Chapter 41

A colloquium ended without further incidents. The teacher tried to one-up me, thinking I didn't know what they studied, but I came on top, solving everything without any problems.

One more lecture ended, and soon it was a lunch break.

"Jet want to grab a bite?"

"Yeah, I guess." he sighed while his lips pouted.

"Are you still angry? I said it already, I will help you with the student's guidance counselor, no worries." I patted my chest. "I can do at least this much."

"You know, Erlig, you seem awfully energetic today." Jet took his phone, and we went towards the canteen.

"You can say that it's an experiment of some kind."

"What kind?"

"I want to try and change a little bit. The way I act."

"Why?" Jet looked down.

"Why do you say that? I don't know myself, and it doesn't matter. C'mon Jet, stop being so down. Everything is going to be okay."

"Yeah, yeah."

"How about hanging out after school? Will it lift your mood a bit?"

"Hanging out?"

"We didn't do anything together for a long time, didn't we?"

After reaching the canteen, we took two trays and went towards the queue. Waiting for our turn to grab food.

"Hey, look at grown-up bois."

"They have probably married already, with how serious they are."

"Only if they are married to their right hands."

""Hahahaha.""

"Great." As we both Glanced back, we saw Reid's goons cackling between each other, trying to joke about us.

"Just ignore them." I tried to calm down Jet though I doubt he would suddenly start the fight. In fact, he only got more depressed listening to their talk.

"What else can I do?"

It was indeed unpleasant listening to two imbeciles talking shit about you. Yet there was nothing we could do. We took our food and started looking for a free table.

"Hey grown-ups, won't you share your food with us?"

"Yeah, sharing is caring, and who could be more caring than a full-fledged adult?"

Two boys that were probably of the same age as me and Jet. Though they looked tough, they still would lose to me in terms of height or physique. As for their looks…

Well, it was hard to see an ugly dude here, so they probably looked okay. One that was slightly taller had black hair that was gathered in braids and had his nose pierced. The other one had his blonde hair hanging loosely. Nevertheless, for me, they looked at most as two goons that would go after girls that were already dumped up but those higher in the social hierarchy.

They looked disgusting to me.

"Erlig…" Jet moved behind me.

So he wants me to handle this?

Looking at them, they were not as tough as those guys in my team. Yet they hung out with Reid, so they probably were stronger than they looked.

Usually, I tried to talk myself out of any problem. I wanted to do the same today, but the image of a fight from yesterday came to my mind. As well as what I said ten or so minutes before. I wanted to act differently.

Will I be able to handle the pressure?

I looked at the eyes of both of these guys, and two words flew almost by themselves.

"Fuck off." I turned around, "Let's go Jet," I jerked my head towards the table that got freed.

"Fuck off!? How about fuck you over!?" the shorter boy wanted to shove Jet, but I saw his movement.

As I turned around, I saw precisely what he wanted to do. Unlike those fighters that were harder to catch, this guy moved very slowly.

It took me less than a second to kick his leg and knock him down.

A second later, he fell face first while my tray didn't even shake.

"Hey, now you've done it!" The taller dude wanted to kick me in return. He probably thought that I wouldn't react in time.

However, I've seen this movement lots of times at training. Every time Patrice would try to do a low kick, I would try to catch it. Yet it was hard as he kicked hard and fast.

While this guy? He moved so slow that I managed to free one of my hands from the tray and catch his leg.

As he looked at me with his eyes round from surprise, I kicked his other leg making him fall down as well.

He crashed with a loud thud.

I thought I would feel fear from this. But somehow, the thing I did came out naturally. Nothing felt out of place. I thought I would feel the excitement from beating down some thugs, but I didn't feel even a shred of it. As I looked around, a small crowd looked at what was happening over here. What should I do with this?

I looked down at the goon squad.

"Fuck off."

And went away with Jet.

As we sat down, I started eating when I noticed that Jet wasn't eating at all.

"What's the matter?"

"Who are you?" Jet looked at me so hard that I almost choked.

"Cough, what do you mean?"

"How the hell did you beat up those guys? And in a few moves as well?"

"I train for the sake of such incidents."

"But you didn't even flinch. If something like this happened several months before, you would just walk away." Jet straightened up his back before leaning backward on his chair. "From where did you get all of this courage?"

"First of all, I knew they wouldn't really start a fight."

"Right, real fights are banned here." he slapped himself on the forehead.

"Secondly, I didn't flinch…" I remembered how Patrice taught me not to flinch or close my eyes. "I don't want to talk about this." I sighed. "It's just that they looked, especially, weak." I chewed on a bun. "I was at an advantage. That's why I acted."

As I continued eating, I looked at Jet, who sat still with his eyebrows furrowed deeply.

"Do you think I should start working out as well?"

"Cough-cough, how the hell did you come up with this idea?"

"Seriously, though, do you think I should join some sort of a self-defense club?"

As I looked at Jet's physique, I couldn't stop myself from shaking my head.

"What!?"

"Jet, you know, you have your own strength. You should play your cards around them."

"Sigh, whatever."

We quickly finished all of the food and hurried back to the classroom. Talking about what we should do after school.

As I lazily listened to the last lecture, I thought about what had happened. It didn't really make much sense as I acted too much out of character. Was it my reflexes acting up? Thinking like this, I didn't even notice how the lessons ended.

