Chapter 36
The following day during lunch Ace slapped down a flier onto the table. "Look at this!" He exclaimed.
It was a flier for the VDC auditions.
"It says the prize is 5 million thumarks." Deuce half shouted.
"Divided among the 5 of us that's a million each." Grim said wagging his tail.
"I don't know, I've never even heard the song they want you to audition to." Odette said pointing at the bottom where the poster said all auditions must perform Piece of my World.
"Seriously, it was such a big hit last year." Ace said as he sat down.
"It's a good pop song, there's a dance. It doesn't look hard. We can show you videos of it after class." Deuce explained.
Odette just nodded and muttered. "A million thumarks is a lot of money. Nothing venture nothing gain."
"Yeah, that's the right attitude. We can totally go see Rook once we're done with lunch." Ace cheered.
"I guess." She sighed.
Once they were done they headed to the 3-A classroom. "Which one is Rook?" Deuce asked as they looked around the half empty room.
"I don't know." Ace confessed.
"What do you mean you don't know?!" Grim exclaimed.
"What are you idiots doing here?" Leona asked as he leaned on wall.
"Hi Leona, we're looking for Rook Hunt." Odette said as she kept looking around that room.
"Why are you looking for that blonde weirdo?" Leona scoffed.
She then spotted the only blonde in the room and walked up to him as the group chatted with Leona. "Good afternoon are you Mr. Rook Hunt?" She asked as she got close to his desk.
Rook Hunt was easily more of the most handsome guys she had seen at Night Raven College. His blonde hair was cut in a shoulder length blonde and was wearing a flamboyant hat. His green eyes sparkled as he looked her over.
"Oui Mademoiselle, are you looking to audition?" He asked as he held up an audition form.
'French? I wasn't expecting french.' Odette thought. "Yes there's a group of us." She said as she took the form from him.
"Then please list everyone in your group in the final section." Rook explained as she began to fill out the form.
Once she was done the rest of the group caught up with her. "Wow that was quick." Ace said as she handed the form back to Rook.
"Audition will be handle on Friday at the Pomefiore dorm after class." Rook explained as he smiled up at Odette.
"Thank you. Have a nice day Rook." She said smiling back at him and headed back out to the hallway with the group.
"Flirting again?" Ace teased.
"I wasn't flirting I was just being polite." Odette said rolling her eyes. "Let's head to class."
The grouped headed towards the potion class cutting across the courtyard when they heard beautiful singing.
They group slowly made their way towards the singing until suddenly it turned sour and stopped. The group found Epel Felmier. He had been singing into the well. Even in the school uniform he was still pretty with his violet hair and blue eyes. He did dress up the uniform with a high lace collar and bow making it look fancier.
"Why are you singing by a well?" Grim asked as he floated up to Epel scaring him.
"Grim, don't be so rude." Odette scolded.
"You're Epel right?" Deuce asked as the group walked up yo him.
"Yes, and you're Ace, Deuce, Odette, and Grim right?" Epel asked pointing to each of them.
"I see you know of your reputation." Grim boasted.
"That might not be a good thing." Odette sighed.
Does your dorm have a rule about singing around wells?" Ace asked.
"I think only our dorm has weird rules." Deuce muttered.
"I'm singing by the well to hear myself better. My Dorm Leader Vil told me to. I'm auditioning for the VDC. " Epel explained.
"Oh that's awesome. From what I heard earlier I think you have a shot." She smiled at him.
"Thank you, I want to sing a beautiful song for the competition." Epel smiled back. "I do wish it would disappear through." He whispered mostly to himself but a few of them still hear him.
"Why are you wasting your time talking to these pigeons when you should be practicing?" A voice scolded from behind them.
The voice belonged to Vil Schoenheit. His beautiful face was scowling at them. He was tall and impeccably dressed. His blonde hair ended in lavender tips. His light purple eyes were intense as they moved from one person to the other.
