"Uuuuuhh… that’s the stuff."Jason moaned in pleasure, munching on a meat-laden sandwich.

"You know Bud, I should have been a chef," He sighed glancing at Felix who sat opposite him on the long table "so worth the extra abb workout."

Felix just shook his head deciding to focus on his meal.

They were in the cafeteria_AKA Mess Hall; ceramic tiles, roofed like an oval-shaped dome, with the colours green, red and yellow hoisted from the roof. All around students sat across each other from long oak tables chatting jovially. Others were much quieter focused on their food. Felix today was one of them which was quite out of character. Usually, he and Jason would end up cleaning the mess hall as punishment for yelling and excessive noise-making.

On such days, it was Jason’s considerable willpower that stopped him from strangling the little parrot. Jason rolled his eyes "Is it not a little too early for mopping?"

"Some of us can't just breeze through the training arena you know."Felix raised his head, eyeing Jason meaningfully. "Some of us are just so tired of coming last in class, only ever moving forward because our parents are influential."

Jason sighed, finally understanding felix’s point. "I'm guessing you had another harmless chat with your dad huh?"

"No!" Felix said a little too quickly

"uh-huh," Jason muttered. "Look man, not everyone is cut out for this kind of life." Jason hesitated knowing how fickle the line he walked was. "You could just quit and walk out of here."

Felix was silent for a while then shook his head, Jason nodded. This was yet another conversation they'd had before. As poorly as Felix did at the academy, he couldn’t quit. His no-good doshebag of a father would smile at him, pat his back and then inconspicuously toss him into a remote island preferably close to Bermudos, one with no civilisation, no means of communcation, and worst of all, Jason shuddered at the thought, no "Fufu and Eru”, disgusting.

"Yeah, I get you," Jason said "But hey, look on the bright side."

"What bright side?"

"You are stuck with me, the best of the best. How awesome is that?" Jason grinned. Felix groaned but his lips twitched slightly upwards.

"Right. Exactly how awesome are you?" Felix chuckled, getting more into the conversation. "There are 20 students in our class, and you are ranked what 17th?"

Jason’s eyes widened in mock annoyance. "’am not," he pouted. "I'll have you know that I rank a whopping 16th in our year."

"And that’s so much better isn’t it? You rank 4th from bottom and that’s what's got you so proud?" Felix erupted in laughter.

Jason blushed furiously "It’s 5th from bottom math genius” Jason shot back.

The other students listening in on their conversation struggled to hide chuckles.

"Competiton’s pretty strong" Jason muttered, not convincing anyone, certainly not me. "Besides, as I recall, you aren’t doing any better, what are you again? What was that number?” He made to be in serious thought "I know I have it at the top of my head somewhere. Ahh, I've got it” Jason exclaimed gleefully. "20th. You are ranked number 20, out of 20 cadets I might add.

It was Felix’s turn to go red.

"Honorable achievement if you ask me." Jason chuckled. "Even taking into account that about seven of said 20 students are overly pampered spoiled brats of the high and mighty." He managed to keep a straight face. "Still, such an achievement must not be undermined. For that my friend, I say well done."

Jason raised his goblet in mock toast, eyes twinking with humour. Having mercy on Felix who had shrunk ever so deeper into his bench, Jason decided to end the teasing.

"That’s right, So don’t go being the kettle that calls the pot black." He finished with a snigger and his trademark smirk. Felix opened his mouth as if to respond but then closed it, his disposition turning dark.

"Oh no, here comes your nemesis and his blokeheads." Felix groaned. Three boys who looked about Jason's age swaggered into the mess hall, and approached Felix and Jason’s table. Jason grimaced, Justin and his goons.

"I see the summer holiday did you good Justin."

Fair-skinned before, now Justin spotted a tan. His muscles had filled out nicely, jet-black hair too short to cover the menace in his cocoa-brown eyes.

"Unlike you and this pathetic punk over here, some of us put in the work." He gestured at Felix who shrunk deeper in his seat.

"You know," Jason started, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "For someone who claims to hate me so much, you sure do spend a lot of time talking to me. Hope my dashing good looks and charming smile have not grown on you?" Jason smirked.

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Justin flushed, his chest heaving with obvious rage, he took an aggressive step forward and slamming his hand on the table, spilling Jason's meal.

"Why you little punk, I’ll show you…ahh_" while he had gone on his rant, Jason had glided over the table, let loose a right fist on the bigger of the two goons, let's call him goon 1 ,in the face, breaking cartilage. He swiveled to face fat face, we’ll call him goon 2, who had started towards him. Dodgeing a lazyly thrown arm, he stepped into his guard, and unloaded a dropkick.

Jason then slowly turned to face Justin who hadn’t moved. He looked scared but shook it off and began his advance. Jason smiled. Soon, Justin was screaming. He was on the cold hard tiles, face pressed down, left arm viciously twisted on his back. Jason was on him, knee pressed firmly on his shoulder blades.

"You think these drug-inflated arms mean anything to me?" Jason growled, anger spilling out of his voice.

"You imagine because you walk around with these mindless goons, you are safe from me? I beat you before and I can do it again whenever I damn well please. You-are-nothing." His voice was flat, without emotion.

Justin tried to squirm out of Jason's grip but found Jason's hold like iron. He whimpered again when Jason yanked the already twisted arm.

