Soul Eater Fan Fiction ❯ Fixing Pigtails ❯ Chicken ( Chapter 2 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Maka Albarn was bent over her desk, her eyes twitching in agitation as she fumbled with her fingers out in front of her. There was a strange aura clouding about her, strange enough to leave her feeling aggravated and incensed. They were staring at her; she could practically feel them as they drilled holes into her back, making her shiver and tremble every once in a while as Dr. Stein was up front teaching the class on how to properly dissect a Bald Eagle.

With an indignant huff, Maka peered over her shoulder and shot a glimpse at the two looky-lues. She immediately turned back around and tried to pay attention to Dr. Stein, feeling more irked than ever.

‘I was right, they are staring at me!’ she thought to herself rigidly, biting her lip in intense thought.

Death the Kid was sitting perfectly in his seat, his back straight and his hands folded perfectly before him. He was the epitome of posture, the security guard of symmetrical alignment, and as son of Shinigami-sama, he thought as much. However, something was off in his perfect symmetrical world; it wasn’t a physical malady, but more of a mental one. Was his brain not working symmetrically enough, was he putting too much thought into one side of the brain than the other? It was a horrendous thought to Kid, a thought so repulsive that just thinking about it sent him spiraling into a mental whirl wind of depression. The worst part of it was that he knew what was causing his mental unbalance; he knew too well for he was staring at the culprit right before his very eyes!

“Oh, Jesus,” Liz muttered under her breath, slapping her hand to her forehead in irritation.

Concerning other matters, Soul Eater Evens was having some sort of a mental unbalance himself. His fingernails were practically digging into his desk as he bit at his lip with his razor sharp teeth. He couldn’t understand it, not at all! What he had seen earlier in the morning-- was it a horrible dream, or was it reality? He growled under his breath, disturbing the entire classroom as all eyes rolled on him, including Maka. He quickly averted his eyes away from her to refrain from eye-contact-- he couldn’t stand to look at her now, to do so would cause him to get even more angrier than he already was. Although he couldn’t understand why.

He huffed in disagreement as he turned his head to the side, throwing an unnoticed glare at Death the Kid, who was still having a hard time (although he didn’t show it) trying to sit properly without getting depressed.

‘They’re crooked again!’ Kid shouted within his mind, his golden eyes suddenly widening in realization. ‘That must be it, it’s her pigtails!’ He rigidly bit at his lip, locking his fingers together so that they wouldn’t squirm in agitation. He couldn’t do this anymore; he couldn’t just sit here and do nothing while there was something asymmetrical sitting in close proximity. He was itching to grasp her hair, to untie it and straighten it out like he had done earlier in the morning. He was so sure that he had fixed her hair perfectly before, what could she possibly have done to mess it up again in the short time walking to class?

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXFLASHBACKXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXX

“What was that?”

Maka walked right into the direct path of Soul, her face still flushed and flustered from her prior entanglement with Kid. Her pigtails were now in perfect symmetrical alignment, at least that was what Kid had said to her, but she was still thoroughly disturbed at his seriousness regarding her crooked pigtails. She hadn’t enough time to fix them in the morning, more like she was too distracted by Blaire’s advances towards Soul that didn’t allow her to do her pigtails properly.

“What was what?” Maka asked knowingly, walking away swiftly as she tried to hide her still flushed face from Soul’s quizzical glare. Soul kept a steady pace along side her, even though she knew he was much faster than her at walking. Something was up with him, he usually didn’t bother trying to keep with her slow pace, and his doing so now meant that he was either troubled or had something to say to her, neither of which she looked forward to.

‘But I have to be there for him, whatever the deal is. I don’t want him to confide in other people without confiding in me first,’ she thought to herself. She then nodded her decision; she was his partner, that meant she had to be there for him whatever the circumstance. She didn’t want him going to someone else like he had done with Medusa.

“You need something, Soul?” she asked him wearily, trying to stretch out a smile along her lips. She turned to him and blinked, waiting for a response. Soul huffed and looked away from her, red eyes darkening as he stuffed his hands into the pockets of his yellow jacket.

“Why’s your face so red?” he asked her quietly, his eyes still focused on anything but hers.

‘I was hoping he wasn’t going to bring this up. He definitely saw me, but I shouldn’t have to worry, right? Kid was the one who started it anyway,’ Maka thought to herself, licking her lips in thought.

“You’re talking about Kid, right?” she asked him, clasping her hands behind her. They walked at a steady pace, their shoes clapping against the cobbled ground as they headed towards class. “He was in symmetrical-mode again, that’s all, no need to worry.”

“I’m not worried,” Soul snapped childishly, stuffing his hands further into his pockets. “Forget it, doesn’t really matter anyway.”

Soul then walked away in a huff, his speed increasing ten fold as he walked right into the classroom, but right as he passed her, he quickly shot out his hand and slapped her alongside the head.

Maka stared after him, fuming as she tried to fix her pigtails in place. After somewhat straightening them out, she stomped after him angrily, turning into the classroom where Dr. Stein was preparing to assemble the equipment needed for a Bald Eagle dissection.

XXXXXXXXXXXXENDFLASBHACKXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXX

“Dissection time,” Dr. Stein rang out, flicking out his middle finger and using it to hoist his falling glasses. He smiled eerily at the class, his white teeth sparkling as he got up from his computer chair and straightened himself out like some sort of stoic college professor.

