Nicole and I just entered the library, but I'm already starting to hate this place.
The school library is a whole 2-story building that is obviously filled with thousands of books.
Each books are categorized to each aisle of bookshelves by genre, type, and age bracket.
The reason why I hate this place is because, as soon as I entered the place, my enhanced hearing activated and caught approximately 6 low moaning voices from different aisles of bookshelves.
And when I approached the counter, where a grumpy looking elder sits, my nose caught a whip of the surrounding scent.
'This place smells like semen everywhere! Screw this. I can't stay in this place for another minute, my nose is torturing me.'
I thought to myself before I adamantly urged Nicole to leave the place.
Along the way to the club buildings, I saw the entirety of the main building.
From afar, it looked like a giant squid. There were straight bridges for each floor that students use to get to their classrooms. The main building have 6 floors in total.
The first floor is where the largest school cafeteria is located, the 2nd floor is for the 1st years, 3rd is for 2nd years, 4th for the 3rd years, 5th for the 4th years, and lastly the 6th floor is a wide platform with glasses for walls and a pointed ceiling just like a pyramid.
It is also the rooftop of the main building where all students, regardless of grade year, could hang out and sit on the benches or view the sceneries below through the glass walls.
This is the same place where Ichika confronted me earlier.
I was amazed by the genius engineers and architects of this school. But there's still more amazing buildings that I haven't seen yet according to Nicole.
The walk towards the club buildings is pretty long, that's why I would occasionally see students riding a scooter or a bike around this large campus.
Along the way, Nicole also pointed at where the clinics are located.
One of them is in the faculty building, another near the dormitories, and the last one is in the center of an intersection where Nicole and I just arrived at.
It was just a small building with 3 entrances facing three different directions.
One in the middle, and one on each side.
There's also lounging areas outside with benches and water fountains where students could relax.
"Here we are, this place is where you would choose what path you're gonna take. Many students, on the first day of school, spent a massive amount of time here making their decision on what they should choose."
"And why is that?" I asked.
"Because joining a club is mandatory for each students of this school. Before the end of the first semester, all students should have already joined a club, failure to comply will result to a repeat of school year."
"Wow, that's harsh."
"This goes especially for you since you're already 3 months late. This school is known for it's meritocratic system that favors those who excels at their field. So even if I get a failing grade, as long as I can supplement it by winning in a major singing contest, I could avoid repeating a year."
Nicole explained with an encouraging and kind tone.
One look at her and you might say that she is the embodiment of wholesome.
But she continued talking.
"So if you want your fishy looking ass' credibility to rise, then you could either ace the fuckcademics or the shit ton of clubs this school can offer. You can also join a maximum of 3 clubs only."
"In other words. Skills and Abilities rule this place"
"Yup. I'm from the Vocals Club by the way, and every once in awhile we would sing and broadcast our songs in the whole campus, with the help of the broadcast station of the journalism club."
"That's really cool, I would love to hear you sing. Anyways could you tell me more about these paths?"
"Ah right. The left will take you to the Arts and Crafts building along with the Music and Theatre building."
She paused and continued to talk as she pointed at the buildings.
"The AC building consists of the clubs; Painting, Calligraphy, Sculpting, Digital arts, Animations, Portrait Sketching, and 10 more other clubs related with Arts. Their building also have a Museum of their own"
Nicole paused to catch her breath and continued.
"Then the building directly facing it, the MT building where I belong, is composed of the clubs; Acoustic, Instrumentals, Musicals, Dance, Vocals, Acting, Poetry, and some more clubs that has anything to do with Music and Theatre acting. The building has 5 recording studios and a 1000 seater amphitheater."
Nicole continued explaining and this is what I learned so far:
The path on the right side leads towards the Academic clubs. This place is like a small town with dozens of small buildings here and there.
Here, you could find clubs such as Journalism, Engineering, Chemistry, Science, and many more clubs that the school approved of.
There's also a small office for student aid, located near the entrance of the pathway where students could inquire.
Then we went towards the straight path. This path leads to the sports clubs.
After walking for a few minutes we arrived at a place similar to the one back at the clinic building.
