They arrived at school when the bell rang and the girls went to their form, leaving the boys alone again.
"So, " Kabé said, trying to make conversation, "Who's your homeroom tutor?"
"Ms Marina." The answer was simple.
"I guess you're in my homeroom again." Kabé said as he started walking towards a building, "Follow me, we changed home rooms."
Chase did as he was told and followed. The school hadn't changed but the only thing that was new was students carrying various weapons but not a lot of them had familiars.
"Who's that boy following Kabé?" One of the students asked as they watched Chase follow Kabé into a building.
"Never seen him before, must be a new student." Another student replied.
"He looks familiar but, I can't quite put my finger around it." Another one said.
"Yeah I know what you mean." The first student replied. The conversation was changed and they headed towards their homeroom.
Meanwhile, Chase and Kabe were climbing up a couple of stairs and reached the third floor quite quickly. One of the reasons why they reached it so quickly was because of the fact that Kabe had an unsettling feeling inside of him concerning the boy behind him and he wanted to get away from him as soon as possible and, even though he had attempted to talk to him, the only questions Chase answered were the ones concerning school and nothing else. Kabe was quite surprised that they had chosen the same subjects but Chase couldn't care less.
"Good to see you again Chase!" A happy voice shouted from the corner of the classroom as soon as they were in view. "Thanks for bringing him here Kabé."
"No problem Ms." Kabé said as he headed to his seat at the back of the class. A small number of students were in class and they were quite shocked to see Chase standing once again in front of them but this time, he looked fierce instead of the usual scared behaviour.
"How have you been?" Ms Marina asked as she approached him. Emma Marina hadn't changed one bit and Chase was quite happy to see that she was still jubilant and still working at the school.
"Fine." He simply answered and she smiled. "Where do I sit?"
"Um let's see..." She said as she looked around the room, "Ah yes, I think that there's no one behind Kabé, you can sit there. Is that fine with you Kabé?"
"I guess." He couldn't refuse, not with the sweet smile she had plastered on her face. Chase walked towards the back of the class and took his seat behind Kabé, with the current students in the class looking at him with curiosity. A bunch of students poured in but they seemed to stop when they noticed a black haired boy sitting at the back of their class.
"Miss, do we have a new student?" One of them asked.
"I wouldn't say that he's new, " She started as she walked back to her desk, "More like a returnee." The students all took a seat and briefly glanced on the returnee.
"Don't disturb Chase." Ms Marina said as she tapped away on her keyboard.
"CHASE!!" The whole class exclaimed in unison.
"Quiet down!" She exclaimed. "Yes, it's the Chase that had disappeared."
All the kids stared at him but he payed no attention to them and simply looked out of the window to see his sister, Lazuli, taking a seat at the back of the class as well and Kate taking a seat next to her. They noticed each other but averted their gazes almost immediately. Meanwhile, the kids in Chase's class were hesitating on whether or not to ask him questions about his difference in appearance as something didn't sit well with them.
"What happened to him?" One student whispered to the person next to him, "Did he get a makeover?"
"Who knows?" The student answered, "But it's best to stay away from him for now." The students around them agreed and went on with their individual conversations. Homeroom was over quickly without anyone talking to Chase yet he didn't care rather, he quite liked being left alone. Break came next but he didn't leave the classroom. Various students from other classes passed through their class just to see him which made Chase extremely popular in the first 30 minutes of his school time. But, he was already infamous for being the weakest kid in school and this was just another phase in his high school life.
Period 3 came and all the students went to their classes except for Chase who didn't go to his class since he didn't have anything. The only lesson he had was in period 4 which was Economics and it started at 12:20pm. He went to an IT room that his planner had indicated to spend time there. He could have gone outside of school but he couldn't be bothered and besides, he wanted to check if his school email still worked.
Upon arriving, he encountered Kabé again. The two boys looked at each other but averted their gazes pretty quickly and sat at different corners of the room. The room was quite empty and the only thing you could hear was tapping on the keyboards for a whole hour. The bell rang and Kabe got up first, left the room but he was followed by Chase who was far behind him but, someone familiar stood in front of Kabé and directed him somewhere else, leaving Chase on his own.
Well, the class was relatively easy to find since his planner had a map for the school building and he headed up to the third floor of another building, brushing past all the students who were attentively watching him.
He arrived and headed inside the classroom. There were a couple of students there before him and they just watched him.
