.The Eraser.

douze

                                                                    -12-

''SHHHH!''

The librarian gave a sharp stern look at the two students sitting at the booth in the corner. Atara didn't blame the male librarian, those two were making so much noise that even she could not focus on her studies for the past thirty minutes.  

She had a calculus test coming up tomorrow, but with the loud snickering from her left; she decided to take a break from her math practicing and she pulled out her laptop from her bag to check her mails.  

She opened an e-mail from the school's administration, not expecting anything important from them. It read: 

Dear student, 

You have been invited to the annual Sir Walton ball next week Friday on the 21ST. 

Please come and celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the opening of Walton's College.  

Venue: Eastern Belle Hotel. 

Time: 19.00. 

Dress code: Formal. 

Atara raised her eyebrows. She had heard that the school hosted an event to celebrate the starting of Walton's college but she did not think that they would hold it at such an expensive hotel. 'Sir Walton is richer than I thought?' she said in her mind and clicked her spam file. She wasn't sure if she would go or not, but probably Copper would drag her along. 

She heard a cough and looked up to see a smiling Onyx approach her desk. She automatically sat straighter. 

''Hellooo'', Onyx whispered cheerfully and she waved back as he now stood above her. 

'' I heard that you got arrested yesterday. What happened?'' he asked with a concerned tone. 

She couldn't help but cringe at the thought of that cold interrogation room. Somehow almost everyone at Walton's college knew that she had been arrested yesterday; and she had to endure the many times that people who she didn't even know asked her if it was true,while others just wanted to know how it felt to be in handcuffs. It had gotten to a point where she just wanted to punch who ever asked about her arrest. 

''umm, it was a mild misunderstanding. The police thought that I was involved in the robbery'', she explained, in a dull way. This was probably the hundredth time that day she had to explain what had transpired the previous day. 

''Oh. That must have sucked. Well am glad that you got released in the end.'' 

*cough* 

Atara raised her eyebrows, '' Onyx are you sick?'' she asked, glad that she could quickly change the subject. 

He cleared his throat, '' Yah. Something like that. i started coughing out of nowhere and that's why I ended up not going to the bank for D.R Barron's class trip yesterday." 

Atara nodded as she noticed that his voice sounded huskier than usual. '' Don't worry you didn't miss much.'' she said wistfully as the images of those harmed guards flashed in her mind. 

They then began to talk about random topics and in the same space of time he explained to her how to solve differentiation problems with trigonometry. She was finding them really difficult. Onyx surprised Atara with how intelligent he actually was. 'Don't judge a book by its cover', a voice spoke in her mind. 

''Atara I have to go. I just came to return a book'' he said in a small voice. Clearly he was trying his best not to irritate the librarian who decided to finally approach the noisy male pair at the corner.