Meeting The Enemy

Blonde and grumpy were the first two things that came in mind when Terrance met Felicity.

Truth was, he only knew of the student council's secretary for two things and two things alone: one, her haters whom often complained about her bossy attitude, and two, her devotees who often claimed that her frequently aching back was from carrying the entire student body with the amount of things she accomplished.

As for ever speaking to her personally, he had no such experiences. He was unfamiliar with the sound of her voice or even what she was like as a person.

Anyone could see how it was a bit of a stretch to assume Terrance had feelings for Felicity, despite her reigning popularity as a student officer. But his beloved senior had the dangerous habit of stretching reality to accommodate her imagination, so he wasn't surprised that she had come to the conclusion.

Still.

Rose's strangeness, he was definitely acquainted with. As for Felicity's own unusual traits, well, he was baffled, finding it hard to adjust to another person who was almost the complete opposite of what he liked.

He was just sincerely, wholly, unmistakably baffled.

In fact, Terrance had no idea what the visibly stressed-out blonde was doing, her hands-on approach of settling plans with all the school's clubs unfit for her high position in the council.

Pleasing Ambrosia's vision of his ideal love story seemed to be harder than he expected. From his experiences so far, he seemed to be a natural at attracting others, but chasing those who were repelled by him? Not so much.

In fact, he lived by the one rule that he wouldn't give a person who looked down on him a second thought, he would just move on with his life and not waste another breath. Unless they used brute force on him which would inevitably force him in a never-ending trap of compliance. Something he hadn't experienced since Ambrosia's arrival.

In general, he just didn't like involving himself with difficult people.

But there he was, walking up to the frustrated secretary like he wasn't in love with the most doting person in existence. All eyes were on him, his persona's reign already reaching its third day. In a short span of time, he was able to turn the general opinion on him, although plenty were still skeptical.

"Seniors, is there anything I can help with?" He offered kindly, head hung low in a show of respect.

The sports club's president was one of the people he managed to win over with his artificial charm. To be fair to him, he did work his ass off participating in club activities and doing unnecessary extra work to accumulate favor. But something told him the turn of attitude had more to do with his looks than his recent behavior, considering how much she draped herself over his sweaty frame in the middle of warm-ups.

Terrance was uncomfortable with her touch, more than he was with his classmates' and apparently new friends' affectionate coddling, but he endured the discomfort with the image of Ambrosia's proud face flashing in his mind.

So there he was, attempting to reap his rewards as Naomi, the president and appointed mother of the bulky airheads official, introduced him to Ambrosia's exasperated blonde rival. The exhaustion radiating from Felicity drained even his adrenaline-pumped body.

Terrance almost felt sorry for her, knowing the extent of her responsibilities. Almost.

It wasn't his fault the student council was incompetent, after all.

"Thank you for the offer, but you aren't the one who needs to be working. Unfortunately for me, no one seems to wants to do their work right now... or ever, in fact." She complained languidly. The annoyance in her voice the was the only thing convincing Terrance she wasn't a corpse yet, hidden in a casket, and buried six-feet under.

She certainly looked like one—he corrected himself—she looked like she wanted to be one, dreading her never-ending to-do list and even more so the people who've done nothing to help her out with it.

"I'm glad the sports club is so understanding, Naomi. Don't even get me started on the dispute between the theater club and the programming club. I don't know why I'm the one that has to deal with those melodramatic hellhounds, but of course they threw me the job once they realized how taxing it would be." She ranted, most of her words entering the prodigy's ear and leaving the other. Naomi seemed invested, however, sharing words of empathy every now and then.

Just like that, Terrance wasn't even part of the conversation anymore. Excluded. Non-existent.

Never had he felt so infuriated over such trivial things. The prodigy's new persona came with new goals, he supposed. Even his patience, utterly worn out and abused, had its limits once given a taste of autonomy.

So Terrance persisted.

"A dispute, huh? May I ask what it's about, senior?" He asked, almost hitting himself on the face for using the title he often used on Rose on another person, the one she thought he was in love with nonetheless.

"You can call it a territory dispute of some sort. They're fighting for the biggest area like a bunch of warmongers."

He tilted his head to the side, imitating an oblivious puppy. He hoped his show of innocence would melt Felicity's hardened walls even by just a little bit. "Is that so? What do they need the biggest area for though?"

