Immediately after leaving block 29 Mia's phone beeped with an incoming message. Checking it she realized it was a message from Rayne that said.
'I'm waiting for you by the gym building. '
She quickly headed towards the direction of the gym, with a smile still on her face.
"Mia, Mia look this way!" She heard a familiar voice shout from behind her on her way to the gym. Instinctively, she turned to see who it was when.
"Click." Came the shutter sound of a camera in front of her.
"What..." Mia looked at Carlos confusedly standing in front of her holding a camera up to his face. The guy smiled widely pushing his glasses up his nose.
"Nice one there Mia." He complimented holding on to the camera with which he'd just taken her picture.
"What was that for Carlos?" She asked looking at her classmate in surprise. But he laughed again, revealing his bunny front teeth.
"Didn't you hear, the council is holding a small event that picks the most beautiful females from every faculty, now this is going to be my... I mean our entry of the little event, it's going to make headlines." He said pointing at the picture of Mia he just took.
"I'm not entering any event, delete that." She tried to snatch the camera from his hands, but he lifted it above his head. As he was taller then her, Mia jumped trying to reach it.
What was this guy talking about? Before this she and Carlos were not very close at all, in fact they rarely spoke, and now he was suddenly trying to take pictures of her to enter in some stupid school event, she had no interest in.
She only knew him as one of the top students in class and for another thing he was most known for. His love for news. Well, one could call it that way if one was a journalist, however if one was a normal person, they'd say he loved to gossip.
He was the type of person to poke his nose in any situation as long as it involved a good story, if it was going to give him news, he was there. He didn't care who you are or what you feel, Carlos would do anything to get a juicy news.
Not having any idea of what Carlos was up to she glared at him, panting tiredly, it was no use chasing him around anyway. The guy was a nosy parker.
Carlos clutched his camera to his chest standing a little distance away from Mia, who had given up chasing him.
"Oh come on Mia, we'll make the headlines, don't you want to be on the front page of the school paper for the next month event?" He tried to convince her.
"No, I'm not interested. Now delete that." Whatever drama he was up to, she really didn't want to involve herself in it. But he wasn't about to budge, he turned on his heels and ran off.
"Fine then. I'm just going to make the headlines myself and get you into the event." He left her with those words as he ran off.
"Hey wait! Carlos!" Mia yelled after him but too late. The guy had already run off into the corner.
'What was up with this guy today?'
Mia shook her head deciding to ignore him, as she made for where she was going to meet Rayne.
Carlos stopped running spotting a place to seat underneath a tree, he headed there sitting down he turned on the camera checking out the pictures he took with a satisfied expression.
One showed Mia smiling brightly her dimples prominent, wearing a plain white shirt with black jeans, she seemed to be talking to someone beside her but the other person was cut out.
The next picture was taken of her in the cafeteria as she gazed hungrily at something with her lips pressed tightly together in a cute manner.
And the last one was the one he just took, her hair blowing up slightly in the wind as she had turned abruptly an inquisitive gaze in her eyes staring straight into the camera.
He happily copied them to his S.D card. He had been sneakily following Mia since yesterday after hearing about the event taking her pictures stealthily, however he still needed a close up and one of her staring into the camera so he'd played this trick to get the picture. His major was photojournalism, and in this up coming event, which hadn't been publicly announced yet, every photojournalism student was going to show what they've got along with juicy news.
Carlos wasn't one of the people who picked favourites due to a person's reputation, he would only do something in all honesty. Just like right now, he could choose to root for any other person in the event, but he chose Mia since he believed her to be the prettiest in their faculty, and he would be the one to publish her among the participant when it would be announced to everyone.
He'd only ever do anything beneficial to himself, and if the girl he supports win, he'd have an opportunity to be featured on the headlines, or better still, he could be given the responsibility of handling the pictures in the school newspaper.
Mia arrived at the gym to find Rayne waiting for her at the entrance. Spotting Rayne, Mia smiled brightly. "Hey!"
"What took you so long?" Rayne smiled back.
"I just met with someone crazy, can you believe that? that Carlos suddenly starts taking pictures of me, he should be lucky I didn't get a hold of him, I would have broken his legs along with his darn camera." She relayed the story with a displeased expression.
