Suki Clear's Arc

Chapter 2 of 3

Suki found her first classroom on the third floor. Her cheeks still burned from the lot behind the school. Hidan's words followed her up every stair. Come back when someone actually likes you. Nobody out there had taken her side. She needed a plan, but plans needed people, and right now she had none. She stepped inside and scanned for an empty seat. Only one chair sat open, in the back corner. She dropped into it. The girl beside her flinched and stared down at her notebook. Light brown hair. Straight bangs. A soft blue cardigan buttoned to the neck. She looked like the kind of girl teachers forgot to call on. A stack of other students' homework sat on her desk, done in her neat handwriting. Suki knew that look. This was a girl people used and then walked past. Suki didn't have time to be gentle. "You go here long?" she asked. The girl nodded without looking up. Her pencil kept moving. "Then you know things," Suki said. "The kids in black. Behind the school. Who are they?" The pencil stopped. The girl glanced sideways, then back down, like meeting Suki's eyes might cost her something. "They're the Akatsuki," she said. Her voice barely cleared the desk. "The outcasts. Everyone calls them that." Suki leaned closer. "And the one on the motorcycle?" "Hidan. He runs them." The girl finally looked up. "He's led them two years. Nobody's ever pushed him out." Two years. Suki filed that away. This quiet girl knew more about the crowd than the crowd would ever tell her. She wasn't just filling in blanks. She was handing Suki a map. "What's your name?" Suki asked. "Chii." She said it like an apology. Two boys at the next desk snorted. One of them reached over and slid Chii's homework stack toward himself. "Thanks, nerd," he said, and didn't ask. Chii shrank into her cardigan. She said nothing. Suki's face went cold and flat. She grabbed the papers back and dropped them in front of Chii. "She's busy," Suki said. Her voice had no give in it. The boy opened his mouth, saw her expression, and shut it. He turned around. Chii stared at Suki like she'd grown a second head. "You didn't have to do that." "I know." Suki almost smiled. "You're smart. Smart is useful." The bell rang. Students filled the seats around them. Suki didn't move to another spot. An hour ago she'd had no one. Now she had a girl who knew every name, every history, every weakness in Hidan's crowd. That was worth ten kids in torn jackets. "Sit with me at lunch," Suki said. It wasn't a question. Chii hesitated, then nodded. Her pencil started moving again, faster now. Suki turned to the front. She still couldn't beat Hidan alone. But she wasn't alone anymore.