Beautiful Disaster [Stingue]

Memory is the Diary That We All Carry With Us

"Cheney. Cheney! Rogue Cheney, are you listening to me?!"

Rogue's eyes fluttered open, his vision somewhat a blur. It took a couple of seconds for everything to come into focus, and when it did, Rogue was surprised to see a lady standing in front of him with a large meter stick gripped in her hand.

"I know it's only your second week of school, but if you want to sleep in my class, you better be expecting punishment!" Her voice was very shrill, making Rogue's ears hurt. He flinched and looked up at her, getting ready to apologize. Before he could do so, however, she bent down and whispered in his ear, "Sweetie, are you okay? Did you not get enough rest last night?"

Rogue shook his head, not even knowing if that was the truth. Honestly, he had no memory of what had happened before this very moment. He didn't know where he was, what day it was, or even who this woman was. Fragments of his memory were coming back to him, but he couldn't quite put the pieces together.

"Do you need to see the nurse?" she asked, looking a bit concerned. Rogue shook his head again. All the other people in the room began whispering amongst themselves, but Rogue just ignored them. The woman placed her hands on her hips and walked back to the front of the room, resuming some lesson about grammar.

Rogue took the opportunity to look around, hoping that there would be some hints to help him figure things out. One thing he knew for sure that he was at a school, and in a classroom. Most of the students surrounding him looked somewhat familiar. Rogue could've sworn he'd seen them before from what his memory was telling him, but he couldn't make much sense of it.

A couple of minutes passed, and Rogue was able to clarify a few things. He was at Sabertooth Academy, the school he'd started to attend a week ago. He was in English class, and the woman from earlier was his teacher. For some reason, he got a strange feeling that somebody else was his teacher in the past, but he just shook away the thought, thinking it was absurd.

Rogue's eyes then landed on a blonde male who was seated a few rows in front of him. Something about him made Rogue feel...different. He almost felt as if he knew him from somewhere, but that'd have to be impossible. Rogue didn't have any friends, and there was no way that one of the most popular kids in his class would be someone he was close with.

His head was pounding now, refueling him of some memories he didn't really recognize but chose to accept.

"Alright class, I'll be assigning a project for this week. It's due by Friday, so you have today till then, which gives you about four days, to work on it," the teacher announced. Collective groans chorused around the class. "This is a partner project, and yes, a partner is required to complete this on time. I'd like each one of you to research one of Zeref's demons. Your choice on which one it is. The paper should be around two to three pages, if not more. That's just the minimum requirement."

Everyone's expression lit up at the announcement of it being a partner project. Everyone's except Rogue's, that is. Rogue completely dreaded partner projects. He didn't like working with others, let alone people he didn't even know that well. It was even worse when they had to present them. He prayed that they wouldn't have to, because he didn't have enough confidence to go up there and talk, plus he surely didn't want to make a fool of himself in front of so many people.

"You have five minutes left before dismissal. Choose your partners now and pick out the demon you plan on researching to get you started," the teacher concluded. "Enjoy the rest of the day."

All of the students stood up and partnered up, leaving Rogue and a group of three boys solo. Rogue clenched his fists, not having enough confidence to go up to anyone and ask them to be his partner. He decided to stay put and hope for the best.