(Wednesday, 24th of Verdant Garden Moon)
Jack let out a tired groan whilst he walked through the halls of the academy at around 5:30 in the morning. His attire consisted only of jeans, boots, a while shirt, and a fossil-style necklace. Jack was asked by Alice to go wake up a classmate of theirs, Saorise. Alice told him that Saorise's alarm clock wasn't working due to suddenly being crushed, and the poor girl keeps forgetting to buy a new one. Alice couldn't wake her up this time because Alice was doing some last minute studying for the exam in Sobek's class. Simo and Jojo weren't with Jack because Simo was at the target range, practicing against magic targets while Jojo wandered the school.
"I wonder if letting Jojo explore on her own was a good decision on my part." Jack wondered out loud before shrugging. "Still, I have five more classmates to meet, so let's try to meet all of them today to get introductions out of the way."
Jack reached Saorise's door and knocked on it, but there was no response. Jack knocked on it again, and he heard an annoyed grunt from the other side of the door. Jack knocked on the door a third time, and this time, a groggy voice came from the other side of the door.
"Door's open..." Saorise's voice could be heard from the other side of the door, and Jack opened the door to see the girl known as Saorise getting out of bed. Saorise was a muscular woman with ocean blue eyes and pale skin. She was wearing a white tank-too with shorts, and her most noticeable trait was her long, wild black hair that was almost as long as Alice's. "Wait, you aren't Alice..."
"I'm Alice's friend, Jack, she asked me to wake you up since she needed to study today." Jack took a step inside Saorise's room and noticed how the walls were lined with guns. "...For the sake of my safety, I'm gonna politely ask that you don't shoot me."
"Oh, I don't shoot anyone other than bad guys." Saorise got up from her bed, and Jack saw that she was at least 6'5 or 195 cm. "Are you a bad guy?"
"I like to think I'm a True Neutral." Jack replied whilst slowly stepping out of the room. "What class are you anyways?"
"I'm a seal." Saorise informed Jack, and he noticed a large parka that looked like seal skin. "Wait...was my class a joke? Since I'm a selkie, and I can turn into a seal...?"
"Hell if I know." Jack shrugged as Saorise walked to the closet and opened it. "I'll let you get dressed, so I'll see you later."
"Bye friend." Saorise waved goodbye to Jack, and the archeologist left the room.
With that done, Jack decided to walk to the mess hall so he could actually get some breakfast. Jack entered the mess hall to see everyone's eyes were on him, from the seniors to professors, they were all staring at Jack. The stares made him somewhat nervous, but he took a deep breath and continued on through the mess hall to the part of the hall to get his meal. Jack got his meal from the eldritch abomination that was in charge of the breakfast. Jack grabbed his tray of breakfast, and made his way over to an empty table. The people were most likely staring at Jack because you beat Dorian, the greatest assassin from the Heliosian Empire.
"Human, Jack?" An orc person walking along a petite looking vampire girl pointed at Jack, asking if he was Jack. Jack nodded, and the orc smiled before pointing at himself and the vampire. "Thor. Valerie. Thor is happy to meet Jack, Thor likes strong people."
"Is it okay if we sit here?" Valerie asked whilst gesturing to the seats in front of Jack.
"Be my guest." Jack nodded, and both people sat down in front of him. "So I take it, you guys have heard the story?"
"We heard that a random person busted into Sanctuary, beat up Dorian, and finished him off with a kick to the balls using his right leg." Valerie looked at Jack's right leg underneath the table. "You possess the strongest right leg here, so we figured that it was you who beat up Dorian."
"Thor saw the fight." Thor raised his hand and smiled. "Thor wants to fight Jack now!"
"Thor, we need to eat breakfast first." Valerie continued to eat her breakfast until someone placed a hand on her shoulder. "Oh no not again."
"Hey girl, how about you and I eat something good in the bedroom?" Someone who looked a year older than Jack placed his hand on Valerie's shoulder.
"I'm a guy." Valerie informed the guy with a deadpan expression, and Jack dropped the fork he was using to eat his eggs. "Are you still interested?"
Without another word, the flirting boy slowly walked away, leaving the three students to eat breakfast in awkward silence. Jack's eyes were still wide with the surprise of Valerie's actual gender being that of a boy, but he picked up the fork and decided to go with the flow on this one. After all, unlike the marriage arrangement, this wasn't really hurting or affecting anyone beyond some confusion.
"So...is wearing a dress really a good idea?" Jack asked while gesturing your finger to Valerie's outfit. "Like this is a combat school, so you're expected to run around a lot."
"Don't worry, I'm only wearing this dress because it's an education based day, on missions, I wear pants and stuff." Valerie informed Jack. "Thor's been on a mission with me before, so he knows the drill."
