HE FLED FROM the classroom right after the school bell rang thunderously. For the whole day, he had a serious throbbing on his head that he was barely able to withstand. He cannot face his desk mate and say 'hello' as he had intended the night before after he realized that he needed to help Stella from getting bully today as well but in his current condition, he did not think that he can even properly incant simple defense magic.
Last night was the weirdest dream he ever had that resulted in his wobbly condition staggering to go to the infirmary. He just hoped that Stella stays far away from Kai and his gang for the moment considering his observation these few days of her reaction to basically anything related to interaction was at snail pace.
"Gitto!" a voice called for him from behind. It was his homeroom teacher, Miss Ariel. She was running to him with her hand full of her teaching material. Not only that, there were a few teachers getting in and out from a threshold nearby that he later realized that he was standing in front of the teachers' office.
"Good evening miss," he greeted her.
"Good evening, did Stella tell you—what, are you okay?" Miss Ariel asked frantically when she saw his pale face.
Gitto nodded. "I'm fine just lack of sleep. What's about Stella?" he dodged and the same time hoped that the teacher could not smell his lie that he uttered so effortlessly yet he may need to improve his acting as Miss Ariel did not take his answer lightly.
"Really?" she asked skeptically.
He sighed. "Fine. I'm on my way to the infirmary. What's about Stella?"
Miss Ariel's eyes gotten smaller as she scrutinizing his answer. "I'll walk with you then," she decided.
He looked up to the ceiling and grumbled. "Miss, you said something about Stella?"
The teacher giggled. "For someone who said only 'hey, you, bye' to his desk mate, you seem pretty attached to her, aren't you?"
For some reason, he could feel his cheek burned. "Stella told you?"
They walked at slow paced or rather Miss Ariel matched her steps with him and even when they climbed down the stairs, she climbed down it as slow as she can while acting that she cannot see her way clearly with her teaching materials obstructing her view of the stair steps.
"I asked her yesterday," Miss Ariel said. "I was worried about you... and her especially. You saw right, how people behaved around her."
Gitto nodded. "Hm."
"I was really glad that you chose to sit beside her that day. All the other kids have been avoiding her since she was very small and in this city where most of the kids are each other neighbors, she can't run away from getting tangled on nasty rumors though some of it is true to straight up discriminating her weakness without even giving her any chances... that's why I assigned her to you.
Because you don't have any presumptions or prejudice against her. You know her as you learn about her. She is a sweet kid though she could make you be in an awkward situation. And she has a very keen eye. Even with those fringes," Miss Ariel chuckled. "So, I was hoping that you would be her friend; talked to her, teach her, guide her, joke with her, cry—if can—with her and do many things. As a teacher, I can do as much but you, you're her peer. Someone she can relate too. Can I ask you this much?"
'Be with her,' a voice rang inside his already hurting head. 'Protect her!'
Gitto looked at the expectant face of Miss Ariel. Though his vision was double-ling by the second and that his headache had become worse, he held his ground and smiled. This tie the teacher did not see through his acting. "Consider it done," he promised.
Miss Ariel left when she had made sure that he had entered the infirmary and talked with the nurse of his ailment.
As he laid down on the thin cot, his mind went wandering to the voice he had been hearing just now. It was the same voice and word that had haunted his dream last night and what more absurd was that it was not the first time he had dreamt of it. Though he could not remember it when he had such a dream, he knew instinctively. That that woman was no stranger to him. Yet last night dream was a lot of more vivid than the others. He saw her; her face, her eyes. They were like stars on a night with no moon. So mesmerizing, so enchanting that he woke up feeling heavy and light headed.
A loud commotion outside of the infirmary startled him and when the nurse who was busy with record keeping just now, ran to the windows with her mouth gaping made him climbed off the cot and he stopped midway. His eyes went wide with horror.
At the far off the field, he saw four figure walking towards the middle of the field though it looked like one of two boys was dragging one of two girls while the other two were carrying a pail filled with some ominous concoction and another was holding a pair of shoes strapped across her shoulder. The girl who was dragged, looked haggard with her hair shagged, her clothes torn and her feet bared. The arrival of the four figures had risen a lot of attention and on the school corridors, many onlookers started to fill the line.
His heart turned to lead as soon he realized who was the girl. The person who he had been entrusted to befriend with was dragged forcefully across the field. Stella Ghotham was bullied and he was not there to protect her when he had sworn to do so yesterday.
"Someone needs to stop this!" said the nurse and she ran out of the infirmary and missed the next scene unfolding in front of Gitto's eyes and everybody else's eyes.
Stella who did not attempt to fight back her assailant, was flung to the dirt and she rolled on the ground, her face grazed the hard-rough field.
Gitto's heart leaped out of his body and his breathing ragged. A few series of forgotten dream played in his head mercilessly. It throbbed like it wanted to explode his brain to bit and that woman voice kept on replaying her words that he thought that she was there beside him, whispering her sweet-sweet demand. He thought that might went crazy at that point.
