ELLIE GREEN
"That ws Hell! Can't believe you even survived that Ellie." Zake spoke, walking besides me with a slight limp.
"Hmph, Don't take me too lightly." I spoke with my nose high in the air, taking a mental note to not talk about how Miss Mysa had to carry me for the last rounds across School.
It was Sunday once again. The second weekend of our Combat classes. And although it was the class I had least attended to, I could definitely tell why this was called the most difficult class among the students. And also why Mr.Arcadum was dubbed the title of 'Devil' by the students.
Today too, Zake, Miss Mysa, me and Juan were all clustered together after we were done with the combat class. Making our way together, back to the school building.
It might be too early to say, but I think this could be our clique. Just us four, hanging out after classes were over. We didn't interact much when the classes were ongoing, but in the past week an almost unspoken rule had settled in where we walked back from school to home together.
Plus, after observing her for a week I think I had started noticing that Miss Mysa is not as frightening as I imagined her to be. In fact, she could almost be kind from time to time.
She didn't make any idle conversation, nor did she shy away from rebuking anyone from time to time. But she wasn't a bully! I think..I think..if I could really get to know her. I might see an altogether different side of her's.
Right now, Miss Mysa was walking ahead of us. As I stared at her back, I wondered to myself. If we continue to hang out like this every other day, surely a day would come where Miss Mysa opens up to us? And then maybe we can be actual friends.
"Wait a minute." Miss Mysa suddenly spoke up, and the group immediately came to a halt.
At this time, when we were done with the combat class, we basically had the whole day to ourselves. We could just head back to class, where they would be no teacher and just hang out there. Or we could just go back to our dormitory.
Usually what our group would do was the latter. But this time, it seemed like Miss Mysa had a change of heart. We had been walking in the ground floor corridor, but suddenly Miss Mysa had stopped in front of a classroom.
I could hewe many voices coming from inside the said classroom and as Zake gave me a quizzical glance I looked at the class door to see a a wooden slab perched on top of the door. On which were engraved the words "Art & Culture".
"Huh, I didn't know, the school had other ongoing classes on Saturday and Sunday." Zake said, arguably the conversationalist of our group.
Now that he mentioned it that's right. I also thought that the weekends were reserved for the combat class. If Miss Mysa hadn't stopped us here, I probably would've paid it no mind and just continued walking ahead. Passing it by with no interest. In fact, it might be the case that I had already done that before.
"Let's take a look." Miss Mysa spoke.
And before anyone else could register anything, Miss Mysa had pushed the door open. She rapidly disappeared inside the classroom as the door swung back, and with no further thought I hurriedly followed behind. Along with the other two members of our clique.
"Welcome! Welcome! Do we have a bunch of new students here?!" One inside we where immediately greeted by a warm, but a tad bit too excited and loud voice.
The source of it was a short pudgy woman who looked to be middle aged. She greeted us with exaggerated hand motions, looking every bit like a sweet auntie.
But that wasn't even the first thing I had noticed. Cause as soon as we had entered the classroom, I felt like I had entered a bazaar. There was no other way to describe the state of the students, except to say that they were causing a ruckus.
Maybe it was cause of that the sweet old teacher had to speak in loud voice. Almost immediately I felt an odd amount of sympathy and love for this teacher.
"Yeah." Miss Mysa replied to the teacher who was beaming up at us.
"Well then no need to dilly dally. Sit wherever you fancy, which year you are from doesn't matter. After all art had no boundaries like agem As long as you have thirst for literature you are free to come here. Oh, by the way, this is the literature class. C'mon now, no time to waste. Go ahead and make yourself comfortable." The teacher spoke in the same loud excited voice, gesturing us towards the desks.
For some reason, almost the entire first row of desks were empty. So under the supervision of the teacher we mindlessly took our seat. Miss Mysa quietly sat on one desk and I side besides her, while Juan and Zake sat on another desk. And then the teacher immediately launched into her lesson.
"Now, I was taking about the beautiful poem, "A long walk", an undoubted masterpiece. One of the finest works of Devis Nichole, a republican who-"
"A republican?!" It was no winder that Zake has such an unnatural reaction.
For me too that word felt like a punch in the gut. Especially considering what the teacher was talking about.
Zake's short exclamation of disbelief and disgust quickly caught the teacher's attention since he was sitting in the front row.
"Yes! Yes! But one with a beautiful mind! Oh, a beautiful kind indeed. He has created so many masterpieces that-" The small woman hurriedly launched into an explanation. She even went and started writing out things on the blackboard behind her.
