Her Five Protectors

TWELVE

Athena looks dumbstruck as out of nowhere Romeo approached her. He grabs her hand and starts to tug her out of the crowd of students. Athena's heart begin to thump loudly in her chest. She is scared of this Romeo. His anger is scary. In a swift motion, he pushes her in a vacant classroom and slams the door shut.

"What did I tell you Ariana?" He tries hard to not to yell at her after seeing her scared expression. Still he sounds so stern, having the almost same replica of Vincenzo.

"You shouldn't be wandering around here like this. You shouldn't even be talking or even looking at anyone. Just be a fuckin' robot and ignore everything. If anyone approaches you, just give them a cold shoulder. Make sure to keep your distance from both Sarah and Max. They were your good friends but complete troubles. Their blunt and irrelevant actions can harm you because I don't think they are taking this news well that you are physically and mentally not good."

Romeo does not want to confront her with the fact that he is aware of her true identity. They need to keep this act until they find their real sister. This doppelganger is going to push herself in some trouble as their highschool is famous for it or all of it might lead everyone to the ugly truth. The real Ariana has made some major mistakes that tarnished their family's name and even Romeo was forced to help her but he regretted it instantly. He did not want the repeat of none of those things.

He sighs as he notices a frown on her face. She looks so sad. Romeo hates it that this look of hers always manages to make his heart clench. She looks so confused, sad and scared at the same time. Athena does not deserve to be treated like this but Romeo himself cannot change anything.

"You can go!" He tells her by running his hand through his hair in frustration. Athena nods and mutely walks out. As she steps out of the room, she bumps into someone. As she look up, she finds Alexander and Vittorio standing in front of her.

"I will take you to your next class." Athena flinches a little as Vittorio wraps his arm around her shoulder and leads her out of the curious glances of students.

He leaves the room after making sure that she is sitting comfortably in the back of her class room. He made sure that he glared at each of her classmates, silently warning them to not to mess with her. In others' eyes, Ariana is sick but in Vittorio's eyes Athena is not Ariana. She is a innocent yet dumb girl who got caught in all of these troubles. But it does not mean he wants her to get hurt.

Max and Sarah entered the classroom a little while later. They continuously tried to initiate a conversation with her but Athena ignored them, considering Romeo's words.

In the whole period, Athena acted like she is paying attention to the teacher and staring at him with eyes full of curiosity and understanding which is surprising to the teacher himself.

But in reality, Athena feels like he is speaking some alien language. She is confused and frustrated because she is incapable to understand what is he continuously talking about but she does not dare to mirror her thoughts in front of others.

As the class ends, she is more than happy to step out as Vittorio informed her before leaving that this is a lunch time. Romeo has already given her a tour in the morning and the cafeteria is in the second section of building. She just needs to make it there that she thinks is quite easy.

However, as she collects her stuff slowly and gets up from the chair, she is forcibly pushed back down on it.

"Why are you ignoring us?" Sarah asks angrily. Max is also standing beside her and towering over Athena who looks scared and so tiny in comparision with them.

"Ariana! Fucking answer! Did your brother tell you to do it?"

Athena fiddles with her fingers nervously.

"I know that you don't remember us but trust us, Ariana. We are your bestfriends. We can help you to get your memories back but only if you cooperate. You always used to say that your brothers are assholes and you never give a fuck about their shitty rul--" Sarah rambles on but Athena surprisingly cuts her off.

"T-they are not bad." She whispers and shakily stands up. Surprisingly, both of them were not able to hear her.

"I n-need to g-go." She squeezes her way from in between them and practically sprints out.

She pants slightly as she mindlessly rushes into the bathrooms to hide. She leans her back against the mirror wall and takes some deep breaths to calm herself down. This whole thing is so intense.

Everything happening around me is so bad. She needs to get out of here as soon as possible. She tells herself once again.

As Athena is busy thinking about the escape plan, the door opens silently and then slams shut loudly. Athena jumps up slightly in fear and looks back to see a group of five girls. They smirk at her.

They look the same age around Alexander and Athena could only assume that they are the university students judging by their different uniform. Romeo has explained it to her in the morning that Alexander is in University of this school. Twins are in their last senior year and she is in junior year. She does not understand much of it when he was telling her about it.

"Now now now. Will you guys look at this?" One of the girl who looks like to be the leader steps closer to her. Her heels, clicks loudly as she confidently saunters closer to Athena who is slightly backing away in fear.

"How have you been, Ariana?" She asks and fixes her stare on her skinny form for more than a moment before looking in her eyes.

"Oh snap! I forget that you don't even remember me anymore." She gives her a sickly sweet smile.

"I am Aurora. Does my name rings a bell?" She asks and crouches down slightly so she is on the same eye level as Athena.

"I told you to stay away from my brother. Look what does he have done to you." Aurora chuckles.

"Why do I feel like she is faking that she doesn't remember anything?" One of the girl who is standing at the door asks.

"Are you, Ariana?" Aurora asks and squeezes Athena's face roughly with her fingers.

"If you are, so tell me where is my brother? You both runaway together and now you are here so why is he still missing? Where is he? What does have your brothers done to him?" The pressure of her grip on Athena's face tightens with each word she says.

Athena cries a little as she slaps her face lightly before releasing her. Aurora sighs and backs away a little from her.

"If you tell your brothers about me, you know the conseq-- wait a damn second! You don't even remember them. So lemme remind you a bit. You were right here begging and crying for mercy when I almost poured a drop of acid on your beautiful face. That was just to scare you but next time I will make sure to ruin this pretty face of yours. Mark my words, Ariana."

Athena whimpers in fear as Aurora and her group silently leaves the place. Athena slides down against the wall still so shocked at this girl Aurora's actions. There are several questions running in Athena's mind but she is so scared to ask for answers.