I.D.E.A. (International Diadem Elite Academy) [RECENTLY UPDATED!]

Chapter 11

Mavis, after 3 days of rest, felt well enough to attend classes again. She was glad that she got better in the middle of the week since her Psychology class had been quite uncomfortable for her these days. She got up especially early today to hit the library for a few hours before classes start.

She arrived at IDEA about 15 minutes before 7 and there were not much people around. So instead of getting off the cab in front of her own building, she just stopped at the main gate and just walked towards the students' center where the main library is situated. She got there and as expected, there wasn't any student except for the 2 library staff arranging what looked like a set of new-arrivals. It was still a bit early so she decided to do some light reading first. She went to the culinary section and took out an Asian Cuisines cook book. She sat down at a chair by the edge of one of the long tables and took out her sticky notes so she could jot down the needed ingredients and hit the grocery store later. She put on her earphones and listened to her playlist then started browsing the pages.

Ever since, she had always found the library as somewhat a safe and solemn space where she would spend most of her time doing school works and listen to her playlist undisturbed. But it was only during high school where that silence suddenly felt suffocating for her.

(5 years ago...)

Mavis was sitting at an empty library table by the restricted section, trying to read a book. It was yet another school year and school works had already been piled up in just a few short months. She had been yawning for a couple of times already and she felt her eyelids closing on their own. So she reached for her bag and searched for her music player.

"It must be here somewhere...", she said while looking diligently at every corner of her bag. She must have dazed out since she didn't have enough sleep last night. Ever since the start of summer, she had not been sleeping well. A lot of thoughts, and certain faces kept on crashing through her mind keeping her awake for hours and hours.

Ever since that heart breaking encounter with Jasmine on the rooftop...the unexpected request from Raleigh at the hill top, Mavis was not able to spend a single peaceful day thereafter. She just felt like there were way too many complicated things to settle...or in her case...avoid. But what she found weird is the fact that despite all the totally twisted turn of events between the three of them, it appeared that only she had felt the greatest impact. Jasmine and Raleigh, although Mavis could see the difference on the level of comfort they act around each other, could still maintain their cheerful attitude as if nothing huge happened between the two of them.

Were they able to move on from that easily?, she thought.

Her thoughts were wondering yet again when someone sat down beside her. "Penny for your thoughts?", said Raleigh placing a book on the table. If it were last year, she could have easily responded to that with a wide smile but at that moment, she knew just how awkward and unsure she was, even a civil response would be quite a tedious task.

After a long pause, and uncomfortable silence, Raleigh just smiled and spoke. "I understand. We shouldn't really...talk a lot...if it's just the two of us. It's what we had agreed upon in the first place.", he said. Mavis wasn't sure if the piercing sensation from deep within her chest was because of that guilt feeling for making one of her closest and most special friends feel bad of her indifference or that suppressed longing she had after months of controlling every single one of her actions around him.

She was sure that her eyes were starting to feel watery when all of a sudden a loud sound came bursting out of nowhere making her come back to her senses. Before she knew it, Raleigh had already shared the other piece of his earphones into Mavis's ear. Mavis looked at him, surprised. Raleigh stared back at her with his usual gentle smile.