The weekend had finally passed, and Allen was back in class studying with Cecily and Thomas as usual.
They sat with their desks together, with Cecily directing them and referencing back to the book while Thomas was in his own wonderland, like usual.
However, today was a bit different for Allen. While he would be usually paying attention, his attention was focused elsewhere.
His run in with the strange girl, Sarah Childe, was anything but normal. First the whole thing with her "fans", then how she practically forced him on a date, and then went on said date in the middle of London. This was all during the time Allen was trying to figure out why she seemed too familiar to him.
He almost knew for sure he had never met her, yet she seemed to constantly linger in the back of his head, and will probably stay there until he found out why she seemed so familiar to him.
And that wasn't even the last of the problems that arose from that day. For whatever reason when he was around her, he was unable to converse with her like he does with everyone else. Something about her made him feel really awkward around her, something he's never felt before. And the more he thought about it, the more he became confused about it.
He started to wonder when he would see her again. If he did see her again, would he then know why she seems familiar?
"Allen, are you paying attention?," Cecily's voice almost came out of nowhere, putting Allen back to his senses.
"Uh, yes," he quickly went back to his book.
"Great, now we have two Toms," she laughed.
"What?," Thomas suddenly looked at both of them.
"Exactly my point," Cecily sighed, but was smiling.
"Sorry, I just got lost in thought about something," Allen admitted.
"About what?", Cecily asked. "You rarely space out, if ever"
"Something that happened after our most recent club training," Allen explained.
"What happened?," Thomas asked, full attention on Allen. Allen was sure he was partially doing this because he wanted any way out of reading.
"Well, uh, it's quite a long and strange story," Allen scratched the top of his head.
Allen took what seemed like the entire time in class to explain to them how he met Sarah, and what unfolded after.
"You're telling me you went out on a date with a hot girl you just met and didn't tell me!," Thomas exclaimed. "You could've asked one of her friends if she wanted to go with me-"
"Shut it Tom," Cecily said in an annoyed voice as she hit the top of Thomas' head with her book.
"Ow, what was that for?," Thomas exclaimed, as he suddenly stood up.
"He still doesn't get it," Allen rolled his eyes.
"Doesn't get what?," he asked, as he patted the top of his head.
"Nothing," Cecily quietly said, looking away in embarrassment.
"Don't worry about it," Allen laughed. "Anyways, yeah that happened…"
"So you're telling me this girl you practically just met basically dragged you on a date in London?," Cecily asked, narrowing her eyes.
"Yeah, she basically dragged me along for what seemed like forever around the shops in London," Allen clarified. "But for whatever reason, something about her seems familiar"
"Like you seen her before?," Thomas asked, finally sitting back down.
"No, I'm sure if I saw her before, I would know," Allen admitted. "It's like… I don't know. It's hard to explain"
"Maybe you somehow knew her as a kid?," Cecily suggested.
"No, I'm definitely sure I never saw her, at least until I finally went to London," Allen shook his head.
"Hmm, seems like an unsolvable mystery then," Thomas shrugged.
"Least for now," Allen sighed, going back to his textbook.
They spent the little time they had left in class to get back to studying. When class was over and Ms. Florence dismissed them, they finally started to head out of class together.
"So are we meeting up to train like usual?," Thomas asked as he opened the door.
"Not quite," Stephen said as they opened the door to find him standing there.
"Stephen?," Allen said, surprised.
"Normally Rose would be the one to come get you guys, but she's busy," he rolled his eyes. "So I came to get you three instead!"
"Why, what's wrong?," Allen asked.
"Nothing. My father, or I mean the director, wants to speak to all of us regarding the club," Stephen said as he motioned them to follow him.
"Something about the club?," Thomas asked.
"Yeah. I don't know the full details yet, but apparently he has something new for us," Stephen said as they walked.
"Hmm, can't wait to find out then!," Thomas excitedly said.
"Hope it's nothing weird," Allen scratched the top of his head.
"Knowing my father, I'm sure it probably is," Stephen shrugged.
The four of them walked to William's office together. Once they arrived, they opened the door to find Ms. Clark and Rose already there. They seemed to be discussing something with William at his desk, with papers covering almost every inch of his desk.
"Ah, welcome in everyone," William greeted them. "Take a seat for now, we're just waiting on Alice"
The four of them took their regular seats, watching the other three of them talking about something Student Council related. They mostly spoke about some club budgets, and a few unrelated things.
"When is he scheduled to transfer here?," Rose asked, after they finished talking about the budgets.
