Chapter 35: Endless Possibilities

Staring at the title of the topic, Naz finally understood why Nicole May looked so pale. The topic itself was the research Emily did involving the haunted house and its history. While she had forgotten most of it, Naz recalled a bit about Nicole May while they were still in the orphanage. She remembered the accident that happened to Nicole May, in which injured her arm and was also the cause of her parents' death. While the topic wasn't the exact same thing as what happened to Nicole May, Naz realized that anything related to death could cause Nicole May's breakdown to start.

"Hey, snap out of it!" Naz quickly shook Nicole May's shoulder, in which Nicole May just sluggishly stared back at her while she continued to do so. After that, she let go of Nicole May's shoulder and Nicole May lowered her head. "Look, I'll take care of this topic for you… just focus on something else, okay?"

Nicole May nodded and slowly stood up. Then, she walked off, going to the other side of the divider where the other girls were. As she got to the area, she saw the three girls staring at her curiously.

"Yo, Rustford, did the work overload you too much?" Emily asked.

Nicole May just stared at Emily exasperatedly, without saying a word. Then, Megan stood up and placed her hand on Nicole May's shoulder.

"Are you okay? You look different now as compared to when I first saw you moments ago…"

"It's nothing… I just need to clear my mind…" Nicole May muttered and turned away from Megan.

"Hey, speaking of which, these guys were wondering if the school paper already has an email address… you know, so students can submit their articles to you guys as some sort of contribution. It helps get everyone in school involved, you know…" Megan said, which made Nicole May turn to her again.

"Email address… the school newspaper would probably need a website as well… I'll see what I can do then." Nicole May folded her arms across her chest and closed her eyes.

"Ah, are you sure? You were proof-reading some of the articles earlier…" Elizabeth looked worried as she felt that Nicole May was doing most of the work.

"Naz said she'll handle it for me… I can't stand reading the topics anymore and I seriously want them out of my laptop…" Nicole May muttered and then, stared exasperatedly at Emily again.

"Hey, why are you giving me that look?" Emily asked and was slightly irked by Nicole May's expression. "What? Was it because of what I wrote?"

"Forget it… I'm going to my class now…" Nicole May groaned and walked out of the room, even though her things were still at the other side with Naz. She just wanted to get out of the room and clear her mind. Either way, she trusted Naz with her things as they had known each other for a long time.

"Geez, even though we had a truce, I still can't stand her…" Emily grunted and placed her hands on her hips while pouting. "It's like anything I do would never please her. Who does she think she is anyway?! Just because she's so rich she gets to do what she wants…"

"Ehehe, calm down Emily… maybe something just happened…" Elizabeth held on Emily's shoulder and smiled wearily at her.

"Yeah girl, you also need to get her side of the story if ever you actually want to get along with her!" Megan added and winked at Emily. "You're all journalists here, right?"

"Ah, yeah… Megan does have a point," Elizabeth agreed and slowly nodded at her. "Anyway, our classes are about to start. We should get going…"

"Hey guys, is Nikki still there?"

Everyone else quickly turned to the direction of the voice, where they saw Naz standing and holding on to the strap of Nicole May's bag. Naz looked around and Nicole May was nowhere in sight.

"Oh great, she left. Guess I'll just look for her and hand over her bag… I was gonna tell her I sorted the files as well so she won't ever open those articles," Naz muttered and sighed.

"Hey Naz, by any chance, are those all the articles and stories I wrote?" Emily asked, stepping closer to Naz.

"Hmm? Not all of them, just the ones regarding the haunted house we visited… its history and all. Apparently, those articles caused her to break down earlier when I approached her. She's probably still traumatized from that accident years ago. I know they're not related, but I have a feeling that this is how she sees it…" Naz explained. "Anyway, I'll go look for her now before the first bell rings!"

Naz ran off, leaving the three girls in the room. They all stared at each other for a while and eventually left the room as well, with Elizabeth locking the room. Most of the students from earlier already left earlier as their first classes were about to start.

.-.-.-.-.-

"Oh?"

Avegaille quickly perked up as she saw Nicole May walking sluggishly to her. With Nicole May's current state of mind, she didn't even notice that Avegaille was up ahead. Avegaille quickly ran up to Nicole May and then, held on her shoulders.

"Huh?" Nicole May slightly lifted up her head and saw Avegaille in front of her. She quickly stepped back away from Avegaille's grip and looked flustered. "Hey you, since when did you get there?"

