The bustle of students in the hallway buzzed with excitement for the first day of classes, all except one. D didn't know why Spire, no Clea had sent that guy after them but it had stuck in his brain like a knife that it was something he would most likely have to deal with again.
Max on the other hand, who was in the same freshman acclimation class on Mondays as D was all smiles and waves to everyone who came their way. He seemed quite the popular guy for being a freshman on the henchman track.
After the fifth person who said hi to Max on their way to class D looked to him and asked, "is there some social club you've been attending that I don't know about?" Max looked confused at the statement.
"What do you mean? The club with Val?"
D let out a sigh and said, "no, I mean how do you know so many people. We've barely been here a week." D was trying his best not to sound overly jealous at Max's popularity.
"Oh those guys? those are all people from Izzy's." D's mind flashed back to the state Max had been at the party, wondering how he was even able to remember their names, let alone their faces.
"Makes sense I guess," D said as he shrugged and they continued to class without incident.
The lecture hall for the class was a massive expanse of a room with a dark gray interior, black seats stuck into the floor in descending rows with desk pieces attached at the side.
It seemed everyone who came in the room before them had stopped at the front of the room to get some sort of introductory packet from the teacher and his teaching assistant.
D and Max trudged down to the center of the room where what they saw, no who they saw sent a shiver down D's spine as Scarlett stood next to the teacher holding a stack off papers.
D's mind was immediately filled with the dramatic clash of their last encounter, the sound of Scarlett's shrill screams as they'd fought and the weight at which he'd carried since the end of the fight when he'd attempted to drown her.
But now here she stood, pristine wavy red hair the same color as the trimmings of her red and black school uniform. Her showed no sign of bruising, maybe due to her blood control ability. She also noticed D and Max but made it less obvious as she handed both of them their class syllabus.
Their teacher for this class was an older gentleman with a rather cheery attitude and rotund figure. He just stood there and waved at all the incoming students as D and Max took their seats in a middle row side by side with one another.
D leaned over to Max and whispered to him, never taking his eyes off of Scarlett. "I told you guys Spire is sending people after us."
Max looked around feverishly, defending against a threat that was not present. "Who? Where are they?" D just nodded to the front of the room where Scarlett stood.
"Remember the fight I told you about?" D said not wanting to point at her for fear of her paying more attention to him. "It was with her, she works with Clea and the SSC. It can't be a coincidence that the first class we walk into she's here."
Max put a hand to his chin as if scratching a beard that wasn't there as he said, "well we can't leave, and with all of these people I doubt she'll do anything. Just act natural yah?"
"Act natural? That's easy for you to say Mr. Popular." D said in a teasing manner as he elbowed his friend.
As the two of them were getting situated the lights of the class began to dim and more students began sitting in the black clad seats.
The older gentleman at the front of the room walked in front of a large projector and switched it on and the board lit up with technological light. That's when he took the V-band that lay on his wrist and switched a setting to make the board register his finger as a marker and wrote 'Mr. Fredrickson, Freshman Acclimation' in big bold black letters on the board.
The man then put his V-band up to his mouth and used it as an impromptu microphone to project his voice through the speakers of the large lecture hall.
What the man said afterwards D wasn't listening as his focus belied onto Scarlett. The class went through with D barely listening to a word the old man said.
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At the end of the two hour class D was just about sick of starring at Scarlett and had worked up the courage to confront her. He'd told Max he would catch up with him in a bit as he and the rest of the students left the large lecture hall.
As Scarlett was at the front desk stuffing papers into her brown leather messengers bag D walked up from behind and stood there and, kind of creepily, watched her.
"If you have something to say go ahead and say it." Was all she said as she continued gathering her things into her bag.
"I've got nothing to say to you, except why are you following me?"
She let out a small harsh laugh as she closed the top on her bag and hiked it onto her shoulders. She turned to face D as she leaned against the small desk.
"You think I'm, following you? My god this is ridiculous" She put her hand to her forehead as shook her head as a snarky smile spread acrost her face.
"What else would you call this? You just keeping an eye me for your boss?" D said as he took a step closer to Scarlett every muscle in his body on edge.
"My boss!? I'll have you know my only boss is..." She looked around the room to make sure the rest of the students and more importantly the professor had cleared out of the lecture hall. She gritted her teeth as she said, "my only boss is the old fart teaching this class, thanks to you."
"Thanks to me? The hell are you talking about?" Her words threw off his tensed attitude as now he was just confused on what in the world she would have to blame him for.
She clenched her fist at his ignorance to her blight and began walking towards the door when she turned and said, "because of that little fight, I got kicked out of the SSC. So no, I don't have a boss."
D just stood in the classroom as Scarlett walked out, stunned at her words as he tried to process what she'd said to him. Quickly he tried to call out for her "Then why are you-" Before he could finish the words she'd already disappeared into the hall way.