Checkmate - Chapter 31: Chapter 31

"She's exactly like her idol!" Professor Tosca exploded.
Not a moment after they reached their vicinity, Professor Tosca's fuse was still ongoing. Hana was not sure if Professor Tosca has a loose tongue or she wanted Hana and everyone to hear the pains and repressed emotions that delved inside the pits of her heart.
Jolted and troubled, Althea looked with frightened eyes at a woman she hardly recognized as her mentor. Hana cringed as Althea shielded her from harm's way.
Professor Tosca glared at the French woman and shouted in a loathe-filled voice. "Like Andromeda, this second-rate artist could not carry the burden of criticism herself. Andromeda left because she could not handle a little backlash on her works. She wasn't a fighter! Why do artists like me—and Althea—who kept standing our grounds, trying so hard, despite the ugly words and attacks towards us, lose to those who are fun-driven?"
Tired and saddened and angry at the prospect, but resolute all the same, Hana found herself absorbing and understanding this raw and unnerving emotion. All the while, instead of responding, Professor Oakley looked at her with a weird combination of dislike, pity, sympathy, and something else that Hana, for the life of her, could not identify. Still, she chose to be silent, without any words to add more fuel to the fire, in some way her body language was giving Professor Tosca the impression that she was a lowly scum not worth her time.
Somehow, Hana wanted to leave before this gets worst. There was an uncanny sensation settling in her stomach screaming that she will not be equipped to swim across oceans in a few minutes.
With her hands intertwined with Althea, she pulled her away slightly. Eyes glancing at the exit, but it seemed Althea stood her ground, proving to be something she's not. Hana admired her for that but she knew Hana herself was not ready for this.
"You!" The Italian woman stared at the old woman. "Why do you look at me with such piteous eyes?"
The most infuriating thing, Hana thought in the perspective of the woman filled with hate, was that Professor Oakley seldom responded to her efforts or her vents. She just ignored the younger woman, the small crease between her eyebrows the only tell of any annoyance on her part.
"I know you're angry at me, Tosca!" Hana's mentor yelled. "Do not take your frustration out on the girls!"
Althea's mentor glared down at Professor Andrea's small, defiant, angry face, which was tilted up to hers. Each woman waited for the other to cower, or to take the scowls from their faces, and the defiance from their eyes away, but both of them stood determinedly before each other, daring, challenging to do their worst.
Professor Tosca's thin and colorless lips tightened into a fine, crooked pencil line. "Yes. I'm frustrated and angry whenever I look at you. You—the one these two girls look up to—hiding cowardly in the shadows. You were never fit to become an artist so instead, you took another identity and hide away in shame."
"W-what?" Hana asked in a mousy squeak. Not a minute ago, she wanted to leave but now she just heard something worth knowing.
"What is she talking about?"
"Hana!" Althea hissed but it was too late.
Her mentor noticed they were back. The scowl on her face deepened. As if pitying the sight of the younger girls made her ache again. "I am old and should learn at some time in my life how to act my age, and hold onto my poise, and not be a stick of dynamite always ready to explode. But that isn't always the case."
"I understand where you are going with this." Professor Andrea said apprehensively. "Feelings are worst."
"Even if I mentored Miss Lancaster herself, she doesn't even look up to me. Save for Andromeda instead!"
Hana's jaw dropped while Althea's slackened. She never knew Althea idolized Andromeda as much as Hana did. It brought a small beam on Hana's lips. It was such a sweet similarity for Hana to learn about Althea but in such a bad time.
"Why do you girls both love her so much? She quitted! A one in a hundred chance was given to her yet she threw it away! While others desired it the most she just—I will never forgive her."
Of course, Hana recalled that a beautiful and talented artist like Andromeda does not come without a flaw but at the same time, she never could comprehend why people are so bent about attacking that flaw constantly if the criticism was not even a bit helpful at all. It was confusing as hell, and it kept the insults towards Andromeda Danton at the forefront of Hana's mind.
It was as if no one is allowed to be human anymore.
"Yeah?" Hana asked, her eyes were burning in their sockets, and she blinked desperately, trying to keep those scalding tears at bay. "And how sure are you that Andromeda did all that you accuse her of?"
"You don't know a damn thing! You weren't there—by her side. Watch her as she cowers out of the limelight at a mere criticism!"
Hana was aware that ever since Andromeda was accused of photoshopping her images, she disappeared. Yet the mystery of why was lackluster. "You were there?"
"Of course! And she's hiding from all of you—hiding in plain sight."
"Tosca... I—" Professor Andrea started.
