After we make our way up the stairs, the noise coming from Dawn's classroom is audible from halfway down the hallway. I wasn't expecting such a din at all.

"Well, I guess we found her." 

This wasn't hard. Did Serena come here first then come to me for backup, I wonder?

Well, if that's true, then at least she's starting to trust me a little. That can only be a good thing.

Eventually, the two of us reach the door to class 3-2. With Serena less than subtly positioning herself behind me, I open the door.

Inside is a hive of activity, seemingly every student in the class talking at once as they work hurriedly on their separate tasks.

Going by the pain cans, decorations and banners being made, it must be for the upcoming school festival.

I guess my first priority should be finding Dawn

... There.

Finding her among the din is surprisingly easy, not the least because of her looks.

With a couple of students gathered around her as she stands at the front of the class, she seems to be in charge of the preparations, or at least busy organizing them.

Carefully negotiating a path through the various students hunched over the floor for lack of desk space, I raise a hand entirely our of habit as we finally reach Dawn.

"Hey, Dawn."

She perks her head up as she breaks off talking to a noticeably smaller girl who must be her classmate, trying to listen as best she can.

"Sorry, who?" She says.

"Oh, sorry. Ash. I have Serena too." I smile.

"H-hi" Serena says.

She's pretty skittish. Considering the number of people around, it isn't too hard to work out why.

Dawn takes a moment's pause to assess the situation before turning to the other student once again.

"For the moment, just ask Alain for his advice. Gary's busy with painting one of the banners already." Dawn says.

A quick nod and she bounces off, fingers carefully sliding along the wall's face for orientation.

Wait...Gary? That Gary?

I quickly turn about, leaning to the side to see past Serena.

Sure enough, in a corner of the room, Gary's hunched over a sheet of cloth as he paints it. His eyes remain only inches from the brush, reminding me of house close he had to be to make out my face when I met him.

"Sorry about that. Our class doesn't have many students with even partial eyesight, so they're in high demand." Dawn says

That's right, class 3-2 was specially for students with poor vision. Preparing for the festival must be pretty arduous for them.

"Need a hand? I could help if you need some. Maybe Serena could too." I look over to Serena and smile.

A chance to set her mind on something would do her good, but I doubt she has the courage to ask outright. She quickly nods in affirmation afterwards, so I'm confident I made the right move.

Dawn gives a noticeable sigh of relief.

"Ah, that's good. This might actually get finished before everyone goes off to dinner, now." Dawn says.

"Would you be able to help the person painting the main banner? It's a big task for him to do, but nobody else can help." Dawn asks.

"Gary? Sure" I smile.

She seems surprised that I know him. I can't really blame her.

"I take it you've met?" She adds on.

"Our rooms in the dorm are right next to each other. Hard to miss each other, really." I reply.

"Well, it's good to see you're getting friends so fast." She chuckles.

Friend...I wonder if that's the right word to use for him.

Serena's silence during the proceeding reminds me of the reason I put her up to helping in the first place.

"We'll go help him then. He knows what needs doing, right?" I ask

"That's right. Just ask if you have any problems." She smiles.

Chorusing in assent, Serena and I begin another trek across the classroom.

Gary sits crouched on the floor, his gaze fixed on the white calico in front of him.

"Hey, Gary." I say

...

No answer. He continues dragging his paint-soaked brush along the large half-painted kanji that's sketched on the sheet in pencil.

"Gary?" 

"Huh? What? Who is it?" He turns his attention to me.

If this is the way he treats class members, it's no small wonder he's working on this alone.

"It's me, Ash."

"Right, right, I know that, man. What're you doing here, though?" He says.

His dismissive attitude annoys me.

While we talk, the sound of Serena's footsteps as she walks out from behind me reminds me that she's here.

"I was just going to help with the banner. Serena and I, that is."

"H...Hello.." Serena says.

"Oh. Er, hey. I guess that's okay...w-wait, is that the girl who you called cute, but scared off?" He smiles, like it was a normal thing to say.

 I feel the blood rush to my head, "U-Shut up!" I blurt out.

"Sorry, just wanted to make sure, is it her?" He continues.

"L-Let's just work on this, right? Serena, Gary." I try to avoid the question.

Goddammit, why did he have to say that.

Serena and I grudgingly set ourselves down on the opposite side of the cloth banner to Gary, noting the several small paint tins on the ground around it.

Class 3-2...noodle stall?

"You guys selling noodles at the festival on Sunday?" I ask him.

At this time, I could feel my face go back to it's normal color.

I hope Serena doesn't think I'm a freak or something.

"Yeah, some stalls outside. Or something, Ashy boy" He says.

"A-Ashy....boy..?" Serena says.

"Yeah, he came up with a nickname for me" I sigh.

"So, how do you want to split this? We do borders while you do the text? Or do you want to switch and do the borders?" I ask him.

"Text is mine. You do borders." He says.

He has surprisingly strong feelings on the topic.

As I reach over to grab a brush, I notice Serena's already debating between colors to use.

By the time I've put brush to cloth, she's already started on a delicate pattern. Looks like my idea of taking her mind off everyone around her worked.

With a dark blue stroke, the three of us silently get to work.

Not before Gary takes advantage of Serena's working to lean towards me and whisper conspiratorially, though

"Okay man, why're you here?" He says.

"Serena just wanted some help to find Dawn, that's all." I reply.

He apparently disapproves of my motivations.

"I get it. It looks like I misjudged you." He says

"You'e infiltrating them, aren't you? Going deep undercover?" He smirks.

