The moment the raven haired boy entered the school gates, a huge crowd had formed around him.

"Ash~! Where were you for the past few weeks? I missed you!" One of them asked.

"Ah sorry 'bout that," he laughed sheepishly, smoothly evading the question. "I was kidnapping a girl."

"Haha you're so strange," another girl giggled playfully, taking his statement as a joke.

As they were about to go in the school building, Ash spotted a certain honey haired girl making her way to school.

"Otaku-chan~!" He sang and waved at her. Everyone's eyes shifted to the direction he was waving at.

Serena grumbled under her breath and hid behind her school binder. It was like the usual, Ash was immediately surrounded by fan girls the moment he arrived.

Not wanting to attract unnecessary attention, she ignored the constant calls of the heartthrob and ran into the classroom.

The raven haired boy sighed dramatically and ruffled his messy black hair.

Girls around him squealed.

"Is there something wrong?" A girl asked and attempted to cling on to his arm.

"Hey, did any interesting things happen when I was gone?" He pulled away his arm and shuffled away from her, keeping their distance.

"I thought you never really cared about stuff like gossip?" She stated, grabbing on to his arm once more. "There haven't been any outstanding events lately that I could think of..."

Ash attempted to yank his arm away and gave her a think harder look.

The girl twirled with her hair. "Come to think of it, there's been some ruckus about the top student lately. Looks like she's got herself some rather unfriendly people."

"Is that so...?" Ash nodded meaningfully. He gave up on struggling. The raven haired boy pulled her closer to him and gave her his usual smile.

"Mind telling me more about that?"

➖➖➖ ( *｀ω') ➖➖➖

When Serena finally sat down at her spot, the honey blonde sighed.

Why did she ask him to come to school in the first place?

It was so strange. She acted like a completely different person when Ash was around. That never happened to her before, it was like she was under an enchantment spell. She tapped her pencil on the book to the rhythm of her heart beat.

In animes and movies, it usually means the person's fallen in love. In most cases that was the idea, but that won't be it—not in her case. She would never fall in love with someone who messes around with her head all the time.

Hopefully.

"Serena Yvonne," the Professeur Roman, their mathematic teacher suddenly called, pulling her out of her thoughts. "Please answer this question."

The honey blonde started to panic. She was deep in thought and didn't pay much attention to what he was saying.

"Uh..." She stared at the board blankly.

The whole class had their eyes on her.

Serena mentally cried. The only time she wasn't listening, she just had to be the one called by the teacher. It was all going to be over if they catch her—the top student spacing out in class.

Just as she was ready to face her death, a glimpse of black flashed past her.

Serena's eyes widened.

The whole class stared with a dumbfounded expression as Ash casually walked up to the board. Everyone watched as he answered the question on the board without any hesitation.

They continued to stare at him as the raven haired boy walked back to his seat.

Ash never answered any questions in school before.

"T-that is correct," Professor Roman fixed his glasses. "How did you know?"

The raven haired boy paused for a second, "I had help from Mr Textbook, fair enough eh?" He looked up with a sheepish grin.

The teacher sighed as the class bursted into laughter, completely forgetting about Serena's mistake.

Serena snuck a glance at Ash, who in return gave her a wink. She looked at his desk, which had nothing on it. He obviously lied about looking at the textbook for answers. She wondered how he figured out the answer in such a short amount of time.

Did he do it to help her? She shook her head as she remembered all the times he teased her.

"It can't be..."

➖➖➖ Σ（ﾟдﾟlll）➖➖➖

"SERENAAAAA!" Dawn flung herself at the honey haired girl and looked at her with a goofy smile.

The two scurried through the busy halls to get to their next class.

"Serena, did something happen? You just seemed kinda out of it lately," the blue haired girl asked apprehensively.

Serena recalled Miette and her friends. She didn't want to tell Dawn about them, she might be caught in her mess.

"Not particularly, why?" She lied.

"Hmm, no reason," Dawn said, "I'm going to the pool on the weekend, wanna come?"

Serena shook her head with a smile. "I'll pass this one. Because y'know..."

"I gotchu, I understand," Dawn gave her a thumbs up in understanding.

Serena giggled and then saw Calem walking by with his friends.

"I'll be right back," she told Dawn and approached the navy haired boy.

"Um, Calem?" She said, getting his attention. Calem seemed surprised that she was talking to him. "I apologize for my rash behaviour yesterday, I was kinda in a bad mood. I'm okay now, thanks for worrying about me."

Calem looked at her with a smile, his side bangs covered over his face. "Don't worry about it, I'm glad you're okay now."

"Alright, I guess I'll see you around then," she waved him goodbye but Calem stopped her.

