Checkmate - Chapter 20: Chapter 20

Althea walked down the halls towards the library after all her Monday duties. Silently cursing at herself when she checked her phone to find 52 missed calls and about 107 texts from Hana while Professor Oakley's letter was still unread, neatly tucked inside her coat's pocket. She still hasn't found the free time to read it.
Madeline and Heather noticed her parading and immediately accompanied her. A routine Althea essentially found solace to.
"Good morning Althea!" they both greeted. "How was your weekend?"
"Good morning, Madeline, Heather," she greeted back with a smile. "It was productive as it could be."
Before Althea could take a further step, she heard someone whistle from a distance. She spotted Samantha and her companions sprawled upon the grassy floor of the courtyard: Hildegard doing experiments with her AI robot, Natalya sharing her sweets to random passersby, and Samantha dancing around, holding a flag baton as she twirled it around.
"Look at those students, horribly advertising their confectionaries. They are disrupting the community." Madeline expressed disgust at the sight of them. "I wonder what prompted them to decide to do that here."
However, Althea gave no attention to her friend's ramblings. She never knew that she'd found the mischief trio by the courtyard of their department rather their respective ones. She wasn't prepared to see Hana's friends on the campus grounds and certainly don't know how to casually act with them even though she wanted to show everyone that she is genuinely interested in the Japanese girl. She knew she persuaded herself to explain herself to Hana's friends and at this moment, the chance was given to her, a lump of air got stuck in her throat.
"It's them," Althea murmured.
"What?" Madeline asked.
"It's them," Althea said louder and clearer this time, gathering valor. "I need to have a word with them."
"Althea," Heather snickered. "Are you going to tell them off?"
"No, I am acquainted with them."
"EHHHH?" the girls gave a collective gasp.
"Miss O'Reilly!" Althea called and failed to remember the surnames of the Superwoman and the German girl.
Heads whipped up towards the caller. Samantha, Natalya, and Hildegard were unperturbed with her while the other students in the vicinity had their eyes bulging out at the sight of Althea Lancaster calling people casually.
Even Madeline's and Heather's eyes widened slightly, sculpted brows shooting up for just a second before they must have realized they looked like a deer in headlights. It took them a moment to wipe the expression clean, replacing it with smiles.
Althea didn't ever approach anyone just to greet them. Matter of fact, Althea never approached anyone, period. People were always coming up to her with greetings and salutations, presents, and gossip.
Somewhere along the line, something changed. And while it momentarily confused her, she decided some changes simply needed to be made.
To her surprise, the excitement pulsing through her doesn't last long.
"Hey!" Samantha hit the end of the pole to the ground. "I haven't seen you since yesterday!"
"Thea? Yesterday?" Madeline echoed. She confronted Althea who looked at her warily. "Did you ditch us to hang out with them?"
"I didn't—" Althea decided to tread on her words carefully. "—ditch you, it's a long story, I was looking for a chance to tell you," Althea said.
"Join us!" Natalya offered. "Your skinny friends are welcome!"
"Excuse me?" Madeline said, offended.
"How dare you call us skinny?" Heather added.
Natalya walked over to them with a tray of pastries. "Would you like some?"
"Those are full of calories!" Madeline crossed her arms. "Do you want us to get fat?"
"They are actually organic and sugar-free sweets!" Natalya said. "These are leftovers from my Final exam so I'm sharing it with everyone."
"Oh!" Heather's eyes roamed over the sweet-smelling cakes and chose one strawberry shortcake that was provided with a plate and fork and took a piece to chew on. "In that case, they look lovely!"
"What?" Madeline couldn't believe that was happening.
"Come, have some!" Natalya shoved a forkful of Belgian chocolate cake to Madeline's mouth.
Samantha laughed loudly at the sight. Althea searched Hildegard's eyes for a simple explanation but it seemed the German girl also had no clue when she shrugged. Althea was prompted to believe that seeing her two bratty friends had their mouths full of cake slices was amusing to the American to no end.
"Umm, Miss O'Reilly..." Althea began.
"Oh come on, Thea. Give me a nickname. You don't have to be formal all the damn time."
"Then I will take your suggestion. I shall call you Sammy."
This resulted in the American cackling out loud, holding onto her stomach. Althea feared that the redhead would lose air any moment. Something worse happened, Samantha fell on the ground as she continued to laugh and hit the floor from her outbursts.
A wave of embarrassment flooded through Althea at the prospect of every passerby's attention at their uncanny group. They weren't violating school rules but they weren't just used to seeing the prim and proper Althea Lancaster next to Samantha O'Reilly. She wondered what more these people would think if they knew about Hanako Yoshida.
She decided to look back to Hildegard to try to read her to see if she shares Althea's sentiments. Hildegard merely twirled a finger on the side of her forehead, indicating that Samantha's gone crazy.
Althea sighed at that.
So when Samantha's laughter died down, she cleared her throat. "So, as I was saying, I never had the chance to ask as seemingly that we were interrupted."
Samantha's eyes widened at the recognition of this topic. "What's this? Are you being chummy with me, Princess?"
"What's Hana like?" Althea asked in a soft voice, she wouldn't want Madeline and Heather yelling at her ears when they heard her, "as a friend for you?"
Samantha gave her a knowing smile. "Ah, she was just such fun to be around! The place could get really boring and tedious without our combined antics or banter. Listen if you want to talk about that stunt you pulled yesterday, you don't have to explain to us. You have to head straight to Hana, she's the stupid one."