"Next time you decide to go on a trip cavorting like you own the place, remember who the real boss of the seconders is. Now get out of my sight!"Jason dismissed the fallen boys and returned to his seat attempting to eat off a wide Felix’s plate.

"Oh no you don’t" Felix yelled, slapping Jason's hand which had managed to grab a chicken.

"Keep those thieving tentacles to yourself" he yelled. His eyes were sharp, making sure Jason stole nothing more from his plate. Jason grinned shamelessly.

Meanwhile, Justin picked himself gingerly off the floor, eyeing Jason warily. He stumbled and his goons struggled to catch him.

"Get away from me you incompetent buffoons!" he yelled. He dusted his rumpled uniform and approached Jason who had got himself another plate of food. He swung his hand on the table spilling Jason's food on the floor

"I challenge you to a top-of-the-class duel!" he yelled making sure that everyone still in the mess hall heard. Deafening silence filled the mess hall. You could hear a Needle drop.

Jason hid his shock well, making sure none of it showed on his face. Inside though, he was panicking. He couldn't have a duel, it was too much attention. Surely even the satisfaction from beating down the big idiot again would not be recompense enough for appearing on the Shadow's radar. No, it wouldn't.

Jason did not look up, he slowly cleaned away the bread and meat crumbs that had fallen on his Uniform. Justin’s anger only rose with this.

"Did you not hear me? I challenge you to a top-of-the-class duel, or are you too cowardly to accept."

That raised a lot of boos from the crowd who wanted a response from Jason, hopefully a fight. Bloodthirsty teenagers, the lot of them.

Jason finally raised his head and leveled a stare at Justin. Justin returned his stare but eventually looked away. Jason chuckled.

" No." He said not so loudly

"What was that?"Justin demanded.

He had heard Jason say no, just as expected. He never really intended to challenge Jason. A top-of-the-class Duel involved getting credits from combat, strategy exercises, tests, and the End-of-year-class ranking combat tournament. He knew he couldn’t beat Jason in those things, so he’d satisfy himself by humiliating him and calling him as a coward.

"I said no," Jason responded, dreading the words as they left his mouth. "I reject your challenge"

You could do a toothpaste commercial with Justin's smile, way too many teeth. "Ooh is that so? Is the mighty Jason only able to show his strength in a scheming underhanded attack on his opponent who showed him civility? Is he so mighty that he finds a proper challenge to prove the superior party beneath him?" he mocked.

Jason smirked, appearing mildly bored but his mind raced. He needed to come up with a solution that didn’t involve him fighting in tournaments or going against Justin. He just did not need that sort of official attention on him. Not after all his effort to be inconspicuous in his first year.

He couldn't afford shadow taking an interest in him. But no matter how much he raked his brain, he couldn’t see how he to get out of this one. If he refused, he’ll never save face, with the students, he’ll be considered a coward.

Even his lecturers and tutors would disapprove of his decision because they hated cowards and encouraged competition, no matter how ruthless. Felix sensed his friend's delema tried to step in

"I don’t think we should be doing this, you both need to calm down_"

"I accept."Jason suddenly said, quite clearly for everyone to hear.

Everyone froze, staring at him with varying emotions. Felix in surprise and after a brief nod and smile from Jason, in happiness that his friend was finally stepping out of the shadows. Justin in shock and then fear at the thought of having to face Jason in combat. Regardless of all his showboating, he hadn’t really intended on fighting Jason.

He knew Jason didn’t want the attention for whatever reason and thought to capitalize on it. All he wanted was to humiliate Jason and brand him a coward. Now however, it seemed he had done the opposite. Jason was going to take him on and the rest of the class. He knew Jason could beat him, and from what he had seen, he couldn’t be below the top five in class.

He didn’t want Jason having even more attention than he already had. Taking a deep breathe, he portrayed a sense of confidence he wasn’t feeling.

"Alright, we duel at the end of the first semester, before class ranking battles." He forced a smile, signaled for his goons a to follow out and sauntered away.

"Prepare for the ass-whooping of the century Justin, I will not look kindly on you."Jason chuckled, succeeding to steal a juicy looking chicken leg off Felix's plate.

His laughter soon died when a shadow descended on him.

"You two are the ones going to get an ass-whooping so intense you won’t be seating on them for weeks if this mess you created is not cleaned by the time I’m done with the dishes."

Jason and felix both slowly rasied ther heads to look upon the towering figure with guilt. They were both very familiar with the grave womaly voice, and it didn’t bode well for them. It was Mama, the caffetaria chef. She was over six feet tall, sharp facial features gave her a ruthless look, and while she was motherly to all decent students, she could be very ruthless to the naughty ones and Jason was nothing if not naughty.

He gulped. "Yes mama!" They answered in unison, Felix with barely contained panic, and Jason with his 'Alright you got me' grin.

"I know you will my boy." She smiled looking fondly upon Felix. "You however," her gaze pined Jason to his seat .

"If you so much as rest for a second insead of scrubbing the floor, I will make sure you spend the rest of your time in the Academy cleaning domitary toilets till you smell just like them" Jason's throat was dry, his stomach in a knot.

She winked, a dark gleam in her eyes, turned moveing away, swinging her ladel fondly.

Jason and Felix shared a look, nodded and dove into cleaning.