Chapter 4 - The Monster Festival Part I
" Well, I told him I'd took on his offer. I didn't say when." Alex thought as she was walking towards Wade's room carrying a food basket on a sunday afternoon.
She was wearing a sleeveless top and her favorite frilled skirt.
Alex stopped in front of Wade's door and took a deep breath.
* KNOCK* *KNOCK*
" Hey, Wade.", " It's me, Alex. Are you there?"
Wade opened the door after a few seconds.
" Yo! Alex, perfect timing.", he said. " Come in."
Wade gave her a pair of slippers and walked inside first.
Alex followed him getting nervous as this was her first time ever visiting a boy's room.
" Um, Wade. I brought some sandwiches. Want to try-"
" Idiot! Why did you let her in-".
Alex was confused as she saw Rafaela wearing a pink apron on top of her cute maid outfit holding a hot pot of curry.
" R-R-Rafaela!?", Alex exclaimed. " What are doing in Wade's room wearing that? Are you playing husband and wife??"
" No!", Rafaela replied as she placed the pot in the middle of the dining table.
" After losing, I had to keep my end of the deal."
" So you're his slave now?",
" No, no, no." ,Wade said as he returned holding three clean plates and placed it on the table.
" She's my personal maid cause maids are a lot cuter than-."
" Be quiet!", Rafaela threw her apron on Wade's face.
" How long have you been doing this?"
" About a week, since classes started."
" A week!?" " You mean, you've been together, alone, for a week?"
" Yes. But only on afternoons.", Rafaela answered with a bright red face. " Please don't tell anyone. I'm begging you."
" You mean, you want me to keep quiet about the fact that you've been alone with a man and maybe doing indecent stuff in his room?"
" No! We're not doing anything like that. He just bosses me around, cleaning and cooking for him is all I've been doing."
" Yep!", Wade agreed while eating the hot curry. " Rafaela is a great cook!"
" Hey! Use a serving spoon!", Rafaela said as she took a new spoon and placed in the hotpot.
" See? He's hopeless."
" Come jown uws Awex!", Wade said with his mouth full.
" Swallow you food before talking." Rafaela glared at him.
Alex was dumbfounded. She silently took a seat, placed her basket on the table and tried the curry.
" Mmmmmm! It's delicious!"
" Told ya.",Wade took her basket and opened it.
" Oooh! You've got some tasty looking sanwiches there."
" You can have some if you like.", Alex shyly offered.
" Don't get me wrong! I still don't approve this kind of behavior, especially someone from the student council being a-a-alone with a guy in his room."
" I told you, the duel was-",
" So, I'm making a preposition!", Alex stood up cutting Rafaela off. " From now on, I will come with you every time you come here."
" Huh?", Rafaela was baffled. " But wouldn't that be too obvious-"
" No objections!", Alex shouted. " Or do you want me to tell this to the student council?"
" Wade! Say something!", Rafaela said in desperation.
" Mmmmm! These sandwiches are good!"
,he said while stuffing his mouth.
Rafaela sighed with a palm in her face.
" That's settled then!", Alex happily sat down and continued eating her curry.
----
* Guuggghhh*
Bellowed the giant gorilla about 20 feet tall inside it's humongous cage.
" This is the last one, sir.", said the Chandler wearing a black suit, black hat and black sunglasses.
" Ahh, the northern giant silverback.", a man who seems to be wearing the teacher's uniform looked at the magnificent beast and signed the receiving forms.
" Thank you, I will inform the principal that the deliveries are complete."
" And here is your private order. ", the Chandler gave him a small box taped with " caution" around it.
"Oh yeah, I almost forgot.", he reached into his pocket and gave the Chandler an extra tip.
" Good job sneaking this into the deliveries and not letting the principal know that I included this with the orders."
" It's all in a day's work, sir.", the Chandler took off his glasses showing his straight-iris cat like eyes.
" Thank you for choosing Three-horned Delivery Services."
The teacher then shoved the box into his bag and walked inisde the storage room.
" First step into killing you is complete, Wade."
----
" By the way, have you chosen a club, Wade?", Alex asked while washing the dishes.
" Not really.", he replied sitting in his couch with a full belly.
" That guy doesn't really have a plan." Rafaela said while cleaning the dining table.
" Then you should enter my club!", Alex said looking very excited.
" Wha-", Rafaela was caught off guard.
" I was going to ask him first. Alex you guileful woman!" she thought.
" What's so great about clubs anyway?", he asked.
" We help boost each other's strength and confidence by training together." Alex replied. " Club activities are very important, too. Some school events are only applicable to people who have clubs like the Monster Festival next week."
