MATTHEW'S POV
I blinked as I stared at Samantha's back, her blonde hair flowed down to her waist in a wave of curls. I glanced back and saw Samuel carrying multiple lunchboxes in a plastic bag with Ashley and Zed behind him, watching the whole thing.
I faced in front once more and stood up. I looked at Alana to see her grinding her teeth in anger. "What do you think you're doing?!" She yelled at Samantha. Just as she did that, I wanted to push her away and hide Samantha behind me, not the other way around.
"C-Can't you see he u-uncomfortable by your touch?" Samantha stuttered out, but her eyes still held a stern look in them. "You should talk t-to him at a preferred d-distance like a respectful person."
'Yes, thank you, Samantha.'
Alana squinted her eyes at Samantha as she eyed the girl up and down. Then, she scoffed. "Is this your girlfriend? Is this why you won't answer my question?"
Despite the current situation, Samantha and I blushed a deep shade of red as we blurted out in perfect unison. "He's not my boyfriend!" "She's not my girlfriend."
I realized our mistake too late. Alana's eyes shimmered when we said this. She pushed past Samantha easily and latched onto my arm. If you think invading your personal space was bad by a hand on your knee, then this was worse.
"You're single after all." She winked. "Wanna go out sometimes?"
I didn't get the chance to answer her as Samantha got between us once again, too stubborn to let Alana win. "B-Back off!"
Alana hissed and mocked her. "O-Or what? D-Do you h-have a stuttering d-disorder or something?"
As she said that, my memories traced back to when we first met until now. Our conversations all had Samantha stuttering in them, but I didn't know the reason for it. That wasn't important right now.
Samantha gasped as her eyes got teary, Samuel and I were about to retort something back to protect Samantha but the blonde-haired girl still had it in her. "A-And do you have a-a disorder where you can't c-comprehend a simple s-sentence?"
I would've said 'Boom! Roasted.' I didn't get to as what happened next shocked me.
Alana had raised her hand at Samantha. I was still processing what she was about to do when all of a sudden, a slap echoed throughout the gym. It seemed we heard it as everyone got quiet and turned to the source of the sound. Now, everyone was staring at us.
By the force of the slap, Samantha had faced the other way, but I could see a red handprint appearing on her cheek. A bit of blood seeped out from the newly inflicted wound. My eyes darted to Alana's manicured nails and saw red liquid sticking out from the violet manicure.
She had slapped Samantha. And because of her stupidly long nails, a scratch formed on Samantha's cheek.
Mister Jacob noticed what she had done and shouted from the other side of the gym, right next to the stage, "Alana Jang! You are hereby disqualified from the collaboration and the competition! Go to the principal's office and explain what you did!"
Alana's eyes widened as she took a step back. "I-I didn't mean to. She was... Being annoying and... I just... But-"
"No buts." Ashley emerged from behind us and raised a hand, the very same one where the red button could be seen. At this, Alana's eyes were the size of a ping-pong ball. I didn't know for which reason though, the fact Ashley was here and she's the principal's daughter, or the fact an elite saw the whole thing. Maybe both.
"You-"
Ashley cut her off again. "And don't you know you just hit an elite?"
Alana paled by a lot. She looked like a ghost and she stumbled backward. She slowly turned to Samantha. And to back Ashley up, the blonde-haired girl raised her left sleeve to show her red button, proof of the elites. Her head was still lowered as she did this. And to make Alana feel even more guilty, Zed and Samuel displayed their red buttons too. I would've done the same if I had mine with me.
I think I saw Alana momentarily stop breathing. Mister Jacob was getting impatient and yelled again, "Principal's office, miss Jang!"
"Don't worry, mister Jacob!" Ashley shouted sweetly - which was odd considering her usual attitude that composed of resting murder face and a mouth that spat out harsh truths. "I'll bring her to mister Angelo."
The gym teacher narrowed her eyes to who Ashley might be before recognizing her and shouted a greeting.
"Besides..." Ashley's face darkened when she stood in front of Alana. She towered over the girl, even if she was just three inches taller. "I think I need to talk with you," Ashley leaned to Alana and whispered very lowly. "The kindest punishment you'll get will be a one-week suspension."
Alana clapped her hands together and pleaded. "Please no, not a week. My parents will kill me."
"Oh?" Ashley somehow was amused by this. The black-haired girl smirked and menacingly said, " Fine. I'm not usually this kind, but I'll take pity on you. A three-day suspension will do, and..."
"... And?" Alana gulped as her breaths became unsteady.
"An apology." She gestured to Samantha who was caressing her cheek to soothe the stinging pain.
With clenched fists, Alana spoke, "I'm... Sorry."
Ashley turned to Samantha. "Is that good enough for you?"