“Choose your own partners, I don’t care, but as long as they are someone you can work with without getting distracted,” he continued, stalking about the classroom with his hands clasped behind his back.

“Yes!” Ox shouted in triumph, shifting his gaze to Kim. She furrowed her brow at him and quickly turned away, her cheeks flushing a light pink. She didn’t look entirely too happy, but who could tell?

Dr. Stein stealthily traveled up the set of steps lining the desks so that he could reach the other students who were sitting in the next rows up. He eyed the variously scattered students, his eyeglasses flashing briefly before he let a small, wicked smile grace his lips.

“Except for you three,” he said, pointing an index finger at Kid, Maka, and Soul (who were each sitting a good distance away from each other). “Maka, you go with Kid this time. Soul-- you’re with Liz and Patti. We need some variation from time to time.”

Soul let out a silent snarl, gnashing his teeth is disdain. He quickly shot a glare at Maka, as if blaming her for the unfortunate outcome, and promptly got up from his seat where he stomped all the way over towards where Liz and Patti were seated. Liz looked a bit aggravated at the sudden switch of partners, but she didn’t protest, and Patti-- she could care less.

Meanwhile, Kid was still seated at his seat, hands folded neatly out in front of him. He was trying to keep himself still, to keep himself calm and tranquil and all sorts of things like that, but he found that it was getting increasingly hard to do so. Stupid Stein.

“Kid, did you not here me? You’re with Maka,” Dr. Stein called out, tapping the tip of his finger on Maka’s desk as an indication. Maka looked up at him with a nauseated expression on her face, her brow ruffled and mouth set in a squiggle. She really didn’t like the prospect of working with Kid, what with his obsessive compulsive disorder on everything symmetrical. Thinking back to earlier in the morning, Maka let a small shiver run up her spine as she thought of what Kid had done to her in his urgent need to fix her pigtails-- she didn’t want that happening again.

With a heavy sigh, she watched as Dr. Stein walked away to seat himself on his computer chair, draping his arms over the back of the chair as if he were on some sort of leisure time. As soon as Maka turned her head, she let out a muffled gasp as she found Kid already seated right next to her, his hands folded out in front of him. He wasn’t looking at her, instead, he was looking at the front of the class, his golden eyes lost in a reality unknown to her.

“I’ll…go get the equipment. Do you mind getting the bird?” she asked him, turning his way. He didn’t move, but his eyes quickly shifted to the side and he shrugged, his eyes shifting back the way they were. Maka took this as a sign of confirmation and she quickly got up from her seat and clambered down the steps to the front of the room, where other students were busy gathering their supplies and equipment needed for the dissection.

She shot a double look as she saw Kid already at the front of the room as well, waiting in line to obtain the specimen needed for the lab. She marveled at his speed, but she wasn’t as surprised compared to someone else who didn’t know Kid. He was the son of the Grim Reaper; that fact alone was amazing in itself.

“Oh, sorry class, I forgot to mention earlier,” Dr. Stein suddenly rang out, swiveling his chair so that he was in the center of the room. “Since Bald Eagles are endangered species and dissecting them would deface our nation, we are not going to actually dissect a Bald Eagle, but a chicken. Works the same either way.”

“Then why were you teaching us how to dissect a Bald Eagle when you should have been teaching us how to dissect a chicken?” Harvar raised his hand, Ox nodding in agreement with his weapon.

Dr. Stein swiveled away in his chair, spinning a few times before he simply answered, “More interesting.”

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kid stared down at his chicken, which was lying flat on its back dead center in the middle of the metal tray he was carrying-- it was perfect, the chicken. It was amazing in fact, how a dead bird could look so perfectly symmetrical on account that it was, well, a dead bird.

He walked back towards Maka’s desk, his symmetrical-awareness kicking up again the closer he got. She was already seated and waiting at her desk, the equipment spread out in front of her like a set of utensils. Kid pressed the tray further into his chest, the pads of his fingers literally gouging at the underside of the trey. He couldn’t help but ghost his eyes over one of her pigtails, which was lying haphazardly about her head compared to the other pigtail which was perky and perfect and a potential candidate for symmetrical alignment-- it was just that other one, the messy one, the one that looked as if someone had smacked her upside the head.

‘I need to fix it, I have to fix it, I can’t just stand here and do nothing,’ he thought frantically to himself while easing his way up the steps leading to her desk. ‘What’s wrong with these people, can they not see how messed up her hair looks?! I have to do it, I really have to do it.’

Lost within his own thoughts, he didn’t even realize when he was finally standing in front of Maka’s desk, a tray of chicken separating the two meisters from unwanted tension. Maka stared up at him with a mix of nervousness and alarm as she tried to scoot away from him. She could already feel a cloud of depression wrapping around the young Shinigami, his golden eyes smoldering over in the way they always did when his symmetrical-awareness became...aware.

Suddenly, he dropped the tray, where it slammed against Maka’s desk and made a huge clanging sound that echoed throughout the whole classroom.

‘Not here, please not here,’ Maka thought frantically to herself, pressing her back further into her chair. ‘Oh please, oh please, not here.’

She braced herself, closing her eyes and steeling herself up as she waited for his attack.

Funny thing was, he didn’t.