Still sitting on the chair and staring at Jake, Sky said "Welcome back bro."
"What are you doing here Sky?" Jake asked as he moved to another chair and sat down.
"Nothing." Sky answered. "I just thought I'd pay my elder brother a visit and apologize for calling him a fat cow."
"Really?" Jake asked, not buying what Sky was saying.
"Yes, you see I was wrong to call you a fat cow. You were more like a uh... Messed up pig."
"Gee Sky, thank you so much. Apology accepted, now could you leave my room, I want to take a shower."
"I will, first, what were you doing outside at this time of the night?" Sky asked.
"What do you think? I was saying 'hi' to the moons. If that's all, I'd like to enter the shower now."
Standing up, Sky said to Jake "Alright, I'm leaving. But Dad's gonna hear about this."
"Hear about what?"
"How you say 'hi' to the moons at night. I think you're going loco or you're already mental."
"That's your business, now do you mind? I need to get some sleep." Jake said.
After Sky left his room, Jake went into the bathroom, took a bath and got into bed. He removed all the pillows he had used to make it look like he was sleeping, which obviously hadn't kept Sky away from his room.
Now in his own room, Sky was thinking about where Jake could have gone and what he could have been doing. 'Maybe this has something to do with the way his appearance keeps changing. But why in the middle of the night, and is this the first time or what?'
Knowing he could do nothing about it for now, Sky stopped thinking about it and slept.
***
"I think he's still in bed." Sky answered Andrea the next morning from the living room.
"Go check, we're ordering takeout this morning." Andrea said.
Getting up and going to Jake's room, Sky saw Jake sitting on a chair with his eyes closed. "What are you doing?"
Still leaving his eyes closed, Jake answered "I'm focusing on the magic flowing through my body."
"What does that do?" Sky asked.
Now opening his eyes to look at Sky, Jake said "It does a lot of things. Makes my magic stronger, increases the physical attributes of my body, and I think it also increases my mana but I'm not sure yet."
"Can't the school make an exception for the new second year students and give us our magic now?"
"Don't ask me, when you get to school ask a teacher or something."
"Maybe I will, Dad says come down for breakfast." Sky said.
"Tell him I'll be there in a few minutes."
Jake continued with what he was doing for a while before going downstairs to have breakfast.
After having breakfast Jake called Violet. He hadn't spoken to her in a while and he wanted to know how she was doing.
"Violet, it's Jake." Jake said after Violet answered the call.
"Jake, what's up?" Violet asked.
"You know, just training and more training. How about you, what have you been up to?"
"Nothing for now, I haven't gone to register in any academy yet."
"Why not?" Jake asked.
"I'm working on something regarding my magic, I'll register when I'm done."
"Which academy do you wanna go to?"
"The academy for soldiers." Violet answered.
"Seriously? You want to get involved in the war against the Werts?"
"We're all involved, soldier or not. Do you think the Werts are going to attack and ask us for our soldiers. At this point everyone should get training, the soldiers won't be able to protect everybody so we should at least be able to protect ourselves."
"Now that you put it like that, I think you have a point." Jake agreed. "But not everyone will want to get involved, some will be too scared to do anything."
"And I'm not going to be one of them, that's one of the reasons why I'm going to join the academy for soldiers. Which academy do you want to join?" Violet asked.
"I don't know yet, but with what you just said, you might see me in the academy for soldiers."
"If I do see you, then I'll know you made the right choice. With magic like yours, it would be a waste not to use it wisely." Violet said.
"It would, wouldn't it?" Jake muttered.
"What?"
"Nothing, I was just thinking out loud. So when do you think you're going to be done with whatever it is you're working on regarding your magic?"
"I'm not sure, maybe by next week. I'm not bothered because the academy will still be accepting students by then."
"Okay. I just wanted to know how you were doing, I'll talk to you later."
"Bye Jake."
Ending the call, Jake thought more about what Violet had said. 'She makes a very good point. The Werts aren't going to attack Veda and ask for the soldiers, they'll kill anyone they see. I'm actually starting to think joining the academy for soldiers is the best option for everyone.'
Since he had nothing to do till it was time for his date with Cat, Jake decided to head to school hoping to find Miss Anna there. He wanted to do some more training.
'Miss Anna never said our training was only on school days, so she might teach me something new today. And I need to get a punching bag or something like that doll in school so I can be training with it.'
Going downstairs and heading to the door, Jake said to Sky "Sky, I'm going to school."
Totally perplexed at what Jake had just told him, Sky asked Jake "School? What kind of a person goes to school on a weekend without being forced to?"
"I have something I need to do there."
"And it can't wait till the weekend's over?"
"No it can't, I have to do it today. And what are you bugging me for? I'm the one who's going to school right?" Jake asked.
"Yes you are but you're my brother. Some of the things you do will reflect on me, I have a reputation you know."
"Yeah right. Just tell Dad where I went if he asks for me." Jake said as he left the house and headed to school.