" Oh yeah, Ms. Mary told us about the upcoming Monster Festival.", he replied.
" But I wasn't really paying attention. I was doodling Sebastian's face in my textbook."
" You disrespectful moron!", Rafaela threw his book to his face.
Wade caught the book with his mouth and spat it on his lap.
" What's so important about the Monster Festival anyway?"
" The Monster Festival is a once per semester event, wherein clubs will randomly fight an Exotic beast with a given time limit.", Alex said as she was wiping her hand with a clean towel.
" The fastest club that could beat or kill their respective beast will have the highest club budget for the whole semester."
" So you just have to kill the beast as quickly as possible?", Wade walked towards the fridge and took out three popsicles.
" That sounds boring."
" The beasts are really strong, I doubt you could easily beat one.", Rafaela took two popsicles from Wade and gave one to Alex.
" The only person that took out a beast in one hit was a third year last year. She had an artillery type armor and instantly killed the beast while her teammates held the beast down."
" Yeah, she was also the previous rank 5 of the twelve royals.", Alex added.
" What kind of beast are we talking about here anyway?", Wade curiously asked.
" Here, I took a video of her fight.", Alex took out her phone and showed the video to Wade.
" Wait-,", Wade held Alex's hand tightly and stared at the video intently. "Isn't that a, Lizardon?"
" Y-Yes, it is. Wait, how did you know?", Alex replied all flustered.
" Isn't that too dangerous for humans to handle?", he asked.
" Normally yes, A Lizardon often grows up to 30-40 feet long and about 9 feet tall and spits a deadly venom that could melt any organic substance.", Rafaela said as she pulled Alex away.
" But the students are equipped with Aura armors, not common human beings. And if anything bad happens, medics are on standby and Father will watch the festival to stop the beasts in case of emergencies."
" Well, I guess this event isn't so boring after all.", Wade said as he threw the popsicle stick to the trash bin.
-----
Everyone in Wade's class already joined clubs and made circle of friends except for Wade and the white-haired girl-Melissa, who is always quiet with a very intimidating vibe. Melissa doesn't talk around people much, she often just read books during breaks.
Wade walked towards Melissa's table. He took the seat in front of her and sat down facing her. He placed his notebook on top of her table and looked at what Melissa was reading.
" What do you want?", she agitatedly said.
" I noticed that you don't have any friends, too. Did you join any clubs?", he asked.
" I joined the Archery club before classes started.", she replied with a cold tone.
" I don't need any friends as long as I'm on top."
" Having someone to lean on is not so bad. Being on top with no one to celebrate it with is very lonely." , Wade said as he took out a coin in his pocket.
" What can I do? Everyone seems to be afraid of me.", she looked back at her book and continued reading. " It's been that way since I was little. Now, if you don't intend to accept a duel from me, please disappear from my sight."
" Hmm, okay. Let's have a duel. Right now." , he calmly said.
" Right now?", Melissa closed her book and placed it on her table.
" Yup.", Wade tossed his coin over to Melissa.
" Huh? What's this for?", she asked.
" A coin toss."
" You've got to be kidding me." , she said with an annoyed expression.
" If you win, I'll help you make friends. If I win, you'll treat me to lunch. I forgot to bring my lunch and I'm in a bind right now."
" I don't see any merit for me in any of those conditions.", she replied.
" Hmmm... In addition, if you win, I'll convince Rafaela to have practice duels with you for at least once a week."
" Really!?", she exclaimed. " You can do that!?"
" Of course.", Wade nodded, " It may not seem like it, but the principal and I are very close."
" I can't tell her that she's my personal maid though."
" Deal!", she immediately replied. " So, how do we do this?"
" Would you like to pick heads or tails before tossing or choose as the coin falls?"
" Hmmm.", Melissa thought for a second.
" I'll choose a side as the coin falls."
" Okay. Here goes.", Wade placed the coin on top of his thumb.
" He thinks that this will be based on pure luck, but my aura armor's visor can calculate the projection of objects and predict it's course in a split second. Winning this duel is like taking candy from a baby. Blame yourself for your lack of judgement."
Wade tossed the coin using his thumb and the coin was launched above their heads.
" ARMOR VISOR ENERGIZE!"
Melissa rapidly equipped her Visor and calculated the movement of the coin.
" The coin was tossed four feet above the table, with the force that he did to toss the coin; it revolved 21 times as it reached the peak. In it's current falling speed, it will revolve 47 times and fall flat on my book facing upwards."
Melissa looked at Wade with a sleepy expression.
