Entering the classroom just as the final few of the remaining students were leaving, Samuel looked around to spot his partner. The duty was set for 10 minutes after the final period, which gave students ample time to get their things together and vacate the class. Now, Samuel was left alone in the class with an aloof girl tucked away in the corner seat beside the window, lazily clicking away at her phone. 

As Samuel didn’t have the highest EQ and was slightly reluctant to start a conversation with another loner just so that they might fumble their way through a conversation, he began to carry out his duties. He assumed she was his partner as this particular girl had never stuck around after class for that long. Additionally, if he remembered correctly, his form tutor, being the lazy git that she was, just paired students up with someone close to their desks. 

Raising the chairs onto the desks so that the cleaners had an easier time vacuuming later on, Samuel began to diligently go about his task, while Hazel Hawthorne watched him, before getting up and doing as he did. The pair had gotten into the flow of their duties which consisted of raising the chairs, cleaning the whiteboards, switching off the computer, shutting the windows, and returning any lost property.

While their work was nearing its end, Samuel’s gaze inevitably shifted towards the model-like beauty who was placing one of the final few chairs on its respective desk. Her long and straight black hair coupled with her tall legs was quite reminiscent of his sister, but unlike the innocence his kin exuded, Hazel had a mysterious, or even somewhat dangerous, vibe about her that drew in so many of the guys at LGHS.

Indeed, the teen was beautiful, but that wasn’t exactly what made Samuel slightly curious about her. To be honest, the young man felt quite beneath emphasising, and in some cases venerating, a student of 18 years of age, as his age was double that in actuality. Most of these students here hadn’t even learned that there was a world outside of high school, just as Samuel once had-not; and such a world was big and scary. 

It was also one of the reasons Samuel’s tastes in women inclined towards older women, rather than young girls. Older women looked like they had been beaten down by life, but powered through anyway and had built the resilience and mental fortitude to continue. He felt it made them more compassionate and understanding towards the plights of men and the struggles they had to go through. They didn’t expect a superman.

It helped that their bodies were deliciously curvier to boot. 

Samuel was curious about the presence, or more specifically the lack of absence, of his desk-mate at the cleaning duties because he could distinctly recall having to do the cleaning up all alone in his 3rd year at high school right from the get-go. In his first and second years, his partner at least had the decency to show up for a few weeks, before realising they could dump all the work on him. However, his partner in the final year hadn’t even bothered to make their presence known, which made it so that Samuel had never found out who he was paired up with.

Given how the seating arrangements were essentially the same in this iteration as Samuel had subconsciously wandered towards the seat of his previous life, he figured Hazel was probably his partner in that life too. And so that raised the question- why did she show up today?

While he didn’t plan to outright ask her since they both seemed quite content with keeping to themselves, it didn’t mean that Samuel wouldn’t have his curiosities answered at all. After all, he had a system and some new skills he could test out on her. 

‘[Mind Read] Hazel’

Upon activating his newly levelled-up skill, Samuel suddenly saw a bright orange hue encapsulating her well-proportioned figure. The young adult subconsciously understood the implications of such a colour, as the number of questions only piled up after the revelation.

‘Interest, huh? And is that why her exalted self has bothered to attend this afternoon…?‘

Alongside the largely plain orange outline, there were a few darker orange spots mixed within signifying vigilance, alongside several shades of green comprising admiration and surprise. 

‘Vigilance, admiration and surprise? These… are they her thoughts toward me or something? Because I doubt one would feel like that about raising chairs. But what’s with all these colours, huh? Surprise… and admiration…’ Attempting to recall a time he had done anything remotely worth gaining such an impression from Hazel in the past few days, Samuel was lost in his thoughts as there was nothing he could remember. Besides watching him be bullied these past few days from her spot behind him, he hadn’t put much out for show recently. He didn’t irresponsibly take the interest as attraction- a lesson he’d learnt the hard way in his previous life.

‘Hm… the only thing I’ve done recently was to blackmail Mai… huh?’ Abruptly focusing his attention back on where his eyes were still staring as he made a realisation, he found the girl shrouded in mystery looking right back at him with a bored expression on her face.

“Looked enough?” She asked dryly, as she crossed her arms under her modest bust.

‘Fuck! She knows.’ 

Noticing the rapidly distorting expression on Samuel’s face, Hazel understood what the young adult in front of her had come to realise, and a half-smile grew across her face. 

