Sweetheart

106

Aina quietly stepped through the front door of her house and dropped her keys in the glass bowl. It was a total of maybe thirty seconds before she was met with her mother standing right in front of her.

"Mom, you scared--"

"When were you going to tell me?"

"Tell you what?"

"Show me your shoulder right now."

Aina groaned and slowly slipped her backpack off her arms and went closer to Kelia. Her mother's fingers ghosted the healing bruise, and Aina could hear that she was starting to choke up.

"Mom, it's okay. It's healing, so it should be going away soo--"

"That's not the point, Aina. You promised that you wouldn't hide these things any more."

"I forgot."

"Aina--"

"I'm fine, mom. Really."

Kelia let out a long breath before bringing her daughter in for a tight hug. It seemed to hit Aina at that point, and all the hurt and panic seeped through her otherwise calm demeanor, and she joined in her mother's crying.

"You're okay," Kelia choked, stroking the brunette's hair. "That boy is going far away from you."

-------

As usual, Aina was the first student to take her seat in her first period class. Her and Mister Justine were the only two in the room for a good ten minutes, but Aina paid no mind to the awkward tension that filled the room. Well, that or she didn't notice, but nobody could really say for certain. She continued to rummage through her bag to get out everything she needed for the class, and when she was done, she threw a bright smile at the teacher and wished him a good morning.

"Mister Justine," she finally spoke, "are we discussing multiple sections today or just the one that we read for homework yesterday?"

"Sections four and five," he cautiously responded.

She gave a cheery 'okay' and turned her attention to gathering her notes that she took for those assigned sections. The green haired English teacher tried to find the words, but they weren't coming to him in any way. He knew what he wanted to do: ask how both she and Natsu were doing. But his negative feelings toward the boy stopped him from asking about his well-being. And that was, obviously, a concern in itself. Hell, he was supposed to care about each of his students, but he just couldn't find it in himself to change his views of him when Natsu did nothing to show him that he actually cared.

Throughout the past week, he had been pestered by the other teachers to reconsider his outlook about Natsu, but he was stubborn. Natsu didn't care, didn't try, didn't follow any rules whatsoever. Why would he try to cater towards a student like that when he should be paying attention to the students that he felt had a much better future than whatever Natsu would end up doing once he graduated.

"Oh!" Aina stopped. "Before I forget, Mister Justine, can I get the assignment for Natsu as well? That way he's not so far behind when he comes back."

The teacher couldn't stop his sarcasm when he said, "Is he actually going to do it or is it going to sit in the room with him completely ignored?"

"We've been doing work together since he's stuck in that room all day. Keeps his mind going, ya'know? He already did math, and his bio teacher said that she would give me work later this week, so I figured today could be an English work day. Why, is that not okay? Would you like it more spread out?"

"Uh, no that's not it," he hesitantly responded.

Then the innocent question came: "Well then what is it?"