Whether it was right, or wrong, I didn't think twice of it, my stupid male ego did not mind so I just went straight to school and though I was many hours late, no one said a word to me.
Not even the mean teachers that liked picking on me.
"Earth to Ari?" Mum says as she snaps her fingers at my face "You sort of blanked there"
I let out a gruff sigh, knowing that in as much as I want to tell Mum about everything, the whole money thing, I knew that right now wasn't the right time.
She just laughs and kisses my cheeks "Okay, I have to rush off to work now. Don't forget to lock the house"
I want to give a reply but my mouth is already full with cereal as she laughs and leaves the house.
Since my elder brother isn't around to drive me either, I enter a bus and go straight to school then wait at the parking lot as I always do for Nessa.
She comes though, this time with a wrapped up rectangular big and long box on Channing's bike as he parks and she comes down, wearing her skirt today.
My eyes involuntary go down but when I see Channing wave at me to come forward, my eyes widen.
Even Nessa looks surprised but so I don't look stupid, I walk up to them as he removes his helmet and smiles at me. "Ari right?"
I nod.
"You're not so ugly to look at if I actually decide to stare at you, not my type but you know what I mean"
....
Nani?
Then he laughs, kissing Nessa on the cheek "Take care of my Nilla for me. She tends to be so jittery this days"
She pouts "The wall was what came at me"
He smiles "Of course" And then is off the bike to the other members of the group.
"Did he just call you Nilla?" I ask "As in Vanilla"
She slowly nods "Yes. How did you know?"
"Good guess" I say then push my glasses back up as I say "You look good"
She smiles and looks down, doing this cute thing she does with her fingers though I doubt she notices as she says "I just wanted to apologize about how I acted the other time. I shouldn't have and that was irresponsible of me go just shut you out like that. You have been nothing but nice to me. You didn't deserve that"
"Damn right I didn't" I say as she laughs.
Ever so beautiful.
"Here"
She hands the box to me as I collect it, my eyebrow raising "It's a gift from Miss Sweet and I. Technically I only picked it but she paid so she did the most strenuous thing. Come on, open it"
I am staring at her as I slowly unwrap it before I open the box and let out a small shriek as she giggles "A violin?!"
"You said you've been practicing and you didn't really have one of yours so I thought... You know, to show that I'm really sorry" Then she looks up at me with those eyes "I am so sorry"
I am carrying and twirling her around as she laughs before I drop her down and say "Bribery is low, even for you, but I definitely buy it. Thank you"
"You're welcome" She replies with a smile.
When we walk into school, I am telling her about the possibly swarm of notes she has to write and learn before I notice were her eyes are.
She is staring at the two new students, two boys who seem to have a hound of girls around them and one who was always so polite and proper...
And the other.
Well, he looked mean as hell.
"Vanessa"
She turns to me, jerking as she shakes her head "I'm sorry"
I poke her nose as she sorts of shuffles it, cutely as I say "You aren't single anymore. No more eyeing other people as candy"
She lets out a nervous chuckle, tucking back some strands of hair "It's not that... It's just... They look oddly familiar that's all. Like I have seen them before. I don't know?"
"They are transfer students from Russia. Former ballerinas I think" I say, pushing back my glasses "And you've never been out of here, have you?"
"Still...."
"Shush little one" I cut in as I hand her timetable over to her "Here you go"
She takes it, muttering a thank you as she skims through it and says "Calculus? Geography? Biology all on the same day?"
What?
I snatch her timetable, my eyes sweeping through it "That's impossible"
"What?" She asks "Why?"
"Because we literally had the same timetables yesterday" I say "All the classes you just mentioned. We don't have them together for some reason. We usually have at least two classes together"
"Oh"
Her face dims as I put my arm around her neck "But no worries, we can always see during lunch break right?"
She brightens up again, nodding "Yes"
I poke her nose "Good girl"
She shuffles her nose again, rubbing it "Stop that, it sort of tickles"
I chuckle but inside, it didn't feel okay.
I knew someone was the reason for the whole timetable, someone rich and very influential and when I turned around and saw the look of one of the transfer students, especially the mean one smirking, I knew they had something to do with it.
