Sweetheart

107

As usual, Mister Justine entered the teacher's lounge to find the others deep in discussion. He took his seat and made his announcement.

"Natsu did not do a single piece of work for me, just like what I said would happen."

"Well Aina's been giving everyone updates, so why don't you ask her?" Mister Fernandes suggested. "Or you could send a call to her mother. It seems like she's the one taking care of everything."

A loud 'bang' interrupted their conversation, and when they all filed into the halls, they found Loke and Sting roughhousing outside the room.

"Mister Eucliffe," Jura's voice boomed as he opened the door.

He heard a nervous laugh followed by a quick 'sorry!' before everything became quiet once more. The conversation turned back to the teacher, but he just rolled his eyes and continued to pick at his food.

A soft knock interrupted their thoughts, and when the group looked towards the noise, they found Aina standing awkwardly in the doorway.

"Miss Labelle, is everything alright?" Mister Neekis questioned.

"I was just wondering if you had a minute to talk about my grades."

"You have near perfect scores in all your classes," Mister Fernandes reminded.

"I just...it's not fair."

Mister Neekis ushered her inside, so she took small steps into the room, taking a quick second to scan her surroundings and gauge her teachers' possible reactions.

"What do you mean?" Mister Justine prompted.

"I just don't think it's fair that I'm getting easy grades right now. I know that everyone is trying not to stress everyone out right now, but I earned my grades, and I don't want to stop earning them because of the situation."

"Say, Aina," Miss Mikazuchi light-heartedly joked, "you wanna take AP psych next year? I'd love to have your work ethic."

Aina giggled, momentarily forgetting her concerns.

"The grades you get in my class will always be earned," Mister Justine said. "I don't plan on making any changes to grading at this point."

"Thank you, Mister Justine. I just don't want to have free grades, ya know?" She gave a wave and crossed the threshold back to the hallway.

It was a few seconds later when she reappeared with a piece of paper.

"Oh! I totally forgot to give this to you, Mister Justine."

The paper was handed over to him, and when he looked down he saw a half-filled-out worksheet with Natsu's name on it.

"It was kinda hard to get started. Apparently English is the hardest class for him," she spoke, leaving out the emotional part of the reason. "But he tried his best."

The bell sounded, so Aina quickly dismissed herself again and disappeared into the passing crowd.

"Well, Freed?" Miss Mikazuchi slyly addressed. "What're you gonna do now?"

"It's one sheet with barely any work," he defended.

"But it's something," the math teacher pushed. "And that should be enough."

-------

"I gave Mister Justine your worksheet today," Aina announced twenty minutes into her visit.

"Yeah? And what was his sarcastic reply?"

Aina sighed and shifted on the bed to reach behind her and grab one of his hands.

"He didn't really say anything," came her truthful answer. "I dropped it off during lunch and then went back to Lucy and Levy."