Flesh and Bone

Chapter 8: ... And The Next Guy That Followed

"So, what do you think?" Uelia, a female first-year student, asked him after just finishing reading off the summary of her article proposal. She'd been going on about it for only a couple minutes now— well within the time-frame he'd asked for, with plenty of important details concisely explained and sources cited. And it looked like it took her a little bit, too; she'd been diligent in all parts of it, but still ended it with a courteous smile. The perfect presentation.

That's why he felt like a bit of a dick when he realized he wasn't paying attention to her at all. "I, uh, it sounds great! Pass it by Trasiv whenever he comes by today or if you see him in the hallway, he'll help you place it in to the template before we go to print. All right?"

The look on Uelia's face told him that she'd seen right through him and knew he'd spaced out. Thankfully she didn't say as much and thanked him for approving her work for print, but it still bugged him that he'd blown her off like that. And it wasn't like he was checking her out or anything; he'd gained a reputation for being a flirt, but he wasn't that bad, despite what Blyke and Remi'd always tease him over.

No, his mind was trailing elsewhere, and it had been for over a month now. Absentmindedly he put a hand through his hair, scooping through his orange hair and ending by resting his hand upon the base of his neck that held his dark brown hair underneath.

Everyone knew that John and Seraphina were going to fight, and he'd made doubly sure to be no where near that when it finally went down. Blyke disagreed with his point of view; he wanted front-row seats for when John would finally get taken down, whilst at the same time Remi demurred on the subject. It didn't matter who got to see it happen. To her, what was most important was that it happen period— and soon.

On that, Isen agreed entirely.

The whole school was being thrown out of whack by that guy's horrifying idea of 'justice'. Everyone was left to fend for themselves, to take vengeance upon themselves or to pick up a new method of bullying without being caught. Things needed to get back to normal, quick. Remi took up some girl on the idea of a safe place in the school and forged it into reality; Blyke trained his ass off and then some, doing his best to support Remi's ambitions whenever they could.

And on top of all that, both of them took on more... clandestine extracurricular activities. Now that they weren't the Queen and Jack anymore, his two best friends had plenty of time to play vigilantes. He knew because he'd been corralled into helping them out, much to his chagrin.

Sneaking out, they'd come close to being found out by the Authorities— or worse— more than a couple of times. According to them, these particular outings were in service of honing their skills and preparing to defeat John themselves if they had to. It did work, to some degree; both of them seemed to be getting a bit stronger day by day, fight by fight.

But it just wasn't enough. It was too little, too slow, too late; the new King was getting more brutal and paranoid with each passing day. As strong as they got, they still couldn't hold a candle to a god-tier like John, even if they were all fighting him at the same time.

Thank goodness Seraphina came in clutch, at last, getting over the effects of the ability dampening drug she'd been injected with. How she did it, when was she going to lay down the law, how badly that asshole was going to get his ass kicked by her, it was all verbiage to Isen. It was out of his hands now even more so than when it was just a useless notion.

Things were bound to get better now. Students would stop fighting each other at random all the time, his friends would get back into power and set things right this time, and everyone would learn to get along again.