Here it is, the last chapter before hiatus. It's been a crazy 8 months, hasn't it? Illness, election year, general life dramas made that much more obnoxious because of masks. I hope reading Daybreak Academy helped relieve some of that stress for you. And if not, that's okay too. When I first started writing this, I didn't mean for it to be so large. I didn't mean to get attached to the characters I wrote. The characters I didn't own but took on and flanderized, fleshed out, and even placed in situations that they will likely never see in canon. It was fun.
But now it's time to decide on an ending.
If you haven't already, please vote on whether you want to see an unfair ending or the 'good' one. The 'bad' ending will allow this fic to be finished by next summer. Whereas, the 'good' ending may take years, if ever, to properly finish. There will be more hiatuses if we go for the 'good' ending. I'm kinda flexible either way, but I'm really torn. So, I guess, for now and forever, whether Daybreak Academy comes out of hiatus in the new year or not:
Thank you for reading.
The first day back to school after break was always a stressful time. But something about today seemed far worse than usual. Anything that could have gone wrong, did. The first incident that Ava was called in to help for was with a student who had lost all of their textbooks. They said it was because they had to travel a large distance to visit family this year. Ava doubted that story with a clear suspicion- the only student that she knew of that actually did travel a large distance (as in, crossing time zone and even a country or two) had been Anora. As far as Ava was aware of, Anora had been the most prepared student so far.
If only everyone in Vulpes had been as prepared as Anora.
And yes, this included the teachers as well. The teacher in charge of the Vulpes history class was still on vacation, so Ava had to find a last minute replacement for them. Another teacher had sent in a complaint that their interactive white board was not working. Come to find out, they had punctured a small hole through the board- effectively screwing up its sensors and rendering it useless. On top of that, they had also used normal white board markers and even cleaner when they definitely should not have. There was going to be a meeting about that soon, you could bet it.
By the time classes for the day ended, Ava plopped back down at her desk chair with a sigh. Her whole body relaxed against the faux leather. This was the most she had sat all day today, and she was going to enjoy it for as long as she could. Weary, she took a look over at Shelby's tank. The turtle was trying to escape to the best of his abilities; which really just amounted to him bonking his head against the glass to get Ava's attention.
Ava gave the turtle a little laugh before she worked her weary body out of her chair. Shelby's happy clicks as she reached into his cage to pull him out were enough to make Ava smile. Carefully bringing Shelby over to her desk, Ava once more sat down in her chair to admire him. The turtle wasn't going to have any of that fond look- he was hungry. To get his point across, he even tried to nip at her fingers. Ava playfully wiggled them out of his reach.
"Alright." she smiled. "You've been super good staying in your cage today, I'll give you a snack."
Shelby's eager chirps made Ava laugh once more. She reached into the top drawer of her desk to pull out a turtle treat, shaped like a stick, and placed it right in front of Shelby. The turtle gave her its tanks with a cheerful click of his beak before he dived right in. Watching Shelby enjoy the treat was enough to allow Ava to completely relax again. Admittedly, it was starting to make her a bit hungry too.
"Can I nap now, Shelby?" she wondered as she gently glided a hand over his shell.
The little turtle gave her a happy chirp in response. She took it to mean 'Yes Mom! You deserve it!' but that could have been wistful thinking. Ava smiled at her turtle before being distracted by her office phone starting to ring. Curious, and almost fearful, of who could be calling her at this hour, Ava answered her phone with a well rehearsed voice.
"You've reached the office of Ava Ryce, headmaster of the Vulpes house at Daybreak Academy."
The voice on the other end sounded rather cheerful in its own right, while also having an air of controlled calm. "Hello Ava, this is Hermod Krux from Departure County's board of education."
"Hello Hermod," Ava greeted back. "Is it time for the annual check in already? I thought we usually had an in person meeting."
"We do, but that isn't what I'm calling you for."
This was not something Ava had been expecting. When anyone from the board called, it was for business and business only. Her confusion was rather apparent as she let out a wondering, "Oh?"
There was some rustle on the other end- possibly from Hermod giving her a nod.
"I know this is an odd question," he went on to say, "But… how is Ephemer?"
A chill so sudden ran up Ava's spine that she almost whimpered. She wondered for a moment if Hermod had heard it.
"He… He's doing well." she admitted. In a tone she hoped didn't sound accusatory, she then asked, "Why do you wish to know?"
Every second seemed to take a whole hour as Hermod thought over his response.
"To prepare for the next few semesters, the superintendent had us board members in for a meeting." he tried to explain. "He mentioned something odd, and for some reason I thought of Ephemer. After that, it became the only thing I could think about. Once the superintendent plants an idea in your head, it's kinda hard to ignore. You know?"
Ava was going to object, but she soon remembered how the idea of a student council -the Dandelions- had been the superintendent's idea.
"Y-yeah..." she murmured, "I know what you mean." Out of habit, she started to give Shelby small strokes along his head. The turtle didn't object to it- if anything he encouraged her to do such a thing.
"I was wondering if we could all get lunch some day. Not today, or even this month. But it would be nice to just talk to you and him."
"I… I don't know." Ava carefully admitted. She was almost petting Shelby a bit too hard now- the turtle's head bopping when she placed her finger on him. "It was a closed adoption though, Hermod. You can't just walk up to Ephemer and say-"
"I didn't plan on doing anything like that." he claimed. Something in Ava nearly doubted that was the case. He called for a reason, didn't he? So why was he taking so long to just tell her? She hated the feeling of someone having an ulterior motive against her.
As if he could read her thoughts, Hermod told her, "I know this is all coming out of the blue, but please consider it. Thank you for your time Ava." And with that, he hung up. Ava remained where she was for a moment. When she finally pulled the phone from her ear, she looked as if it had done her some ill. She gently placed the receiver back on the cradle before turning to Shelby with an increasingly paling face.
"What did the superintendent tell Hermod, Shelby?" she asked, despite knowing that she was really talking to herself. "And why now of all times?"
Her turtle child had nothing to say for himself. If anything, he was starting to get the beginnings of a headache from Ava's stressed patting. Placing an elbow on her desk, and cupping her cheek in her hand, Ava's mind started to race. Something wasn't right. Something just wasn't adding up.
"What could he possibly-" Ava started to wonder, but was cut off when her door started to open.
"Hey Mother Ava, you in here?" Ephemer's cheerful voice said as he came through the door. "I was heading on down to get something for dinner, and I wanted to know if you wanted to-"
If Ava needed any indication that she looked like she was going to be sick, the switch from Ephemer's happy grin to a look of worried suspicion was all she needed.
"Are you alright?" was all he asked.
For a moment, she considered telling him the truth.
"Just tired." she instead assured him. "Long day back to school. I'm sure you have plenty of stories to tell too."
And with that, Ephemer's grin came back tenfold. "You bet I do! Just wait until you hear about the poor sap that tried to flirt with Skuld earlier! It was hilarious!"
"I assume she punched him out?" Ava entertained as she started to get up from her desk.
"Oh you know it! Someone had called Gula in to break it up, but he actually encouraged Skuld!"
Even though she figured she shouldn't, Ava let out a light chuckle at the idea. She gently picked up Shelby and started to head toward the door. Ephemer wasn't quite paying attention to her, instead on about Skuld's flirter and how much it looked like it hurt to be punched by her. It was more than easy to forget about Hermod's call. But there was still a distant nagging, and it had more to do with the superintendent than Hermod himself.
Just what was the superintendent planning?