Segment: Confession

Welcome Gift

Lyle's P.O.V

Two weeks of hellish training has already passed and to say that I passed with flying colors would make me at least a bit proud but as soon as I came home, I meet up with an avoiding Michelle and an awkward Amelia. Even the school is in a fiesta. I don't know what's happening and Jamie asking me what it is means that he doesn't have a clue either. 

I'm home after getting worked up day and night, unsure when I should be sleeping or having my meal and this is what I get back home too? Not even my mother would give me something like this. She'd forcefully spoon feed me the bad news. 

"Does the school know that you and Amelia are a thing now?" Kristine asks, applying medicine to her cuts while training. 

After a day of constant harassment, we were finally given the training we desperately needed. I'm not grateful that they're constantly toying with us but I don't want to cause unnecessary trouble to Amelia's parents, two of the highest ranks in System. 

I know who the two out of four are, now I'm going to add this to my sub missions. My list to do is getting more and more. I don't think I can keep this up. With how things are going to progress, I doubt I even have time to breathe. 

"No," I shake my head and said in a gentle voice. 

"But the school isn't exactly happy how you two are getting along well." Cameron says, flipping pages, skimming through the book he was reading out of nowhere. 

"My relationship-"

"Fake," Joyce intervenes Jamie, resulting in Jamie giving her a glare. 

"The school seems to be okay with it." he boasts. 

"You're not the President. Don't try your luck, man." Gerald brutally says which made everyone laugh. 

I was too focused on hearing Michelle and Amelia's confessions, searching or probably hearing something that can give me a goddamn clue about what had happened here while we, the fake council, were gone. 

"Plus, the President is better than all of us in bed." Allie says and pops a soda can open. 

"Don't you have things to do?" I say in annoyance. 

"Are you telling us to do the digging now? We're barely even functional, President." Samantha whines. 

"What was the point of the training then?" they all looked at each other before Samantha sighs. 

"Let's go before the President eats our head off." Cameron says. 

"Work hard." 

I am exhausted. I am tired and I want to sleep but the situation is keeping me from resting peacefully. Even laying by Amelia's side isn't helping with her constantly looking around as if she was waiting for someone to jump in on us. It pissed me off and I blew it. 

I stand up and make my way towards the classroom. I had left my phone in there. Thankfully it gave me time to think. 

I found nothing in the confessions, which should be a violation since they're not telling everything but they have powerful backers as their parents. Crap. I massage my temple, preventing a headache to come in. 

I open the door and found Amelia looking down at the students on the ground. I creep behind her and look at her expression. She was absent-minded. Wandering off to the abyss, devoid of any resolution and reality. 

I grab my bag, and it made a shuffling sound, snapping Amelia back to reality. I didn't give her attention and just went straight to the door. I'm not a fan of beating around the bush unless it's a life and death situation. 

"Lyle?" 

"Yes?" 

I reach for the doorknob and twisted it, but not opening the door. I waited for her to say something that can actually bring me back to my right mindfulness. 

"Are you angry?" 

"Depends." 

I open the door and found a smirking annoying dog. I admit he has a face but his smirk made me want to puke. Does he think he's that handsome? 

Ugh. I probably shouldn't be facing someone when I'm angry. I go all ballistic whenever I have my anger issues come in. I didn't even know that Amelia can make me go upset, even mad. 

"Amelia, I've missed you. Did you miss me?" 

The man bumped my shoulder making my upper body shift to the side. I grit my teeth. I grab his arm and stopped him before getting close to Amelia. 

"Who the f**k are you?" I growled at the annoying man. He looks at me in disgust and hisses in return, yanking my grip. But my grip stayed. 

"That should be my line," he says and glares at my hand gripping his arm.

I hear Amelia sigh in the background but that wasn't enough to make me want to let go of this douche. 

"I thought you're coming back tomorrow?" Amelia makes her way towards us and grabs my hand, gently releasing my grip on this guy's arm. 

I calm my nerves down and let go of the bastard. Apparently, Amelia's touch still affects me even though I'm angry. She intertwines our hand together, not hiding it. The man glares at our intertwined hands before glaring at me in the eyes. I held my head up high. 

"So you're the great person who popped her cherry." I scoff. 

"Are you a boy?" he scrunches up his nose. 

"What the f**k did you say?" he growls.

"It was a question, stupid. Can't even answer a f*****g easy question. Tsk." he clicks his tongue. 

"f*****g trash." his insults were nothing to me. They were as empty as his head. 

"Who's this, Amelia?" my question made him laugh. 

"Oh, Amelia didn't tell you about me? She just didn't care whether to tell you or not." Amelia shakes her head. 

"Or maybe you're not worth mentioning? Widen your horizon, lover boy. Not everyone likes guys like you these days. Grow up." 

