XII. Absolution

"Excuse me! Coming through!"

Sliding out from one of the library's bookshelf aisles was Jim who huffed, upon approaching some students along the way, as he wove through them in his haste to get out from there. He abruptly pushed past them and swiftly ducked beneath the nearest table he could find to hide from the four other teenagers who were hot on his tail like he was some game at open season.

Ferdinand, the leader of the four, then came out from the same aisle and paused on his tracks when he had lost sight of his target. He held back his peers and ordered them to look around. "Spread out, but don't make any unnecessary ruckus."

Berkeley nodded to affirm. "Right. We don't want to make a scene in the most immaculate place in the academy, don't we?"

As the four had split in all directions, the brown-haired teen took a quick gander and when he realized that he should make his way to the exit before any of the four could get there first, he hurriedly ducked back beneath and crawled from one table to the next, taking double-takes to make sure that he was clear from the surveillance of both Ferdinand's group or anyone else who was inside the library at the time. Hovering near was Morph who helped him out by keeping an eye on what was happening around them.

He was soon at a table near the receiving area and waited for the right moment when all eyes were not panned to that direction. Jim got on one knee and prepared himself to jump at the student book so he could log out. Doing so would make him free to dash out of the room without alerting the tight security of the premises.

Far from the table he was hiding under were his roommates who hardly noticed that he was being chased around. That was until Dale made a remark from out of the blue. "Well, Jim sure is taking his time."

"Ah, leave the guy be," Chris brushed off, still not taking his eyes off of his gaming console. "He said he wanted to clear his mind a bit, so why not give him the chance while he has it?"

Meanwhile, Rainier was about done revising his translation exercise and when he looked up from his paper to ponder on it for a bit, a peculiar thought crept in his mind when something caught his eye from the receiving area. "And looks like he needed some air for it too."

"What do you mean?"

Rainier pulled out the pencil wedged behind his ear and pointed it to what he was referring to. His roommates' eyes followed the direction and saw Jim placing a pen back on the table upon making a record on the student log. After that, he briskly walked to the exit and immediately bolted away once he was outside.

Dale commented. "Well, he sure left in quite a hurry."

"The quicker he does it, the better, I guess," Chris still supposed with a shrug.

His suggestion was scrapped, however, when Ferdinand's group came to their line of vision and was hurrying to log out at the receiving area, one by one leaving the room with their leader taking the first step out. Once the gang had left the room, it was now apparent to the three why their roommate was in the rush to get away from the place.

"Oh, no. Not again," Dale whimpered as he dragged a hand on his face in frustration.

Chris agreed while switching off his gaming device. "So much for clearing his mind of this stuff."

"In that case, shouldn't we be going after them or not?" Rainier spoke upon standing up from his chair with a determined look on his face. "Our pal's gonna need some backup."

Jim breathed heavily as he ran through the main hallway, getting away from his pursuers as far as he could. With a faint smile on his face, Jim took in the sensation of the wind blowing in his hair and the relief of his liberation from Ferdinand's tight hold, with Morph whizzing by his side. But his joy was short-lived when he heard his rival's thundering voice from a distance as he was drawing near.

"You are so gonna get it this time, Hawkins!"

Panic struck him fast, like a current of electricity had flowed from his fingertips and through his veins, Jim jumped on his feet and sprinted even faster than before. He now openly admitted to himself that he was scared for what he was about to get from the platypus kid this time, especially after stumbling upon a secret that he or any other person was not supposed to know.

He soon reached the main hall's intersection and stopped behind a corner to catch his breath, his anxiety even made breathing difficult for him. Taking a step back, he didn't realize that someone was walking behind and he quickly turned around to apologize. "Sorry, I was..."

Before he could continue with his explanation, the sight of the same black-haired girl he met in math class made him pause when she caught him by surprise, with Morph hurrying back to his pocket upon catching sight of her, eyebrows furrowed at the lad and an unwelcome stare coming from a pair of questioning green eyes.

"You again?"

"Yeah..." he replied simply, unsure of what to say next in his hurry. "It's... good to see you again, but I'm in really big trouble this time, so..."

