myself.
Rising up, I stretched out, feeling tired from the whole assignment from earlier. "I'm heading to bed."
"All right," Alaric replied.
Heading to the door, I stopped when a thought came to my mind.
"One more thing," I looked back at him. "The uniform needs to have red in it."
"What's with you and red?"
"It reminds me of the blood of my enemies," I said dramatically, followed by an evil laugh. He frowned and shook his head.
"God, you're going to be suspended before you’re there a week."
"Maybe seventy-two hours. Give or take." I reached for the doorknob and took a deep breath. "I'll try," I whispered. "Just don't get mad if I can't get it right the first time around. I'm not going to go by the typical rule book."
"Thank you, Jade," Alaric said, knowing well that I was only agreeing to this because of him. He knew I'd be creating my own rules to whatever underlying game was happening here. "Your attendance means a lot to me."
I gave a little nod and slipped into the hall, closing the door lightly. With another sigh, I began to walk away, stopping when I reached one of the tall windows.
Peering up at the full moon, I bit my lip. Who would have thought I'd be attending Tracker Hive Academy?
This is going to be a pain the ass.
5
Tanner The Asshole
"OOF!" I crashed into the blue mat, trying not to make another snarky remark.
Or slur a bunch of swear words like it was a romantic language. The language of insults.
"No snarky response this time?”
I responded with a long groan, looking at the upside-down image of Tanner, who was in full combat gear. "You're a jackass."
"Shouldn't be saying that to your future Professor." He looked beyond pleased that I was going to be at his mercy in the academic department.
As if being at his mercy five days a week at four in the morning wasn't torture enough.
"Dad said you can't fail me based on your bias!" I announced, sitting up seconds before his foot slammed into me.
Without skipping a beat, I was up in the air and landing on one of the ceiling lights. Looking down at Tanner, I stuck my tongue out. "So there!"
He ran his hand through his short silver hair before crossing his arms and giving me a tilt of his head.
"I'm seriously debating whether or not your immaturity is a disguise," he muttered. "Where's your Shadow?"
"She's organizing her Beanie Baby collection," I announced. "Dad's getting her a dark unicorn plush doll."
"She has two rooms full of dolls," Tanner argued, rolling his black eyes.
"Actually, it's—"
"Never mind," Tanner interrupted. "I don't want to hear your explanation of why Beanie Babies and dolls are different. I promise not to ask for any bit of your future fortune."
"Good. We're on the same page."
"I'm still failing you."
"Oh c'mon! You're not allowed to fail me out of hate!"
"You're correct," he replied and vanished.
I cursed, quickly hopping off the light I'd been balancing on, flipping my body to face the ceiling mid-fall, and raising my hands to create a fire shield a second before Tanner attacked me with a rock hammer.
"But I can fail you for being slow as fuck."
"You're not allowed to swear either!" I argued, stopping myself from being smashed into the ground with a wind spell that stopped him in the nick of time.
"Says who?" Tanner grunted, his hammer still attempting to squash me.
"Says the school policy!" I exclaimed, fighting his resistance. "And...ugh! Stop trying to Thor me to the ground!"
"Use your magic and not your running mouth!" he shouted, lifting his hammer up. I squeaked as his hammer swung into my side, sending me flying into the opposing wall.
I crashed into the wall, but managed to plant my feet against the cement, giving me the leverage as I pushed off it and aimed straight for Tanner.
He lifted his hammer in time for my attack; my flaming red fists created a sword out of solid rock, the two weapons colliding.
"My running mouth is what gets me out of the best jams!" I argued.
"It won't when you have to deal with the real world."
With a grunt, I added a burst of magic to my defense, giving me the upper hand as I pushed him back. His feet skidded across the matted surface beneath us, and he stood his ground as I charged toward him.
"The real world? I think I've seen enough of this world's true colors," I voiced, my flaming rock sword crashing into his hammer.
It cracked but didn't break