I spent the first three classes just doodling, not actually paying attention because I already knew this sort of thing, I was smart and that was good, though not as smart as Stradella but I was like five percent close enough if I though about it.
Immediately I hear the bell ring for recess, I am obviously the first to set out but when I'm heading to the class I know Vanessa should be in, my phone beeps.
I know it's not Mum, because she's never ever had time to call me when she's at work and none of my siblings would call when I'm in school either because they knew how important this scholarship was to me so my curiosity gets the best of me and when I read the message, I blank.
Channing 🥰: Come to the gym floor. We need to ask you something.
We?
Like in the whole group?
Oh no, I know that I can be dumb but I am not totally dumb.
I am about to shove the phone back in my pocket before it beeps again
Channing 🥰: This is about Vanilla. Come on.
I curse, rubbing my eyebrows before I find myself walking down there.
As soon as I enter the gym, a ball is already directed to my face but someone shoves me out of the way and pushes the ball out of my line of sight before he bends to me, sweat dripping from his face and hand out "Are you hurt?"
As I look at him, I notice the small heaves on his chest and the basketball clothes he's in "Crassius?"
He raises an eyebrow as I take his hand and he helps me up "I have not heard that name in a while"
"Oh my God I'm so sorry"
The small meek one walks to me, his hands on his mouth.
He is wearing a white shirt tucked in black pants with a whistle on his neck and a sort of pad under his armpits.
He has a sad worried look on his face as he says "I didn't mean to hurt you"
Crassius still has that ever blank look on his face as he ruffles the boys hair "It's not your fault. We all know you can't play basketball"
"That's why you're coach brother!" Channing calls out from afar.
"And plus, you look hot in those pants. Sorts of brings out your ass" Stradella says next to Channing.
Wait, what?
Carl blushes immensely, moving back as I realize that this is the closest I've ever been to them as Crassius says "Can you play basketball?"
This is only when I realize that is the first time I've actually heard his voice ever since I met him "N-no"
"Don't be a boring nerd" Channing says as he throws the ball to me and I catch it "Strawberry is a nerd and yet he actually plays good enough"
Strawberry?
Stradella scoffs "Like there's nothing I can't do"
Channing faces him "Ah, let's see, there is..."
"We would like it if you played with us" Crassius cuts in, his silver eyes staring at me ever so void "Just for a little while. Exercising helps us reduce tension"
Carl hands me the same clothes the others are wearing "It's your size"
His voice is tiny, so low and quiet and he keeps looking at the floor and not me as I take it, wondering what in the world is going on and go change.
When I'm back, they are all stretching and Stradella is with the ball "We are dividing into two teams. Cream, you're with glasses boy and Chocolate, you're with me"
Cream?
Chocolate?
Glasses boy?!
"Relax" The quiet ever blushing one says "They will play as normally as they can"
I realized that was a lie half way through it.
Though I could tell that they were actually playing slowly, enough for me to play along but I felt like a little mortal in the presence of gods.
Channing was extremely fast, like he was high on something and Stradella.... He had impeccable aim, wherever he shot from, it reached Chocolate.
I didn't even get to touch the ball!
If not for Crassius who seemed to not even be on his feet but was floating instead and was able to change the direction of the ball everytime it came.
We would have be down by a hundred.
I am about to take the ball from Channing one more time even though I am exhausted to the max but as usual, he's fast and the next thing I know is I'm spinning around so quickly but I sort of misstep and fall on my butt.
Hard.
Carl quickly blows the whistle "Time out!"
And everyone walks to me.
Carl is the one to bend and reach out to me first "Are you okay?"
But that's when I snap "Do I look okay to you?!"
Like a child he just jerks away, as Crassius pulls him up and makes him rest on his face as I stand up and say "This! All of this is not okay! You calling me here, being all nice and then making me play a game and beating my ass so crazily. How is that okay?!"
They are all staring at me, no one saying anything before Stradella says "Is that how bratty I sound?"
