"Hup! Catch." Ria kicked another bitten candy apple from the ground and Adeleine caught it with her sack, making sure the coating didn't stick on the edges.
"What do you call this game?"
"Oh, this? It's not really a game. But it does remind me of that one game we used to play back in our region. We call it bamball." She put her hand on her waist, a smile on her lips as she reminisced. "In our village, we have a bamboo forest just near us and we have this narrow court where we hop from bamboo to bamboo, trying to steal the ball. The ball should not touch the ground, always! If you manage to throw the ball into the enemy's bamboo net, you gain a score."
"You hop on top of the bamboo? That's seems questionable in terms of physics."
"No, silly. We swing from bamboo to bamboo. We cling on the side."
"I've never heard of this before."
"Well, pffft, duh," Ria playfully rolled her eyes. "Aristocrats don't play these low-end games, silly. They would rather watch gladiators and play games with those fancy smanshy things that needs expensive stuff."
"I see…"
"What do you nobles play by the way?" She took a step closer and blinked; a wide smile plastered on her lips.
Adeleine leaned back. "What? Me? I'm not a noble though."
"Huuuh? Really?" Despite Adeleine constantly reminding the other about close proximity, Ria still invades her comfort zone. "I thought you were! You sound like one so I assumed you're a noble. Wait a second, do nobles in Letheria have the same accent as nobles in Adhelis?" Her eyes sparkled. "That's so cool!"
"I'm…also not from Letheria," she added, whispering the last phrase.
"Shoot!" Ria dumped a sack on the pile they accumulated. Her sheer uncontrolled force caused the pile to shift.
When one sack slid down the pile, dread hammered Adeleine to her place and her grip on the stick tightened as she instantly regretted stacking it near the edge of the ring. She watched it with fear as it hovered, threatening to fall down in the field.
The sack was already thin and old. If it falls down that height, it breaks.
The world slowed around her as it tipped over the edge and, at last, gravity took hold of it.
She stretched her arms and peered over the edge in an attempt to catch it, but it was too late. "Noooo-!" However, she slapped her hand against her mouth and held back her gasp. The sack directly hit someone in the face when they turned to the noise above and the garbage…
"It exploded," she choked out. Her eyes frantically took in the mess and blood pulsed in her forehead, thinking how much she'll have to clean it AGAIN.
The person strained their neck to her direction, the sack still wrapped on their face but even if Adeleine can't identify them properly, their hair was undeniably silver in color. It wasn't Kellie, she was sure of it. They weren't as tall as the lady master and every person in this academy only has golden shades. Only one person more she knew has silver locks—it was one of the people she least like to interact with again.
"Hey, why are you playing hide-and-seek? Why didn't you tell me? I wanna play too. Oh, look," Ria peered over the edge. "There's someone down there-"
Adeleine yanked her arm down while shushing her. She whispered the sound too harsh that she made an unsightly mess with her fluids spewing over.
"Ugh," the senior grimaced.
She turned the other way to hide her embarrassment. "The garbage fell on him. It burst," she explained, trying to move on from the previous mishap but she knew it'll live in her head, rent-free, forever haunting her.
"Oooh," Ria hammered her fist on her palm, "No wonder it smells like poop. That bag is one where Bridget put Heg's poop."
"Who's Heg?"
"The spirit beast who guards the academy for so long," she said as she took a peek below. Her shoulders visibly relaxed. Adeleine took that as a cue and stood up, also checking below if he was truly gone. "Man, that guy's suuuper unlucky."
"I think he saw us."
"Well, who was it?"
"That guy with red eyes and silver hair with that pompous look on his face."
"OH! CLANDES! Funny guy. He's hilarious!" She cackled and Adeleine looked at her with knitted brows.
"Seriously? I've never seen him like that and he doesn't look like he smiles."
"Exactly! Which makes it even more fun to make fun of him!" She exclaimed. "You should try it sometimes. That guy needs some ice breaker. Get it? Cause his affinity is ice!"
"Anyway-" Adeleine waved her hand dismissively- "We need a new sack for that," she said, pointing at the mess down below.
Ria's hand shot up. "Dibs, not it!"
~~
After explaining what dibs means to Adeleine, she begrudgingly accepted her fate and made her way to the storage room to get another sack. Unfortunately, she still doesn't know the way. Fortunately, Ria accompanied her, much to Adeleine's annoyance that the senior could have just gone there herself.
"Is it left or right?" Adeleine peered in each direction before looking back at Ria skipping behind her.
"To the ra-ra-ra-right we go!" she chirped—sung over the top of her lungs that Adeleine felt second-hand embarrassment as students gave them annoyed stares. One thing Adeleine could describe her—weirdly eccentric.
"Here we are." Adeleine pushed the wooden door open with her shoulders after it wouldn't budge. "It's so-" She coughed and fanned her face as dust sprinkled over her nose from the ceiling, "dark and dusty. Bleh."
Unused items and other cleaning utensils cramped the small room, making it hard to reach certain places without moving objects. A small window cast a ray of sunlight, highlighting the specks in the air, and served as their lamp. Folded in tiny triangles to save up space, the item they were looking for was sitting on the third layer of the cabinet frame that almost took up the entire right wall.
"Man, this room is duuuusty!" Ria exclaimed, pinching the bridge of her nose to stop her from inhaling it.
Adeleine was about to reach for the only piece left on the shelf when a large sneeze shook the whole room and it fell under the cabinet. Ria flung back outside and collided with the wall, sniveling hard while rubbing her red nose.
"Achoo! Achoo!" followed by small sneezes while Adeleine stood there, petrified and covered in soot.
Her nose tingled, and soon, she sneezed as well. Couldn't breathe in, she went outside the room.
She sneezed and exhaled through her teeth. "Has no one ever cleaned that up?"