Upon hearing the lad say 'trouble', she remembered the time when the kid got into a run-in with Ferdinand's clique and heard the platypus lad mention something about settling his score with his rival. She then figured out that the lad was probably caught in his unfinished business with the senator's son at the moment, and wondered what he had gotten into this time.

Like it had happened on cue, the teenager had called out to him. "Hawkins!"

Jim's fear shot up once more, and he shook his head then pushed past her to resume with running away from his captors. "I have to go."

With that, he instantly left the lass and darted off from the scene. The girl, however, never took her eyes off of the situation and turned to face the other way to see four other teenagers in pursuit, fast approaching to where she currently was. She wasn't surprised that no one was calling any of them out for running in the halls since the faculty and hall monitors were all still probably out for lunch. Pondering of the lad's situation, she knew that their cat-and-mouse chase, like what was happening at the moment, wouldn't end well for him if no one would dare step in to stop it before the group could catch up to him.

The slight figure of Sgt. Boyd passing by at the end of the east wing caught her eye, and the lass was somewhat disturbed by how uncharacteristically thankful she was at the sight of him. Now all that was left to do was get his attention. Glancing to her right hand was a nearby cart full of library books set aside. With a roll of her eyes, she let out a timid grumble. "Here goes nothing."

From Ferdinand's point of view, he could see that he was already closing in on his human rival, thinking of what punishment he had in store for the lad who unwittingly invited himself into their exclusively private conversation. He could almost see the end goal when Jim was now apparently cornered at the west wing. That was until a book cart suddenly wheeled itself up on his face.

The platypus teen was quick to stop on his heels upon seeing it pop up before him, but his chums weren't too keen with the unexpected blockage on the road and they collided with it, knocking a number of books out of the cart and, unsurprisingly, knocking down the cart itself.

The noise they made echoed through the hallway and as expected, Sgt. Boyd clearly heard it from his side and marched straight to where the commotion was to check on it himself. Arriving at the scene, he was received by a mess of three teenagers and a cart all sprawled on the floor with library books flung out in the open.

"What is going on here?!" he hollered.

Jim's roommates had arrived shortly at the right moment and Dale was quick to explain. "They were running after Jim, sir."

"What?" He turned to reprimand the four male students in question. "Running in the halls? And an attempt at breaking school property at that?!"

"That was partly my fault, sir," a female voice cut in, the black-haired girl explained with a raised hand. "I leaned on the cart a bit and then it just rolled away."

The drill sergeant interrogated her in doubt. "Am I right to assume that it was all done completely unintentional?"

"Absolutely, sir," she defended. "I didn't even know that spurhead and his goons were coming this way and that they'd crash right into it."

He took her justification into account and went back at the four. "Then that brings me back to my question: are you not aware that running in the hallways is forbidden?! There was a reason why that house rule exists, and that was to prevent pitiable accidents like this from happening!"

Ferdinand spoke up. "But Hawkins was running too. Even faster than we could!"

"Well, duh, of course he had to run faster than you lot," Rainier argued from his end. "That's the whole point of 'running away from you'."

"And why on Cresentia was Hawkins running away?" the officer continued to probe.

The platypus lad hesitated for a good second before coming up with a plausible excuse. "He overheard my group having a private conversation in the library."

"And might I know what you and your peers were discussing, since it apparently had Hawkins running for dear life?"

"Well... It's a bit of a personal case, sir..."

"Yeah, it's very personal alright," Jim affirmed from behind the crowd as he walked closer to them, much to Ferdinand's bewilderment for sparing him from giving away their secret. "Though it shouldn't be anything serious to you, sir, since it only had something to do with his dirt with me."

"I see," said the sergeant, discerning that it had always been that way between the brown-haired lad and the senator's son ever since that one solar surfing incident the two got into. "Should I make the move to step in this pressing matter, now that this beef between the two of you is already getting out of hand?"

"Now that you mention it..." Dale began thinking out loud but was stopped by Jim who threw a hand in front to prevent him from saying any more.

"No, not at all," the human lad denied. "It may not look like it, but we have this under control."