"No need to be so bothered by it, he probably just likes you." Rayne winked.
"Pfft, that gossip monger? like someone? He's only doing it for another story of his, what did he call it again? Some event of sorts." Mia laughed, shrugging it off as they climbed the stairs into the gym building.
"Could it be? Ha, he's taking your pictures for that event the council organized." Rayne said in realization. "I must say, the guy's got eyes, at least he's not one of Diane's pathetic fans. I'm damn sure with you in the event Diane's winning will be snatched off her hands." Rayne added pleased with Carlos's actions.
It was an annual event that the council had organized for the fun of it. Two months before the event, pictures of the participants would be posted on the school newspapers while the students would campaign for the winner before it would be announced on the day of the event.
The most beautiful lady and gentleman on who got the most votes would be crown the queen and king of the year, and would also have the opportunity to be on the news headlines and the billboard of Zen city. However, the event hadn't taken place last year for some reasons unknown to the students, which was why most of the sophomore year students didn't know about the event.
"I don't want to participate in some silly event, I have too many problem on her list already, like my project to pass this semester. Besides, there's no way I can win over Diane. And even if I could, I'm not interested." Mia stated dryly.
"Of course you're not." Rayne teased, a sly expression on her face which Mia missed because she was looking straight ahead.
Mia's face brightened as she suddenly nudged her friend. "Guess what."
"Hmm?" Rayne looked on questioningly.
"Just guess." Mia insisted.
"You know I can never guess anything, I'm terrible at it." She then paused slightly glancing at Mia before adding. "But, with the stupid smile on your face, I know it has something to do with Mr. Bennett, right."
"He agreed to be my supervisor for the project assignment." She exclaimed in excitement.
Rayne laughed. "You really have a huge crush on the professor huh?"
"What crush, I have no such thing on him or anyone, I just want every chance to stare into those gray eyes. For some reasons, they remind me of someone who I can't seem to remember." Mia pursed her lips as she couldn't shake of the feeling she had everytime she looyk into those eyes. It was like she'd seen them before, yet it felt like she'd imagined it.
"Well, isn't that considered a crush?" Rayne probed.
"No, I just like his eyes, not him. Well, if possible, you can say I have a crush on his eyes." Mia chuckled softly. Leo Bennett was one of the most handsome men she'd ever set her eyes on, but she knew when to dream and when to be realistic. Liking him won't get her anyway, nor will it add to her good grades.
"Humph, just admit it, you have a crush on him." Rayne continued to tease as they both entered the martial arts section of the gym after changing into their uniforms in the locker room.
Since arriving at the Ivy Grove institute, Mia had always been dragged by Rayne to learn martial arts, though Mia didn't like it at first she eventually got used to it. Plus she found out that it was a great way to defend herself.
After their training for the day, Mia proceeded into the locker room, she felt very uncomfortable at how much she was sweating right now, the training today was intense and insane.
Rayne had already proceeded to take a shower and was getting dressed, so Mia picked her towels and headed for the bathrooms.
The warm water soothed her nerves as she let out a sigh. Mia suddenly paused while soaping her face as she heard a sound. She listened for a while but since she didn't hear anything afterwards, she continued to clean herself.
She walked out of the bathroom with a towel tied to her chest as she opened her locker to pick her clothes, but her eyes widened in shock.
"What... My clothes!" She exclaimed as she looked frighteningly into the empty locker. She glanced around the locker room but it was empty without a single person in sight.
'Who could have stolen my clothes?'
She searched frantically around but couldn't even find anything of hers. Her clothes her bag and her shoes had all disappeared. She opened Rayne's locker and it was also empty.
Could Rayne have been the one playing a prank on her? She mused then shook off the thought. Rayne did like to play pranks on her sometimes, but not this kind of pranks.
What was she going to do now? She couldn't just go out wearing nothing but a towel. She peeked into the martial arts hall first to see if she'd spot Rayne or anyone else who could help but not a single soul remained in there.
Her phone was also in her bag which had suddenly disappeared.
She continued to look in every unlocked locker in the room but couldn't find any of her belongings.