Jack Smith's Story

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▌ T E S S__O ' C A L L A G H A N

It had been seven days since the funeral. Fourteen days since the incident. Another page ripped from the tear-away calendar indicated this.

Despite the fact that he lived on school property, Tess had neglected to attend classes for the duration of that entire fortnight period. The school weren't as persistent as they should've been, with his loss having a major affect on his concentration and overall health. They were content to just leave him to it, until Sunday morning, when a notice was posted through his door. It stated that if he didn't attend his classes soon, he risked lowering his attendance below the requirements for free accommodation. Tess - in his current state - would've given anything not to have to move back in with his family, who held little love for himself or his brother. Most of them had refused to attend the funeral, others probably weren't even aware of what happened. The thought in itself made him sick, whenever his mind wandered to such things.

As he pulled the tie tighter around his neck, Tess gave an exasperated sigh, almost as if he would have given anything in that moment to just... deflate. His eyes, hollow as they were, settled on the pair staring back at them, before shifting downwards to allow him to check his uniform. It was perfectly dishevelled, as per usual, and strangely comforting. It was almost like a sense of familiarity had washed over him, and - despite everything - he found himself smiling. It faded as quickly as it had appeared, and soon enough he was walking towards the door.

He hadn't bothered to tell anyone that he'd be returning that day. In fact, it would be the first time he'd seen anybody since the day he found out. He had instinctively shut himself away in his apartment, and over the course of two weeks, he'd refused any and all visitors. Part of him was looking forward to seeing everyone again, namely his two closest friends, but another decidedly overwhelming part was worried half to death that he'd lost the respect of his clique. He was their leader, yet he had opted to abandon them in their time of loss. It had affected him the most, there was no doubt about it, but Theo was close to everyone, and everyone had lost him. As Tess thought about this, he began absentmindedly cracking his knuckles, his eyes focused more on the path ahead. He was not the only one leaving the accommodations so early, and he'd prefer not to bump into anyone and everyone ahead of him.

The building for housing was directly beside the school, so much so that you could see in people's bedrooms from the classrooms, but there was a long path up from the gate to the doors, and so it took him a fair few minutes to make it all the way there. He stalled for a moment outside of the building, silently debating whether to wait there for one of his own or to head straight to the second floor, where his classroom was. He opted for the latter, considering he didn't trust himself not to lunge at the nearest clique leader, of which there were few. So he continued walking, keeping his head down. A few of his own Outcasts had approached him, but Tess kept the conversation brief and - strangely enough - polite, before moving on. It took him a total of twenty minutes to reach the classroom door, where he was the first to have arrived.

Running his hand through his hair, Tess gave a huff and leaned against the opposite wall.

Night has quickly passed away as dawn fast approaches. Like any other days, today is a really nice and beautiful day in England. The sun was shining, the bird was chirping innocently, the flowers are blooming all over the garden. It has been a fortnight since that shocking incident happened. Some has already forgotten and just get on with their lives, telling themselves that what's happened isn't of their business and that they shouldn't dwell into, but some don't and they're still holding a grudge even til now. Well, for Johnny, he was pretty much in the first group, which was not very surprising.

After rising from his sleep since 30 minutes ago, he's spent the whole half an hour inside his spacious bathroom cleaning every pinch of dust off himself while fixing up his appearance. It took Johnny only 15 minutes to do so but what do you know, his own reflection was captivating enough to held him in front of the mirror for the remaining 15 minutes. Even I would fall for myself if I were someone else... He thought to himself while doing all sorts of poses before finally getting his feet out of the bathroom. And pretty much everyday was the same so there's nothing very surprising though.

Johnny grabbed his schoolbag before headed downstairs to the big dining room, where his beautiful older sister, Azumi, was having her usual morning cup of espresso while reading a magazine with her picture in the front page. His father would have already gone for works by now so they usually didn't meet him in the morning at this time. But it was a little weird that his younger sister, Karen, hasn't turned up. She usually the one to get up the earliest.

"Good morning, Azumi-neesan." Johnny greeted his sister before sitting himself down at the chair on the opposite of Azumi. Seeing that, the butler quickly ordered a maid to bring breakfast for him.

"Morning, Mura-kun." Azumi greeted back while still focusing in the magazine.

"Karen hasn't woken up yet?" He asked.

"No, she went to school earlier, said she has something to do with her friends." The young woman answered calmly, exerting an elegant aura.

"I see." Johnny nodded as the meal then was served in front of him. He began to eat away his food. The two siblings didn't exchange much words with each other, as it's still in the morning and nobody wanted to talk too much, would they?

"Say, I suppose you know the guy named Jack Smith, don't you?" Azumi asked her brother as he looked up from his dish to his sister.

"Yeah, he was someone I'm supposed to acknowledge as 'leader' at school. A really hot gal, and a rather famous model. But he's cocky as hell." Johnny said with a shrug, "But what's of him?"

"Nothing much, I'm going to have a photoshoot with him tonight and you can say that I'm rather curious of my working partner. Since this is my first time working with him after all." She said while taking a sip from her cup, "So, you were saying that he was one of those popular kid in your school, huh? Does he has a habit of flirting around like you too?" Azumi teased lightly.