Without another thought, the sergeant then ruled them out on their offense. "But running in the hallways is definitely not a recommendable countermeasure. You five will then be spending some quiet time in detention this afternoon for the racket you caused earlier." He then turned to speak to the black-haired girl. "I'll let the cart incident slide, but you better clean this all up."

"Yes, sir," she replied and promptly went to the book cart to prop it back up.

"And Hawkins, you march yourself to my office at this very moment," he told Jim. "I have important matters to discuss with you."

Quite hesitant, the young man replied. "But, sir..."

"But what?" he asked upon hearing the student's protest.

"Can I catch up in a bit? I think I should help out with something."

The drill sergeant shook his head of his excuse, beginning to get impatient. "Can't you deal with whatever that is later?"

"I mean I was thinking about helping her out," he expounded and indicated the student who was already quite preoccupied with the task given to her.

Seeing his cause and realizing that it would make the job faster, he finally permitted. "Alright, fine. But because you and Escamillo are apparently the root cause of this whole mess, you two will go help out with tidying up the book cart," he said, receiving some responses from the other two students.

"Ugh, really? I have to help out?" Ferdinand complained.

Meanwhile, the lass was quick to decline the offer. "It's fine, sir. I can take care of this on my own."

The officer instead continued with his instructions as if ignoring their pleas all along. "You best go straight to my office as soon as you're done, Hawkins. I will be waiting."

With a shaky spit take, Jim replied. "Yes, sir."

The drill sergeant then prepared to leave, as well as the few students who had been observing them all the while, now that the show they put on was finally over. Ferdinand's gang was urged out of the scene by the officer, Jim waved farewell to his friends for now, and the platypus-like teen grumbled as he picked up one book from the floor and carelessly tossed it on the cart. "Great. Instead of having lunch with my date right now, I'm wasting my time helping out fix something that was never my fault in the first place."

The girl, down on her knees to gather back the books that had been thrown away in all directions, sneered. "I'm actually doing you a favor since you could use losing a little bit of weight."

"Says the grape-girl who gets so puffy when exposed to a measly bit of rain," he taunted back and proceeded to do the same to his rival. "And lookie here. This probably makes it, what, my second delinquency strike for this term. Unfortunately for you, this would make it your third, Jim-Jim. How pitiful, like how Boyd's probably in his office right now, waiting to break the news to you."

Picking up the last book near him, Jim got on his feet and sorted them back on the cart. "Sure. That's the thanks I get for not blowing your gang's dirty secret, huh?"

"Well, of course I have to thank you for that, although I have no idea why you would think of doing it but thanks anyway. To return favor, I think I might as well make the most of our time together in your last detention hour since you'll definitely be told to start packing up your things." He sighed sadly. "And here I was already getting used to seeing your sob face all the time."

"True, but that won't change the fact that I can still drag you and your chumps out of this place with me," he pitched. "Selling you guys out to Boyd will probably get you into bigger trouble than I ever will."

"And you're expecting that he will believe you that easily?"

"Oh, I'm not expecting anything," Jim innocently shrugged before holding up his tape recorder and playing a part of the group's conversation that he caught on audio, all for his rival to hear.

Hearing his voice mingling with the others, Ferdinand's eyes widened, panicking over the fact that the recording was solid evidence that could expose his comrades' schemes and potentially ruin his own well-established reputation. "Hey, give me that!" he cried, rushing to Jim to get a hold of the recording.

But he was too late. The brown-haired lad thought ahead and had taken the recording wax tape out from the device. He held it in the air for his floating pink companion to snatch it from his hand and the blob quickly carried it with him to the ceiling, far away from anyone's reach.

Angered, the platypus lad held his rival by the collar and persisted. "You tell that thing to bring it back here right now!"

"Nope," Jim said simply with a bitter scowl. "Threatening me for it won't do you any good either."

Up in the air was Morph who nodded in agreement with a smirk, having no plans of coming back down until his owner was free from any sort of threat.

The black-haired girl walked closer to them with her arms crossed and assessed how deep in trouble the platypus-like teenager was. "No better crack at taking revenge than blackmail, is there?"