" He doesn't seem to have any tricks up his sleeve. He thinks that he could get away with anything through luck. I'm sorry but the world is much more crueler than this."
" Heads."
Melissa declared as she rapidly unequipped her Visor.
She stared at the coin as it was flipping down. She stole a glance at Wade and saw his face grinning while looking at her. It made her fell a little uneasy.
The coin reached the bottom and to Melissa's surprise, the result was neither of the two because it was both. The coin which she predicted to land as heads landed on its edge and stood sideways supported by her book and Wade's notebook.
" Wow, it's a tie! This is a surprise.", Wade said.
" I really didn't expect this outcome."
" Don't play dumb with me." , Melissa closed her eyes and sighed.
" You planned it from the beginning all along. As the coin fell, you pushed my book with your notebook, enough to leave a gap for the coin to fall in."
" I don't know what you're talking about." , Wade denied as he took the coin and tossed it to Melissa.
" So, what will you choose? Did we both win or did we both lose?"
" He got me! Just who is this bastard!? I was playing on top of his hands all along.
But I can't pass up this opportunity to train with Raven. " , she thought.
" The answer is obvious. We both win."
She tossed back the coin to Wade.
" Alright! Free food!", Wade happily said.
" But you can disregard the other half of the deal, since it would be impossible anyway.", Melissa looked at her book with a sad face.
" What do you mean?"
" The part about you helping me find friends. It's impossible for me.", she looked down and held her book with both hands.
Wade stood up and held Melissa's hands with his hands.
" No, what I meant was; What do you mean by impossible? You've already made me as your friend."
Melissa was speechless. She felt the warmth of Wade's hand transfer to hers. She looked at Wade's face and immediately know that he was serious. His smile made her tingle inside her chest. She looked away trying to hide her emotions.
" Huh?? Somehow, I'm on the verge of tears." , she thought after realizing that she had made her very first friend.
" Class is about to start, so I'm going back to my seat now. See you later at lunch, okay?" , Wade said as he walked towards his seat.
Melissa looked at his back as he was walking away. She held her chest and couldn't help but feel happy.
----
" Wow!", Wade exclaimed, " This school's canteen is humongous!"
" Is it your first time here?", Melissa asked as they entered the canteen.
" Yup, I always have my home made lunch and eat near the fountain at the south side of the campus."
" Wait-, you know how to cook?", Melissa asked with a conflicted expression.
" Kinda-, hehe." , Wade looked away and scratched his head.
" That's surprising.", she replied.
The school's canteen was made up of four parts. The center of the ground floor was the galley and the catering area. The left wing was very plain looking, with small round tables and plain designed area. The students who eat there have to bring their own food to their table. This was the area designated for the soldier class students.
The right wing was a bit fancier. The food was served over to them and the tables were rectangular, a bit larger that the soldier areas table. It was more like a family restaurant than a canteen. This area was designated for the captain class students.
The whole second floor of the building was for General class students and above. The floor has a very high class ambiance. With a red carpet, dim lights, a jazz music background and waiters that went through extensive trainings to provide exceptional service to the students of the academy.
" This place is a bit over the top." , Wade said.
" What do you mean?", Melissa asked.
" Students are prone to discrimination if they are obviously divided like this."
" I don't really see the problem." , Melissa flicked her hair to the side of her ear.
" If you want to be treated better in this academy, you must prove your worth. If they train hard enough, they could experience the luxuries this school provides. Well, I don't really understand how they feel though. Since I am a general class from the start of my school year."
" I think I'm beginning to understand why no one want to be friends with you."
Wade said while shaking his head.
" What do you mean by that?", Melissa glared at him.
" Nothing. Let's go order some food while the line is short!" , he grabbed Melissa's hand and rushed towards the counter.
Melissa was flustered with Wade holding her hand and got swept away. It was late when she realised that they were already in line.
" What am I doing waiting in line here!?" , she exclaimed.
" What do you mean " What"? Were going to order food silly.", he replied.
" I know that! But I'm not eating at the soldier's area. I'm eating at the second floor. I'm a general class, why would I eat in that low class area?"
" Wahhh , discrimination at it's finest." Wade stared at her with a blank expression.
" It doesn't matter if you're a general class. You'll be paying my food so you'll be ordering with me."
" But-,"
" We're next. Let's go!", Wade pulled her by the hand and together they ordered food.
---
" Hey, isn't that Melissa Mayers?"
" What is she doing here in the Soldier class area?"
" She's eating with Wade, the dull-eyed first year who had a duel with Raven."
