Stupid Hallways...

(PMed you Echo c:)

Darn, when the kids in his class said dangerous, they were not kidding.

Jack quickly shuffled past the bustling crowd and the broken windows, trying his best not to step on broken glass pieces or books. Seriously, it had only been a minute since the bell rang and he was already being pushed by the crowd, similar to a wave. Hearing a huge crash from ahead, he winced as he witnessed multiple people get thrown onto the ground, hearing their cry of anguish and pain. However, all he could was sigh tiredly and carry on, as an attempt to ignore the feeling of guilt in his heart. To Jack, this place was like a war zone: an area where no one was safe. Was it possible to make out of here alive? If so, would he become a legend? Suddenly, his thoughts were interrupted when he was abruptly pushed backwards, almost tripping over his own feet. Luckily though, he managed to catch his balance and made a point to push up his glasses, planning to give the person an irritated look. To his surprise though, he looked down to see a fallen girl who looked rather upset, with papers and books scattered around her. Ah, poor her, he thought as he stared at the girl in wonder, "She must be a victim of an attack." Wait a second...what was he thinking? The girl obviously needed some help picking up her stuff. Unfortunately though, Jack was not a very talkative person and all he could mutter out was this: "Oh um...uh are you okay?"

~Two other people bumped into... Eh, ok ^^

A mix of blue and indigo looked at the two people she bumped into. "Oh, um, sorry," Cordelia apologized, though not really aiming for that red-headed girl. She looked up at the guy who was still standing somehow and said, "I'm ok, it's just that--". She was cut off at the sound of crumpling paper. Cordelia took a peak at where the noise was, just to see that math homework she stayed up all night on. "Merde!" Cordelia cursed in French, her first language. She hastily tried to pick up all her textbooks and papers, as she crawled around the floor.

Cordelia then remembered what that other girl she bumped into said, "Watch where you're going, initiate." She stared at the red-head before saying in a somewhat hurt tone, "No need to be annoyed. The rest of us are trying to get to class too, not just you..." Cordelia then suddenly perked up at the rhyme she unconsciously made. "Haha! That rhymed, too and you! Oh wait, bad time for that..."

Merde? Was this girl French? That's interesting; he didn't meet many French people in his old schools. But why was the initiate cussing? Was she hur- oh wait, never mind. The girl was upset because a piece of paper, which he assumed was homework, got crushed under the mess, causing the paper to be useless. Bending down to help the girl, he looked at her apologetically. "Oh um, I'm sorry. If you wish, I can help you copy everything down on another piece of paper now," he tried offering, handing a stray book to the girl, "I can't guarantee we'll make it before the late bell rings but we can at least try." To be honest. Jack would have actually preferred to go his next class right now but he would feel bad if he felt the girl all by herself. Not only was it rude but it would also make him feel guilty all day long. After all, it was sort of his fault that she dropped everything. He should have caught her or something.

Wait, merde? Oh, merde, Cordelia spoke French in public again. "Hehe, sorry. It's a bad habit," she laughed, gratefully taking a book from Jack. "The name's Cordelia, nice to meet you! Wait, you'd really do that? Oh my gosh, thanks so much!" She blew a stray hair out of her face as she stood up, looking at the mess that fell out of her hands. Looking back now, couldn't Cordelia just put all that stuff in her backpack? She smacked her forehead, amused at herself.

The blonde took a look at the teared paper that had a dirty footprint stamped on the front."Oh hey, wait,"she said, holding the paper a bit higher,"I can still kinda see my answers. Eh, hopefully my notebook is still ok." Cordelia turned to Jack, a delighted smile on her face. "Thanks so much for offering to help! Most would usually just apologize and run to class."

Despite his usual expressionless face, he had to smile at this girl's bubbly personality. She was quite amusing, if he said so himself, watching her face-palm herself with exasperation. "It's no problem," he replied back, chuckling, "I want someone to do the same for me so..." He then paused, assuming that the girl already got the idea. To be honest, Jack wasn't used to discussing long topics with other people. He usually spoke in brief, quick statements or just a gesture from his body. But in a normal casual conversations like this? Not really. "I'm Jack," he said politely, offering his hand, "It's a pleasure to meet you." He then picked up another fallen book and placed it inside Cordelia's backpack, being careful not to crush the other items in her bag. He wouldn't want to ruin another piece of work from the girl, would he? Of course not.

