Page XX - Finding Him

~~***~~

"But... what can I do?" Ray is just a broken man underneath the facade of his face that he constantly shows to everyone. "All I can do is keep these feelings inside and just... let my own self discover on what I'm going to do with it."

Even now, after discovering the 'killer' of his mother and the reason of his demise, he still manages to put up a sorrow smile to wash away the pain that he's currently drowning of.

"Ray! Practice will start in five minutes! Go change!" A member of the basketball club called out to him.

"Yeah. I'll be there!" Underneath all that bravado, there's an incredibly intense rage just building inside of him. That's gradually becoming more and more difficult to contain.

~~***~~

Anastasia Veilyn was lurking around the campus to find out who is Theodore Payne. She began to ask questions which raised the eyebrows of those being questioned.

Friend? Brother? Lovers? Or a stalker? She didn't care for the opinions of those who she questioned but only to gather enough information on how to repay someone for what he did for her. But of course, she didn't want to bother Theodore with her selfish reasons for the gossips to run rampant around the school. "I'm part of the newspaper club." Is what she would always say to protect her and him on the wave of gossip that overtakes the whole academy.

To no avail, she didn't get that much knowledge for Theodore. "Let's see..." Anastasia whipped out the notebook from her bag and opened it. A half a page of information on Theodore Payne. "Theodore Payne... the information I wanted to know... birthday, unknown. Family and heritage, unknown. Known friends... unknown. Favorite things on anything... unknown. This man is just a giant box of mystery isn't he..?"

Most of the notes Anastasia gathered all about was about how introverted he was and how much he hates talking to anyone. "I just wanted news not bad news..." Anastasia took a sigh and chuckled. "How interesting. Most of Theodore's daily routine was to go to school, attend every class he can and take a break whenever he can at... the music club room? I never thought that the school's Madonna allowed a man to go into the music club? Or is it the second music club?" Without hesitation, Anastasia stood up and went straight to the music club room.

Of course she didn't want to believe that he was a part of Victoria's club room so she went to the other music club room.

But all she saw there were the people having an existential crisis and questioning life if they really want to pursue music. As soon as she saw that, she slammed the door. She tried to regain her composure by inhaling and exhaling. So she opened it once again and the image not changing and no one was even bothering to look at her. "He really is in Victoria's place."

Anastasia walked to the next music club and saw Victoria sipping some tea while talking to her friends around the couch. She looked around trying to find out where Theodore was. But he wasn't there.

She knocked on the door and Calista stood up to open the door for her. "Hello."

"Hi?" Calista responded. "Need something?"

"I'm from the newspaper club and I just wanted to ask some questions regarding Theodore Payne."

"Victoria, someone's wanting to know more about your boyfriend!"

"Eh?" Anastasia froze for a second.

"Calista!" Erina's shout was heard throughout the room. "We don't want any rumors starting! They aren't even dating!"

"Oh... hahaha..." Anastasia let out a worried laugh. But she was soon let in.

She looked around trying to figure out what the place was. It was like a place detached from the academy itself. The victorian style furniture, the amount of antiques and the way they handle manners while drinking was something... unique, in her own life.

Victoria was the first to strike up the conversation. "Newspaper... club?"

Anastasia cleared her throat then answered, "Yes. Newspaper club."

"That's interesting. We're still in the third week of the school year and you're already finding information on a new student? And I haven't heard of the newspaper club trying to gather any information on other students. So, what is it that you want... Anastasia Veilyn?"

She let out a sigh knowing that whatever she says next will just make her suspicious and incredibly creepy for searching out for a student in a random day while not being a part of her club. "...Fine. Theodore has something that I need." Before Victoria could open her mouth, Anastasia instantly intervened, "In which I will not disclose. But I don't mean anything weird."

"Hmm... You should've said that in the first place. The next words coming out of your mouth will just be me trying to analyze which is right and which one is wrong."

"I just need information on Theodore Payne, not you making a biography about my life."

Victoria's movements stopped for a second and then placed down the cup of tea on the table and looked at Anastasia. "That so? Well then, enough with the chit-chat, what is it that you need?"

"I've already got the notable ones, so I'll just have to ask, what do you think about Theodore Payne?"

"Mysterious and a talented man who wastes it on something that's called silence."

"Talented?" She began to flip pages on her notes trying to find out if anyone said the same thing but to no avail.

"Indeed, for a man who values silence over everything, he seems to be incredibly proficient in piano."

Anastasia looked again but to no avail. There's no notes that has the same thing is what Victoria was saying. "Is that the reason why Theodore joined this club?"

"No, I'm afraid not. Its a much more petty reason. He simply wanted to be here with the 'atmosphere' as he said it. He spends most of his time here sitting around reading romance book which was pretty weird seeing how uninterested he was at the concept of romance when there are women all around him in this club. Well, either way, even though I didn't really want him to enter this club despite it being an all women club and for his incredibly petty reason, I had to. His talents are something that I'd like to use sometime in the future."

"Any final thoughts on Theodore Payne? His personality, anything..?" Anastasia wanted to confirm so after a brief pause, "Relationship?"

"We are not in a relationship. Even if we did, my father wouldn't approve of it. I'm of royalty so you must know how complicated it is in the world of politics."

"Seeing how she's familiar with Theodore... then there must be others." She thought to herself.

"Ms. Anastasia?"

She let out a cough, "Sorry, I was thinking of something. Anyway, do you know any other people that might know more about Theodore?"

"Not really. But for starters, since books are his lovers, you might want to check out the library and ask the librarian about it. They're seatmates in the classroom so they might have a connection. Her name's... Celaine Edelstein."

"How do you know everyone's names..?"

"Well I'm trying to run for student council this year and if I'm unfortunate, next year. Of course its the duties of the student council to remember everyone's names." Victoria said that like it was nothing which left a dumbfounded face on Anastasia.

She pinched the bridge on her nose to release some stress and then stood up, "Thank you for the information. I'll be going there now."

Anastasia then walked out of the room with a smile on her face. Victoria was the best person that she had asked seeing how much information she garnered. "I... look like a stalker aren't I?" And it just hit her what she was just doing. "Better stick to the end then."

She then went on to the next place, the library. There were very few people in the library despite it being a huge place.