"D-Don't tease me, neesan." Johnny's face reddened a bit then finished up his breakfast, "Well, he's pretty much putting up himself as a gallant gal but in fact he detest almost anything I could think of, I guess."

"I see. What an interesting boy." Azumi chuckled.

"It's been a while since I last saw you really interested in someone." Johnny shrugged as he stood up from the table, "I'm going to school. Nice day, neesan." He said before making his way to the garage and took his bike out to the gate and rode to Moreton. Seeing him like this one could never have thought he's from a prestigious family, but he just preferred it that way.

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Moreton School | 8:00 AM

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As soon as he put his bike in the parking lot and making his way through the entrance, some girls were already standing there, calling out to him. Feeling himself a bit too much, Johnny brushed his hand through his hair and do a flip, which caused all them to fangirling even harder. He then walked over to a girl, holding her chin with his hand. He looked into her eye with a rather princely look. And that is enough to make her face as red as a tomato right now.

"You were really beautiful today, sweetheart, just like the shining light of the dawn ~" Johnny said in a very flirtatious way. The girl was shaking while looking as if she's just flew to cloud nine. Letting her girl go, Johnny waved to them one last time as they called his name again, before hastily made his way to his classroom, his face visibly reddened from what he's just done. If he continued like that then one could only guess how flustered he could get.

Finally able to sit himself down at his chair, Johnny let out a sigh of relief. While waiting for the classes to begin, he took out his sketch and began to paint a drawing he hasn't finished yet.

"Me? I do it because I want them to believe in me. I want to be relied on."

A pale hand was clenched into a tight fist, resting on a button up shirt against a smooth chest. The stance was a powerful one, the words equally powerful to match. A pale face was set in stone, a determined look was conveyed through fiery red eyes. Within a moment, all emotion drained from his features. His arm went limp and the fire red eyes smoked out into a dull crimson that portray nothing. Alistair shifted the headphones that rested on his pristine and slightly wet, jet black hair. Having been fresh from a shower, he had immediately opened up his computer and programs for a recording session that had been planned for that morning. Picking up a bottle of water to sip at, he listened to his recording session partner let out a squeal of appreciation.

"Oh my, Alistair, that was as perfect as ever! Harashi is going to be such a splendid character with your voice. The fans are going to be pleased."

"Next line, please." He briskly shoved aside the compliment, an audible sigh coming from his headphones.


After another hour running lines, Alistair clicked out of his Skype call and began to get ready for school. He pulled on his jacket, buttoning it up with proper care. His sister was on a train to Inaba for a movie shoot and wasn't going to be back for some time. For the time being, the house was in his charge. It wasn't all that strange as it was something he had been doing since he was twelve or so. Fixing to set out with nothing more for breakfast than the piece of toast hanging from his lips, he opened the door to his apartment and locked it behind him. He walked down the steps as he nibbled at his toast.
It had gotten to be about seven thirty and he was well on his way to be halfway to school and finished with his toast. His fingers brushed his neck gently in idle thought, fuzzy memories floating about in his mind.

"Arabella's game is after school." He spoke aloud to distract himself from thinking on his past. He closed his eyes, his mind instead wandering to the recent past and the account of supposed 'murder' of some student. It didn't concern him much, though many suspected him as the leader of a clique to be responsible. He let out a long sigh. "I didn't ask for any of this trouble...." He mumbled, almost done with the two hour foot trek to school. Something he does to build endurance for his weak physique.

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"I-I'm so sorry Mr. Smith, I-"

"You're still talking to me." He spoke with a soft look on his face, his voice soft and mellow. His words were cutting and cold, causing his parent's secretary to become silent. The bandage that adorned his left arms now had a budding red color emerging from the pristine white. The secretary had bumped into his fresh wound turning down a hall suddenly. He had broken his arm the day before falling out of a tree in a successful attempt to rescue and positioned a nest on the verge of falling from a loose and rotting limb onto a better one. The rotting one snapped under his weight, causing him to fall and break his arm.

It was nothing new, an incident like this was bound to happen at least once a month. He had even just recently busted his lip on a fire escape, though no sign of that horror remained on his flawless face.

He sent the woman off, going into his own private bathroom to redress his wound, something he had done a hundred times over. With out much warning, his mother had walked into his bathroom, subsequently slapping him across his face.

This, too, was not all that bizarre. His mother had learned of this injury on here way home from a shoot, only just having come back now.

"How could you mare your beautiful body the day before a very important shoot!" She began her wild rant, seeming wounded and crying on about how her ungrateful son was dead set on humiliating her. The young man watched her continue on, a pleasant look on his face the whole time despite the awful sting in his cheek.

"Mother, the shoot is strictly a profile shot on my part. I can simply hide my arm in that sense." He calmly reassured her, hoping to get her to leave.


Sitting at his desk, he quietly tapped at the clean bandage on his arm. The class was almost full and bustling with useless chatter. The only one whom was reasonable quiet was the leader of one of the more useless cliques, Tess if he remembered right. Not like it mattered, the boy was trash who could hardly hold up a candle to Jack. Though he knew the reason for his silence, the apparent murder of his younger brother was still hot news. "Only trash could mourn trash..." He spoke under his breath, resting his chin in his hand as he looked to the front of the class.