Hey people-o's! Sorry for the lateness of this post but I've been pretty busy with schoolwork and such. However, now that I have an easy semester, I can happily say that I am able to post just a tidbit more often than not, so yay! I hope you guys enjoy this chapter and expect an update for Fitz and the Fox soon because I really do want to bring that book to an end. But yeah without further ado, here is chapter 10!
Sophie staggered on her feet, clutching Biana's sleeve just in time to indicate her friend that she was about to fall. The brunette quickly steadied her, looking at her with concern. "Sophie? You okay? What happened?" She asked but Sophie could only shake her head, breathing out a breath of pure stupor. Her eyes scanned wildly for that hint of teal that she managed to catch a glimpse of earlier, and was distraught when she couldn't find them again. Feeling Biana shaking her shoulders, Sophie finally snapped out of it enough to turn her attention back towards her friend. "It was him," she breathed out, not even bother bing to fix the fallen strand of hair that fell in front of her face. Biana's eyes widened, realizing what she was talking about. "Are you sure," she whispered, her grip on Sophie's shoulders tightening just slightly. She could tell that Biana was trying not to get drunk hopes up. Sophie nodded vigorously. "Yes, I'm sure of it. Teal eyes, exactly like yours," she proclaimed. Biana looked back to where Sophie was staring, an emotion in her eyes that was hard for the blonde to decipher. It quickly fell to disappointment before she could. "Look Sophie, maybe you just saw someone else—" Biana started, her eyes downcast, but Sophie cut her off, shaking her head. "No, I swear it was him. Only you two have teal eyes that bright," she insisted.
Once again did Biana fight down her rising hope, and swallowed loudly. She was silent for a moment before letting out a sigh. "Alright look, we can tell the others about this later, but right now the coaches will kill us if we don't go over there and start "sparring,"" she air quoted the last word secretly. "Let's just go, okay?" Sophie sighed, obviously upset, but nodded anyways as she knew Biana had a solid point. The last thing they needed was to get in trouble with the coaches again, especially herself. She had a feeling that the coaches were on the near edge of being done with her.
"Hey, what was with the delay?" Keefe asked as the two girls approached him and Dex. They two glanced between each other before shrugging. "We'll tell you after," she assured them, placing a hand on Keefe's shoulder. He and Dex gave them slight suspicious looks, but thankfully shrugged it off as the blue coach began to speak. "Review with your partners the basic block-defense, reflective and offensive techniques from earlier on in the week. Once done, go into a spar but remember to use those techniques," he instructed, "you may begin." With that said, the Waywards began to fight. Sophie couldn't help but since as she observed the other students fight while she practiced the blocks with Biana. They were very rough with each other—whether it was guy and guy, girl and girl, or guy and girl, they never went easy on one another. She flinched as she saw one boy hammer kick a girl backwards and laugh about it, only for the girl to stand up and put him in a painful looking headlock. At another corner of the room, two girls had completely given up the sparring techniques and resorted to jut plain old wrestling instead, viciously clawing and punching at each other as they rolled around on the ground. The red coach walked calmly by then. None of the other Waywards or coaches seemed to care that they were hurting each other. Maybe they wanted it to happen. Sophie felt herself shudder at the thought. These people were brutal.
She continued to watch in horror as two boys basically tried to kill each other, only to be knocked over completely as Biana landed a punch to her shoulder—a punch that she accidentally forgot to block. Biana gasped, covering her mouth with her hands, as she quickly went over to help her friend up. "Sophie I am so, so sorry, I really didn't mean that!" She apologized hastily as she helped Sophie to her feet. The girl just shook her head. "Biana it's definitely not your fault, it's mine: I was distracted and I didn't block it," she reasoned with her, giving her a small smile to assure her that it was okay—even though her shoulder throbbed slightly now; but that was only because Sophie was incredibly terrible in hand-to-hand combat. Other Waywards seemed to notice that too, as a couple of girls started to laugh about how it only took a punch to the shoulder to get her to the ground, and a few boys mock her from afar, witnessing the epic failure that she had displayed. Sophie fought the urge to try and hide behind her hair. More ridicule—just great.