But the pure disgust from Zake, made him unable to sit anymore. He stood up, and Juan did the same. As I tried to make sense of what was going on. Why the sweet teacher was talking like that.
I suddenly felt a tap on my shoulder. I looked behind to see that without me noticing Miss Mysa had also stood up. And now, she was beckoning me to follow her toward the back of the classroom.
I looked at where she, was looking and only saw a students talking to each other, laughing loudly at some jokes. But I recognised none of them. As I also stood up from my desk, I realised this whole classroom was just consumed with chaos.
There was the small lady who was teaching about things thay didn't need to be taught. And there were students attending the class, but not even paying a bit of an attention to the teacher who was still enthusiastically continuing on with her lesson.
I looked at the teacher and almost couldn't help but wonder if it was alright to leave the front desk, just after she had ushered us into the class. But this time Zake was the first to follow Miss Mysa's order.
"Yeah, let's go at the back. I don't wanna learn about some gibberish by a Republican." Zake spat out.
He was so loud that I worried for a second that the teacher had heard him, but if she had heard him or not, the teacher showed no signs of doing so. She was just on the other side of the classroom, still enthusiastically speaking about the republican and his works. I could help but feel some disgust as I wondered, why someone would ever do so.
Although it might be disrespectful to the teacher, Zake was right. So with no further ado, our group ked by Miss Mysa moved towards the back of the class. Well all except for one.
"What? Don't tell me you are secretly a romantic who loves his poems?" Zake spoke in surprise as he saw that Juan was stood still in front of his desk.
Zake approached him and following his line of sight. He seemed to understand something as he let our an 'Aaaah' of understanding.
The desk around the classroom were placed in a curved arc around the podium and the blackboard that sat in the front center of the classroom. On entering we had sat on the rightmost side of the curve. And where Juan was looking at right now, was the left most side of the curve. Where the all the front desks were empty except for one.
On 11'o clock to us, at the very corner sat a single student who looked like she was not of this world.
With a perfect posture, bright red hair, and ruby eyes that were focused on the teacher, she looked like a model student. And also, absolutely stunningly beautiful.
It was my first time looking at someone like her. And I couldn't help but feel a bit of awe due to just the sheer appearance and the aura of her. Every desk next to her were empty and I could almost understand why. It was definitely not cause of the unpopularity of the teacher.
It was just that the girl, who was definitely our senior, just seemed so otherworldly. I would feel impure just trying to approch her.
"Wow" Zake let out a dumbstruck voice and Juan's eyes jumped up to him reproachfully.
"Oh, C'mon man."
Having a conversation that only they could understand, Zake and Juan went back and forth while Miss Mysa tugged at me to lead me to a desk at the back.
I heard the boys bickering at the back as they followed behind. And then soon Miss Mysa arrived at her destination. Looking at an occupant on one of the desk that we had approached, Miss Mysa smiled.
Which wasn't actually as rare a sight. Being besides her almost all the tims, I had often caught her with a dreamt smile on her face or a hidden smile as she watched or heard something amusing. But it was the first time I head seen her smile so openly.
The boy on the receiving end, a senior most likely, looked suprised.
"Wh-what are you doing here?" He ran his hand through his shirt brown hair, as he spoke from pure shock.
"I hope we are not causing any trouble." Miss Mysa spoke in a polite manner that I had never seen before from her. It instantly made me curious and wary about the identity of the person in front of me.
"No! Not at all. I was just waiting for my friend. In fact, its great that you are here!" As he spoke, for the first time he seemed to have noticed me and the boys.
"Hello, My name is Ellie Green. Nice to meet you." I immediately introduced myself to this mysterious senior. He could be from a higher clan, and I didn't want to risk offending him.
Behind me Zake and Juan also curtly introduced themselves, only giving out there name. I almost wanted to turn around and tell them to behave more politely but doing that might be even more impolite on my end.
"Hello, My name is Micheal Urada."
Urada clan, a powerhouse which served the Akita Royal Family. It was nodded one of the prominent clans. But to not enough degree for someone from Agustine clan like Miss Mysa to act so politely towards. Or maybe Miss Mysa did care about the senior-junior manners and treated those older than her with respect. After all, I had never seen her interact with a senior.
As I looked at Micheal, I began to relax a bit. Micheal had shirt brown hair, and unlike the other senior boys that I had seen, he wasn't as big or intimidating. With a bit chuby cheeks, he had an approachable and friendly face.