"Oh yeah, how confident are you guys for your tests?" Jack then remembered about the tests, and now it was Valerie and Thor's turns to drop their forks in shock. "You did study for today's Strategy test, right?"
"Thor has to go, Thor will see you later!" Thor swiftly devoured all his food by tilting the tray, forcing the food into his mouth while Valerie ate all her food as swiftly as possible.
"Same here, I'll see you later, Jack." Valerie finally finished his meal and ran off with Thor, making sure to set their trays on the designated tray area on their way out of the cafeteria.
Jack finished his meal and set his tray down. Jack decided to walk to the strategy classroom. Jack walked through the hall, with his shoe on the one good leg and bare, metallic prosthetic making different sounds with every step against the wooden floor. Jack walked through the halls until he heard the sound of a camera shutter suddenly going off. Jack was confused, and looked around until his eyes landed on someone balancing his two legs on the edges of a trash can to peek inside a small window. Jack confused by what this person was doing, but then he looked at the nearest doorway, which led to the girl's showers, assuming the sign on the door was to be trusted. This mysterious person on the trash can was balancing well whilst holding the camera to the window, taking pictures until Jack suddenly cleared his throat, and the boy let out a surprised shout before the trash bin fell over, and trash spilled onto the ground, along with a baseball bat and a jar of candies. Jack recognized the bat as Norka and the jar of candies as Buttercup. Also, the perverted guy fell, so there's that. The perverted guy had a mint colored plaid shirt, jeans, a belt with a fancy belt buckle, and a beanie.
"Dude, you scared me!" The boy sat up from the ground and shot Jack a glare. "I could have had a heart attack, you know!"
"Weren't you the guy who was taking pictures of the inside of the girls' showers?" Jack pointed his thumb in the direction of the shower's entrance.
"Touché my good man." The man then stood up onto his legs and put his hands on his hips. "Even though I'm sure you're interested in what I've acquired, I must keep the secret documents of Ned Buffalo a secret."
"So your name's Ned?" Jack had his phone in hand, already ready to dial Herakles with. "I wonder how Headmaster Herakles will respond to this~?"
"I'm sorry." Ned was now in a dogeza position in front of Jack. His camera placed centimeters away from his hands on the floor. "Please do not invoke the headmaster's wrath upon me. I will be a good boy, I will say all my prayers, do volunteer work, and only steal underwear from the girls' laundry room."
"Your negotiation skills suck ass." Jack sweatdropped whilst looking at the boy. "Wait...aren't you in my class?"
"Oh shit, I remember, you're the archeologist guy!" Ned appeared to have only remembered who Jack was thanks to the prosthetic leg.
"Yeah, I am, and we also have a test." Jack informed Ned, who suddenly went pale out of fear. "Don't tell me you forgot the test too..."
"I did..." Ned looked down and scowled. "Shit man, I don't know what to do now."
"You can try panicking." Jack watched as Ned got up from the ground and began running away. "Oi, where are you going?!"
"TO STUDY, KEEP THE PICTURES I TOOK AS A THANK YOU FOR REMINDING ME!" Ned shouted at Jack, and he looked down at the ground to see that he left behind a camera. Jack crouched down and picked up the camera.
"...I don't even know how to use this thing." Jack put the camera in his pocket, because hey, free camera. "Wait, should I give it back to Ned?"
"No, you should not." Mifu appeared behind Jack with her bangs covering her eyes, yet with a menacing aura surrounding her body. "You should destroy that camera. Now."
"Um...is now a good time to question why you're holding a potted plant?" Jack pointed at the plant in Mifu's arms, and he couldn't tell what plant it was, all Jack knew is that it had a stalk and two large leaves.
"This is Gaia, our classmate." Mifu presented the final classmate, which was a plant...in a green peppermint patterned pot. "They can't move on their own right now, so they need help."
"I just wanna know who the poor fool who lost against a potted plant..." Jack recalled that fights took place in order to enter the academy, and the winner usually entered the academy. Jack was the only exception to this because of the power of bullshit.
"They were a fighter with an impeccable defense, but with no offense, so it was just them staring at each other until the other guy surrendered out of boredom." Mifu informed Jack before glaring at the camera. "So my friend...the camera?"
"Oh, right." Jack dropped the camera on the ground before using his prosthetic to stomp on it, reducing it to dust. "So please tell me you studied for the exams, everyone else I ran into hasn't."
"Of course I studied for Professor Sobek's exams, why wouldn't I?" Mifu was luckily one of Jack's few responsible classmates. "Did you perhaps forget to study for the test?"
"...Maybe." Jack only studied for some parts of the test, and Mifu sighed before walking past Jack.
