After a few more minutes of moping while waiting for his head to finally stop pounding Max realized the whispers he heard before came from outside the Nurse's office, he couldn't make out what was being said but the tone of the voices conveyed worry, probably for himself and what happened on the gym.
Max got up from the bed he was laying on and went to exit the office, but not before making a fool of himself by falling to the ground on his first steps out of the bed.
It seemed the sound of falling on his butt and hitting the bed besides the one he just got up from alerted the people outside the room, prompting them to enter and see Max getting up from the ground with a disgruntled expression.
Max looked up to see the Principal- Er... Edward making his way over with a worried expression on his face, the person he was talking with was the head nurse of the school who ran to Max's side and got him to sit on the bed again, after the usual "Are you OK?" "Yeah" conversation there was an awkward silence on the room as the nurse checked him over for any injuries or bruises and gave him a painkiller for the aftershocks of his headache.
"Hmmm... It seems you're all good physically, but I wouldn't recommend doing anything strenuous physically or mentally until after a good night's rest, it'll be best to send you home early today." The head nurse said as he went over a checklist on the clipboard he was holding. "Rest up for a bit before you go, or would you like me to call your parents to pick you up?" The nurse asked, to which Max quickly replied with a "No, Thank you."
After a few more checks the nurse set the clipboard on the only desk of the room. "Well, That should be everything, I'll leave you to it Edward." And promptly left the room.
Max looked up at Edward as the nurse left the room and was met with an expression of suspicion and uncertainty. "Tell me, what exactly happened between you and Mr. Syrocco? I heard you we're having a spar when this whole situation started..."
"Oh- Uh... Nothing happened, we were sparring and I went off the rails..." Max said, with embarrassment written on his face.
"Hmmm... and what caused that? Was he taunting you? Riling you up? Or were you taunting him and then couldn't live up to it?" Edward asked inquisitively, he wanted to get to the heart of the matter immediately.
"What?! No! Nothing like that- I just wanted to try out finally controlling plants properly, I could never do much before, so it kinda got to my head..." Max admitted while lowering his head.
"Uh... So there was no taunting? You didn't want to hurt him either?" Edward probed.
"He's hurt?!" Max almost jumped from the bed he was sitting on, thankfully Edward soon clarified.
"Heavens no! I was just asking, he's in perfect health... he was the one that called for a nurse actually, I've never seen a freshman Wind Elemental go that fast before, he should have joined the track team with that speed..." Edward relaxed, Max's worry for Gareth had eased his own worries.
"Oh... That's good..." Max relaxed too, but for different reasons, he wouldn't have been able to live with himself if Gareth had ended up hurt because of a dumb mistake.
"Indeed... Now with this resolved, I'm assuming you'll be more careful with going over your limits from now on, right? Pushing yourself is good if done in moderation, but blowing past your limits like you did on that gym is not healthy at all..." Edward said with a worried tone, Max had to understand this early on, or he'd end up like the last disciple his master had taken under his wing...
"Yes sir, the headache I got was enough punishment as is, I'll never try that again..." Max said as he clutched the side of his temples with one hand, the painkiller the nurse gave him was starting to take effect and numb the last remnants of the previously head-splitting headache.
Edward was satisfied with that answer and nodded approvingly. "Perfect, and don't worry too much about the headaches, it's very normal at the start, but you should be mindful of the weakness that comes with them, like what happened after you tried getting out of the bed. that's the more insidious and dangerous part, you don't even notice it until its too late."
"Right! I don't feel weak at all but i could barely get up after falling..." Max pointed out, this whole situation was news to him.
"Yeah, the whole body has to get used to Elemental Energy, not only the mind, even experienced hunters tend to forget about it and only care about the headaches... Thankfully the fatigue only hits you after the adrenaline wears off, or in your case, if you push it too much." Edward said and then took a pause. "It's going to be lunch time soon, maybe go have something to eat before leaving? Going back home on an empty stomach doesn't sound like a good idea with your current predicament."
Max nodded sheepishly. "Yeah, I was about to ask if I could stay for lunch... wait- was I out for so long? Damn..."
"Yes, that's why I came over to check on you, i was talking with Henrick about calling an ambulance if you didn't wake up soon." Edward responded as he checked his watch. "Look at the time, lunch is in 5 minutes!"
"Fuck!" Max got up from the bed hurriedly and could stand on his own two (wobbly) legs now.
"Lenguage!" Edward said with a raised voice while pointing at Max with his index finger disapprovingly.
"Sorry..." Max replied while looking at the ground and walked past Edward and to the office's exit.