"I would prefer if you stop calling her that."
"What?" Samantha egged on. "She is stupid. But I'm super glad you like her that way, finally, someone is attracted to her. I don't understand why you like her though. Maybe because you two are opposites and opposites attract?"
Althea hasn't presented the opportunity to answer when a familiar voice sent electricity down her spine.
"Althea! Hey Althea!"
"Who's that calling?" Heather asked.
"Blimey, it's that Japanese girl again." Madeline narrowed her eyes at the upcoming brunette.
Althea's face heated up at Hana's voice. But still, she couldn't gather the courage to talk to her about the kiss yet. Although it was just on the cheeks, it was still a bold declaration.
"Wait," she hissed at Samantha. "She's here? You didn't tell me she will be."
"Well yes?" Samantha's eyebrow rose to her hairline. "We are a squad after all."
Althea huffed then mustered up her bearings to walk away.
"Walking away from her won't help you, Thea!" Samantha yelled at her.
"Althea, wait!" Hana continued calling after her.
Hana's sweet bubbly voice made it harder for Althea to ignore her. She was afraid that if she stared at Hana's eyes, she would melt.
As much as she wanted to turn around and face Hana, she has an image to uphold at school. She was Althea Lancaster in this school: the best student, the student council president, the model student. An act of PDA would surely be frowned upon, no matter what her sexuality is.
Yesterday, when she was with Hana in the garden, she was just Althea. She could unshed her responsibilities and act freely, but in the present, they are in their old environment. It's not that easy to adapt.
Hana's influence changed her, changed her so much that Althea doesn't know if she still liked it.
"She seems to be in a hurry Hana, she might be busy." She heard a meek voice telling Hana, probably her doting professor. "You can talk to her another time."
"Professor Andrea's right, Hana," Fallon added.
"More like never," came Liezel's retort. "I told you she won't bother being seen with you in public."
Guilt gnawed at Althea's conscience. Then anger overcame the guilt. But she never stopped walking away. Madeline's and Heather's pleas for her to slow down and let them catch up were completely disregarded.
She tried her best not to look at Hana, yet she knew the Japanese girl was emotionally distraught when she snubbed her. Althea wasn't able to fight off her resolve so she glanced back and met Hana's red eyes which she managed to capture in her painting.
Just as she feared, pure passion overwhelmed her, frighteningly trying to control her. In a wisp of breath, she could walk towards Hana in a heartbeat. Like what drew them closer each time they were alone.
"I'm sorry, Hana." She whispered then ran off.
Ever since yesterday, her communication with Althea wavered a little. She continued to ignore what Liezel told her that Althea was deliberately ignoring her.
At this moment, when Hana saw Althea personally on the school grounds, she immediately shouted her name. She wasn't fond of the idea that the possibility of Althea ignoring her could happen.
But as Hana watched Althea leave, her friends struggling to keep up with her, really meant that she doesn't want to face her at all.
"What was that about?" Hana asked, searching for answers as she looked at her friends.
"I don't know." Samantha shrugged with Natalya and Hildegard.
"She's just being herself," Liezel said, being the devil's advocate. "I bet she hates you now, considering she barely acknowledged your existence."
Hana's jaw dropped to the floor. Disbelieving what Liezel said, but it was proven that Liezel's intuitions are spot on. Maybe it was true. Althea hates her.
Still, Hana wanted to be friends with Althea on any kind of level—or was it because Hana was too much of a pariah for Althea to ever be seen within the public. It was so silly, and Hana didn't even know why she cared.
Okay, so that was a lie.
She did know why she cared. A part of her wanted to have a place in Althea's world. Tear down the entire self-righteous, narcissistic and superficial mask that the blonde donned every day she wakes up and caged the true self that for a long time.
"Maybe she's upset about yesterday, Hana." Fallon offered a reason.
"Why would she be?" Hana asked, a little louder than she should. "She's the one who kissed me!"
"Well," Fallon pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. "You should try to understand her side. She might be embarrassed too. She'll come to you when she's prepared."
Hana was so lost she decided to regard Fallon's suggestion. She knew she could be insensitive sometimes—always failing to read the signs and signals. She was no mind reader but the fact that she cared about Althea so much, she couldn't help but wonder that the thing that separates them was their social status.
No wonder Hana stuck to her friends who were outcasts like her. But, Althea was different. Surely, Hana knew there was more to Althea than the role she played for the masses.
Althea had depth, something Hana would've never even considered before Althea pulled her on a walk to search for inspiration and she found out a little something about Althea's childhood.
"She's being difficult!" Hana said, frustrated. "If that's what she wants, I'm going to have to chase her." She sauntered away at a hasty speed.
"WHAT HANA?" Fallon asked frantically, Samanth and the rest kept cheering and hollering.
"I AM GOING TO TALK TO HER!" Hana replied, running the halls as if she's on an Olympic race.
"Hana's brave." Professor Andrea said, causing the rest of Hana's friends to gape at her. "Uhh, I mean. Hana's brave enough to actually communicate with Miss Lancaster. I admire that she has too little hesitation in her fiber."
Samantha scoffed. "You speaking from experience, Teach?"
Andrea's mind wandered to a particular lilac-haired Italian woman. "Yes, yes I am."