The Overdue Book

[girl_in_a_tree]

Kalinka knocked politely on the door to Rei's room, at least so far as her memory carried her from that one visit some time ago. Within her over-sized pocket was a little, red book, one hand inside to rest upon the cover. Her expression was mostly blank, and if anything, she was thoughtful and reflective.

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[girl_in_a_tree]

"Gomennesai." Kalinka lowered her head apologetically, shuffling through her pocket and lifting the red book above it. Decidedly, she wasn't going to potentially butcher a full conversation of Japanese in front of this particular person, no matter how much she had gleaned over time. "I, had been meaning to return this sooner after I had found it. Hopefully, you weren't missing it too terribly."

Kalinka remained calm and honest, no matter how Rei saw fit to reclaim her diary. She would have simply talked over Rei if it was what it took to finish. "It, was after the incident with River some time back. Everyone was in the infirmary, so I went to see what happened up here, because I'm not fond of doctors, and I heard your metronome, and... Things were a mess, as if your father's men were looking for something. I turned off your keyboard, and put everything back where it looked to go, except for that." She motioned to the book. "I only read part of the page it was open to, because I didn't realize what it was, and then, I kept it, because I didn't know where you would have hidden it, so, I hid it with me."

The green girl sighed heavily. "I meant to give it back when you returned, you see. But it was stacked with all of my other books, and I mostly forgot about it until we spoke again, because we don't normally see each other."

[stcatsfiresoul]

The color drained from Rei's face as she saw her diary in this stranger's possession. She was completely dumbfounded, having given up hope of finding that book several weeks ago. Upon her return, she noticed a few things were out of order and not in their usual places, leading her to believe that one of her father's less scrupulous minions had the clever idea of spying on her. She found that her private diary was missing, as well as a stack of photos that had been sitting on her desk. The fire priestess had been pissed off for the longest time, furious at her father and his hired goons. But after six weeks it had not turned up, and Rei realized there was next to no chance that the little red book was still on this side of the ocean.

Normally her fiery temper would have lashed out at the girl for going through her room, taking her diary, and keeping it until the very last moment. But the sheer horror of seeing the pages containing her innermost thoughts in another person's hands, not knowing who may have read through them, left Rei completely speechless. While this was the only way that Kalinka would be able to say so much without interruption, Rei was so stunned by the journal's reappearance she only caught about half of the green girl's words. When the initial shock wore off and her temper finally began to show through, she snatched the book away from her older classmate and slammed the door shut between them in a mixture of embarrassment and anger, leaving Kalinka standing in the hallway without so much as a word spoken between them.

[girl_in_a_tree]

Kalinka folded her hands behind her head, staring forward and feeling nothing of the door but the rush of air past her face. "And I was fearing an awkward conversation..." Though lingering and mumbling, she honestly didn't have much else to say. She simply stood there in the empty hallway for a moment, mostly thinking to herself about anything else left to do before the end of the school year.

(OOC: Suppose that would be an obvious scene to whomever nearby. ^^;)