Ria shrugged her shoulders indifferently.
They saw a mouse emerge from the pile of rubbish on the floor. It paused by the door and had a staring contest at the two wide-eyed giants, in between its teeth was the folded triangular black trash bag they dropped on the ground. In a split second, it scampered and dashed through the corridor.
"GET THAT STINKING RAT!" Adeleine hollered on the top of her lungs and ran after it.
"A game of chase! Yippie!" Ria bounced on her feet and ran with her.
"That creature has the last one!"
Adeleine slowed herself down as they reached the corner while Ria ran past her, gaining more speed. She skidded, almost dropping on the floor as she grabbed the brick wall on her turn like a hook, changing course but losing no momentum as she got back on her feet and continued to run after the little thief. Adeleine's jaw dropped as she huffed behind the Mir, trying to keep up.
Ria lunged at the mouse, only to face plant on the floor when the mouse swerved quickly to the right. "Ow!" The mouse wiggled through a hole between the door and the wall. "Poopers," Ria hissed as she pushed herself up while cradling her nose, "the rat got away."
Adeleine stopped beside the senior, hands on her knees, catching her breath. "You…" her puff cut her off- "were fast… I could barely… keep up. That was so- so- what word do they call it? Awesome! Slick and sick!"
"Oh! You finally don't sound like an up-stuck noble royalty. You sound poggers." She gave her a thumb-up.
Adeleine tilted her head. "Poggers?"
Ria stood up and dusted her uniform. The coat, supposedly worn over the other pieces, was tied around her waist in a weird but cool-looking fashion. "That rat went in that room." She brushed back her bright curly locks that framed her vision as her marmalade eyes flickered to the door in front with a sly smile. "Wanna start the raid?"
Adeleine looked at her with shock. "What?"
"What?" she quirked her brow. "We've come this far and that's the last piece left. You're gonna get scolded if you don't finish the clean-up properly, 'ya know?"
"But… isn't that an office?"
"Yup! The dean's office."
"And we're not allowed to enter."
"But you've been here before!"
"Yeah, but that was because I've been called to the dean's office for breaking school rules. Well, technically, I did not break any rules, I was only dragged into it because I am the victim. But that was business!"
"Then getting that piece of bag and that rat is our business. Now, let's go!" Ria dragged her as she pushed the door open.
Adeleine had a bad feeling.
As soon as Ria opened the door, Adeleine expected sharp eyes behind the desk glaring at them for not knocking, but instead, the chair was empty. Document papers neatly stacked on the edge of the desk with scrolls sitting in the box beside his desk. The room was closely similar to the headmaster's office, only slightly smaller. Behind the desk, the thick curtain backdrop revealed large glass windows.
Despite everything in the same order, the room dowsed a different atmosphere compared to its larger counterpart.
Adeleine subconsciously glanced at the shelves, a similar place where she saw the fifth edition of Cinders and Roses in the headmaster's office, hoping that the contents were the same, but only to be slapped with disappointment after seeing a different line of books.
"It's here somewhere," Ria scratched the back of her head.
Scanning the ground, Adeleine found a tail sticking out under the desk and immediately picked it up. The rat dangled upside-down between her fingers as it clutched the triangle-folded bag tightly and nibbled on it.
"I found it-" she choked on her spit when Ria quickly dragged her inside the cabinet by the collar. "What? What is it?" she asked, confused as to why Ria was pressing her ear against the wood.
"Shhhh," she pressed her finger on her lips.
After, Adeleine heard the door outside clicked. Her eyes widened. A deep sigh followed after the sound and the foot of the chair rubbed on the carpet floor. Papers scuttled and the point of a pen scratched the surface.
"It's the dean," Ria whispered, jabbing her thumb in his direction as she turned to her stealthy companion. "Wait a second-!" she paused as she stuck her one eye out, envying the writing tool in his hand, "No fair! Why do they get to use those new ballpoint pens while we're stuck here using quills! I couldn't use my glittery pens!"
Truthfully, Adeleine would rather have those ballpoints too since her penmanship was said to be unsightly by none other than her 'supportive' mother. Using quills and fountain pens made it harder for her to write but it's required here in the academy. The pain, she grimaced, trying to admire her written notes. It was a fleeting effort.
But that's not the problem at hand.
"Shhhh, he'll hear you." Adeleine sent her a glare. With a stroke of misfortune, she was stuck, yet again, in another of those impending disasters which will result in punishment that she does not deserve. She disliked that to happen again.
"Injustice!" She continued to remark and Adeleine facepalmed.
He leaned back on his chair and sighed. The stacks of paper beside him wouldn't vanish into thin air. As much as the headmaster was responsible, the man had the habit of suddenly disappearing, leaving the important works for the dean to deal with.
He removed his eyeglasses, pinching the bridge of his nose in irritation. Lifting his gaze, he opened the drawer beside him and pulled out a piece of blank paper. He set it down neatly in front of him and started to write.
The friction of pen and paper against the hardwood table filled the room. It was minutes of dead silence for him, but excruciatingly painful for the two students hiding inside his closet.
The pen produced a 'clack' when he set it down. Adeleine inhaled sharply.
Just how long are they going to endure? How long will he go to be here for?
"I know you're there."
She almost choked from her spit and Ria had the face of 'oh, snap' with her mouth ajar. The mouse squeaked. They slowly turned to each other, eyes wide.
Her shoulders tensed, her breathing stopped, and the tension in the air crushed her lungs. Her heartbeat steadily rose; a bead of sweat ran down her nape as the deafening lack of noise ensued.
Everything was still.
Was it that obvious? They were too loud, she knew it!
Adeleine couldn't take it. Every pulse of her heart, she felt exploding. It was like a timer of a bomb waiting to go down to zero.
"Stop hiding."