"Si" Channing says with a shake of his head as Stradella sighs "Disgusting"
"Here"
Crassius hands me a bottle of water "You must be exhausted"
I stare at him then take it as he says "We feel ready to talk now"
Later, we're seated on a bench, two benches actually, me on one facing them and all four of them on the other, staring at me as I down the whole bottle before I throw it to the floor "What? I'm thirsty alright? You guys pushed me to my limit"
Channing smiles too brightly "But we were only playing with you"
"Yeah, it's not funny"
"Why are you so hostile to us anyway?" Carl whispers, as he seems to do naturally, still hanging unto Crassius which is beginning to look weird "We haven't done anything to you"
"There is something weird about you guys and I don't like it" I say simply "That's all"
"Or is it because one of us is dating the girl you have a crush on?" Stradella asks, an amused smile on his face.
I stutter there "It is not a crush and I know she's not dating ANY of you, thank God. She's dating that other woman. What's her name? Miss Sweet I think?"
The reaction on their faces has me rethinking what I said as Stradella snaps "Who told you that?"
"It's fine" I say, knowing their wrath wasn't worth it "I don't mind and it's not like I have any friends to tell or something. I saw them kissing yesterday in the hospital"
"Why would Mistress do that?" Crassius asks "Publicly?"
"Mistress?" I ask "Okay, what's going on? You all seem to have weird names for one another and if that's not weird enough, the woman's whose name is already super weird is like literally called Mistress?"
They all seem to blink and then nod.
"I am Chocolate" Channing says, smiling now "The baby over there is my brother, Caramel, white hair is Cream and red hair is Strawberry. Oh and Vanilla is... Well you should know Vanilla"
"Why are you all giving yourselves flavours?" I ask.
"I think it's cute" Channing... Chocolate, whatever says as he smiles at Strawberry "Ber? Isn't it?"
He seemingly ignores the male as he says to me "She gave it to us. Our Mistress. Look, we don't usually do this, this whole people thing but we... I'm trying to learn how to accept you for Nilla's sake so you better be normal if not I'd...."
"There there Tiger" Channing says, patting his back "Don't scare the boy"
Stradella sighs, folding his fist "Look, we are all patients under our Mistress. Miss Sweet? Whatever you idiots call her, for different reasons but because of who we are, no one must know that we have a mental problem and all that so we are kept as a secret. It is just believed we stay in the same dorms. Point is, we are all dating one another"
"Nani?" I ask.
They blink as I shake my head and say "What?"
"Like Cream is dating me and Cream is dating Ber as well and is dating Mel and Mel is dating Ber and Cream but isn't dating me because that would be like totally disgusting" Chocolate says with a roll of his eyes before giggling "And Vanilla is dating all of us"
"That's... That's impossible. I saw her with..."
"Oh and Mistress too" Chocolate cuts in, wait, did I just call him that? "Mistress must have trusted you a lot to let you see her kiss Nilla though"
"But that's... Impossible you all are..."
"We don't know why we love ourselves" Cream says "We tried fighting it but it didn't work. It never does. Vanilla couldn't tell you about us because we told her not to and we knew you wouldn't understand"
"But majority of you are men!" I blurt out.
"And?" Carl asks... Caramel... Shit "It's not.. that we chose it, it just happens"
"You're obviously not gay" Chocolate says.
"Duh!" I snap.
Chocolate suddenly smirks "Why do I feel like you're challenging me to break you?"
What the...
"Whatever you want to do with that information is up to you" Strawberry says as he stands up and the others do same "We only tell you this so that you and Nilla have no reason to fight or have to excuse yourselves from all of us anymore"
"I know it may take time to wrap your head around" Cream says "But you will"
"And who knows? You might..."
Ber taps his butt as my eyes widen before he says to the male "Be contented"
Chocolates eyes widen like saucers as he blinks heavily "Oh you want to do this here baby?"
Cream suddenly has his hands on Chocolates ears, tugging it as the male whines before he says "Till we meet again, Ari" Then walls off, dragging the male.
Strawberry is holding Caramel, and then he sends me a glare "And I dare you to say one word to anybody else idiot"
And then is off.