Chapter 50: Dumb, Stupid Or An Idiot?

"Miss Claudia, you're growing up to be a fine young woman."

That was the voice of a man, it was faint but it kept resounding in her mind until she finally opened her eyes to see an old man with gray hair stretching out his hand toward her.

"Come with me, I want to show you something." The man said with a smile on his face.

The Claudia he was talking to was a younger version of herself about seven years old with short hair.

"But mom said I can't go out today," Claudia responded, hesitant to take his hand.

"Don't worry dear, we're not going too far and we won't be gone long, I just think you need to see this." The old man uttered, being quite insistent.

Claudia was still on the fence on whether to take his hand or not as she turned back to see if anyone was coming before turning back to him.

"Um…okay."

She was still reluctant but she was finally able to take his hand and the moment she did, she felt a stream of electric current run through her body immediately numbing her as she crashed to the floor, and just before she lost consciousness, she found the old man grinning.

The moment she lost consciousness in her subconscious, she quickly shot her eyes open in the real world with a gasp.

"Why was I dreaming about that?"

"A nightmare?"

She quickly turned her gaze to where the voice came from to see Arsha sitting on the window.

Apparently, she was in the school clinic, and for some reason "her uniform was unbuttoned making her red underwear slightly visible but she was yet to notice that.

"No, just an old memory coming back in the form of a dream, the first time I got tricked by someone." She replied.

"Oh, really? That's a convenient dream to have after what happened."

"I know, you don't have to tell me." She sighed.

She was trying to bring her feet down now and that was when she saw it, the fact that she had been facing Arsha for a while now left her staring at her unbuttoned uniform with her mouth wide open and her face turning red in embarrassment.

"Hey, why is my shirt unbuttoned?" She inquired with her gaze not moving.

"You can ask the nurse when she gets back." He replied.

"You saw it, right? And you didn't even bother to tell me."

"Any normal person would have noticed something like that the second they got up." He sighed. "And besides, there was nothing there to see so I didn't bother looking."

That really ticked her off and just like he expected she turned to him with a furious look on her face.

"What do you mean there was nothing there to see, I'm a B….."

"I don't need to know your bra size." He cut her with a gesture for her to stop and now she was grumbling.

"Instead of worrying about something like that, how about we talk about how you almost got yourself killed today."

"Oh, yeah, that."

Her expression softened at that moment as she slowly brought her gaze down and began to button her shirt.

"I'm really grateful that you showed up when you did, this is the third time you're saving me now." She remarked in a meek tone.

"In my opinion, it's only the first but I have to ask."

"Ask what?"

"Are you dumb, stupid an idiot or do you think you're just kind?"

Ordinarily, she would get upset getting asked that kind of question but she knew he was right to ask that after what happened.

"Which one do you think I am?" She responded with a feigned smile.

"I'd say all of them in that order."

"Geez, that's harsh."

"Couldn't you tell on a first glance that those girls had it out for you?"

"No." She shook her head. "How was I supposed to know? They seemed to be nice, when they approached me at least."

Arsha was left dumbfounded as he shook his head.

"You really have no idea, do you?"

"Huh? What are you talking about?" She asked with a confused expression on her face.

"Do you know why I decided to follow you?"

"Um….."

"If you say I was stalking you, I'm going to return you to where I found you in the forest and I'll make sure you're unable to move for at least an hour." He uttered, predicting what she wanted to say.

"The fact that you can say that with a straight face really sends chills down my spine."

"You haven't answered my question."

"Fine, I don't know, tell me." She sighed.

"Do you remember the day some parts of our class were filled with mud and apparently you caught the ones doing it and reported them to one of the teachers?" He inquired.

"Yeah, I remember, that was on my second day as a first-year here." She responded with a nod.

"How many people were involved in that offense?"

"I think it was three girls." She replied.

"Did you see their faces? Do you remember their faces?"

"Um…no not….."

It was at that moment that it dawned on her and images of their faces that day in the classroom came rushing back to her mind.

"I had no idea." She gasped with her left hand covering her mouth. "They wanted to kill me because of that?"

"Um…that's not the only reason."

"Wait, what?"

"Do you remember Jack?"

"Yeah, he's ranked sixth in our class." She replied with a nod.

"Do you remember the time he was trying to get you to go out with him?"

"Yeah, and it's not like he's given up on that exactly." She responded. "So now, I'm guessing one of them had a crush on him and was mad that he looked at me instead of her."

"I'm glad that you could piss that together but which one of them was it?"

"Elsa, probably she was the one who expressed how much she hated me clearly."

"That's correct," Arsha muttered before getting up on his feet.

"I see, I didn't think anyone would want to kill someone over something like that and it's not like I reported them out of spite or went out with Jack anyway."

"Yeah, that's because you view the world with a surprising sense of naivety…."

"Before we go into that." She interrupted.

"Huh?"

"How did you know about all of this? I'm sure I'm the only one who saw those three that day and they weren't punished publicly because of their parents. And the part about Jack how did you know she had a crush on him?" She inquired, staring at him with eyes hungry for an answer.

"You don't know this but I'm prone to seeing and hearing things I'd just walk past on any day, how do you suppose I heard your conversation with the three of them from beside the vending machine?" He disclosed.

"You heard our conversation?"