Max didn't see it, but as he left the office Edward shook his head with a light smile on his face.
•••••
For the first time since he joined the Melee Combat Department Max was early for lunch, which was actually a sad sight, the cafeteria was completely empty and the only thing that gave it its usual livelihood was the noise of the cooks making food in the kitchen.
Apparently the departments had lunch an hour after the regular students had recess and an hour before they had lunch, giving them a monopoly over the whole cafeteria.
Max took his time to look over today's options and settled down for a burger with all the toppings, a side of mashed potatoes with meat sauce along with his favorite chocolate-stuffed cookies for dessert, and a glass of water to wash it all down.
Having the whole cafeteria for himself was relaxing, no other sound was present to bother him other than the cooks finishing up the food, and evem that was dying down, yet Max suddenly heard the noise of a door being opened and look on the direction it came from, he was met with the senior students entering the cafeteria in a tidal wave and going straight for the serving area.
Some gave him odd looks while others only cared about getting in line to get their food, Max ate his burger while watching them, if he was short in comparison to his own classmates then the senior students made him look like how a 8-year-old looked compared to himself.
Max silently wished to one day be as tall as a certain Metal Elemental that was close to the front of the line, easily 1.90 meters and stood out like an overly tall tree on a forest, a man can dream...
None of the Senior students bothered him, preferring to stick with their own cliques and sit down at their own tables, a few gave him a passing glance, but not much other than that.
Soon came the Junior students, they were more rambunctious than the Seniors yet they still didnt bother him, maybe a few snickered while pointing at him but again, not much.
At last came students of his own year, they did bother him, specially those of his own department, rather than just snicker at him they straight up laughed while pointing and mocking him.
Max felt heat on his face as he looked down to his food, he could make it... It was just lunch... they would forget about it by tomorrow... right?
As if answering his prayers yet also almost scaring him to death Vitria and Gareth sat down on Max's table.
"How did you guys find me? I thought I would have to go searching for you." Max said half-joking, with how big the cafeteria was and with the rainbow of hair colors, fire, wind and other Elements that covered the heads of almost all the Elementals present making out his light green hair out of the multicolored sea should have been a hard task, the sound of a multitude of people talking also didn't help in searching for someone.
"Don't ask me, Gareth was the on who found you when we were on the line, we tried to get your attention but you probably didn't hear us with all this noise..." Vitria replied as she put the contents of her tray in order before eating.
"And? How did you find me?" Max looked at Gareth expectantly, yet only got a smug grin back.
"Sorry but that information is a trade secret, rogues don't reveal all their tricks!" Gareth replied as he dug in on the steak on his tray.
"Oh, you're a rogue now? Since when?" Vitria chuckled as she also took a spoonful of the shrimp fried rice on her own tray.
"Like I said, that's a trade secret... I can't be going around announcing myself as a rogue, only an idiot would put their job in jeopardy like that..." Gareth said, completely aware of the hypocrisy and barely keeping his laughter contained.
"And what's this job you're doing? Counter espionage? Being a quadruple agent? Wait! Let me guess... uncovering a globe spanning criminal organization that wants to destroy society as we know it?!" Max said in an overly dramatic way, feigning shock.
"All three." Gareth said matter of factly while holding his glass of water like it was a coupe of champagne and moving it in a circular motion like one would in a movie.
The theatrics got the trio laughing merrily, yet it also brought some unwanted attention to their table.
After the laughter died down and everyone got back to eating their food the questioning started.
"So... what did the nurse said? About what happened in the gym..." Gareth was the one to bring it up.
"Oh- I shouldn't do anything physically or mentally strenuous, and I'll be going home after lunch." Max replied quickly, the subject made him uncomfortable.
"Lucky! You won't have to deal with Professor Pate then..." Gareth groaned as he cut up the steak on his tray.
"Anything else? Like... are you going to get punished or something?" Vitria asked with worry as she put down her spoon.
"No, I talked with Edw- the Principal, he said I wasn't in trouble, just to be more careful in the future." Max replied as finished his burger and went for the mashed potatoes.
"That's-" Vitria was cut off by another voice coming from behind Max. "Why not?! Did your mom suck the Principal's dick so her dear baby wouldn't get expelled?"
The tables around had suddenly gone silent, the students sitting on them looked at the person that had just said that out loud, some in shock, others were already taking their phones out when the possibility of a fight presented itself.
Max looked back and his gaze was met by a Fire Elemental, one that was part of Elias' group on the exam from last week.
"The fuck did you just say?" Max replied, anger evident on his voice.