Helia and the desk girl held a glaring competition for a long time. Neither of them was giving in.
The mushroom girl saw the deputy principal coming into the hall and sensing the commotion, coming straight to them,
"Mo-Momo, let's just go. You don't need to say anything to these b*tches. They are just jealous."
"That's right. They're not pretty and rich like you. They are just scared." The other girl immediately chimed in for reassurance, but she was shut off with a hand by the desk girl.
"Can you shut up? I know that I am rich and prettier than them, okay? Don't need to remind me." Then she turned her eyes back to Helia and sneered, "You know, my papa's rich, and he has donated so much money to this school. I can remove both of you from this school just by asking him."
"Then why don't you do it?" Helia didn't look scared or angry and told asked with a straight face. "Call your papa."
The desk girl widened her eyes from shock and anger and gestured for one of her side chicks to hand her pink, overly decorated phone. She then waited for Helia to beg her not to call her papa, but that didn't happen.
"What are you waiting for? Ring, ring." Helia smiled sarcastically and leaned into her seat, looking like she was watching someone order food.
Just as the girl was about to call, the deputy principal came and stood behind her, "What is going on in here?"
"Nothing, in particular, madam." Helia brought out a smile that can fool any adult and continued, "She just insulted my first ever friend here and she was just about to apologise." She turned to the desk girl with the same smile and raised her eyebrows.
The deputy turned the attention to the desk girl, "Is that true, Sekijou-san?"
"Aunti-"
The deputy principal harshly shut her off, "There is no 'aunti' here." She then put her glasses in position and crossed her arms, "So, did you insult Takanashi-san or not? And stop standing there arrogantly. You are disgracing our family." She was very dominant, and everyone could tell she'd detect any lies.
The desk girl and her side chicks stood in front of the deputy like little kids getting scolded as they looked away. "...Maybe."
"Apologise, now." The deputy commanded.
The desk girl turned to Helia and spoke in a whisper, "...Sorry."
"Louder." Her aunt demanded from behind, and she fought the urge to roll her eyes and curse at her for embarrassing her in front of the whole school.
"Sorry..." The desk girl repeated.
Helia titled her head to one side and rested her head on her hand. "Why are you apologising to me? Apologise to Kyohi."
The girl was one step away from jumping on the ignorant transfer student and beating her to her heart's content.
"I'm sorry, okay? You happy now?" She then finally faced Kyohi and apologised, full of anger.
The deputy huffed, seeing her niece acting like that. "What are you? Seven? Making troubles like this all the time instead of studying and getting better marks. Stupid girl." After saying that, she swirled towards the door, "Follow me to the office. The three of you."
"This is not over. You're going to regret this." The desk girl spat out, specifically to Helia and walked out of the cafeteria with her side chicks ready to blame everything on her.
"Enjoy your punishment." Helia waved her hand as if she was sending off her best friend and looked at the girl sitting in front of her. "You ready to go?"
Kyohi asked timidly, "Go where?"
"Just trust me and come with me." Helia smiled mischievously and held Kyohi's hand as soon as they were done packing their things.
They ran down the corridor with their skirts dancing in the wind lively. They ran up the stairs leading to the rooftop in the peach blossom wing within five minutes of running and took several deep breaths to regulate their breathing.
"Isn't this place nice?" Helia asked the girl behind her, breathing heavily.
The school had three wings namely, cherry blossom, plum blossom and peach blossom, forming a triangle. Cherry and Plum were for classes, while peach was for laboratory. Hence, people visiting the wing, especially the rooftop, were significantly few. Also, many students and even teachers did not like to come to the wing because it was a little creepy.
After Kyohi's breathing was back to normal, she looked around the place. In between the three wings, peach was the tallest and had the best view of all of them. The wing faced north and was quite dark, but in the far, they can see the beautiful sky with mountain tops covered in soft clouds, nothing blocking the view.
Kyohi walked to the edge as she twirled in wonder, "I've been in this school since junior high school, but I've never been here... I didn't even know there were mountains in this city."