" Her long white hair is so gorgeous."
" Right? Her figure is amazing, too."
" Ugh, they're staring at us.", Melissa mumbled.
" Why? I won't share my food if that's what they want." , Wade replied while stuffing his mouth spilling some of the soup into the table and into his face.
" Hey, eat slowly." ,Melissa said as she grabbed a napkin and wiped Wade's cheek. " Geez, how old are you? Seven?"
" Sorry." , Wade said as he continues to stuff his mouth with food.
Melissa looked at Wade's features closely. His hair was thin and white. Almost the same whiteness as her hair. His nose has a perfect shape. The same shape as people who acts as vampires in movies. And his eyes were sharp and plain pitch black.
" You eyes are very, unique.", she said.
" Yeah.", Wade answered paying no attention to Melissa's touch. He just continued eating.
" People say my eyes are very dull. Like a hollow shell."
" That's not true at all.", Melissa's hand moved higher touching Wade's eyelid with her thumb.
" For me, your eyes are very clear. Like a calm and peaceful plain. Very clear that you can see yourself in it. It's the first time I've seen such eyes. They are stunning."
Wade stopped eating and glanced directly at Melissa with a modest look. He felt a familiar warmth within Melissa's touch.
" Um-," , Melissa pulled her hand quickly as she realized that she was saying such embarrassing words in front of a boy.
" Um. What I meant was-, huh?"
Suddenly, Tears began to fall in both of Wade's eyes. He felt like he was reunited with someone he had lost for a long time.
-----
" What are you eating today, Raf?.", Alex asked Rafaela as they were entering the canteen.
" Hmm, let me think." ,Rafaela replied.
" Wait, what's happening there?", said a student eating from the soldier class area.
" Is he crying?", replied his friend.
" Maybe she broke up with him."
Rafaela heard them talking and looked at what they we're talking about and she was frozen at what she saw.
" Hey, Raf. We need to hurry up or we'd run out of tables.", Alex stopped and noticed that Rafaela was staring at something intently and looked at the same direction, too.
They both saw Wade sitting at a table in the soldiers area together with a white haired girl and tears were falling down his face.
.
.
.
" Why are you crying!?" , Melissa was startled. She grabbed a couple of paper napkins and gently wiped his face.
" Did I say something wrong??"
" No, not at all." , Wade closed his eyes and wiped his face with his hands.
" You just reminded me of someone from a long time ago."
" WHAT'S WRONG WADE!!",
Alex rushed over and held his face with both her hands and looked directly at him. Rafaela was behind her looking really worried.
" Melissa Mayers, right?" , Rafaela asked.
" May I ask what happened here?"
" Rafa-", Melissa was astonished seeing the Raven up close.
" Look! It's Raven and Alex!"
" Why are they in the soldier class area?"
The soldier class students were surprised seeing all three general class students inside the soldier class area of the canteen.
" It's nothing, guys.", Wade finished wiping his tears and smiled.
" You guys go ahead and eat your lunch, don't worry about me."
" No! We're eating here!" , Alex declared.
" What?" , Rafaela and Melissa exclaimed.
" We can't just leave a friend behind when they're feeling down." , she said while getting a chair and sat next to Wade.
" Really? You're friends with him, too?",
Melissa was having a hard time processing the things that's been going on.
" Yep. I'm Alex Celestine, by the way. Just call me Alex.", she reached out her hand to Melissa.
" Nice to meet you Melissa."
" Nice to meet you, too." , Melissa reached out and shook her hand.
* Sigh* " Fine." , Rafaela said as she took a chair and sat down at the same table as them.
" Hmm, where is the waiter? I'm starving.", Alex grumbled.
" Um, you need to get in line to order your food here.", Melissa politely said.
" Oh yeah, I forgot that we're in the soldier class area." , she said.
While listening to the two of them talking, Wade felt a sharp pinch in his side.
" Ow, ow, ow." , he saw Rafaela's fingernails digging in his left side.
" How dare you ditch the lunch I made you and eat together with a pretty girl." Rafaela said with a silent but threatening voice.
" You better have a good reason."
" Ow, ow, Yes I have a good reason." ,he replied.
" Let's hear it.", Rafaela loosened her pinch.
" I forgot to bring it, Hehe." Wade scratched his head.
Rafaela dug her fingernails even deeper.
" Ow! Ow! Stop it please!!!!!!"
------
Outside the canteen, a strange teacher was peeking as he held a glowing crystal in his pocket with a grin on his face.
" Enjoy the time you have left, Wade. For soon, I will have your head."
--- END OF CHAPTER 4---