A frown swept across Ferdinand's mouth upon hearing her remark, which meant she knew that he was undoubtedly cornered. He then glanced back to Jim who now had a smug grin all over his face and he realized that there was no way of getting out of this situation clean. He finally let go of his rival in defeat and took a couple of steps back with his hands in the air. "Alright, alright. I'm not gonna do anything stupid. So just chill out, will you?"

The brown-haired lad dusted off the wrinkles made on his uniform and, at a safe distance, Morph hovered closer to Jim's head. "I'll be holding onto the evidence from here on to make sure of that. Just to fill you in."

"Even if you could get expelled from the academy for blackmail?" asked the girl.

"It doesn't really matter to me if ever I get told on for snooping around or for blackmailing people. If it's worth doing for my sake and for my friends, then I don't mind getting kicked out of this place at all," he replied.

"Well, your 'friends' sure are a lucky bunch to have someone like you around," she commented in absolute sarcasm.

"Yeah, and you're a lucky girl. I'll tell you that," he said with a chuckle, and the lass was caught off guard that he somehow implied that he actually considered her a friend, despite hardly knowing anything about each other.

Jim then went back at his rival, his mouth falling into a threatening scowl once more, and warned. "So you and your buds best get yourselves straight if you know what's coming at you, Ferd. Now get outta my face."

Chastened, Ferdinand stepped further away before turning his back on the two and fled, out of fear that he just might drive the human further into getting him kicked out of the academy with him. "Okay, I'm going! Geez!"

With that out of the way, the lad went back to the task at hand and resumed picking up the rest of the books on the floor. They kept at it in absolute silence until all of the books were back from the way they were on the cart, and the black-haired lass spoke. "I told you I can deal with their pack."

"You did say that," Jim laughed. "You actually handled the situation pretty well, better than what I probably had in mind."

She kidded back. "But I have to give you some credit for leading them on. You didn't do so bad there yourself, tenderfoot."

"Thanks," he laughed once more. It then dawned on him that now was probably the best time to talk about the little spat they had a couple of weeks ago. "Look, what I said about... you know, the pre-test thing? I didn't mean to-"

"It's alright," she quickly cut in and consoled. "I get it, though you didn't exactly deny that you wanted my help at the time."

"Yeah, I didn't..." he trailed off upon knowing that he just couldn't admit that he was wrong for not thinking of her situation first before taking action. It got more difficult to humble himself when he knew that she was aware of his situation during the proficiency test all along, ingrained in his mind the fact that he hated how she was one step ahead of him that time. It only made him feel worse when he realized that her actions back then were justified when she thought everything out first before actually deciding to help him out.

He wasn't getting any flak from her for this, but he could sense that the girl was already quite assured of herself, telling from the smug half-smiled look on her face, and just conceded. "Alright, you win. I'm sorry that I was being a jerk. There, are you happy now?"

The girl hummed and pondered on his attempt at apologizing. "Could've been better but I guess it'll do. I accept your apology."

Seeing that there was nothing else left to do, and with what little time probably remaining for him to stay in the academy, he thought he might as well make the most of what he could before dragging himself on the way to Sgt. Boyd's office. "Since we got off at the wrong end, I think can now say that it's nice to finally meet you. I'm Jim," he introduced and held out his right hand to offer her a handshake.

The girl gladly took it and gave him a firm shake before letting go. "Lillian."

"Right. Well, whether I like it or not, I should be on my way to Boyd's then. So, I'll see you around?"

With the three strikes the lad got as what Ferdinand mentioned, she supposed that he definitely wouldn't be seeing anyone from the academy in a long time if ever he would get suspended from the place, but she disregarded the thought anyway and said. "More or less, sure. Why not?"

The walk to the Sgt. Boyd's office at the military barracks was tedious, with each step that Jim made only reminding him of what dread could be waiting for him there, and it only added up as he got closer. Morph hid back inside his pocket once he had arrived at the doorstep and, taking a deep breath, the lad swung the door in. Aside from the reclining sergeant whom he immediately saw upon entering, he wasn't counting on the sight of his economics professor, Biel Greyfeld, who was seated on one of the sergeant's guest chairs and apparently had been waiting for him as well.

