May 2020

Ethan did not like Candy. Candy hated everyone. It was common knowledge. You didn't pair the two up for anything or it would end in disaster.

Everyone avoided being paired with Candy. As sweet as her nickname sounded, she was the opposite of it. Sure she was efficient and sure you would actually pass if you were paired with her but talking to Candy was a headache.

Ethan glared up at her one more time, questioning his luck on why they had to be paired for the project. He knew that if he protested, he'd be forced to take projects with her for the next three years or worse, they'll be seat partners. Ethan shuddered.

The girl had no expression on her face. Her dead eyes staring at the piece of cardboard so intensely, Ethan wanted to smack her with the flexible ruler just to see her reaction. He also thought of pulling the face mask off her face, just to see what she would do.

As soon as he'd had that thought, she snapped her head up to stare at him, startling him. She always did that. If you ever talked about her or thought something negative about her, she would immediately look at you like she had some sort of sixth sense for it.

"What?" She spoke, startling him again. Her voice was laced with a mix of annoyance and disgust and she was actually giving him a death stare.

Perhaps what made it scarier was the black mask she was wearing as only her odd brown eyes stared straight into his soul. She was dressed as usual, black turtleneck sweater with the school black skirt, black socks and black shoes. Everything she wore was black. Even the hair attachment was black. It always was.

It was annoying to Ethan.

"What?" He answered back and she hissed loudly, startling the people around her. When they saw why she hissed, they all hissed back, knowing exactly what had set her off.

They had been rivals for two years, throwing insults and throwing mean pranks. Then it suddenly stopped. It was unbelievable when Candy and Ethan started visiting each other's desks and talking for periods.

The feud had suddenly stopped. The peace lasted for months and then one day, Ethan was suddenly throwing all of Candy's belongings into the trash can.

The girl had said nothing, picking up the things she felt were important and placing them into her bag. Then she left a note in his desk.

That note had left Ethan shivering. It still did.

From then on, he resorted to annoying her and trying to make her snap. He had every right to be mad at her. But what made him furious was the fact that she always seemed to snap when he was nearby.

Ethan knew when she really hated someone. There was always this look. And now she directed it at him. She was glaring with so much intensity, Ethan wanted to run.

Then he heard the teacher. "Who hissed?"

Multiple gloved hands pointed at Candy and the teacher looked surprised. "You put the wrong people together Mr Grant." Someone said and he turned to find the person who spoke but to no avail.

Mr Grant looked surprised and then frowned. "If you both don't finish your project by the end of this period..."
That got both of them working.

But then suddenly they stopped. "You're doing it wrong. The needle goes in here." Ethan snapped. Candy looked up at him with fire in her eyes and he fought the need to run.

"Okay. Where does it go then?" She asked, her lips moving quickly behind the mask in annoyance.
Ethan grabbed his textbook to check and Candy snatched it. "You're not supposed to check the textbook Mister."

Ethan rolled his eyes and snatched it back. He was about to retort when Candy's whole expression went dead.

He turned around to find the teacher staring down at him with a look of unconcealed anger. "I thought I told you all to keep your books on my table?"

Ethan gulped and was about to lie but Mr Grant wasn't done. "You will sweep this class after school. Both of you."

Candy opened her mouth to protest with Mr Grant added. "I don't appreciate hissing in my class Candace. You know better."

Candy gave Ethan one last glare before snatching the cardboard and labelling the parts of the sewing machine. "Draw the thing fast so I can go and submit it."
She was pissed and Ethan knew it.

He didn't argue and did exactly as she said, not having the energy to poke on her as she was already pissed.
The rest of the classes went by with Ethan wearing a frown on his face. He pulled his mask off and pulled it on. Home economics had been the second to the last period of the day and now, they could go home.

He was ready to shoot out of the class when he remembered the punishment. He immediately yanked the mask off his face and put it in his pocket. It was uncomfortable.

He went to fetch the brooms but when he came back, the class was empty and Candy was nowhere to be found.

He searched the other empty classes. No one came to school anymore except for Jss3 and Ss3.

Dust filled up most of the classrooms and Ethan thanked God that they were only cleaning one.
"Ice Queen! Hey Ice Queen where are you?" He called.
There was no reply. 'she better not have left this thing for only me.'
He tried the last class, the door was unlocked and it was surprisingly neat.

