"Oh man, I cannot wait to stuff some food in my stomach!," Thomas exclaimed as he excitedly looked over the menu. So many options, but he could only choose one meal.
"Surely Thomas could not be that hungry, right?," Adam asked, looking at Allen and Cecily for a reasonable answer.
Just right after Adam asked his question, Thomas' stomach growled almost loud enough for the whole restaurant to hear.
"I believe that answers my question," Adam laughed.
"Do not underestimate how much he will eat," Allen shrugged. Cecily nodded in approval.
"I bet you I could eat twice as much as Thomas," Sybil challenged.
"Oh really? I'll take you up on that," Thomas grinned, knowing he could win.
"Umm, let's not forget this is coming out of my wallet, so maybe try something else?," Adam asked nicely.
"Maybe who can eat the fastest?," Allen suggested.
"And have to carry Sybil back to her dorm room? No thanks," Oliver shook his head.
"Hey! That was ONE time, okay!," Sybil yelled.
"Let's not be too loud guys," Adam advised as a few people from other tables were looking at them in confusion.
"Ugh, fine," Sybil sighed in annoyance, but complied.
"Well, have you guys decided what to order yet? We still need to decide our drinks," Adam said as he pointed at the menu.
"Cool it, I'm still looking over the menu," Sybil swatted her hand at Adam right before going back to reading through it.
This is going to go longer than I thought, Allen noted.
Allen, Thomas and Cecily alongside Adam, Sybil and Oliver were all at a local restaurant located in London, not that far away from the academy.
The weekend after their duel against the D ranks, Adam offered to take them to a restaurant as a means of an apology for their actions.
While Allen ensured it was not necessary (even when Thomas tried to push it, as he's always hungry), Adam still insisted. Which brought them to this very moment, which was deciding what they wanted to eat.
Allen, Thomas, and Cecily sat on one side of the table, with Allen near the end. Likewise, Adam, Sybil and Oliver sat on the other side of the table, with Adam across from Allen.
Since Adam is paying, they are allowed one meal and drink each. How Adam has enough funds for six people, Allen has no idea. Perhaps he's in a highly influential family that Allen wasn't aware of?
Everyone finally went back to the menu, and began looking at what they wanted to order. They already received their drinks at this point (twice for Thomas, because he spilled his), so all that was left was looking at the menu.
"What should I get? Everything looks good!," Thomas exclaimed while his eyes continued to dart across the menu.
"I would recommend this one," Adam pointed at one of the options on his menu, showing Thomas.
"Hmm, maybe I'll try that one," he replied as he went back to looking at the menu.
"Is this your first time here?," Adam asked, curious.
"First time here? I think you mean the first time at any restaurant," Thomas answered.
"Really? You've never been to a restaurant before?," he asked, appalled.
"If it helps, I haven't been to one before," Allen added. Cecily nodded her head in agreement.
"All three of you?"
They all nodded their heads in response.
"Interesting. Don't you all live nearby?," he asked.
"Cecily and I live here, but our living situation is a bit… complicated," Thomas scratched the back of his head.
"Oh, I see," he nodded in understanding. "What about you Allen? If I may ask"
"I don't mind. I live in a small village west of London, about several days by a carriage out," Allen pointed west while talking.
"You just know where west is?," Thomas asked, confused. "I only know left and right"
"Well, I kind of had to know because my family owns a farm and all…," Allen nervously explained.
"A farm?," everyone asked all at once.
"Well yeah, almost everyone in our village owns or works on one. It's pretty inconvenient that none of them are earth mages, or mages in general," Allen explained.
"You're the only mage from your village?," Oliver asked.
"Yeah, it just turned out that way," he shrugged.
They talked for a bit longer, but they finally all decided what they wanted to eat. It took a little bit of time for their food to be ready, but once it was, you could see the excitement in everyone's eyes as their server brought their food to their table.
"Oh, how I am going to love this!," Thomas said, practically bouncing out of his seat.
"I'm sure you will. I've had that one befor-," Adam began to say, but before he could finish, Thomas was already chowing down on his food.
"This is so good," he mumbled while eating his food.