"Um, I was about to get to our class… what about you?" Avegaille asked and looked a bit worried. "You seemed a bit… let's say… not yourself today. You were walking in the wrong direction as well. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine… why don't you lead the way then?" Nicole May suggested and slightly turned away from Avegaille. Then, Avegaille grabbed her hand and pulled her to the direction she was walking.

"We have to hurry or else Mr. Collins will give me another earful if I'm late!" Avegaille exclaimed, in which she started running and Nicole May did the same to keep up with Avegaille's pace.

The two of them turned to the corner and spotted Naz by the end of the hallway. Naz quickly approached them as soon as the two of them stopped running. Nicole May saw that Naz was carrying her bag and she quickly handed it back to her, in which Nicole May placed the strap of her bag on her shoulder. Naz looked very weary from all the running that she took a deep breath and exhaled. Then, Naz looked down and noticed that Avegaille was holding on Nicole May's hand.

"Oh? Am I disturbing something here?" Naz asked, staring at Nicole May mischievously.

"Naz, shut up!" Nicole May exclaimed irritably and her face started turning red. She quickly let go of Avegaille's hand and ran off, holding on to the strap of her bag.

"Eh… why did Nicole May leave just like that?" Avegaille asked, turning to Naz. She was really clueless to what was happening and scratched her head.

"Ah, don't mind her, she's always like that. Anyway, I didn't get the chance to tell her what I did to her laptop… so, could you pass the message to her?" Naz said as she placed her hand on her hips.

"Sure… um, wait… why were her things with you anyway?" Avegaille furrowed her eyebrows and frowned.

"Yeah, I'll get to that. Nicole May asked me to take care of a certain article and wanted it out of her laptop. Of course, I couldn't just do that since she has the only copy at the moment, so I sorted the files so she doesn't open the files with that certain article involved. While I was doing that, she suddenly left the newspaper room. And then, I ended up looking for her until we got to here," Naz explained. She closed her eyes and sighed. "It's hard to look for someone in a short amount of time with this kind of school hallway…"

"Ahaha, I know what you mean…" Avegaille looked up and saw a wall clock, in which the time was close to eight in the morning. She quickly became nervous and turned to Naz. "Sorry, I have to go or I'll be late again."

"Same here, tell Nicole May about what I did to the files and see you at lunch later!" Naz exclaimed and the two of them ran off in opposite directions, heading to their first class.

.-.-.-.-.-

"It's really cold today… almost nearing December as well. I wonder what we'll be doing for Christmas vacation…"

Avegaille looked up, watching the clouds slowly passing by. The weather was somehow cloudy and the sun was mostly blocked by the clouds. A gentle breeze passed through her and Avegaille closed her eyes. She opened her eyes again and turned to the person who she was sitting next to. It was none other than Nicole May. Both of them were sitting on a bench that was under the shades of the tree close by. It was also an area that not many students go to as it was a space between the back of the main school building, the gymnasium and the fences. They also decided to eat their lunch there as well.

"What… you wanna know what gifts you'll be getting this year as well?" Nicole May asked and raised her eyebrow.

"Oh, I don't really get much… well, maybe some from my Mom’s side of the family. They send in stuff to us and we would visit them but Mom has been reluctant in regards to visiting her parents ever since she got divorced with Dad. But I guess this year would probably be the same as last year, except that Jane would be joining us… Phil and his Mom would also join us as well…" Avegaille muttered and sighed. "What about you Nicole May? How does Christmas go for you on your end?"

"Ugh… I don't really want to talk about it… but Mom would probably throw out another huge party, inviting her celebrity friends and such. After that, Mom and Dad would probably travel to another country for a week with me being dragged around. Last year, we went to France… who knows what country they have planned on visiting for this year." Nicole May groaned and slightly shook her head. "Honestly, I don't want to go anywhere this year for Christmas. It would be much better if we could just stay here for the celebrations."

"Eh? It would be cool to travel to another country for the celebrations but I'm guessing you got tired of doing that all the time…" Avegaille looked down on the ground and smiled weakly. "We really don't have much in common when it comes to how we do things, don't we?"

"I know, still that doesn't mean we can't be friends… I mean, if we didn't meet again, perhaps, I would probably be alone without even bothering talking to anyone up to today… just sitting at the library reading books during free hours and going to my usual classes and then going back home. Ignoring everything else… but you were the one who got me out of that boring cycle…" Nicole May gripped on her knees with her hands and looked down on the ground. "I think it's best that we don't have something in common, otherwise life would really be boring."

