Chapter 2

                                    

                                          


                          


                          
So, yeah. Normally, paperwork doesn't take that long but there were many phone calls and interruptions in various ways. Mr Smith obviously knew that we wouldn't get done very quickly, hence being called in at half seven. I yawned again, chuckling just after. It took a second to realise that the headmaster in front of me had also laughed. "Sorry about calling you in. I guessed that this would happen. You're in year 10 which means..." He trailed off as he scrolled on his laptop. I was in year 10, one of the worst years to start in. Especially half way through the year. This was the first year of working on our exams and by this point everyone knew kind of what they're doing already. Mr Smith found what he was looking for a placed a finger on his screen. "You'll be in 10A which is Mr Rivaille's tutor." I nodded to show that I understood. He smiled and picked up his phone. He dialled a few numbers in, placed the receiver to his ear and waited. "Ah. Mr Rivaille. Can you send Mr Jaeger to come fetch a new student please?" Pause. "Yeah. She's here currently." Pause. "Yeah. Hanji came in earlier. Forgot to use the door handle again. If she's really driving you nuts, you can tell her that I need to see her. I can work something out if you need. Just message me beforehand so I'm prepared." He laughed. Pause. "Ok. Thank you. See you at lunch I presume." Pause. He hung up the phone and smiled directly at me. "Mr Jaeger will be here in just a moment. He's Mr Rivaille's TA." He stood from his desk and patted on me head. "I just need to check on a couple of classes. Stay in here and Mr Jaeger will be here soon." Without checking to make sure that I got it, he left, closing the door behind him. He walked away. I placed my bag on my knees so that it was resting against the desk in front of me. I looked around the office. There were very few pictures of anyone, in fact, for a headmaster's office, there was very little anything. There wasn't many papers or books or stuff. I lent my head on my bag and buried my face in its fabric. I shivered. I hated starting new schools. I pulled my bag closer towards me. It was almost comforting. Almost. It wasn't quite enough for me to feel ok about being at a new school, sat alone in the head's office. I rocked back and forth very slightly. I looked away from the black of my bag. The more black, the more upset I got. I saw a young man standing at the door. He had messy, brown hair and looked not much older than some of the students here. He was smiling softly as he looked at me. He came up to my side and placed a hand on my shoulder.
                          
"Hi. I'm Mr Jaeger. I'm assuming that you're Lillie Jems, yes?" He said. His voice was as soft as the look he was giving me. I nodded. "Well. Welcome to Titan High. Come on. We still have some time left of tutor time. I'll take you to the class." I nodded again. I didn't trust myself. I needed to keep myself alive. I promised the squad when they died, all those years ago. He opened the door for me. "We need to go outside. Mr Rivaille's room is in one of the other blocks." I followed him through the corridors and across the grounds. The school looked slightly better from within it. Many of the classrooms were now full and many were very noisy. We went into another building. I couldn't believe how many posters were everywhere. There were ones about French and Spanish and Italian and English and German and sign language. It was ridiculous. "Here we are." Mr Jaeger placed his hand on the door handle. The class in here were obviously having a lot of fun. I shrunk away from it. I didn't really want to go in, especially in the middle of an activity or something. "Don't worry. None of them are really doing anything. They're all just talking with each other." I nodded, unsure whether that was actually a good thing. He opened the door. None of the noise stopped. I walked behind him. The man behind the desk was short. That was one of the first thing that I noticed about him. He was short and had a black undercut. But, it was when I looked at him, did I recognise who he was. Levi Rivaille. I looked away from him. He was here. I knew I the name rang a bell, that it jogged a memory. The two teachers spoke for a moment.
                          
"Lillie? Do you want to take a seat somewhere?" I shook my head vigorously. I did not want to be near any other people. Levi chuckled. "No? Well, maybe you can sit up here and let us get to know you better. We already know most of the students here." I shook my head. I didn't want to talk either. This was Levi. The man I trusted most but I still didn't want to talk to him or show him who I really was. "Ok. Come and sit here. Find something to do." He pulled a chair up to his desk and indicated for me to sit on it. I nodded a thanks and sat down before burying my head in a notebook.
                          
"Poetry, huh?" I looked up from my writing. Mr Jaeger was looking over my shoulder. I nodded. "It's good. I don't suppose you write love poetry do you?" Love poetry? Of course I did. Most poets did. I nodded and opened it up to a page with my favourite on. He read it over. Once. Twice. Three times before nodding. "This sounds really weird but I really like this. Can you teach me to write like that please? I want someone to realise just how much I love him." I smiled. It had been ages since I had last had praise on my writing abilities.
                          
"Yeah. Sure. Why not?"
                          
"You have a very pretty voice by the way." I smiled again. I was beginning to thing that maybe this wasn't going to be so bad after all. "Do you want to start at lunch? You can come and eat in here if you want. It's been ages since anyone did that. Everyone is so scared of Mr Rivaille that they don't want to come into his classroom." He laughed and Levi looked over to him, which caused him to laugh even more.
                          
"Yeah. That sounds great." The bell went, signalling the end of the lesson. "See you then, sir." I waved as I left the classroom. First lesson, it was going to be good.