Loop Two - Chapter Ten - Jade's Machinations

Team Svalinn’s second first class—at least to Amber—was once again Agartha Studies. As with the first time she’d taken the class, they found the principal and his secretary waiting for them at the front of the room, as well as the rather handsome teacher who was sitting by his desk.

Principal Lokisdaddy (according to himself) gave a short speech that was nearly word-for-word the one he’d given the last time Amber had been in this class.

It was like a three hour session of déjà vu.

Lunch followed, and at least she was able to commiserate with her friends about the horrors of having to take the same class twice. Morgan sympathised with her the most, it seemed. “At least,” the taller blonde said, “you’ll know all the answers when it comes to any tests.”

“I’d really rather only have to go to the class once,” Amber said. “Do you think I could get an exception or a pass if I’ve attended the class in another timeline?”

The others laughed, but Morgan remained serious. “I think you can, actually. Some magicals who have precognition need to take special versions of their tests, administered by anti-magic users or other precogs that can interfere with their powers. But I think they can also get a dispensation from most classes if they can prove they’ve seen everything that happens already.”

“That’s kinda wild,” Cassy said.

Morgan shrugged. “The academy needs to accommodate for a lot of strange cases. It’s part of why they exist in the first place.”

They finished lunch, and then it was off to their afternoon class. High School Equivalency was a little different from last time. To Amber, it was less than a week since she’d last spoken to her tutor, and the quizzes and questions she was given to gauge her skill level were the same. It felt a little like cheating, but then, the goal of the class was to learn, and she’d already done the first part of the lesson.

Her private tutor caught on quickly, though, and moved on to work that was more challenging and that Amber hadn’t seen yet. She had to rely on her own rusty skills a lot more than her memory to figure things out.

And so, just like that, their first day of lessons was over.

Team Svalinn regrouped outside of the school building, stretching and working out the kinks gained from sitting around for a few hours. “Now what?” Cassy asked, both of her arms stretched out as far above her as they would go until her arms shook.

“Now we do some training,” Morgan said. “Unless you want to eat first?”

“Urgh,” was Cassy’s enlightened response.

Amber held back a giggle, and she saw Jade looking at her, mirth playing in the shorter girl’s eyes. “Come on, just a couple of hours of work,” Amber said.

The gym wasn’t exactly empty, but their team made up about half the people within it. “It’ll fill up more once a few teams lose some matches, or get beaten up by some low-risk monster out in the wilds on their first mission,” Morgan said.

“Let’s hope we don’t have to risk that,” Amber replied. She shifted her shoulders, trying to make herself comfortable in the gym shirt she’d slipped into. The shirt was almost too small to fit. Her own fault for not paying attention to the sizes. “What sort of routine should we set up?” Amber asked.

“I like a three part system of legs, core, arms, more or less. Mix it in with some cardio, but cardio isn’t as important for magicals, and training the other three should help there anyway. It’s not like we’re doing this to burn calories.”

Amber nodded along, and with Morgan’s help—the blonde being as professional as ever, though she was undeniably helpful and even enthusiastic about their training, in her own way—she soon found herself behind a device that might have, to the untrained, looked like a torture machine.

Cassy sat in the one next to her, then started cursing under her breath after a few machine-assisted crunches. “I’d better be real hot by the time this is over,” she muttered.

“You’re hardly ugly,” Amber said.

“Wow, thank you,” Cassy said. “Not ugly. Thanks.”

Amber laughed. “No no, you know what I meant,” she said. “You’re very pretty, Cassy.”

Cassy huffed, but the sound of a gasp had Amber half-turning to see Jade sitting by a machine behind them. Jade grinned at her, cheeks rosy and eyes… somehow very dangerous.

Amber decided to not think about it much. She did her reps, occasionally shifting from one machine to another after wiping them down with a towel. She glanced over to where Morgan was, her entire body already covered in a sheen of sweat, breathing hard and brows set in a determined glare, with about twice her mass in weights clacking up and down behind her with every motion.

