9:56 AM.
The first lesson ended, and the students had some time to relax until the next one started. Malakai, Benjamin, William, and Delilah were talking to each other to pass the time.
"I'm tired", Malakai yawned, covering his mouth.
"Bro, you overslept and came in late. How are you tired?" William said, shaking Malakai's desk.
"Did you stay up late?" Delilah asked.
"Naah, I just love sleeping", Malakai said, resting his head on the table.
"I fully understand", Benjamin agreed.
"I'm surprised no one's come up to you, Malakai. You're the only student to have points", Delilah said. "Why did you challenge him?"
Malakai lifted his head. "It's too early. I think people will approach me later. And why did I challenge him? cuz... I don't even know. I felt like it".
"Really? Is that it?" Delilah said, looking at him, thinking he was joking.
Malakai stretched, "Well, he was chatting shit to me, to my face. I wasn't going to punch him or fight him, so I just thought of something I could hurt him with".
"You know we thought of stopping you", William told Malakai, "But we realised it might've been useless".
"Yeaaahh. Let's forget bout yesterday. Other people are going to come up to me to ask the same thing. Let's just look at what everyone else is doing", Malakai replied, looking around.
"Look at Ray. He's making friends", Benjamin pointed out.
Ray was smiling and talking to the girl next to him, and the boy sat in front of him.
"I feel like a proud dad", Malakai joked.
Delilah was out of the loop, "Is he a kid or something? Why do you treat him like one?"
"He's our little brother", William replied.
"Not actually, but basically", Benjamin added.
Delilah looked at Ray. "He does look innocent, like a kid".
"What's Lucas and David doing?" Malakai asked, looking towards the front.
David was reading a book while Lucas had his head on the desk.
"Bro, whenever I look at this guy, his head is on the desk", Malakai said.
"This academy got him depressed already", Benjamin giggled.
An idea popped up in William's head. "Should we throw something at him?" he suggested.
"Great idea. What should we throw?" Malakai excitedly asked.
Everyone looked to their desks to try and find something good to throw, but none of the boys had anything.
Delilah picked up an eraser on her desk. "We could throw this", she said, holding the eraser.
Their faces lit up, excited that they found something, but they all had an idea. The three of them looked at each other and smiled, knowing exactly what each of them was thinking.
"As you came up with the idea, I think you should throw it", Malakai said.
"Huh", Delilah was surprised to hear that.
"It is also your eraser. It would be rude if any of us threw it," Benjamin said.
"I agree. It wouldn't make sense if we threw it." William nodded.
"But all of you came up with the idea to throw something at him", Delilah replied, trying to get out of the situation she got herself in.
"Yeah, and you came up with the idea of throwing YOUR eraser at him." Malakai smiled.
"I'm not good at throwing", she argued back.
"If you miss, then we'll throw something of ours", Benjamin compromised.
With the majority against her and everyone having an argument against her. It looked like she had no choice but to accept.
Delilah let out a sigh, "Fine, but if I miss, don't blame me".
Delilah slowly stood up, picked up the eraser and took aim. Lucas was sat at the front, so it was pretty far. She looked around the class and saw no one looking at her except the three boys and the people in her row. She closed one eye to get better coordination; once she felt like she got the angles right, she threw it. The throw wasn't powerful, but it floated in the air. It was a completely different throw from what the three boys would have done; they would have thrown it like an arrow—a straight line towards Lucas's head, dealing a lot of damage. Delilah's throw was a curve; it went up lightly and would eventually come down with force.
THUD!
The eraser landed right on Lucas's head. From the height the eraser came down from, it looked like it would hurt a little despite it being an eraser.
The four of them looked at each other with open mouths and widened eyes in shock. It went perfectly. Delilah quickly sat down and opened a textbook and started looking through it.
Lucas opened his eyes, lifted his head from his desk, stood up, and turned around—all in silence. He death stared towards their direction. Malakai was looking at the ceiling, Benjamin was looking at his pen, and William was counting to ten on his fingers.
"Which one of you three threw that?" Lucas calmly asked.
The three of them looked up at him and shrugged their shoulders. The whole class had stopped their conversations to check out what was happening.
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"I'm serious. Who hit me with the eraser?" Lucas said in a cold tone.