I made a tiny 'ooohhh' inside my head. All these sarcastic remarks and rhetoric were making my head explode with smart retorts. Judging by his angry facial expression, I could say that I won this little headbutt. 

"Lyle, let's go." she says and tries to push me to the door. I would've let her push me if the bastard didn't open his goddamn mouth. 

"You're the underdog of System? Goodness. No wonder Amelia likes you. She's so fed up of her quiet life that she searched for trouble herself." 

I tilt my head in provocation. 

"That's too much, Bry-" I grab Amelia's chin and kisses her in front of the bastard.

Amelia melts in to the kiss and closes her eyes while mine stayed open and happily watches as he stares at us. I bit Amelia's lower lip and entered her mouth with my tongue. Amelia moans silently. 

"Fuck." he says before turning around. I used that as a sign that the play was over. 

"You're just a good-for-nothing son. Without money, do you think you can survive?" he stops walking. 

"Watch me." 

I'll watch you and your fake ass power crumble. 

He left without another word. I look at Amelia and she was still blushing from the kiss. I sighed.

"Why didn't you just tell me?" 

"I wanted to solve it before you came or maybe in silent. I didn't want to add you as his enemy. You don't know what he's capable of, Lyle." I see the fear in her eyes as she explains. 

"Do you not trust me then?" 

"I do but it's still, ugh. I just don't want you getting hurt because of me." 

"Amelia, my sole purpose is to protect you." she places both of her hands on my cheeks and looks at me longingly. 

"I know, Lyle. I want to protect you too." 

As much as that was highly appreciated, she can't. 

"The reason why I can't call you mine is because of someone of higher status like your parents, not like him." 

"His parents are backing him up."

"And I have you and the council as mine." 

"I'm sorry."

"It's fine. But next time though, can you tell me head on? I don't like being in the shadows for a long time." she chuckles at me.

"Five hours is a long time?" 

"I'm even surprised that I lasted this long." she smiles at me. Her usual beautiful smile now resurfacing. 

Amelia and I went to the council. She thought that it was somewhere Bryce Duke can't harass us. I know that surname all too well. They're a bunch of people that can't get their mind around the concept of useful money. They're abusive, they're egotistical, they're power-hungry - overall, they're just trashy humans. 

Everyone pops their head and looked at us in shock. 

"What?"

"Happy pill?"

"Yeah."

"Agreed."

"You said it." 

I shake my head and rolled my eyes but with a small smile. They're right even if I do try deny it. Amelia smiles, faking that she didn't hear anything. 

"You can sit there." I point to my seat. It was the less crowded among other seats. 

"Okay," 

She sits there while I grab a few things on the mini-library we had inside the council. All the books needed for competitions, for theories and even for combat. They were all provided to us and aside from one-on-one training or as a troop, this was where we could find other useful things. 

On my way back to Amelia, I hear her ask a question. 

"What are you guys doing?" 

The others look at Amelia and then turned to me. They must be unsure if they could tell her or not. Shouldn't they already know? I told her our roles already, what's the point in hiding? Her father is the sole person of this all, obviously some truth would shed some light sooner or later. 

"You guys do the math." I tell them and went back to where I got my book. 

I hid behind the shelf and listened to their whispery conversation. 

"Should we tell her?" 

"Isn't that a violation?" 

"We might get deported, you know." 

"Her father is the head of everything, she probably already knows some stuff." 

"I'm still nervous though." 

"Oh, yeah, I remember the president telling her our roles in combat." 

"That should be an okay sign, don't you think?" 

"She trusts our judgement." 

"She's Amelia. She's smart." 

I could imagine Amelia just looking at them in confusion. 

"We're digging up some dirt on System."

"Can I help?" 

".."

".."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"She said what now?"

I make my entrance again, dragged a chair to Amelia's side and sat beside her with ease. I ignored the puzzled stares of my members.

"Pres, aren't you going to say anything?" Allie's hysteric voice rose.

"What's there to say?" 

"She.. she wants to help bring down System!" Gerald asks in a panic voice. 

"I don't know what's the problem supposed to be?" I arrange the papers in alphabetical order so that when I tend to this later, I won't have to search for the next case after opening one. 

"President, her father is the head of this all. That's not a problem?" I sigh. 

"Her father didn't even warn us when he knew Amelia was with us, when Amelia wants to be with us and when Amelia approached us on her own accord. Her father gave her the decision. Amelia is her own person, not living behind the shadows of her father. Her father trust her that much." 

I place down the papers on the table and looked at each and every one of them. 

"Even her father was the one who gave Amelia a glimpse of this sick system. Maybe Mr. Taylor wanted Amelia to correct him, or maybe find faults and finally give him the rest he deserves." I added. 