"In about a month from now. We're already making preparations for his transfer," William answered.
"Wait, who's transferring where?," Thomas asked, interrupting them.
"Oh," William suddenly went out of his trance, like he forgot everyone else was still here. "That's because-"
"Hello, I'm here," Alice announced as she entered the room.
"Ah, welcome in Alice!," William waved her in as he quickly threw all the papers together, to Rose's frustration.
"You really had to do that," Rose rolled her eyes as William practically threw the papers in his desk drawer. William just gave her a casual shrug.
Rose and Alice took their seats as Ms. Clark took her spot where she usually stands next to William's desk.
"So, Stephen mentioned you had something new for the club?," Allen asked, once the room was finally quiet.
"Ah yes, that's why I had Stephen bring you three here," William answered.
"Well I think I speak for all of us when I say we're curious what you meant by something new," Stephen said as he crossed his leg on his knee.
"Even I am unaware of what William meant by something new," Rose admitted.
"So, what could it be, William?," Allen asked.
"Ah, about that," William scratched the top of his head, searching for a good answer. "The Training Club will be getting a new member… sort of"
"A new member?," everyone all asked at once.
"Sort of," William repeated himself.
"What do you mean, sort of? Don't we all have to agree to let a new member join before they do?," Allen asked.
"I'm sure a new member would be a great addition!," Thomas excitedly said, interested in who it could be.
"I'm cool with a new member, but I do agree it would be good to know who it is first," Stephen inputted.
"William, this better not be in some way shape or form a way to get away from doing your paperwork," Rose glared at him.
"What, how would it be?," William asked, confused. "Why would a new member be in any way connected to that?"
"Don't give me that. Don't let me remind you of the time you added someone to the student council and-"
"There's no need to bring that up," William nervously laughed.
"Anyways, if we are getting a new member as you said, when will we meet this person?," Allen asked.
"Well, one of you has met her already," William admitted with a slight grin.
"William, please don't tell me it's-"
William gave him a small smirk.
Oh no, Allen thought. If it's her, I-
"This person actually pertains to Alice," William explained, motioning over to her.
"Alice?," Allen, Rose and Stephen all asked at the same time.
"Cecily, please don't tell me you have yet another sister you haven't told me about!," Thomas exclaimed as he gently tugged on Cecily's uniform.
"Alice is my only sister," Cecily explained as she gave Thomas an annoyed look.
"Alright Alice, if you don't mind explaining," William smiled. All eyes were on her.
"William, you don't need to put her on the spot like that!," Ms. Clark exclaimed.
"You'll see why"
"Umm," Alice muttered.
"It's alright if you don't want to explain, I can-"
"No, I'll explain," she muttered, but just loud enough for everyone to hear.
"Alright, go ahead," William let her have the floor.
"Well, the new member…," she started to explain. "The new member…"
"The new member?," Rose tried to push her to continue.
"The new member is someone I know," she said with a shy look on her face.
"I think we knew that when William said you know about her," Thomas blurted.
"Don't be rude," Cecily slapped the top of his head.
"Ow, what did I do?"
"Shh, let her continue," Rose gave Thomas a small glare.
"Alright!," he muttered, still holding his hand on his head where Cecily slapped him.
"The new member," Alice started to say again. "The new member is already here"
"Huh, what do you mean?," almost everyone asked. Everyone was confused.
"The new member, is Sarah…," she slightly muttered, but loud enough where everyone barely heard her.
Wait, Allen thought. Don't tell me it's that Sarah. Wait if she said she's already here, could that mean? No, that isn't possible, right?
"Sarah? Where have I heard of her?," Rose pondered out loud.
"Wait, could you mean that Sarah?," Stephen said, suddenly super interested. "One of the four divas of the academy?"
"Oh no," William shook his head, already knowing what's going to follow soon.
"Uh," Alice was suddenly at a loss of words.
"If you can't explain it to them, why don't you show them instead? Wouldn't it be easier that way?," William asked as he gave her an understanding smile.
"Oh, that could work better," Alice admitted.
"Wait show us?," Thomas asked, puzzled. "Do you mean she's behind that door?!"
"Uh, not quite…," William was trying to think of a way to answer him. "Just… let Alice show you"
Alice had her attention first directed at William, but moved it around the room after he spoke. She looked at everyone in the room, as if she was thinking if it was okay to show whatever she would. She moved her attention to Allen, looking at him for what seemed like a minute. Finally, she spoke.
"Show," Alice blankly said as she slowly moved her hands up to her face.
