But Susan had refused, saying that Aria was a good friend and she wouldn't go against her. It was then that they had threatened to hurt Susan's mother and Susan had done all that they had asked. She had called Aria on the pretext of asking some money from her, and when the two had failed to look at her face, had told them all about Joseph's ball and her wearing pants.
"No wonder they kidnapped Helen. They were looking for a girl with long blonde hair wearing pants!" Aria mumbled to herself as Susan finished.
Seeing that she wasn't saying anything, Susan pleaded once more, "Please Aria! You need to understand. They threatened to hurt my mother!! And I truly had no idea they were with the night warriors, I thought they were the queen's men, and you really were the queen's daughter."
Aria scoffed as she turned to look at Susan's tear strained face. "You have no idea what everyone has had to go through because of what you did. But since no serious damage was done to anyone, I'll let this slide, only on account of your mother. But if you ever do something like this Susan, I will personally punish you." Aria said and turned to go away.
"Aria . . . " she turned upon hearing her name. "And one more thing. Do not ever try to contact me again." Aria spat out the words before flying away from the scene, leaving behind a shivering Susan.
Aria was very disturbed and in no position to go to class as she landed in front of the castle, but she could not afford to miss any more classes. She was already very behind due to being in the recovery ward for months, and if she wanted to continue with her original plan of graduating next year, she needed to work as hard as she could.
Grumbling and angry, Aria dragged herself to class. She met Stephen on the way and snapped at him, and made a mental note to apologise later.
Luckily, not a lot of students took earth bending, and even more dropped out as the difficulty increased (since everything except for water was optional) so the class was relatively empty. Aria parked herself on an empty bench, in no mood to talk to anyone, and turned her attention towards the professor.
One month later . . . .
Aria walked out of the exam hall, wiping her brow. It was easily the hottest month of the year and Aria could argue that this was the hottest day of the month.
Plus the professor in charge, for some inexplicable reason, had insisted on keeping all the windows closed during the exam, so that the exam hall had turned into a ball of fire.
"How was it?" Aria turned upon hearing Joseph's voice and was ready to bite off his ear when she saw what he held in his hand.
"Is it?" she asked, staring in anticipation at his hands as Joseph let out a laugh. "Look at you, all excited." he said as he handed a small box to Aria, "And it most certainly is."
Aria tucked the box into her pocket as she started to fan herself. "Thank you so much Joseph. I really owe you one." she said as Joseph bent down to retrieve something else from behind him.