C.O.D. ➜𝐈. 𝐇𝐀𝐉𝐈𝐌𝐄

0.1

CHAPTER ONE
➥BUDDY SYSTEM

Elizabeth had her priorities straight, and that was to do whatever the fuck she wanted, whenever the fuck she wanted. At the present moment, that meant playing COD at four in the morning. The girl had her half blonde, half brunette hair tied into a low bun with the hood of her jumper thrown over the top of her head. The sound of clicking echoed through the dimly lit room, only illuminated by the monitor perched on a white desk.

"On me," Elizabeth croaked into the microphone attached to her headset, neglecting the bottle of water a few inches away from her keyboard. Her squad consisted of five other players, two of which from Japan, like her, one from the states, and two from Germany. And all of them were a force to be reckoned with.

Initially the language barrier had proved difficult, but with Saori and the other two from Japan taking English, and their friend from the states taking German, usually at least one person could understand what another was saying. Over the sound of gunshots echoing through her headphones, Elizabeth could hear pounding on the wall in front of her.

"I'll get off after this round," the teen sighed to her teammates, being met with instant disagreement. "I have school in like two hours," she reasoned, and hopped off of the game as soon as a victory screen brightened her face. Elizabeth tripped over dirty clothes as she made her way to her bed in the dark, almost immediately succumbing to sleep upon impact. The homework she had been set the week before remained in her bag, nothing more than a few doodles marking the pages.

A few hours later, she found herself drooling, face down on her desk in an attempt to catch up on the sleep she had missed out on the night before. It was only English, and the girl felt that she had an excuse to sleep through the lesson due to her daily practice in the language.

She was happily dreaming of going to her favorite sushi restaurant, when suddenly something collided with her side and forced her head to slam against the desk. "Ah jesus-"
Elizabeth rubbed her head painfully as she turned to glare at her attacker, only to have her desk mate gesture to the front of the room hurriedly.

"Ms. Saori, I trust that your hearing is not impaired?" The lanky man known to most as Mr. Keon, and to others as the devil incarnate, looked at her over his glasses.

"Erm, yes sir," she replied hesitantly, suddenly aware of the entire class watching the exchange.

"Then perhaps next time I am talking to you, you will be able to reply without the assistance of a classmate," he sighed deeply, causing Elizabeth to roll her eye so hard they might have fallen out of her head. "Now, as I have already said, meet me after class. You too Mr. Iwaizumi." Her eyes shot to the other side of the classroom, where a certain boy was looking just as confused as the rest of the class.

"Uh, yes sir," the boy responded, running a hand through his hair. She became increasingly more confused as she thought on why Mr. Keon would want to see them both. It was obvious that Elizabeth would be reprimanded for whatever reason, but Iwaizumi didn't have a rebellious bone in his body and mostly went undetected to teachers.

Finally when the bell rang, she said a small goodbye to her desk mate, Riko, and wandered her way to the front of the classroom. She was left to lean awkwardly on one of the desks as Mr. Keon remained at his computer, typing vigorously.

Iwaizumi seemed to be keeping his distance from both of the other people occupying the room, and Elizabeth couldn't blame him. She had always held an interest with the tall black haired beauty, since she transferred to Aoba Joshai the previous year. And seemed to only bring about chaos in the teenage boy's life when attempting to get know him better.

The cow incident still haunted her.

The squeak of the classroom door behind her broke the tense silence engulfing the English room. "Ah! Mrs. Aoi, thank you for coming," Mr. Keon's words made Elizabeth's eyes widen to saucers as a tall, pudgy woman came into view. She caught Iwaizumi's eye, an expression on his face that could have only been asking, "what the hell did you do?!"

She shrugged lamely, looking anywhere but at the two adults. "The pleasure is mine," Mrs. Aoi loomed over the two students, who had gravitated toward each other in an attempt to create safety in numbers. Her eyes flitted between the both of them for what seemed to be at least an hour, but was probably only a few minutes, before finally stopping on Elizabeth.

"Ms. Saori, it has come to the board's attention that you have not completed a homework assignment in six weeks."She cringed, feeling Iwaizumi's gaze burning against the side of her face, but she refused to meet his eyes.

"Yes Ma'am."

"And that will simply not do," the principle's voice was clear and commanding. "And yet you have not received a score below an 85 on a single test, quiz or in class assignment."

"Er, yes ma'am."

"But, without the extra weight of your homework, you are on the verge of failing nearly every one of your classes."Elizabeth's eyes bulged, she did not know that. Mrs. Aoi sighed, finally relieving the girl of her scrutinizing gaze and offering a softer one of Iwaizumi.

"Mr. Iwaizumi, you on the other hand are one of Aoba Joshai's top students. You are active in the school's community and participate in a handful of extracurriculars, and on top of it all are in the running to attend one Japan's stop universities in the fall." Elizabeth blinked, the sudden nose-dive of her ego stunning the girl into silence as she looked between her classmate and principal.

"And in no way will I allow anything to set you back," she hesitated before going on. "But Mr. Keon and I can think of no one better than you to take on the burden of participating in the school's buddy system with Ms. Saori."

Bitch, what the fuck?

"Pardon? What exactly is the buddy system?" Iwaizumi finally spoke up, the curve of his jaw flexing as he titled his head to the side.

Mr. Keon cleared his throat, "simply put, you would only have to check up on Ms. Saori. Encourage her to turn in her work, if she ends up graduating then the both of you will be rewarded." Mrs. Aoi nodded in agreement, smiling contentedly as she turned her attention back toward the third years.

"Rewarded how," Elizabeth shot Iwaizumi a look, only to be met with a lame shrug that mirrored hers from earlier, a smirk etched on his face.

"Iwaizumi, you would be awarded the same extra credit as official tutors, and we will be sending letters of recommendation to schools of your choice," Mrs. Aoi recited, as if she had practiced the speech in the mirror when she was getting ready.

"And Saori," the principle eyed the girl's hair. "You will not be punished for your obvious breach of the schools dress code, and letters of recommendation will be sent for you as well."

Elizabeth nodded, and looked over to see what Iwaizumi would say. It was his decision after all, she was just along for the ride.

"Fine," he said simply. Mr. Keon and Mrs. Aoi to turns shaking his hand, mumbling words of appreciation. Now that her role in all of it was over, Elizabeth took one of the passes Mr. Keon had written for them and snuck out the classroom.

Just another thing she had to deal with.

♡