Alodia Darreth:
As I sit on a bench in the hallway with my so-called 'team', I can't help but cross my arms.
"I will never forgive you for this," I say.
"Are you talking to me or him?"
As Sulien asks this, his finger moves between himself and the other student from before. Funny enough, the other student also had his arms crossed. One of his eyebrows is twitching and he's growling like an animal from the Wild. I can only imagine I look very similar.
"I am talking to you," I say, making sure to face Sulien. "This is all your fault. Yours and your freaking girlfriend."
"I'm not Hothead's girlfriend," Eimear says, her head popping out from behind Sulien.
"She's not Hothead's girlfriend," Renee says, his head popping out from behind Eimear. Sulien and Eimear turn to face our 'team leader' as he sits back down. With his back against the wall, he sighs and covers his eyes.
"Okay," Renee says a few seconds later. He claps his hands and sighs again. "As team leader of Team RSEA (Ready), I guess this is kind of my responsibility."
Renee then turns toward the big student and his team.
"Listen," Renee starts, "I'm sorry for what my teammate said to you. I'm sure he's sorry too."
"No, I'm not," Sulien quickly says. I shake my head at him.
"Anway," I go on, "So our two teams don't get into any more trouble, can we just call it even? Truce?"
Renee holds out his hand. He looks up and nods his head. Renee is waiting for the other student to take his hand and shake it, but the other student just slaps it away.
"Shove it," the student says. "Stickman! Listen and listen to me well because I don't want to repeat myself!"
The student then stands up, his shadow looming over Renee. It seems Renee is now shaking a little.
"My name is Maximus Beor," Maximus Beor says. As Maximus talks, he towers over Renee, his head now hovering above Renee. "And this is my team. We are strong. We are tough. We are invincible, and do you want to know why? It is because we are not just a bunch of students thrown together."
As Maximus talks, he pokes Renee in the chest over and over, forcing him both down and back.
"Hey," Renee says. He tries to stand up but Maximus forces him back down.
"My team is made from strong fighters," Maximus goes on. "Even the girl. Your team, however."
Maximus stops talking only for a minute to eye Sulien, Eimear, and myself.
"Well, I think they speak for themselves."
With that, Maximus crosses his arms and sits back down with a very loud thud. He recrosses his arms and stares at Sulien with blood-red eyes. Meanwhile, Renee is still shaking as he slowly falls back into his seat.
I shake my head.
"Way to go, team leader," I say.
As soon as I say those words, I feel a sharp bump hit my arm.
"Ouch," I say, rubbing my arm as I look at Sulien. Apparently, while I was looking away, Sulien has rise his arm. He then sent it flying back, hitting me with his elbow. "What was that for?"
"Show the team leader a little respect," Sulien answers.
"Thank you," Renee says.
"Even if he does suck a little," Sulien finishes.
"Hey," Renee shouts. However, Renee's shouting is almost completely drawn out by the sound of Maximus and his team all laughing at us. Everyone except the girl.
Out of the four members of Renee's team, only one of them is a girl. She's sitting at the end of the bench with a lower head.
"I know how you feel," I say. "Being stuck on a team with nothing but a bunch of morons. My dad would kill me if he saw me right now."
As I look at the girl, I can't help but feel like I've seen her somewhere before.
"Hey," I say, waving my hand at the girl.
"Yes," she says, looking at me.
"Have we ever met before?"
"No," the girl answers. "I don't think so."
"Are you sure? Because you look very familiar for some reason. Wait, what is your name? My name is Alodia Darreth."
"My name is Alice," Alice answers.
"Alice what?"
Before Alice can answer, Professor Purdue and Headmaster Noah enter the hallway.
"Hello students," Headmaster Noah says after closing the door to his office. Immediately, we all stop talking and look right at the headmaster. I even straighten up for him. "As Professor Purdue explained to me, it seems the eight of you made quite a scene, and on the first day of school."
"In my defense," I say, putting up my hand. "This was not--"
Headmaster Noah puts his hand off, telling me to be quiet. I immediately stop talking.
"This is Yellow Sun Academy," Headmaster Noah starts, "Here. We teach you, the students, the skills you will need to survive in the Wild. We teach you about the animals you will encounter. We teach you about which plants can save your life. We do not teach you how to respect each other. We do not teach you to draw your weapons against another student. We do not teach manners nor common sense because I feel, those are things most of you should already know."
Despite Headmaster Noah's tone staying the same, I can tell, along with all the other students, that he is very angry at us.
"Maybe we should start," Headmaster Noah goes on. "After class today, all eight of you will be scrubbing the stone pathway leading to the academy's gate."
"Hey, no way," Maximus says, "It wasn't my or my team's fault. It was their--"
Once again, Headmaster Noah puts up his hands and cuts Maximus off.
"Do not interrupt me unless you also want to scrub the gate as well."
