Chapter 6: First exam and first love
I wake up to a knock on the door the next morning. I get into my robe and open the door, to meet Professor Potsdam. She looks cheerful as always.
"Joyous morning to you, Elise", she chirps. "Good morning." She hands me our exam schedules and explains to me where to find the 'examination rooms'. After that she waves good bye and walks whistling to the next room. She really has such a cheerful nature; it's quite annoying sometimes.
After class I arrive in front of the door, which will certainly teleport me into the dungeon. I take a deep breath and touch the handle. As expected I find myself in a dark room, somewhere deep underground. A voice gives me the instructions, the source of the noise hidden. Jup, so far it's exactly the same as in the game.
I wonder, if I will land in a tree, if I attempt to teleport myself? Or will I simply fail? I haven't done so before, but I'm far enough in my blue classes to do a serious attempt. I decide to attempt teleportation, since I'm unable to do something else anyways… I wonder, how high the tree will be?
Blue magic envelopes me and a moment later I can see the blue sky in front of me. Wait, why can't I see any leaves or stuff like that? I look down and… see the ground, which I'm approaching faster by the second, since I didn't land in a tree, but – up high in the sky! I shriek, while falling down.
Suddenly Grabby appears beneath me and catches me. "Miss Ojousama, are you alright?", he asks me. He looks panicked, but soon composes himself. "I had not expected you to be capable of a full-body teleport at this stage. I should have given you better safety instructions. My apologies, Miss Ojousama.", he continues, while putting me down. A 'full-body-teleport'? Does that mean, I could have accidently only teleported a part of my body? Anyways, I'm really happy, that he caught me. "Ah, thank you, Sir. I'm alright…", I answer a bit flustered. "Indeed. You have succeeded with distinction. Ten merits to you." Nice.
"In future exams the dungeons will be warded to prevent exit by teleportation, so do not expect to replicate your success so easily." After he finished his sentence, Potsdam appears. "Hieronymus! Is everything alright?" "It's fine. You may go, Miss Ojousama." And with that I guess I aced my first exam. Well, maybe I didn't ace it, but close enough.
The next day I chatted with Virginia and Ellen about the exam, before we went to the mall, where William treated us to a cookie, in order to celebrate our first exam. Nice, I love sweets. The Sunday I spent mostly in the gym. Sport is really the only way to fight my boredom… at least I get fitter due to this.
On Monday morning Virginia asks us whether one of us want to run for treasurer. I hesitate. I kind of want to, since I'm really bored…
But maybe I shouldn't spend too much time with Grabiner. I'm already less afraid of him than at the beginning and want to get to know him, because I really enjoyed playing his route, however it could lead to unpleasant events. Such as getting forced to marry him. Although all I have to do is not rushing into the wards to save him, so I should be safe. About getting up early, I won't have much problems with that. I don't sleep well since coming here and often wake up way too early.
Nonetheless, I don't feel sleep-deprived. I'll think about it…
Like a shark having picked up the scent of blood in water, Virginia noticed my interest in the treasurer position and tried to persuade me to do it all the time the following week. This week I concentrate a bit more on green magic, while still also visiting the other magic classes. Then I go back to our room after classes on Monday, I witness Virginia and Ellen arguing over a box. Must be the 'cat poop'-box from Donald. He takes doing pranks quite seriously, doesn't he?
After I deliberated the whole week whether or not to run for treasure, I finally decide to do it on Friday. Then Virginia hears, that I decided to run for it in the evening, she is naturally overjoyed. After she left, in order to annoy Jacob about it, Ellen and I contemplate her strange enthusiasm.
I have to admit, if Virginia wants someone other than Jacob to do the job, she really should just run for herself, Ellen is definitely right about that.
I guess, Donald is also right about her being spoiled. While Ellen inquires my opinion about whether or not William would help us in our campaign for treasurer,
I can't help but tease her a bit about liking William, "Why so interested in William? You interested in him?" Of course she is, I wonder, if she will blush. "What? No!" Wow, your acting skills suck, Ellen. "Maybe." Thought so. She flops on her bed with a sight. "… Yes?"
I think about how to answer her. In the game the player had 3 possible choices:
1) There's nothing wrong with that 2) That's not a good idea and lastly 3) You can't have him, he's mine!
I really want to go with the third option, but then Ellen would naturally hate me, and I'm not insensible enough to tease a poor girl in unrequited love.
That being said, I think it's time to think outside of the box. Just to see, how the game would react. So neither it's a good idea, nor that's a bad idea.
"So, uh, what do you like about him?" "He's cute, he's responsible, he's a good student… but he is also popular, unfortunately." "Well, him being popular shouldn't matter, right?", I comment absent-mindedly. "But he could have every girl he wants!" Just because someone is popular, doesn't mean that everyone wants to be in a relationship with that someone though. No matter how popular you are, you could still get idol-zoned, couldn't you? Apart from the fact, that a person loved by all doesn't exist. "So?" "He never would want a girl like me. Guys want someone pretty, who like make up and dancing and pouts until she gets her way." That's quite the generalization she does here. I never wore make up in my past life, and still managed to get more than one boyfriend.
Well, I always had only one boyfriend at the time, of course, and in between my boyfriends was often quite the time gap, but hey, I WAS attractive to some, without make up, or behaving overly girly. Though my partners were all weirdos. I also doubt, that the girly girl Ellen is trying to describe would fit Grabby's taste.
Or William's. Or Donald's. I don't know about Damien's taste, he seems to like someone, who adores him, no matter what he does to this poor someone, but apart from that? To conclude, her statement is downright false. "Jenny is not even thirteen yet, and she already got boys chasing after her.", Ellen pouts. "Boys just think of me just as- a rock with hair! A useless fuzzy lump." That's some serious self-confidence issues she has here. But I guess that's part of puberty. Well, a lack of self-confidence definitely won't help with finding a partner, that's obvious. "William is nice. He would never… But he would never….", Ellen mutters.
Sigh. So the game interpreted my 'neither-supporting-nor-obstructing-attitude' as supporting, huh. Well, works for me. I refuse to tell her to go confess to him, when it's obvious, that her feelings are one-sided. I simply don't think, that that is really how love usually works. But then again, I might be just strange and different.
"Well, you should try to find out, what kind of feelings he has for you. He might or might not like you in that way. If he just sees you in a sister-type of light, you should give up, as you won't be able to change that" Trust me, I've been there. "But if he has romantic interest in you, then you can work with that and try to get closer to him." I hope, my advice will help Ellen a bit with overcoming her one-sided love, without hurting her feelings too much.
On Saturday I go to the mall with Ellen and play a few games in the arcade. Virginia also visits the mall, but spends more time in the food court, munching on sweets. I wonder how much Virginia would weight, if she wouldn't do sport. It's hard to tell, since muscles have a higher density than fat. When we come back to our dorm room, another box is lying in front of our door. Virginia immediately suspects another 'present' from her lovely brother, but as I know, that it is just apple cake from Damien, so I open it without hesitating. I decide to eat the cake together with my roommates, I don't want to get fat after all. And I love cake, so throwing it away would be too wasteful. Also it's good for getting closer. Ellen and Virginia are growing on me. Sure, they have their flaws, for example Virginia is extremely spoiled, but so do I, which is why not many people approached me in school. And I suck at approaching other people, so I usually only hung out with weird people – weird seems to be defined as 'normal' here, so I feel really comfortable here.