Wrong Arrow

16

Wrong Arrow 16

Two days later

It was a sunny day outside on earth. But there are also signs of rain- cloud skies and an almost peaceful area. There’s a bunch of breezes that’s shaft pass peoiples noses’ and it smell amazing. It was probably that time of season. As of this moment, headquarters was swarming with cupids. Although their presence isn’t needed, the three keepers find the moves joining the meeting as well.

Today, he was gonna be late than normal. Ristle had asked for his help in the office. Apparently, they were out of hands and it just so happened that Zach was still around. The latter couldn’t say no since the one asking for a favor was like his senior- if you were to phrase it in human form. Ristle had brought Zach to the office were numerous boxes basically covered a portion of the room. You could barely see the floor. And the office itself was vast like the ocean. “If you don’t mind me asking..” Zach trails off, trying not to step and potentially ruin a box and whatever was inside. “-where are the others?” Ristle scratches his hair and stares at the mess. Like he doesn’t even know where to start. “They’re busy in the other room. We played a game and I apparently lost so yeah, cursed to work on my own. But then I saw you so yeah. Curse listen.” Ristle walks a little bit further. “ The investigation team had these delivered just a while ago. And if im being completely honest, I didn’t think we’d have this many. You cupids sure have a lot of work cut out for ya. You can start taking them out from the boxes.” Zach assumes there’s a bunch of folders and files inside. New prospect in need of their help. The covers were in the shades of purple, pink and red- not a sight of purple could be seen. Ristle had told him to just place them on the floor. He’s decided the floor to twenty six piles, from A to Z. What Zach needs to do is place the names that start with the letter A’s in the right spot and the names that start with B should go over there, C is over there and so on. After what felt like forever, they had managed to finished sorting the files. Ristle stands up and stretches, allowing his dark wings to be free. If Colby was a white owl, Ristle was a black falcon. “Thanks for the help. I’ll just finish these up later. You can go.” He dismisses him. “There’s still more?” Ristle lets out a hum as he walks to where their massive desk stood. He fumbles with the cabinets. “Yup. I still have to place them in the shelves alphabetically.” Zach leans his head to the side, the silver chains on his ears dangle with the motion. “Alone?” The falcon shakes his head. “Not really. I have the guys helping out. Why? Wanna lend a hand again? We could use all the help we can get.” Zach blinks his eyes, waiting for him to say he was joking. When he doesn’t he regrets even staying a little longer. She should have just left when he was dismissed. He glides his hand up his neck and rubs the back of his head. “Um. Yeah sure. I should get going now.” He walks out of the office and checks the time. Pearl should be on her way to school by now. Just as he’s about to enter the portal room, he comes across a familiar face. It was a fellow cupid named Mark. The only reason why this particular person was stuck in his memory was because he had a weird shade of hair color. It was a vibrant red. More like crimson. Red heads exist but this guy, his hair was different. The real color red was his hair. The guy’s only been around for a week and it was if his entire goal was to befriend everyone. Which would be impossible. “You’re leaving for work late today?” He utters causing Zach to take a step back. He was blocking the entrance to the portal room. “Had to finish up a task back there.” He answers him. A certain smile contours the cupids face. But it wasn’t the safe kind. Mark nods his head, smiling brightly. “Ah okay. Anyway, good luck with today.” He pats Zach on the shoulder before walking away. An eerie aura seems to circle that guy, this Zach had noticed. Although he he seems friendly on the outside, there’s just something about him that screams danger. It’s still too early to come up with a confusion however. It all could be in his head. But you can never be too sure. So in the mean time, he’ll just keep his guard up whenever he’s around. He enter the portal and soon enough, he finds himself inside Pearl’s classroom. But the thing is, she isn’t anywhere to be found. On his way out to check if she was in the restroom, he comes across Harper. “Have you seen Pearl?” Harper shakes his head. “I don’t think she’s at school yet.” His eyes slightly widens and next thing you know, he’s rushing out the school building and into the direction of her house. He should be able to make it in time and still give her thirty minutes to prepare. It doesn’t take long before he arrives at her place. He walks through the door and finds her in the living room. And she ’s all fast asleep. Had he known she was here, he would have teleported himself to house instead. But he didn’t know. He circles the couch and sees her still fast asleep. He grabs the nearest object he can reach- which happened to be an empty water bottle. He drops it to the ground but it doesn’t even make her flinch. Any signs of waking up is thrown out the window. He debates whether to let her just miss school or not. Maybe it’s not such a bad idea to let her miss school. He thinks to himself. Only to shake the thought off. Why would he let her miss knowing he could do something. “Even if the subjects are boring and you wanna rip some teacher’s head’s off, it’s still important.” He mumbles to himself as he hesitantly gets closer to the human. He reaches for a pen that sat peacefully on the ground. He was now leveled to her face. The shadows of her lashes appeared so visible from the proximity. He brings the pen up and stares at it, debating whether he should do it or not. The longer he stalls, the more time theyre losing. “Oh what the heck. It’s not like you’re gonna confront me anyway.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