"Prof. Greyfeld?"

"Mr. Hawkins!" the same soft-spoken middle-aged man greeted. "I suppose you are surprised to see me here."

"I am, sir. The barracks isn't exactly a short walk from the faculty block."

"Yes, well, I came here to bring up a very important matter to the sergeant, as well as discuss it thoroughly with you since it had something to do with your delinquency standing. So please, have a seat."

"Does it have anything to do the economics essay that I'm suspected to have plagiarized with?" he asked, taking the seat right in front of the professor.

"That's the very subject of our discussion, but let me start by saying that there's no reason for you to fret over that sticky situation now."

Jim breathed a heavy sigh. "I know. Since I already got my third strike, there's no sense in beating myself up over that anymore. So let's get this over with, when am I gonna get deported?"

"Third strike? Deported?" interjected Sgt. Boyd. "Where on St. Anglicus' did you get that idea from, boy?"

The lad was perplexed now. "... I was running in the halls. For that, I'm kinda responsible for the racket that Ferd's pals caused. That's what you called me in here for, right?"

Amused, the drill sergeant shook his head and chortled. "Well, yeah. Try running in the halls four more times and if I caught all of those in the act, then you're sure to get a strike from me."

The professor explained to the now even more confused teenager. "You have to be caught running in the halls five times before you're given a delinquency strike, Mr. Hawkins. That rule is not indicated in the school regulations but we still strictly abide by it."

"Wait, so that means I'm not gonna get expelled yet?"

"Running in the hallway is just a minor offense, lad. It happens all the time," the professor continued to enlighten. "But regarding your number of strikes, I found an interesting discovery that will help take a load off your chest, and I'll tell you now that it has something to do with your essay-related transgression."

"What is it?"

"Perfect timing to expose it to him, is it?" the officer jested.

"Yes, very perfect opportunity. So, a couple of days ago, I was about to clear out my trash bin when I noticed a balled-up piece of paper in it..." The professor then began recalling his account to the boy as he leafed through the paperwork in his satchel. "You will never guess what I found when I straightened it out."

"What did you find?"

Finding the document he needed, Prof. Greyfeld pulled it out from the stack and held it to the young student. "You can see for yourself."

Jim took it from his hand and immediately recognized the handwriting and his full name properly jotted at the very top of the page. At that moment, the lad felt like a lump got stuck in his throat and his heart was about to beat right out of his chest. "It's my essay," he gasped at the paper, all wrinkly and appeared to have been crumpled up like what the professor just said.

"I was actually surprised by the sight of it because it is not in-character for the academy's faculty to crumple paperwork of any form. Do you want know why?"

"Why?" asked his student. "I mean we do it all the time when we're throwing our papers away."

"But for us faculty members, handling our paperwork is way different from how you students can do it. The academy has a protocol so we can't just dispose our documents willy-nilly. We are obligated to shred them first before doing so."

The sergeant added. "It's a safety precaution, so any confidentiality from the academy reflecting in documents like that is still safe and preserved."

"And crumpling the documents will just make the job of shredding them more difficult than it already is," finalized the professor.

The lad, with his mouth agape still in disbelief, blinked at the information that had been shared with him. "Am I even allowed to hear any of this?"

Prof. Greyfeld laughed. "Of course, Mr. Hawkins. It's not a secret! We just don't see the need to inform you students of our part in the academy's policies."

Sgt. Boyd agreed with a nod. "So I'm not surprised that our students don't have an idea that this protocol exists, particularly the person behind Hawkins' whole essay set-up."

He then resumed with the topic of Jim's essay. "On the other hand, I can already tell that you've worked so hard on that from just skimming through the first page. It's a little unpresentable now but perhaps if you could just refresh it a bit and resubmit it to me until tomorrow, then I could make some reconsiderations and give you the proper grade that you deserve. Does that sound good to you?"

"O-Of course, sir. That'd be great," Jim stuttered a bit since everything was just coming at him all at once and was still too much for him to take in that he could barely believe that it was all actually happening.

