An Escape. (A Soul Eater fanfic)

Crossing the Street Without Mom's Hand.

Chapter Four: Crossing the Street Without Mom's Hand

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"Maka, are you ready? We're leaving in five minutes!"

"Almost! Just gotta tie this stupid tie..."

Maka fiddled with her green necktie, eventually just giving up and tossing it on the bed. She grabbed her book bag from her closet and dashed down the stairs.

"Finally, I thought you were never going to-" Kidd stopped mid-sentence, gawking at her new outfit.

She wore a white blouse with a yellow sweater vest, a red plaid skirt that went to mid-thigh, black boots with white buckles, and a trench coat that seemed to turn into a cloak at the end.

"...is there something wrong, Kidd?" she asked, clasping her hands together.

"Your outfit..."

"What about it?"

"It's...it's..."

"It's...?"

"It's perfectly symmetrical!" Kidd exclaimed.

"Ooookay then?" Maka scratched her head, and Kidd suddenly stopped and a distraught look replaced his overjoyed one. "What now...?"

"You messed up your hair...now it's asymmetrical..."

"What's your deal with symmetry all of a sudden?"

"All of a sudden? Maka, I've loved symmetry my whole life! Symmetry is balance, and balance is necessary to live! For good, there must be evil, for light, darkness, and for left, right. They must mirror each other! No one can be greater or lesser than the other!"

"...then what's up with those stripes?" She pointed to the three white streaks that went only halfway around his head.

Maka blinked, and suddenly Kidd was on the ground, a very depressed aura about him.

"Worthless...I deserve to die...garbage, that's what I am..."

She twitched and folded her arms. "Now you're the one making us late."

"Right! We cannot arrive late on your first day!"

She blinked again and he was up and already out the door.

"...what black magic is this?" She sighed and followed him.

"Class, this is Maka. She will be joining our class. I expect you will treat her well," the professor stated, pushing up his glasses and rolling his chair back over to his desk. "Now, onto today's lesson. We will be studying the makeup of this elephant infant."

"Is that even legal?" Maka whispered to Soul, whom she was seated next to.

"You'd be surprised, the things they get warrants for..." he muttered back, doodling on his notebook paper.

Maka chuckled a bit, before glancing at her other neighbor's paper to catch up on the notes.

"Alright ladies, ten minutes! Counter-clockwise! Whoever can run furthest can skip out on class tomorrow! When you pass me yell out your number!"

Murmurs erupted throughout the class, but Maka stayed silent, examining the field they'd be running laps on.

'As long as it's not wet...'

"Ready!" The coach shouted, to receive several "ready"s from his class. "Set! GO!"

Everyone took off sprinting save the coach, who picked up his clipboard and stopwatch and prepared to make lots of tallies.

Thirty seconds passed, and about half the students had slowed to a jog, a quarter to a walk, and the rest were still sprinting as fast as their legs could carry them.

"3!"

The coach jumped, surprised that someone had completed a lap so fast, and looked up to see that she was still sprinting and on her second lap. His eyebrows raised and he shrugged, marking a tally next to her name.

A wave of numbers was shouted suddenly, and the coach quickly marked them all.

"And the winner, at an astonishing 20 laps, is the new lady, Maka!"

Maka stood slightly hunched over, panting and sweating, but smiled, embarrassed, and waved as everyone stared at her in shock.

Kidd approached her and leaned in. "How the hell can you do that?"

"Well, if you really wanna know..."

"No duh."

"I-"

"Maka, you lucky sprinter! I always win!" Black*Star interrupted, clapping her on the back.

"I guess you can't use 'always' anymore." Kidd rolled his eyes.

"Nah, she was lucky! I bet I could beat her any day! I am Black*Star, after all!"

"Is that a challenge?" Maka faced him with a smirk and a raised eyebrow, crossed arms, and head tilted.

"You bet it is!" Black*Star grinned, sticking a finger in her face. "After school today, meet me at the basketball courts! We'll have a race to see who's dominant here!"

"You're on."

"Woo! Go Maka!"

"Come on, Black*Star! You gonna lose to a girl?!"

Kidd, Liz, and Patti had created a makeshift race track with chalk. On one side stood Soul and Patti, cheering Black*Star on- Soul genuinely, but Patti just for the heck of it.

Kidd, Liz, and Tsubaki stood on the other side, encouraging Maka, all wholeheartedly.

Maka had pulled ahead inthe last few seconds, and crossed the line a good five seconds before Black*Star. She was met with applause, whilst Black*Star was met with a sympathetic pat on the back.

"You can't win 'em all," Soul said.

"This doesn't prove anything!" Black*Star shouted, sticking a finger in Maka's face once again. "You're just lucky!"

"Trust me, luck abandoned me a long time ago..." Maka smiled weakly and waved her hands.

"Humph." Black*Star placed his hands on his hips. "I will beat you someday!"

"Good luck with that," Kidd said.

"I'm Black*Star! Of course I will!" He cackled before striding off, not a dent in his pride to be seen.

"It takes a while to get used to him..." Kidd sweat dropped. "Oh, Maka, did you ever get to see the library?"

She noticeably perked up and shook her head. "During the tour all I saw was the door."

"Well then! Let's go!" He grinned and marched off towards the building.

"Woah...it's huge!"

"I told you you'd love it."

"Yeah, but I never imagined that one place could have so many books!"

"Feel free to browse them. There are books on every subject."

"...so there are books about books?"

Kidd raised an eyebrow. "Yes."

"Amazing!"

"...Don't get too carried away..."

"How can I not? Look at all of them!"

"Yes, yes, there's a lot of books." Kidd rolled his eyes. "You think this is a lot, wait until you see the second story," he muttered.

Maka slowly turned to face him. "Second...story...?"

"...I think we're done for the day."

"No, I have to look at the books!" Maka whined, pointing to the massive shelves filled with books big and small.

"Come on, let's go..."

"I don't wanna..."

"You can look at the books tomorrow. Why don't we start doing our homework in here?"

"...okay..."

"Alright, let's go. I'm hungry."