Jia smacked her arm and grimaced," I`m starting to really hate this place."
Rose nodded from beside her as Chase smirked from where he was crouched at. They were all currently in Grisold Wild. A thick jungle vegetation that surrounded Mount Tavir, a place where the boys needed something to help them. Chase assured them that he only needed five minutes to extract what he needed. So far, Rose and Jia had followed him to the summit of the mountain where both of them were shocked to find a huge red crystal was buried under thick vines and rocks alike.
When asked about how they found it, Chase simply said he and the guys got stranded out here once because Dylan had forgotten to the engine of the ship. After Mike brought them down in a 'controlled' crash, they had gone out to get to higher ground to send for help when Tristan had found this crystal.
Mike had measured that it had enough power to bring their squad ship back online but they needed to extract it carefully. That was when Chase and Cole had fashioned out a laser pick, gloves, container and special goggles that let them cut the crystal according to its veins.
The girls were impressed until the first five minutes passed and Jia had murdered about thirty bugs who dared to bite her. Now, it was ten minutes passed their time to leave and both girls were annoyed, itchy and antsy.
Rose made her way over to Chase," Why don`t I do it? I have experience handling crystals and things?"
Chase didn`t even bother to face her as he continued with his task," This coming from the girl that trapped her friend accidently inside a weapon she created herself."
"It was an accident! Do you not know that meaning of an accident? As in, I never meant for it to happen to her."
"The poor girl is missing out on her date."
"Don`t rub it in Knight," Rose snapped.
Chase chuckled as Jia rolled her eyes at the two bickering teenagers.
"Got it," Chase suddenly announced as he turned with a container that had the floating crystal.
"Thank the Goddess!" Jia exclaimed before she began to march away from the two teenagers.
"Jia! Wait up!" Rose yelled as she ran after her.
"You keep up, I`m tired of this place!" Jia yelled back while Chase tried to stop himself form laughing. To be honest, he should have warned them to stay back at the ship like Fiona. Especially when they were both in sleeveless outfits.
When they arrived back at the ship, they found Fiona playing a video game against Mike and Roy on their phones. Jia cleared her throat pointedly before the men quickly shut off the games and smiled at them.
"Hey, I was winning!" Fiona whined from her seat. She turned to the boys to see them shuffling their feet and staring at something behind her. She swung her head around to see their three friends.
"Oh, you guys made it," Fiona said as she stood and approached her friends only to stop when she saw that her two girlfriends had small red bumps on their skin," Oh no. Insect bites?"
"It was horrible," Rose said as she went passed her friend and took her seat before rubbing her arms with a grimace.
Jia rubbed her arms as Chase secured the container before sealing the ship doors," I had no idea bugs could swarm here."
"I did, that`s why I didn`t go."
Jia and Rose stopped their fussing and glared at their friend. The boys wisely kept quiet and took their seats as Rose`s left eyebrow twitched," You mean, you knew this would happen and you didn`t think to warn us?"
Fiona pursed her lips, "Well, yes but..."
Jia simply took off her wrist glove and slapped Fiona which led to her being slightly electrocuted. The Lava sorceress yelped as her hair turned frizzy and curly. Rose burst out laughing as Jia turned up her nose and sauntered away to her seat while Fiona moaned about how it would take forever to fix her hair now.
"You deserve it," Rose laughed out loud as Jia put on her glove and took her seat. Mike then switched on the ship`s engine before they rose up and blasted away to the Academy. They managed to get back to the Academy in record time before the boys took the girls to their testing room. It was huge and had over head lights and an Observation Deck on the left side of the room. There were scorched marks on the walls, broken pieces of machinery everywhere and bunker shields on four corners of the room. Mike and Chase got to work on the grenade as Rose and Fiona watched while Jia followed her cousin up to the Observation Deck and waited there patiently.
"Do you friends know what they are doing?" Jia asked quietly.
"Yeah, those two know technology like how you know fighting, they`ve got this." Roy answered.