"What eraser? I didn't see anything", Malakai cluelessly said.
"What happened? Did something hit you?" William cluelessly said.
"We didn't throw anything we were revising", Benjamin cluelessly said.
"REVISING!? WHERE?! MALLY WAS LOOKING AT THE CEILING, YOU AT YOUR PEN AND WILL WAS COUNTING HIS FINGERS. THE FUCK YOU MEAN!" Lucas shouted.
"Excuse me, can you sit down. My lesson hasn't even started and you're shouting". Lucas turned around; the chemistry teacher was standing behind him."If you're going to swear and behave like that, you can get out of my class".
Lucas slowly sat down. "I'm sorry, sir", he apologised, embarrassed.
The three boys in the back started giggling, loud enough so Lucas could hear.
"They got you good", David whispered to Lucas.
Lucas lowered his head and breathed in. "I don't care who threw it. I'm punching all three of them".
12:12 PM.
It was lunch break for the students. They could do whatever they wanted for an hour, eat at the cafeteria or go to a restaurant at the campus mall. The cafeteria was the more popular option as the restaurants and other food spots were a ten-minute walk or longer from the academy building. As usual, the cafeteria was busy with people, with few places to sit. The cafeteria is usually filled with first-year students because second and third-year students normally eat elsewhere or don't attend class. The tables were already segregated, with students sitting with people from their classes; it didn't look like there was any free mixing between classes. No alliances were made yet, but glances were thrown around, dirty looks were exchanged, and uncomfortable stares were present. The atmosphere was toxic. A table of three was placed on the side of the cafeteria, nearly out of sight of everybody, including three students from 1-A.
"When do you think a challenge will happen? I'm thinking this Friday", Isabella asked, looking at the two boys.
"That would be a good time. At the end of the first week, it is something like a starter challenge. Warm us into the year", Frank replied, sipping his water.
Alexander put down his coffee. "There won't be any challenges this week. There will be a challenge set next week", he said.
Isabella looked at Alexander. "Really?" she reacted, surprised he sounded so sure. "How do you know?".
Alexander took a sip of his coffee. "This week is just for us to settle back into studies. They want to make it feel like high school again. Then, next week, they set the challenge at the start of the week. It's not a challenge; it's a starter challenge, like you said", he said, looking at Frank.
"Set? So the challenge won't happen straight away?" Isabella was trying to get answers to help her prepare as much as possible.
Alexander just nodded, not giving her much to use.
"How do you know so much?" Isabella directly asked, trying to get information about Alexander now.
Alexander finished his coffee and put the cup down. "My brother was a student here a few years ago".
Isabella got an answer she didn't expect. "Wow, did he do good?".
"No, he did terribly", he said coldly.
Frank gave a look towards Alexander, knowing it was a touchy subject.
"Oh", Isabella wasn't too sure what to reply with as Alexander's tone wasn't too inviting for an apology out of sympathy.
"The challenge is soon, so let's just prepare and try our best", Frank said to kill the silence and awkwardness.
"Yeah", Isabella replied. Isabella looked around the cafeteria and saw everyone occasionally glancing towards one direction in particular. It was towards Malakai's table. "How is he in 1-C? Just from yesterday, I feel like he should at least be in 1-B", Isabella said, staring at Malakai.
Frank looked towards Malakai. "He's interesting. I don't know how to feel about him. I like watching him as a bystander, but being involved with him seems a bit too much for me".
"He's like a class clown, but he doesn't seem stupid to be doing all this for no reason. I feel like he's got an ulterior motive", Isabella said. "What do you think?" she asked Alexander.
"I don't care about him. I already forgot his name, and I don't want to know his name. His type is the worst. All this attention for what?" Alexander said condescendingly. He looked towards Malakai and saw him laughing and smiling with his friends. "He's just another idiot", he mumbled.
He kept staring at Malakai. Smiling Malakai. A sight he had always seen whenever he looked at him. Was this guy seriously going to be a problem for him? An attention-seeking idiot? Or is he an idiot?
On the other side of the cafeteria, a boy started chuckling to himself, observing everyone. Even looking at the three students from 1-A.
"Ryan, what happened? What's funny?".
"Nothing, I think I just found more pieces to the jigsaw?".