"So what exactly is up with this class? They teach stuff from that lesser land here?" Zake asked, unable to hide his irritation with what he had just witnessed.
"Well, a bit of that. But nobody really pays any attention to what's going on in this class. This is sort of a 'you-are-free-to-do-anything' class. The teacher never really scolds anyone or anything. People just come here to hang out. No one really listens to her." Micheal answered with a shrug.
"I, personally, was just waiting for my friend to show up..Ah there he is!"
Micheal suddenly raised his hand and waved at the figure who had just entered the classroom. I looked over and saw a blond haired senior who had just caught sight of Micheal.
As he made his way towards our group, I was suprised to see that I actually felt like I had seen him from somewhere. I heard 'tsk' from Zake and I turned to see him nudging Juan who nodded, having the same sour look as Zake.
And then it finally clicked.
He was the same senior that had gotten into an argument with Zake and Juan on the first combat class. It felt like so long ago, that I had almost forgotten all about it.
"I didn't expect to be greeted by a group here. You have got some friends to introduce here, Micheal?" Facing the two glares of the underclassmen, the person acted like he didn't see them.
Which immediately brought relief to my heart. I couldn't have Zake picking fight with anyone like he did in the sect. There were all kinds of people in this academy. After meeting Miss Mysa I had realised that. There are always people better than you. I didn't want Zake to get into trouble by fighting. Especially not to senior.
With that in mind, I made a mental note to try to hold Zake back this time in case he tries to fight.
"Yeah,This is Charles. And Charles, this is my f-friend Mysa Agustine. And these are her friends. Zake, Juan and Elliot." Micheal said as he stood up from his desk, gesturing both with his hands towards Charles and then to us.
"Oh, Its a pleasure to meet you, Mysa and Ellie." Charles spoke as he smiled at us.
"What are standing here for? Let's take a seat." Charles gestured towards the empty desk next to Michael's and himself sat in the desk in front of that, siting backwards on it.
Miss Mysa nodded, and turned towards that desk. Then she ushered me into it, and sat on the right of me. On the further right was Michael's desk.
Of course, I also kept an eye out for Zake and Juan who had been ignored completely by Charles. But after a pleading glance from me, thankfully, they responded in kind and silently sat in the desk in front of Micheal.
That was better than them talking and ending up fighting. So I was quite alright with it.
Miss Mysa then spoke up, after having kept quite for a minute.
"We just finished with our combat class and theis classroom piqued my interest. It was nice to see someone I knew here."
"Oh, I cams from the combat class, too. The second-year's combat classes are held in the forest." Charles replied.
"I was just sort of, chilling here. Was just waiting for Charles so that we can go to flam-"
"Although we do have some time to spare. So we can just talk for a bit. Its been a week in the Sectarian High Academy for you right, How are you enjoying it so far?" Charles pissed that question while looking at my direction, so I responded with a smile.
"Its good. Haven't had the chance to.."
And then conversation took place. Miss Mysa talked more than I had ever seen her do in class. But still, most of the talk came from Charles and my replies to his questions.
I was on high alert on all the time, to see if anything breaks out between Zake and Charles. But my worries were in vain. Charles didn't bother them, and Zake didn't either. Soon him, Juan and Micheal were talking about different things in school.
Plus I think Juan and Zake even became a bit interested in what Charles had to say, when he started talking about the beautiful red haired girl.
"Erina Royalte, the most excellent talented student of the entire school. She is in our second year, although in class-A. Because of her beautiful red-hair and her excellence, she even got the nickname 'the red princess'." Charles explained in a grave tone.
Besides that Charles also talked about some hilarious stories from his first-year. And also how Mr.Arcadum was even harsher back then, and how Micheal had to be carried away after his first day in combat class.
That story earned a embarrassed chuckle from Micheal, who seemed to be a shy person and didn't speak out too often.
Charles also gave out some advices for us. Miss Mysa wasn't much of a conversationalist so she mostly kept quite to Charles stories, while Zake and Juan had there pride so they pretended to not hear any of Charles words. So soon Charles was relaying his stories to only me and I was the one responding back.
But Charles did seem to be a very social person. When the time came where they had to leave, he even promised to meet again and talk some more, as he could really show us around as a senior.
The most important thing for me was that, Charles didn't seem to have any hostility for Zake. He smiled and talked about stuff without any malicious intent, at the very least. Unlike the two people who only talked to Micheal the whole time we were there. Charles at least did speak out about some advice that was meant to be heard by them too.
Well at the very least, I felt like I could rest assured knowing that Zake wouldn't be butting heads with Charles again.