Arcene is extremely irritated… Why oh why does she need to go to school…

In any normal circumstances, the most she would feel about going to school is just mild annoyance since there's quite a lot of benefits and one of the only downside is that she wouldn't be able to work on the things she like since school will take a large portion of her time

Another added bonus to going to school was that she would be far away from the house she lived in along with the residents within it, all of that makes the benefits outweigh the downsides

But her circumstance is anything but normal, and to add on to that, the benefits only applied to her past life, not her current one

There is little –if there is even any benefits at going to school since she basically know all of what is being taught, probably the only thing she doesn't intimately know are the things that the locals know but that wouldn't last long, in fact, she knows more deep things about Remnant than even the locals but a lot of the more general things are unknown to her, but even that could be learned passively over time

With all of that combined, there really is little to no benefits at going to school

And not to mention, while it has massively improved over the course of her past and current life, she still has a bit of social shyness to the people she doesn't know. Though Arcene could definitely follow and contribute to a conversation, she would still go to an effort to avoid social things as long it doesn't make her look too much of a recluse

In other words, Arcene tries her best to be just another face in the large crowd and not stand out too much

But her current circumstance does not allow that, if she remembers correctly, today is a Sunday which means tomorrow is a school day…

'If I remember correctly, today is in February…' Arcene thought to herself as she sighs and pinches her nose '... A month? Now that's the kicker ain't it? Which month does school end… I remember that my country ends it around March or April, but I very much know that that doesn't apply to all countries, and Vale is no exception… Probably

'I could probably draw up a theory if only I knew what country Vale is exactly based on… Actually no, I don't think it has an exact basis, and there's also the problem of me not knowing any other school years aside from my own country…

'I could just try and remember the date of when I graduated from grade 1… But…' Arcene continued to think, slowly getting more annoyed 'My memory is as reliable as always… And my graduation wasn't exactly a normal one either…'

Arcene then felt something poking her shoulder and she looks to see it was Summer

"What?" Arcene asked, though she failed at keeping her annoyance bleed into what she said

"You were glaring at the poor paper for too long, it's creepy…" Summer said in a faux scaredness

"I just had no idea what to draw." Arcene said 'Technically true, I am kinda having the artist equivalent of a writer's block…'

"Still…" Summer trailed off before leaving, not continuing one she just said

Arcene just looks blankly at Summer's retreating figure, 'Now that was weird… And out of character…'

But Arcene did not think anymore of it and looked back at the paper on the desk and sighing 'Might as well draw up something peaceful…'

And so, she started drawing up the night sky

'Hm… Actually… Now that I think about… How are the two connected? Is a different version of me just writing the events that happen here or… or does that alternate version of me actually make these events happen? Is that why Xelnaga interfered despite me making him as a person that lets events play out even if he doesn't like how it goes…

'…. The more I think about it, the more likely the latter is… I very much doubt Xelnaga would protect my own privacy… Knowing how I plan the plot and events of my stories, I do not like what this implies…' Arcene thought to herself, her already bad mood dropping even more

'If the latter were to be believed, then I would be involved in the plot whether I like it or not… I got to make counterplans against this to at the very least, minimise the after effects of this… I could use my own knowledge of the plot of Silver Light and RWBY to my advantage, while I am sure major changes would happen to what I had initially planned for SL, there would most likely still be things that overlap or are based on it…

'Wait… Wait wait wait wait…' Arcene thought to herself in horror, stopping her hands that were drawing mere seconds ago and her eyes widening as she realized something…

'Why can't I remember the plot events of Silver Light…' Arcene thought to herself as she scoured whatever memories she have that could give an answer to this

And finally, she found it

'"Also, I can't give you all of your memories due to multiple reasons, but most of what you would consider important things-"... Most… He said most… My own technique, used against me…' Arcene thought to herself as she takes deep breaths to calm herself down

Thankfully, it eventually worked, but she's still a bit shaken up about it

'Actually… Why am I so shaken about this… In fact, I should be expecting this, after all, there's no one else that knows myself better than me- Actually no, scratch that, I don't know myself all too well… Actually, I think it falls more under I can't predict myself rather than I don't know myself, but eh

'Anyways, this would be a pain…' Arcene thought to herself as she glared at the paper she's holding, also half-expecting for Summer to go and tell her to stop glaring at the poor paper again

'This is definitely something I would've done so that the character I'm writing doesn't know how the future events will play out… Doesn't make it any less annoying though.' Arcene thought to herself

Arcene sighs, she already thought of something similar to this in her past life, but now that something supernatural did happen to her and not just some weird coincidences, it just make it seem more plausible

Frankly, she did liked to think before in her past life that she was in a novel, book, or anything similar to those and that those weird coincidences were not coincidences at all, and she also sometimes entertained the thought that those things are true but… That might just be her reality now

