Freeze Frame

Chapter 43

I wrote this bad boy on my phone so if there are typos,,, that's why.

Third person pov

"...Is she okay?" Hitoshi squinted at Lillian, who had been staring unblinkingly at her bowl of rice for a solid minute or so now. She looked as though her entire soul had left her body, leaving her as nothing more than a pathetic shell. An empty husk with no traces of life. Hitoshi actually wasn't sure she was breathing anymore, actually. He momentarily wondered if she'd accidentally offended someone somehow, and had simply decided to die because of it. It seemed like something she'd do.

"Does she look okay to you?" Neito raised a brow, leaning back in his seat and folding his arms over his chest. Hitoshi gave a half-hearted shrug in response.

"Well, no, but I thought I'd ask anyway." Hitoshi offered, purple eyes shifting back to his freckled friend. He reached out and nudged her shoulder. "You in there?"

Lillian gave no reaction to show she'd even felt the nudge. Honestly, they weren't sure just how she gotten to the cafeteria. They'd found her standing out in the middle of the hall staring at the floor with her hands clenched around her backpack straps. Hitoshi had taken it upon himself to drag her to a table while Neito got their food. Even now, she clutched her bag's handles in an iron grip.

"Should we take her to the nurse?" Neito squinted, not sure if this warranted a trip to Recovery Girl or not. She didn't seem particularly... injured, per say. Just braindead or something along those lines.

"I really don't think this is something Recovery Girl can fix." Hitoshi whipped out his phone. "Give me two seconds."

Neito nodded, pursing his lips and experimentally prodding the girl's arm. She didn't seem to notice, gazing down at her lunch as though she weren't seeing it at all. The blonde had to wince just a little. What form of torture did one have to go through to reach this state? Not that it took much to trip Lillian up, which wasn't her fault, really. He'd had his share of experiences with anxiety. His was never so... Extensive, but he still understood.

"Here." Hitoshi pushed her food out of the way and shoved his phone within her line of sight, pressing and earbud into her ear. Neito leaned forward as Hitoshi tapped play. The Baby Shark song began.

At first it didn't really do anything. Lillian didn't even flinch as the song blared in her left ear, so loud both Neito and Hitoshi could hear it just a little. They both mentally crossed their fingers and held their breath in anticipation. If this didn't revive Lillian, nothing would.

Lillian was still a little trapped in her own thoughts at the moment. Her mind was abuzz with the fresh memories from her first English class with the Third Years. She hadn't embarrassed herself horribly bad, but she still must have looked like a total idiot. A First Year in a room of Third Years? It was like putting a goat in front a lion and hoping the poor thing wouldn't get ripped apart alive.

The song hit Grandpa Shark, and Lillian took a deep breath of air, head snapping up. Hitoshi and Neito gazed expectantly at her as she blinked rapidly. She looked reasonably disoriented, and a mildly horrified. The latter wasn't particularly new, unfortunately, as most things involving people tended to mortifying the girl on one way or the other.

"You with us?" Hitoshi asked as she pulled the earbud from her ear, brushing some hair haphazardly from her eyes.

"I-I-I started English w-with the Th-Th-Third Years." She squeaked, her voice at least six pitches higher than it was supposed to be. Both boys winced.

"Ah... that explains quite a bit." Neito cringed.

"It couldn't have been that bad, right? You're probably better at English than the whole if them combined anyway." Hitoshi said, pulling his phone back towards him. Neito lightly pushed her food back in front of her in hopes that maybe she'd begin to eat on autopilot out if sheer stress. She clearly needed some sustenance.