"Ahaha, you're right…" Avegaille lifted up her head again and looked up at the sky again. The clouds were slowly moving away from the sun, and the sun's warmth reached her cheeks while she closed her eyes. Then, she turned again to Nicole May and smiled at her. "By the way, why did you bring me here? So we can talk about stuff like this?"

"Yeah… I guess. I don't really have anyone else who I can talk to about stuff like this," Nicole May replied and then, stood up from her seat. "Anyway, we should go to the newspaper room. They're probably waiting for us again… lunchtime is about to end as well."

"Ah… speaking of that!" Avegaille quickly stood up and went in front of Nicole May. "Naz told me something regarding what she did to the files in your laptop… what was it again? Umm…"

Avegaille folded her arms across her chest and closed her eyes, trying to think of what Naz told her earlier. Nicole May just raised her eyebrow and then, slowly shook her head.

"Don't worry, I already know what she did, you don't have to tell me anymore…" Nicole May interrupted and Avegaille opened her eyes again, staring at her blankly. "She sorted the files. Anyway, you really do have short term memory loss…"

"Must be the effect of the medications… I think I already told you what happened way back. Anyway, let's go to the newspaper room!" Avegaille pointed to the direction to where they would be walking to next while Nicole May just stared at her exasperatedly.

.-.-.-.-.-

"Finally, it's finished!" Elizabeth exclaimed and pressed the Enter key on the keyboard, in which the machine next to the computer started printing out pages of their finished work, the latest issue of the school paper. Of course, they still had to manually separate the pages and fold them before they could be distributed to the students. At least, with Nicole May practically funding the school paper, the school budget could fund other things instead. They could also put out as many pages and articles as they wanted and distribute it to interested students with no setbacks. Once enough students gained interest, they could finally move to a bigger room, if available, and more students would join the school paper. "This will be the second issue for this school year! Doing this every month is exhausting…"

"Maybe if we had more members, Elizabeth. Of course, that'll only happen once we get ourselves a bigger room…" Emily said and placed her hand on her hips. She watched the printed copies slowly dispensed from the printer. The huge printer had trays to catch the papers coming out while the blank sheets were already placed in another compartment inside. "But… the student council told us there aren't any vacant rooms. We’ll probably have to depend on contributed articles until then."

"So, we'll just let this machine print stuff until we get back after our classes, right?" Naz asked and folded her arms across her chest. Then, she turned to Nicole May and Avegaille, who were both sitting on the chairs. Avegaille's head was on the table with her arms wrapped around and was already asleep. "I'm quite surprised Nikki… you finished proof-reading the articles already as soon as you guys got here."

"I was doing them while in class… the teachers thought I was taking down notes on my laptop. Either way, I already know the topics being discussed in class, so it's not a problem if they decide to do a pop quiz of some sort," Nicole May explained and shrugged. "It's not really a big deal. Either way, it was also my own fault for not using my free time earlier…"

"Oh yeah, Nikki, you said you'd set us up an email account so that the other students can submit their contributions there," Naz said and sat on the table, facing Nicole May.

"Yeah… the internet is not really that prominent and flashy at the moment, so we'll stick with the basic email for now. The website will be for another time. I'll give you guys the email account tomorrow." Nicole May put the screen of her laptop down and then placed the laptop inside her bag.

Then, the door opened and Arthur quickly got in and was breathing heavily. He closed and locked the door and approached everyone. Elizabeth was concerned while Naz just sighed and stared at him with a smug face. Both Emily and Nicole May were clueless on what happened to him.

"Ah, sorry for being late and not being around earlier! I had this little problem I came into and now, I have a bad feeling I won't be able to fix this…" Arthur explained wearily while wiping the sweat in his forehead.

"Haha, that stalker of yours still wants to be with you forever and ever?" Naz teased. Everyone else turned to her, still confused at what was happening. Naz noticed their expressions, quickly got off the table and turned to Arthur. "Shall I tell them what is going on?"

"Please do… I'll rest for a while…" Arthur pulled out a vacant chair and sat down.

"Well, we still have a couple of minutes left. Anyway, just from what I mentioned earlier, Arthur apparently obtained himself a girl who apparently became too obsessed with him," Naz explained, in which everyone else glanced at each other, still unsure of the situation. "And now, she tries to be close to him whenever she sees him."

"When did this all happen?" Elizabeth asked, furrowing her eyebrows.

"Last Friday," Arthur replied and groaned. "I was just trying to help her. But after that, she keeps mentioning that it was like first love at sight and wouldn't stop clinging on me. I had to make some sort of excuse to get away from her…"

"You should have told her that you were gay…" Nicole May retorted and snickered. "Maybe that'll make her stop pursuing you…"

"Nah, we already tried that, but it didn't work. Naz is a witness to that one…" Arthur muttered and sighed exasperatedly while Naz nodded in agreement.

