Gears of Harmony

Episode 6 - The Following Day

A few days had passed and rumour has spread that Nathan was stabbed by an unknown person. One morning, when I came into the classroom, I noticed that the boys were crowding over something in the back.

Ooft... he's back, isn't he? I thought.

"So she stabbed you?" asked a guy.

"Did you see her face?" asked another guy.

"I didn't see her face at all, I was ambushed from the back. She covered me with something and kicked me before I blacked out. I didn't even get to check if it was a girl - could've been just some randos," said Nathan.

I walked up to my seat, acting innocent with my gaze averted from the guys.

"So, how did you save yourself?" asked a guy.

"The chairwoman's son saw me in the rooftop and brought me to the nurse office, who then contacted the police," said Nathan, "unfortunately, he didn't see the culprit either,"

"It's about damn time we put some CCTV in here. Where did all the money we paid go?" said the first guy.

"What did the police say, then?" asked another guy.

"Said they'll continue investigating," Nathan answered mockingly.

"Yeah, they ain't make time especially with the rising tensions on the borders," said the first guy, "tough luck, mate. At least you're still alive,"

"I know, if I'm dead, I'm like, dead 'dead'," Nathan said, "to be fair though, that's better than the royals sending over their forces 'out of humanistic concern',"

"Yeah, real shit they're just waiting to an opportunity," the first guy scoffed.

I felt a shiver ran down my spine. However, none of my face muscles moved as I took a seat. Then I heard footsteps coming towards me. I looked up and saw that it was only Amelia who was looking at the crowd as she walked.

"Did Nathan actually get stabbed?" she asked.

"He does look injured," I said, shrugging my shoulders.

"Hey, I really am injured!" shouted a voice from the midst of the crowd.

"Sorry~" Amelia and I said at the same time.

...what am I going to do with Nathan, though? No matter how you look at it, people are going to get suspicious after some point... would they know it was my handwriting even though I tried to use a different font? What about the knife from yesterday? Uhh... and the chairwoman's son could really report me any time if he wants to...

"Is something wrong?" said Amelia, "you look a little down today,"

"I am?" I asked, "I'm just tired... I... was watching a livestream last night and... yawn... by the way, you came in a bit later than usual, Amy,"

"Oh, yeah. I stopped by the teacher's lounge," she said and smiled, "Miss Eury wants to see me because I applied for the bio Olympics team,"

"Wait, really? Wow," I said, "I didn't know you can apply in the first year,"

"You can, anytime, basically," she chuckled, "only, the chance can be pretty slim since you're up against the second and third years,"

"Really?" I asked, "I thought Year 10 would have their own Olympics team, and then there's another one for Year 11 and 12s-"

"Nah, it's just the general high school team and I'm going to have to catch up with them," she said and slumped in her seat.

"Wow... that sounds intense," I said.