St. Mary Girls Academy Part 2

The black haired girl holds Mint. She keeps poking his cheek. The crowd coos and aws. “She’s so adorable.”

“I wish I had a little sister like her!”

“No wonder she chose this one as her girlfriend. She’s so cute!” Mint accepts the outpouring of affection with a blushy, absent expression. He’s never received this much attention from girls before.

An orange haired girl cradles his face and gently squishes his cheeks while a brown haired girl with thick eyebrows and freckles strokes his hair. “Can you come to my house after school?” She asks, smoothing down a straggler.

“Ahnnn, no ~.” Teases the orange haired girl with a pout. “You’re already coming to my house, right?”

Mint blinks, expression still blank. The brown haired girl squeals. “You’re just too charming when you make that face! It looks like there isn’t a single thought in there!”

A male teacher stomps towards the girls clustered in the hallway with a rolled up magazine clenched in his fist. He's a grumpy looking man in his 40s. His rolled up sleeves show hairy arms. There’s a pen nestled behind his ear and a bald spot near his hairline. Five o’ clock shadow bristles his face and has dark circles to match.

“What are you all still doing out here?! Class is starting!” He shouts. The girls giggle and run off to their classes, leaving Mint frozen in place by himself. The teacher stares him down with a scowl.

“That goes for you too, troublemaker!” He says. Asa runs to Mint and drags him away by his arm.

“You two better be running to class!” Warns the man, yelling after them.

ꕤ

Asa and Mint sit on the lacquered planks of the gymnasium floor, backs to the folded panel mats leaned against the wall. It’s dark, the only light streams in from shuttered windows. “Sorry I left you again.” Asa says, knees folded to his chest.

“No, it’s fine.” There’s still a faint blush on Mint’s face and a bashful smile on his lips. “I can handle myself. Sometimes.”

“We’re gonna need to ride the day out in here. They’ll notice we aren’t real students when they do attendance.”

Metal doors slam against brick with a loud crash. Asa and Mint shriek, clutching each other.

“I knew it! You weren’t in class!” Bellows the teacher.

They run away and hide in the bathroom. “Hopefully here… is okay.” Asa says between breaths.

“What are you doing in here?!” The teacher yells, so aggressively fast that his words run together. His neck cranes around the corner, veins bulging. His gaping saucer eyes are bloodshot and staring right at them. Asa and Mint scream.

They dash down the hall and dart for the exit. The teacher pops from the trash can. “SKIPPING CLASS?!”

Asa and Mint screech at the top of their lungs, then book it in the opposite direction. The abandoned laboratory. The broom closet. The inside of a locker. It doesn’t matter where they run for cover, he’s already there!

“Why is he… always… wherever we… go?!” Says Mint, tears streaming from his eyes.

“I don’t know! It’s like he can telepoooort!” Asa whines, on the brink of tears himself.

☼

Minoki can’t focus on the lesson. No matter how hard she listens, the teacher’s words blend together in a soupy hodgepodge of sounds. Her pencil moves in circles, forming loops of graphite on the page.

To keep her mind off the elephant in the room, she turns a few of the loops into teddy bears and smiley faces. It’s no use. She looks over her shoulder.

Asa and Mint are sitting at a desk. They smile awkwardly at her and Asa gives her a wave. She flaps her hand a little, only wiggling it at the wrist so that she doesn’t draw the teacher’s attention. That’s when she sees a black gloved hand grasp the window sill behind them.

She blinks and it’s gone. She rubs her eyes, then looks closer. Nothing’s there.

“Minoki!” The old teacher shouts, a thin woman with a pink, fleece top and grey hair in a tight bun.

Minoki snaps straight up. “Yes, ma’am!”

“Pay attention.” She says, a scathing look on her face. “I honestly expected better from you.”

The words sting, but they don’t stop Minoki's eyes from drifting back to the window.

☼

The men who kidnapped Asa kneel outside the academy. The one with the scar hunches beneath the window.

“See anything?”

“I can’t get my head up high enough to look in without being seen. There’s too many people here!”

“Damnit. Why’d they head into a girl’s school of all things?!”