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“Show off,” Cassy muttered.

“Hardly,” Amber said, “I think she worked up to all of that.” She sat down at another machine, then glanced at a panel nearby with some simple instructions. They had little visuals and all.

“Yeah, I guess,” Cassy said. “So, what do you want to do after this?”

“Food,” Jade replied as she came closer. She seemed… up to something. “What’s your favourite, Cassy?”

“Me? I dunno, just anything, I guess.”

“There has to be more than that,” Jade said.

Cassy hummed. “I guess I like coffee shop stuff? You know, pastries and things.”

“I think there are a few nice shops in Norumbega,” Jade said.

Amber eyed her. Her gut told her Jade was up to no good, something in the girl’s tone, or maybe in the way she was standing there, being very casual while Cassy did a few reps.

“I guess,” Cassy said. “We could visit them, maybe? What do you like?”

Jade skipped right past the question, as if it were a speed bump and she didn’t have time for it. “You could fly down, you know? I bet they’re open right now.”

“I thought you didn’t like flying?” Cassy asked. “Or do you mean, like, alone?”

“No, going alone would be terrible,” Jade said with a shake of her head. “And yeah, I’d rather stay on solid ground. Take Amber. She likes that kind of thing.”

“Huh?” Amber asked. “I mean, sure, I guess?”

Cassy paused mid-exercise. “Uh, yeah, sure, if you want. I kinda want to see the school from above too.”

Amber shrugged. “I don’t mind.” It would give her an opportunity to scout things out as well, and to explore Norumbega. The city was pretty interesting. She knew there were documentaries about it, and she might have heard a thing or two in passing, but she’d never considered visiting it herself.

Jade sat across from Amber, smiling in a very self-satisfied way. Amber raised an eyebrow while meeting her eyes, trying to figure out what had pleased the girl so much, but Jade didn’t respond.

Training ended an hour or so later, with Morgan announcing that they’d done enough. She seemed fairly pleased, even if Cassy had slacked off for a good portion of it. It was likely decent progress, more than they’d gotten done in Amber’s first loop.

They hit the showers, which was about as awkward as Amber imagined it would be, even if they were all in separate stalls. Morgan seemed entirely unconcerned, but Jade’s face was beet red the entire time. Nothing was going to happen with the way the rooms were set up, but that didn’t make it less awkward.

“Hey, Morgan,” Jade said once she was out of her stall, her scarf wrapped around her head like a towel and keeping her hair up. “Do you think you could help me study some things later, after lunch?”

“Certainly,” Morgan said. “After lunch?”

“Sure,” Jade said. She bounced over to Morgan and stood next to the taller girl. “See you two later!” she called back.

“Uh,” Cassy said.

“I think we’ve been abandoned,” Amber said as she watched the two run off.

“Well, that’s something. What’s up with Jade? Like, you know her better than I do—was she acting weird?” Cassy asked.

Amber snorted. “Jade is definitely weird, but I don’t think she was acting in any way that was particularly so.”

“Hmm, she looks pretty normal most of the time,” Cassy said.

“I don’t think anyone on our team is normal,” Amber said. “So… a coffee place, huh?”

Cassy grinned. “Hell yeah! I’m not actually hungry, but I wouldn’t mind a drink.”

Amber nodded along. She might not be, but I’m starving… also, is this Jade trying to set us up on a date? I might have to talk to her about boundaries. And how two friends hanging out doesn’t constitute a date.

“So, uniforms, or do we change over to our magical gear?” Cassy asked.

“Uniforms, I think. Less conspicuous.”

“Alright, if that’s what you want,” Cassy said. She practically skipped out of the gym, around a group of older magicals heading in, and then to the centre of the soccer field next to the gymnasium. With a twirl, she summoned her broom, then leapt up on it. “Front or back?” she asked.

“Uh,” Amber said.

She couldn’t help but blush as she climbed behind Cassy and wrapped both arms around the girl’s waist. I think I might have to do more than have words with Jade; she’s putting stupid ideas in my head.

***