Samantha could only nod.
Ashley grabbed Alana by her shoulder and smiled. "Let's go. My father's waiting, and so is your suspension."
The two walked out of the building with Alana fearing for her school records and Ashley looking like she enjoyed Alana's suffering.
Even though she wasn't the principal yet, Ashley decided the punishment on her own, acting like a true future principal. I got a gut feeling she wouldn't show mercy on troublemakers.
I rushed to Samantha who had tears pooling in her eyes. My hands stopped just about to touch her face. "Are you okay?"
Samantha looked up to me and nodded before sniffling. "I'm f-fine, but it hurts a-a little bit."
I bit my lip. She had gotten slapped because of me, if only I reacted faster, she wouldn't have a scratch on her cheek.
I saw the fear and regret in Alana's eyes after she found out she had hit an elite, but before that, I saw no trace of clemency. Knowing this made my blood boil. Alana didn't hold back from mocking Samantha and even hitting her when Samantha fought back with words. So, if Samantha wasn't an elite, she saw no wrong in doing this?
I also remembered yesterday. She shouted at me for getting between her and Zed in line. She didn't even consider Zed's personal space like she did with mine. And now, that Samantha did the right thing, she dared to hit her? Even if she was the one who started it in the first place?
My back stung with spikes poking my skin. At this, my blood that was already at boiling point just shot up to the lava of hell.
I wanted to run after Alana and make her pay for that slap, I didn't care if I was overreacting again, I felt like I needed to get revenge for Samantha.
I walked past my friends and was about to head down the bleachers when Samuel suddenly grabbed my wrist, holding me back. "If you're running after that girl and Ashley, don't. You know Ashley already has a consequence ready for her." Samuel told me.
I snapped back to reality and realized what just happened. I thought of hurting somebody. My mom said, even if the person started the fight, I should never get back at them afterward. What I thought about not a minute ago was revenge, driven by anger.
Then, I also felt my back like it was burning. I puzzled the pieces together.
'Whenever that rash hurts, it almost automatically turns me into something I'm not...'
I was getting suspicious. What does that rash do to make me consider such an act? Revenge was already bad in its own way - thinking to implement it was scary. I forgot all about my morals.
"Come on, Samantha." Zed said. "Let's get you fixed up."
Samantha went with Zed and they both headed towards what I assumed the elite building. Samuel and I stayed behind. The crowd got back to minding their own business, talking with their partners. Meanwhile, I heard nothing but my mind scolding me.
'What you were almost about to do, Matthew? Hurting a girl? If anything, you should've focused on helping Samantha instead of plotting revenge!
I rubbed my forehead to lessen the growing headache that hurt as much as my lower back.
The blonde-haired captain noticed this and handed me a lunchbox. "I know you want to chase after that girl who hurt my sister and trust me, I do too, but that doesn't mean what we're about to do is right." Samuel shook his head and sat down. "Doing two wrongs don't make a right, you know?"
I left it to Samuel and his wise words. That's just exactly what I needed.
I took the lunchbox from Samuel and opened it as I sat next to him. Inside the lunchbox were little sausages cut into an octopus and egg rolls with sushi on the side.
'Nothing like a good lunch after all of that.'
I picked up a sushi with a chopstick - though I was a little struggling to do so - and plopped it into my mouth. The cold rice underneath raw fish left a weird feeling in my mouth, though it was delicious.
I savored the flavor so I could forget that I thought about chasing after Alana.
From the corner of my eyes, I could feel Samuel's gaze on me. 'Why isn't he eating?'
Finally, I asked him what was wrong. I saw him debating whether or not to speak about something.
"Uh... It's about... Earlier." He mumbled. I was confused for a second before remembering Samuel literally cried and burnt the bacon. To lighten the atmosphere, I tried to joke around because it seemed his tone was heavier than usual.
"The burnt bacon or...?"
Bingo, I saw him crack a smile and snickered. "No, not that. It's... You know..."
I sighed and placed my lunchbox down beside me. "I know. Do you wanna talk about it?"
I learned my lesson from before. I got into a fight with Samuel twice in a row now, there was no way I'd let it happen again.
Samuel scratched the back of his head and he looked everywhere but me. "As long as you don't make fun of me."
I frowned at that. "Why would I make fun of you? Sure, when you cried I was shocked, but there should be nothing embarrassing about that."
Samuel wrinkled his nose. "Cry... I hate that word." He grumbled and used his hand to rake his hair back.
My eyes widened as I got what he meant.
To Samuel, crying was probably the least that he should do as the burden of a captain weighed on his shoulder. He thinks he's supposed to set an example for the others, even if he had to bottle and hide his feelings inside. And with that goal always in his head, he forgot that, no matter what, he could still feel human emotions. He may be an elite captain, but he's still capable to cry, shout or get mad, be tired, and all that. Whatever happened to him made him disregard all of that.