"Tom!," Cecily pushed his shoulder.
"I know, I know," he muffled through his food again as everyone laughed. So much for learning how to have manners at a table.
Once everyone finally started to eat and enjoy their food for a bit, Adam finally spoke up.
"So, I think it's time that we discuss our reasons for the duel," he started.
Everyone paused eating and looked over at him. Oliver and Sybil seemed to understand where he was going.
"Adam, we already accepted your apology, it's all in the past now," Allen spoke on his, Thomas, and Cecily's behalf.
"I know, but I feel like it would only be fair to let you guys know why we suddenly caused you trouble," he continued.
Allen, Thomas, and Cecily all looked at each other for a moment, before Cecily nodded her head.
"Go ahead," she spoke up.
Adam went on to explain how many in the D rank class are also mistreated within the academy. As they are almost the lowest in ranking, they are generally looked down upon by the higher ranked students.
This wasn't any different for Adam, Sybil and Oliver. They would often face problems day to day with other students, including the ones in their own class.
Most of the D ranked students could care less about their position. They are either too weak to be able to go further, or are some students with high magic but don't care about their rank.
Adam would then go on to explain about how they began to hear about the F ranked class. They heard about Allen, who managed to defeat high ranking students, and rumored to be involved with some as well.
Adam admitted he began to feel jealousy over it. How could an F rank, even lower than him, manage that? He wanted to see for himself.
Sybil and Oliver also added their own reasons. Sybil had become annoyed mostly with Thomas, who was a Terrastone yet was an F rank. Her thoughts were how could a Terrastone of all people manage that? She felt her own jealousy, that maybe if she had been born a Terrastone she would be a lot stronger. This would explain her hostile behavior mostly towards Thomas.
Oliver admitted he didn't care about it as much as Adam or Sybil, but he still wanted to see for himself who these F ranks were.
They once again apologized for their actions, as they now realize their mistakes and realize that Allen, Thomas, and Cecily are really good people.
"Thank you," Allen said. "I appreciate you guys telling me"
"Same for me," Thomas added. "We know you already apologized, but we accept it. You guys are cool, especially paying for my food!"
"Tom!," Cecily looked at him.
"What?," he asked, seeing no issue with it.
"Anyways, like Tom said, thank you," Cecily nodded.
"No problem. I'm just glad we got everything settled out better than what could've happened," Adam responded, smiling.
As they got back to eating their food, their conversations kept going.
"Do you mind telling us what the D ranked class is like?," Thomas asked, shifting in his seat.
"We'd already be D ranked if you studied like you were supposed to," Cecily mumbled.
"Hey-"
"The D ranked class? It's not all that interesting, to be honest," Adam answered, thinking to himself.
"Our teach is alright, if that's what you mean," Sybil added. "Class is easy and straightforward"
"If by easy you mean he basically has us open up our textbooks and read the material for ourselves," Oliver interjected. "I'm surprised he's still a teacher. Guess the academy will take what they can get"
That sounds a whole like our own teacher, Allen thought to himself.
"Wow, that's not that far from our own class," Thomas suddenly spoke. "Our teacher basically sits in her chair all day and reads"
"Really?," Adam asked, surprised. "Least our teacher has the decency to teach, most of the time anyway"
"What's the F rank class like? Is it as bad as I have heard?," Sybil asked.
"Basically," Allen shrugged. "You'll walk out of that classroom with more dust on your hands than knowledge in your brain"
"Maybe, if we're talking about Thomas," Cecily giggled.
"Hey! I'm not that stupid!," Thomas refuted. Everyone laughed as Thomas pouted for a few minutes.
"While we are still on the subject of classes and such, mind telling us what you guys do for your training?," Adam asked.
"Yeah, we would love to know how to get better," Sybil agreed.
"Our training tactics aren't as great as they seem, since you easily beat all three of us," Oliver added.
"Well…," Thomas started to speak, but looked over to Allen. After all, Allen was the president of their training club.
Allen thought for a moment. Was it really okay to tell them about it? He supposed he could leave out some details about everyone, the club and the training, but he didn't see the harm in telling them some of it.
