New Class

As Alex was silently cursing at his father, he stopped suddenly when he was struck by a thought.

Right now, he was extremely aware of his father's presence.

Yet, from what he knew of his father's Arts, Alex knew that his father had the art of stealth.

He tried to remember what Grandpa Shifu had said when telling him about it. Whilst the specialty was the Kato Art of hypnotism, and to a certain extent, mind control - they also specialised in espionage.

Stealth.

To lower one's presence that one would not even notice that the person was there.

At first, Alex found that hard to believe because from his perspective, his father was like a walking lightbulb.

No, scratch that.

Like a walking stadium light.

He was such an icon, and so 'bright', that he didn't have to do anything and still have that commanding presence that made people look at him.

Pay attention to him.

It wasn't just because he was so good-looking (something that Alex admitted rather begrudgingly), but there was something about him that made people pay attention.

So, if that was the case, how could his father 'fade into the background'?

It certainly was food for thought.

Alex found this puzzle something worthy to look into and learn.

After all, his goal in life was to surpass his father - be it Kyle Smith, or Ice.

✿ Author posts on WN and neovel ✿

After all the procedures were done, they could finally go to their classroom.

Which, to Alex's surprise, was an entirely new building.

Okay, so maybe calling it a building was a bit of an exaggeration. It was more of a garden shed that was located between the lower primary and upper primary buildings.

"How did they even manage that?" asked Fleur in surprise as she stared at their new classroom.

It was obviously a new structure as it had not been there before in the previous year, and though it was of a different design as to the two buildings beside it, it was in harmony with it.

Previously, a huge tree was in that open space. Now, the circular-shaped building was built around the tree; that is, the tree was growing majestically right in the middle of it.

The two-story structure was not a typical brick building as it was primarily made of glass.

One side was the classroom and it was fully covered from floor to ceiling with glass walls and a glass door. The table and chairs were actually two levels of panels built alongside the circular side of the wall (with the table being the higher level).

The other side was an open space and a spiral staircase that went around the tree bark to the upper floor.

The upper floor had another classroom right above the classroom below and though they couldn't see it, the kids assumed that the open space was a rest area.

Or perhaps, a play area.

"It's so beautiful," gushed Fleur, her eyes sparkling.

"They built this during the school holidays?" Aurora said, staring at the structure, "That was truly fast."

"You have really outdone yourself this time, Sam," Kyle said, looking at the glass building.

"I merely found the people to do it, but it was your idea," Sam replied, nodding in satisfaction at the finished product.

"MashaAllah," Ali said under his breath, admiring the beauty of the building, "Truly beautiful, especially the way you did not destroy God's creation to build it."

Needless to say, the new structure elicited lots of excitement and awe from everyone around them. Jealousy, too, as only this was the Accelerated Class.

Kyle was a bit worried that having something that was so obviously different would create dissatisfaction amongst the other students or making them feel inferior. Due to that, he made sure that the other classrooms were upgraded as well in the hopes that it would minimise any negative feelings.

On the one hand, he didn't want to make the other kids feel bad but on the other hand - that's Life.

They had to learn as well that there are people who are different from them and would receive different treatments.

Still, though the Accelerated Class was built to help the brighter students not be too bored in school, the building was not exclusive to them. The open space area was actually a play space for everyone.

In front of the Accelerated Class was the playground.

The playground was divided into different sections, or areas. For example, one area was the 'playground' with swings, monkey bars, and see-saws. Another area was an open space for them to play any ball sports, while another area was where they could play hopscotch and any jumping games.

Each section would have different groups of students allocated to play on. This was to ensure order and not have everyone crowd in the popular areas.

With the Accelerated Class, a new area was opened up to the students. The upper part was a lounge where they could play board games or read books.

The more 'intellectual' sort of playtime, so to speak. Each board game was carefully chosen to induce learning with play.

There were various types of board games, such as Game of Life (cultivate decision making and exposing kids to life choices), Clue Game (cultivate thinking to solve a mystery), Ravensburger Labyrinth (cultivate addition and probability to find the shortest route out of a labyrinth), and Pictionary (cultivate drawing and general knowledge by drawing out the answer for another to guess).

The school administrators had anticipated the huge interest one would gain from the new class, so the first day had them allocate extra time for parents (and their children) to take a short tour of the class.

Alex and the others felt that they didn't need to crowd outside so they went straight into the classroom on the lower floor.

No one else was there so they happily chose their seats.

Not that Alex liked it, however.

As everything was glass, everyone could see inside and he felt like a fish in a fishbowl.

Even if the sound insulation in the room was surprisingly good and he couldn't hear the noises from the crowd outside, Alex was still not quite happy with the classroom.

"This is such a stupid design," complained Alex bitterly, "Why are we on display like this?"

"You're not on display," Kyle answered as he walked up behind Alex, holding onto Ariels' hand.

"You're only looking at it from one perspective," Kyle continued, "But you fail to see that your classroom is the only one that can see the beauty of the outside. You get natural light into the classroom and the air is regulated well here."

"Normal classrooms can't be like this because students would get distracted easily by looking outside," Kyle said, "This should not be a problem for those in Accelerated Class. In fact, it should act as a good learning environment as you're not stuck in a stuffy classroom."

"Daddy, can I look around?" Ariel asked, tugging at her father's hand.

"Of course, Rie," Kyle said.

"I'll look after Rie, Daddy," Aurora piped up, jumping up from her chair and taking Ariel's hand, "Where do you want to go, Rie?"

Aurora didn't even bother asking Alex whether he would want to follow, for she knew very well that he would not. He didn't like crowds and it certainly was crowded outside.

"I wanna climb up the tree!" Ariel shouted happily.

"You can't do that, Rie," Aurora said, "But we can climb up the stairs and you can see the top of the tree on the top floor."

"Yeah! Yeah!" Ariel jumped up and down in joy, "Let's go, let's go!"

She always watched her father train with her eldest siblings and whenever he showed them tricks on trees, Ariel wished she could follow as well. But she was too small and Daddy said she couldn't.

This would be the closest thing she could get to 'climbing' a tree since she would be seeing it from the top rather than just at the base. So she happily followed her sister, while Ziad and Fleur followed behind them.

Once they were out of hearing range, Kyle turned to Alex and said, "You haven't managed to upgrade your observational skill for the first point, have you?"

Alex frowned, "What do you mean?"

"The first point of situational awareness," Kyle said, "What is it?"

"To be mindful of your surroundings," Alex replied promptly, "And I took note of the structure. Table, chair, lights, wastebasket, and glass panels."

"Which glass panel is directly opposite to the hedge outside?" Kyle asked.

Alex stared at him, "That's not fair. I haven't …"

"Yes, exactly," Kyle said, cutting him off, "You merely took one superficial look inside and went straight to your desk."

"Superficial?" Alex protested, "How could you say it's superficial when I could list out everything that is in this room?"

"Do you know which light switch is for which light? What is the air ventilation system like? How many glass panels are there? Which glass panel is likely to be the weakest or the most vulnerable spot?" Kyle asked him.

Giving a smirk, Kyle repeated, "Superficial."

Alex gritted his teeth.