I was starting to worry about what happened to Samuel two years ago, and I was thinking it may be worse than I thought.
'But...' I took a deep breath. 'I'm so close to finding more things about Samuel, and Samantha said I could help him if only he would open up to me. I can't back down now, I'll do whatever it takes to help Samuel overcome this... Trauma?'
The way he was acting were signs of trauma. The way he didn't want to say the reason for the hat, when he didn't even want to be near it when he tried too hard to keep it from me. I didn't know why he wouldn't tell me, but my gut feeling says something about being a captain.
"You shouldn't hate every emotion you have, Samuel." I began quietly, looking down at my lap. "You're still-"
"Human, I know." I looked up and saw him facing forward, but a smile graced his face. "Gosh, it's been so long since I heard someone say that to me." He chuckled. However, I didn't find that funny. If anything, I found it even sadder. Was it more than two years when somebody last reminded him it's okay to be sad?
I opened my mouth to say something. He beat me to it though. "You asked why I... cried earlier." He winced. Then, he looked around to see if anyone's listening. Fortunately, everyone's still minding their own thing.
So, he continued. "Well, it's because..." I saw him take deep breaths now and then as if motivating and urging for himself to go on. I wanted him to stop if he felt uncomfortable telling me this, but I figured he should let it all out, even if it's hard to.
"You probably know that my sister... Passed away, right?"
"Yeah, Samara." When I said her name, Samuel's expression darkened and he put his lips in a thin line.
He nodded. "Her death left me... Let's say miserable, that about sums it up. Since she was my sibling, mister Angelo permitted me to skip going to the underworld for a while. But I refused. I... I wanted to avenge my sister, and to make up for my mistake."
I furrowed my eyebrows at that. I was about to ask, but stopped. I should let him finish first.
"Ashley and Zed tried to talk me out of it. Samantha wasn't an elite yet at the time, but also talked to me about resting. They said... Exactly what you said earlier." He paused to breathe. "That it's okay for me to grieve first, it's okay to act like that when I lost a loved one, it's okay to need time to accept change."
Then, he looked at me. His smoky grey orbs once again unleashed a storm, this time, waves from the sea joined in on the calamity that was occurring in his head. "But something about what you told me was different about what Ashley and Zed said."
I asked slowly, cautious to not make the storm in his head any more damaging. "What is it?"
Suddenly, he covered his facing using his hand. He muttered out the reason, but I couldn't hear him properly. "Pardon?"
He took his hands from his face and I saw the aftermath of the storm. His eyes became glossy as he did his best not to cry again. "You... Told me I was still a human."
"You..." Samuel choked out. "Deep down, I wanted someone to say those words to me. I wanted someone to remind me the humane feeling I hid from the others because I thought that being a captain, you don't need any of those."
My conclusions were correct. He was so caught up with the duties of a captain, he didn't have time to process everything that happened. And because of that, he still couldn't accept the death of his sister up to this day.
"Three people had said that - Ashley, Zed, and Samantha. At first, I disregarded the thought. The second time, I started to think about it again. The third time, I was this close to give in to their words." Samuel brought his thumb and index finger closer, making a slight gap between them.
"When no one said that to me again, I completely forgot about it, or so I thought..." His eyes were in a daze as he spoke. "It seemed it just drowned inside of me, but never really disappeared. So, when you came along and said the same words, the same feelings also sprung up. You were the fourth one to tell me that and so... I was starting to think, 'maybe it really is the time to acknowledge these emotions I've bottled up - that I've been denying and burying the past two years'."
He patted my shoulder and gave me a genuine smile. "Thank you, Matthew. You've made me realized it once again."
I returned the gesture and held my fist for him to bump. "You saved my life twice now, it's the least I could do."
We bumped on it.
I've finally know more about Samuel now. The guy I once thought was all jokes had something deep inside him that I didn't expect. Which reminds me...
"You said you wanted to make up for your mistake, what did you mean by that?"
There it was again. The wall I thought I finally got over just rebuilt itself in a second when I saw Samuel hesitate. It was the same look he gave me when he didn't want to tell me about the captain's hat.
"That-" He didn't get to resume his sentence when we saw Samantha and Zed enter the gym. A band-aid now stuck to Samantha's cheek where the scratch was.
"-is a story for another time." Samuel said as he got down from the bleachers to check up on his sister.
I didn't get to object or answer, as I noticed something about the two who just entered. Samantha had a blush spread across her cheeks and Zed was smiling at her. Then, I heard Zed said, "Don't worry, I'll keep it a secret."