Spirits of Emotion - LWA - Constanze x Jasminka x Amanda

Chapter 8

By the time the girls woke up, Constanze was already finished showering. She got woken up early in the morning from one of her ideas. She was in the dorm room collecting her books and Stanbot, fully dressed and already ready to start the day. Amanda yawned as she sat up, and looked to Constanze. She waved a little, but all she got in response was a small nod and "humph" before Constanze walked away and left the room, heading out already. Amandas dreary eyes blinked a couple times, before looking up to see Jasminka slowly coming down the ladder from the bunk. "Did something happen with Constanze?" she asked, Jasminka shrugged. "She's probably just worried about you, don't get too anxious." She got down and grabbed a bag of chips, having a morning snack before she would get ready. Amanda just nodded, trusting Jasminka's intuition. She got up, and began to go get ready for the day ahead.

Constanze was sitting in the room early, trying her best not to overthink the situations around her. Her eyes where swirling, and her brain felt like mush. She groaned, holding her head and pushing a bit as she looked down. She grunted and dropped her head onto the table with a small thud, which echoed through the very empty room. The Stanbot on the table just slowly rubbed her head in hope that she would be alright. Constanze slowly rolled her head, looking towards the Stanbot, her eyes were half closed and she was sniffling, seeming to have teary eyes. The Stanbot jumped back, seeming a little surprised by this. Constanze wasn't one to get this upset usually, so he wasn't expecting it. His chest opened up with a handkerchief Constanze would use as an oil rag, before grabbing it and closing it. He wipes her tears away, and she just mutters. Though, he could read her lips, seeing that she said a very very quiet thank you. He sat, looking towards her, wondering what could be wrong.

Constanze didn't respond, she normally doesn't in situations like this. But it didn't stop Stanbot from trying to theorize the issue at hand. Did she fail an assignment? No, not even remotely. Ever since Amanda helped with the nightmares she has been her old self, so it wasn't her grades slipping. Speaking of the nightmare, has she been having them again? No that couldn't be it, she would be hanging with Amanda more if that was the case. It took a while for the Stanbot to continue to think, before coming up with the culprit of the situation. Just as he did that, his head turned to a couple girls coming into class. He acted like he was waiting for the teacher, and just turned to face the front, trying not to draw attention to Constanze. But she being this early, and having her head on the table, was already drawing enough attention. The girls muttered, wondering if Constanze had fallen asleep before class even started. The Stanbot slowly turned back to Constanze, before seeing she got more upset by hearing their comments. He put his hands out and spread them, waving them gently to try to signal her to stop crying.

By the time class had actually started, many people, including Amanda and Jasminka, had noticed Constanze seemed upset. She was sniffling throughout the lesson, luckily no louder than the teacher talking, but Jasminka could hear each sniffle distinctly. She would look down to Constanze, trying to see what was wrong. The Stanbot would try to open his chest again to give her the handkerchief, before she pushed him away a little, not wanting to show the girls she was crying. Jasminka looked towards the front of class, trying to figure out herself what happened. She hoped that nothing happened with Diana and Constanze that made her upset. Class went as normal for the rest of it, though Constanze didn't go with the girls to their next class, instead Constanze seemed to go the other direction. "She must be getting some water at the fountain..." Jasminka thought, before turning away and walking with Amanda.

Constanze went and sat down underneath the steps to go up a floor, she looked to Stanbot and began to sniffle more, wiping her eyes onto her sleeve, before hiccupping. Stanbot rubbed her leg a little, watching Constanze clearly be in a state of distress unlike anything before. Not even the karaoke event caused her to be like this, a quiet depressed state. "What's wrong, Constanze?" asked the Stanbot, in its titular high pitched voice. She looked forward, before grabbing her chalkboard and beginning to write. She showed a rough pic of her and Amanda, and just from that alone Stanbot was able to figure out the issue. Constanze was jealous of Jasminka, "Do you not like Jasminka?" Stanbot said. Constanze shook her head, making a complaining noise, trying to make sure Stanbot didn't get the wrong idea. She moved a bit, laying down on her stomach, and erasing the board with the back of her hand. Chalk residue laid across it, but it still would work for what she needed.

Constanze began to write, she wrote Jasminka's name as well as her own, and began to write other stuff down. She wrote strong between the twos names, slightly below them. She put a check mark under Jasminka's name, and a large X under her own. She went ahead and wrote other traits, saying that Jasminka was good at magic, romance, and many other beneficial positive traits. The Stanbot read over them, before looking to Constanze, who was sniffling, still upset. Stanbot stomped, which just sounded like a tiny clink of a paperclip being dropped, before he raised his arms. "Constanze, you are amazing! You're smart, you're graceful, and you're perfect as you are!" Constanze looked to Stanbot, what he hoped would be a smile didn't come though. She just nudged the chalkboard, before putting her head down, and sighing between sniffles and crying.

Stanbot stepped back, before looking around. He patted Constanze's head, before beginning to walk away. It was about 20 seconds after he walked away that Constanze curled up into a ball, feeling even worse now. Not that he intended it, but because he left Constanze felt she was just abandoned. Stanbot was walking down the hall as fast as he could, procedurally remembering the schedule and the classes Constanze has today. He figured if he could get Amanda and Jasminka to come get Constanze, she would feel better. He wasn't really used to the complex emotions of people, so he couldn't get why Constanze thought Amanda would dislike her. Whenever he got to the door, he knocked on it a couple times. Mary ended up opening it, looking around before looking down and seeing Stanbot. She poked her head out of the door and looked across the halls, trying to see if Constanze was nearby, but she was nowhere to be seen.

