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Anya Forger knew when people were lying. But she never quite understood what was with that Damian Desmond, or whatever. His thoughts were a mess, and he often spoke quite disdainfully of her. Becky said reckoned he liked her, though Anya doubted it.
Papa was still focusing on Operation Strix, but luckily, he finally realised, that perhaps, his love for Yor Forger wasn’t just ‘for the mission’.
‘Miss Forger, are you paying attention to the lesson?’ Anya realised that she had been zoning out into an endless void of sleep deprived subconsciousness .
‘Sorry Sir’
Professor Henderson shook his head in a knowing matter. Anya Forger was still the chaotic and goofy student, but also surprisingly perceptive and intelligent.
‘Very well, you would do best to listen in the future’
Anya felt a pair of eyes on her from across the classroom, turning around, she caught the second son smirking at her.
Heh, she never listens. I’ll beat her again in the exams easily now.
Tch. That pretentious bastard. He never grew up enough to stop his immature remarks and his weird approach toward her.
‘Oh? What's this? Has someone finally caught my little Anya’s eye?’ Becky, her long time friend and cupid, snickered.
‘Whaaaa- NO! Absolutely not! He hates me anyway!’ Anya glared menacingly at Becky, but she found this to be rather funny, and failed to hold her laugh in.
The class, once quiet, all turned their heads to stare questioningly at Becky.
Becky, who had no shame whatsoever, continued;
‘Right, right, but I didn’t mention anything about Desmond’ she whispered a bit too loudly.
Anya blushed, she didn’t like Sy-on that way. She only saw him as someone to win against and prove that perhaps she wasn’t a simple commoner like he thought.
No way I would let him win! And he’s not gonna beat me again! Anya was determined to prove that he wasn’t so great as he thought he was. What a cocky imbecile.
Feeling annoyed, Anya made sure to finish every last bit of the work for that lesson and take tons of notes in her flowery handwriting. She would never let him win. She really wished he would just grow the hell up! Everyone thought that he had matured and was more ‘serious’ now, but Anya knew better; he was still the annoying little shit he always had been! Not that she hated him, but she had to just learn to cope with his nonsense.
Unfortunately for her, her class, and well, everyone, thought her and Damian were involved in some romantic relationship! WHAT? Don’t they bicker a lot though?
That was the exact reason why the class saw them as couple potential, she just didn’t know.
The class loved the drama surrounding Anya Forger and Damian Desmond, and well, everyone. Their competitive bickering was entertaining to watch, especially since the young Desmond would constantly deny his feelings for Anya.
For a telepath, she was surprisingly dense.
Anya was feeling sleepy now, all that work had really done a number on her. Her short attention span unfortunately made it difficult for her to focus for that long on boring and tedious tasks.
Gee, I would much rather be watching spy wars right now… the new episode just aired! I wonder whether Bondman beat Mr-no-good-shoes…
Anya began to move around in her seat impatiently. Sensing her unrestfulness, Damian quickly scribbled something on a note and passed it to Anya three seats ahead.… and could only pray that he wouldn’t be caught…
‘Slacking off again, Forger?’
Anya turned around and glared at him, feeling rather annoyed now. She just wanted to go home! Was that too much to ask for?! And of course idiot Sy-on grinned her signature ‘Heh’ smile.
She furiously wrote on a sticky-note and ‘discreetly’ leaned back to pass it to him, which delighted Becky to watch the scene unfold.
But Anya leaned too far back.
And a loud BANG resounded in the classroom, alerting the professor. You would think she would have been paying attention by now, instead of bickering with Damian. But no, she just had to take it further and fall backwards on her chair while passing notes between three rows of desks and staring students.
‘TSK! Miss Forger! Did you not listen when I said to pay attention to the lesson? Do I have to give you a Tonitrus bolt for your misbehaviour and inability to pay attention? If you wish to pass love notes with Mr Desmond, then do it after school! Tch. Most inelegant.’
Anya gulped. If she got another Tonitrus bolt, her father would die of a heart attack.
‘S-sorry sir, won’t do it again.’
With Professor watching Anya now, she wouldn’t be able to slack off and maybe get some sleep. Ugh, what a pain. She hadn’t gotten any sleep the previous night because she was too busy watching her saved Spy Wars episodes until 3am. Somehow, her father hadn’t noticed.
Yet she still managed to become an imperial scholar before the second son. Heh, he was so irritated also that he hadn’t become an imperial scholar before her-
A smug grin spread across her face.
‘Whatcha thinking bout Anya?’ Cupid- wait, no Becky, asked.
‘Going home and maybe getting some sleep, for a change’ Anya replied, with exhaustion lacing her voice.
Becky giggled. Anya could deny it all she liked, but it was SO obvious that Desmond liked her. Even his lackeys were in on it and would tease their boss about it. Keke.
‘Oh? Perhaps you can’t sleep because you are too busy thinking of Damian?’ Becky sniggered.
Anya mumbled something unintelligible about how she was in fact, not thinking about the scion and instead about spy wars.