"But how in the galaxy did your essay end up in my trash bin?" the instructor asked to move on to another topic. "Crumpled up into a ball and even switched with a plagiarized phony."

The student shrugged. "You're telling me. I don't have the faintest idea."

Cutting in, the drill sergeant supposed. "The closest reason I can think of is perhaps it had something to do with your ongoing business with Escamillo."

"I don't know..." he innocently shrugged. "What makes you think that?"

"Oh, come on!" he goaded. "You were just running away from him earlier, even mentioned something about it and told me that you two are trying to keep it under control."

"Maybe, but you just thought up that excuse all on your own for the most part," Jim denied and, upon remembering tape recorder in his pocket, he defended still. "And I do still have it all under control, even if Ferd and his pals won't like how I'm gonna deal with it."

"... You're thinking that I'm just gonna have to take your word for it. Is that right?" the officer hesitantly brushed off. "Anyway, how are we going to find a lead on the culprit now, whose careless crime got close to kicking you out of the academy?"

He stuffed a hand in his pocket, feeling the metal chassis of his valuable handheld in his palm, realizing that he would have to hold onto it for a bit longer. "I honestly want to know who that person is, sir, but I just can't think up of anyone right now. But I know I'll get that chance one day, and when it comes to that, I'll be making sure that they will 'fess everything up."

To conclude the lad's case, the drill sergeant let out a long breath through his nose. "In any case, you are still required to discuss what we've huddled on today with the student disciplinary tribunal. I'll set up an appointment for you tonight but I'll fill you in on the verdict right now: the whole essay situation is scrapped."

Jim thought aloud at his superior's account. "Wait, just so we're clear on this. Does that mean I'm still down to one delinquency strike?"

"One and one-fifth in theory, to be precise," clarified the economics professor. "You are still, and absolutely, eligible to stay in the academy until you get your third. But do forbid that it will ever get to that point, hmm?"

The boy's eyes lit up at the two faculty members' good news and he felt stinging tears of joy beginning to well up beneath his eyelids. "Thank you, sir."

"Way to stick it to the man, Jim!" exclaimed Rainier in celebratory mood as he and his friends accompanied their roommate on his way to the administration building, right after the lad's meticulous meeting with the student tribunal.

Jim grinned with nod back at his congratulatory words, still in disbelief of the news that he was actually off the hook from getting suspended (for now). "Yeah, but I need to get a fresh reel for this bad boy since I'll have the old one locked away for safekeeping. Here's to making sure that Ferd's gang won't even think of messing around with anyone again."

Walks around the academy didn't have much significance for him ever since he started attending his classes but just for tonight, it was definitely a huge exception. To him, it felt like the sky way above their heads, despite being so dark at the time, looked a bit higher than it usually was that it somehow made him a bit light on his feet, like a huge weight had been taken off from his shoulders. Figuratively, he could compare himself to his pink companion who was just near his hair: floating.

"First in the long line of many evidences to come: Exhibit A," concurred Dale with a jest.

"Yup. Those guys can complain all they want but man, those things sure are handy," noted the Cervid as he pointed to Jim's tape recorder. "I should get myself one of those."

"It's like the ultimate ace up your sleeve," Chris added.

"Sure is. Now all I have left to do is rewrite my essay for tomorrow," said Jim with a groan. "This is gonna be a drag."

The Loppytonian chuckled at his roommate's languor. "Well, it's way better than getting kicked out of the academy for sure."

Their chat went on until they had arrived at the steps of the administration, and Jim had to part ways with his friends once more. "So, I'll see you guys at the cafeteria then?"

"Right," Rainier affirmed. "But we'll be stopping by the dorms while we're at it. No need to rush yourself, man."

"Okay. See you later!" he bid and dashed up the stairway. His pals waved back to him before turning around to leave for their own individual errands.

Jim first approached the receiving area in the lobby to make an entry on the guest book and to ask for directions to the dean's office. Once he was instructed of his route, the lad climbed another flight of stairs in order for him to reach the second floor where his destination was apparently located.

