"Having a peace day like this is nice for a change."
James reclined back in his chair while staring at the ceiling.
It was as if he was trying to bore a hole through it with his eyes.
Classes were over for the day, so they only had to sit through the rest of the evening's homeroom before they could go home.
As usual, Ms.Ashford wrapped up homeroom quite early, so they had the rest of the time to themselves.
"Eh? But peaceful days are so boringggggg!" Ethan whined, "I'm so bored!!!!"
Lucian's lips curved up into a mischievous smile.
"Hmm? Here I'll give you some money go buy us some drinks. Having something to do will take your mind off of things."
Lucian Lazily reached into his wallet and threw a $100 note.
"Here, go fetch."
Ethan caught the money with an exciting look.
"Isn't 100 bucks overkill for 3 drinks?"
Lucian let out a sigh.
"Fine... You can keep whatever's left."
Ethan's eyes lit up.
Lucian offered to pay him almost $95 to walk to the vending machines and back!
Even if he was well off, that was a steal!
"I'll be back; wait just a minute!"
He raced out of the room, disappearing into the hallways.
James threw Lucian a glare.
"Don't tell me you pulled the same trick you used on me with Ethan."
Arvell shrugged his shoulders, feigning ignorance.
"I don't know what it is you're talking about."
James sighed.
"You can be a real asshole at times, you know that, right?"
"It's not like you made any effort to stop him," Lucian countered.
Within a minute, the door to the classroom opened with a slam.
Ethan stomped toward Lucian and threw the $100 bill at his face.
"You bastard, it's fake!"
Lucian's mouth curved up into a teasing smile.
"At least you're not bored anymore. In my eyes, everything worked out in the end."
Ethan turned away with a huff.
"I'm not going to ever listen to you again, you lying as*hole."
James raised an eyebrow.
"That's what you said last time."
"Well, this time's going to be different!"
"How?"
"I-I'll remember it this time!"
"Yeah, right."
"I Swear!"
*BEEP BEEP BEEP*
Lucian reached into his pocket and fished out his phone.
"Hmm… Looks like I need to go now."
James raised his head.
"The goddess summoned you?"
Lucian raised an eyebrow.
"How'd you guess?"
"How many other people have your phone number? It's not like you have any other friends," James teased.
"Ouch. I'd give you a drink to cool off that burn, but sadly I don't have any," Ethan chimed in.
"Did that prank affect you that badly?" James asked.
"Yes, as a matter of fact, it did. I was looking forward to having a nice cold can of cola, but no, the bill was FAKE."
*BEEP BEEP*
Lucian looked at his phone with a deadpan expression.
"She's getting impatient… I need to get going now."
Getting up from his chair, Lucian strode over to the door.
"Alright, Lucian, see you tomorrow. As long as you don't skip again, that is."
"Yeah, just wait until tomorrow! Then, I'll get you back!"
"Yeah, yeah. See you both tomorrow."
Lucian closed the door behind him as he strode down the hallway.
"James was right, though… Peaceful days are the best."
"Hmm?"
Lucian heard a female's voice call out from behind him.
"Do you have some fixation with popping out behind people's backs? It's not a good habit, you know," Lucian sighed.
Stella smiled lightly.
"I'll keep that in mind."
Lucian turned around to face his fiance.
"You said you were going to take me to the training facility? Do you wanna get going then?"
"Sure, let me open a portal…."
"Can we go in my car? We have another hour anyways."
"Hmm?"
"I don't trust it to be untouched if left in the academy parking lot for that long."
Stella nodded her head.
"That makes sense."
Taking her with him, Lucian drove to the facility Stella pointed out.
***
"Mike, the target has left the parameter."
A hooded man holding a pair of binoculars called out from a building.
His partner next to him nodded his head.
"Good, keep an eye on them, Jordan."
"Wait… There's a problem."
"Hmm?"
"The target's fiance also came."
Mike massaged his forehead.
"Things just got a little more complicated…."
"Do we abort the mission?"
"No… We'll just need to wait until the two get separated."
Jordan watched the red sports car drive out of the academy parking lot.
"Mike, are you sure we should do this? The target is the heir to that company. Even if he isn't that strong by himself, people will still retaliate if he gets hurt."
"How bad can it be? It's not like we're going to kill him. Roughing him up a little for our employer isn't too bad. Plus… We were offered quite a lot for this job."
"Yeah… I could pay off quite a few bills with that money."
"See what I mean? In our field, it's good to be cautious, but being overly cautious will cause us to lose money."
"Still though… I have a nagging feeling that this isn't working out."
Mike slapped Jordan's back, causing him to lose grip of the binoculars.
"Don't worry too much about it! Calm your nerves a little!"
Jordan's eyes widened in fear, seeing his binoculars slip from his grip.
"Shit!"
Those binoculars were state of the art and extremely expensive!
He reached in a desperate attempt to catch the binoculars before they fell off of the guard rails.
Luckily, Jordan was able to loop his fingers around it before it plummeted to its untimely end.
"Phew… It didn't break…."
"Oops, sorry."
Mike scratched the back of his neck with an apologetic expression.
Shooting him an annoyed look, Jordan put the binoculars into his bag.
"We should get going."
"The others are pursuing them right now, so it's better we go too."
The two nodded heads before swiftly leaving the scene.