CHAPTER #26 ~ A Battle of Wits

As Nella ran down the hallway on her way to her class, she suddenly had a gut instinct that someone or something was watching her. . . . . . . but what?

Ignoring it, Nella continued on her way completely unaware of a certain someone burning holes into her back after witnessing the whole proceedings in the library and had determined to corner the blonde on a later date and extract some answers to appease his curiosity and steadily growing temperament and jealousy towards a certain god.

Arriving at her classroom, Nella took a minute or so to catch her breath before opening the classroom door interrupting Master Thoth's explanation on human anatomy, which earned her a piercing glare from Master Thoth as he accusingly stated, "You're late."

"Sooorry, I had some trouble with Anubis." Nella replied in a monotone with a hint of sarcasm managing to slip through.

"I didn't ask or want any excuses, Miss Petronella." Master Thoth retorted, purposely calling Nella by her full first name which he knew she hated for how people always say it incorrectly. However, before Nella was unable to comment on his accusation, Master Thoth interrupted her, "And," he continued as he fixed his monocle before looking Nella straight in the eye, "you are aware that no animals are allowed in class." as he nodded his head in the direction of Tsukito's rabbit who had decided it preferred sleeping on her head, rather than in her arms, as she was forbidden from wearing her fedora in class.

"Yes." Nella responded still in a monotone.

"Then why did you bring it here?" Master Thoth pressed.

"To bring him back to his owner." Nella said it a matter of fact voice as she walked over to Tsukito and handed the rabbit to the expressionless god before say, "I found him outside my dorm by himself and thought I should return him before something worse happens to him than simply being tripped over."

"Arigatō, Nella." Tsukito said before whispering something to his rabbit and placing it out in the hallway.

Upon seeing Tsukito's actions, Nella became worried that his rabbit might get into more trouble being let out on its own again. So, as Tsukito was about to close the door, she asked him, "What are you doing?! I brought the rabbit here to keep it out of trouble and harm's way and now you're just letting it go out and get into more trouble?!"

With each word, Nella's voice raised a notch as her anger rose along with it before coming close to a climax only to be interrupted by Tsukito saying in a monotone type voice, "I told Usamaro to go back to our dorm and to stay there until I come back.

"Oh?" Nella asked suspiciously, raising an eyebrow as she did so for she didn't quite believe a word he was saying but had nothing to accuse him of for being false.

Letting it slide for now, Nella turned around to head to her desk only to be stopped by someone clearing their throat and looking straight at the notorious glare that said someone was all too well known for, Master Thoth. She was sure he was ready to tell her off for not only being late, making excuses for being late, but also interrupting his lecture entirely. Nella knew she had to say something in order to avoid another one of his lengthy lectures which were extremely tiresome and boring.

"Petr–"

"Master Thoth, I know that I'm late, and class time is work time, and free time is chat time. So can you please continue with what you were saying when I interrupted the lecture?" Nella calming stated before turning in the direction of the seat that was the closest to the window as well as the furthest to the back of the classroom just behind Yui where Nella thought she might have some peace of mind and quiet if any.

As Nella walked to the back of the classroom, she ignored the gawking expressions of the rest of her classmates and did not even flitch at the feeling of Master Thoth's piercing glare stare daggers into her back.

After about five minutes of Master Thoth staring angrily at Nella, who stared back at him without evening showing any sign of feeling intimidated, Nella finally signed getting annoyed at this waste of time decided to end it by stating in an exasperated voice, "You were saying."

"Huh? What do you mean?" Master Thoth asked clearly confused and not connecting the dots as to what she meant. Nella face palmed herself at her teacher's incompetence at not doing his job. However, she knew she was already in enough trouble for one day but that didn't stop her from having a little bit of fun by teasing Master Thoth a bit.

Once this thought had gone through her mind, Nella cleared her throat before she replied with doing no effort in hiding the smirk on her face as she did so, "Well, well, well Master Thoth, I never suspected you were a pupil here at this lovely academy, as if I am not mistaken, the teacher was busy explaining human anatomy when I arrived," Nella stated as she watched Master Thoth's face turn red from either embarrassment or rage, she knew not which nor did she rightly care which one it was anyway. Continuing on, Nella said, "So are you going to play teacher or is classed dismissed for the day?" adding the last touch to make Master Thoth nearly lose his temper which she knew was immature of her but just fun to do sometimes.

However, one thing she did not count on was Master Thoth catching on to her little game and with a sly smile coming over to Nella's desk, lean down and whisper into her ear, "Nice try, Miss Nella. But you're not getting out of trouble so easily this time. Meet Zeus and me in his throne room at 4:30 sharp." before turning away and heading towards the chalk board and shouting, "Now back to what we were talking about."

Nella knew she had officially lost this battle of wits.