The Black Swan Behind (Beauty of Fire)

144 Mistaken

Emma and Kathy went to the changing room to change their clothes. After that, they returned to the class which was a little closer to starting. When they came back into the room, Emma’s chest actually thumped a little, thinking that Rachel was already there. But it turned out that she was nowhere to be seen. This made Emma sigh in relief.

When the class was almost ten minutes started, the door to the room opened from the outside and a tall girl appeared from behind it. In a bit of a hurry, Rachel who seemed to have changed her clothes before entering the class went straight to her locker and joined all the girls who were practising.

For a few minutes, Emma didn’t notice that Rachel had joined the class because she had been too absorbed in the ballet practice she had been doing independently, until when Ms Tania paused the practice to rest for a few minutes, Emma’s eyes caught Rachel’s figure who was staring at her. Emma’s knees felt weak instantly.

Once the class was over, Ms Tiana immediately called Poppy and again, they talked for a while with serious faces. After finishing talking with the new teacher, Poppy returned to her two friends who were still sitting waiting for her on the outskirts of the class.

“What’s the matter, Poppy?” Emma asked, noticing Poppy’s uneasy expression.

Poppy immediately sat down with her friends on the wooden floor. Then, she leaned forward slightly, and instinctively, Emma and Kathy did so too, so that their faces were close to each other. It was a body pose of a gossiping scene.

“Gosh.. I’m so confused, guys. Ms Tania seems to be a bit strict. She asked me if Rachel Markway is usually late for attending class.” Poppy whispered.

“She did? It’s her first day here though,” Kathy answered with disapproval, “Then, what did you say?”

“I said Rachel only comes late sometimes. There’s no way I told her that Rachel really usually comes late, right?” Poppy answered. Her voice sounded depressed.

.....

“If Ms Tania really doesn’t like Rachel, do you think she would give her a bad score?” Emma asked with a worried face because she knew Rachel was a good person. She was also worried that Rachel might not pass the extra class because it would affect her final grade in the end.

“I’m sure she will. Actually, she did mention it earlier, though not directly. But I understand that Ms Tania was indeed on that topic.” Poppy let out a long sigh.

Kathy snorted, “Geez.. From the first sight of her face, I knew that she was an annoying woman. She is the opposite of Ms Diana, who was understanding and never being strict. Ms Diana even made people who don’t like ballet like me want to come to learn ballet. Even though Ms Tania has only been teaching here for a day, that woman has been complaining about too many things!”

“It seems Ms Tania is a very strict person. At this rate, no one in this class is allowed to come late and be undisciplined. People are different in nature, so we must follow the way she teaches.” Emma replied.

“I guess I’ll have to tell Rachel about this. I’m afraid she’ll get in trouble later.” Poppy said.

“Are you going to tell...” Emma seemed a little agitated by Poppy’s intentions.

“Rachel Markway! Hey.. Rachel!” Kathy’s scream made Emma stop her words. Apparently, Kathy happened to see Rachel had just taken her things from the locker, so she unilaterally called out to her with a booming voice.

Rachel, who was about to leave the classroom, turned her head in confusion. It felt strange to hear her own name being called in the class, except at the attendance listing. And what confused her more was that it was Kathy sitting with Emma Hilland who called out to her with that loud voice.

‘Could they possibly want to talk about the time Emma helped me?’ Rachel thought to herself.

“Kathy! Why did you yell at her like that? She’s fierce, you know!” Poppy whispered, unable to get her best friend’s behaviour.

“We shouldn’t judge someone based on the gossip,” Kathy answered wisely even though she had just judged Ms Tania went all out just from one incident.

Emma had nothing more to say. She could only stare resignedly at Rachel who walked closer to the three of them.

“Yes?” Rachel asked as she stood in front of the three girls.

“Hey, Rachel!” Kathy greeted with a big smile, “There’s something Poppy wants to talk to you about,” she said.

Rachel seemed to be frowning, “About what?”

With an uncomfortable movement, Poppy stood up from her seat, “Um.. Maybe we can talk about it together somewhere else.”