"Fear not, I'm sure the test will be simple, just like Professor Sobek claims it to be." Mifu tried to ease Jack's worrying. "You just need to remember what he taught you, and you should be fine."
"I hope I studied the stuff that will be on the test." Jack rubbed the back of his neck somewhat nervously. "Could you believe what a horrible coincidence it would be if everything I studied for wasn't on the test, while everything I couldn't study for was?"
"Please don't jinx yourself like that, my friend." Mifu pleaded with Jack.
(Later)
Jack jinxed himself.
That was the only way to describe what was happening.
Jack sat at his desk, with Eve sitting on his left and Bruce sitting on his right. It was just like the worst case scenario joke with Mifu. Jack had no answers for any of these questions. Worst part about all of it, there was one MASSIVE distraction in the front of the room.
"Okay guys, Matt is up here because he was caught cheating on the exams." Maui stood next to Matt, who was tied up using a series of chains around his torso while dangling just above the chalkboard. "Well, more like he tried sneaking into Sobek's room to look at the answer sheet..."
"Let Matt serve as a warning to all of you, being caught cheating on this test is a sentence to punishment, instantly failing, and shame." Nikola looked around the room. "I've set up cameras all around the room, so be weary, or you'll end up like your friend here."
"Don't worry guys, I am unharmed!" Matt shouted from his spot over the white board.
"Only because your muscles are so bloody dense that it's like your body is nothing but armor." Sobek poked at Matt's shoulder using a meter stick. "Matt's stunning physiology aside, do any of you have any questions?"
"How can Gaia write when they're a literal plant?" Jack had his hand raised, and no one answered your question. Instead, you were met with a series of stares. "...Never mind."
"Now...you may all begin!" Sobek shouted before slamming an hourglass on the desk, Jack you instantly began working on the test.
As Jack studied furiously in the test, Jack was stumped on the first question. He tried thinking about what the answer could be, but then Jack noticed a kind of beeping noise. Jack was about to turn around, but Maui cleared his throat whilst glaring at Jack. Guess this 'no cheating' thing was to be taken seriously. Jack summoned an elemental magic circle in his palm and whispered in a hushed tone.
"Path of Heaven: Crystal Mirror." Jack whispered, only being loud enough for him to hear his own voice.
Jack's left palm was covered in a mirror-like layer of something that felt similar to a shell. Jack focused the mirror onto the seat behind him, which was Zane's seat. Zane had on a pair of high tech looking glasses. Jack never saw Zane wearing glasses before, but then he noticed that his hands were moving, as though he was typing on an invisible keyboard. Jack saw Zane write on his test, and Jack slowly realized that Zane was hacking into the cameras, and using those glasses to see what those cameras could see. Jack looked forwards to see Alice had her right arm tucked into her shirt, and Alice appears to have summoned a demonic arm to act as her right arm to answer the questions. She also had her right eye replaced with a demonic eye, allowing the demon she's using to see the paper. Jack looked to his left to see Eve was having no trouble with the test at all, while Bruce was in the same boat as Jack. Jack looked down at the test, and tried his best to solve the question.
1: You and four allies are stuck facing off against an army with superior tactics, strength, skill, and equipment in order to protect a village. What is the correct course of action?
A: Run away
B: Call Reinforcements
C: Find a way to outsmart them using what resources you have
D: Do your best to fend off the army for as long as possible
Fuck it, let's go with D.
Jack noticed that a lot of people in his class were cheating on the test, with the exceptions being Mifu, Saorise, Angelo, Eve, Rasputin, James, Othelia, Mary, Robin, Leia, Hero, Medea, Bruce, and yourself. Damini summoned an eye made of sand to look at other people's answers, while the twins copied off each other without getting caught somehow. Iris dashed around the room so quickly Jack couldn't actually see her, but given how sometimes she only looked like an after image, Jack knew she went somewhere. Goliath looked like he was having trouble, but Jack noticed that he was copying Mifu's pencil movements exactly. Hassan froze time, and Jack can tell because every time he froze time, everything would suddenly stop in place and he would get up to look at everyone's answers. Except Jack's, he avoided the archeologist like the plague, especially since his time freezing ability no longer worked on Jack thanks to Dorian. After a couple minutes, Jack finally finished the test and walked to the front desk where Sobek was watching his students.
"Nice job Mr.Grimm, have a nice day!" Sobek waved goodbye to Jack as he left the classroom, and Jack returned the wave with one of his own.
Jack left the classroom early, since he gets to leave when you finish tests. Jack checked his phone to see he had fifteen minutes until the next class, Politics and Law, Jack then realized something as he wandered through the hallway.
"Oh hey, I met all 34 of my classmates, that's nice!" Jack cheered whilst pumping his fist into the air. "And I already forgot half of them!"