Happy Encounters: A Shoujo Parallels AU Short

Beta Belt
July 2014
High School Staircase

“You need to talk to Elaine,” Cianna Alrada rolled her eyes as she continued walking, “She’s been sleeping in English. And while we were having Algeb, she was writing in her notebook.”

“She was also taking down notes,” Beatrice Mora mused. “But hell. That shit was creepy.” Arzen was confused as they went up the stairs, Gabrielle Angeles following and Mathias Angelo close by her side. “I’ll tell you later.”

Mathias broke in, “Anyway. Vens, you have to give the personal data sheet to Ms. Rocha.”

“Right, right. Hold on,” she sped off to the classroom and the others already walked to the other staircase, which led them to the second years’ level. Gabrielle snickered.

“If Ms. Rocha’s absent again, Venura’s going to throw a fit.” Cianna shook her head and Arzen soon caught up to them, blue folder in her hands. “What if she’s absent?”

“Then I’ll get delayed,” the girl grumbled as she took the stairs. Mathias stayed quiet as the rest of them followed, Cianna and Gabrielle talking about other matters while Beatrice listened. “I – we have to get this done by next week. I’ll get killed if I get delayed again,” she mumbled, and the ginger nodded sympathetically.

“Hey. We’ll get it done,” he promised. Arzen sent him a small smile and nodded, pausing once they reached the floor of the Sophomores.

Once they had arrived, Beatrice choked.

And began to laugh loudly.

Cianna gave Arzen an impish grin. Gabrielle nudged her side.

Mathias could only stare as Arzen’s face reddened to the extremes.

Summery December: A Shoujo Parallels AU Short

“Is this safe?” Mathias asked dubiously as they were strapped in, seatbelt across their waists. Arzen smiled but tightly held on to the bar of their ride, both of them awkwardly pressed together, bodies so close in a manner that he would usually find thrilling. But in this case, he was dubious of the ride – the Octopus, as Arzen had called it. She seemed relieved when the line only took five minutes, and was laughing at the expression on Daniel’s face when he and Elaine were strapped in, both of them flushed from the close proximity. “Arzen, I don’t like the feeling of this ride. It’s giving me vibes.”

“Jive vibes?” she tried, smiling widely in the process. He rolled his eyes at the pun, but couldn’t help a smile nonetheless. “Chill out. I’ve been riding this thing since seventh grade, and I’m still alive. The first time may be…scary, but you’ll be begging to ride with me again when this is over.” She hummed quietly as the ‘tentacles’ of the ride rotated, lifting them feet higher into the air. Mathias’ blue eyes widened.

“So what exactly does this do?”

“It rotates, bringing us up and down. But that’s not all. The carriages-” and she let out a loud squeal, Mathias yelping in surprise as their own red carriage spun around, “-they spin. They spin a lot,” she finished, laughing to herself because of the sudden shock and the look on the ginger’s face.

“This is ridiculous, we have to get off-”

“You can’t.”

“What?!”

“You can’t,” Arzen repeated calmly, flashing him a smile. From above, they could hear Daniel’s protest and Elaine’s laughter. Arzen looked up and grinned at the sight of the blonde trying to escape, and he soon quit, seeing his shoulders slump miserably next to Elaine. Maxine, on the other hand, was holding on to a screaming and whooping Liam. “Men. Say they can do anything, but strap them onto an octopus and they act like they’ve seen a ghost.”

“That’s just cruel,” Mathias complained, but his face blanched once they went higher. The carriage threatened to spin.

“We’ll argue later on,” she replied, one hand on the bar and the other discreetly travelling down and looking for his hand, “Today, we scream.”

Eliminating the Stressor

“I think it was nice for Janica to invite us to her birthday,” Mathias commented while checking through Arzen’s Chemistry worksheets. “More so myself, because we aren’t that close unlike you are.” Arzen smiled slightly and took a drink of coffee from her mug, nodding her head slowly.

“As long as you were nice to her, you’re on the guest list,” she replied, remembering the smaller girl’s guest list from a Monday ago. Written on the top in her handwriting was: Guest List. AKA, people who are nice to me. “I think you’ve made her list ever since you helped her out in Geometry.”

“Well, I am quite efficient in the subject.”

“Don’t flatter yourself too much.”

He flashed her a grin. “Come on. This is the guy who got into the ‘Niners Club’ as Sir Andreo put it. Second time in a row, darling.”

“Yes, yes.” She waved it off and snatched back her worksheets from him, “A European beat an Asian in Math.”

“Stereotypes.”

“Mm. Sure.”

“It looks like you’re okay with balancing,” he mused quietly, and in a louder voice said, “Do you want to work on Stoichiometry now?”

Arzen gave a grimace.

“Goddamn it. I hate that freaking topic-”

“You’ll hate it even less when I teach you.”

“Ha, ha.” Her voice dripped with bitterness. “Okay. Get me out of the hell they call Chemistry, Mathias.”