Primum non nocere

Judge a person not from what you know but from what you learned. - miss_polarity

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Ring. Ring.

“Pick up the damn phone, Miss Alexandra Mille-y.”

Mrs. Harvey, their professor in Basic Calculus, hollered about the interminable buzzing of Alexandra’s phone inside her backpack. “You’re disturbing my class.” The woman in front—which technically is Alexandra’s mother—continued.

“I’m sorry, ma’am. I’ll get--”

“Just get out already.” Harvey cuts her off.

“Yes. Of course.” She pronounces and made her way out of the room with her backpack.

Situated at a safe distance away from the growing crowd of freshmen, she fished her phone out of her purse and recognized the name of her stepbrother on its screen.

She grimaced and took a deep breath before answering the call.

“What’s up, br--”

“What’s up?! Are you crazy, Eria? What are you trying to pull off, huh?”

Eria might be a beautiful name but don’t like it if it came from Harvey and Séance’s mouth. “Oh, come on, brother...”

Séance grows a snarl, “Don’t dare test my patience, Eria. Answer me truthfully. Why is Ella inside my car? And who the heck permitted you to destroy my car window, Eria?!”

She hears a crack in her brother’s voice. “Hey, now. Please don’t cry, Séance. I was not in the right mind at that time, yes. And, I’m sorry. I’ll try to compensate. Just please, get Ella home. You can do that, right?”

“No.” He answers without hesitation. He turned to his devastating car but just then, he found his and Ella’s eyes connected. He suddenly breaks out in a cold sweat. And without a doubt, a blush shows on his visage. He averts his eyeballs.

“Séance. Hey, brother! Are you still there? Hello?” Alexandra calls to his attention.

“Yes.” He replied without beating around the bush. Later, he regretted ever responding to Alexandra.

“I know you’re angry but please send the lost girl home,” she forthrightly requested.

He groaned in frustration before replying to his sister. “We’ll talk when I get home,” he says in finality.

Séance gets ahold of himself before turning around to face his uninvited guest.

“I guess I have to settle this first with your parents,” he announced upon reaching Ella’s side while looking at her parents’ uncomfortable expressions. But before he can take another step, Ella grabs his left hand.

“Primum non nocere.” She utters before finally letting go of his hand. A moment of silence—both of them stunned at what just happened. Ella directed her eyes to her parents’ location.

Séance chortles after getting a grip of himself. “Are you lecturing me, Miss Chance?” He took Ella by surprise when he suddenly leaned to the door with the intact window. “I think you need not remind me of a basic principle as such. A doctor or not, I will do you no harm, dear.”

A light brush of pink slanders Ella’s poker face. Hence, she kept herself from embarrassment by setting her sights in the other direction.

On the other hand, after their conversation, Séance walked his way to Melissa and Anthony’s track.

And after what seemed like a long time, he finally returned to the car.

“I guess, you got yourself a ride home.” He says while starting the engine. “Buckle up.”

The trip started with the car shrouded in thick silence. Halfway, Séance realized something. And right after he turned to Ella, the lady frowned out of nowhere.

His eyes surveyed where she was looking and found the chain of cars tailing them.

‘She’s not wondering why they’re following us, is she? Because if she does, then I’d have to consider she might have some kind of brain illness.’ Séance thought to himself.

He coughed to get Ella’s attention. “Seeing as you had lectured me, I believe you can now speak and tell me what happened to you, Miss Ella. I might be even help to you.”

He waits for her to say anything but instead, Ella stayed mute.

He bestowed her a glance to see if she was listening to what he said but to his dismay, Ella was still focused on the side mirror’s reflection.

Séance let the matter drop in view of the fact that Ella is not likely to talk yet.

After fifteen minutes of driving, the Chance’s mansion came in to view. As striking as it is at night, every feature of the lot is highlighted by the morning sunshine. To put it blatantly, the mansion is on par with the First-Rate, the Royal Family. It is not a witticism that the Chances are branded as the Third-Rate. However still, if not for the Second and the Third-Rate’s enormous tariff contributions, the Royal Family’s inland and foreign estates can never survive until broad daylight.

The intricate designs and schemes all over the exterior of the house and the elaborate patterns across the colossal walls which block outsiders from going in and even thinking of setting foot in its yard uninvited can seize every attention upon eyesight.

That aside, there are guard posts every ten meters—with no post left unmanned. Even closed-circuit televisions are strategically stationed left and right, outside and inside. If anything could be more appalling, that could be the sight of numerous monstrous K9 dogs.

Few kilometers left to the mansion’s gate entrance, Séance becomes aware of Ella’s distress. There came a thought of him holding Ella’s hands but he abandoned it at once. In its place, he thought of something that could distract the young lady from her thoughts. But nothing comes to mind.

Maybe, he should not busy himself thinking of the young lady’s sense of being and concern his rather. He thought to himself.

‘There is only a few minutes left till I drop Ella off. This act of accountability should be enough since there is rather a large possibility that Ella herself ordered Alexandra to massacre my window if she does not let Ella on a ride.’ He continued talking to himself.

Wrapped within his contemplation, his face grew dark.

‘If this is a childish prank Ella pulled on me, I’ll give her a taste of her own medicine and give her an ever keepsake of what it means to be punctured multiple times.’

He enthusiastically grinned at his plan of revenge. He veered the wheel to the right. They were almost to the entrance of the mansion.

As they grew closer to it, Ella seemed to get more and more agitated.

At once, they stopped in their tracks—Séance can no longer pass through the gate. He looks toward the passenger’s seat where Ella is seated. Dead-on time, their eyes connected yet again.

Her visage bursting of anxiety, her eyes threatening to shower waterworks—she impetuously entreated.

“Could you drive me to your house instead?”

“Huh?”

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Be back, XOXO