MATTHEW'S POV
I could feel myself snoring. I was having a blissful sleep when a familiar voice woke me up.
"Matthew! You're going to be late. Get up!"
My blanket was yanked off me, together with someone grabbing me by my ankles and dragged me down to the floor. I screamed in surprise and my eyes opened to their full extent.
The ones kind enough to get me out of bed were the Del Rosario siblings. Samantha was giggling, holding my blanket up, while Samuel's hands were still on my ankles.
"What's the big idea?" I groaned as my vision went blurry for a second. I must have opened my eyes too quickly, and the two blondes were making me have a headache early in the morning.
"The big idea is that you're gonna be late for school."
"No, I won't. What time is it anyway?" I yawned and got up to my feet. Samantha gave me my blanket back and apologized, saying that her brother convinced her to pull a little joke on me.
"See, Samuel? Your sister's nice. And I know you're trying to hold your laugh in."
Samuel's lips tugged upwards. He couldn't contain it anymore and cackled loudly. I rolled my eyes at him. When I did, I think I saw Samantha looking down with a tint of red on her cheeks.
Samuel cleared his throat and spoke, "It's 9:30, Matthew."
My eyes darted to the alarm clock - which Zed bought for me yesterday. As Samuel said, it's 9:30 in the morning. And school starts at 10:00 a.m.
'I forgot to set an alarm!'
I shoved the Del Rosario siblings out of my room and hurried over to the bathroom. I took a quick shower and fumbled with the buttons on my uniform.
As my fingers still acted like it hadn't button up before, a knock on my door was heard.
"Come in!"
Samantha peeked from the other side to see me dumbly buttoning my school uniform.
"E-Erm, do you... Need help?" Samantha reddened. She probably thought her offer was weird, but me giving up, I accepted it without thinking.
"Please. I've been trying for the past 5 minutes. But my fingers are a bit shaky today." I scratched my head. Samantha slowly got inside my room and stared at me before her eyes landed on my chest. I could see her visibly gulp.
Her hands made their way to the fabric of my uniform. She closed the buttons one by one, faster than I could've ever done. With one last button, she closed it.
Only did I realize the position we were in. She was so close, I could smell her scent and her bright blonde hair tickled my chin.
Unknowingly, I inhaled the sweet smell of her shampoo.
'Strawberries?'
She backed away and looked down shyly. "T-There. My brother t-told me to come get you s-since it's time to go."
"I forgot! Let's go!" Not wanting to anger the elites, I grabbed my jacket and Samantha's wrist, earning a squeal from her, and dashed down the stairs. When we arrived outside, the limousine was ready to go. Samuel was still outside though.
"Finally, you're here." Then only did the gray-eyed boy got in the limousine. But after he did, he rolled a window down and narrowed his eyes at me.
"You can stop holding my sister's hand now."
I blinked. I turned around and saw a tomato-faced Samantha and my hand wrapped tightly on her wrist. I let go and began to apologize. Samantha shook her head and mumbled something incoherently.
Whistles erupted from the limousine. The elites cheered. "We got new lovebirds here!"
Samantha lowered her head and walked up to the limousine. She opened the door and sat next to her brother, still looking down. I frowned. Because of my actions, I made Samantha uncomfortable.
"Okay, that's enough." I said. I got inside and the only unoccupied seat was next to Ashley. I sat next to the black-haired girl.
"So, you got us late because you and Samantha wanted some alone time?" She raised an eyebrow.
I shook my head wildly. "No! It's just... My fingers aren't cooperating with me today." I reasoned. She seemed to didn't believe me though. "Uh-huh. Next time, do it at least an hour before school, would you?"
There was no use trying to convince her. I looked back at Samantha and saw her still down. I sighed and brushed my hair back.
'What is happening to me? First, I can't button my shirt on my own and I just had to go and grab Samantha's hand because we're late.'
I looked out the window. Trees, buildings, and people passed by. The sun shone brightly in the sky. A few birds flew in the air. It was such a nice day, and here I am causing misunderstandings and troubles.
-
We finally stopped at the school gates. Once I got out, I saw Samantha walk towards me. The thought of her being angry with me made my chest tighten.