"Wow," Amelia breathes out, "is she always like this?" Amelia asks everyone. 

"Yeah. Today's just about information, scolding is not added." Cameron says. 

"I don't scold you guys that much, you know."

"You actually do. If we don't answer, you scold us." Jamie answers with a shrug/

"How was I supposed to know that you were listening to me? At least that when you answer and didn't really listen, you'll screw up and I will have the opportunity to punish you." Allie extends her hands as if she was telling Amelia, 'this is her'.

Amelia chuckles at us before completely laughing. Her melodic voice echoed through the room. My ears were given blessings at the moment. Her laugh is as beautiful as her. I thought she was like the others, ugly when they laugh but she's really beautiful. 

Her cheeks were tensed and she wasn't faking her laugh. Her pearly whites were on display and her reddish lips are curved upwards. I was enchanted at the moment. She looked so beautiful. She could own me without any unnecessary process, if she wants. 

"President is whipped." Joyce says teasingly, making me look away and clear my throat. I feel my cheeks heat up. 

They caught me.

"Did I miss anything?" Amelia asks, her musical laugh now gone. 

I felt my stomach erupt in butterflies. I lift myself up and the chair, I scoot closer to Amelia until we were touching lightly by the arm. She notices that and squished our arms together. I felt my stomach do a dance. It was uncontainable. I wanted to dance around and just chill next to her with cold hands and feet. 

"You didn't." I say quietly. 

"Ah, to be young." Allie says. 

"You're already graduating, right?" Samantha asks. 

"Yeah," Joyce says. 

I shuffle around the papers, listening in on their conversation. 

"There's something that I don't understand though." Cameron interjects.

"What is it?" Jamie asks. 

"I don't know who our predecessors are." 

"They won't allow the graduates to contact those that are still in System High." Kristine says.

"Why though?" Cameron asks. 

"I don't know." 

"System is hiding so much already from us. This one adds it to that list." Jamie sighs. 

"It could be possible that System is farce?" Allie says, her statement turning into a question. 

"Maybe there's something deeper." Cameron says. 

"That's enough. Go back to work." they all look at me and straightened up.

"Yes, President." they answered all at the same time. 

I look at the papers in my hand, absentmindedly. 

Perhaps there is something deeper going on.  

I felt a hand on my shoulder. I look at Amelia and she was smiling gently at me. I felt at ease the moment I saw her smile. I smile too and continued working. 

Amelia helped anyone who needed help with something, even as trivial as grabbing documents in the back of the office. I was guilty for making her work for the first time but her face made me not want to intervene. She looked like she was having fun. She was smiling all the time and as saddening as this sounds, we needed extra help. 

We're working on something illegal and we're working on something all at the same time. We were so focused that we forgot it was dinnertime. 

"Should we go eat out?" Samantha asks. 

"We should!" Allie says with a smile.

"It's been a while since I've eaten out." 

"Me too, buddy." Jamie says to Cameron and places his arm around Cameron's shoulder. Cameron sighs before slapping Jamie's arm away but Jamie was persistent and kept on placing his arm around Cameron's shoulder. 

"Let's eat out, as thanks to Amelia's help." Allie says. 

"Yeah, we'll treat you." Kristine says with a smile to Amelia. Amelia shakes her head. 

"It's okay. We won't poison you. Please," I say to Amelia, making her reconsider. 

"Thank you." 

"Alright! Let's go!" 

We walked to the restaurant that we can afford for Amelia to eat. We can't afford such high quality cuisine and we can settle even for scraps. I'm not confident that Amelia can do that though. She's used to high quality food and five star dishes that this can be considered falling short on that area. It was a minus point for me. 

"I've never been here before." Amelia looks around the restaurant. It made me sweaty. 

What if she'll puke and not want to come with me when we eat?

All these what ifs in my mind made me feel uneasy. My foot rocking up and down in anticipation. A reject would come instantly. 

"You don't like it?" Jamie asks. 

"No, it's not that. I've always wanted to come to places like these. I heard they are delicious." 

"What stopped you?" Kristine asks. 

We were circling around a big round table. Enough for all nine of us. We had already ordered and since Amelia doesn't know the menu, she wanted me to decide for her. If she hates the food I ordered, I swear I'll bury myself. 

"I didn't have anyone to come with." she shyly answers, tuck a hair behind her ear. 

What an angel. 

"What about the real Student Council President?" Gerald says. 

"She's too busy, really. I can't disturb her." 

"Club members?" I ask. I was always curious about what club she entered and how I don't see her anyone else other than fame sucking demons. 

"I'm not in any club though?" she whips her head to me, confused too. 

"You're not in any club? Why not?" Amelia whips her head to Allie.

"They don't really interest me." Joyce claps her hands one time and points at the table. 

