Physical Attraction.

Olive woke up only because she felt the dull pain at the back of her head in the midst of the fainting scenery of black and muffled sounds.

The dull pain only increased as she opened her eyes, fluttering her eyelashes naturally as they were long and delicate. The sounds of the class came back to her in the form of worried fifteen year old males and jealous females of the same age. She flashed a weak smile and tried to stand up.

The males in the class melted. All but one; the one who dropped her in the first place.

The women in the class fumed. All except for Regina.

Regina ran to Olive and fussed over her, calling her name, checking her head and cradling her head against her chest.

Considering the fact that Regina and Olive were both, err, generously gifted with, err, their packages; it was quite the sight.

Four of them in one range of sight, two pairs in total.

'What the hell is wrong with you?' Regina shouted to the boy. 'How could you just drop her like that?'

'It's not like I needed to hold her in the first place, I could have just let her fall in the first place.' The gorgeous boy said and returned to his desk.

Regina turned that famous shade of orange that was common for brown skinned individuals such as she. It showed how pissed off she was with how deep the colour was, to the point where it was near red.

'What happened?' asked Olive weakly, she felt like all the weaknesses in her bones were too sudden, too unexplained. How had the weakness she felt just materialized out of the air? And at such a bad time too.

'I should ask you that question, what were you doing to yourself?' asked Regina as she tried to stand with Olive, 'Were you on a diet again?"

Olive shook her head and redirected her gaze back to the boy.

You cannot blame her, red hair, a rarity in Kiribati, blue eyes and an exquisite jaw line that just made you want to-

'Let's go, you need to be checked out by the teacher.' Regina said and began to pull her out into the school compound.

Olive looked at Regina when she was being dragged and then redirected her gaze back to the boy. She smiled at his direction when he happened to look her way.

Having not been paying attention when he and Regina were talking, having an erratic pulsing giant of a headache and not thinking clearly, she didn't know how to do anything else other than smile to him in an attempt to charm.

He didn't return it and left Olive to frown as she was dragged out of the class.

Break-time, Lunch or Recess, call it whatever, any time there was time to get out of class was when the people of Moroni were eating.

Actually most people were.

Having to lead a foreigner to their food source in the school was very frustrating. Who told him to be so well mannered? The students were used to foreigners and didn't mind them and their mannerisms but Tars being new and being lazy and having an alternate personality of Sloth, she really wasn't appreciating the fact that the food had run out by the time they got through the crowd.

'Hey, where did you grow up?' Tars asked as she stared at the empty food stall.

'Ahh, it's a pretty small place in o-'

'That's explains it then.' Tars said and tilted her head up towards the sky to ask;

Why now?

Usually she didn't care for food but today was the only day in the week that they served salads for individuals like she.

'Explains what?'

'It explains why I missed out on the salads.' She said dully.

Sloth had come out and she was never a good thing to encounter.

'Oh, I'm so sorry-' Zeal tried to apologize.

'Sorry isn't going to buy a salad.' She told him in matter of fact tone and walked away nonchalantly, because she was too lazy to stomp away.

'Hey!' Zeal called after her. 'Tars, I'm sorry!'

She didn't respond and when she felt a pull arrive with the sound of running feet on her left arm a few seconds later, she didn't even bother herself with it, knowing that she was light and had exceptional balance on her feet.

'Woah!' Zeal said, when he had pulled her she had just used… she used the force of the pull to do 360 degree twirl back to her original course.

'What do you want?' she asked as she kept walking.

'I wanted to apologize.' He said and ran in front of her.

She gave him a blank glimpse of her eyes and continued on walking, tilting herself slightly when she got to him.

Zeal watched her as she continued on her way, in a two clock direction from where she had been standing in front of him before.

'You are very agile!' he exclaimed and kept following her.

'And you are persistent.' Tars replied dully as she reached the library, pulled out her phone and plugged in her earphone.

When they got to the library door, Zeal was a three feet position behind her which gave him enough space to avoid the door that she closed nonchalantly as if he wasn't behind her.

He watched the wood grain of the door a few seconds before he felt the tap of a hand on his right shoulder and whirled around to meet Olive.

Blond hair shined in the equatorial sun that was causing him to sweat profusely and blue eyes looked at him worriedly.

'Terana ae ko karaoia nakoina?' she asked him in Kiribati.

He swallowed his spit at the sight of her delicate, fairy like face and shook his head, 'I don't know how to speak Gilbertese.'

'Oh, did Tars get assigned to you?' Olive asked in English.

'How did you know?'

'She is the best in the game at translations, even slangs somehow find themselves in Gilbertese or in English versions with her.' Olive said and looked behind him at the library door.

'Did you mistake me for a Kiribati citizen back there?' Zeal asked.

'I did, you fit the characteristic with black hair and black eyes, it's just your skin that showed that you weren't.' Olive said and walked to the door, opening it and waiting for him.

Zeal laughed then in a rather, curiously relieved tone, 'What about my face?'

'What about it?' Olive frowned at him when he came in.

'Don't I have different face structures from everyone else?'

'People here are very mixed with their ancestry, you an even spot your type of face in my class.' Olive explained and began to search the rows of books, indicating Zeal to be quiet with a finger on her lips and another pointed to the librarian.

'You sounded relieved back there.' Olive said after a few seconds.

'Yes,' Zeal had been rubbed wrong with how Tars, 'Tars was just a completely different type of conversation today so I was wondering if everyone here sounded like that.'