Becky always tried to get Anya to watch Berlint in Love, but it was to no avail. Anya never grew out of her obsession for spies and secret missions. She still enjoyed drawing herself as ‘Starlight Anya’ and wore her stellas proudly. Berlint in Love was also airing a new season soon, so both Anya and Becky would both be busy watching their respective shows.
But unfortunately, midterms were soon also.
Everyone dreaded Eden’s grueling exams. They weren’t tests that you could just forget about studying, either. Poor Anya hated studying, but she would do anything to beat that annoying scion.
Perhaps Becky needed to study too. Or she could watch Berlint in Love…. Tsk! Nope, nope she was going to study, just like the diligent student she was.
When Becky was younger, her father threw a party and she got to meet Rachael, who was an actor in the soap opera, Berlint in Love. Not for the first time, Becky wished Anya enjoyed watching the same thing. She would have adored bringing Anya to the party. But Anya didn’t really like romance, not after Princess Honey and Bondman didn’t end up together. She was depressed about it for ages.
Although Becky saw potential with Anya and a certain dark - haired Scion… but Anya, bless her, was so, so dense.
Surprisingly dense for a telepath, even.
It was even better than watching Berlint in Love, perhaps. The little Desmond wasn’t completely oblivious to his feelings for Anya anymore, so it was very entertaining watching the two bicker and fight. Just like an old married couple, Becky thought. She was secretly already planning the dress she would wear to their wedding.
The professor was staring venomously at Anya now, but she was too distracted to notice. Becky, gosh, she must be the nicest person on earth she swore, gently nudged Anya to wake her up yet again. ‘Whaaaaaaaa?’ Anya whined. She was just about to do her work right? Oh. She fell asleep again. She looked up at the clock.
Ten minutes until the end of class.
Suddenly, something hit the back of her head. Though it went unnoticed by the professor, she was still sure to be careful in case she gets another tonitrus.
A note.
She opened it fearfully, goodness, she really hoped it was for her and not someone else. It was written in cursive.
Meet me after class shrimp.
Don’t slack off!
Damian
Wonder what he wants now, Anya thought. Even though she wanted to beat Damian on the class rankings, she still couldn’t help but admit this class was boring and made her feel especially sleepy.
Even the wall was more interesting about whatever Professor Henderson was teaching. Two more minutes. Anya packed up her Spy wars themed pencil case and put her notebook away in her bag, eager to leave and go home. And quickly deal with whatever Sy-on wanted, she supposed.
The bell rang sooner than Anya expected, perhaps because she was excited to leave or maybe she was too sleep deprived for time to pass as normal.
Quickly dashing out of the class, too quickly to get yelled at for running inside, Anya made her way outside.
A hand caught her wrist, almost sending her flying backwards. She fell back, landing onto a solid… wall? But why was the wall… warm?? Turning around reluctantly, Anya found the hand belonged to the young Desmond. And well… it wasn’t a wall she fell on.
‘Can you get off me Forger?’ The Scion said with an insufferable smirk on his face. Anya blushed in shame, realising her position.
‘Can you let go of my wrist? You’re about to cut off my blood circulation’ she bit back. Embarrassed, he slapped her wrist away rather harshly even considering HE was the one that grabbed her wrist in the first place-
Nono, no point in getting frustrated by that, there was a new Spy Wars episode coming out and Anya couldn’t be annoyed or it would ruin her precious time she was supposed to spend happy.
‘I saw you sleeping in class earlier. You looked so stupi-’ What an idiot, Anya turned on her heel to leave. ‘
‘Wait.’ Oh? What did he want now?
‘It better be good you annoying Sy-on’ Anya whined
‘It’s annoying when you get yelled at by the professor. It’s distracting and obnoxious. If I gave you peanuts would you at least promise to pay more attention in class?’ Anya spun around, excited at the mention of her beloved peanuts. Salted and roasted is the nicest, she thought.
‘Alright. Now give me the peanuts, pretty please.’
Handing over the peanuts, Anya was pleased to see that the peanuts were, in fact, roasted and salted. Thanking the Scion, Anya tucked them into her bag. ‘Hehe, well thanks Sy-On, I’ll be off now.’ Anya dashed off before Damian could answer back. Perfect, she had peanuts to eat while she watched the new Spy wars episode. Keke!
Bursting with happiness, she walked to her parent’s car across the campus.
But thinking back on earlier… Why did Sy-On know she specifically liked the roasted and salted peanuts? Huh, probably nothing. Probably just a coincidence, it wasn’t like he was constantly watching and observing her and therefore knew what she liked or anything. Yep, it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary whatsoever.
‘Anyaaaaa!’ Anya spotted her mother, Yor Forger, running toward her at an inhuman speed, making a few stare at the strange sight. Loid Forger, her father, was standing a few paces behind his wife.
Yor enveloped Anya in a bone crushing hug, who for a split second, forgot her strength and eventually loosened her hold. ‘Anya dear, how was your day?’ her Papa asked.
‘It was good! Hehe!’ she said, bubbly as ever.
As Anya skipped off, Loid shared a glance at his wife, noticing her even more-so upbeat energy.
‘You think something happened?’ Yor asked her husband.
‘Hm.’ Loid Forger grunted in agreement.
Something must have happened to make Anya Forger (even more so) bubbly than usual.