'I wouldn't even be surprised if that is the case right now… And my theory would graduate into truth…' Arcene thought to herself as she sighs once again

She had a large urge to bang her head into the desk but tried to ignore it

'Aaaaarrrggghhhh… Why must you give me all these problems…' Arcene thought to herself as she gives in to the urge and bangs her head into the desk, too hard "Aray![1]"

"Arcy!?" Summer said in surprised as she runs towards Arcene

"I-I'm fine…" Arcene said, trying to ease Summer but to no avail

"You're clearly not fine! Why'd you do that!?" Summer asked panicking

"Jeez… Calm down, it's not like it's anything major really…" Arcene said in exasperation at Summer's overreaction

Eventually, Summer did calm down after like 10 minutes of pointless panicking

"... If you're really sure…" Summer said to Arcene, still worried

"Do you even know the meaning of 'I'm fine'? Cause you're acting like you don't." Arcene replied to Summer, starting to get annoyed a little "You can stop worrying about me now Summer, do that when I suddenly disappear from your life."

Summer just stares weirdly at Arcene, not really getting the dark implications of it before saying "You're not gonna live alone Arcy! I'll be by your side forever!"

Arcene just sighs at this "Now shoo, I still have something to do, go do your things and I'll do mine, don't you still have an assignment to finish?"

"A-Ah!" Summer exclaimed as she remembers her assignment before running away to god knows where

'Finally… Now… What to do… I guess I have nothing better to do…' Arcene sighs before thinking this before looking at the almost forgotten drawing

As Arcene continues her drawing, she starts to also mindlessly thinks of a few things when one thing that suddenly came to her mind

'Nah… I'm not that type of person, besides, this is still another version of me we're talking about, it'll feel weird doxxing myself… But… I could use that as a last resort.' Arcene thought to herself as she continues her drawing

After that one particular thought, there was nothing else of note that has happened afterwards

"Why is the moon not broken?" Summer asked Arcene

'... I forgot about that…' Arcene thought to herself while looking at the finished product that is her drawing but "It's easier to draw" is what she answered which is technically not wrong, though it's not the real reason why she drew up a whole and not shattered moon but Summer doesn't need to know that little detail

Summer upon hearing Arcene's answer nods in agreement

'It's also not really that hard to draw, but eh.' Arcene added to herself before boredom once again comes back to her

Arcene just subtly sighs but Summer surprisingly noticed it and misinterpreted it as Arcene not being satisfied with her work despite it being a masterpiece in Summer's eye, so she decided to cheer her up a bit by challenging her into a competitive game

Because Arcene despite her attitude, is very competitive

"Hey Arcy! Want to play Tic Tac Toe?" Summer asked and that got Arcene's attention "I know you don't know what game is that but I'll teach you!"

Arcene upon hearing that mentally laughs as Summer doesn't know what she's asking for 'The Arcene before might not know what Tic Tac Toe is, but I do, and you're in for a world of defeat Sum, but I need to play along for now.'

"So what is it?" Arcene tried to look interested and she noticed she's doing it a little bit too much and got a bit nervous about it

Summer noticed both and misinterpreted it

"Don't worry! You'll do just fine! Here, let me show you!" Summer announced as she takes a pad of paper and two pencils

'Wait… Now that I think about it… People still use- actually no, obviously they would still use pencils, it's just that useful.' Arcene thought to herself

"You need to have three 'X's or three 'O's in line to win! It's really easy, don't worry!" Summer said as she drew up a hashtag or 3 by 3 and also three 'X's inside of it and lined it up

"Alright I get it now, let's do a test match." Arcene said and Summer blinks in surprise before saying

"Okay."

And so, their match started

Arcene draw an X on the top left corner

Summer an O on the right of the X

'And the battle was just decided.' Arcene thought to herself as she puts an X on the bottom left corner

Of course, Summer saw that Arcene would win if she did not block it, so she did by putting an O right in the middle of the top left and bottom left Xs

'I won.' Arcene thought as she puts an X on the bottoms right corner

'... What…' Summer thought to herself as Arcene has two possible winning row, no matter where she chooses to put her O, Arcene would win

"... How…?" Summer asked Arcene, flabbergasted

"Tactics, Sum." Arcene said "They are used to plan things like this and win."