A light laugh left her throat."I see. I'll be sure to help you if anything like this..."She gestured to the papers and books on the floor. "...happens to you, Jack." Cordelia hoped she could keep that promise. She was never really good at them.

Only about five papers were remaining on the floor. Cordelia swiftly picked them up and neatly(well, at least tried to)put them in her backpack along with the book Jack had put in. "Hey, that's the first time I've seen you smile so far," Cordelia noted, seeing Jack around a bit, but quickly covered her mouth in fear that she had offended him. "Oh, um... S-sorry about that, er..."

Jack's smiled wavered slightly, though he tried to keep it stable. Although Cordelia's statement was legitimately true, no one really bothered to tell him that before. She said it so rather bluntly, so familiarly. It was...just like him. At least, in the blunt quality anyways. Her cheerful personality was nowhere near his calm stature. "I don't really smile often," he admitted, dropping his smile to his usual face, "I prefer to keep to myself, as you can probably tell by now." Looking at the ground uncomfortably, he searched for any stray papers, hoping to distract himself from the awkward mood. But the girl had already placed everything in her bag and he had no choice but to...talk "Would you like me to walk you to your class?" he offered, gesturing down the empty hallways. It was a strange sight to see: the bare hallways. It was usually crowded and chaotic, with no signs of peace or tranquility. But now....it was just those two. He looked at his watch. The bell could ring any second now.

"Aw, Jack! You should've kept that smile, it looked great on you," she pouted childishly. An awkward silence followed the two as Cordelia heard the faint chatter of the group of spirits she found out about on her first day of school. A nuisance was what she called them, but she didn't have complete control over her mediumship, thus only to be able to hear them and not actually talk to them. She remembered that one teenage spirit of a girl who went to Beata when it first started. Apparently, Jack looked a lot like her boyfriend from long ago, so that spirit doted over him every second she got.

After Cordelia snapped out of her dreamlike state, she heard Jack offer walking her to class. Her watch that she hadn't worn until today shown that at any minute, the bell would ring. "Oh my gosh," Cordelia said in a quick blur, a French accent now showing. "Oh my gosh, I'm going to be late. Wait, we're both going to be late. Oh, if only I put all that stuff in my backpack we wouldn't have wasted time picking it all up! Pressé, suivez-moi!"* She quickly grabbed his hand and practically dragged him through the hallways.

*Pressé, suivez-moi=Hurry, follow me! I used google translate for this, and so will all french words will be from now on.

"Aw, Jack! You should've kept that smile, it looked great on you."

Before he could help himself, Jack burst into small chuckles, amused by the girl's attitude. "Why, thank you," he replied, grinning slightly, "Your smile is quite beautiful as well." It was a simple compliment, yes, but being the observant person Jack was, it didn't take him very long to realize how forward it sounded. Slowly, the boy felt himself heat up, feeling feverishly uncomfortable. What did he just say? Was he stupid or something? What if the girl assumed he was a creep or something? Jack then shivered slightly, mentally cringing at the thought. He could only hope that Cordelia would continue her bubbly attitude and shrug it off as a friendly compliment. After all, they only met for 5 minutes, right? Jack knew he needed to make a decent impression on her if he wanted to at least gain her acquaintance. So in order to do this, the boy had to learn to be less impulsive.

Suddenly, Jack felt something tug on his hand forcefully, causing the poor boy to nearly fall on his face. Then, barely managing to not trip over his feet, Jack found himself following the girl at a steady pace, rushing past doors and windows. Although Jack was not natively or genetically (for lack of better word) French, he did spend a good amount of his childhood reading. It wasn't because he liked reading. Honestly, if he had the option to choose between reading or not reading, he would take the not reading. However, he was naive, like every average kid. He thought that with his powers of turning to air, he could travel around the world for free. This caused his cluttered bookshelves to filled with foreign books, each book containing different languages. It was true that he had changed greatly from his naive past self but...it didn't hurt to learn more new languages when he had the time, right?