She was now an arm's length away from me. I expected her to shout at me or ask me for an apology, but what I got was the opposite.
She bowed down. "I'm sorry."
I was dumbfounded. "I- What?"
"You're probably a-annoyed by earlier. W-When they called us l-lovebirds." She rubbed her arm. "I-I didn't mean to make y-you mad or anything."
I felt bad. It was my fault, not hers. She shouldn't have to apologize. I patted her head. "No, I should be the one who's sorry. If only I didn't act so stupidly and make us late, you wouldn't have been so embarrassed."
She stared at me before her lips broke into a smile, her eyes closed. I couldn't help but return the gesture.
'She's so cute... Wait, what?'
I retracted my hand from her head, my thoughts shocking me. She looked up and hummed in confusion. "What's w-wrong?"
I stared at her. I could feel my cheeks getting hot. I tried to find the right words, but it was rather hard since my voice seemed to got stuck in my throat.
"I-It's nothing! Look, the others already went ahead of us! Let's go!" I marched with the rest of the elites. Samantha was still confused. I left it at that.
'Okay, something's clearly wrong with me. And I'm making Samantha a victim of whatever's going on with me. It couldn't be a crush, right? Yeah, I just thought she was cute, nothing more. This is different from Sasha.'
Now, the image of the green-eyed girl popped into my mind.
'I wonder how's she's doing?'
I didn't realize we already arrived at our destination. I snapped back to reality when I heard the elites saying the password.
It was my turn to say it when I thought of something. I turned to Samuel and asked. "If there's a password here, why do you still need to guard the building?"
"Well, someone can achieve their goals if they're determined. Also, if they're students, we're the ones to escort them back to their classroom." Samuel puffed his cheeks. "And we have to walk all the way to another building. It may be tiresome, but it's our job."
'I don't blame them for wanting to take a peek inside the elite building. It does have a mysterious aura.'
I entered the building and went straight to the classroom. Miss Ramirez, together with the elites who entered first, were already there.
I sat on my chair and leaned back, waiting for the others to be here. Then, at ten o'clock sharp, we were all present.
I was currently listening to miss Ramirez babble about all kinds of topics. I was bored out of my mind and I happened to be scanning the classroom. I found a few elites sleeping, which tempted me to do the same. I decided against it when the teacher caught them. Let's say... They had a bump forming on their head.
My eyes stopped at Samantha. The thing was, she was already looking at me. She knew I caught her, so she pretended to also look around the classroom, but I could see her cheeks turning red. I raised an eyebrow.
'Was there something on my face?'
I began patting my face, searching for anything that could be unusual or weird. When I felt nothing, my confusion grew.
"The moon is phasing towards full." Miss Ramirez's normal lesson turned to an elite one. "Once it reaches full, you'll be able to fight ventifios all you want without getting tired as much. Remember to always take note of the phases of the moon and use it to your advantage. If a new moon occurs, be at your very best. Don't die."
When miss Ramirez said the last word, shivers ran down my spine. A crescent was the closest to a new moon. Yesterday, I saw the same shape in the sky, even if it was cloudy. If the ventifios were already that strong in the crescent phase, what about if it was a new moon?
I imagined all the possibilities that could happen - injuries, tiredness, fighting, a bloodbath, and maybe even death.
It was amazing how the other elites seemed calm when miss Ramirez discussed the moon. It was like death didn't even cross their minds. They must have been used to this, they already knew the risk of being an elite. There was a medium to high chance that their lives could be taken from them, and yet I had never seen them panic or think twice about jumping into the Night Fog Forest.
D̶o̶ y̶o̶u̶ s̶t̶i̶l̶l̶ w̶a̶n̶t̶ t̶o̶ b̶e̶ a̶n̶ e̶l̶i̶t̶e̶, m̶a̶s̶t̶e̶r̶?
I huffed. 'I have the blood of the elites in me. I can't just quit. Also, if they can do it, why can't I?'
I could hear laughter echoing in my head.
Y̶o̶u̶ a̶l̶w̶a̶y̶s̶ s̶a̶y̶ t̶h̶a̶t̶, m̶a̶s̶t̶e̶r̶.
'Say what?'