There were chairs stacked up high and were pushed to block the sunlight from coming in from all windows, making the room dark.

He reached for the light switch to turn it on but it didn't work.
"There's no light." Someone said on the floor.

"Let's go and sweep the class or Mr Grant will report us to VP."
Candy didn't reply him and Ethan wondered if he had imagined her voice until she spoke, her voice tired.
"Five more minutes."

Ethan hated that he knew she was having a hard time. After all she used to talk to him. He pulled a chair from the stack and closed the door before sitting on the chair.

"Come here alot?" He asked after a while.
"Not your business." Came the immediate reply and Ethan fought the need to roll his eyes.

There was silence, a comfortable kind before he heard ruffling and then Candy stood up.

He thought he heard a sob but it was too dark to even confirm. Then he heard a sniffling and he realised she was actually crying.

On instinct, he walked towards her and hugged her. She pushed him away immediately but Ethan had already expected it. "Sorry." He muttered and she sharply replied.
"I don't need it."

Before Ethan knew what he was doing, he began to speak. "I could offer something else though."
He expected Candy to toss him out and ditch him but then she surprised him by being interested. 'Damn she must really be sad.'

"What if I..." He leaned towards where he thought her lips were and pecked her mask.

His eyes immediately widened and he was about to leave out of embarassment when her arms snaked around his neck and pulled him back in.

This time he met her lips but was shocked. Instead of the sweet innocent kisses from Candy that he was used to, she was violent and rough. Kissing him with an unbridled rage.

Ethan couldn't keep up. She was kissing him with agression and then suddenly, her hands were suddenly driving him mad.

She grabbed his short hair with one hand and slid her other hand down his pants, rubbing a tightened place with urgency that shocked Ethan.

He had began to groan when she suddenly stopped, fixed her masks and left a horny Ethan in the empty classroom. Wondering what the hell just happened?

***

Candace was voted to be the top fifth most innocent in the class. It irked Ethan that only he knew what she was really like.

At first she used to kiss him like she really liked him. That was until she ruined it all by hurting him and resuming their rivalry.

Then she kissed him in the empty classroom. Ethan never imagined her to be capable of such a thing. She would get shy when he even touched her butt but she was the one who...

Oh God.

Ethan could not stop thinking about her. About her lips, about her hands. He stared at her again only for his fury to grow. She didn't look like she was bothered by what had happened three days ago.

Hell she looked the same. Same black appearance, no earings and same scowl on her face.

She looked like she wanted to really hurt someone. Ethan noticed she had been like that for days and he wondered what could have caused it.

Someone tapped her to ask her something and then jumped when she turned to them with the same scowl.

Candace was never popular but then lately, she'd been coming to school in trendy clothing when it was mufty day. She'd wear expensive cologne and then use expensive attachment. She had changed on the outside but Candace was still Candace.

But to the class, Candace had now become Candy.

"Hey Candy can I borrow your notes?" The boy asked and Candy blinked slowly twice before quietly turning to her bag and then pausing. She then brought out three books and spread them on the table.

The boy looked bewildered. He hadn't told her what subject note he needed but she had guessed accurately. He muttered a thank you and scurried off to tell his friends.

That was the weird thing about Candy. She always knew. She would know if you were talking about her or if you'd talked about her. She could answer a question before you could even ask it. And she always left right before the class got into trouble.

Nobody had noticed this about Candy before or they just didn't care until she started getting noticed. They began to point out the strange things about her, including her rivalry with Ethan.

Ethan watched her narrow her eyes at the wall and he knew, judging by her expression, something was about to happen.

He was proven right when she suddenly slipped out of the class quietly without anyone but him noticing. He was not even given a chance to think about following her before the Vice Principal marched in and began a bag search, Mr Grant stumbling in after.

Ethan looked to her seat beside the window and as usual, her bag was not there. Candy never left her things anywhere. Not after he'd trashed them a few weeks ago.

"Is Candace not in school?" Mr Grant asked when he found her desk was empty.

The whole class acted surprised. No one had seen Candy leave and Ethan would rather swallow shit than admit he noticed the girl.

The class murmured and asked each other if they saw her in school that day. A few had said yes but none had seen when she slipped away.

The Vice Principal marked it as she was absent and left.

After a few minutes, Candace slipped back in...