"Wait!," Rose suddenly moved forward into her chair. "Her glasses!"
"Glasses?," Almost everyone exclaimed.
She put both of her hands on her glasses, to take them off. As she slowly took her glasses off, her appearance started to change. The tips of her hair that looked a little brown slowly started to envelop the rest of her hair, until her hair was an earthly brown. Her eyes that had a small brown tint to them slowly grew and spun around her eyes, until her eyes were the same color as her hair. Once her appearance had finished changing, the regular blank face she normally had quickly turned into a quirky but cute expression.
"It's you!," Allen pointed at her, instantly recognizing her. Although this time she wore a water uniform and still had the blue X pin in her hair, he easily recognized her, for he spent what felt like years with her the other day.
"Hello everyone. I'm so glad to finally meet you!," she greeted everyone, doing a cute pose and expression.
Everyone was in complete shock, including her own sister. Rose had her eyes wide open, like she couldn't believe what she was seeing. Thomas had his jaw dropped, practically to the floor. For a moment Stephen's face was surprised, but quickly changed to grin once he had a second to process the situation. Cecily was so confused, she wore the same expression her sister normally wore. Even Ms. Clark had to stop for a second to let her brain process what she was seeing.
But by far was Allen the most surprised - and the most worried. Because out of everyone in this room, he was her target.
"Glad to finally see you again cutie!," Sarah's cute expression turned into almost a predator's and she put her finger on her lips as she has done before.
"Allen…," Thomas and Stephen both muttered at the same time, killing intent in their eyes.
"Wait! I can explain!," Allen almost fell out of his chair.
"Yeah, I'd love a thorough explanation after all of this Allen," Rose glared at Allen, her hand on her Rapier as if she was going to unsheath it at any time.
"Wait no-"
"Why don't you introduce yourself? You haven't told them your name," William reminded her.
"Oh, that's right! I owe them an introduction and an explanation, don't I?"
The fact that she was suddenly using complete sentences was what probably shocked everyone the most at this point.
"Nice to meet you everyone, my name is Sarah Childe! I am known as one of the four divas of the academy!," she did a cute pose as she spoke.
"Alice… is the goddess Sarah?," Stephen practically almost died from shock. "Please tell me this is some elaborate prank. I wouldn't be able to look at Alice the same anymore"
"It's no prank, what you saw is the truth," William grinned, finding everyone's reactions hilarious.
"I'm also convinced this is an elaborate prank," Thomas added, with his hand up.
Sarah surveyed everyone in the room, her eyes wandering to each person to look at who was all in the room.
"Ah, the A Ranked Genius. So, that's what you look like," she studied him for a moment.
"And?," Stephen grinned, hoping for a good answer.
"Hmm. Not impressed," she smirked.
"No…," Stephen fell out of his chair, looking like he just died. Everyone just laughed.
"And the Student Council President," Sarah said as she looked in Rose's direction. "It's nice to finally meet you"
"Nice to meet you as well," Rose gave her a friendly smile.
"Cecily," she said for a moment, looking a little guilty. "Alice has told me a lot about you"
"Nice to meet you Sarah," Cecily gave her a warm smile, but you could tell she was a little saddened that she wasn't told this sooner.
"And of course we have Cecily's favorite - Thomas!"
"You know me?," Thomas asked, almost as if he was asking some well-known celebrity.
"Of course I do! Alice tells me about both you and Cecily! And finally we have Ms. Clark, it's very nice to meet you"
"Nice to meet you as well, Sarah," Ms. Clark offered her a kind smile, but she still had a look on her face like she still thought she hadn't woken up this morning.
"Now that I have greeted everyone I had yet to meet, I should probably explain myself now," she thought out loud.
"Yes, I would love an explanation of what I just saw," Rose said, still bewildered.
"Well to put it bluntly, I am essentially Alice's other half - her other personality. Alice's element is water, while mine is earth. We are the same person, and we are both Alice. However, I go by Sarah Childe, to differentiate between the two of us. It is also to hide that I am actually her other personality," she finally gave a thorough explanation.
"Please tell me that you are her only personality," Thomas said, not wanting any more surprises related to Cecily's family.
"Yes, there's only two of us. No more, no less," she responded.
"But how do both of your personalities work?," Thomas asked.
"Our glasses are what separates us. When we wear the glasses, Alice is the personality, and her element is water. When our glasses are off, I become the personality and my element is earth," she clarified.
"Wait, two elements?," Rose asked, connecting the dots in her mind. "So you're telling me that Alice, or both of you, has two elements?"