T̶h̶e̶ 'I̶f̶ t̶h̶e̶y̶ c̶a̶n̶ d̶o̶ i̶t̶, w̶h̶y̶ c̶a̶n̶'t̶ I̶?'. I̶t̶'s̶ a̶d̶m̶i̶r̶a̶b̶l̶e̶.
I didn't reply. Ever since I found out I was one of them, I wanted to act like one and prove to them that just because I was late summoning my soul protector didn't mean I would be a hindrance to them. If possible, I wanted to help them make the job easier. I had my level to thank for that.
The bell rang, signaling it was time for lunch. We bid miss Ramirez goodbye. I didn't pack my lunch again. But since Samuel already knew this, he handed me a lunchbox.
"You know, if you keep this up, you're gonna have to pay me for cooking all your lunches." Samuel said.
I thought about it. "How much?"
Samuel and I burst out laughing.
I opened the box to see two pieces of fried chicken drenched in honey, the sauce made some parts of the rice a color mixture of brown and orange.
I took a bite of the kitchen. It was so sweet. Simply delicious. The chicken wasn't crispy anymore, but that didn't stop it from being so tasty.
"If you told me you wanted to be a chef, I'll build a restaurant just so I can be the first one to taste your cooking." I gave Samuel a round of applause. Samuel shook his head with a smile. But that smile was a sad one. "Well, if you're now the eldest sibling, you learn things that can be quite helpful."
There was a change of tone in his voice. I didn't know what it was. Was he sad? Was he angry? Was it a mix of both? I wanted to ask, but I didn't want to seem like I was prying on his private life, so I left it alone.
'Eldest in the sibling, huh? Can't relate.'
"Well, I'm an only child living with his grandparents. And no one can beat my grandmother's cooking."
Samuel smirked. "Not even me?"
I stuck my tongue out. "Yes, not even you."
"Darn it."
I chuckled. Being with Samuel, I always forget that I was an elite. Having this conversation with him felt normal like there was nothing strange happening in our lives.
Lunchtime went in a blur. We were all lounging around on the third floor. I was sitting in the middle of the ring, waiting for my turn to practice shooting. Right now, Zed occupied the space.
"Hey, Matthew!" Samuel called out to me.
I hummed, indicating I heard him.
He walked closer to me and patted my shoulder. "It's our turn to guard the building. Ashley and Kyle are done."
Abandoning my plan to practice shooting, I went with Samuel all the way to the first floor.
Ashley and a guy with black hair and dark brown eyes waited at the entrance. 'Kyle' fist-bumped Samuel and Ashley nodded. "So, did anything strange happened?" Samuel asked.
"A student came and talked to us. It was questions like 'How are you?, 'What is it like being an elite?', yadda, yadda. And then suddenly, he pushed past us and tried to break the scanner. We managed to fight him off and send him back to class."
'Yikes, that's... Crazy.'
"Got it. We'll handle the next one." Then Samuel muttered. "Hopefully, nothing happens."
We both exited the elite building and stood in front of the entrance. We did nothing but stand. I looked around and saw a peaceful campus. A few leaves were falling from trees. No one was in sight. Everything seemed normal. The wind blew, which was a blessing with the summer heat glaring upon us.
Samuel and I were silent. We were too busy being on guard and scanning every bit of the area. I felt like I've seen the same things a hundred times already - the campus was calm.
I didn't know how much time had passed, but I was starting to get drowsy. I asked Samuel, "Hey, what time is it?" Followed by a yawn.
"It's 12:45, just fifteen minutes more and we're done." Samuel checked his watch. I rubbed my eyes to make the sleepiness go away.
Someone walked past us. Since they didn't go towards our direction, I didn't mind them. Samuel seemed to be confused though. "Who was that?"
I blinked. "Who?"
"The one who walked by. He didn't wear the staff's nor a student's uniform."
"It's probably someone who thinks they're too cool to follow the school rules." Having no energy to put more thought into it, I just said whatever was on my mind. Samuel chose to ignore it too.
Our turn to guard the building had ended, I was about to go inside the building when someone said my name. "Matthew?"
I turned towards the one who called me. My heart dropped when I saw Sasha. Her eyes were red and puffy - she was crying.