"Hello Chase." A deep voice said. Chase looked around and came face to face with the teacher he hated the most: Mr Mkpoin. He still had that expression that told Chase that he was not happy to see him at all. Good... the feeling was mutual.
"Just go sit at the back, far away from me." He blurted out. "And what is that animal on your shoulder? You should know that I don't like animals!"
Well it was true, Mr Mkpoin did not like animals. At one point, he had kicked a cat on the road just like that but it was a rumour. Well, he might have done that.
"What is up with the black hair and stud? Are you trying to look intimidating?" He asked again in spite, "Just take a seat and stay out of my sight."
Chase walked to the back of the class and took a seat. The seat in front of him was empty and even the seat next to him was empty. It was either the people usually sitting there weren't there or, Mr Mkpoin made sure that he was far away from him. Chase didn't understand how he went from being a History teacher to an Economics teacher, he was going to ask his aunt later.
Mr Mkpoin took the register and stopped at someone's name.
"Kabé's on a mission? I see" He muttered to himself, "Even this kid is on one."
After that was dealt with, the lesson started and it went on without a hitch. Mr Mkpoin was making extra sure to avoid Chase as much as possible but still kept an eye on him. Well, he must still be quite angry at Chase when Ms Marina had knocked him out a couple of years back. The lesson ended and Mr Mkpoin dismissed his class to go to lunch and as everyone was preparing to leave, someone entered the classroom.
"How are you coming at the end of the lesson Lucas!? " Mr Mkpoin furiously asked.
"Relax Warren, " Lucas said as he looked at him, "Besides, I didn't come for your lesson, there's someone far more important here." As he said that, he turned his gaze towards Chase.
"What about Kabé?"
"He's on another mission with the rest of the team, I had a solo mission." Lucas responded.
"There you are Lucas!" A voice exclaimed behind him. It appears that his friends were looking for him and now, the four worst students of the school were together in one room, causing some students in the class to leave quickly but three quarters stayed to see the interaction between Chase and them and, they already knew how it was going to go down.
But Chase was not paying attention to anything that was going on and just sat on his chair, having a telepathic convo with Tridius.
"So what are you going to do now master?" Tridius asked.
"I'm just going to keep a low profile, not get in too much trouble like aunt Maria said." He answered.
"Master, " Tridius called out.
"Yeah?"
"Some people are approaching you with malicious intent."
Chase lifted his head up and came face to face with the people he hated most in the whole school, Lucas Weyell and his guys.
"Haven't seen you in the longest time Cheesy, how have you been?" Lucas asked him, all smiles. Chase didn't answer and looked outside the window.
"Oi, I'm trying to be friendly here, and since I haven't seen you in the longest of times, I wanted to repair our relationship." Everyone who knew Lucas properly knew that he was lying and didn't mean a thing he said, he was just playing with Chase for a bit but, Chase and Tridius knew this.
Chase stayed quiet and Lucas was starting to get annoyed. Chase took out his planner but before he could open it, Lucas swatted it away and it fell near the board. Mr Mkpoin knew what was going to happen however, he wanted it to happen and was quite happy that Lucas hadn't changed one bit.
"You think you're all that huh? Coming to school with spiky black hair and a stud. what? Are you trying to look bad?" Lucas questioned him with a very hateful expression. Finally he had revealed his true nature. "I don't know how you came back to life or why you came to school but, you shouldn't have came back. Even better, you should have stayed dead."
Chase said nothing but stared at the one verbally abusing him. Mr Mkpoin was clearly enjoying this and a smile spread across his face.
"Now you're trying to scare me huh? Don't piss me off! Even your animal is making fun of me!"
Chase and Tridius stared at him hard and he finally snapped. Lucas grabbed a nearby chair and hit Chase in the head with it, causing blood to flow from his head.
"Master?" Tridius emotionlessly called out as blood flowed from his master's head.
"You know what Tridius?" He said, "Forget about this peaceful school life thing, that was impossible from the start."
The last rope keeping Chase together broke in half and darkness completely enveloped his already darkened heart.
Chase stood up from his seat and stared at Lucas, who was in shock. Not only because of the fact that he was still standing from being savagely hit, but the look on Chase's face made his entire being shiver.
"What are you doing?" Lucas worriedly asked, "You don't scare me..."
"Shut the fuck up."