There's 3 paths leading to different directions, one straight ahead, and one on each side, just like the intersection earlier.
I asked Nicole about this and she explained.
"The straight path ahead is where the outdoor field sports is situated, we only have 3 outdoor sports club in this school because of the lack of space.
Those sports are Football, Soccer, and Athletics Sprinting club."
Then we went towards the right path and saw a gigantic cylindrical building.
This place is used by the indoor sports clubs. These clubs are Basketball, Volleyball, Swimming, and Tennis.
Each of the four clubs are specifically located on the 4 quadrants of the building.
We then went to our last destination, the left path of the sports club intersection.
This place caught my attention the most. Its building was in the for of a large coliseum for the combat sports clubs.
The building has its own arena in the center. The combat sports clubs are divided into 3 categories.
The Classical style, Traditional combat, and Contemporary Martial arts.
From what I got by inquiring inside the building, these are all that I learned:
The Traditional are composed of; Silat, Tae Kwon Do, Judo, Karate, Muay Thai.
Classical; Kenpo, Wing chun, Tai chi, Val tudo, Aikido, and Escrima.
Contemporary; Boxing, Wrestling, Sanda, Jiu jitsu, Jeet Kune Do, and Capoeira.
I also learned from Nicole that every year at the end of the 2nd semester, the combat clubs has an annual event, where each club would choose their best fighter that will enter a tournament and fight in the central arena of the Coliseum.
The winner would get a large sum of cash from the the school and the tournament quota, as well as higher chance to be scouted by company representatives that will be watching the tournament.
I was tempted to join one of the clubs in the Coliseum, but I do not want to make a hasty decision.
Nicole said that there's still a minority of students who still haven't joined a club.
I still have 2 months to choose which club I should join, but I need to join one as soon as I can to make up for my late enrollment.
The tour around the school was about to conclude as me and Nicole sat down to rest our legs.
This is the perfect opportunity to start the 1st phase of my plan.
We were sitting on both sides of a bench while each holding a can of iced coffee that I bought. Then I said.
"I really appreciate you're help today Nicole, I would've taken a whole week to learn the format of the whole school without your help."
"Aww, You're welcome Ocho. Thanks for the Iced coffee. This motherfucker kicks the spot."
"....Hey Nicole."
"Yes?"
"Do you want to go home together?"
"Ah, I really appreciate the offer, but I still have a part time job after this. So..."
"Is that so? Then...would you like to grab a coffee tomorrow morning before going to school? I'll pick you up early."
"....Well. Sure. Here's my number."
I took her phone number with the phone that I bought using the fight money I receive from fighting in the Bob Koi cockpit. Then I continued our conversation.
"So you have a part-time job too huh?"
"That's right. I work at a pastry shop in Lascar City."
"Oh really? It's a good thing you're far from Pompeii City, the crime rate from the districts there just got higher."
".....The slums eh? It's always been like that for those trashes."
"Why is that? Do you have a problem with them? Something you hate maybe?"
"Problem? Hate them? Bitch, I despise them."
I purposely led our conversation here, because I learned from the stories of Ozzy that he was once from the slums of ICARUS, and that's when and where he met the mother of Nicole, named Anacia.
The parents of Anacia did not approve of her relationship with Oliver, also known as Ozzy, so they ran away and married each other covertly.
They were happy and contented with each other, but when Anacia was 1 month pregnant with Nicole, her parents found them and forcefully took her back home.
They even threatened Oliver Zeman that they'll kill his unborn daughter if he doesn't stay away from Anacia.
So Anacia waited until the day she delivered her baby, but Oliver's presence was still nowhere near her.
Ozzy was afraid that they'll really kill his daughter if he barges in on Anacia's life once more.
So Nicole grew up believing that her father, from the slums, irresponsibly impregnated her mother before leaving her alone.
She viewed the slum people as a bunch of brutes and immoral people so she stayed as far away from them as possible.
She despised them.
We both went silent after that conversation and then I tried recovering the mood
"What you're feeling is normal. But be careful not to let that hate consume you."
"Yeah, I understand. Thank you."
'I've now laid down the framework of my plans. Now I just have to wait for the next exam to put my plan into action.'