But Rachel immediately refused with a curt headshake. She didn’t like an invitation to ‘talk in private’ by a stranger. In addition, she was also unsure why did Poppy ask her to talk alone to discuss Emma’s problem? Was this some kind of bullying between girls? Or did she intend to talk behind her friend’s back? She couldn’t tell.. She didn’t want to get caught up in negative thoughts, either.

“Let’s just talk here. Everyone should be able to hear what we’re talking about.” Rachel said as she sat down on the floor as well.

Poppy and Kathy looked at each other with confused faces. Maybe it’s true that Rachel was a strange person, like the rumours circulating the air. Finally, Poppy decided to comply with Rachel’s decision by sitting back in her original spot.

Emma gulped that hurt her throat when she realized Rachel had been staring at her curiously. Even though she wanted to, she couldn’t run away from here because she didn’t have a reasonable reason for it. In fact, they all had promised to see Poppy’s new tattoo on her hip later in the bathroom.

“Um.. Rachel,” Poppy muttered.

Rachel, who had been staring at Emma, ??then turned to Poppy who was sitting beside her, “Yes?”

“Earlier, Ms Tania asked me if you always come late like today. It seems our new teacher is a bit strict and disciplined. She doesn’t seem like she would tolerate a student who comes late to her class. If you keep coming late, I’m afraid it might end up affecting your grades, Rachel. Sorry, I didn’t mean to tutor you at all. I hope you understand what I mean.” Poppy explained.

Rachel’s brows furrowed, then, she nodded slowly, “I.. I understand. You don’t need to apologize. I should be the one thanking you for being wholesome to think about me.”

Seeing Rachel’s nice response made Poppy heave a sigh of relief. Honestly, even though she didn’t intend to judge people easily, she was also influenced by the gossip that was often told by ballet class girls. But as it turned out, she was completely wrong. Even though she looked fierce, but when she was spoken to, it turned out that Rachel could give a good response.

“And then?” Suddenly, Rachel spoke again.

Poppy looked at the tall girl questioningly for a moment, then, she shook her head with a friendly smile, “Actually, that’s all I wanted to tell you, Rachel. Sorry if I look too serious like this is a big deal.” she answered with a slight chuckle.

But Poppy’s answer was not what Rachel had expected. She thought they wanted to talk about Emma’s problem. Then, Rachel tried to ask one more time, “I see. Is there nothing else you want to talk about?” She glanced at Emma who had only turned his face in various directions, except at her.

Poppy frowned in confusion and nodded, “Yeah, that’s all.”

Rachel finally nodded in understanding. Even though she was still quite confused, she decided to get up and leave after briefly saying goodbye to the three girls who were staring at her in confusion. Until the last second, she still took the time to glance at Emma. But the girl acted like a child who was covering up her mistakes.

As soon as Rachel left them, Emma secretly heaved a sigh of relief. Her heart had been pounding wildly, thinking that Rachel would reveal her biggest secret to her two best friends. But it seemed that the blue-eyed girl realized that Emma was trying to cover up what she had seen that night.

After finishing showering and packing, Emma and her two girls walked out of campus together with an exciting talk. But suddenly, Emma stopped her steps, “Oh my.. I left my tote bag in class.”

“You serious? What’s in it?” Kathy asked.

“The clothes I’m going to do laundry and my notebook,” Emma answered.

“Notebook? Well.. I bet it’s important, isn’t it?” Kathy said, getting Emma’s nod.

“Then we must hurry and get it,” Poppy said by looking at her watch.

“No need, guys. I’ll get it myself. You guys can go home first.” Emma said, knowing that her two friends still had a lot of business to do after this. Meanwhile, their position had almost arrived near the university front gate. It would take a lot of time to go back to the ballet classroom.

“Would you be okay, Emma?” Kathy asked.

“That’s right, Emma. The campus is almost empty.” Poppy added with a worried face.

Emma smiled and shook her head, “We don’t have to worry anymore, guys. I don’t think any of the bad boys dare to approach us anymore for fear of Calvin and Troy.”

“Hmm.. You have a point,” Kathy nodded thoughtfully.

“Well.. You two can go now. I’m going to back the class. See you tomorrow,” Emma said, waving her palm before turning away.

Cold air blew into the campus lobby because the glass doors were always left open. Although the campus building had not closed yet, the condition really was almost empty. Emma could find that only a very few people were still in the building and they too seemed to be about to go home.

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