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“There…. And…. cut!” Ike said, ending the phone recording. “Wow, we got a lot done today!” Boyd, Mia and Gatrie gave themselves a moment, leaning back on the bench and gasping for air.
“Oh my god… I thought since it's winter it wouldn’t be as sweaty… But holy shit…” Gatrie huffed out, pulling off the painted cardboard armor like it was an enemy itself. He dropped the plastic spear on the ground, treating the bench like a godsend. “Hey Ike… how did you even get Principal Ashera to allow you up here? I thought she was all strict and rude, and I thought she responded to any fights with the petrification box…” Gatrie shuddered at the thought.
Pretty much every student in Tellius high had been sent to in school suspension before, and the room it was in… was in a small corner of the basement, shut by a trapdoor that you had to open, then climb down the ladder and finally, in the basement’s basement, was a dark room with stone walls and a few desks. It got its name because if you were caught, you’d get lectured for so long that it felt like you were turned to stone.
“Not if they’re fake! Besides, we’re only here like half the time!” Mia chimed in, surprisingly not tired. “That and I made the executive decision to ask Miss Yune instead, and she said yes!” She put the small wooden sword away and joined the rest of them on the bench. “Buuuut I don’t think she spoke with Miss Ashera about it, so let’s just hope we don’t get caught.”
Boyd’s face went from calm to terrified in under a second. “You DIDN’T ask her?! Why say it’s good then? We should uh… maybe go? Before Ashera comes and decides to kill us?” Gatrie shot up, not nearly as exhausted as he claimed.
“Hey uh, let’s go before Miss Ashera finds us! I don’t want to face that wrath.” He gathered up all the props, but before they could go, a very ominous shadow looked over him.
“Before who finds you?” By this point, everyone was sweating bullets. “I shouldn’t even have to explain this. Just go to the office.” Ashera glared, and that look was enough to say ‘Get out of my sight before I decide to make things worse.’ They all followed without question, and before long they were sitting in detention.
“Now then, I probably shouldn’t have to clarify, but absolutely no fighting is allowed on campus. I do not care if it isn’t real, the sheer fact that you are fighting is enough to glorify it and I will not allow the glorification of warfare no matter how it’s done, do I make myself clear?” Ashera spouted off to practically nobody. Mia had fallen asleep, Boyd was pretending to pay attention, but was actually just tuning it out, and Gatrie, lovestruck fool that he is, was focused only on trying not to drool while looking at Ashera.
Ike too, was preoccupied. There was this boy who was sitting next to him, reading a book. He looked like too good of a person to be in detention, but then again, all of his friends get sent to detention. Maybe that means he could be friends, too! “...Hey. Um… what’s your name?” Ike didn’t really know how to start a conversation, but hey, this works. Unfortunately it wasn’t just Ike and his potential friend who heard that.
“ISAAC BRYCE GREIL YOU ARE WELL AWARE THAT THERE IS NO TALKING ALLOWED IN DETENTION!” Oh no. The use of Ike’s full name was something only his parents did when they were really mad, so to hear it from the principal could only mean trouble. And sure enough, it was. And now she was yelling directly at him. The boy next to him laughed, whether at him or his situation, he doesn’t know. But he smiled and handed Ike a note.
“My name is Soren.”
Ike gave it a read, and wow, his handwriting was amazing. So, he might as well keep passing notes. After all, Ashera’s too focused on being angry to actually do something. So in response, he wrote, “You probably already heard, but I’m Ike. What did you get in detention for?” He passed the note.
“That I could get. I got sent here because I called Mrs Petrine a bitch. You?”
Ike could admit, he didn’t expect that. But he hated Mrs Petrine too, so they were already off to a great start! As for why he got put away… well, he could just tell him! That would probably be successful. So, he began writing, doing his best to keep from rambling. “So me and my friends were filming this one little series that we call Radiance. It’s about this mercenary group who has to step up to form an army against this evil nation. We even got Mr Rafiel to compose for us once we told him it was fake violence. We got caught filming though, so… here we are. You should watch the series though, it’s awesome!” He silently prayed that when Soren got his handwriting it didn’t look too much like chicken scratch to read.
He watched as Soren read it, and for a second, he looked like he was about to laugh. Did he know about it already? There’s no way though. Every video got 6 views, one from Ike, one from Boyd, one from Gatrie, one from Mia, and one from Mr Rafiel. He just thought the sixth was from his dad. And to be fair, he did have good reasons. Every episode he uploaded, someone called Rexcaliber (he thought it was just a play on words of the sword) would constantly comment on how his sword technique hardly matched any proper fencing stances. Which yeah, fair, but he copies his dad’s style himself! If it was him, it was weird. But still, he had no
other idea of who it could be.
“I’vr seen them. They’re nice. I comment on them when I see them.”
Oh. He had no idea that it was Soren who was commenting. But, if he had already seen the videos…. “Wanna be a part of the next one?”
“ISAAC BRYCE GREIL I SWEAR ON MYSELF IF YOU SPEAK WHILE I’M TALKING ONE MORE TIME YOU WILL NOT HEAR THE END OF IT!” Despite Ashera’s incessant shouting, Ike remained focused on Soren, whose smile was enough to clearly spell out yes.