Chapter IV - First Impressions Part Three

He had lost sight of her.

Half-scolding, half-reminding him that despite Amorei being a relatively wealthy school, its student body was far too numerous than should be possible. It was easy to blend in, easy to get lost.

Pivoting his heel to direct himself towards the next class, he suddenly spied a stray piece of paper lying near the wall. There was nothing special about it, but his gut told him to pick it up. And so, he did.

Bending his six-foot body down, he seized the lowly paper fragment and smoothed the newly crinkled creases.

Don’t tell them I’m gone.

Thwarted, and with no one in sight to show her the way to first period English, Elisa trailed her way back to homeroom. Although she didn’t expect anyone to be remaining in the room, she jolted at the sight of her homeroom teacher whose head was bent over some papers.

At the abrupt scrape of her sole, the dark-haired main looked up.

“Can I help you?” he asked benevolently, a doltish smile across his face - the image of a scatterbrained teacher.

“Oh, yes, that is...” Elisabeth started. His name, his name! Mr., Mr., Mr. Emerson! Her mind scrabbled. “Mr. Emerson, I’m having a little difficult finding my next class. Could you tell me what direction Room 2003 is?”

The spectacled man arose from his desk and made his way over to the entrance.

“It would be that way,” he directed, arm pointing left at the intersection where Elisa went straight.

Grateful, she thanked him and turned to leave.

“Elisabeth,” the teacher called out. She looked back at him, the stupid smile still across his face.

“Do you have a sister?”

Her brows wrinkled, Didn’t he see my sister when we came in? ...No, did he even see us enter?

“Yes, an older one.”

“I see,” he replied, still smiling.

Tension flared in the pit of her stomach. Regardless of his dim-witted exterior, unease prickled at the back of her mind as she began to walk again. Taking slow paces in order to ascertain what was nagging at her, it suddenly hit her.

Homeroom. The attendance sheet. Her name wasn’t on it. But he still knew her name.

She spun around in revelation. He was no longer there. But what did she expect? For him to be standing there watching her? She shivered at the notion. That would’ve been even more disturbing, including the fact that he asked a rather strange question. What does he want with my sister?

Making way to her next class, she dropped her contemplation and seated herself by the window, apologizing to the teacher for her tardiness as she entered. With little hassle the kindly teacher excused her and proceeded on with the course. Now sedentary, former thoughts enveloped her mind once more. She still hadn’t discovered her sister’s whereabouts nor the meaning of the note she left. Like a classic crime scenario the idea of a hidden message suddenly came to her. Although not quite believing the notion she decided to retrieve the note just in case. Browsing through her bag however, it was nowhere to be found. Mentally grumbling she muttered sarcastically in her thoughts, Seems like everything’s disappearing today.

Giving a silent sigh she focused back on the class, only to be prodded in the shoulder by someone behind her.

Swiveling her head around she came face to face with a timid looking girl of dark lavender locks.

“Um, uh, are you okay?” she tentatively asked in a quiet, seraphic voice. Elisa’s eyes widened. This girl is so adorable! She squealed in her head. Porcelain skinned with a heart shaped face and drowsily lidded large violet eyes, this girl looked like a delicate antique doll from a collector’s magazine. Blinking away this impression she replied sweetly, “I’m all right, thank you for asking.”

The girl replied with a shy but kind smile and a little nod. It was then that Elisa noticed a hunter green drawing pad on the edge of the girl's desk nearest to her.

“You draw?” she queried with a gesticulation of the pointer finger.

The girl gave another nod and paused in hesitation before opening the sketchbook. Beneath stiff cardboard laid sheaves of crisp vellum, the pictures drawn from a variety of utensils - the conventional pencil, the smudgy oil pastel, and the illustriously risky fountain pen.

A prolonged breath of hushed awe was her response to the pile of papers. Portraits of unknown persons, closeups of flora and fauna, landscapes and home interiors---what life they held, as if someone had taken a snapshot and turned it black and white in Photoshop to then somehow print it with grainy texture.

Elisa fingered the edges of the paper like delicate cloth before finally speaking.

“So.. realistic huh?” came her question which awkwardly lacked appropriate length. Vivianne nodded again, understanding she meant if she preferred drawing realistically.

“It’s not like I’m very good at it otherwise. I’ve tired..but they always come out with too many lines and shadows,” she added with an underlying feel of nervous laughing.

“Oh, you mean you can’t draw simply or abstractly?” said Elisa, quickly understanding what she meant as well.

Vivianne uttered an affirming grunt. Getting her answer the brunette laughed.

“I sure wish I had that difficulty then if it mean I’ll drew half as well as you!”

The slightly shorter girl smiled in reply, then said, “Thanks, though it’s more frustrating than it seems.”

Elisa gave another chuckle replying, “I’m sure it is; you should teach me how to draw sometime Vivi!”

At the sound of a nickname her eyes widened with surprise to then dwindle and glisten in simple happiness.

She smiled brightly, “Okay!”

~Forever Waiting~

The rest of the day passed with ease, and Elisa hadn’t seen the teacher nor the principal. Perhaps, she thought, she had been just wary of nothing. As she was driven home however…

“Don’t go near that teacher.”

The brunette’s head jerked aware.

“Wha?” she obliviously replied.

Her elder sister’s mouth quirked in a momentary amused smile.

“Seems like you're lost in your thoughts, good first day for you?” she observed.

Elisabeth grinned and folded her palms together.

“Yeah, you can tell?”

Her sister gave a little laugh and responded just as they arrived at their driveway, “Despite being rather quiet, you did have a smile on your face this whole drive.”

Elisa’s lips parted in the shape of the fifteen letter of the alphabet.

“Well, that’s true for the most part. But where were you this morning? You just up and left!” she said rather lately, almost forgetting the whole business due to her pleasant meeting with the sweetly shy Vivianne.

“Ah, that,” Esteire dismissively said as she turned off the engine and stepped out, “I just had some unfinished business to do.”

Elisabeth’s right eyebrow arched skeptically.

“You do know that sounds rather sketchy, don’t you sis?”

The ebony haired girl chuckled.

“Does it?”

“Do you also know that you always answer in questions?” Elisa added.

An odd cough of a stifled laugh sounded in Esteire’s throat.

“Do I?” Her tone a little teasing this time.

Elisabeth gave a defeatedly amused sigh and went up the stairs to her room while Esteire remained downstairs. Just as she was about to disappear behind the staircase’s slanted wall of a ceiling, her sister called out to her.

“Remember what I said about the teacher.”

Elisabeth spun around. “What do you m-”

But the black haired sister already left the living room.

“-mean,” she finished with another sigh.

You should’ve gotten used to this by now Elisa, she self-reminded with a slightly exasperated thump to her step.

Once in the sanctuary of her room she flopped onto the quilted top cover, giving a great cat’s stretch as if squeezing out the activities of the day.

“One of these days you’re going to sneak into her room and find out what she really does in that office Elisa,” she mumbled absently to herself with eyes somnolently shut about her sister’s downstairs study.

“And what would that exactly be?”

The girl jolted in surprise and her head shot towards the window. As her eyes registered the sight before her, she screamed, her kneeling body tumbling gracelessly backward-sideways off the bed.

“How unfortunate, I was hoping you wouldn’t make too much of a fuss. Guess I should’ve kept my commenting teacher mouth shut,” the dark-haired man laughed mirthlessly.

Following her instinctive reactions, Elisabeth clambered away from the window and out the room.

“Oh dear, don’t make this harder than it has be. …Elisabeth Raelynne Andrews.”