"That's correct," William clarified. "Alice was born with two elements - earth and water. There's not that many people in the world with more than one element, so she is rather the rarity"
Except for the fact that there's literally another one sitting in this very room, Allen thought to himself, staring at the glove on his right hand.
"That makes her a Dual-Element Mage!," Rose exclaimed.
"Correct. Any mage who possesses two elements is considered a Dual-Elemental Mage," William pushed his glasses up.
"Wait! What if someone were to possess three elements?," Thomas asked.
"Well, they would be considered a Tri-Elemental Mage, if they survived," William answered.
"And someone with four elements?"
"That is not physically possible"
"Wait, why not?," Thomas looked so sad.
"Well, it's complicated. But if they did exist, they would be considered a Quadra-Elemental Mage"
"Woah, so cool!"
"So are we going to get back to the fact that Sarah here is essentially Alice's earth personality? And Alice is Sarah's water personality? Is that how Dual-Elemental Mages work?," Rose asked, looking at Allen at the last part of her question.
I'm sure if I had a second personality I would know Rose, Allen thought as he looked directly at her, almost like he was trying to telepathically tell her.
"Not commonly, no," William clarified. "However, Alice and Sarah are special cases. Due to an unfortunate event in her family, she has to hide her earth element, which is why even Cecily does not know"
"I'm assuming this 'event' is something personal, that Sarah does not want to get into?," Allen guessed.
"Ding ding ding! The cutie is right!," Sarah exclaimed while she clapped her hands.
Stephen, Thomas, and Rose proceeded to give Allen a glare that he didn't even think was possible.
"I swear, this is all her!," Allen exclaimed in slight fear.
"What are you talking about?," Sarah deliberately put on a confused face. "We went on a whole date and everything! You took me all around London, as the sun set. You linked arms with me, and even made sure to walk at a comfortable pace for me! Such a caring person! As we finally reached nightfall, you then finally leaned in for a-"
Literally almost everything you said was completely a fat lie, Allen stared at her with a deadpan expression as she spoke, as if she could read what he was saying with just his eyes alone.
"Alright, I think I've had quite enough," Rose muttered as she stood up, unsheathing her rapier.
"Rose, just don't damage anything in the room," William advised her, but grinned as he was getting a whole kick out of what Sarah was saying.
"I swear almost none of that happened!," Allen tried to explain.
"You even asked me out on a second date on top of all of that!," she dramatically flew her head back and put her hand on her heart, as if she was being overwhelmed with excitement.
"Alright Allen, you're dead!," Rose exclaimed, rushing towards Allen.
After moments of Allen having to dodge every single one of Rose's attacks, and everyone backing away to not get hit, he finally had settled Rose down. He took the next few minutes to explain what actually happened, the same thing he told Thomas and Cecily, as Rose had her arms crossed the entire time.
"I can confirm that adds up to what Allen told us earlier," Thomas explained as Cecily nodded her head in agreement.
"Hmph, I doubt it," Rose said as she calmly sat back down and sheathed her rapier.
"Well with all that out of the way, is everyone okay with adding her to the club, even if she's technically Alice?," William asked as he looked around the room.
"Sure, I'm cool with it," Stephen was the first to speak.
"I'd be glad to have a new member," Thomas practically jumped in his seat.
"Sure, I'd like to get to know her better," Cecily quietly spoke.
"Well, that's three votes in favor. How about everyone else," William said as he looked over at Allen, Rose and Ms. Clark.
"I see no issue with it, as I am just the temporary club sponsor. It's their club, I am just overseeing it for now," Ms. Clark explained.
"If Sarah will behave herself, then I see no issue with it," Rose gave her a small glare.
"I have no idea what you mean!," Sarah pretended to be confused.
"Besides, I am unable to be at every club training anyways. Mostly occupied with Student Council work anyways," she added.
"Alright, that's five. What about our Club President? What do you think, Allen?"
"Well since everyone else is in favor, I see no issue with it," Allen agreed. "Besides, Alice is already a part of the club, and Sarah is essentially her other half. I don't see the harm in it"
"Yay! Thank you Club President!," Sarah exclaimed as she linked her arm around his.
"I didn't do anything!," Allen exclaimed when Rose started to give him another deathly glare.
"Well, with everyone in agreement, then today marks Sarah as an official member!," William smiled.
"Thanks! I'll do my best in training!," Sarah grinned.
"Please save me now, someone," Allen said as he practically fell out of his chair, realizing he will be putting up Sarah and Rose coming after him for two separate reasons.