a sweet summer ending { arctos, aug 28 2011, lake

[lucy williams]

It was of course, the beginning of another new year, and everyone was on lunch break. They all seemed to be enjoying their second day at the school, and the atmosphere was bright. With all this bright cheeriness in the air, Lucy went out to the lake just to hang out there for awhile until class was back in session. She had always loved being there, and doubted that anything would ruin that. As she sat there, she felt the fresh air fill her lungs, and she heard the chirping of the different birds in the background, that were all determined to fill the place with more song than the other did. But, there was one sad thing about all this, summer would be gone soon, and so would the chirping birds.

Lucy did not think on this though, and watches the motions on the lake, and the little flowers that fell from the flower tree that bloomed in the fall. Most seasons, even the winter were delightful, and all had their good traits to them. Even if Lucy would never know it herself; she seemed to be as pretty as one of those flowers and it made people envious. The truth about her powers gave people an excuse to jab at her, and to make her feel bad. Her father did not stand for this much for anyone, and either did the raising stars of the school Alise and George Jennings. They were her protectors, and they always made sure that people couldn’t come out to get her.

With all this calm, she heard a pair of footsteps. She did not brother to look up though, and watched the wind gently put flowers on the water and into the air. The wind showed the slight ting of fall, making it bitter for a second, but not for every long. That was the odd thing about the season though, and the moments that it was nice made it even better. There were a few leaves that at fallen, but not enough to call it out of the summer or anything. To her and probably most of the Serenity Magic School population, this weather was just right for them.

[Arctos Lupus]

The footsteps that Lucy heard happened to be one Arctos Lupus, a 5th year student at the school. He came down to the lake in order to meet with a spirit that had told him to be here. "I need to talk to you by the lakeside," the spirit had said, and Arctos saw no reason to deny the spirit, so here he was. Of course, he would never admit that it was a real spirit. He would call it a hallucination.

Right now, Arctos saw no spirit. Instead, he saw Lucy, sitting by the lakeside, and she looked absolutely beautiful. She was a classmate of Arctos' and people generally thought that she was crazy. He really felt bad for Lucy, and actually didn't think that she was crazy, but he wasn't going to tell her that. He was too shy. But it was hard for him to resist the temptation to say something stupid, because he was really attracted to her.

Arctos sat down a little bit away from her, looking out on the lake. He then looked over to her. He saw her face and he immediately thought of how beautiful she was. "Hey, Lucy." Arctos said with a nod. There was no blush or quiver in his voice - nothing to give away his attraction to her. He then looked out to the lake, hoping that the spirit would show up soon. He had a class to get to, of course

[lucy williams]

When she heard Arctos’ voice, she looked over rather surprised that he had spoken to her. Arctos was not usually a person to talk much except to him-self, and she always wanted to ask him why, but never had the nerve to do so. He was an ok looking guy, and if she knew him better maybe she would have liked him. But the truth was that she wasn’t going to like a person that she didn’t even really know that well. It was just not a good move on her part, or in fact on his. “Hey there Arctos. How are you today?” It was a gentle question, and she let it go into the wind as she once again looked at the lake and the wind messed with her hair a little bit.

They had known each other since they were in the first year, and in different ways throughout these last five years of school she had been helping him. She considered him a very positive acquaintance that she could help with things. It was just too bad that most of the things that she said seemed to go through on ear and out the other. There was also the fact that he seemed to be somewhere else, thinking about something else half the time. Even thought she didn’t like to admit it that bugged her a little bit. What was going on in that brain of his that no one knew about? Why did it feel like such a crime to be curious about these things and to ask questions?

Finally, one more question came out of her mouth. “What class do you have to go to next? I think mine is that Study of the Sixth Sense thing.” Lucy looked at him with her brown eyes, and they seemed to have a bit of depth to them, and seemed to whisper of different things that Arctos didn’t really know about life or anything like that. “I heard the teacher this year isn’t off his rocker.” She laughed a little bit at this, and knew that the last one actually had to be sent to an asylum because they couldn’t take it anymore. This one seemed more down to Earth, and seemed to know what her father; Felic Masters was talking about when they had conversations with each other as staff.

[Arctos Lupus]

Arctos shrugged at Lucy's first question. "I'm fine, thank you." He felt slightly embarrassed talking to her because he was afraid that if she got too close to him, she'd start asking questions about why he talked to himself just... randomly. He knew that no one else could see or talk to the spirits like he could, so he hoped to avoid questioning about them.

Arctos thought about Lucy's question. "I have... Study of Spirits." He said, after thinking for a moment. His voice had a slight note of excitement to it. That and the expression on his face made it clear that he enjoyed the subject more than any other. He then relaxed, knowing that his body language and tone of voice was giving more away than he'd like. "I have the Study of the Sixth Sense after that, though." Arctos said, recalling his schedule.