"Hey blondie, if someone blows on you, will you fall over from that too?" One of the boys ask her tauntingly, causing a steady laughter to flow through the room. The only ones who weren't laughing were the coaches, who were observing with indifference, Tam and Linh, who were giving her a sympathetic look, her friends, who were glaring angrily at the mockery, and strangely enough, one other kid. But they had their hood up so Sophie couldn't observe who they were.
"Hey loudmouth—back off," Biana snapped at the boy, walking over to Sophie's side protectively. "Yeah, shut up pal, or I'll make it happen," Keefe threatened, a dark and angry look in his eye as both he and Dex went towards her as well. Beside the boy, a red haired girl smirked. "Aw, the poor girl needs her little friends to protect her, how sweet," she sneered, snickering along with the others. Biana glared and opened her mouth to say something, but Dex spoke first. "Yeah, she's sweet; really sweet, actually," he said with a gentle shrug, "considering how she hasn't moved to pummel you to the ground yet." Beside him, Keefe chuckled and Biana smirked, crossing her arms and arching an eyebrow at the rude girl, who scoffed at her. "Oh please—I know who she is; she's a Vacker. The little princess would never be able to fight, she'd cry too much if one of her dainty little nails broke in the process," she laughed, with the others joining in with her. Keefe laughed too—but not for the same reason. Instead, he slowly started to fall into hysterical laughter, causing the offenders to die down their own and give him a strange look. Wiping an imaginary tear from his eye, Keefe grinned at them, shaking his head almost pitifully. "Man, are you in for a harsh reality," he said to the red haired girl, continuing to snicker to himself. The girl frowned at him as Biana looked like she was ready to literally murder the girl. Sophie glanced between the two uneasily. She had a real bad feeling about this.
"Guys, I—" she started, but the boy who'd made the comment from earlier walked to the front and sneered at Keefe. "Why don't ya shut up, you loser?" He snarled, before a wicked grin curled up onto his lips. "Or should I say, PANTS loser." Loud laughter erupted through the crowd and Keefe felt his cheeks heat up slightly. Angered, Biana stepped forward towards the guy. "Leave him alone," she said, only to have the red haired girl walk up into her personal space. "And what are you gonna do about it, Miss rich thing?" She mocked her, shoving her backwards. Biana narrowed her eyes, looking very close to going beast mode on her, but before Sophie could intervene, somebody else did for her: "Being a little shit again, Abrey?" Though her eyes hardened, Abrey's stature immediately stiffened at the sound of the monotone voice that was distinctly familiar to Sophie. The figure with their hood up that had not laughed before came up towards the two girls. As he turned around, Sophie caught sight of navy blue eyes and gasped—it was Aver.
Abrey glared at him, though fear was definitely seen in her eyes. Behind them, the crowd took a few steps back. Sophie wondered why everyone was so afraid of him. "Butting into things that don't concern you, Aver?" She snapped back at him. He simply arched an eyebrow at her before a tiny smirk tugged onto his lips. "It's what i do best," he said, the smirk turning into a grin. He looked at Biana, then to Dex, then to Keefe, and then finally, at Sophie. His eyes lingered on hers for a little while, before the side of his lips quirked up into a knowing small smile before tearing his attention back to Abrey, the smile diminishing instantly and all playfulness on his face vanished completely. "Leave them alone," he ordered in a stone cold voice that made everyone shiver—even Tam. Abrey completely gave up trying to be brave and gulped, throwing one last glare at Biana before backing away from her. But not surprisingly, the other boy took her place. "What, you think you run this place, Aver?" He hissed, getting up into his personal space. "You ain't top shit around here—so when you try and tell people what to do, consequences can happen." Cracking his knuckles, he stepped even closer into the small boy's space. Aver just looked blankly at him, eyeing him as if he were looking at air. "...If you wanna punish me, Myrius, all you need to do is breathe again. Your breath is deadly enough to kill trees," he stated plainly.