‘And she knows I know.’

“Did you see?” Samuel asked monotonously. In his head, he was going through all the different outcomes of the current situation. 

“See what?” Her reply was just as succinct, though it was laced with a playful undertone that Samuel felt was uncharacteristic of the reticent student he had come to know. 

“I think you know what I’m talking about.” Shaking his head in rebuttal, he chose to keep the knowledge to himself in case he had misunderstood her. 

They both stared at each other for a short while, before Hazel’s amber eyes glimmered, as her unbothered half-smile turned into a knowing smirk. 

“No, I didn’t see what you did,” replied the taciturn individual. “But you weren’t very subtle about it either. You could hear the moaning from a hallway away.” 

Dropping that bombshell, the girl in a beige cardigan atop her white shirt and skirt, uncrossed her arms and leaned against the wall defencelessly, as though in provocation to the boy. 

‘Fuck! I should’ve been more careful. How could I have forgotten about all the noise that we made?’ Muddling over the stupidly obvious issue he had overlooked, he figured out why he had done so in the first place. Since the abandoned art room was notorious for its carnal use, Samuel had just assumed the room had noise insulation- otherwise, students would’ve got caught all the time. 

And that would truly have been the case, had Hazel not told a white lie just now. The sounds were only audible if one was right at the door and actively listening in on the contents of the room. 

“Haa… What would it take to keep quiet?” As Samuel accepted the fact that he’d been caught doing the deed, he outwardly relented. Internally, however, he was planning on how he could get around the little fact he had read in her status window to stick a high-grade memory wipe on the girl. 

“Keep quiet? Nothing, really. I don’t much care for your tryst.“ Samuel would have hardly believed that she wouldn’t try to extort him had it not been for the yellow and lime dotting the transient aura around her, displaying her serenity and acceptance of the situation, which he took for honesty. And reflecting on what he knew of her, Samuel came to realise she wasn’t involved in any ‘scandals’ or believable rumours because she mostly kept to herself. 

“I see.” His pensive response had indicated the end to their conversation, as Hazel slung her bag over her shoulder under Samuel’s watchful gaze, and strode toward the exit of the class, leaving behind a young adult conflicted but accepting of the situation. 

“Though I would say… Even if you’ve got back at one of your bullies, don’t get carried away.” Leaving behind sincere advice with her back turned to him, Hazel left the room as Samuel wondered all the reasons why he had just let her go like that. 

Even though he initially wanted to have the girl forget the memory, he had concluded that it was best he leave her alone. For one, he had finally managed to establish a relationship with the girl who brushed everyone else off these past few years. And given the nature of the secret she knew, he felt she would be able to get to know a side of him that contrasted his previous sorry self she had probably based her entire impression of him on. 

Secondly, it was just more interesting this way. It would keep him on his toes. Sure, he might’ve been acting recklessly, but Hazel was an enigma. Despite admitting to liking older women best, he couldn’t deny the beauty of the 18-year-old girl who had probably been the material of his fantasies for some time in his previous life. Even though he had no feelings for her, he was attracted to her womanly charms and unique personality. 

Finally, Samuel distinctly felt that Hazel, who had seen how he was bullied these past few years, may have been somewhat proud of his actions… if her emotional aura was anything to go by. While he didn’t think she’d heard the actual ins and outs of his rapey relationship with Mai which he’d imagine would put her off, it was a fact that he’d fucked his bully, which was an achievement in and of itself. 

The young man who stood alone amid the tidied-up classroom suddenly heard the roaring of an engine which brought him out of his tumultuous thoughts. Looking out through the window and into the car park visible from his vantage point, he saw a tall figure who was probably only an inch shorter than he was, with a black motorcycle helmet atop her head, and strands of jet-black hair escaping the equally as dark protective gear.

She revved the engine from her spot in the staff car-park, in a motorbike Samuel could not identify, but knew was deeply cared for by the immaculate design and black texture of its surfaces. Having booted up the vehicle, the woman pulled away, with the loud doppler effect of her ride leaving behind the echoes of the engine reverberating in Samuel’s ears. 

‘She has quite the character, doesn’t she? Though, even if she is a tad young and mysterious as hell, I have to admit she is quite cool, huh.’ Watching the motorcycle go off into the distance, Samuel put aside his thoughts and focused on the interesting status window before him. 

Arc 3; Part 1 End

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