"Ok, I think you have... history, right? Yeah, I believe so. I have math right now," she announced rapidly, just to save the little time they had. A blush created on her cheeks when she heard how creepy that first sentence was. "Oh, um, I-I'm not a st-stalker or anything, i-it's just there's this teenage spirit of a girl roaming the school, and she kinda...stalks you? Wait, that sounded even creepier. Just ignore what I said right there."

Picking up the pace, Cordelia gave Jack a slight tug, suddenly going to a sprint."Jack, dépêchez-vous! Nous allons être en retard pour notre classe!"* Of course, Cordelia had to shout that, making a lot of students turn their heads towards the sound of her. She had a feeling that Jack was a bit embarrassed. Wait, why was she so comfortable speaking in French around him? Probably because he isn't like those other people who ask her, "Ooh, what's this in French? This? Oh, what about my name?" So annoying they were. Come to think of it, Jack felt a little warm too.

*Jack, dépêchez-vous! Nous allons être en retard(I was like, "Nope!" at that one >.<)pour notre classe!=Jack, hurry up! We're going to be late for class!

Yes, Jack actually did have history next. But how did the girl know that, especially since she was only (or so he assumed) an intiate. Wait...what was this? A teenage female spirit was stalking Jack? Was this is a joke? Perhaps...it was related to her power? "Pardon me but can you explain what you mean by that?" he panted as the two broke into a sprint, making the scene look like a blur. Jack ignored strangers' glances of curiosity and instead, stared at Cordelia from behind thoughtfully. She was definitely intriguing, if he could describe her in one word. But the male still couldn't get the statement she meant earlier out of his head, despite the fact that her comment requested otherwise. Seeing that the female had an outgoing attitude, there was a good chance she was playing a mere prank but....she seemed so embarrassed when she said that. And when you're pranking someone, you wouldn't be embarrassed. Maybe you would double over with laughter but you would never be embarrassed.

Stopping in front of the classroom Professor Katrina Millar taught in, the blonde realized she never told Jack her gift, thus making him confused. She sheepishly laughed, explaining her power of mediumship. "Haha! Sorry, I bet I kinda freaked you out a bit. My gift is mediumship, the power to communicate to spirits. But right now I can only hear them and I can't really control whether I can or cannot hear them. Trinity is the spirit I was talking about earlier. She's a bit...overattached, I guess?" Overattached was an understatement, but Cordelia had no intention to freak out her new acquaintance more. Math class was just next to History, and the bell was about to ring in less than 30 seconds. 

"Oh, we both have to go! Well, I'll see you around! Ooh, and thanks for that compliment earlier about my smile. It was really sweet," she giggled. Pushing Jack through the door, Cordelia gave him a quick wave, saying,"Au revoir!" She then disappeared to the neighboring class she had next. Hopefully the math teacher would understand the incident about the homework. RIING! "Merde!"

Jack only nodded to the gal's description, pondering about her statement. So Cordelia could talk to spirits, huh? Wow, that was pretty cool. Perhaps he should be polite and tell her his gift later, just so the girl wouldn't feel so weird about it. "Trinity?" he muttered, as he felt himself stumble through the door, "Maybe you ca-" Wait, where was he? He looked around, only to see the familiar room of his History class. Huh, where did she go? Turning his head, he saw a flash of blonde hair disappear into a neighboring door, as well as a faint "Merde!" that echoed through the halls as the bell rang. Before he could stop himself, he burst into laughter, despite the fact he was unusually late. Ignoring the stares that always made him uncomfortable, he made his way to his desk, still keeping a small smile. What an interesting time he had. Hopefully, he could meet Cordelia again and talk more about the so-called stalker of a spirit.

~Yay! So we're done with our little incident... Let's meet again >:D