Arriving there, another hallway welcomed him and at the very end of it was the dean's office as pointed out to him. He then strode through the clean and carpeted floor, past wooden doors with name plaques affixed on them, appearing to be the rooms of the dean's co-department personnel, faculty members who were of higher rankings compared to his instructors' but still below the peak position in the institution's hierarchy, filled in by no other than Captain Amelia Smollett-Doppler herself.

He had soon reached her doorstep and when he was about to reach for the handle, someone already beat him to it and had swung the door in. Coming from inside was another student, a Felinid with long blond hair and appeared to be around Jim's age. Upon catching sight of her, Morph hurriedly hid inside his pocket and let the human interact with her alone.

"Oh! Hello!" she greeted in slight surprise, not expecting that someone was at the other side of the door. "I hope I hadn't kept you waiting long. I didn't know Captain Amelia still had an appointment at this very hour."

"Ah, no," he denied. "I'm just passing by, that's all."

"A visitor, I see. But I'm not surprised since I was also just passing by here myself. So, what brings you to this place?" the girl questioned out of curiosity, with Jim taking a note of her accent as she spoke. It sounded similar to Amelia's, but thicker like the way how folks living around the countryside spoke.

"Just thought that I might as well check up on an old friend of the family," he said simply.

She asked in beaming enthusiasm. "Really? You've been acquainted with the Doppler couple before?"

"So, Doc is in there too, huh?" concluded Jim. "I knew as much but yeah, I've worked with them before in one of their travels together. What about you? What brings you here?"

"Well, I was kind of requested to stop by here this evening."

"Captain Amelia called you up?"

"Yes, but it's nothing major," she shrugged with a coy laugh. "Just a little chat to catch up on things, family and the like. You know how relatives can be sometimes."

"Relatives?" Jim repeated to ponder on what she was talking about and then a moment later, it finally hit him. "Wait a minute..."

She tittered at his baffled expression and offered him a handshake. "Pleased to meet you. I'm Aurora Mayflower, third-year student at the Royal Interstellar Academy and maternal niece of Captain Amelia."

"Jim Hawkins, and yeah, I've heard about you!" he said, gratefully returning her offer. "Cap mentioned that she has a niece studying here but I never thought that we'd personally meet. Wow, it's an honor to meet you."

"And it's likewise an honor to meet a friend of Auntie's," she said back before letting go of his hand. "Well, I should be on my way. I don't want to delay your meeting with the folks any longer."

"Not at all. It was a pleasure," he finalized with a salute just before the girl could walk away.

Bringing his attention to his initial task, Jim then went back at the door to Amelia's office and swung it open. Morph flew up in sight once more and the lad stepped inside. The sight of the dean and her Canid husband immediately welcomed him upon entering, and Jim somehow felt like he was back at home.

"Mr. Hawkins! I didn't realize that you'd be dropping by this evening," spoke the captain who was seated in her office chair, going through the adequate amount of paperwork she had filed out on her desk. "Have a seat, please."

"Thanks," the boy said with a smile as he approached one of her guest chairs, with the pink blob settling on his shoulder. "I was on my way to ask Doc a favor. I thought that he might be around here at a time like this, so I might as well check up on both of you while I'm at it."

"We're splendid, lad. And clever thinking at that," she applauded.

"But how did you know that I'm in Amelia's office right now?" asked the bedazzled doctorate-earned man who stood near his wife.

"From intuition, I guess. I thought you looked like someone that I should know very well, Doc," chuckled Jim, with Morph taking the form of plump lips making smacking sounds earning them an amused smirk from Amelia.

Her husband, however, was abashed by the statement and just went to move past it with a clearing of his throat. "Anyway, what did you want me to help you with, Jim?"

"Oh, right. I was just thinking if I could have another reel of blank recording tape."

"Well, you sure are working on your note-taking to a new extreme, aren't you?" Delbert complimented. "I was expecting for a reel to last about two months but you sure flew in way earlier than I thought."

"I guess I've been doing double of what I'm supposed to 'cause of the unwanted stuff that's been coming out of nowhere."

