Blazing Academy: Semester One (Academy For All Things Scorching #1) - Avery Song Page 0,83
body immediately relaxed, and I closed my eyes to enjoy the tender touch for as long as I could. His lips left a tingling mark behind, and I opened my eyes to meet his that were now beginning to turn silver.
"Westley," I softly stated. "Your eyes are turning silver."
He blinked a few times, seemingly confused with my comment before his cheeks seemed to grow red.
"D-Don't worry about it," he quietly muttered as he glanced away. "Back to what I was going to say earlier. Gabriel said if you do really well during midterms, we can begin to teach you some spells early."
"Wait, really?!" I exclaimed. "Why is Gabriel the leader?"
"Because he's scary on a regular basis."
"Good point," I noted. "Okay! I'm going to do my best! Wait. Is there a reward for beating a horseman?" I inquired.
"Yup." He grinned as if I'd suddenly accepted a challenge. "You claim the title and get to work towards keeping it each semester unless someone beats you to it."
"Isn't the benefit just getting access to certain things?"
"I think there's more to it," he admitted. "I'm honestly not sure, but I guess we can wait and see how this semester ends."
"I have one more question," I stated.
"What's up?"
"Again, not trying to judge, but why weren't you chosen? From the gossip I involuntarily have to listen to, you're the strongest Wind Flare user in freshman year. Now that I think about it, someone said Gabriel was the strongest Holy Thunder user, and we already know Keru rejected his, this semester. The three of you could have gotten all these benefits. Why did you sacrifice it?"
"For you," he earnestly replied. "If we accepted it, we wouldn't have had time to be friends or hang out, let alone protect you. As inviting as it was, the three of us agreed it wasn't worth losing time with you."
He met my shocked gaze and quietly admitted, "You kind of feel like one of us before we got to really know one another, so it felt a little unethical to skip the chance to learn more about you over rank or status. It seems stupid, and somehow it feels like it would be boring without you. Meeting you unexpectedly was both surprising and a little enlightening. Maybe we're just all running on our hormones or whatever, but I think we'd only accept a rank like Blazing Horseman if we got to do it together as a team."
"You're going to make me cry." I was smiling from ear to ear, even though my eyes were watering by his admission.
"Don't cry," he nervously stated. "I suck at dealing with girls crying."
That made me giggle, and I wrapped my arms around him to give a tight hug. "Thanks, Westley, for being you," I whispered.
"Being me isn't weird?"
"Not in the slightest," I declared. "Thanks to you, I got to experience a part of Blazing Academy I didn't know existed, wore clothes that cost a kidney or two, ate amazing food, drank non-alcoholic beverages, pissed Rick and that Eliza girl off, and got to see a stunning view like this."
Leaning back just slightly, I gave him the best smile I could muster.
"This is the first time experiencing many of these things, and that was thanks to you taking me out. So thank you, Westley."
"You forgot one more thing," he mentioned.
"What?"
He reached out to brush my cheek, and ever so slowly, his lips just slightly brushed my lips.
"We're dat-" I didn't let him finish, sealing his lips with mine and surprisingly giving him my first kiss. The move was unexpected, but deep down, it felt right.
So, so right.
His lips lightly pressed back, his hand remaining on my cheek as we shared our first kiss in the glass cube above the moonlit garden and starry sky above.
My first kiss beneath the moon's rays in a majestic glass box.
Midterm Victory
~FIVE WEEKS LATER~
* * *
"Pencils down."
My pencil had been down for the last thirty minutes, my eyes staring at the back page of the test while my mind was debating on what I wanted for lunch.
The anticipation of receiving our results for the test was already beginning to work its way through me. I could already imagine myself rubbing it in Gabriel's face and enjoying the bliss of victory.
He'd been bragging that I wouldn't get a high enough score for him to keep his word on training me, but I'd worked extra hard to ensure I read, memorized, and studied again everything we'd need to know for the test.