Princess of the Silver Ocean - Chapter 19

With the go-ahead from the PE teacher, Nexi was off.

“Just imagine that a vicious dog with rabies is chasing you, Astoria,” she told herself, running with great speed and reaching the halfway mark at four minutes and forty-four seconds.

All the students watched in silence, their mouths agape. They were all wondering if this was the same Nexi Callan they all knew.

“Okay, now that we are at the halfway mark, this time pretend that you have finally found the real boss of Cosmo X, and you are chasing him down.”

Her speed doubled, causing all the students to let out different reactions.

“What the fu-” one student said in total disbelief at what he was seeing.

“Language!” the teacher yelled, cutting the student off.

The student quickly apologised. A few seconds passed, and Astoria reached the finish line at five minutes and thirty-six seconds, beating the fairy’s record and earning herself the title of second place. She was panting heavily as this was the fifth time she’s ever pushed herself to run this hard. Plus, Nexi’s body was not as fit as hers so this really strained her.

The other four times was when she was chasing down criminals who were somehow great runners. Well, it was expected since criminals love running from the police. After one last short and quick breathing exercise, she turned to face the giant. With a bit of a strained smile on her face, she asked the teacher how she did.

“I…” Mr. Vlakos was speechless.

Laurelai came rushing to her side, holding her shoulders and shaking her excitedly.

“Nexi, how did you? What was that? I’m pretty sure you beat my record,” she said aloud, her voice showing signs of astonishment.

“Will you stop shaking me, please? I feel like I’m gonna puke,” Astoria’s said, covering her mouth.

“Ah, right. Sorry. I was just overly shocked and astonished. You, princess, are amazing,” the fairy said, patting Astoria’s shoulders.

“Well,” the giant teacher chimed in, ” you came in at five minutes and thirty-six seconds, thus beating your friend, Miss Summermint.”

He looked at the fairy and then addressed the whole class.

“Okay, now we’re gonna do some full body exercises to get your weak bodies in shape. Remember, the stronger your body, the greater your magic energy force,” he said.

Time passed by, and Astoria enjoyed every aspect of PE. Perhaps it was because the exercises or things they did were similar to what she did at the Police Academy of Leadville. Oh, it brought back such wonderful memories. This put her in a great mood. When they went to the bathrooms to shower and change into their uniforms, she found herself humming in the shower.

“Hey, what class do we have now?’ she asked Laurelai, who was busy packing her bags to go to her next class.

They were now in their homeroom class, fetching their textbooks for their next three subjects.

“We?” the fairy asked, adjusting the straps of her bag.

Astoria nodded and wondered if she said something wrong.

“Baby,” the fairy began, “we don’t have the same class now. I have Foreign Plant Science in Room 142, and while you have Foreign Political Science in Room 532.”

She pointed to her timetable, which was in her hand.

“And you better start getting ready cause your teacher is super strict. I’m off, and I’ll see you in the cafeteria for lunch at our usual spot,” she added and left.

Astoria groaned.

“You have got to be kidding me. I hate politics so much.”

She checked her timetable and saw that she really did have Foreign Political Science. She quickly took out the relevant textbooks and put them in her bag. It was better for her to leave now before the bell rang as she knew that she would waste time asking other students for directions later.

As she reached the door, she was stopped by Alexa, the witch, standing in front of the door, arms crossed, and a look of distaste on her face. Alexa completely blocked her path but let other students pass. When all the students left, excluding Alexa’s gang, they stood around Astoria as the witch closed the door.

“What’s this about? What do you want?” she asked the witch, who just ‘tsked’ in irritation.

There was a long and uncomfortable silence which Arampos, the centaur, finally broke.

“Why did you rat us out like that when Mrs. Lilmai was checking the attendance?” he asked.

“You have got to be kidding,” Astoria mumbled, not believing that she was going to be late to her next class just because this gang of troublemakers caught feelings.

“Well,” she said, trying to sound as polite as possible because her temper was starting to grow, “first of all, I didn’t ‘rat’ you guys out, and secondly, I’m gonna be late for my next class, so please get out of my way, Alexa.”

Alexa firmly placed her hand on Astoria’s shoulder. She bent down to look at her as she was a few centimetres taller.

“Listen here, short stuff,” she began, “have you forgotten what happens when you mess with us?”

“Well yeah,” Astoria replied nonchalantly, “but I don’t have time for this.”

Quickly and swiftly, she grabbed the witch’s hand that was on her shoulder, twisted it in a not so painful way, and pushed the witch to her gang members. The witch hissed in anger. That was a move she learned at the Police Academy. With that, she quickly escaped the room and headed to her destination, which was much easier to find than her homeroom class.

“Those retards. First it was Misty and now Alexa? Geez, leave me alone,” she kept mumbling, face getting redder by the second.

Her blood was boiling and her face was as red as a tomato. As she reached the door to her Foreign Political Science class, the bell rang, signaling the start of the period.

“At least I’m not late,” she said softly, opening the door and looking at all the faces of the new students.

Well, they were not new to Nexi as she knows them, but they are new in Astoria’s eyes, considering the whole amnesia dilemma. She wondered where her seat was or if one could just sit anywhere they wanted. Awkwardly moving to an open seat at the back of the class, the other students stared at her. T

hey began whispering amongst themselves. She did not know what or why they were whispering and did not pay them any attention. The teacher came in as she was about to sit on the empty chair. Placing her bag down, all the students stood up and greeted the teacher.

She was a witch as well. Learts Academy had several teachers who were wizards and witches mainly because the academy emphasised enhancing one’s magical energy force and capabilities. This witch was an old lady with gray hair and round black eyes. She had freckles all over her face, which made her face stand out even more as she had pale skin. She smiled at the class and opened her textbook.

“Glad to see that everyone is early for a change,” she told the class.

Just as she finished speaking, the door opened to reveal none other than the troll, Laojin, her classmate. She silently groaned as she found that there was another empty seat right next to her.

‘Great, Laojin is probably going to harass me and bother me the whole lesson because of what I did to Alexa. Well, it won’t be just because of that.’

She had a feeling that the troll was going to give her a hard time anyway. The troll started walking towards the empty seat at the back, sat down, and smiled eerily at her.

“Just great,” she mumbled.