"Do you mind telling me the name of this girl?" Emily asked and stood next to Arthur. "I think if we knew who she was, maybe we could find something to distract her once we know more about her…"

"Sorry, I don't know her name… I don't see her in my classes as well, so she's probably from another class…" Arthur replied and folded his arms across his chest. "Maybe in your class perhaps?"

"Nah, doubt it. I haven't seen any weird girls fangirling in our class, right, Rustford?" Emily turned to Nicole May to confirm, in which Nicole May just nodded back at her.

Then, the bell rang, indicating that lunch time was over. While the machine was still printing the pages and Avegaille was sleeping on the desk, everyone else looked at each other and most of them left the room, except for Nicole May and Arthur.

"What, are you skipping classes as well?" Nicole May asked skeptically, turning to him.

"Well, not exactly, I'm just waiting for the hallway to settle down and for the other students to get to their classrooms. I wanna make sure she's not around while I get to my class." Arthur turned away from Nicole May and sighed. Then, he closed his left eye and turned back to her. "What about you? Why are you still here?"

"Just keeping an eye on Avegaille. If only there was a way to move her to the other side so she could sleep on the couch, I would do that now…" Nicole May replied and turned to Avegaille, who was still sound asleep. "It's not good for her to sleep on the desk like that for two hours…"

"I'll help you carry her if you'd like," Arthur offered as he stood up and went next to Avegaille. "I'll go for her waist while you handle the upper part, okay?"

"Sure… it's no wonder that girl wanted you badly. You just seem to help out anyone out of the blue," Nicole May remarked and her left eye slightly twitched.

"It can't be helped, I guess…" Arthur smiled sheepishly while he placed his hand on the back of his hand.

.-.-.-.-.-

"Don't tell me you're still mad at me for not being in the morning meeting earlier…"

Madeline placed her hands at the back of her head while she looked at Jane. She was already aware of how irritated Jane was but still wanted to tease her to calm her down. Jane, on the other hand, was trying to ignore Madeline and control her outburst at the same time. The two of them hadn’t been talking to each other until now due to the hectic tasks that their teachers gave them. Most of the time, they weren't in the same class either so they rarely had the time to talk. Now that it was already after school, most students were going home, except some school clubs that had activities still on-going. The student council was no exception. Both of them were already in the office while waiting for the others to come in, for their usual meeting.

"Unless you have a good excuse, I would find your absence in the meeting earlier unacceptable…" Jane muttered as she folded her arms across her chest.

"Hey, your little sister wanted to talk to me that time! Besides, how come you never told me it was your little sister that was being bullied by those kids a couple of years ago?" Madeline asked, frowning at her.

"What? How did… wait… what did you two talk about?" Jane asked hesitantly and quickly went closer to Madeline, grabbing her shoulders. She looked really nervous while staring at Madeline.

"I just told her the story of how the two of us eventually became friends, and then, her experience that day somehow connected with my side of the story. So, that's how she came up with the conclusion I was the one who helped her that day and vice-versa. Besides, she looks exactly like the kid I saved that day when Avegaille took off her glasses," Madeline explained while she put down her hands and placed them on her hips. "She told me the reason why you never told me that she was the one involved in that incident was because you didn't trust me yet… but I have a hard time believing that. I wanna know your side of the story on this."

"Sorry… I really didn't want you to know exactly what happened… or the real reason why they were bullying my sister like that. I really wanted to help her that day but you already rushed in that time. If my little sister knew I was there that day, I can't imagine what she would say to me. She would probably hate me and tell me I'm the worst sister…" Jane muttered and turned her head away from Madeline. The incident that happened that day was something she couldn’t forget and still felt remorseful about it, up to now.

Madeline looked around and no one had come in so far. She looked up at the clock that was mounted on the wall and saw it was still early. Then, she turned back to Jane and smiled softly at her. "I highly doubt that's the case though…"

"What do you know?!" Jane looked at Madeline furiously and then, stepped away from her, releasing her grip from her. Then, she started trembling and her eyes were swelling. Tears were flowing out of her eyes. "I'm sorry… I don't want anyone else getting involved in this… I know it's already over but I can't help feeling guilty from all of this…"

"Jane…" Madeline couldn't say anything else and stood there, still very worried. Then, she quickly went close to Jane and wrapped her arms around her. It was the only thing she could do right now to comfort her. "It's okay, you can tell me once you're ready…"