"Well, if you're interested in getting better at training, the first thing I would start with is keeping it consistent, if not already," Allen advised.
"Consistent? You mean like training each week?," Adam asked for clarification.
"Yes. You'll want to make sure you're training at least a few days each week for several hours at a time, to start with," Allen clarified.
"Really? We needed to train that much?," Adam asked, baffled.
"We already learn in class, why do we need to train that much more?," Sybil asked, chewing on her straw, as she finished her drink.
"Well, we do need to get better, if we ever want to get to C rank," Adam pointed out.
"Dunno, D rank is pretty easy to me," she shrugged.
"Of course you'd say that," Oliver rolled his eyes.
"Anyways, just starting off with that is good. From there, you'll want to focus on your strengths and weaknesses with your magic. What can you do with what you have, and how you can make up for what you lack," Allen continued.
"I see," Adam said, thinking to himself. "Is it really that simple?"
"Yeah, I thought stuff like this was commonplace, but apparently not," Allen admitted.
"To be fair, the academy has a lot of upperclass students who think they're too good to train. You three are probably one of the few who actually put a lot of effort in," Oliver explained.
"Really?," Thomas asked. "I just do it cause it's a lot better than sitting down at a boring desk all day.
"Hmm," Cecily proceeded to glare at Thomas.
"What? I'm sorry, but I don't find enjoyment in the textbooks like you do. You know that"
"Yeah, yeah," Cecily rolled her eyes before going back to eating her food.
"Another core thing all you three need to work on is teamwork," Allen proceeded to continue. "I noticed throughout the entire duel that you three almost seemed to do your own thing. While the three of us knew exactly what we wanted to do, we also allowed for improvising if needed. We understand each other, and know what we want to do without communicating out loud all the time"
"Interesting. Normally I just yell at Adam really loud when I have something to say," Sybil casually shrugged, as if she saw no problem with that.
"Yeah, right directly in my ear!," he stared at her, holding his right ear as if his ear remembered that moment.
"Anyways, we will keep that all in mind," Oliver responded for them, as Adam and Sybil got into their own conversation. "Anything else you could add for us?"
"Well, we devote our time in our training club," Allen added.
"Training club?," Adam asked as he and Sybil both quickly turned their heads.
"Mind if I join that? I bet it would be a lot of fun," she grinned.
"Well…," Allen started to say, as he turned to Cecily and Thomas.
The looks on their faces said they didn't know what to say, so it looked like it was up to Allen, their club leader, to respond.
"Well, I would have to check with our club sponsor, but unfortunately our club's meetings are terminated for the time being," Allen answered.
"Terminated, really?," Adam asked, intrigued. "So it's not just the other clubs. Seems most of them are getting terminated temporarily"
Wait, really?, Allen thought. Seems like something big might be happening soon.
"Anyways, it's okay if we can't join, but it would be cool if we could," Adam smiled.
"Sure, we will keep that in mind," Allen nodded.
The six of them continued to talk for a bit, laughing at jokes and enjoying stories. Once it was getting too late, they started to wrap things up, including Adam paying for the bill.
Allen, Thomas, and Cecily made sure to thank Adam once again for the food. Adam said it was his pleasure, but deep down a part of himself died from all the money he spent in one sitting.
As they all began to part ways again, they did so now as friends. However, before Allen could exit the building, Adam caught him.
"By the way," Adam started to say. "I wanted to give you a heads up about something"
"What's up?," Allen asked, interested in what Adam stopped him for.
"You should look out for what's coming Monday," he grinned,
"And what's coming Monday?," Allen asked.
"Unfortunately I cannot tell you, but what I can tell you is I received the word from my teacher, Mr. Lyon"
Mr. Lyon told him something's coming Monday?, Allen thought. Is this in relation to what William told me about?
"Anyways, I have to leave now before it gets too late. See you later, Fleming!," he said as he quickly caught up with Sybil and Oliver.
I should probably catch up with Thomas and Cecily, Allen thought as Adam's words reminded him.
As he quickly made his way over to his friends, he could only think about what would be coming after the end of this weekend.