A voice called from within the classroom, "Mary, who is there?" She opened the door more, showing the teacher the Stanbot. Amanda and Jasminka could see from their seats the lone Stanbot, and immediately they became concerned. Amanda slammed her fist down onto her palm and her brow furled. "Teach, we need to go!" Stanbot didn't even say anything before Amanda got up. The teacher turned towards Amanda, wondering what was going on. Jasminka stood up calmly, making sure to be the voice of reason in this situation. "Stanbot without Constanze is usually a bad thing." She said, picking up her bag of chips. "We want to go to find out the issue, so you don't have to stop your teaching. The teacher nodded, and allowed the girls to go. Stanbot began to lead them down the hall, but the girls couldn't help but wonder.

"Is she hurt?" Amanda asked, Jasminka shrugged. "I hope she's not sick... She seemed pretty stressed earlier, something has to be up..." As they ended up at the end of the hallway, they saw Constanze in a ball, her face red with anger and sadness. Amanda wasn't sure what to do, but Jasminka did. She has encountered this type of situation before with her younger siblings. She crouched, and put her hand on Constanze's head. Constanze looked up to her, her nose and eyes dripping over her face, tears and mucus cover her sleeves. She was too upset to think through much, and she got up, and hugged Jasminka tightly. Amanda nearly teared up herself, seeing Constanze like this. She was so caught up in watching Constanze cry while hugging Jasminka, that she didn't see the chalkboard. But Jasminka did, she looked to the Stanbot, and did a small head gesture. He walked over, and picked it up, before looking to Jasminka, then erasing it. Amanda noticed him erasing it, but she didn't give it a second thought. Jasminka stood up, holding Constanze close to her. "Its alright Cons, I am here with you, everything will be ok."

The rest of the day, Constanze was allowed to be at her dorm due to the stress, since having to deal with classes while being so upset would be bad. When the day ended,  Jasminka came to the dorm alone, as Amanda was practicing her broom flying. Jasminka sat down on Amandas bed, looking towards Constanze, who was just laying in her bed facing the wall. Jasminka sighed, "Constanze, can we talk please?" Constanze shook her head no, and hid under the blankets. Jasminka opened her eyes a little wider, making her brown irises noticeably visible. "Please Constanze, I wouldn't ask if it wasn't important. You know this." Constanze shook under the blanket, before turning and facing Jasminka. She closed her eyes sadly, before sitting up, staying in a blanket huddle for her own security. Jasminka tilted her head, ever so slightly, to show her concern and confusion. "Why are you upset?" She knew already, she saw the board, but she wanted to see if Constanze would say something else. Or at least, emote in a manner that would mean something else. 

Constanze shuddered a bit, before looking at Jasminka. She reached over to her backpack and grabbed her chalkboard, and grabbed some chalk out of the pocket on the side of the bag. She sniffled a bit as she began to write, seeming to get more upset as she continued to explain. She was about to wipe her eyes, before Jasminka put her hand on down onto her shoulder. Constanze looked up, her eyes pink from stressing them, and her tears dripping down her face made shiny streaks. Jasminka smiled softly, before sitting on her one knee in front of Constanze, giving her some Deja Vu. "I saw what you wrote already, and if its this bad, you don't need to write it again." Constanze tried to mouth out some words, before sniffling really badly and wiping her eyes on her blanket. She hiccupped from the awkward inhale she took through her crying. Jasminka gave Constanze a light hug, putting her head against Constanze's. She patted Cons back, and smiled. "Remember Constanze, we are all in this together. Amanda doesn't care if you are strong, or if you can bake well..." She pulled back, and Constanze looked up to her, wondering what she was going to say.

"She cares that you are there to support her, to care for her, and to take her admiration... Amanda wants us to be with her because we make her happy. She isn't looking at me and thinking, 'oh she is so strong! I love that about her.' She is looking at me and thinking 'She is an amazing friend, I love her for that.'" Constanze looked down, and Jasminka pressed her hand against her chest. "Amanda looks at you the same way. And I do too, I look at you as a marvelous friend. You are smart, you're courageous, and you're always the one to know how to solve a problem. We wouldn't have known about The Eclipse if you didn't talk to Diana about it. In fact, Diana might not have even thought about reading up on it had you not been doing experiments." Constanze began to feel a little better, so she looked up at Jasminka. "Constanze, whatever happens, please remember. I am not trying to outshine you, I am just being me. I want you to just be yourself... If we make each other feel uncomfortable, upset, or angry in this relationship? It will fail, and we will all feel horrible. Please, if anything is bothering you. Anything at all, please tell us... You scared us so badly today."

Constanze smiled and nodded, before making an upset noise and hugging Jasminka tightly. She was standing up while she did this, inviting Jasminka to stand up a little bit to be level with her. Jasminka was surprised, but she accepted the hug. The door jiggled, so she looked over a bit. Amanda peaked in, trying to see if Constanze was better, knowing that Jasminka's experience with her siblings would be better off in a situation like this than Amanda would be as a single child with no younger cousins. Jasminka nodded slowly, and began to stand up. Constanze turned towards the door, seeing Amanda walk in with a smile. She put her arms out, and in the middle of her movement Constanze ran over and tackled her with a hug, causing Amanda to take a couple steps back. Amanda smiled, and patted Constanze's back as she sniffled into Amandas torso. Amanda looked onwards towards Jasminka, and nodded to her. "Everything will be ok. Its a learning curve, just as you said." Jasminka nodded in agreement.