Jia turned to her cousin, "So what was the argument about in the ship, with Mike and Chase?
The Knight pursed his lips," It`s nothing, boys stuff."
"Come on tell me, I won`t share with anyone," Jia promised as she clasped her hands to beg.
Roy turned to his cousin to see her giving him her version of puppy dog eyes. He chuckled and shook his," It`s stupid Jia. Nothing major."
Jia pouted, "Please?"
"Fine…so the guys have just recently found a nickname list taken from the Head Witch of Pyrus and they were less than enthusiastic about their code names."
Ji genuinely looked shocked, "Really?"
"Yeah, Chase wasn`t too happy to find out that he was labeled Geekly Hot and Mike got Honorable one." Roy revealed and he laughed as she recalled the conversation at lunch yesterday afternoon that nearly led to a brawl when someone kept calling another Knight his less than cooler nickname. The Headmaster was more than disappointed to say the least.
"What was yours?" Jia asked, disturbing his train of thought.
"Lord Grey-eyed Hotness." Roy mumbled
Jia snickered and Roy playfully slapped her shoulder, "I told you not to say anything."
"And I haven`t, I just found yours really cliché." Jia retorted.
"Whatever," Roy said.
"What about the others names?"
The Knight shook his head, "I don`t know, Dylan snatched the list away from me before I could continue searching."
"Party killer," Jia huffed.
"Okay, we`re ready!" Chase announced. Mike, Fiona and Rose were by then taking shelter behind a bunker shield. Roy put his arm out and moved Jia back a few steps.
"On a scale of one to ten," Jia whispered to her cousin, "How often does a weapon explode on the first try?"
"Ten," Roy answered honestly as Jia gulped and frowned.
Chase tapped the grenade twice before he took a few steps back. In a flash of green, Zoey appeared in front of them with her dress. She blinked and looked around with a confused frown.
Rose squealed and jumped up and down s she ran out from behind the shield and tackled Chase with a hug. He had managed to catch her with a surprised expression. Jia turned to her cousin with a grin who just nodded at her.
They both came down from the Observatory Deck as Rose realized what she had done before breaking away from the hug and clearing her throat," Thank you for that."
Chase smiled at her," No problem."
Behind Rose, Mike smirked and shook his head while Fiona grinned knowingly.
"Guys, what`s going on here?" Zoey asked.
"You are late for your date," Jia filled in before she waved her hand over her roommate. Her old dress got replaced with the dinner dress she had been clutching. Zoey spun around in excitement before stopped to frown at her friends again," But weren`t we at the room just a moment ago? How did we get here?"
Rose moved to herd her friend away," It doesn't matter, we need to get you to your date."
"We`ll stay here and finish working on your project," Roy said helpfully.
"What do you mean we? You`ll just be observing?" Mike informed his friend.
"And observing is an important part of experimenting." Roy stated as if it was obvious.
That was the last the girls heard from them as they left the testing room. They were just walking past the classrooms when they bumped into Dylan, who took one look at the girls and turned pale.
"What are you three doing here? You shouldn't be here!" Dylan exclaimed.
Rose snorted at him," Rude much?"
"Typical Dylan girls," Fiona pointed out.
"We were just leaving," Zoey informed him and four girls stepped around him but he stepped in front of them again," What`s wrong with you?"
"You guys should take the other way out, I know a shortcut," Dylan suggested.
"Okay, why? This way is the official way out," Jia reminded him.
"Just follow me," he said as he made Rose, Fiona and Zoey turn before pushing them forward. Jia followed after them but she turned when she heard Tristan's voice. She frowned as she saw him walking hand in hand with a sorceress.
Dylan turned and saw her watching his friend and shuffled back to wrap an arm around her waist. He then urged her to walk faster with him.
"What are you doing?!" Jia whispered up to the turquoise eyed boy.
"Doing you a favor," Dylan answered curtly as he looked down at her.