Jaden and Jesse returned to Jaden's dorm, a brown paper bag in tow. Kicking off their shoes, they sat on the ground and dumped out all of the booster packs they just bought.
"Gee willikers! Your campus card shop puts ours to shame! I've never seen so many booster packs in one place! What do you say we crack 'em open?"
"I say, the only thing better than opening new cards is dueling with them!" The boys were about to open the packs when a voice startled them.
"Hope y'all saved room for dessert." Standing in the doorway was Rae, a small container in each hand. They were surprised to see her there; the door hadn't made any sound when it was opened, nor when it closed.
"Sweet!" She brought them over and handed them off. She pulled two forks from the hidden pockets in her black velvet skirt.
"I'm going to warn you now, I am absolute garbage at frosting," She told them as she took a seat on the floor. When the boys opened their treat boxes, they saw a slice of a six layered rainbow cake, with frosting looking like a six-year-old plopped it on at the last minute. She tried to make it look better with sprinkles, but it wasn't working. Jaden almost inhaled the cake the moment he got his fork. He hummed his approval as Jesse took a bite.
"Wow! Is there anythin' you can't cook?"
"I'm not good at making rice. Or spaghetti. And, according to Jaden, I undercook my bacon." She laid back and stretched, feeling sore from being on her feet and cooking for hours
"You need to make it crispier!" Her shoulders and elbows popped.
"I am like bubble wrap," she said when she saw Jesse's concerned face. She closed her eyes.
"I know the floor is comfy, but don't fall asleep there. You'll regret it in the morning," Jaden warned her as he opened a booster pack, still chewing on cake.
"If I end up sleeping anywhere here, it'll be your bed and you'll sleep on the floor." She kept her eyes closed and she folded her arms over her head.
"Do y'all have coed dorms?" Jesse asked, looking between Rae and Jaden.
"What's that?" Jaden looked up from the cards in his hands. He had several different piles of cards in front of him. If he was organizing them, he sure had an interesting organizational thought.
"No, we don't. This isn't technically allowed." Rae looked up at him. "I am the only reason Jaden hasn't failed his classes so Chancellor lets me do what I want."
"She's the best study partner! During finals weeks, she cooks for me all day!"
"He's very food motivated and it makes it really easy to convince him to do things," she laughed. "My favorite thing to do is have him read out passages from class while I make cookies and then he desimates me in duels while they bake and then, when they come out of the oven, when they are still warm, I'll cut them into little pieces. That way, when they cool, they become like training treats. But for Jaden. Every correct answer, he gets a cookie piece." Rae crossed her legs as she sat up and Jesse started laughing.
"You've got 'em trained like a dog!" She chuckled.
"What kind of dog am I?" Jaden excitedly asked Rae. She stared at him, put her chin in her hand, and took a moment to think.
"I'd say a Husky. You're very friendly, you're adorable, and a lot of people would like to talk to you, but you are so loud and whiny." Jaden made a face that was a mix between disappointed and hurt, which made her giggle.
"Ya know," Jesse started, bringing Rae's attention to him, "you're right." They both laughed loudly, drowning out Jaden's objections. Their laughter was cut short when Ruby popped up and said something. Winged Kuriboh appeared almost right after to repeat what Ruby told Jesse. Rae looked between the boys before Jaden ran outside with Jesse in tow, chasing after the person who was just peering into the dorm. A sigh escaped her as she slowly got up and went to zip up her boots. Might as well chase after them.
Rae grumbled when she stepped outside; it was going to be hard to find them in this darkness. She strained her ears to try and find some evidence of which way they went. She was about to give up when she heard Jaden's voice in the distance. It was faint, but it gave her an idea of where they might be.
Summer might have been coming to an end, but it was not planning on leaving quietly. The sun might have gone, the air was humid and breathing in it felt like trying to breathe through a wet cloth. Focusing on her friends' voices made it easier to ignore how difficult it felt to breathe. Jaden's voice was becoming clearer and louder; she has almost found them.
"...lay off the jokes, Jay," Rae heard as she neared a break in the shrubbery. She could just barely make out three figures near the cliff. She knew who two of them were; it was pretty hard to miss that Southern drawl, even from a distance. She slowed to a walk, feeling no rush to get to them now that she found them.
"Wow, this guy's pretty hardcore." Rae could hear the smile creep up on Jaden's face, "I outha give that a shot." She was only a few steps behind Jaden and Jesse when she finally got a good look at the other person. He's one of the other transfer students, the one from the sister school that Viper was from. He was staring Jaden down, a mission shining in his eyes.
"This isn't child's play, son," Axel scolded.
"What's that supposta' mean?" Jaden felt insulted. "I happen to enjoy child's play." Jesse chuckled. Axel noticed Rae standing next to Jaden. It's possible that if his dad didn't raise him the way he did, he would not have seen her. Dressed entirely in shades of black, she blended in well with her surroundings, but her eyes stood out in the darkness. He could not read them, but he felt like they could see through him and that gave him a chill.
He looked back at Jaden, not hearing what he had said, before turning around and walking away. He went to retrieve his gadget.
