a Lesson of Lumine

Chapter Two: He Knows

Lumine nearly dropped her pencil when she realized who is was. Albedo told the same thing to Xiao as he did to her, and Xiao sat down in the back row. She was slightly disappointed that she could not gaze at him in the middle of class...wait... did that sound too weird?
It didn't take long for the rest of the students to come in. Aether, Yanfei, Xingqu, Hu Tao, Shinobu and even Bennett! Of course, other students followed. Bennett sat by Lumine as she was the only one that he felt as if his bad luck wouldn't affect that much. "Hey hey! How has your day been so far?" He asked, putting his backpack against his chair.
"Pretty good. Miss Ningguang is pretty nice and straightforward. Though I've heard about the other teachers...what about you?"
Bennett look nearly terrified as she finished, and looked down at his desk. Somehow he managed to put together the words, "Watch out for Mister Itto, the gym teacher. He's...energetic to say the least."
"Hm...I'll keep that in mind. Besides that, how has your luck been?" Lumine asked. His mood almost changed in the snap of a finger once more, returning to happy and upbeat. "I've only dropped my books twice! Well...three times, but that last one isn't really my bad...Still! It's progress!"
Lumine lightly clapped and politely cheered for her friend. They continued to speak until class began.

Albedo walked to the front of the room and stood beside the chalkboard. "Greetings and good morning everyone. I am Mister Albedo and will be working with my assistant, Miss Sucrose. If you come into an issue, don't hesitate to come to us. Now let's go over the content for the class before everyone asks questions." He waved softly, gestured to sucrose, and finished off as if he had planned it all. As he spoke, Aether and Xiao were silently passing notes in the back of the classroom.
"So how are you?" Aether wrote.
"Nothing to complain about. You?"
"I didn't realize you liked my sister so much ;)"
"What?? Explain yourself, I don't have time for this."
"Come on! You like my sister, you like my sister!" Aether drew a little stick figure dancing beside his note, indicating a sing-song tone. Xiao nearly crumples the paper, but didn't want to risk anything being caught by either of the teachers. "You are making about as much sense as Hu Tao - explain," he wrote back.
"Are you kidding? You clearly like her. Always acting so brave and tough, you're just a softie!"
"Continue."
"Do you want me to list it out? I know it's just the first day o' school, but you've thought about her for much longer!"
"I think about a lot of people. Does that mean I have multiple people I 'like'?"
"Stop playing dumb! Ugh... let's just go talk in the hallway between classes, mkay?"
"If you say so."

As Albedo finished his lecture, Bennett got up to gather his things and somehow slipped on his own backpack. He nearly hit his head on the chair. Luckily, Lumine did her best to make the fall easier. "Benny! Are you alright?"
"Y..Yeah, I'm good...My head feels weeeeeeeird," Bennett giggled.
"Here, can you stand up? I'll just take you to the nurse!"
"Haha, no need! Iiiiiiiii am BENNY! And I-" as he spoke, Bennett nearly fell again before continuing his speech, " -NEARLY slid!" Lumine simply laughed, before gathering both her things and his things. She got permission to leave early to take Bennett to Nurse Barbara, and they were off. Leaving Aether and Xiao to talk about whatever - or whoever - they wanted. "So..." Aether said with a smug grin. "If you're trying to get me to talk, good luck," Xiao grumbled, fumbling around with his backpack. "Fine - You know, I WAS gonna let you make a move on my sister, but now I'll resume being the good overprotective older brother that I am. Haha!"
"You think that is going to make me do anything? It's literally the first day of the school year, don't get ahead of yourself."
"If you say so. Good luck hiding your fEeLiNgS from the rest though!"
"...What do you mean 'the rest'?"
Suddenly, there was a shout of excitement from behind Xiao's shoulders. "Hiya!" Hu Tao smiled, appearing seemingly out of nowhere. "I heard your conversation!~" she said in a singsong tone.
"What interest do you all take in this?"
"Yes."
Xiao grumbled and just walked outside the door just as the bell rang, leaving Aether and Hu Tao alone. "Why does this feel so out of the blue?" He asked.
"I dunno - maybe Xiao has some adrenaline rush thing with school being in session? He didn't see Lumine over the summer, right?"
"Not that I know of. Whenever Xiao came over she was always be in her room or doing some chore, or whatever. Excuses galore!"
"I've heard worse...I've said worse," Hu Tao grinned before dashing away. Aether did his best to follow but ended up laughing in defeat.

The echos of students voices flew throughout the hall. It was practically a war zone with all the people clumped up in groups, slamming each other into lockers and even running through the halls faster than light (I'm looking at you Amber!). All while that was happening, Xiao was walking slowly, nearly hugging the wall in the process. As he walked his thoughts flew everywhere. Why was everyone pestering him about Lumine? They were good friends and Xiao didn't want to risk ruining it. He didn't want to make any new friends - too many annoying characters. Hu Tao was enough. Though when he thought about it...Lumine was quite pretty. Maybe it was her smile, her laugh, her voice, or even the way she always managed to help everyone with at least one piece of homework. That included the Teachers and their work as well. Whatever it is, it couldn't leave Xiao's mind. What did he see in her? Did she even see anything in him? He grumbled at the thought before stopping by his locker. As he did so, there was a single note with something attached to it.
Xiao -
Here's a little surprise, just in case you need it.
Send my regards to Mister Zhongli! Also, if you can,
come find me. I have a question - if you're alright with
it that is. Have fun with your classes! :)
Lumine ~

(FYI, I'm on a trip to chapters likely won't come out until around the july 30th - sorry homies)