"SHUT IT ANDROMEDA." She shouted. An ugly sneer formed on her mouth and a visible vein showed on her neck. "I got so damned mad with you I felt ready to explode if just one more little thing happened to set me off. You think you're the only one wound up, right? You think you're the only one with frustrations, with doubts, suspicions, and fears! Well, guess what, Andromeda! You didn't prove to me that you deserve the limelight! You ruined my faith in you!"
"She's Andromeda Danton?" Hana interrupted, incredulous.
"Well, of course," Professor Tosca said, her brow furrowing in reproach. "What, you thought I'd tell you all this just to make a silly prank? Yes, Hana, the idol you've been chasing for so long was near you all the time; watching you, seeing you struggle, making you sweat to the bone, and never revealed who she was."
Hana clasped Althea's hand tighter. Until she could feel her strength in her legs fade and Althea was entirely supporting her.
"She made you do all these things too because she wants you to succeed where she didn't! I'm not the only one who forced my vision to my student; your dear Professor Andromeda's not so innocent! Here's the dark secret of why she left the limelight! Her works are indeed heavily photoshopped. She lost her credibility. She could not save face or even fight back because all those accusations were true! She's nothing but a coward and now she wants you to continue what she has left for her sake!"
"Well, if she is, what are we going to do about her?" Althea demanded, giving her a look. "I don't know what the best way to go about this since Professor Andrea has been acquiescent ever since I knew her. Though I suppose we'll have to start with what you really wanted and know why Andromeda did what she did—"
Professor Tosca glared at Althea first then at the French woman obstinately who kept her head down, staring at the ground in guilt and shame.
Althea seemed to take that for confirmation because she scoffed. "Oh, do not act like an idiot, Professor, it doesn't suit you."
"Piss off, Lancaster," Professor Tosca snarled, crossing her arms instinctively. "Why in Morgana's name would you want to help me—or her—if it means causing trouble for yourself? I've been a complete bitch to you and I'm scum to everyone here, now; I'm not worth it."
"Althea no," Hana struggled to even warn her. Between the tears susceptible to flow out her eyes and the frustration for Professor Andrea or Andromeda or whoever she truly was. Hana silently begged for Althea to leave with her. Hana merely wanted to accompany Althea to face her
demons but not like this. Hana had not realized she would confront hers as well.
The talented blonde girl seemed to peer into Professor Tosca's eyes and the older woman couldn't help but stare at Althea's in return. Blue and teal, Althea's irises seemed to burn like blue embers in the soft greenish light of a firefly overhead. They were enigmatic, Hana thought to herself, entranced and exasperated with Althea all at once.
"She's right and you can admit it." Professor Andrea spoke up, putting a gentle hand on one of Professor Tosca's wrists and giving her a tiny, warm smile. "She told you not to act like an idiot, Tosca. You are not a scum... to me, or everyone else."
"Do you always insult a person's intelligence when you're trying to be nice to them?" Professor Tosca asked sharply, trying to deflect the French woman's attention from her flushed cheeks. "Because it's really charming, really gets the point across."
"It also seems to be the only way you can absorb a compliment and a point, Tosca," she told her quietly. "You got some issues, I know and I do too. The students have them too. I am trying to get my point across to you, but you want us to consider your feelings all the while disregarding all of ours! All we have been doing was actually considering your feelings! Every time I try to be straightforward about one, you dismiss me outright. And I had just learned now that the way to make you listen is to have to couple them with insults."
Professor Andrea gave a slow nod at Althea's direction and Hana watched as her lover mirrored her mentor's action.
"Hana and I will be taking our leave. You two still have issues to be fixed. You are free to discuss it all here, but leave us out of this from now on. Do not take it out on us, especially on Hana. Are we clear?"
"She will become your kryptonite, Althea."
"You and I are different, Professor," Althea told her mentor. "Having kryptonite is perfectly normal. After all, I am but a mere girl."
"Are we really Althea? Are we really that different from each other? When I look at you, I see a reflection of me."
"You could be right. For whenever I look at you I see myself if I went down the envious path. You are a dark reflection of my future and I want no part of it. I understand the source of your frustration but it was nothing but a selfish gain." When Althea had finished her bit and looked up to see Professor Tosca staring at her with one eyebrow quirked, she sighed. "But you are wrong. You became so focused you blinded yourself and could only see through the narrow space you set your eyes into. Art should not be a chore. Art should be fun."
Hana could feel an intense gaze on her. She was too busy pulling Althea's sleeves since the beginning to notice that Althea had been looking at her. Her blue eyes were beautiful, sending a luminous message Hana never knew it could.