"Well, the theater club is planning a performance for their culmination event, but the programming club needs the space to set up their monitors and have a gaming showcase. I tried to settle things between them in a civilized manner, but so far, the heads of each club have only been unbearably obnoxious in their own ways."

"In that case, maybe I can come with you and help out?"

Terrance was as shocked as his club president and the secretary once he heard the words leave his mouth, his rationality catching up to his actions much too late. He wanted to retract the statement, but realized that it had to be done if he was going to keep Ambrosia happy.

He honestly had no idea what he was doing, helping Ambrosia pursue Hugh. But he realized that refusing to do so would be sabotaging their comfortable relationship, telling her that he so badly desired to stand in the way of her and the subject of her adoration would probably cause him a lot of pain beyond just physical ones.

So he clenched his teeth, kept his smile tight. "Yeah. I want to contribute to the school as much as I can, and I want to lessen your load as the student council's most diligent worker."

She looked perplexed, thoughts frozen somewhere midair. In a split second, the crankiness returned to her face, but with a hint of something more accepting. "Stop buttering me up. And call me Felicity like a normal person."

He felt proud in a way, but he knew not to let his own hopes up.

Felicity looked like she had questions, but she only spared him a skeptical glance before looking away to massage the back of her neck.

"Look, I'm grateful for the offer, but if you're only doing this because you're interested then I'm telling you now that your chances are lower than zero." She clarified, eyes narrowed in suspicion. He noticed the disgust in her face as she uttered out the words. He knew then that many must've tried to catch a date with her in the false pretense of helping out, and he had to use all the self-discipline he'd learned throughout the years not to return her disgust with even more malice.

Presumptuous, that was what she was. How could he have his eye on anyone else but Ambrosia? Heaven on earth, the girl was, how could he even spare such lowly beings a second glance when she existed so gracefully in his life?

He understood the defensiveness, however. So he let it go. Surely, he would've done the same if a notorious-cold-blooded-genius-turned-charming-prince-overnight approached him with an offer that screamed ingenuity.

Not to mention, it gave him hope that Felicity was interested in Hugh. Rose implied in the past that the two were close and that alone gave the blonde a natural advantage over Rose.

Maybe he couldn't steal Ambrosia from Hugh yet, but he could be the catalyst to Felicity stealing Hugh from Ambrosia.

Terrance tried his best to hide the fact that he was only using her. She didn't seem to buy it, the elephant in the room still unacknowledged.

"How do you plan to help me? I'm sure this metamorphosis of yours is garnering good feedback, but not even the heads of the student council were able to convince those two club presidents to find a compromise. I don't see how you can change anything, Hunton."

Ah. He didn't think this far ahead.

Terrance had no idea. He'd only begun talking to his classmates and a select few of his clubmates, but to speak to his seniors, ones he'd never met beforehand seemed a bit...

In other words, what kind of miracle was he hoping to pull?

When he felt his timidity rise, he promptly pushed it down. He'd always been a meek kid, that much hadn't changed and would never change. However, now he had reason to pretend he felt no such shame.

He gave the two girls a practiced smile, mimicking the one he'd seen on Hugh Windsor's punchable face much too many times.

It wasn't the smile of contentment he usually had when Rose was resting her head on his shoulder as he read through new editions of his favorite horror novel. It wasn't the wild grin he sported whenever Rose successfully taunted him into participating in her shenanigans. It held no semblance to the twinkle in his eyes whenever he was shy from her praise, her fondness for complimenting him proving to be both heaven and hell.

No, as he tried to pitch his capabilities and get through the two with the assistance of his good-looks, he felt nothing but cunning and manipulative.

It didn't make him sick as he expected it to, a plan that sabotaged the plan that was supposed to sabotage Hugh and Felicity's romantic interest in each other brewing in his mind.

The secretary looked to be softening by the minute, as if she was actually hoping to hear a solution from him, the desperate need for help clear as day in her eyes.

He realized then that if he could go as far as to convince the unapproachable Felicity that he had the cure to all her stresses then he might as well see what else he could do.

"I can only offer to assist with your tasks, lighten your load. By experiencing the conflict firsthand, I might be able to provide solutions."

Terrance paused, realizing that he let out his truer self in a moment of recklessness. He sounded cold, calculated, which would've made Felicity all the more suspicious of his intentions.

But instead, she just nodded at him and wordlessly left the room.