Most of the Waywards laughed at this, causing Myrius' face to go red in both anger and embarrassment. Growling, he made to lunge towards Acer, but Sophie found herself between the two before any damage could be done. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on," she said, standing in front of Aver almost protectively. She didn't really know why she was acting like this—after all, she barely knew this kid, and she didn't really have a plan in mind about how she was going to approach this. But once again, her feet decided to move without informing her brain, forcing her into another sticky situation. Myrius just glared at her and she gulped slightly, looking up at the auburn haired boy behind her. He simply looked back down at her, eyebrow arched in mild curiosity and amusement. Puffing out a breath, Sophie turned to face Myrius. "Look, can't we just all calm down about this?" She asked—well, more like pleaded—with the two. Unfortunately for her, it wasn't that easy. Once again did Abrey step up in front of Myrius and got right up into Sophie's personal space, making the girl to walk back as far as she could until she backed up against Aver's chest inadvertently.
However, the red haired girl didn't give her much time to be embarrassed. "And what will you do if we don't?" She asked challengingly, smirking at her. When Sophie couldn't come up with a reply, the girl barked out a mocking laugh. "That's what I thought, freak," she sneered before shoving her to the floor. Sophie tumbled over, bracing herself for the impact of the cool, stone floor, but it never came. As quick as lightning seemingly, did Aver reach out his hand, grab her arm and straighten her before Sophie could even comprehend it herself. Swallowing down her surprise, she went to thank him, but was distracted by the commotion going on beside them. "Hey—watch it, pal," Biana snapped at Abrey, stepping towards her. The other girl just smirked and planted her hands on her hips as she stalked towards her. "Or what?" She asked, before moving to shove Biana to the ground—however, before she could do so, the Vacker girl grabbed both of her arms and delivered a sharp kick to her chest, sending Abrey at least five feet back away from her. The girl wheezed, clutching her chest in pain on the floor as Biana merely arched her eyebrow at her. "That's what," she stated simply, crossing her arms in front of her chest.
Internally, Sophie groaned. This was exactly what she didn't want to happen. Not that she wasn't proud of Biana, she was extremely proud of her for standing her ground (plus she acted out in self defence), but now this would prompt the others to act out as well. Her predictions were clarified as Myrius angrily moved towards Biana, ready to strike out at her, but Keefe got there first. "Hey man, back off," he said, pushing him a little bit away from Biana. The boy sneered at him before roughly grabbing him by the scuff of his shirt. "Would you rather it be you, blondie?" He hissed, fully ready to punch Keefe in the face. "Keefe!" Sophie called out frantically, moving to help aid him, but she soon realized she didn't need to—once again moving like the Flash, Aver was by Myrius' side in a millisecond, holding his arm in a tight, painful looking grip. "Let go of him," he commanded in a darker tone than his usual one. He really didn't need to tell him that though, as Myrius looked close to releasing Keefe anyways because of the pain now acquired in his other arm. Yelling out a poignant cry, he quickly released the boy, sighing in relief when Aver released his arm right after.
Myrius rubbed his sore arm, glaring viciously at Aver, although fear was clearly detected in his eyes. "You'll pay for that," he growled out angrily. "I'll get you so good for that one Aver, I swear." The boy in question rolled his eyes at the boy's rather pathetic threat. "I'm sure you will," he murmured, waving his hand dismissively in his direction. Myrius clenched his jaw and started to walk menacingly in Aver's direction when the coaches approached them, finally tuning in on the situation. "Is there a problem here?" the blue coach asked, eyebrow raised questioningly. Myrius and Abrey opened their mouths, but were cut off by Aver, who merely shrugged his shoulders. "I don't believe so," he replied calmly, "at least, not anymore." he looked over to the two instigators. "Right?" he asked, his tone masking a hint of threat.