So he had to wake her up one way or another without making it seem like he had woken her up. And maybe it wasn’t the best idea he had come up with. But what matters is that it worked.

Zach waited down the living room for Pearl to finish dressing up.

He had to think of a way to wake her up and that appeared in his mind without a second though.

She still has time though, which is a good thing.

After a moment, said person descends down the stairs with a phone planted against her ear. “Yeah, yeah. I’m on my way already…. No I didn’t oversleep…I’m in the bus as we speak.”

Bus? Where’s the bus? Zach scoffs with zero amusement. He knows she means well but come on, lying to her friend? Now that wasn’t cool even in the slightest.

So what happened was Pearl had overslept and if it wasn’t for Zach coming in and finding ways to wake her up, she would have completely missed school.

Zach follows the girl outside the door and into the street.

The chilly breeze seems to have a sugary scent of cherry trees. Oh right. It’s the blooming season.

Zach kicks a rock away from the road as she takes the lead.

Pearl hangs her phone up just as she stops underneath a bus stop stand. As if on cue, a bus comes in and Zach follows her inside, grumbling words under his breath

. Twenty minutes later and Pearl finally reaches the classroom. Vaeri sees her first but that smile on her face drops almost install. As pearl gets closer, Vaeri’s eyes get squintier. “What happened to your face?” She asks her, leaning in. Using her finger, she pokes a specific spot, right between her eyebrows. Pearl looks at her confused.

“What do you mean?” Zach enters the classroom and Harper waves at him. “You have a red something here. Did someone flick you?” Vaeri informs her, causing the girl’s face to scrunch in confusion even more.

“It doesn’t look a bite though. It’s uh a little and taller.”

Vaeri presses a palm over her forehead and ponders about it. “Flick?” She says. Not that she doesn’t remember’ a lot of things can happen when you’re asleep anyways. Dream sometimes look so vivid and other don’t.

“I don’t think so. Maybe it’s a mosquito bite?” A vague memory of this morning comes to view. Would a misquote but create a a square looking shape? Of course not.

Her memory from this morning aren’t clear at all. She was also half asleep at that time. And it’s hard to remember things when you’re sleepy. “That doesn’t look like a mosquito bit though. It’s not round.” Vaeri shakes her head, looking at it closely before backing off. Harper glances at Zach, giving him a knowing look. “You did that didn’t you?” Zach sniffs as he tucks his hands inside his pockets. “You would have done the same.” Is his defense. Why was he trying to defend himself though? It doesn’t make sense. “No I wouldnt.” Harper answers him with a casual shake of his head. Zach pokes the side of his cheek. “You’re right. Anyway, I didn’t want her to miss School so I had to do what I did.” Harper tries to understand this point of view, but then adds a thought. “You couldn’t have thought of another way? You made contac-“ He gets cut off rather quickly. “I didn’t make any contact with her.” He says that a little bit too loudly, causing Harper to look at him strangely. “I mean. I used a pen. Like that to um.. slap her forehead?” Harper blinks his eyes and looks away, nodding a little. “Oh okay. My bad. I just thought… you know. Never mind. I got to go. Keep an eye on Vaeri for me?” He says as he walks away. “Do I have to?” Zach says with a little whine to his tone. “I mean yeah. Remember all those times you asked me to watch over yours?” Laughters that comes from the girls causes them to look ate their direction for the slightest moment. “I believe I’ve only asked you to do it twice. You on the other hand..” He trails off causing Harper to roll his eyes. “Just do a friend a favor without complaining will ya. Anyway im out. I’ll be back after checking if he’ll pass the same road later after school.” He’s referring to Vaeri’s pair. And just like that, Harper exits the classroom.