"They're mediocre bitches. We're more on the cooler side." Cameron flicks Joyce's forehead before uttering a 'tsk'.

"You saying you're cool makes you more uncool than cool." Jamie says while shaking his head, making his dead flat hair sway. 

The waiter then arrives with some of food. He places them on the table with a friendly smile. Allie and Samantha then gives us our orders. I push the plate to Amelia's side. I gulped, nervous of what her reaction will be. 

Amelia's eyes twinkle at the food. She grabs a fork and pierces the pork. She slices it with a knife and puts it inside her mouth. The other members were as nervous as I am, judging by how they were eager for a reaction. 

"It's deliciou-"

"Ugh," 

I felt sticky all of a sudden and wet. It was juice and spaghetti. I look like a mess. I hear a laugh behind me. I remember that voice. 

The waiter grabbed a tissue and knelt beside me, repeating his apology while Amelia worries about me and the others charging to Bryce. I stand up and smiled to the waiter. 

"It's okay, don't worry." 

"I'm so sorry, Ma'am." he was on the verge of crying. 

I can safely assume that he tripped and it's that bastard's fault. 

I walk to where everyone was. I was surprised to see Bryce with a gang. 

"Are you okay?" Amelia asks as she follow me getting in front of the members. 

The restaurant suddenly feels like a battlefield and dead bodies laying on the dirty ground. Bryce got in front of the gang and smirks.

"This place stinks, the stinky food should go with the stinky trash." Bryce says, beaming with arrogance. 

I take my coat off and put my coat on one of the chair. The people around looked at us, staring. 

"Should we do this outside?" 

"Are you afraid? We're outnumbering you." I chuckle at his comment. 

"I'm afraid I might break a property that's not mine." 

"Lyle," Amelia grabs my hand. Bryce scoffs.

"Alright then. You're as poor as hell. God. I f*****g hate poor people." 

He marches outside along with his gang. 

"I want you to do something for me." I look at Amelia with a smile. 

"Wh-what is it?" 

"Can you make sure the owner doesn't scold the employee that tripped?" 

"But-"

"Please?" she looks at my eyes.

"Okay. I'll be back later."

"Thank you."

"Be safe," she says before letting go of my hand. 

"I will." 

Amelia hesitantly goes and looked back once before completely disappearing from my sight. 

"Yikes."

"Oh, snap."

"She's angry." 

"I feel sorry for that bastard."

"I don't want to anger President."

"She's scary as hell."

"We can't let the President fight." 

"I'll fight." 

We walk towards the exit, but as soon as we stepped outside, a baseball was thrown to my direction. I grab the ball before it hit me. It didn't even make me flinch one bit. What a puny throwing man. 

"You want your ball back?" I smile. 

"What?" 

"Deaf." I whispered before pitching him the ball hard with all my force. 

He didn't manage to catch it and it landed on his chest. He groans and was immediately on his knees.

"It's starting."

"I want to enjoy this." 

"The training," 

"Ah, this feels nice." 

"It's like we're on the streets again."

"I'm going rogue." 

In just a split second, the battle was already over.

"Damn, that was f*****g easy."

"I didn't even break a sweat." 

"Are these the gangsters?" 

"They've gone soft." 

"Or we're harder?" 

"Stop that." 

I walk to Bryce's position. He crawls away, fear on his face. I lift him up using his collars. I smile devilishly at him, grinning like a madman. 

"If you don't want me to kill you, please sign this." 

I grab my handkerchief from my hind pocket. 

"I, I, I don't have any pen!" he exclaims before shielding his face. 

"Oh, you don't." I look to my members. 

"Any pen?" 

"Nope," 

"None," 

"No, Sire."

"We got blood," I turn to Bryce and smile at him. I put him down on the ground.

"Use the blood then." 

"No, I, I, I can't-"

"You want to die?" he aggressively shakes his head no. 

"Then go sign this with his blood." 

He grabs the handkerchief from my hand and frantically dips his finger on the blood. He made a puking sound while signing the handkerchief. He stumbles towards me and gave me the handkerchief back. He was shaking so much that I wanted to bully him more. 

But that's too much. 

"Are you sure this is your signature?" 

"Yes, yes, that's mine. Please, spare me!"

"If I know that this isn't yours, or legit, I'll make you write it to me." I whisper, making him flinch.

"Yes! Yes, please! I won't bother you again!"

"Scram." 

He runs away immediately like Flash. 

"Wow. You didn't even do anything, Pres." 

"He messed with the wrong person." 

"Ah, he's such a sad man." 

"He just had to do that." 

"He's so f*****g weak. I want to laugh." 

"It wasn't even a real fight." 

Amelia runs towards us with an amazed stare.

"You guys good now?"