Hothead:
"How is he," Headmaster Noah asks. Down on one knee and beside the professor who got stuck, he looks up at Professor Hadley.
"Canbury will be fine," Professor Hadley answers while putting her medical tools back in her bag. "His armor took most of the hit but the swarm still left him with a 1st degree burn."
"Okay," Headmaster Noah says, nodding. "Get some veraweed from the infirmary. It'll help with the burn."
"Of course," Professor Hadley says, getting up with her medical bag. While Professor Hadley rushes to get the medicine, Headmaster Noah gets up.
We all watch from the side as the headmaster goes around, helping his professors. Seeing how busy he is with making sure all his professors are okay, I turn back to my friends and teammates.
"Maybe we should go," I whisper.
"Oh, now you want to go," Alodia quietly yells.
"Well, yeah. The swarms are gone. The danger had passed. No need for us anymore. Let's go. Before anyone notices us. Come on."
I nudge my head, signaling the others to leave. However, as I start walking back to our room, I hear a loud voice and freeze.
"Mr. Bokamoso," Headmaster Noah shouts. "I see you, your teammates, and for some reason, another team."
Shaking off the ice, I try tip-toeing away again but Alodia shoots out her hand and grabs the back of my jacket.
"Headmistress Amaya," Headmaster Noah starts. "Please escort all these students to my office and wait with them. I'll be there after I finish here."
"Understood," Headmistress Amaya says. She gets up herself and walks over to us. "Please come with me."
"Uhhh, can we not," I ask. "I mean, we really should get back to our ro--Aayyy!"
Before I can finish talking, Alodia pulls me back into the hallway.
"Hey, hey, hey," I yell. "Easy! This is my favorite jacket!"
Grabbing and pulling Alodia's hand off my jacket, I shake my head and sigh as we follow the Headmistress to the Headmaster's office.
"Sit down," the Headmistress says after opening a set of fancy iron doors. Stepping into the Headmaster's office, I can't help but let out a long whisper.
"Wow," I say after my whisper. "This is the Headmaster's office? It's massive."
The ceiling stretches to the sky and I see three walls and one giant window overlooking the academy's entrance. There is a white desk and chair in front of the window, and in front of them, are smaller chairs. Pressed against two of the walls are bookshelves, filled with near-countless books. Meanwhile, the last wall is covered in a bunch of holographic pictures. I don't know who any of the people in the pictures are but they must be important considering they're smiling and standing with the Headmaster.
"No way," Alodia says, running up to one of the pictures. "Is that my..."
"Sister," the Headmistress says, walking up from behind Alodia. "Yes."
"Sister?"
Leaning to the side, I take a better look at the picture Alodia and the Headmistress are talking about. In this picture, the Headmaster is standing side-by-side with a young woman. The young woman looked slightly taller than Alodia but wore a similar dress and armor. Also, instead of yellow, her long hair is white.
"Your sister was one of Yellow Sun's best students," the Headmistress states. "She and her team aced all their classes and completed all training exercises with flying colors."
"She and her team," Alodia repeats. She turns her head and looks at me, Jump, and Renee. I roll my eyes and shake my head. As I look around some more, I hear the doors open.
"Okay," Headmaster Noah yells as he walks into his office. "All of you. Sit down. Now!"
Headmaster Noah's voice booms throughout his office. Compared to before, his voice isn't calm and relaxing. Again, I feel myself freezing up. Even Renee is shaking.
"Uhhh," I say, putting up my finger before clearing my throat. "You only have two chairs but there are eight of us."
Headmaster Noah snaps toward me. His gaze is burning a hole through me. I feel like throwing up but the throw-up is blocked by something in my throat.
"Sit down," the Headmaster slowly orders. We don't waste a second and sit down. Jump takes one chair while Shocker offers one of the girls on his team the second chair. Meanwhile, the rest of us slam our butts on the floor. When we're all sitting down, Headmaster Noah takes his spot behind the desk.
Taking a deep breath to start things off, Headmaster Noah then looks at all of us.
"I gave an announcement to all my students to go back to their room," the Headmaster growls. "I told you not to go outside. Tell me why? Tell me why you didn't listen to me and went outside anyway."
Despite how frozen my hand is, I still raise it.
"I was the one that suggested we go outside," I say. "I just wanted to help. That's it. What's wrong with that?"
"You are all students," the Headmaster answers. "You may be fighters but you are all still inexperienced. Yes, you can handle small beasts, but what was out there were not small beasts."
"Actually," I say, raising my hand again. "They were small beasts. Haha."
Beside the Headmaster, the Headmistress, Jump, Shocker, and everyone else turn to look at me. I clear my throat, lower my hand, and bite my tongue.
Headmaster Noah shakes his head before sighing. As he sighs, he turns to the Headmistress.
"Headmistress Amaya," the Headmaster says.
"Yes?"
"Tell these students' professors to assign them extra homework. Two months worth. All due in one week."
"Wait, what?"
I open my mouth to protest but someone grabs my shoulder and stops me. I turn and see Shocker looking back at me. He shakes his head and gently pulls me back down.
"This is not extra credit," the Headmaster goes on. "This is not optional. If you do not do it, you will fail Yellow Sun Academy and be expelled. Now. Get out of my office."
We don't waste a second or even a breath. All of us get up, turn around, and quickly leave the Headmaster's office.
Headmaster Noah:
"You don't think you were being a little harsh," Headmistress Amaya asks when the students leave and the doors close.
"No, I don't," I answer. "Quite frankly, I think I was being very generous. Those students did something very stupid. They meant well but did something very stupid. After all, did you see what attacked us?"
"Yes. A swarm of crorvid, aggridid, and dipteric."
"Exactly. Three different species of animals, all attacking the academy at once. That should be impossible. Especially when crorvid are predators and they eat aggridids while, dipteric only travel in swarms with other dipteric."
"And yet, all three animals attack at once."
I can see the question marks floating above Headmistress Amaya's head. She is just as confused about this as I am.
"Do you remember what Commander Wayen said," I ask. "About something happening in the Wild?"
"Yes," Headmistress Amaya answers. "Of course, I do."
"Well, I think it just happened here as well. Something made all those animals attack this academy, and speaking of the attack, I doubt the shield's failing was a coincidence."
This time, the question mark above Headmistress Amaya's head changes from a question mark to an exclamation point.
"Headmaster Noah, are you serious?"
I turn and look Headmistress Amaya in her eyes.
"As much as I hate to suggest this," I say, clenching my fists. "We may have a traitor in the academy."
Headmistress Amaya's mouth drops open when she hears what I said. Taking a deep breath through my nose, I exhale before releasing my hands.
"This is vital information," I start. "I need to tell the commanders and generals about this. But before that, I need to examine the shield generators. Figure out why they shut down like that. Amaya, please send a message to the academy's maintenance team. Tell them I'm coming down to have a look. Then send a message to the commanders and generals. Tell them we need to have an emergency meeting."
"Of course," Headmistress Amaya says. Reaching behind her, she pulls out her holo-display and starts typing the messages. While she prepares the messages, I head for the shield's room.