Agnes: 8351391 Vincy: 8363397 The sunset /was/ beautiful, she thought, holding up the watercolor to the light. An unusal mix of red gold and gray, as beautiful as anything she'd ever seen before in her life. Certainly more beautiful than any of the sunsets she'd seen, when she had the liberty or free time to sit around and watch the sun setting. It was gorgeous. Certainly a very masterful piece of work. It was art. It was beauty. It was taste. It was distraction. Sophie threw her head back and screamed. "Trowaa!!" She set the work down arefully on the table, so that she wouldn't accidentally tear it apart in her temper. From the door, a head poked in. "Sophie?" It said sheepishly. The petite girl marched over to the door and yanked the boy in roughly by his ear, pulling him to a chair at the table, where she released him. He protested, rubbing at his ear. "What was that for?" He said, glaring at her. Sophie glared back. "You know very well, Trowa Barton," she said, emphasizing every syllable of his name. "You were slacking, and you know very well that we need to finish this term assignment or we're in for it. It's an extremely important project, worth fully twenty percent of our entire marks for this semester, plus we'll need it for our revision later on. How do you expect to finish it with decent marks, if you don't do your share?" She grabbed the folder of papers on the desk and flourished it around, to make her point. "I did my share, baka. But I look through your folder today and I found only this." She pointed at the watercolor painting which lay, oddly forlorn on top of the piles of paper that filled the desk. "We had one week to do this! I can't believe that you didn't have enough time!" "We won't be in for it, Sophie, we'll be out of it. Out of school, I mean." The blond boy's face was cheerful as he said that. "And you won't be in any danger at all of that, judging by your wonderful academic record." Sophie sighed. "Don't think of it that way, Trowa. I just don't get it. Why don't you want to do your work? It's not as if you're stupid, or lazy, or just rebellious, like any of the others.." Her voice trailed off, and she stared deeply into his face. "Why don't you just want to do your work?" The blond boy sighed again. "All right. I'll finish up that assignment, right now, if it's okay with you?" Sophie gave him a delighted smile as he resignedly bent over the sheaf of papers that she placed in front of him. "Good." She said, rising from her seat. "I'll just go get some snacks and stuff from the cafeteria, okay?" He nodded, not looking up. "Do you want anything?" He waved a hand, dismissively. "Anything's fine." "That's good." She smiled. "I'll be back in a moment. Don't go anywhere, 'kay?" He didn't say anything, but she hadn't expected him to. So she left, treading as quietly as she could. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The corridor leading to the cafeteria was empty, as she had expected it to be. It was almost nightime, after all. Therefore it was also quiet, and she had time to think. As a student councillor, she'd helped many other students who were considered bad, by the school system. "Bad", by the school's definition, meant those with lousy grades. Generally they'd come to her majorly screwed up. It was a lousy way to put it, but as things were, that was still the best explanation she'd come across. All those with severe problems.. But Trowa wasn't bad. He was just different. He didn't seem to have any problems that she could define. He could socialise well, when he chose to, he was smart, kind and nice, and he definitely wasn't schizophrenic or anything of the sort. He didn't seem to have any problems at all. Just.. She sighed heavily as she rounded the corner into the cafeteria. Just.. what? She didn't know. Lack of motivation, perhaps. But there was really no reason for that as well.. The cafeteria was empty and dark, and she tried to avoid making too much noise as she walked its length to the vending machines. In the corridors, there was plenty of light, but it was almost pitch dark here, and she was very glad for the fact that the school employed security guards. They were somewhere around, weren't they? They had to be. She tried not to think about that as she plunked her coins into the machine and punched buttons. The noise the dispensers made as they discharged the plastic wrapped bundles seemed unnaturally loud, as well. Was she being paranoid? When had she started that? She let out another sigh as she left the dark cafeteria for the comfort of the corridor. Even if they were empty, they were lighted, at least. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ By the time she reached the student's lounge, Trowa had vacated the table and was lying curled up on the sofa that was situated in one corner. She suppressed a frown. "Trowa? You done with all your work?" No answer. She resisted the urge to sigh, and walked over to the sofa. It looked like he had fallen right asleep. Briefly, she wondered what he had been doing the entire day to make him so tired. Usually, he stayed awake long enough to finish their discussions. She shook him, gently. She'd never seen him asleep before, would he be hard to wake? Some of the people she knew could sleep through earthquakes. But Trowa wasn't, apparently, as he rolled over and opened amethyst eyes to look straight into hers. For some unknown reason, she blushed, and he looked surprised. "Have you done all your work, yet?" Trowa sat up, and rubbed his eyes, tiredly. "Yes, I think so. All the things that you told me to do, anyway." Sophy relaxed. She knew he wasn't like some of the others, who lied outright and always tried to get out of doing what they should. "Alright, you eat this, and we'll go discuss what you've done today, 'kay?" She handed him the wrapped bun package and the can of soda, and headed to the table. The folder held pages and pages of neat work, as always. Usually the students who required counseling had reduced courseloads, the bare minimum that they needed to pass the exams. And sometimes, even less. But Trowa was different. He could handle the work that the teachers assigned to the normal classes, sometimes even the harder stuff, like those they gave the advanced classes. She sighed, and ruffled through the papers that he had done. No matter what, it was going to be a long night. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~