"It's Vil Schoenheit, he's so proper and powerful." Deuce whispered.
"I think his legs are longer than yours." Grim whispered to Odette as he hid behind her.
"Well he is taller than us." She shot back at him.
'He may be pretty but I can feel the arrogance from here.' She thought. 'Why do I feel like I've seen that kind of look before. Like he's sizing us up.'
"Epel doesn't have time to waste on unwashed potatoes like you. He needs to practice. You shouldn't be disturbing him." Vil scolded them now.
"What did you call us?" Grim growled.
"What's your problem?" Ace snapped.
"We didn't disturb him." Odette said holding Grim back.
"It's not their fault." Epel said stepping in-between the Vil and the group his country accent slipping a bit.
"I've told you before to speak properly. You can't let your emotions take control. You can't act on them, otherwise you'll never earn the title of Poison Red Apple. We're leaving Epel." Vil said taking to leave.
"No I don't want to." Epel protested.
Vil raised an eyebrow as he turn back around. He took a step closer to Epel and said barely above a whisper. "Don't you remember what you promised." Epel paled at this.
"Hey if he said he doesn't want to go he doesn't have to." Ace said stepping up next to him.
"That's right!" Grim snapped.
"Guys we shouldn't be picking fights." Odette reminded them. 'Even if I do want to punch him in his pretty face.' She thought.
"I'll be fine guys but thank you." Epel said taking a step away from the group.
"Mh, you have some guts to challenge me like that. I could use some light exercise after lunch. I'll turn you into a mashed potato." Vil smirked as he stepped back and got into a defensive stance.
Vil beat Ace with a few well placed long legged kicks. He was quick and graceful. "You're slow and sloppy. 5/100. Give me a better fight next time." Vil huffed. "Let's go Epel."
"I'm sorry. This is my fault." Epel said looking sad.
"Oh, I'm the bad guy now? Yes this is your fault, you're the one who skipped out on your lessons during the break and now have to make up for it. You'll have to do much more to make it into the finals of the VDC. You can't take the easy way out." Vil reprimanded leaving.
"Sorry again." Epel whispered then jogged after Vil.
"Man that guy pisses me off!" Ace snapped glaring after him.
"Same here." Grim growled. "And Epel went with him anyway!"
"He does seem like a jerk." Odette muttered.
"You need to stop picking fights. If House Warden Riddle finds out it'll be off with your head again." Deuce sighed shaking his head.
Odette turned around and looked around as Deuce healed Ace.
"What's wrong?" Grim asked following her glance.
"Just a feeling, like someone's watching us. Did you feel it?" She asked.
"Kinda, not really." Grim confessed.
'I do have a bit of that bad feeling too.' She thought as looked around. 'I wonder who it's coming from this time. Is it starting again already? A week into the new semester?'
"I don't think I've seen you that mad before." Ace said pulling her attention back to them.
"I've never been good with bullies and he's kinda a bully." She sighed.
"Come on let's get to class now." Deuce sighed.
After class the group met up at the gym after warming up Deuce and Ace show Odette and Grim the dance. "That doesn't seem too hard." Grim scoffed.
"Yeah let's do this." Odette exclaimed.
"Why are they so pumped up now?" Ace asked.
"I think they've found a better reason beside money to compete." Deuce smirked.
"Ah I get it. Let's win this then Epel won't have to suffer anymore." Ace smiled.
The group practiced a few times and finally seemed to be getting the moves down when Kalim and Jamil showed up.
"Well if it isn't the Scarabia Duo." Odette huffed.
"Please don't give us weird nicknames. You're starting to sound like Floyd." Jamil remarked.
"Are you guys here to practice too?" Ace asked.
"Yup, the cultural festival is like a big party and the VDC is like the dance floor of it. I want to give it my all." Jamil smiled. "We're both really good at dancing, you guys are stomping around like elephants."
"Ouch." Deuce muttered.
