Alex and Pierre are now headed to combat class and out of all the classes, combat class has to be Alex's favourite. He doesn't know if it's because it always boosts his grades or it's because he gets to learn how to kill dark creatures or that he has an excuse to punch Levi Ross and he loves punching that arshole Levi Ross. There was a time he almost got Alex suspended after beating him up. Alex vowed not to make that mistake… at least he won't be punching him outside of combat class.
Combat class usually takes place outside on the field. His classmates are already outside listening to Cornelius, their teacher, a centaur with wild brown hair and large muscles. Centaurs are natural warriors and they've been by elves' side for years now. So it's just fitting that a centaur would be their combat teacher.
"Ah just the boys I was talking about, please give them a round of applause," Cornelius says and they all jam their hands together for both Alex and Pierre. Pierre blushes and Alex has a smirk on his face. He knows he shouldn't let praise get to his head and that knights should not get praise for doing the right thing and that is protecting people. But he can't help but like this.
He went to earth to retrieve the princess and battled vampires and witches, well Elena was the one who handled the witches but still. He's a badass to these people and he can't help but love that.
They stop clapping and Alex and Pierre thank their classmates and then thank their teacher and they join their classmates.
"You see this is what I've been talking about. The greatest qualities of a knight are bravery, fearlessness and strength and that is what those two boys showed when they went to go get the princess. Well done boys you just earned ten points."
"Well done, heroes," Adrian says bowing down to them Pierre chuckles and tells him to stop. "But you're heroes, and we should treat you like such, shouldn't we Greta."
"I agree," Greta says bowing as well.
"You too Greta?" Pierre says chuckling.
"Alex thank you for bringing that beautiful princess back to her land. But hey." Adrian puts his arm around Alex's shoulder. "Put in a good word for me will you?"
"No, I won't." he shoves Adrian off him. "Stay away from her," he warns pointing at him.
"Yeah, what if you're not even her type?" Greta asks and Adrian being the dramatic gasps.
"How hurtful, so what's her type then?" He asks Alex and Alex tries his best not to look at Pierre. But Pierre is looking around not paying attention to their conversation or pretending not to listen to their conversation.
"I don't know. But it's not you," he says rolling his eyes.
Cornelius is still addressing the students, some diligent ones listen to him speak but some don't even look his way and are busy having conversations with their friends like what Alex and his friends are doing.
"Okay, but ideal guy. What kind of guy would she like?"
"Dude." Alex giggles. "Drop this."
"Fine." Adrian hangs his head disappointingly.
"Why don't you ask her? When you get your heart broken don't blame me." Alex says and Greta laughs.
"You're really cold Alexander Walker, really cold." Alex laughs at him.
Cornelius stops his lecture and he instructs the students to move in groups of five and these groups are going to be the ones they stick with this semester. Five, he usually does four. It was how Alex, Pierre, Greta and Adrian met. But this time it's five he wonders who would be the fifth musketeer.
Pierre has already seen who. Zayn Sawyer is looking for a group to join, although they're all full they dismiss him so quickly because they don't want someone like Zayn to be in their group. He continues looking until he stops and then he blinks fast, Gods know if he wants to cry or not.
"Poor Zayn," Adrian says looking at him Alex looks over at Zayn and he has always wondered what kind of elf does not know how to carry a sword, shoot an arrow or even throw a punch. Alex cannot imagine being in Zayn's shoes if he were he would be a disgrace because he came from a long line of strong valiant elves. He's not going to be the first to falter.
But looking at Zayn is painful. Really Painful.
"Hey, Zayn!" Pierre calls his name and the rest of the group especially Alex looks at him with a harsh look on his face. "Pierre, what are you doing? He's going to slow us down." Alex says in a whisper but Pierre ignores his friends.
"You want to join us? We're free here?" Pierre says to him and the scrawny-looking elf with the dark blond hair smiles and he walks awkwardly toward them.
"Look, he doesn't have a group and we are free it won't be fair to him if we don't invite him and besides Cornelius is just going to pair him with us anyway," Pierre says and the rest of the group keeps quiet because they know he's right.
"Alright fine, but he better not slow us down." Says Alex.
"He won't."
"Oh hey, Zayn buddy!" Adrian greets him with enthusiasm that very obviously sounds fake. But as clueless as Zayn is he probably can't sense that he doesn't mean it.
"Thank you." He says so innocently and Alex kind of feels bad for saying he could slow them down. Alex is ambitious and he'd do anything to go ahead, going backwards is not in his dictionary. Zayn might not be good at combat class but he is good at every other subject, he's very smart.
He got in trouble for punching Levi because he punched him for bullying Zayn, he didn't understand why an elf would not easily defend himself but he wasn't going to watch these bullies hurt Zayn. Alex hates bullies with a burning passion. Even though his opinion of Zayn is just like everyone else and he thinks Zayn should have been a fairy and not an elf but he would never berate or bully him. No one deserves that. At all.
"Look, now that you're in our group you're going to have to put in the work, meaning you're not going to slow us down, we're going to be helping you be better at combat class."
He nods understanding and Alex thinks it's great that they're off to a great start.
"I vowed that I won't slack off this term. I'm going to put in all the work I promise." He says and Pierre nods his head with a smile on his face.
"Good, that's what we want to hear," says Alex. "Welcome to the team."
"Alright, welcome to the team Z man." Adrian shakes Zayn's hand vigorously.
"What? I couldn't have heard that right. Zayn is in Alex's team? You're getting soft Walker." Levi says and he and his dumb friends laugh.
"Will you shut the fuck up Levi, or would you want to end up in the nurse's office for a severe case of the nose bleed again?"
"oohs" are exchanged and Alex rolls his eyes and puts his focus on Zayn.
"Ignore him okay? You say you're going to be better, you're going to be better." Alex tells him and he nods slowly. Alex is going to be helping him. Looks like he's going to be a mentor for two this term.
He saw the look on Elena's face during history class and he could tell that she has a lot of catching up to do and he's going to be helping her out. This term he's also going to put much focus on his other subjects as he does combat class. He might not fail his other subjects but he still wants to be great at them.
"Alright everyone, you all have your groups I want you all to start jogging around the field. WITH YOUR GROUPS!" Cornelius instructs and that's what the students do. It's time for Zayn to prove himself. He's also bad at jogging but hopefully, after today he won't be.