Was it the second week since the Academy started?
I was running down to the canteen from the fourth floor where my class was located.
Of course, alone as always.
When I was on the stairs to the second floor, I almost tripped and as I got to balance back,
A boy from the second floor was staring at me, maybe he too was surprised or confused just like what I felt back then.
Our eyes met and… is it because I was running or is it just me, my heart was beating hard as if it wanted to come out and go meet someone.
It was not sure how many minutes passed but we were still staring at each other until his friends called out to him, " Hey, Nic…" 'Why are you standing there?"
'Nick?'
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Terla stepped down to the second floor and her gaze followed the boy.
"That uniform…, he's from Heros' school?"
Academy is divided into three schools, "School of Wizards or School of Sorcery and Wizardry", " Neutral School" and finally, "Heroes' School".
The first is where sorcery and wizardry are taught and only those with a magic talent are qualified to attend and also, where Terla' school. "Neutral School" is where common people and those who weren't qualified to attend the other schools have to attend. Literature, medicine, economics, etc. are main subjects here and housecraft skills, housework skills, and many more are taught here. And, lastly, as you might have guessed, "Heroes' School" is where heroes(knights) are born.
The school is again divided into six temples, Tank, Fighter, Assassin, Marksman, Mage and Support.
They too use magic but in a different way, for example, tanks use magic to create barriers or magic shields for themselves and fighters use magic as sword auras.
The mages are different from sorcerers in the way they apply magic.
A long skyway about a hundred metres is built between the two towers of "School of Wizards" and "Heroes' School" with a huge library in between.
The silhouettes of boys gradually became far away and only then did she realize she had been stupidly standing there for a long time now as she continued her run.
About a week later, the weekend classes of the "Ancient Tongue" class started.
She sat at the same place but this time, Violet sat beside her with Susan at another side.
But Terla's attention was on neither of them but on the boy sitting across one table from her.
The boy noticed her gaze and looked at her but she turned away immediately.
This boy has been on her nerves lately. Since the day they met at the skyway, he kept appearing in front of her. He was standing at the skyway's corner almost everyday and he also came down when she came down to the canteen. The other day, she went down late and he was not in the place. She felt somehow relieved. But…, as she stepped out of the stairs, he came running at her and closely brushed past her as he ran up the stairs. Then again when she arrived at the other side of the building where another stair existed, he ran down from the stairs concurrently as he brushed past her like before.
She was so frustrated.
Class started and sequently, lunch time came.
Terla sat down at the restaurant's table and ordered her favourite dishes.
"Do you like him?" Violet asked all of a sudden.
"Wah..,no way!" Terla answered in a startled manner.
"What? She has a crush? Who is it?" Susan followed in astonishment.
Violet signalled to the boy who is babbling with his friends at a table with another between them.
Aside from the vacant table between, he was sitting face to face with Terla.
"Oh, our Terla has a good eye." Susan teased Terla.
Violet nodded with a cold face as if she approved.
"Spicy noodles, baked pig trotters,..." the waitress came and served the food.
The two continued to gap but Terla ignored as she gobbled up the spicy noodles she ordered.
She was eating peacefully but
calm just didn't favour her and she felt a gaze.
When she looked up, undoubtedly, the boy was staring at her and their eyes met.
*Ahook* She felt like throwing up all her noodles and turned her gaze straight away.
She quickly finished her meal and ran out of the restaurant, missing out the calls at her back.
When she was finally out at the front, her heart was running wild as if she just came back from a long run.
Time flew as days and weeks passed by. It's been four months since the schools opened but there are few days Terla didn't meet Nick. And today was not an exception.
Today, Terla was late due to traffic and she came to the stairs with a run.
*Huff* *huff* Terla ran up the stairs and decided to rest a while.
However, god just doesn't favour her and as she looked up the stairs, her gaze met another.
"Shit!!" Terla swore under her breath and continued to run without rest.
The boy's stare followed Terla's back as she disappeared into the tower.
A smile appeared on his face, " She's cute."
Terla came running into the classroom passing the teacher, until she found her desk and sat down in a hurry.
Fortunately, the teacher didn't notice her either.
*huff* *huff*
Her body was finally in her seat but she herself was zoning out to the unknown as she held onto her chest.
*Badump* *Badump*
Her heart was just trying to jump out.
"Terla, page 40." the girl beside her called out.
"Huh?" "Oh." Terla got back her senses and opened the book in front of her.
The girl gazed at her curiously while another girl smiled and shook her head amusedly.
The first period came to an end, Terla wasn't sure what she just learned.
The second teacher came in and started her lesson, and a few minutes later, a group of students came in.
Some of them wore the "Heroes' School" uniform and one of them was…
'Is hero school lacking in students? Why is it him again?' Terla sighed in her mind.
" Excuse me, Mrs. Viola. We are here to relay about the "School Festival", the boy at the front talked to the teacher.
"Go on."
The boy stood at the front and announced, " Friends, as you might have known the "School Festival" is going to be held next month and although the exact date hasn't been decided yet, the members of the student council will…"
The boy wore the uniform of Heroes' School and his face, a matured man's expression undeserving of his handsomeness. As he kept lifting his gold framed glasses and his blonde long hair flattered in air, the girls' excited voices could be heard in the room.
*bling* *bling*
"President Lenox is just too charming."
"Yes, if I could just give up on sorcery and be in the same school as him…" *chatter*
"...so you can fund any amount small or large.Please use your pocket money only and…"
The boy sounded so cold and indifferent but on the other side of the room, the atmosphere became so cheesy since his entrance.
But, there is one girl who didn't feel the same way.
The reason was the other boy standing beside the blonde-haired guy who had been staring straight at her with his crystal blue eyes from the start.
'That guy!!!!!' it was not her first time seeing those crystal blue eyes and not the first time she just wanted to gouge out those eyes.
She kept her gaze to the floor but " Terla…" a voice came from beside her desk.
The voice was sweet and gentle but chills ran down her spine.
She looked up at the boy as she forced a smile, "Nick".
He didn't word a thing as he just stared at her. His face was blank and expressionless but those blue eyes made her feel the other round.
She pulled her purse out from the bag and gave him a few brass coins.
He gave a mysterious smile and walked away.
*pfft* The two girls beside her started to laugh amused by her expression.
"Terla, it's time you accept you have a crush on him…." the voice's owner had ocean tinted dark grey eyes and her waist length golden brown ponytail whirled in the air as she laughed.
"Yeah, you two look good too.", another girl with grass green hair added in.
"Nope." Terla answered abruptly.
Terla answered no but he was on her mind all along to her carriage.
On her way home, she was getting a strange feeling.
She just suddenly got frustrated and looked out of the carriage's window.
And there , she saw another carriage not far beside hers.
*Badump* *Badump*
In it, was a boy with short honey-blonde hair, resting his elbow on the window bar as his hand supported his head. He seemed to be deep in thoughts with his lips curling up in a mysterious way.
'Nick' Terla called out in her mind subconsciously laying her chin on the knuckles and gazed at him.
As if feeling the gaze, the boy turned around…but she hurriedly pulled the curtains and hid herself.
Her heartstrings were being played at the highest note and this time she was sure who played it.
She peeked out a little but the carriage was nowhere to be found and she was already on the outskirts of Stonebarrow.