Headmaster Noah lowers his hand before turning to the Professor.
"Professor Purdue, please make sure these eight students show up. Meanwhile, I will ask assistant headmistress Amaya to prepare some buckets of water and brushes."
"Yes, sir," Professor Purdue says.
"Fine day then," Headmaster Noah says before turning and walking away.
"Fine day then," Professor Purdue says before turning back to us. "I expect to see all eight of you outside at 15 hundred. For now, go to your other classes."
With that, Professor Purdue lets us go. As we all start to walk down the hallway, I watch from behind as Maximus grabs Renee and pulls him in close.
"You and your team will regret ever doing this to us," Maximus whispers.
"No we won't," Sulien says. He gets in between Maximus and Renee and pushes Maximus back. Maximus bumps into one of his teammates. He pushes himself up and looks right at Sulien. Sulien looks right back at him and the two look like they're going to fight again.
"Enough," Renee says, getting in between Sulien and Maximus. He holds out his arms and keeps the two away from each other. "Enough. Okay? There's no need for this."
"I agree," a familiar voice says from behind. We all turn around to see Headmaster Noah. I feel a shiver run down my back as he looks at all of us. "There is no need for this because now, along with the stone pathway and the gate, you will also need to clean the classrooms. I suggest not fighting in the classrooms because if you do and I find them to be a mess, I will have you clean them all again."
Hothead:
"I will never forget you for this," Alodia says again.
"Uhhh," I start, looking around. The only people in the empty classroom are Renee, Jump, and myself. "Who exactly are you talking to?"
"All of you," Alodia yells.
"Oh," I say before shrugging. "Okay."
"I can't believe it," Alodia goes on. "My first day at Yellow Sun Academy, and instead of studying and practicing after school, I'm scrubbing the wall of the classroom."
"Well, that's at least one we should be happy about," Jump says while on her hands and knees. When we all this, we all turn to look at Jum. She's too busy scrubbing away at first but when she's done and looks up, she sees all of us.
"What," Jump asks. "Why are all of you staring at me?"
"That thing you said," Renee answers. "About one thing we should be happy about. What is it?"
"Oh, it's that we don't have to work with that other team. Maximus and his 'invincible' team."
"Oh please," I say, blowing out my tongue. "Invincible team? Don't make me laugh. We're a better team than they are."
"How do you figure that," Alodia yells. "They're right! That Maximus idiot is right! He had an actual team! We're just a bunch of students thrown together."
"So what if we're thrown together," I say. "That doesn't mean anything. Well, except for the fact that we didn't really choose each other, but still. I mean, come on, all together, the four of us took out a giant vultuzzard. That means something."
"Yeah," Renee says, nodding his head. "It does mean something. You're right! Sulien, you are right."
"Hothead," I correct.
"Uhh, yeah. Hothead. You're right. Yeah, I'll admit, we don't look like much but we did defeat a vultuzzard. We all work together to take out that bird, and if we can do that, then who knows what else we can do?"
"Maybe before we do anything else," Jump says, bringing up the brush and bucket in her hands. "We should clean this classroom. We still have at least five more rooms to go."
"Right, right, right," Renee says. "Well, come on, Team Ready! Let's clean!"
"Yeahhh," Alodia and I say half-heartedly. As we keep cleaning, the classroom's door opens.
"Shocker," Jump says. Turning my head, I see Shocker and his team walking into the room. "Wait, wait, wait! Be careful where you stand! I just wash that!"
Practically shooting up, Jump runs to where Shocker is and pushes him back. While Jump looks at the floor, Shocker looks at me and swings his hand.
"Long story," I answer, "Short story is this. We're in trouble and this is our punishment."
Shocker shakes his head as he looks at me and the others.
"Yeah, yeah, I know. I know. First day here and already, I'm in trouble. This is Junior Fighter Academy all over again."
Shocker turns to his team and points at the door. He then walks over to grab some spare brushes and a bucket. Picking a wall with no one on it, Shocker starts cleaning.
"Uhh...," a girl on Shocker's team says. "What?"
"He's saying to go without him. He's going to stay here and help us."
"Oh," the girl says. "Uhhh."
The girl looks at the two other members standing beside her.
"Should we---"
"Help him," the boy with short black hair answers. "Yeah. Let's go."
With that said, the rest of Shocker's team grabs the extra brushes and buckets and starts helping us. One by one, classroom by classroom, we cleaned and cleaned until finally, after telling Maxiums that we had extra help, they not really caring, and cleaning both the stone pathway and iron gate, we all headed back inside, exhausted and limbs about to fall off.
"Thanks for the help," I say, smiling at Shocker. Shocker nods his head before splitting off, his team following him. I see Shocker nodding at his teammate.
"He's saying thank you for helping us with the work," I yell from the other end of the hallway.