"By the way, I can't find Marianne. Where is she?" Tanya asked as she switched her gaze from looking behind them to looking back at them.
Garry smiled wryly as he shook his head, Anna smiled brightly with tenderness never leaving her eyes and Toby just shook his head helplessly with a wry grin.
"At this point," Toby began, "I'm beginning to suspect that you and Marianne are in some sort of romantic relationship."
"Are you just realizing?" Tanya asked and Toby nearly choked on air with that question.
Soon Anna spoke up, "She said she had something to prepare for you. She told us it was a secret so I felt it was a surprise of some sort."
Tanya covered the upper half of her face with her hands as she broke into a wide smile. Marianne would never fail to surprise her. The day she did would be the day she'd doubt the soul within the shell.
"I wonder what that red-haired witch has in store for me?" Tanya mumbled with a smile as she thought of her roommate and her crazy antics.
"Anyways," Tanya began with a renewed smile and clasped hands, "Who has a complete note?"
The bell went off and school was done for the day. School buses sat dormant in front of the school, waiting for students to come in and fill up the buses that went to their houses.
Some had their parents waiting outside, while others had their own rides or, better yet, walked home on their own two feet.
Since Tanya, like several other students who stayed in the hostel provided by the school entered a bus that would drive her and other boarders down to her hostel; saving her, and them the stress of walking all the way down to the hostel.
The school was a big one. A 200-250 hectare area of land, with a university built right in the middle, it was a large area of land. In different places were a daycare, a nursery, an elementary school, a middle school, a high school, and a university, which was the hallmark of the place.
Within that area of land were boarding houses, hostels, staff housing, faculty offices, institutions of worship, banks, ATMs, lodges, and even a mini market. There were various shops and supermarkets inside the same land space. It was a little world of its own. It was lovely.
Soon, the bus came to a halt right in front of her hostel. She and a couple of others came down and walked into the building.
Truly, this was a place for the wealthy and affluent. The entire place hummed silently with the vibration and hum of the air conditioning unit along with several other appliances that were used to cater to the needs of the spoiled and demanding teenagers and young adults that resided within this boarding unit and the various others littered around this expanse of land.
With a click of the tongue, Tanya made her way through the gossiping crowd and ventured up the stairs despite the elevator working. She knew it'd be crowded.
After climbing up four floors, she finally got to hers and walked down the hall to her room. Her heart became unsettled as she saw the door but she wasn't filled with dread or fear. An odd feeling of excitement and unease filled her gut as she inserted her key through the keyhole and turned it till she heard the second click to affirm that it was open.
As she turned the knob and opened the door, a figure suddenly flew at lightning speed, dragged her inside the room, and toppled her over onto the partially rugged floor.
Tanya exclaimed in excitement and partial shock, both at the speed of the attack and at the cold floor that was a result of the air-conditioning.
"Marianne!" Tanya exclaimed in excitement as a burst of laughter erupted from her lips. "This girl, you'll be the death of me one day."
"Tanya! Tanya!" Marianne squealed in excitement. Soon she lunged for the extra baggage she saw behind her and attacked it with fervor.
Tanya shook her head in amusement at the sight, "Slow down, the bag isn't running away from you."
Marianne stopped for a beat, flashed a toothy grin at her best friend before she continued on her quest to hunt for whatever was inside the bag.
Inside were provisions, outing dresses, a couple of suits, snacks, and instant food. Tanya smiled in amusement as she watched her friend dig through the bag as though she were digging through sand to find a treasure.
"I see something," Tanya smiled at her friend whose undivided attention was now solely on the thing she was now invested in digging from her piles of treasures.
"Is it…" Marianne asked no one in particular with bated breath, she kept on diving into the bag. Soon she squealed in what sounded like excitement and dragged out her hidden treasure with a huge, face-splitting grin on her face.
Tanya watched her friend, who had a mix of expressions ranging from disbelief, awe, and glee, all plastered on her face. Soon she stood on her two feet and, without warning, pounced on Tanya who easily steadied herself from the surprise attack.
"Thank you, Tanya… I didn't think you'd remember to get it." Tanya smiled a bit.
It was true that it had been a couple of days since she had been taken home by her brothers, and the spontaneity of the situation back home had nearly caused her to forget. She really had to thank her sister-in-law for helping her remember her quirky roommate's bribe item.
"I actually did nearly forget to get them for you… Let's just say I have a guardian angel who wouldn't let me down in things like these," Tanya said as she gave a weird smile to her unknowing friend who just quirked a brow at her statement.
"I'm actually a bit surprised that you even remembered it at all." Marianne began as she released Tanya and plopped onto the bed to read her treasures that her lovely roommate had gotten her.
"I'm surprised that there were even more than a couple of them at home. I'm suspecting either my sister or my sister-in-law. Those two are pure romanticists at heart." Tanya said with a shrug as she began to arrange her things in the room.
Marianne looked as though she were contemplating between the book and her friend but eventually chose the latter. Dropping the book onto the bed, Marianne stood up from the bed with a lazy grunt and a pained smile – the bed was awfully comfortable to a bewitching extent.
Walking over to Tanya's side of the room, she then dropped onto her friend's bed without a care as she stared at her arranging.
Tanya stopped to ask, "What are you doing?"
"Helping." Was her quick response.
With a quirked eyebrow and almost pure confusion, Tanya asked again, "And this begs the question of 'How?'"
"I'm trying to lighten the atmosphere, in turn, helping you to unpack easier."
"So, where does your 'lying on my bed without permission' come in to help me unpack easier?"
"They say maintaining eye contact with your subject helps in reducing intimidation, improves chances for an effective and stress-free conversation, and aids in reducing the tension of the subject," Marianne said with a proud smile, certain of her words.
"I'm pretty sure that's not for normal conversations, Mari."
"That's what Master told me on my last mission. He said that eye contact also helps increase the chances of catching fish and lowers a person's guard. The eyes are the windows to the soul… or something like that… was what he said." Marianne said with her hand on her chin in a thoughtful pose.
Tanya looked at her roommate in disbelief before she shook her head. Alvise needed to stop deceiving these kids, or better yet, teach them when and where to use the skills he had taught them. Most of all… fish catching?! Really!?
Tanya turned to her clueless and naïve assassin roommate with eyes filled with pity and worry that we're met with confused ones…
This colleague of hers… was going to have a really tough first love period.