Grass crunches in the distance. It’s the security guard doing his rounds. “Shit!” Hisses the scarred man. “Go!”

They rush out of view.

⟡

Asa makes an attempt to listen to the lecture. Gotta play the part, after all. It’s trigonometry. The teacher may have a bad attitude, but he gets why they keep her around. She's pretty good at explaining things.

He’s actually getting kind of into it when a sharp, pinching pain shoots through his back, forcing a shocked yell out of him. His eyes dart to the side. The girl across the aisle draws her hand away from his back and carefully returns it to her desk, glaring at him the entire time.

She’s a handsome, masculine girl with short, auburn hair and a dashing aura. Her long lashes rest on her cheeks as she closes her eyes, smirking with satisfaction. The teacher strikes his hand with a ruler. “Don’t interrupt my class!” She reprimands.

He re-centers his focus on the board. The teacher walks away, having been appeased. Once she’s no longer looking, Asa glares at the girl. That must be Mia.

☼

The bell rings. Students flood from the front door. Minoki, Asa, and Mint walk through the schoolyard, fitting right in with the chatting schoolgirls. Asa smiles triumphantly with a puffed chest and hands on his hips. His posture is slightly slumped. “That wasn’t so bad. High school’s more fun than I remember.”

She’s an adult… Thinks Minoki. This intrigues her, but she knows adults can be dangerous.

I guess it makes sense for a spy to be an adult. It’s not like they can hire a teenager… “I didn’t know girls… were so nice.” Says Mint, swaying. He looks like he’s aged a few years.

“Now,” Asa says, putting on his serious face. “Can you show me the object?”

“It’s in my room.”

“Which way is your house?” She points to the east.

“Alright! Let’s go!” Asa runs in that direction. Minoki and Mint try to keep up.

The two suspicious men walk out of an alleyway across from the school gate.

☼

Sunlight streams in from frilly, translucent chiffon curtains with a charming floral print and spills onto pink, striped wallpaper. An owl cuckoo clock ticks away with its tail-shaped pendulum swinging beneath it.

Mechanical curios clutter every shelf, table, and open space, stashed amongst plushies and porcelain dolls. Asa can’t help but gawk at her collection. Minoki sits in the computer chair at her birch wood desk.

The tabletop is cluttered with screwdrivers, wrenches, wires, and assorted obscure machine parts. Newspaper is spread underneath to keep oil and other fluids from staining the desk. She digs through a drawer. She then hoists an adult head-sized sphere out of it and drops it on the desk with a thunk.

It’s made of a bronzy metal and has a shiny, green dome on it. Severed wires stick out of it every which way. It looks a bit like an antique diver’s helmet… Maybe a power core, of some kind? Or a switch? Asa touches the dome with his palm.

It sparks a bit, briefly emitting a weak light. Minoki’s face lights up and she claps. “Amazing! How’d you do that?”

He fails to suppress a small smile. “I don’t really know, myself.”

“Really?” She blinks her wide, curious eyes.

“Anyways… That was neat and all, but it’s not it.”

“It’s not?” She responds, looking baffled. “But it’s ancient technology and I thought it seemed pretty dangerous…” She’s getting sulky.

“You know that object you picked up this morning? The one that’s white and looks a bit like a puzzle piece?”

“Oh, that?” Her face goes blank. She snaps open her pencil case.

“It was in my pencil case the whole time.” The Key shifts as pencils roll under it. A keychain of a cutesy unicorn mascot rests beside it, appearing to have been haphazardly stuffed inside after the clip broke.

Asa and Mint groan. “So, we didn’t even have to do any of that?!” Cries Mint, exasperated.

She takes the Key out of the pencil case, looking down at it as she holds it between her index finger and her thumb. “How was I supposed to know this thing was it? It’s so small and unassuming.”

The door clicks. Minoki gasps. “My mom’s home!” She whispers. She hands the Key to Asa, then rushes to the door and gently holds it shut with her palms.

“Mom, don’t open the door! I’m getting dressed!” Minoki calls. The door slams open violently and she shrieks. The man with the scar traps her in a headlock and presses a knife to her throat.