Both of the two closed their mouths almost instantly, though it didn't stop them from shooting the auburn haired boy a dirty look. "Everything's fine, sir," Abrey said coolly, still eyeing Aver with hate. The coaches nodded and loomed back to their previous seats, and as soon as they were out of ear shot, Abrey snarled at Biana. "You got lucky," she hissed at her. "Next time, you better watch your back." Biana didn't say anything—she just continued to look at the girl with disgust. Myrius, on the other hand, glared deeply at Aver but made no threatening moves as he sulked back to his group of cronies with Abrey close behind her. "Hey, thanks dude," Keefe said to Aver, patting him on the shoulder. The boy merely shrugged but deep inside his dark eyes, Sophie noticed a simmer of what seemed to be fondness, so slight, she wasn't sure if it was even there in the first place. But she could never tell with Aver; he was amazing at hiding his emotions, so well, that she doubted even empaths like Keefe could detect them without having a bit of a struggle. That was just the way he seemed to be.
Her friends, whom had started to walk back to their previous spots, noticed Sophie was lagging behind. "Sophie, you coming?" Keefe called back to her and thats when she realized that she had been zoning out into space. She turned back around to face him. " I'll be over in a minute," she told them. Her friends shrugged an continued to walk, all talking amongst one another. Probably about Aver. "…Yes?" Speak of the devil. Sophie turned her face to look up at him; he was facing the opposite direction of her, yet he still sensed her presence. Odd. Sophie shook out of her thoughts, reminding herself to stay focused at the task at hand. "Why do you keep helping me?" she blurted out involuntarily, cringing as she heard the words leaving her mouth. Shoot. She really didn't mean to say that. It sounded like she was ungrateful for all of his help.
However, Aver didn't seem to mind. Still not turning to face her, he spoke. "Well, he would do it himself, but then you'd know where he is," he murmured, shoving his hands into his pockets. Sophie didn't need him to elaborate on the identity of the "he" he was referring to. She sighed in frustration, moving to stand beside him. Man, this boy was tall. Her head didn't even reach his shoulder. "If you really wanted to help me, you'd tell me where Fitz is," she countered. she heard Aver elicit a sigh himself. "It's not that easy," his mentioned voice reached her ears. "Even if I wanted to seek him out first, I couldn't; the boy's very low-profile. Whenever we talk, which is not often mind you, he comes to me—not the other way around." Sophie sighed, knowing exactly what Aver was talking about. Fitz was always so good at being inconspicuous. "If you want my opinion, stop trying. You're never going to be able to find him unless he wants to be found," Aver told her. Sophie lightly rolled her eyes. As if she didn't know this already. After all, she's known Fitz much longer than he has. He's stubborn—incredibly so.
But unfortunately for him, Sophie is too.
If Fitz isn't gonna give-up, then neither is she.
"Well it's a good thing I didn't want your opinion then," she said simply before turning on her heel to join her friends.
Behind her, she could've sworn she heard a soft, breathy chuckle moving faintly in the air.
AAAAANNNNNND that's all! I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and I also want to take them to say thank you for all the lovely reviews! So what do you guys think of Aver? I read a few disappointed comments saying that they don't really like him because he's kind of like a replacement for Fitz. Well, do not fear my amazing people! He is most certainly NOT a replacement of Fitz. MORE GOOD NEWS! The next chapter will be a Fitz pov chapter! YAY!
Some things will also be revealed there in time, hehe. You guys are going to learn a little more about Fitz and what he thinks of his friend's attendance at exillium. This chapter will be shorter than the rest so I would expect it sooner than later. And I actually mean it this time so yeah.
But anyways, don't forget to review this stuff, tell me all ya thoughts! I must go but until next time!
-Someonewhodoesntcare.