He only barely stopped himself from blushing when he looked into her eyes. Arctos stammered his agreement. "Y-yeah. The teacher ain't crazy..." He said with a stutter in his voice. 'Maybe opening up to her wouldn't be so bad,' he thought to himself, but he quickly dismissed the thought. 'No. I'm NOT going through that again. Ever.' He thought, remembering his first girlfriend. "I'd heard some crazy rumors about the last one. Didn't she get sent to the men in white coats?" he then laughed quietly at his own 'joke'.

[lucy williams]

Lucy sighed as she heard the voice that made her sometimes think that he wasn’t telling her the truth came through her ears. It was bad that she always felt this way when he replied about how he was, but that was how she felt. Maybe that was why they were not friends, they could have good conversations with each other, but underneath it all their trust of each other was little to none. Even though, this was quite the daring thought for the daughter of the man that said ‘all people can be friends with each other no matter what’. She just knew that this was one of her father’s ideas that she would love to achieve, but probably never would in her whole life time.

As she heard the answer to her second question, and his voice started to gain more life she nodded. Now, they were back on track again, and they would be able to hold up a conversation for a little while at least. “Ah… yeah the Study of Spirits thing to me is pretty interesting… it just tells me all sorts of stuff I didn’t know before.” That was a truth, that she knew that she couldn’t really lie about, even if she wouldn’t admit it, she loved school. It was pretty crazy that she did, but she loved it. She also loved the current teacher for the Study of Spirits; they always had interesting things to say. They also left your name anonymous and you were always asked if you could be used as an example before you were one.

“Yeah… I remember when I was her last hour and the IMS asylum people came in and took her away. It was so strange… yet so funny at the same time. I could sense people looking out from their classes as they forced her down all the stair cases and out of the school.” This caused her to have a huge burst of laughter from the thought of the teacher struggling against the men in white coats as she was led down the stairs and down to where the other white coated men were waiting for her. She had even heard rumors that the Astrology classes heard about it, and they aimed all telescopes at the crazy professor instead of at the moon to find out its stages by its craters.

[Arctos Lupus]

Arctos laughed at her last comment. He really found her to be very funny. Arctos wanted desperately to trust her, despite his distrust of everyone else. Unfortunately for the both of them, he was not going to do anything first. He would wait for her to extend her hand to him, and he would respond by being open and responding honestly to any question that she asked, even if it pertained to his spirit talking. Arctos mentally swore to himself to follow that plan. Hopefully, she'll trust him, he figured.

"I know, right? Study of spirits is my favorite class!" Arctos said, that same excitement returning to his voice. "I always enjoy it, no matter what we're covering." He explained, hoping that she would understand. "Aside from that, I take a couple of music classes, and those are the only ones I would specifically call 'fun'. He said with a quiet chuckle. "I take vocal and instrumental music classes in addition to my other classes."

Arctos then realized that he had really been giving out more info to her than he had to anyone else. He decided to try and trust her a bit. "Hey... you know, if there's anything you've wanted to know about me, I wouldn't mind telling you. I know that I really don't tell people much about me, but I figure that I wouldn't mind telling you a bit." He said, rubbing the back of his neck. "Yeah, anything you wanna know, I'll answer." He promised her, the honesty showing in his eyes.

[lucy williams]

She listened to all that he had to say, and nodded very cheerfully… until she heard those words that made her stomach twist. He asked her if she was willing to ask him anything, anything at all, and that he trusted her. Lucy felt her whole body shake on the inside, because of this, and she was lost for what to say. The girl knew that she couldn’t ask her questions that were on her mind, because it was too soon, all of it was too soon. She just honestly needed more time to get to know him than just randomly ask questions here and there about his past, present, and plans for the future. It was not a good idea to ask all that now... it just wasn’t.

“I just can’t right now Arctos… honestly I can’t…” And to think that they were actually getting somewhere, now that just went down the toilet. He probably would get suspicious, and she would have to start all over at square one again. Lucy got up as those thought dully buzzed through her head, and she got up from where she had been sitting. The girl once again looked at Arctos with her brown eyes, and they now looked confused and unsure of themselves, unlike what they were earlier. “I gotta go… but I am sure that I will see you around here some other time right?” There was a nervous air in her voice and she turned away.

But something brought her back at looking at the lake again, and she started to feel uneasy as she had this feeling like she was sinking into the depths of the water. There was a cry for help that came out of her mouth, but it was not her voice. It instead was Arctos’, and she knew that she needed to warn him before it happened. She looked over to him with her pale face; there being one drop of sweat on her brow from the little ‘gut feeling’ that was more like a vision than anything else. “Arctos… don’t get into that water anytime soon…” With her pale face, she turned away again, and she started to walk away slowly, taking a pause to see what he would say about her words of caution.