'That would be silly, Tars is just… well, she is Tars.' Olive had stopped when Zeal had spoke, Zeal had mimicked her when she did so, not noticing that she seemed slightly miffed at the accusing tone he described Tars with.

'Really, do they sell her off in computer stores or something?' Zeal scoffed, 'It would make sense what with how she does her conversations.'

The both turned their head when they heard a voice coming from the row of books on the bookcase they were standing next to.

'It's supposed to be flattering when people talk about you but I'm guessing this one isn't.' Tars said as she took in the books from the book case, took one and walked to their direction.

When she reached them she looked up from the pages she had opened, 'Could you move?'

They did and Zeal threw a look at Olive, one that she returned with a frown at his pettiness.

'Tars, can you do me a favour?' Olive said to Tars as she followed her to the desk she sat in, leaving Zeal behind.

'You only come to me during school when you need one, no need to ask, just say it.' Tars had no other tone aside from blank when she was in the Sloth mode, Olive was used to this but Zeal rolled his eyes from his position next to the bookcase.

'I need a recharge card for this week-'

'Here's one.' Tars said and gave over the card to Olive.

'Thanks, you're the best.'

'Because I'm the richest amongst us two.' Tars said as she endured the hug from Olive. Zeal saw that fact and narrowed his eyes.

Olive walked back to the door but Zeal held on to her arms then.

'See what I mean? How can you stand this girl?' he asked her.

'I'm used to it and this is how she just is.' Olive was starting to get irritated and it showed but apparently he didn't notice it.

'You're used to being ignored and being insulted like that?' Zeal was mocking her.

'Tars doesn't care enough to insult or be insulted, watch your mouth, you don't know her and it's none of your business.' Olive lost her cool then.

'How would you know that, she doesn't seem like the type to say anything that actually seems nice!' Zeal was distasteful.

'I know it because I'm her cousin.'

'And she still treats you like that?' Zeal asked in a mocking tone, 'from what I see, she is just a-'

'She made you angry but in order for that to happen, you have to have made her a lot angrier than you are. You have no right to be angry at her.' Olive frowned then at him disapprovingly.

Zeal wrinkled his face in confusion, 'She missed out on lunch today and that's my problem? I got assigned to her and here she is throwing a hissy fit!'

Olive looked at him in disbelief and began to laugh, 'Tars doesn't throw fits and if you really did cause her to miss out on her only food source for the week, that means you don't even deserve to be talking to me!'

'What do mean, is she one of those girls who relentlessly diet?' he laughed, 'that would explain a lot, she is such a prude and can't even bring herself to forgive a small thing that wouldn't even exist if she had just ate what other people were eating. There was a lot of other food-'

The slap dented on his face was red and hot. Olive looked in shock at him and at herself. Tars didn't look up from her book.

'Tars would have had a major allergic reaction if she even ate fish oil, as a kid she couldn't even eat meat! She was malnourished and nearly dead the last time we tried to feed her chicken!' Olive was crying then, Zeal noted it with shock, 'She went into shock at that time and me and my mother scrambled to find out why she was sick! We didn't even know that she was allergic to meat because her mom and dad-'

'Olive, that's enough.' Tars said neutrally from the sidelines and walked to her teacher, ignoring the eyes that bore through them as she did so.

'Go outside.' She told Olive.

Olive looked at Zeal with tear stained cheeks and obliged.

When she was gone, Tars stared at Zeal for a few minutes, watching as the heat climbed back into his cheeks after being doused heavily by Olive's drama.

'Do you have anything else to say?' she asked him a few seconds later, seemingly unaffected by the tension she had sewn.

'You heard all of that?'

'Why is it surprising, were we that far apart?'

'Why didn't you say anything?'

'It's none of my business.'

'How can say it's none of your business, we were talking about you!'

'Keep your voice down, it's a library we are in.'

'Tell me.'

She walked back to her chair and indicated for him to follow. When he sat himself down, Tars spoke.

'The only reason you went that deep into the conversation and the accusations was because you didn't believe that anyone like Olive should ever associate with someone like me. Her looks and the fact that she probably helped you when you were angry outside the door would have made up an image of her being an angel. Angels don't belong with people like me and you wholeheartedly agree with that because, maybe you were in a bout of chivalry or in a state of mind that wanted to help her after she helped you with my case. You wanted to return the favour and Olive didn't seem to be accepting it but you shouldn't have let it twist your panties as she is usually this way with me. The conversation might have been based off of me but you only delved deep into it because of your empathy for Olive and as such, it was none of my business.'

He stuttered for a few seconds before saying, 'Are you implying that I have an attraction for your cousin?'

'I'm stating that you have an attraction for my cousin but don't let that twist you panties again, every male whether their voluntary or not will always have good feelings for my cousin. It's even more obvious with you as you are a teenager.'

'And you're not?' the boy sneered, 'Isn't the only reason why you are being rude is because you don't know how to express your feelings for me?'

Tars looked at him blankly before returning to her book.

'There you go again.' The boy jeered, 'Being shy and prudish beca-'

'Why do you make it sound like I wouldn't be able to tell you if I was attracted to you?' Tar asked suddenly.

Zeal blinked in surprise, 'Because you wouldn't be able to be that direct with something like-'

'I'm physically attracted to you.' Tars said and redirected her attention to the book. 'But I'm sure it will pass.'

Zeal began to laugh, 'Tars, you are amazing.' He said and shook his head as he stood up and walked away from her.

When he left she let go of the breath she had been holding.

Thank god he is gone, thank god better he didn't believe me.

And then she continued to read.