My Words Are Law

Inevitable (2)

It was the day she and her aunt went to pick Ivor up from school.

He always waited for them by the gate, but today, there was no sign of his small figure near the school's entrance.

"How rare... Perhaps, he has already reached that age?" Aunt Rosa mused interestingly.

"No way... Ivor..?" Amaryllis tried to imagine him being rebellious.

"Impossible."  Both ladies concluded in the end. He had always been so calm and behaved that it was hard to picture him as a delinquent.

Amaryllis ultimately decided to look for him after wasting two minutes standing awkwardly in a sea of children and expensive cars. Why is he taking so long? He didn't even join any clubs, from what Amaryllis can remember.

She was a few feet away from Ivor's homeroom door when an earsplitting scream resonated in the hall, "My Aunt is not a thief!" 

A deafening clutter of chairs immediately followed, startling Amaryllis to a sprint. She reached the door in no time and bluntly pushed it open in full swing. "Ivor!"

Her heart drummed loudly in her chest as she searched the floor, but instead of her brother, a different boy was sprawled on the ground with a cut on his lips.

"Ivor..." With a slight shift, her eyes finally found the dark-haired boy standing not too far from the injured kid. He looks so angry, she doesn't know if he even noticed her come in. "Ivor, what are you doing?" She quickly went to help the fallen kid but was unexpectedly pushed away, causing her to hit the side of her head with a metal leg of a nearby chair.  

"Don't touch me! Bunch of thieves!" The statement flew out of the child's mouth with a haughty look on his face. Amaryllis could only stare in bewilderment. Seeing such a twisted expression on such a young face was unbelievable.

"Sister!" Ivor looked horrified, but his expression quickly changed to anger as soon as he averted his gaze to his schoolmate. "How dare you!" 

Amaryllis felt dizzy from the impact and didn't notice Ivor clenching his fists as she continued to blink at the opposing kid, who was huffing furiously beside her. Wasn't it just a moment ago that they were mulling about Ivor's rebellious phase?

How ironic.

"You piece of shit!" Ivor exclaimed towards the boy, who suddenly turned pallid while widening his eyes at her brother.

"Ivor, that's not a good thing to-" say.

Amaryllis absent-mindedly followed the child's gaze and gasped after seeing a furious Ivor with a chair over his head stomping towards his classmate. "My god-Ivor-! Stop!" 

Seeing her brother had lost his sense of hearing to rage, Amaryllis could only insert herself between the kids at the last minute.

Crack!

She clenched her teeth, almost biting her tongue in the process.

"Sister...!"

Her head hurts so much, and her right arm is as good as gone. She wanted to scream, but she bit her lips instead, not wanting the kids to panic. Cold sweat beaded her forehead as she shut her eyes, trying to blink back the tears that were threatening to come out due to the throbbing pain in her arm.

"I... I'm sorry! You suddenly moved and-I.. I-"

Ivan was all over her, trembling and panicking as blood dripped on her face. His hands were flailing around, not knowing how to help her as he exchanged glances between the blood and her limp arm. She sighed painfully and pulled him in a hug with her uninjured hand.

"Shh-I'm okay. You didn't mean it..." 

At that moment, footsteps could be heard shuffling in the hallway, stopping precisely at the doorway. It would have been nice if Amaryllis handled the situation like an adult so that it didn't turn out like this. Now, things are going to get out of hand...

And Ivor won't stand a chance.

"Lucas."
"Amaryllis, Ivan! What happened!?"

Two voices uttered in unison as Ivor's body tensed. Amaryllis faced the doorway, fighting back her fading vision, and saw three people looking at the scene with inexplicable expressions.

Her aunt, Rosemary, and another adult.

Regardless of the age difference, they all had one thing in common. They aren't humored at all. Oh god... Amaryllis' eyes rolled back into her head as she fainted.

***