Summer nods as she mindlessly put an O on the middle bottom

And Arcene puts an X on the middle and lines up her three Xs row

"I win." Arcene said with a slight smirk

'Well, at least Arcene's happy now.' Summer thought to herself which made her smile a bit, she did not mind her lost at all but she was still quite shocked at how Arcene managed to do something like that despite being a beginner

What she doesn't know is that Arcene has years of experience at playing Tic Tac Toe with her friends and developed tactics like that along with them

'There was one time I played with one of my friends and there's like what… 50 to 60 matches and both of us only has 1 point each and that's because both of us made a slight miscalculation and the other capitalize on it, but if that hasn't happened, there would be no wins on either side at all

'I mean, how could we? Both of us uses the same tactics cause obviously, there aren't really a lot of tactics you could use in a 3 by 3 tic tac toe match, and we also know how to counter said tactics. Frankly, it's more surprising that either of us had any wins at all

'And I'm rambling again, I wouldn't be growing out of this, won't I?' Arcene thought to herself

"You're so good!" Summer suddenly said out of nowhere which made Arcene a bit out off and shocked

'That… Was unexpected.' Arcene thought to herself as she went back to her usual posture, and that's one thing that she hasn't… Wait…

'Actually… Why do I have the same or at least, similar mannerisms as my past life? Shouldn't I be in a different body now… Things like that shouldn't be passing on to me too, right? Actually no… Maybe mental mannerisms might pass on since my memories also passed on but…' Arcene trails off as she thinks about last night's events

She flinched when Summer hugged her

'I never flinched from Summer's touch before… So why did I now? It's kinda hard to just write it off as a 'weird coincidence' since it's a bit too much to be a coincidence, after all, I just got my past life's memories back and then that happened, that's no coincidence at all

'But that begs the question… How…?' Arcene trails off her thoughts 'I'm too tired to deal with this shit.'

"Wanna play again?" Summer asked, looking a bit worried

'Did something… It must've shown on my face huh?' Arcene thought to herself, starting to feel guilty for making Summer worried because of her own personal problems

"Yeah." Arcene said as she tries to act as normal as possible, to convey that 'Everything's fine'

It looks like, their war has just begun

*Small Timeskip*

It turns out, Arcene was better than Summer has thought

The score before Summer thought enough was enough was 0-37, all Arcene's wins

She was not angry at Arcene, but rather,  she was disappointed at herself at not managing to win even a single win, yes she did managed to tie with Arcene every now and then but not any wins at all

And that led to their current circumstance where Arcene is awkwardly trying to cheer Summer up

'I am not prepared to deal with this shit! I might have some experience with dealing with kids but come on, I still don't know how to cheer them up!' Arcene thought panickingly

"A-Ah! It's alright Summer! U-Uhm…" Arcene said in an attempt to cheer Summer up to no avail

This continued on for a few minutes, and also, they were being watched and they didn't have the slightest hint about it

They were being watched by both Arianell and Garnet, who was amused and a bit worried, but still more amused

'What am I gonna do!?' Arcene thought to herself panickingly

Arianell started to feel a bit guilty watching Arcene panic, so she decided to step in

Arianell then fully opened the door and then started walking towards the twins

Arcene heard the slight noise from the opening of the door and briefly glances at it to see Arianell which led her to become awkward

Arcene was at an impasse, she doesn't know what to do next which made her indecisive and her brain go blank for a moment

"Uhm…" Was what Arcene intelligently muttered under her breath which was thankfully not heard by anyone but her

Arianell then hugged both Arcene and Summer which caused the former to slightly flinch and the latter to be surprised as she didn't heard nor did she noticed Arianell's approach

"Uh…" Was what both of the twins awkwardly said

Arianell snorted in amusement as she's heard their responses before letting both of the twins go, though she did mentally noted about Arcene's flinch when she hugged her and was a bit confused about it

"Come on, do you two want to go to the park?" Arianell asked the twins with a smile which got Summer's attention

Though, Arcene's reaction to that is a blank face, probably not wanting to go but knows that she'd be either forced or peer pressured into coming along

But Arianell got to give it to her, as much as Arianell noticed Arcene's dislike of socializing, she still managed to make an inconspicuous and normal reputation among her age group, she doesn't reveal her intelligence like how she does to her family, not even a fraction of it

It's a surprise that Arcene still managed to retain that same reputation for the most part even after she was pushed up a grade…

Or maybe not, since she still has a few classmates that's the same age as her because they started school a year earlier, but you would've at least thought that word will get out that somebody has moved up a grade but no… There wasn't, like a divine miracle, it's just unbelievable

"Yeah!" Summer answered, now with newly acquired vigor

Arcene on the other hand, nodded despite her better personal judgement before she sighs discreetly

[1]: Aray is basically the Filipino version of ouch and is used to say when you just got hurt

A/N: Well, as you can see, I've added that (the one the top of the Authors Note) because not everyone knows Filipino (obviously), so expect for future chapters have that too as Arcene will continue on saying Filipino words as either by habit or to avoid anybody knowing what she just said, or both

Also... I don't think I've mentioned Arcene was Filipino in her past life... Or have I? Wow, I can't even remember what I wrote on my own story

One last thing, this chapter is half filler? I mean.. I think so? Eh

Date of Publish: September 25, 2022 (GMT+8)

Date of ScribbleHub Publish: November 15, 2022 (GMT+8)