I should've guessed. Letting the truth slip by him would probably be better than outright lying or annoying him, in any case.

"Is that why you're here?" I sigh.

"Obviously. It sucks, but there's no better way to get intel than going in yourself. We gotta stick together, man. This is a harsh school, a harsh world." He continues to smirk.

"Yes, very harsh." 

He misses my true meaning as he leans back, satisfied I'm sympathetic to his cause. I'd better get down to work.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Finished." Serena says.

"Looks like I am too. Good job, yours looks great!" I smile at her.

The two of us connect up the lines of our patterns, mine being as close a copy as I could manage of hers.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

With a grunt, I lever myself up from the floor and look around.

Aside from Serena and myself, there's only Gary left finishing off a sign as well as Dawn and a couple of students talking among themselves in the classroom.

Looking at my watch, it's no surprise. It's getting pretty late.

"Need a hand?" 

I offer a hand to Serena, which she uses to get herself up.

As she does, I can't help but glance at her wrist; if her scars extend even to there, just how much of her body was burned?

I feel a pang of guilt about it however as she quickly covers her wrist with her other hand.

"Looks good, doesn't it?" I smile at Serena.

She looks surprised for a moment before noticing that I mean the banner.

"It does...I guess." She smiles.

Her smile shows that she feels a slight sense of pride in the result, just as I do.

With the floor significantly neater for the decorations being placed on desks and shelves, it's much easier to get to Dawn as we cross the room.

"We've finished the banner. I guess that's all that needs to be done?" 

Dawn gives an appreciative nod.

"Thank you Ash, Serena. If there's any way I can thank you...?" She smiles.

 "It's fine. Beats sitting in my room studying, at any rate." I chuckle.

"I don't mind either." Serena says.

She nods, before suddenly remembering one last person.

"Oh, is Gary still here?" She says.

Just as I open my mouth, Gary gives the answer from the other side of the room.

"Yeah, just finished." He says.

He carefully slides his sign onto an empty section of shelf to dry, before quickly walking past us and out the door.

"Seeya, Ashy boy." Gary waves at me.

"Bye." I smile at him.

The remaining two students say their goodbyes to Dawn before taking their cue to leave as well, leaving only the three of us.

"Well, I guess that's everyone." I smile.

"I hope we don't have to do anything like that again." Dawn sighs.

"Working past schooltime?" I question.

"Indeed. The class's plans this year were ambitious. Maybe too ambitious." She looks tired as hell.

"The stalls look nice, though." Serena smiles.

"She's right, it shows that a lot of work's gone into them."

"My my, I'm sure a lot of us would be glad to hear that. At least now there's not much work to do until the festival itself." Dawn chuckles.

"It's getting pretty late. Should we go?" Serena says.

She hasn't stuttered once in the past 10 minutes, not that that's a bad thing.

"That's probably a good idea. Are you going back to the dorms as well, Ash?" Dawn smiles.

"Yeah, I guess I'll tag along." I smile.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The nighttime lighting really makes the gardens look quite different. Compared to the usual look of lush greenery, things are much more calm.

Being that it's so late, the lack of students around probably helps. The odd one or two can be seen scurrying to and from the dorms trying to eke the most our of their approaching curfews, but no more.

All that can be heard is our footsteps, in addition to Dawn's cane regularly gently tapping the ground in front of her.

It's nice to finally be able to relax a bit after the mad rush during school.

Without even noticing it, I let out a small yawn.

"Tired?" Dawn says.

"Yeah. Still getting used to the flow of things, I guess." 

"The...uh...thing with Bianca took me kind of off guard, though" 

I grit my teeth a little at the candid mention of their rather public spat. That said, I do want to sort out what in the world was behind it.

"About that" Dawn closes her eyes.

"I'm sorry about it being so public. Bianca and I...go back some ways." She says.

Her voice seems slightly irritated as she remembers Bianca, obviously unwilling to discuss it any further.

I glance to Serena for her views on this, but her expression is, unsurprisingly, evasive and difficult to read.

Either way I guess her apologizing for it is something, even if my curiosity goes unanswered.

"I'll be glad once the festival is over, in any case." She adds on.

The change of topic's welcome, clearing the thickening air quickly.

"I can imagine. My old school's festivals were a lot more low-key than this." 

"Vaniville stresses the idea of a school community, so the staff like to make our festivals and such special occasions." Dawn says.

"And yet the students are the ones who do the work. What an unfair world." I say.

Serena and Dawn both chuckle in agreement, savoring the fact that none of the staff are around to hear our grumbling.

"I suppose coming from a strict all-girls school helped me a bit with Vaniville. Compared to there, Vaniville is much more relaxed." Dawn says.

That'd go a way towards explaining her well-bred speech and behavior, in any case.

As we come up to the dormitories, it eventually comes time to leave for our respective rooms.

"See you Dawn, Serena." I smile.

The two both give polite nods before setting off to the women's dorms, just next to the guys'.

As is to be expected of such an arrangement, there's a staff member casually patrolling around outside to prevent any nighttime shenanigans.

Walking past him, I quickly stretch my arms and rub my neck, both quite sore after having worked on the floor for so long, before walking to my room

It feels good to actually have direction, though. After so long in the hospital, the everyday facts of studying, homework and teachers seem almost a blessing.

I guess if things continue like this, my time at Vaniville might turn out okay.

Adhering to the nurse's nagging voice in the back of my head, I set my alarm clock to wake me up early enough to go jogging again.

I made a promise and I'm going to keep it. Besides, Elle is bound to rat on me if I don't show up.

But it's not all that bad.