Missing Piece

Jealousy

"Anne, I..." the grass rustled nervously while a gentle breeze made Joshua's hand feel icy-cold. But even after the roar of his heart, he just couldn't finish his sentence.

"If you'll excuse me, I have to get ready for class." Anne's mood was already being rusted by Catherine and worsened by her lack of sleep. She didn't care what Joshua was going to say, she just came as an excuse to get away from her class.

"Wait." Joshua's hand then fell on Anne's soft shoulder. After realizing what he did, Joshua immediately apologized.

"If you have something to say, then spit it out. I don't have the time for a game of finish the sentence with you." Anne's rage steamed out through her words.

Anne's mood was already starting to bubbling as she marched towards Joshua, with eyes sharpened to kill. Joshua could only walk back.

For Joshua, trying to figure out why Anne was in a bad mood the same as trying to cool a nuclear reactor. Having summed the situation as bad timing, he finally threw the words at Anne.

"It's about the club. The teachers are furious about you skipping practice."

"I see." Anne's sharp glare arched into a happily grinning crescent moons while her lips wiggled into a shaky smile. Her hand then patted Joshua's shoulder, with her fingers itching to dig deep on it.

"Thanks for informing me, you could have said it a lot sooner though." Anne's smile was starting to crack, the anger steaming was starting to puncture her smiley face. Leaking her true nature.

"Sorry." Joshua's faint voice ringed endlessly on the walls while his hand shoved Anne's off his shoulder. Before leaving, he felt the throbbing pain of having his heart sewn silent. In the end, he couldn't tell Anne what he truly wanted to say.

Anne's boiling anger kettled loudly as she hammered her fist to the wall. Her smiley face was like a waxy figure that melted into something straight out of Hell.

"Replace me? They need me. I'm the only reason why this school was even recognized." Anne said to herself.

The clock already struck 6 am. The bustling sea of students chatting was drained and then rained by routined lectures of teachers. Anne didn't come to her class, but instead cutted class in the bathroom.

She repeatedly splashed her face with water, wipe it off, look at the mirror, and then repeated the process. Hoping that whatever she saw in the mirror would change if she just washed it hard enough. But it never did, everytime the same face stared back at her.

Anne couldn't help but compare her reasonably fair skin to Catherine's jade-like skin. Her "cute" face was like mud compared to Catherine's. Her height made her feel like a dwarf compared to Catherine's.

Anne just can't accept being inferior to her.

The sound of running water souped the insanity that brewed inside the bathroom. With Anne's howling rage burned as whispers of how Catherine was better than her sprinkled on her boiling head. She just couldn't stand the thought of Catherine being happy with Clarence.

She won't allow someone better than her to have Clarence.

"Anne?" the painfully slow sound of the door creaking was accompanied by a familiar voice.

Loud thumps shook the bathroom as Anne's water-blurred eyes saw someone going towards her. She felt a tight embrace on her waist before she slowly felt weightless and her feet paddling mid air.

"What are you doing, Kaiho?" Anne shouted as she tried wriggling out of Kaiho's embrace.

"I didn't know you'd skip classes too. The teacher is crazy mad." Kaiho tried to carry Anne to the classroom.

"Let go!"

"No I won't." Kaiho then noticed the gurgling sound of the sink as the water from the faucet started leaking to the floor.

"Geez, what were you doing here?"

Seeing Kaiho's legs swaying for balance as she lifted Anne, a mischievous stream of water ran towards where Kaiho was going to step. Sending the duo on the floor with a loud thud.

Soon the bright light clouded above Anne and Kaiho as they stared thoughtlessly on the clinic's ceiling. Both of their ears numbed by the ringing sound of the teachers scolding them.

"This PE uniform is itchy." Anne mumbled to herself as she took the towel wrapped on her dripping-wet hair to cover her face.

"Anne, Kaiyo, are there any relatives we can contact? Your parents aren't responding." the teacher said. Anne rolled her eyes, knowing they'll only tell them how they cutted classes.

"Our parents work abroad." Kaiho said while trying hard to convince the teacher that their relatives can't be contacted.

Anne and Kaiho soon walked home while their wet uniforms dripped a trail that was immediately punished to smokes by the raging sun.

"Who owned these PE uniforms? What kind of lifestyle did they have to live for these to be this itchy?" Anne complained as her fingers clawed her rash.

"Hey, at least they let us borrow these."

"Yeah, with the idea we'll wash the itchiness off these things."

"Say, your maid isn't coming until next week right? How about we wash these at my place?" Kaiho suggested with a blooming smile on her face.

"I just want to take these off as soon as possible."

Upon reaching Kaiho's house, it blanketed them with a refreshing shadow from the hot sun. The house was like a modern-style mansion that towered over those around it. With it's white paint almost shone like the moon in the night.

Kaiho and Anne changed to a new set of clothes, while the washing machine exorcised whatever itchy spirit possessed the uniforms.

"You wasted all of your allowance for the tokens at the arcade, huh?" Kaiho said.

Anne didn't respond as eyed the PE uniforms being wheeled inside the washing machine.

"I just remembered, isn't the anime about demons you and Clarence like is going to release a movie? Train to Infinity was it?"

"Yeah."

"But where are you going to get the money for it? Tita already gave you your allowance."

"Can you shut, Kaiho?" Anne's eyes narrowed as her heart ached.

"Sorry, Kaiho." Anne muttered to herself as she made a decision.