After All, I'm Your Secret Admirer~!!

Ch16 - Greenery is Always Nice

Leaf grumbles as he walks away. He knew Paige wouldn't feel the best about what he was going to do, but that was fine. He would deal with it later.

Looking over the cafeteria, Leaf tries to spot the three puffballs of hair he knew would most likely help him find the culprit of the crime that was committed.

It takes a moment, but eventually he spots the girl and walks straight towards her.

"Michelle," he says as a piss poor way of greeting.

"Oh, hey!" Michelle smiles. "Paige, right?"

"...Yeah," Leaf mumbles. "I have a question."

"Oh, okay! Shoot!"

"You know Kevin Sharp?"

"'Course I do!"

"You hear how he got attacked recently?"

"WHAT!?" Michelle yelps. "That's who went away in an ambulance on Thursday!?"

"...You won't be any help," Leaf sneers. "Thanks, or whatever." He begins walking away.

"Wait!" Michelle calls behind him.

He ignores her.

+++

Leaf doesn't ask for permission when he grabs his bag and leaves school for the day. There was no way in hell he was sticking around here just to stare at pieces of paper he didn't know anything about for another 3 hours.

Navigating home would be an issue, however. He hadn't really been paying close enough attention for the past... however many years to remember directions. He hoped the GPS on Paige's phone would help.

...Wait. Paige had a phone. Phones were used to call people.

Leaf hits himself on the head. He then immediately regrets it. He'd done it much too hard, forgetting how fragile the body was. Ugh. That one was gonna smart for quite a while.

Whatever. Paige's phone is luckily locked with a fingerprint scanner, so Leaf is able to open it with ease. He navigates the device until he can find a contact labeled "Mom :)".

He taps on it and sighs. He was gonna have to school his voice to sound like Paige's. Here's hoping he could do it right.

"Sweetie?" Quinn asks, sounding confused. "What're you doing calling me right now?"

"I—I'm sorry, Mom," Leaf says, forcing his voice to be a little higher. "They let us out early and th—the bus won't be coming for another 30 minutes..."

"Oh, are you stranded?" his mom asks. "You should've called Min, honey! You know I can't get off of work this early."

"Sorry..." Leaf mumbles. "Should I call him instead?"

"No, no, I can do it. He'll probably just panic if you do it." Quinn's got a little laugh in their voice. "Just hang on a moment, okay? I'll text you when he's on his way."

"Okay!" Leaf says, putting as much emotion as he can into it. "I'll talk to you later!"

"Talk to you later, sweetie!" Quinn repeats, hanging up.

"Ugh," Leaf groans. "Carmen better not take forever. I just want to go home."

+++

Leaf is graciously dropped off at home by his aunt after being completely silent on the ride. Carmen had tried multiple times to start a conversation, but Leaf wasn't having it. At some point, he'd just folded his arms and put his head down, pretending to be asleep.

"Thank you, Aunt Carmen," he says like a good little boy once he exits the car.

"Are you alright, mijo?" he finally gets out. Leaf has to stop himself from rolling his eyes.

"Just tired!" he smiles. "I'll talk to you later, okay?"

"Okay... Feel better soon, alright?"

"Alright!"

The smile falls off of Leaf's face the moment Carmen pulls off. Ugh. Pretending to be Paige was so tiresome. How did he do this everyday of his life?

Well, whatever. He didn't have to worry about pretending again until Quinn got home.

Leaf enters his home and flops down on the couch, exhaling.

Finding whoever hurt Kevin was obviously not going to be an easy job. If the resident loudmouth of the school didn't even know Kevin was the one who got hurt, there was no way she knew who had done it. There had to be someone Paige knew who could point him in the right direction, though...

He thinks. Sue was really the only other knowledge well he knew of, but that would be risky. What if they realized he wasn't Paige? He could pretend for a while, but he doubted he could keep it up for an entire conversation.

Let's see... who else could...

The big puffs of hair Michelle had swirl in Leaf's mind as he thinks, eventually forming a new shape, one of the puffs disappearing entirely. When the shape finally lights itself, Leaf gasps.

Lucy Lulu!

Of course! He'd have to be sure to ask her tomorrow.

For right now though, Leaf gets up and stretches. If Lucy had info, he needed to get ready for a fight. Quinn had a small personal gym set up in the back of the house. He ambles over and looks over the equipment.

Paige had never bothered with these things, but Leaf would have to if he wanted to have any chance of beating whoever the hell hurt his best friend.

Time to get fit. Time to get physical.

-- A/N --

got so excited i wrote some more!! this one is small but i hope you still enjoyed meeting leaf :p