Althea understood that Hana was hurt especially when she didn't listen to Hana's pleas to leave and because of that Althea was sorry and promises to make up for it, but she had to finish her business with them.
Hana felt Althea clench their hands tightly, a small reassurance that it's nearly over.
"And you—" Althea motioned towards the blue-dyed hair professor. "So you are Andromeda. I knew there was something about you—for someone obsessive with dying her hair blue and never letting your original hair color show at the roots. You hurt Hana so much today; I looked up to you in the past, but I don't care anymore much. So you will have to clarify yourself to Hana soon."
Althea helped Hana turn around on her heel as they took their leave. They ducked down the corridor leading back to Althea's bedroom, taking small, quick strides. From behind them, Andromeda shouted and removed her glasses, revealing the sparkling red eyes. "Take care of Hana."
Hana was quiet the whole time through. It was now that Hana clearly realized that Althea was the only woman who could have ever made her truly happy. The girl was the only one for her and regardless of the circumstances, Hana would go looking for her.
Hana's tensions on her muscles eased at the contact on the soft mattress once again. Althea lied down beside her, giving her space to breathe as she was about to cry. She felt like hugging so she reached for Althea and buried her face on Althea's neck, letting the sniffles drown out.
Althea embraced her back, rubbing her thumbs in circles as Hana took her time expressing the sadness out of her system in the form of tears. Althea had been tender and attentive towards her and had helped her ease the pain and aching with her caring voice and the whispers that encouraged Hana that everything would be alright.
A loud sound came from the door as a result of something banging the knocker. "Girls, I hope I'm not intruding." The voice said.
Althea dropped her feet to the floor and greeted her upon opening the door. "What's the matter, Professor?"
Professor Oakley smiled as she noticed her student lying down in the bed, but as refreshing as the curling of lips might have once been, it no longer bestowed tranquillity to Hana. She smiled because she had no other grimace left to express her grief and the pain of being on the verge of losing the potential trust of Althea and Hana after the display.
"I merely wanted to confirm if Miss Yoshida still wants to take my private lessons." She said. "I have the best interest at heart when it comes to her improvement, do you girls still trust me?"
Althea stared at Hana, waiting for her to deliver her answer.
"I still want to," Hana said, pushing her upper body to sit and hugged her knees. "But on one condition—I want Althea, whenever she can, to be able to be there next to me."
Professor Oakley and even Althea lifted both their eyebrows at this strange request because private lessons meant nobody else could be present. Nevertheless, the old woman relented. "Then I'll meet you tomorrow after your college classes. Meet me in the forest park where you two met."
"How did you know that?" Althea asked.
The old professor was calm, dreamy in her own sort of way, and rather taciturn, which could only increase the mystery that surrounded those green eyes whose black pupil seemed to emphasize the depth of her secrecy nature. She was not prone to reveal anything but the obvious, yet there was something about her gaze that let Hana know that she yearned to tell so much more than what her own conscience allowed.
"Everyone important to the path of your destinies is more than familiar." She replied and faced away, preparing to leave. "That will be all girls, I hoped that I could help Tosca and Andromeda to make amends, but alas, I am not omniscient."
The moment she has gone and left, Althea went to join Hana in bed.
Hana loved the soft gaze she was receiving from the taller girl. She grabbed her tighter by the hand, cooing. "Hey, Althea..."
"Is there something you want, darling?"
A light hue of pink slowly bled into her cheeks. "Oh, we have endearments now do we?"
"Why of course," Althea said. "Why? Do you rather use another nickname?"
"Anything will do!"
"As you say so, my love," Althea held her tight.
Hana's cheeks turned redder and she spoke dreamily while gazing at Althea. "Althea you're so charming, you!"
"I've been thinking, Hana. Since most of the students are tired following the events yesterday, why don't we skip school today, I'm fairly sure that some have the idea too."
"Whoa there," Hana baffled. "The great Althea Lancaster wants to skip class?"
"With everything that happened today, I'm sure you need this too."
Hana pursed her lips, giving it a thought.
"I can call in sick, and you're you." Althea mused,
"HEY!"
Althea chuckled.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means... I want you all to myself today."
Hana cuddled up and enjoyed being the little spoon. Althea smelled great, a hint of vanilla in her expensive but simple perfume. Althea's hair fell on her shoulders, slightly disheveled and wild, but quite chicly in its apparent inordinacy.
A lot of hearts were broken today like a pile of dominoes falling onto each other. Regardless of the tidal wave of shocking announcements and unearthed secrets they went through, they were still in love.