Nathan

Year 2849 | Month 5 | Day 7

In the end, today’s Meditation class turns out to be entirely theoretical, with no actual meditation involved. And a lot of reading.

Although the instructor – who interestingly enough just told us to call him by his first name – said that we would get into some meditation techniques tomorrow.

So there’s that at least.

Anyways, none of the others had any more classes for the day, so Aidan, Cyria, and Sophia all decided to go watch Rebecca’s duel during my Tactics and Battle Strategy class – which was rather empty, with only half a dozen cadets and a single first lieutenant as the instructor. That said, the class itself was pretty interesting. The instructor immediately went into the subject, going over past battle strategies used by the military in their wars against the other nations, with a specific emphasis on the only other nation that’s even close to rivaling ours.

The Collective Kingdoms of Rhia.

Which has a pretty interesting backstory in and of itself, but the instructor didn’t get very deep into it, saying that the class is a tactics and battle strategies class and not a history one.

Overall, I’d say that my classes weren’t half bad, and I can’t help but anticipate learning more despite the inherent danger in most of the classes.

At that thought, I reach the front doors of the tower before pausing to let them scan me for my key.

I just hope that my Magical Warfare class tomorrow won’t go too far into weapons training. Because that could end pretty poorly for me.

Although the instructor does seem to like me at least, so there’s that. But he’s still a magician, and magicians tend to all be pretty obsessive over getting stronger.

Especially the magicians of the Republic.

Better to be-

My thoughts are interrupted as the tower doors open and the sounds of faint explosions – similar to fireworks – begin echoing from a distance away.

Huh?

I step out of the tower before glancing at the direction of the noise and finding actual fireworks exploding over the large arena that the headmistress pointed at yesterday.

Did the duel just finish or something?

I stare out at the arena for a few seconds before shaking my head and starting towards the Snowcrest Diner. The others had agreed to meet up with me there after my class, and I’m feeling hungry.

One hour later

I frown at the girl following the other four into the diner balcony where I’ve been sitting.

Why is Amelia here, exactly?

Her eyes lock onto mine almost as soon as she steps onto the balcony with the others and begins walking over towards my table.

I turn my gaze to Aidan with a glare, only to find him cheerfully smiling back at me, pointedly ignoring the look I’m sending him.

“So look who we brought!” Aidan exclaims, his smile only growing larger as he and the others all move around so that Amelia ends up sitting next to me. This only makes me lean forwards and place my head into my hands with a groan.

“Please,” I hear Amelia plead from the seat next to me.

Before she can say more, I feel someone – most likely Aidan – slap me on the shoulder, prompting me to look up again to find him standing next to me instead of in his chair.

“So she did what her family told her to do,” he starts with a shrug, “doesn’t mean that she wanted to do it. And it doesn’t mean our friendship was fake, okay?”

I look at him for a few seconds before turning to Amelia again.

Damn it.

I know he’s right, but…

Damn it.

Raising my head with a sigh, I look up at the falling snow without a word as I begin to remember the first time I met Amelia.

About six years ago

“Please? You’re in seventh grade now!” I hear the teacher – Mrs. Rodrick – plead from off to the side of the classroom. “You can’t just keep avoiding the other students!”

It’s currently the end of the last class of the week, and the English teacher – being the nice woman she is – gave us some time to relax and either socialize or just play cards with some of the decks she had around. Which I wasn’t expecting in junior high. I remember a lot of teachers doing it in elementary school, but I wasn’t expecting it here.

But then again, it doesn’t really matter much.

I pull the draw four card from my hand before placing it down on the desk between me and the random boy that walked up to me earlier, asking me to play cards with him.

“Aww! Pleeeeaaase don’t do that!!!” the boy – I think he said his name was Aidan – complains to me as he leans forwards, his long hair falling over his shoulder in the process.

Without saying anything, I simply stare at him for a few seconds before turning my head towards where I heard the teacher talking. As I’m doing this, Aidan continues to complain. Although not without drawing his four cards from the deck.

Anyways, when I find the teacher, I see her kneeling down next to a girl who has her head in her arms on her desk, not bothering to look at the teacher as Mrs. Rodrick continues attempting to get her to socialize with the others. And the way she’s doing it makes me think she already knows her somehow.

Maybe family? Or a friend of her family?

The girl herself has long black hair, all tied up in one braid. She’s wearing slacks and a black jacket over a simple T-shirt. But she still hasn’t said anything, even with the teacher talking to her.