"Well, good talking to ya!" Jaden sounded a little frustrated.
"Be careful, Jaden. I also hear tell that Axel is Professor Viper's protege. So somethin' tells me we shouldn't mess wit' 'em." Something didn't sit right with Rae. She saw something hiding in Axel's eyes. He has a secret.
"What's a protege? A car?" Jesse sighed.
"I don't like his energy." Jaden jumped.
"Geez, Rae! You shouldn't sneak up on people like that!" She looked at him for a moment then shifted her eyes to Jesse's. He noted this look was something different from before. Hollow almost. She looked back towards Axel before turning her head to look to her right. Her eyes scanned the tree line. Someone was watching them, but the dark was helping them hide.
"We should get back." There was an edge to her voice, though she tried to keep it to herself. She turned and walked toward the break in the bushes.
"Did you see something?" He turned to follow her. Jaden's heard that tone before. She was silent for a moment.
"...I can't really see anything. It's too dark." Jaden groaned. She looked at him, the smile she was suppressing still managed to reach her eyes. The three walked back toward the Slifer Red dorms. Rae was hyper-fixated on what she felt in the clearing; she did not hear what Jesse and Jaden were talking about. She walked with them back to Jaden's room. She has walked up these steps hundreds of times before, but with her preoccupied stated, she tripped on the second to last step. Her hands stopped her from hitting her face on the concrete, but she felt the sharp pain of embarrassment wash over her. She slowly pushed herself up, still distant from the outside world. When she straightened up, she noticed how close Jesse was to her. His eyes were still very green in the light that came from Jaden's open door. She cleared her throat and looked away. "It's...been a long day...I should...go back to my dorm."
Jaden has seen Rae spaced out before, but this was something different. Ever since the semester started, she's been different. Rae walked around Jaden to grab her bag she left just inside the door.
"You're hurt," Jesse stated when he saw her bloody knee through the hole in her tights . She followed his gaze then checked the rest of her. She skinned her elbow and both her palms too, but she could only feel the pain from making an ass out of herself. Why did it matter? Jaden does stupid stuff all the time and she's definitely got into situations with him that were way more embarrassing than this.
"The only real causality is my tights," she muttered as she threw her bag over her back. "I'll see y'all in the morning." She hurried down the stairs and toward the girls' blue dorm. The boys looked at each other, confused and concerned.
Jaden was on time for class the next morning, surprising everyone. Crowler made a jest about it when class started, drawing a laugh from everyone.
"Hey, where's Rae?" Syrus asked. The group looked between each other, but no one had an answer. Crowler started his lesson plan and Jaden was starting to nap when he felt someone next to him.
"Miss Ainsley, how kind of you to join us." Crowler looked at the girl that slid in next to Jaden. "Good god, what did you do to your face?!"
"Don't worry about it," Rae cautioned. She pulled her notebook out of her bag and dated a new page.
"Hey, are you okay?" Jaden bumped his shoulder into hers. She nodded, but she didn't look at him. Jesse glanced at Rae from the other side of Jaden. She looked like she came from a video game convention. She had a symbol painted onto the top of her left hand and he could see something painted on the bridge of her nose and her forehead, but he could only see the left side of her face. There was a sharp line of eyeshadow that started at the outer corner of her eye and reached just below her cheekbone. Rae could feel his eyes on her. She pulled her hair over her left shoulder and let it obscure her face.
When Crowler let class out, Rae tried to dash when they reached the hallway, but Jaden was quicker than she was and grabbed her wrist.
"Not so fast. What's going on with you? You've been acting strange." She turned and surprised Jaden with her makeup. There were three black circles on her forehead, the biggest one right between her eyebrows. Above the smallest one was a crescent pointing up and below the largest circle were two black lines that ran over the bridge of her nose, the bottom one being longer than the one above it. The sharp line of eyeshadow on her left side had a match on her right side. She had drawn thick eyeliner around both eyes, the inner corners pointed and down with the outside pointed and up.
"I had a thing this morning. It ran late." Jaden wasn't usually this confrontational, but he knew something was bothering his friend. She followed his eyes as he assessed her appearance.
"What happened to your hand?" He addressed the bandaging around three of her fingers. She looked at her hand and turned it over.
"Burnt it on a stove...?" Jaden didn't buy it. She was not clumsy and the only time he's ever witnessed her burn anything was when she ate some food too soon after it came out of the oven.
"What kinda thing would have ya dressed like that?" Rae tensed at Jesse's question. She was taller than him in those heeled boots, but the way she collapsed in on herself made those few extra inches disappear. He could see her mind turning in her eyes.
"...church...?" She cringed.
"Was it a witchcraft thing?" Jaden's soft tone made the fear released from her shoulders. She let out the breath she had been subsciously holding. She forgot that Jaden knew.
"...It was a witchcraft thing." Rae gave a small smile. "I woke up late and I thought I could still do it before class, but I cut it too close." She laughed, "I basically ran here and these are not the shoes for that."
"Wait, what? Witchcraft?" Syrus panicked.