"Ah, I know of the major disagreement you've had with Senator Escamillo's son a while back. I heard that it got you into deep trouble, but that's all I caught from the talks within the faculty. Perhaps it was that incident that made catching up with your academics a bit difficult for you?"

"It sure did. Speaking of academics, how come I don't get to see you around much, Doc? I thought I'd be hearing more from you now that I'm a student in where you've been teaching."

Delbert let out a small chuckle. "I teach astrophysics, Jim. It's far too advanced and possibly way early for your age group to tackle. Most likely when you've reached your senior year, that's when you'll be seeing more of me."

"That's great! But I'm not so sure about the subject on the other hand..."

"Oh, you'll come to love it eventually, Jim. If you're still not interested in astrophysics by the midterm, then I'll just have to make you!" he kidded.

Laughter filled the room and once Jim's had subsided, the lad then stood up from his seat and stuffed his hands inside his pockets. "Well, since I don't have anything else left to do here, I guess I should be on my way now. Still have an essay to rewrite for tomorrow, you know."

"Just drop by my office tomorrow for the new recording tape, Jim. I'll make sure to be there during my consultation hours."

"Right. Thanks, Doc," Jim said with a salute before turning his back to the couple.

"Bye-bye!" chirped Morph before whizzing away with the teenager.

When the boy and his blob were finally out of sight and the two had the room for themselves once more, Amelia suddenly brought up to her husband what she was reading through a document in her hands. "Apparently, he just had a hearing with the student tribunal about an hour ago. It says so here in their report that had been delivered to me some minutes recently."

"Oh?" he replied in surprise at the news. "What is it about?"

"I suppose you haven't heard of his second offense on an essay that he committed plagiarism on several days ago?"

"Why, no! I have no idea of that one!"

"Well, he had been cleared of that by the student tribunal today. It appears someone tried to sabotage him by switching his original submission with another that had taken out passages directly from one of our prized textbooks. But the case isn't closed since they still haven't found out who the original culprit is."

He ruffed in frustration. "I wish we can know who the perpetrator is in the soonest possible time. Their contemptuous crime made quite a close shave for our young Montressor child."

"I have faith in Mr. Hawkins, Delbert. I never had a doubt when I deemed a child acceptable to this prestigious academy. After all, I have an honor code to uphold for this institution, and what better way to do that than keeping an eye out for the select few who would firmly establish this place."

"And Jim is one of them, apparently. I'm astounded by how you could see his condemnable, ah, commendable character beneath all that exterior," he stuttered.

"I did mention something about that before which perfectly describes him. I just can't quite recall what it was..."

Delbert looked up to the ceiling like he was consulting his thoughts and hummed. "I believe you said something like 'unorthodox but ludicrously effective', dear."

"Yes, exactly!" Amelia exclaimed then added in a more concerned tone. "But he's still on his first delinquency strike, though. Hopefully, he won't come to his third or else, his mother won't be too happy once she has gotten word of it."

Her husband added. "And the most difficult part is, as the dean, you're the one obligated to report everything to her."

She rolled her eyes at the exasperating thought and sighed. "I know. You didn't have to remind me."

Her silly expression made him laugh once more and he lightly draped a hand on her shoulder. "I'll leave you to your paperwork then. See you in the morning."

"Rest easy, dear," she bid and softly squeezed his hand back for one long second before it could slide off of her uniform. As the Canid began his walk out of her office, Amelia folded up Jim's trial report and moved on to an envelope that had caught her eye.

The lettering at the upper left-hand corner read the address of Royal Navy's Grand Council and in the middle, there was no doubt that the mail was directly addressed to her. She shrugged as she ripped through the Navy's rubber seal which kept the envelope closed before pulling out the piece of paper it contained. A formal letter, which said something along the lines of an emergency meeting in about a couple of weeks' time.

As someone working independently from her employers, Amelia couldn't care less of the council's bureaucratic matters like what the letter indicated the meeting was for, and was about to discard it until her eyes had reached the bottom of the page: they additionally invited her for further questioning, in relation to the severe damages that had been made on the RLS Legacy from her last voyage, the undisclosed trip to Flint's trove.