I didn't really have much to explain the next day except for Thomas' training which I did that morning. Okay, Thomas was the easiest person to find that morning. He kept storming through the halls looking for the elusive 'Kevin Johnson, black haired kid who had skipped football practice for two days straight.'
"Kevin Johnson," he yelled when he finally reached me. I had just closed my locker and was about to join my friends to go to class. I looked behind him and saw all my friends laughing at my misery while they waved their goodbyes and left to class. 'Perfect.'
"Yes, Thomas and before you say anything else, I was sick yesterday and the day before that Mr. Bergstrom held me in evening detention for skipping his lunchtime session. That man can be mean when he provoked," I explained to him. I could see him visibly relax. A lot of what I said was a lie that I would have to explain to Mr. Bergstrom later, but for now all was good, or so I thought.
"Okay then. You have me convinced. But that changes nothing regarding the consequences of skipping training. Coach is going to have your head," he said chuckling before leaving me, "Oh and by the way, thanks for the tip on Bergstrom. I was thinking of dogding one of his lessons today."
With that, the football captain left me alone my hopes for a future carefree football practice shattered. 'Damn, Coach scares the hell out me.' Today's training wasn't going to be easy at all. I let out a breath that I hadn't noticed I was holding as I watched Thomas leave. Turning to the directions my friends went, I followed and caught up soon. They had somewhat slowed their pace to wait for me if that was even possible. As soon as I got to them, the entire hallway became silent. I looked around for the source.
Right in front of us, a set of footsteps stopped sounding abruptly capturing my attention instantly as everyone in the hallway seemed to also be looking in the general direction. I couldn't see the person because they were blocked from view by Kendall and Isaac. I pushed through and looked past Kendall instantly freezing at the least expected sight I would ever have thought of. Right in front of us was a remarkably beautiful girl whose eyes were the first thing you were forced to see for they were almost deep blue. She was perfectly tanned and had the longest jet black hair I had ever seen that ran down to her waist.
"Good morning," she piped up, visibly trying her best to ignore the attention she was drawing in the hallway.
" Good morning," Isaac, Jacob and Kendall replied with hints of familiarity that said they knew who this girl was. I got the sense that I had seen her somewhere. 'Oh wait, that hair...' the thought of who I had seen sneaking in our backyard the previous day came rushing back to me as though it had just happened a few minutes ago. By now the hallways had resumed the usual murmusing and noisy movement. I walked in front of my friends and looked from back and forth between them and the girl.
"Am I missing something?" I asked.
"From Jacob's description I'm guessing you are Kevin," she said extending her hand for me to shake, "I'm Sonia Everglade. Nice to meet you."
I had something else in mind. I took her hand, "Nice to meet you too. You're so sweet, but I'm afraid you've got it wrong. See, I'm the one they call Ciara and she's Kevin," I said bluntly like it wasn't obvious who was the boy and who was the girl.
She was stunned only to be saved by a meddling alpha, "Okay guys, why don't you hop on to class and stop teasing my new self appointed bestie. And Kevin, that was a low blow. You don't tease girls," Ciara joked while dragging Sonia away from us. I was the one stunned now. 'How did the tables turn against me so fast. I had that one in the bag. She had fallen into my trap only to be saved by Ciara of all people.' My remaining friends came and stood besides me as we watched the two girls walk away.
"Man you were just out of luck on that one," Kendall said patting my back, "I can treat you to a meal at lunch if you like."
"I have that thing with Bergstrom," I said.
"You've already dodged it once before. What have you got to lose?" he asked dismissively.
"Kendall you know that I never miss my classes. Where is this coming from?" I asked suspiciously and watched as his face morphed into one of fear.
"Kendall is trying to butter you up so he can take the position of wide receiver that he was offered yesterday because of you missing football practice," Jacob said sounding bored even though he had an evil expression on his face as he gave out the whole of Kendall's plan without any hesitation.
"You guys said you wouldn't say anything to Kevin until I had the position for sure," Kendall complained.
"Don't look at me. It was Jacob who told him, not me," Isaac said.
"Yes, it was me. And it is because I love my school and want us to win every football game. So it's not my fault I was being patriotic. With Kevin as our receiver, we have less chances of losing this season or any match at that," he explained.
"That's cold man," Kendall whined.
We finally got to class and the bell rang prompting us to take our seats. Mr. Bergstrom didn't spare me a glance through the whole lesson. He acted as though I never existed in that lesson. I guess I had it coming, though it could have been worse. Ignoring me seemed like the kindest thing he could do to me at the moment considering how much colder he was on his first day of class.
….......….
The lessons flew by rather quickly and I soon found myself seated in front of Mr. Bergstrom for our lunch time session. He continued marking papers while still ignoring me. I decided to get ahead of him and froze time. I was going to wait patiently until he was done with whatever he was doing and had no choice but to talk to me. Bergstrom finally finished what he was doing and let out a long breath. "You should start by explaining yesterday," he said once he had composed himself.
"Yesterday, I got terribly sick, so I teleported home and was unconscious for almost the whole day," I said and watched as worry filled his face.
"What happened? Are you fine?" he asked.
"Yes, I am. It was a small misunderstanding between me and the alpha, umm... Ciara" I corrected, not feeling too comfortable with the title mixing with the topic of discussion. He took some time to think by himself before he began clearing his desk and putting everything away.
"Open a portal into Armensia, specifically the Artarak lobby," he said. I did as he asked and opened the portal then waited for the a teacher to get ready. He went through first and I followed for the first time without me being dragged around for treatment of some rare magical injuries or traumas.
I had learnt not to ask too many questions when someone knew what they were doing, but I got too curious. The portal opened up in the lobby. Memories of our last experience in Armensia came flooding back to me. It had been one tiring day. "Welcome back, master Kevin and Master…. Is that Master Bergstrom?" the artificial intelligence began. There are times I thought that thing was just a human trapped inside the walls of the Artarak.
"Yes, Jeremy? It is me. How have you been?" Bergstrom engaged.
"Splendid. You look much older than the last time I saw you master," Jeremy continued.
"Yes and you are still the same as always," Bergstrom joked as he began leading me to who knows where.
"Aww, sir, that's too kind of you," Jeremy piped up, "are you here to train the young Siege?" he asked.
I followed behind him silently waiting for their conversation to end. I had never seen Jeremy so talkative before. It was almost like he was now playing favourites. I had wanted to ask what sort of training I was going to go through, but let it be when it seemed that these two were still going at it. Bergstrom and Jeremy apparently had a lot of catching up to do. It wasn't much on Jeremy's side considering the fact that he never leaves the castle at all at any one point. I stayed silent behind Bergstrom until we came to the training room which was housed on the ground floor. It consisted of a control room that hung neatly above a huge room that could be programmed to take on any kind of environment, much like a simulator. The only difference was that this being a magic imbued system, all its settings exhibited the exact characteristics of what it had taken up. If I programmed it to look like an orchard, then I could actually eat the fruits from it and so on. Now that I think of it, the magic contained in the Artarak alone was a lot compared to the magic one could actually harness.