Once Kyohi put her hands at the fence twice as tall as them, Helia came to her side. "Yeah, I also didn't know. I actually found this place last Friday when the principal showed around the school. I saw that they keep the rooftop door open for the two, so I guessed that they also keep this one open too, and it did. Not so creepy anymore, eh?"
"It's not." The girl replied without diverting her eyes from the spectacular view she missed for three years. What a waste.
The two girls stood there admiring the view for a long time comfortably without talking until the bell rang, informing them that lunchtime was over in five minutes and they should get going.
"Hey, sorry about what happened in the cafeteria." Helia told the girl who gave her a confused look.
"Why are you saying that?"
Helia looked away feeling a little guilty. "I kind of feel like it was my fault that they picked on you. I might have annoyed them at break time... So yeah, sorry I got you into this."
Kyohi looked down at her feet from apology and muttered under her breath, "I'm the one who got you into this mess."
Because Helia was looking away when Kyohi spoke and also the wind blew hard at that particular moment, she didn't hear the girl speaking, "Did you say something, Kyohi?"
Kyohi looked up from the ground and smiled faintly to the other as to hide what she had previously said, "Nothing."
"Okay then. Let's go." Helia opened back the door and gestured to Kyohi to go before. As they walked down the stairs, she spoke to the other, "I think eating lunch here would be nicer than in the cafeteria where it's crowded and noisy. It's got a fantastic view and most of all it is very private and quiet. What do you think?"
"I also like that idea." Kyohi didn't look up to answer. She also sounded not that excited but Helia didn't dig into it.
The two of them walked the corridor in the cherry blossom wing along with many students in the same grade.
Helia asked when they reached Helia's classroom, "Oh yeah, before you go, which class are you in? I'm in 1-D."
"1-I." Kyohi's voice was very fragile.
"Okay. I'll visit you after class. Wish me luck, I have chemistry now." Helia smiled brightly as she got into class.
Kyohi nodded and smiled daintily before merging into the crowd of people going to their classes. Her small figure disappeared within a second of blending in.
Helia sat in her seat after putting away her lunch bag and removing her textbooks. She looked around the class and found that people still gave her weird looks though she had been with them for hours.
When the chemistry teacher stepped in and everyone sat back in their seats, she realised that three seats were empty.
So she asked her desk mate she didn't know the name of. "Who isn't here?"
The boy looked at her as if she was an alien but answered her nevertheless. "Sekijou guys."
"Who's that?" She asked back in a whisper.
"Momo Sekijou, Kana Satou and Hina Miyazaki. I heard that they are in punishment." The boy told her and opened his textbook.
"Hmm. Thanks." So those were the names of the b*tches. Although she didn't know which one of the side chicks were named Kana. she didn't care. She'll figure it out one day. She's got time. "And what was your name again?"
"It's Rio. Rio Yagi." He replied. He seemed a little offended that the girl she'd sat next to for hours didn't even remember his name.
"Your name seems easier to remember. I'm Helia by the way. Nice to meet you." She handed out her hand uncomfortably since the teacher was teaching and because they were sitting.
"I know your name. Nice to meet you too." The boy also uncomfortably shook her hand and smiled.
From there, Rio helped Helia a lot by translating the difficult words she didn't understand and giving her past notes and explaining things in English.
With that, Helia survived the afternoon lessons, chemistry and literature.
When the bell rang, Helia sprung up to her feet and began packing the things in a hurry to meet up with Kyohi.
Rio spoke hesitantly to her as she knew where she was headed, "You know, I don't really want to bother you in who you choose to become a friend with but..."
She stopped what she was doing and asked, "But what?"
Rio swallowed the excess saliva in his mouth before talking, "I don't think staying with Kyohi Takanashi is a good idea..."
"Why's that?" Helia questioned.
He grabbed his hoodie nervously. "Because," Just as he was about to say, three piercing glares came from the door. "Just don't stay with her or you'll be the next one."
With that, he hastily gathered his belongings and rushed out of the class with panic and fright.
"Next one in what?" Helia asked the question his back but she never got the answer. "Hmm, weird."
She shrugged it off and ran out of the house, not sensing the glares on her Kyohi who was just coming out of her classroom like a ghost.
"Let's go!"