and turned myself to the rest of the group. “We will be right back.”

Emma walked out in front of me but when I passed Claire she whispered with a smug smile “Go get ‘em tigress.” Making me blush and shake my head. -Claire, why, oh why, do you make this harder for me... -

We made our way to the more abandoned parts of the corridor without saying anything.

Close to the room we got to know a little better yesterday morning Emma stopped and turned around. I looked at her in anticipation. “S-so what did you want to talk to me about?”

“About two things actually...well... it’s mostly about the phone call yesterday.”

“Mhmm...” I nodded.

“H-have you asked your vampire friend already?”

“About?”

“Y’know, the meeting that I asked for…”

“Ah! Right! No, sorry, I haven’t yet but I can send him a message now so I don’t forget.”

I took my phone out of my pocket but waited to type anything until after her second point.

“And, uhm… s-secondly... I said something yesterday which I probably shouldn’t have… if it made you uncomfortable or anything because I feel like there’s this awkwardness in between us now and I really don’t like that… p-please don’t hate me…” Emma’s voice cracked and a tear ran down her cheek.

My mind quickly flipped through the phone call but came out blank.

“Hey, hey, Em…” I ran towards her and took her in for a big embrace. “Shhh, easy now… what exactly are we talking about?”

“Y-y’know the g-good girl t-thing.” She sniffed.

“Ah.” My cheeks went slightly red when I remembered the scene. “Why do you think I’d hate you for that?”

“I… I don’t know…”

“Is that why you have been so distant today?”

“I thought you disliked it, and because you never said anything about it, and then you went to talk with Claire… and... so my mind went... “

“Not at all. I’d never hate you for that. As for the Claire thing… It's something that I just needed to discuss with her. I’ll tell you what it is in time but now is just not the moment. I need a while to prepare…” I rubbed her back to calm her down even more. “How could I ever hate my best friend for something silly like that? The same best friend who also is the only one to know my secret?” -For how confident she looks in a group or on a sports field, Emma is actually pretty insecure. But that’s one part of the thing that makes Emma the Emma I love….-

“I know… rationally it doesn’t make any sense… but my head just goes places sometimes…”

“Mhmm, I can understand that…Do you feel better now?”

“Yeah…a lot... Thanks Auro…”

“No need to thank me, it was partially my fault as well. I’m just happy things are cleared out.”

“Me too…”

“Although maybe we should stop making a habit of getting emotional here.” I motioned towards the notorious dusty room.

“It’s a good place to get emotional though…it’s nice and quiet.”

“Good point.” I smiled. “Ready to get back to class?”

“I think so.”

I stopped hugging Emma and gave her a clean handkerchief to wipe her tears.

“Luckily I don’t use any make-up.” She accepted the handkerchief with a laugh and started wiping her face.

I wanted to comment that she didn’t need it anyway because she was already beautiful enough without, but I decided not to and I just smiled and waited for her to finish.

“And for what it’s worth, I really didn’t dislike being called a good girl…” I was too focussed on not calling her cute that it just flopped out of my mouth.

-Brain, why do you do this?!-

Emma stopped halfway into wiping her face, with her cheeks turning beet red.

“G-g-g-good to k-know…”

-Why brain, whyyyyyyyy!?-