He did not notice when Stella picked herself up but when he heard that loud slap slapped on her pale skin, it felt like he was the one who was getting a slap across his face. Waking him from his stupor, his mind suddenly cleared and no more crazy whisper. He who had been asleep was wide awake and that he had a debt to pay.
STELLA NEARLY KNOCKED out cold on the dirt when her whole body slammed the rough field. She stumbled and rolled, her body cannot handle the inertia and the impact scratched her skin that she winced when she tried to stand up. She ignored the constant aching that she felt around her body as she wiped the dirt away from her clothes and her face.
"Still have that fight in you eh? If you listened to us properly like last time, we could avoid this mess, won't we?" Kai said, his face was smug and proud that he was actually able to 'teach' her in front of the whole crowd perched on the corridor.
Ever since Kai reigned the title of 'the most respectable' or 'head bully' after their senior finished primary school and went to the institute, he had people talking that he was not only 'the most respectable' but also 'the untouchable' because he apparently a high ranking noble relatives which is rare in this part of the city.
But no matter high a person is in the eyes of society to Stella, if the person was a beggar with a heart of gold, that beggar was a lot more respectable compared to someone like her or Kai and his goony in this matter.
She had run as fast as she could muster, that her tights ached and her lungs expanded yet to compete in the race between the magic wielder and non-magic wielder was the same as when a mouse trapped in the same box with a cat.
When Pamela (the only girl of the three) caught the end of her hair, she was pulled mercilessly that she thought her scalp might be torn and that she was knocked the wind out of her when Pamela and El pinned her down on the cold floor, their hands hungry to get her shoes.
"Give back my shoes," Stella demanded. She eyed her shoes dangled on Pamela's shoulder still safe from becoming the trio special concoction even though the said concoction was inside the pail held by El, the smell wafted attacking every person near including those three bullies that they had to cover their nose.
Kai grinned. His eyes looked like a devil incarnate. "Tell me o' wise one, as to why... why?! Why we have to listen to your nonsense when you had followed our orders like a darling yesterday? Hm, dear Stella?"
To think Stella would feel intimidated by his voice and the way Kai's eyes leered at her, then it was a mistake for them because she is a person void of emotion and there was nothing else could make her move unless for the sake of those who had done so much for her.
"I want my shoes back."
'slaps!'
Stars.
She saw stars. Her ears buzzed. Her world started to lose its axis. Her cheek on fire. In that deafening moment, her eyes caught El and Pamela twisted expression, Kai was shouting and his words were barely able registered in her mind. Everything seemed slow and exhausting.
Because of her almost none reaction to Kai's threat, he took it as a signal for him to punish her with his hand. Stella saw his hand moved. She should avoid it. If she stands there and took it again, no doubt that she would lose consciousness and definitely her shoes. Yet, her body froze still. Every nerve cramped and bind.
She was under a binder spell that kids their age should not know how to use but she was there, seconds away from receiving Kai's hand and she had no strength left to move.
Or so she thought.
The slap she was supposed to receive never lands on her face. Her body started to relax even.
"H—how?" she heard Kai trembling voice.
Then she saw a figure standing in front of her. His hand was holding Kai's hand. His hold was firm, maybe too strong for she saw the blood under the skin started to clot. Kai was writhing in pain, fell to his knees and cried. His face had turned pale and his pupil shook.
"Let me go!" he begged. "It hurts damn it!"
But it seemed the more he begged to let go, the more the boy in front of her gripped Kai's hand then he slowly twisted it.
Kai screamed as if he might lose his hand though, from the looks of it, this boy who had come to save her was intending to do so.
Pamela and El fell to their knees too. Her shoes had been abandoned and the pail had spilled. Their faces were streaked with tears and their mouths trembled as they begged for Kai to be forgiven.
This was enough.
"Gitto," she called and that boy stopped.
It was nothing unfamiliar about that boy's back. She had always seen it since the first day Gitto became her desk mate and buddy. For the past week, She always at his back, trying to start a conversation with him and be his buddy. It was a failure obviously but from it, she learned about his hair colour, how he stands, or how his body smells like.
But what gave it away was that he had a tattoo peeked out from his shirt on his right shoulder that she sometimes saw by accident and she saw it again from his back. That black squiggle end was bare for her to see.
"That's enough," she said as she limped to her shoes. She had her suspicion on how Gitto arrived here so fast that she saw the answer right away.
Miss Ariel and the other teacher were standing not far from where she stood. Their face was the mixture of shocked, furious and admiration? She remembered the day where Miss Ariel had introduced Gitto to them. She had said something about him being younger than they were and that sentence explained a lot.
Gitto is a genius.
Her eyes met with him. In that chaotic moment where the teacher snapped out of their dazed, some apparated and some came here running, she only saw him. It was a moment that she never knew that this day marked the day she finally had where someone other than her family came to help her. It was somewhat a peace that finally settled in her heart. It was magical.
"Thank you," she mouthed to him and her world turned black.