The Zodiac Spirit Guardians

The Crow of Death

As the time gruelingly passes on, I keep my head down to look at my sketch of a solid black crow with snowy white eyes. He's surrounded by a deep, thick pool of blood; his scowl grows gruesome and vulgar. He wears a metal collar around his neck with a dangling tag that reads "dog". I've sketched the crow of death. The bird smirks at the blood as if it were his own, devoted to his master beyond reason.

He's the only other thing that keeps me company, aside from Dessy, so my drawings always feature him. I've given him a backstory and everything, as if he's real. I don't usually draw the crow so gruesomely though. I've mainly chalked up the morbidness for the sake of Haruka's curious eyes, which have stubbornly remained glued to me while I neglect to leave the comfort of my hair fort to keep him from intimidating me with his ogling.

The release bell chimes and my teacher hustles out of the door before anyone else. I scoot from my chair and escape into the humming hallway, irked from the past one-hundred-twenty uncomfortable minutes. Dessy slides into position at my side within seconds, just in time for my dose of sunshine.

"It seems like the students were a bit more active today than usual, and you're looking a bit...tense..." Dessy mumbles, but when I don't respond she squeals and adds, "Haruka was so cute!" She hugs her books, nudging me playfully, "You are so lucky to sit next to him, he's insanely beautiful!" She shrieks a little and grabs my arm with a grip that could strangle. "Those gorgeous green eyes and that mysterious smirk he gives girls, I could die from happiness if I ever got one!" She thinks his glares are gifts, but she has no idea how his eyes have had a completely different effect on me.

"He's not very...pleasant." I say, prying her hands off of me. I hesitantly trudge towards my next class, hoping nothing strange happens again. "I don't understand what girls see in him." I mutter under my breath.

"There's no way that's true!" She reacts to the first part of what I said, "Haruka Rokisan is the most charming boy in our grade and maybe even in the whole school! I'm still not sure how you lucked out on sitting next to him, out of all the people in our class..." She trails off in a flutter of bewilderment and jealousy, and I can't possibly comprehend why.

"He called me a coward." I flick the metal spring on the side of my drawing notebook. I wish I had known how to ask Haruka what gave him that impression of me, but I'm not very good with expressing my true feelings in any acceptable way, obviously. And I'm starting to doubt he'd care to give an honest answer. I'm also starting to doubt that I would care for an answer.

"That's a weird pet name..." She touches her index finger to the corner of her mouth to contemplate. "He's like the perfect boyfriend! Don't you think?..." She continues to rant like a never ending fountain of childish optimism. "What're you going to do when he confesses his love for you?" Every word rushes out of her mouth in the hurried excitement of a five-year-old. She's lost her mind.

"I wonder when this pen will run out of ink...I've been using it a lot lately..." I twirl the writing tool in my fingers, completely ignoring what my sunshine said.

"Are you even listening to me?" Dessy squirms around and yanks the pen I hold out from my grasp. Her large eyes squint and her dainty hands ball into tight round fists by her sides. I trace my finger around my drawing. I don't feel like talking about the green eyed monster at this moment, and I may never feel like it. I wish she would just drop it.

"If you take the pen from me I can't use it..." My relaxed facial expression, and slight pouted lip, flare up Dessy's animated emotions in a heartbeat. She can see right through me, instinctively knowing when the lies slip through my teeth. And right now, I'm trying my hardest to make her give up on the subject completely by instigating irritation out of her.