"Uh, Serena?" He scratched his cheeks nervously. "I just want to let you know that, I still like you. I'm going to try to become the man that you would accept to go out with. You don't have to decide right at the moment, but hopefully we can start off as friends?"

His friends whistled and Serena looked away uncomfortably.

That was more direct than she thought. She had already gone through enough trouble with the whole 'Calem and Ash' misunderstanding, but she didn't want to flat out reject him and hurt his feelings.

"I appreciate your kindness, but I think I'm good with the way we are currently." The honey haired girl replied in the nicest way possible.

Calem gave her an understanding nod and told her to take her time.

As the two talked, Serena realized that Calem wasn't that bad of a person she thought he was. He was a very understanding person, but he couldn't seem to perceive the fact that she didn't like him. They could probably be good friends, but nothing more than that.

But what she didn't realized was that Miette and two other girls were watching her from a distance.

➖➖➖ (♯｀∧') ➖➖➖

"Serena, can you take these paper packages to the staff room?"

"Sure, Professeur Roman."

Serena took the heavy packages from his hands and made her way into the vacant halls. She looked around wearily. Miette and her friends haven't said anything to her for the whole day. Somehow it made her feel like something bad was going to happen.

When she was half way to the staff room, a hand suddenly yanked onto her hair. She winced in pain and the paper work dropped on to the ground.

Great, she jinxed it.

"Miette..." She said through gritted teeth.

"Yes, Serena." Miette mocked her. "Why don't you come with us for a moment? You're errand for the teacher can wait, don't you agree?"

Before the honey blonde could object, another girl came at her from behind and gripped onto her arms. Serena glared at the two, who sneered at her.

And the hallway was left empty once more.

➖➖➖ (＞人＜;) ➖➖➖

"What do you want," Serena said as they stood on the top floor of the school—the school rooftop.

Gust blew at her, carrying her honey blonde hair into the wind. Serena eyed the two vigilantly, being cautious of their every movement.

"Where's Shauna?" Miette turned to her follower, who shook her head, not knowing where her other follower went.

"What do you want now?" Serena asked again.

"What do I want? I'm pretty sure you know by now," Miette replied sharply. "So you still won't give up on beguiling Ash and Calem."

"We're back at this again?! I already told you, I'm not trying to seduc-"

Before the honey blonde could finish her sentence Miette grabbed her arm and pulled her to the pool that was located at the roof. Serena quickly glanced at the pool, it was the professional ones that was used for swimming team trainings, with no shallow ends.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Her voice cracked, and she pulled away from the blue haired girl's grip.

The sudden pull caused Serena's arm to accidentally hurl onto Miette, basically slapping her in the face.

The honey haired girl spun around and made a run to the door, but Miette recovered and gripped on to her wrist before she could get to the handle.

"Why are you doing this?!" She yelled as she struggled to escape from Miette, but her grip I her arm was too tight.

"People like you just have to be taught a lesson in order for them to give up," Miette grunted, "becoming a drenched mess should work in your case."

"S-stop, you don't understand!" Serena stuttered, ferociously shaking her head. She constantly tried to escape, but Miette and the other girl held her down.

"Oh yes I do, you should of been scared like this from the beginning. That way I don't have to go all the way like this," Miette smirked and pushed her away from the edge, into the pool.

"Go for a swim, loser."

It's like the world was circling around her. Serena was paralyzed in shock and that sudden rush of adrenaline as she let herself fall until her back smashed into the cold water.

"S-someone, help...!" Her head bobbed in and out of the water.

The door to the rooftop was suddenly kicked open, revealing Ash, Dawn, and Shauna.

"A-Ash!" Miette gasped in shock, immediately backing away from the pool.

Not even bothering to look at the blue haired girl, Ash ran right past her. He leaped into the pool without a single moment of hesitation.

"SERENA!"

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!" Dawn pulled Miette by the collar, blinking back the tears. Miette looked at her in fear and confusion.

"Serena doesn't know how to swim!"

Miette looked at her blankly. When she finally realized how fatal the situation was, her knees grew weak and Miette collapsed to the ground.

"I o-only wanted to teach her a lesson," she whimpered. "I didn't know-"

Dawn slapped her across the face.

"If something happens to Serena," she glared at her, tears streaming down her face. Miette started sobbing words of apologies.

"I will kill you."

➖➖➖ ⊂((・x・))⊃ ➖➖➖

Soooo how was the chapter...?

Ok I might have lied about
this chapter being a pleasant
surprise... I didn't plan this
to be this dark whoops
But Ash finally called Serena by her actual name !¡!¡

At least I updated early (￣▽￣)

I'm typing up the next chapter right now so comment and vote if you want this to be updated early :')))

~Lori ☆〜（ゝ。∂）