Puppeteer

Wait, hang on

"Hah...."

Damn it. First period was maths, out of all the classes we have. All the conflict with Ast was on Saturday, and I was fully prepared to talk with him but..!

But!

"Why are we in the same class the first thing on Monday..."

"I know right...." Nina sighed in agreement, as we stared down the corridor, in front of our maths class. 

"Hang on, why aren't you with Ast?" Frowning, I turned fully towards Nina, who shrugged with a look of innocence. "He didn't come to homeroom. Also, we're in different friend groups in homeroom anyway."

Huh, that was a new fact

"Any chance he wouldn't come today?" Hoping my voice didn't sound too pleading, I waited for Nina's reaction.

Then a warm hand  touched my shoulder

"BOO!"

Judging by Nina's endlessly shooting eyebrows, this must be..

"Hi Ast."

"Aww you're no fun Evie." "Bye Astley." 

"Wait don't go Evan! I'm sorry!"

There he was, for once wearing the uniform in the correct way, his shirt fully buttoned, his shoes clean and he had a calm demeanor to him. 

"Ah man I hate maths. Nana, thou shalt hand over thee homework for me. For I, the right noble Astley, had not finished his homework!"

Ast twirled around and proclaimed gravely this statement Shakespearean-style, just like how he normally jokes around. But something felt...off

Eyes narrowing, Nina shoved her glasses upwards. "Ast, are you...pretending to be normal?"

Just for a second, Ast's smile faltered.

"What do you mean? Dear Nina, milday. Nothing's wrong! Look! The sky's blue~"

"It's raining outside" "Look with your mind's eye!"

Studying Ast's brown eyes, I gently shut down my awareness of the surroundings.

The chatter of students, the yelling of teachers, the soft rain sound touching the window slowly faded off as the landscape changed to black and white.

With humans as mere mannequins, all twisted and tied together by multi-coloured strings, I looked down on my hand. Not this, not that....shuffling through the many strings, something blocked my sight.

"Naughty~ Stop it, Evan. You too, Nina."

As Ast's hands were removed, the world returned to normal. There stood a sheepishly smiling Ast and intrigued Nina, whose eyes probably momentarily turned green.

 "Alas, all the trust I have gained all these years.."

"No no Ast, it's not you-"

"It's alright Nina. I'm sorry, to both of you."

For a second, I saw the Ast staring quietly and unflinchingly to his father's grave. 

"I'll swear to tell you guys after!"

With a wink, that look disappeared. However, as he struggled to reach his arms to both of our shoulders, we all knew that Ast wasn't lying. Afterall, it didn't take an ability to figure out the mind of a friend.

-----

"By the way-" "Hmm?" "Yeah?"

"Did you guys do the maths homework?"

The sound effect 'critical attack' was echoing around my head, as I observed the frozen Ast.

"This is the only time I'm ever going to help you."

Unzipping her purple bag, Nina revealed the forbidden fruit Ast and I had never tasted. 

Nina's homework book.

"Nina." "Why Evie?"

"Did I ever mention that I love you?"

"Careful, there are people listening." Eyes glinting, Ast started whistling the 'k-i-s-s-i-n-g' song, and I saw zombies- no, teenagers starved of entertainment walking towards us.

"You know what Nina?" "What"

please save me....darn teenagers....

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Yes! For the first time in forever I managed to post twice in a row!

This was originally was going to be longer, but I thought it'd be too long, so I cut it in half. Hopefully you enjoyed this chapter!