"Yeah, I would agree I've seen Jamil teaching Floyd at basketball club. Maybe you could teach us a few things?" Ace asked.
"Jamil is great at teaching he can teach anyone anything." Kalim said.
"Don't volunteer me for things but teaching you will be a good refresher for me so sure I'll teach you." Jamil sighed.
After a few more rounds of the routine the group was looking much better. "Deuce you need to relax more, you're too stiff." Jamil said then showed Deuce how to do a move smoother.
"Oh okay." Deuce muttered trying to copy him.
"You can't think, you have to feel it." Jamil said flowing into the next move and Deuce followed him.
"It's getting kinda late maybe we should stop for the night to get dinner." Grim whined.
"Thanks for helping us today. I feel like we learned a lot in a short time." Odette said.
"You've improved some. Once you got the rhythm down you're not half bad. You just might make the audition if you keep practicing." Jamil said. "But remember dancing is only half of it. You still need to be able to sing."
"Are you guys going to be here again tomorrow? Jamil is also a great singer." Kalim asked as he toweled himself off.
"Stop making plans for me." Jamil snapped.
"I don't see what the big deal is singing in front of people is? We'll have to do it at the audition and if we make it at the VDC as well so we might as well start now and it's more fun." Kalim countered.
"If you're going to be here again tomorrow would you mind helping us again?" Deuce asked.
"Fine but don't think I'll go easy on you." Jamil sighed.
"That fine by me." Deuce grinned.
"We're used to Spartan training. Our dorm head is very strict." Ace chuckled.
"Well let's clean the gym before we go." Jamil said as he headed for the cleaning supply closet.
"Ah, Jamil there you are." Azul said as he waltzed in a few minutes later.
Jamil looked annoyed that Azul was there. "Why are you here Azul?" Jamil asked.
"You're the class rep tomorrow and Mr. Trein asked me to come find you to help with tomorrow's hand outs." Azul explained.
"You look like you ate a lemon, is it because Azul exposed you on live stream?" Grim asked.
"Do you think someone as kind-hearted as me would stoop so low to expose my fellow classmate like that?" Azul asked his voice sounded faked wounded.
"Yes." Jamil answered point blank.
"If you have to say it, it's probably not true." Grim grumbled.
'Even Grim get it.' Odette thought.
"I was actually only on the phone with Jade." I don't destroy my enemies unnecessarily, unlike Leona. Why would I reveal secrets I did all that work to get?" Azul asked making the entire group sigh at him.
'He's still holding a grudge.' She thought. "I don't know if I should be impressed or disgusted." She muttered.
"I hate to admit it but because of Azul's mercy my family and the Asim family never fought out about my overblot." Jamil sighed.
"How are things going for you now?" Odette asked.
"They're not happy I'm still Vice House Warden but Kalim defended me and reminded them I've help them all in the past." Jamil explained.
"All your good deeds can be undone with one mistake." Odette sighed.
"What?" Jamil asked raising an eyebrow.
"It something from my world. Or the clean version of it. Now you'll just have to show them you're not such a bad guy." She explained.
"Not such a bad guy?" Jamil asked.
"I wouldn't call you a good guy but not a bad guy neither. I guess we'll see." She shrugged.
"We should all really get going if we want to get dinner." Grim whined.
"He's right. Let's go eat. See you guys tomorrow." Ace said as he headed out the door towards the cafeteria.
"See ya tomorrow." Kalim called after them giving a small wave as he followed Jamil and Azul out of the gym.
Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed the chapter. I unfortunately broke my daily upload schedule due to my internet going out. I'm not sure what happened because it was my entire apartment complex. So sorry for the two day break. I did need it because I lost a week's worth of chapters because I decided after I typed it all out I just wanted to summarize it. I'm still trying to derail myself from this main story and get to the love story I've trying to write. Thanks for sticking around. I hope you continue. There will be more Diasomnia involvement in this arc once it gets going.