I turn my attention back to Aidan, only to find him looking between me and the girl.

Guess he-

My thoughts are cut off as Aidan suddenly places the cards in his hand down on the table, startling me, before getting up from his seat and walking over to the girl.

I watch him with slightly widened eyes as he walks up to the girl and begins talking to the teacher. As he’s talking, I notice the girl twitch slightly, as if she were listening to their conversation.

Hmm, that’s interesting.

Anyways, I place my own hand of cards onto the table before reaching down into my bag and grabbing a book.

Might as well read since that boy’s gone.

Several minutes pass by as I silently read until I find myself interrupted by a hand being placed on my shoulder, followed by Aidan’s voice, “Hey, we have a third person to play with us! So put that book down!”

I raise my head from the book to find the boy standing next to me with the girl with him. When I look down, I also find his hand holding onto her wrist, as if he had dragged her here.

Guess that’s one way to force someone out of their shell.

Makes me wonder if that’s just this guy’s specialty or something.

Deciding that it would be more efficient to finish a game with him to get him to stop talking than trying to read as he continues bothering me, I place a bookmark into my book before putting it back into my bag. Meanwhile, Aidan lets go of the girl’s wrist and proceeds to drag another desk over to us. He then waves his hands at the chair and says, “Now please, sit me lady!”

I raise an eyebrow slightly at that before shaking my head and focusing on shuffling the deck in front of us to prepare for the next game.

As I’m doing this, both the girl and Aidan sit down, with the girl still fiddling with her hands with an incredibly anxious look on her face. Once Aidan notices this, he says, “C’mon! You’ll have a lot more fun if you just let go of whatever’s bothering you!”

The girl turns to look at him with wide eyes and asks, “How did you-!” speaking for the first time since I’ve met her, even with her cutting off midsentence.

I look between the two before a smile begins to form on my face.

Aidan really seems like a good guy. My first impression of him was mostly just that he was bossy.

The boy looks between me and the girl – obviously having noticed my smile – and grins with a look that makes it seem like he’d won a lottery. He then begins dealing out our hands, without wiping the stupid grin off of his face.

I turn to look at the girl, only to find her doing the same. However, we both turn back to Aidan as he says, “My name’s Aidan Hawkins.” He then finishes handing the cards out and raises his head, “What about you two?”

Oh, yeah. I never did give him my name, now did I?

“Nathan Fox,” I answer him with a nod before turning to the girl.

She still looks a little anxious, but she does at least seem to be doing better than before.

The girl takes a deep breath and says, “Amelia Rose.”

Back in the present

Even now, it’s still vivid in my memory, and ever since then, the three of us had practically been inseparable throughout our school years. And yet, I somehow got stuck on that one lie.

Although, if I’m being honest now… maybe the risk is worth still being friends with her. And the lie isn’t too bad.

After all, it was her parents who made her do it. Not to mention that she didn’t seem to want to, based off of the anxiety she was obviously feeling at the time.

For a while, I had just thought it was due to not being used to talking to others. But maybe it was actually due to the lie she had to tell everyone.

I lower my head again to find Amelia silently eating food that I didn’t even realize had been brought out.

After a few seconds, she notices my attention and turns to look at me as well.

I don't say anything for several more seconds, seemingly making her nervous with my gaze until I finally relent and say, "I forgive you."

Then I immediately turn to look at what little remains of my food as I hear her gasp in pleasant surprise.

Wait a second, I’d just ordered more right before they arrived… I turn to look at Aidan, only to find him chowing down on the dessert I used to have in front of me.

“Food thief,” I mutter with my eyes squinted, only to jerk slightly in surprise as I feel someone latch onto me in a hug. When I look down, I find Amelia actually crying whilst clutching onto me for dear life.

Hmm, maybe I was being a little selfish.

Avoiding her was probably more due to my desire to keep myself safe than it was because of the lie, and from the looks of it, it really bothered her.

So maybe I should stop trying to directly avoid trouble from now on as well.

Especially considering that doing that only seems to be attracting more of it to me anyways.

Although, I still shouldn’t let anyone know about the secret. But trying to avoid attention seems to only be doing the opposite of avoiding it.

It might really be best to just start acting normal again. With some moments of hiding it, of course.

I gently rub Amelia’s back before raising my other hand to call for a waiter.

Since a certain idiot stole my dessert.