After what happened the last time she was seen, it wouldn't be wrong to expect her left arm to be wrapped in bandages but she seemed to be fine with her arm down like nothing ever happened to it.
"Well, yeah, I know that but it's not like any of you would want to be teammates with him." Claudia retorted just after turning to her.
"I see, well, I was just passing by and thought I would let you know in case you didn't know." She said before continuing her walk toward the other side of the room.
It looked like she was going to get out of their hair now but after taking just three steps forward, she stopped.
"You know it's funny." She uttered.
"What is?"
"He saves your life one time and suddenly he has you wrapped around his fingers, is it really that easy to get you to switch sides?"
She was planning to tolerate that and respond calmly and responsibly but that last part ticked her off.
"What do you mean switch sides? I was never on any side so don't lump me in with the rest of you." She fumed.
"Yeah, sure, whatever you say." You remarked with a sarcastic tone before turning to Arsha. "I feel sorry for the suckers who'll end up as your teammates."
After saying that, she continued forward until she disappeared into the crowd and now that she was gone, Claudia let out a deep sigh.
"I want to stay upset at her because of the way she treats you but I really can't blame her after what you did to her." She said with her gaze on Arsha but he didn't bother responding to that.
"There you are, Arsha."
Claudia quickly turned her gaze to the left where the voice came from at that moment to see Jayden heading their way and he wasn't alone as Maya seemed to be right beside him.
"Oh, are we interrupting something?" Jayden inquired with an apologetic expression after spotting her.
"No, not at all." She shook her head. "He's still ignoring me so nothing is getting interrupted here."
"Oh, I see, that makes sense." He remarked before slowly shifting his gaze to Arsha.
In the meantime, Claudia turned to Maya with a smile on her face but she found the smile to be a bit unsettling and was instantly on her guard.
"It's Maya, right?"
"Yes, that's my name." She responded, sounding quite timid.
"I'm guessing you're here to ask Arsha to be your teammate?" She inquired.
"Yeah, and what about it?"
There was a sudden shift in her tone of voice, it was like she suddenly got defensive.
"Nothing," Claudia replied. "I just think it's nice of you to want to team up with him."
"Huh?"
Getting that response sent every defensive barrier she put crashing down and now she was just confused.
"I was afraid no one would want to team up with him and he would end up getting left out of this but you're here for him and that makes me glad."
"Oh."
'She seems to care way more than I thought.'
Maya wasn't the only one there to ask Arsha to join up with her, a team needed three members and Jayden was there to be the third member.
He had already asked Arsha to be on his team earlier today but he said no and walked away and now he was trying again.
"Oh, Claudia, there you are."
That voice came from Jessica who was heading toward them now alongside Erwin.
"Oh, hey, Jess."
"Why did you just disappear on me like that?" She asked as her gaze slowly dropped to Maya.
"I was trying to find a third teammate, my search led me out here."
"A third mate? You had all those boys jumping to be in your team, there was no need for a search." Jessica remarked.
"Sorry, Jess, but I can't have someone with an ulterior motive in my team." She retorted before shifting her gaze to Erwin like she was referring to him.
"And you think Arsha doesn't have an ulterior motive?" She retorted.
"Hey, who said anything about him?"
"No one but I know he's the one you were trying to recruit, too bad the first rule says that any of the top five students can't be together in a team."
"Attention students!"
That voice came from the speakers all around the gymnasium and it certainly got the attention of everyone.
"We'll be registering your teams now so if you have a complete team step forward and have your names recorded, those unable to find teammates. The unfortunate loss of three students means you're only eighty-one but no one will be left out since a group of three is the requirement, that means there will be twenty seven teams total."
"That's our cue," Jessica said with her gaze on Claudia.
"I know but why does our third teammate have to be him?" She retorted with her gaze on Erwin who had a somewhat creepy smile on his face.
"Don't worry, after working with me today, you'll instantly fall in love with me." Erwin expressed with a grin.
Claudia's response to that was one of disgust and she wasn't hiding it.
"I think I just threw up in my mouth."
__________ ___________
After about thirty minutes, the team registration came to a conclusion and now all the second-year students were outside waiting for the next instruction regarding this exercise.
Obviously, Arsha ended up not getting left out like some people thought, he was a bit reluctant about it but he finally agreed to join up with Jayden and Maya and that was the reason why both of them were standing beside him now.
Most of the teams were keeping to themselves and even a couple of them were talking about how they were going to handle fighting the stronger beasts.
Meanwhile, Jayden had his gaze on Arsha with a certain thought running through his mind.
"Hey, can I ask you something?"
"Huh?" Arsha responded before turning his gaze to him. "What is it?"
"I'm just curious but are you going out with Claudia?"
He was a bit on the fence about asking that but he was finally able to get it off his chest.
Maya heard the question and now she was also interested in what Arsha had to say.
"I don't know what gave you that idea but no." He stated bluntly.
"Oh, I see, I just thought you two have been a lot closer than usual lately, this is something I noticed before what happened on Saturday mind you." He clarified. "It's a shame though."
Arsha didn't respond to that and proceeded to walk past him heading toward the dormitory.
"Hey, where are you going?"
"The dormitory, I'll be quick." He responded, still moving.
"Okay," Jayden uttered before turning his gaze to Maya who had her hand on her chest with a somber expression on her face. "Is everything okay, Maya?"
It took Arsha just a few minutes for him to get to the dormitory and just a few seconds for him to enter his room and now he was just standing there with his gaze on the cupboard beside his bed.
"He did get something right though, we're getting closer but that's because I want us to get closer, the rescue mission on Saturday was all part of it." He muttered as he made his way to the cupboard.
There was a scanning interface for his watch and he used that to open it before pulling out a picture from in there.
A picture where a first-year Claudia was standing beside a blonde man with glasses who seemed to be in between his late thirties and early forties.
'I'm glad everything that those girls showed up that day to make everything that happened that day happen, it was all convenient to creating a path to getting close to him.'
The part of the picture with Claudia didn't matter to him at this moment, he had his gaze locked on the man who bore quite a striking resemblance to her.