18- Bully Charade

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"How did it go?" asked Corra as soon she sighted him emerging from the stairway.

"You don't wanna know but it's fine now—"

"That means…" Bart interjected tilting his brows for an answer.

"I am officially a student of NorthHedge Academy!" Jax smiled breaking the good news, he watched them sigh in relief.

"Thank the spirits! I told you that no one would leave, see now?!" she nudged Jax playfully and for some unknown reasons, he was elated.

"Okay. Settled then." Bart began, "We were waiting for your return so that we could join the class!"

"Yeah!" Corra and Noa said in unison.

"Okay!" Jax faintly smiled as they headed away walking down the passageway.

When they entered the study room, they discovered that there wasn't a tutor just yet. Although they maintained their seats Bart couldn't stop asking about how the judgment went.

"I didn't think that a place like that existed…" Jax said.

"From what I had gathered, only delinquents face the panel and once they do, they don't return," Noa added

"Oh, yeah?!" Bart sarcastically responded, it was quite evident to the others that he delighted in taunting Noa. Corra nudged him lightly warming him against it.

"So, mind telling us where you are from? Like how you came about?" Bart diverted with a question. Noa stared at Jax knowing that they had once met in Pax.

"Ms. Tank's son, aren't you?" Jax asked crossing his arms, Noa smiled very faintly before speaking up.

"Yeah! I'm her foster son…" Noa added, but Corra and Bart had tons of questions to ask regardless.

"And… where have you been all these years if you left Pax six years ago?" Corra asked.

"How smart, it wasn't hard for you to sum up the freaking years!" Bart teased seriously but she rolled her eyes.

"I… just left!" Noa snapped, Jax was adamant about his answer, he figured Noa was not sincere.

"You just left?" Jax calmly asked

"Should we doubt him? I think we should!" Bart blurted drumming his fingers on the metallic desk.

"If I remember clearly, you were taken away by the Anti-Imperium soldiers!" Jax lowered his voice when he noticed that other students were beginning to stare at them weirdly.

Noa rubbed his face across as if he was pressured by their questions.

"Yeah, they took me. It was dire. I was punished for being nosy! I used to follow Captain Nim's trails—at that time it was believed the Khai Clan's heir was roaming Pax City. I just wanted to find the heir and win the prize. How naive I was to think that!"

Noa was mortified as if the event had repeated itself.

Meanwhile, Jax, Corra, and Bart exchanged swift glances comprehending the story behind it.

"Funny!" Bart interjected, "Why did you think that you could capture the Khai Clan's missing heir?!" he said.

"Like I said, I was feeling NAIVE!" Noa was agitated over Bart's attitude toward him.

"Whoa, calm down! No need to do that!" Jax interrupted, "We… also wanted to find the heir, not we were also… naive!" Jax lied.

"Sure!" Noa snapped under his breath.

"Okay, so before you join our team you have to prove your worth and how far you can keep your thin streak from depleting!" Bart said and Jax and Corra didn't say a word. Noa understood that he was yet to earn their trust to be a part of them.

"I…" Noa glanced at Jax and Corra and then Bart. "I'll prove my worth in due time. I just wanna belong somewhere,"

Noa turned to Jax pitifully. "I won't do the opposite. You saved me back and so I owe you my life!"

Corra gave a small smile and headed away to get something, they asked no further questions.

"Okay, I'm yet to understand what in the spirit's name happened that time?" Bart inquisitively asked narrowing his gaze at Jax, "Last time I checked, you weren't precise. No?" he added.

"Nothing… happened!" Jax snapped

"I couldn't have landed softly if you hadn't done something, Jax!" Noa shrugged defiantly, and Jax rolled his eyes.

"Quit it, you both! You could've been anyone…" Jax retorted.

"Someone like who?" Bart and Noa asked in unison, the silence was interrupted by some strange noises that came from the study room's foyer.

"We had better check that out rather than bickering over nothing!" Jax said as he strutted away but Bart and Noa glanced at each other, shrugging.

"He's only denying it!" Noa snapped

"I know!" Bart added.

Jax meandered his way into the small crowd in the foyer, he realized that Corra was middle of the uproar. She was harassed by a tall chubby boy, Jax suspected that there was going to be a lot of trouble but it didn't make him stay back.

It was Corra.

Corra.

Gw couldn't let Corra get endangered even if they argued a lot, nor could he let his friends get imperiled.

Jax stood behind the crowd, quietly observing the scene as Bart and Noa approached with a bunch of questions.

"Get into the study room, now girlie! No one is leaving without my permission." the boy threatened, his full round face squeezed like a mashed tomato.

"I won't, you can't order me around BOY!" Corra scowled at him crossing her arms. She was uncompromising.

The boy chuckled, "How, motherly of you to think that!" he taunted and the crowd cracked up. "Now baby girl, I won't tell you this again, just do as I SAY." the boy instructed but Corra attempted to walk away as the boy pulled her back gripping her ponytail.

Unf!!!!

"You… bastard?!" Corra grappled but the boy instructed other boys to hold her arm in arm. "Freaking let me go, you slug fool."

"I won't." the boy's lips twisted into a mischievous smile.

Jax was agitated, he didn't want to be a part of the argument but then he couldn't let Corra get into harm's way.

Just like Bart, Noa was also petrified.

"Let her go, NOW!"

Jax's voice reverberated from the spot that he was rooted in.