"Big guy, lets' go and have some fun." Jet clapped his hands two times. He ended up being an even more easy-going person than I thought.

"Hold your horses. We still should talk with the student's guidance counselor."

"Ah… damn it."

"But don't worry, I will handle this. You can wait for me near the front gates."

"Oh shit, big guy, you are a lifesaver." he almost went out before turning around abruptly. "Actually, I will wait for you near the back gates. It will be faster if we go from there."

"Whatever." I waved towards him and went towards the office that I knew well.

Knocking upon the door, I entered Violetta's office and carefully closed the door.

"Not even a greeting?"

A face showed up from behind the monitor. "Just get over whatever you want to do. I'm busy right now."

"And what if my business concerns you?" I started walking towards Violetta.

"Hah," she scowled, "Like you would come here with a different purpose." I heard the sound of fast typing and frequent mouse clicks.

As I walked behind the table, I saw a large number of different documents and tabulations. Looking at the sea of numbers, symbols, and text in general, I felt like I would get a headache.

"Didn't know you knew how to work." I looked at the monitor from behind her shoulder.

"Though I do know that you can't stop bothering me." she turned in her chair and looked straight into my eyes. "You should learn not to waste time." She tried to stand up, but I held her down.

"Alright then, listen well."

She languidly leaned sideways while fixing her glasses.

"You should be talking with a student, but I came in his stead."

She squinted her eyes.

I turned and walked towards the large window that replaced one of the walls.

"And I want you to make it so that this student won't have any problems."

"Going at such lengths for your friend, what a chivalrous guy you are." she snorted, turned back towards her table, and continued typing. "You shouldn't bother me with such trivial things. If it's all that you wanted, leave immediately."

Looking at her as she was silently typing something, going through the heaps of documents, I was struck by a sudden thought.

"Do you have a dream?"

The very same second I asked her, her hands stopped moving.

"What are you asking about?"

"I mean, you probably dream of getting rich? Maybe getting revenge on me?"

"The only thing I dream about is for you to leave." As she said this, she resumed her work while I turned back to the window, looking down at the school's territory.

"You know, I don't have a dream. And I don't have the balls to change my life abruptly. The only thing that I had enough courage to do was sleep with you." she stopped typing for a second. "Even though it was the only thing, half of it was your fault."

"…" her typing resumed.

"And right now, I'm aimlessly dragging my own life without a goal or dream, with no courage to take responsibility…" As I was getting off the trail, I saw something dangerous from behind the glass.

I couldn't quite make it from up here, what exactly was happening, but I had a hunch it was nothing good. Two guys were leading the third one, and it looked like it was against his will.

Jet?

As this thought flashed in my mind, I took off at my highest speed and started running towards the place those guys were heading over.

"HEY!" I heard Violetta's angered voice as I started quickly running through the corridors towards the stairway.

I didn't even know why I did it. Jet wasn't my friend. He was just someone I spent my time with. Someone I could use, he was useful that's why I tolerated him.

I didn't like fighting. Truth be told, I was scared of getting hurt. If someone was dragging Jet around, I didn't have any confidence in fighting them and winning.

I didn't like fighting before, but with the help of the team 'Brave and Bold,' I started changing. The fear of pain was gradually leaving me.

My legs were carrying me, and my heart started pounding crazily.

One, two, three, I ran from floor to floor in a second, cutting the distance by half. As I reached the ground level, I sped up towards the place I've seen them last time.

Trying not to hit other students, I made my way towards the back of the building. The back gates weren't used much. Though you could go through them if you want, most of the students still used front gates.

As I was running, I made sure to control my breathing.

Soon I saw three guys. Just like I thought, this group consisted of Jet and Reid's goons. The goons were pressing Jet against the wall and threatening him with something.

What to do?

In opposition to my mind, my body moved on its own. Lowering my speed for a fraction of a second, I threw my bag sideways and started aiming at one of the goons.

The distance between us was shrinking, and soon Jet noticed me, his face brightening up. Goons saw it as well and started turning around.

"Go away if you don't want to…"

The taller one tried to drive me away, but he didn't expect the next move.

When the distance between us shortened to a few steps, one of my legs bent more than I needed to run, and with much greater strength, it straightened up, sending me into the air.

My heart was pounding so hard that the only thing I could hear was the sound of a blood flow.

The thing that happened next looked like it came straight out of the movie, yet I was the hero right now. While I was still in the air, my other leg lifted sideways, and my feet connected with the face of the thug.

As I looked from the top, I saw how the face of this thug deformed as he stumbled backward and soon fell down.

The short thug looked at me with his eyes round from disbelief, and his mouth still opened. Though the distance between us was close, it was a bit longer than a few steps.

And I needed to cover it as fast as I could.

Accelerating once again, I closed the distance in the blink of an eye and flew once more. Yet this time, I put forward my knee. As I felt it connecting with my opponent, I started falling as well.

Inertia was so strong that I flew over the top of the short guy and fell on my back.

My heart was beating so hard that I thought it would pop out.

"What the hell have I done?" I couldn't stop myself from muttering this.

"Erlig, you…"

I sat up. Looking towards the first thug, he was lying down with his eyes rolled back. And the second thug was lying near me in the same condition. I felt like I was grinning right now.

"Erlig, you!"

I barely stood up with my hands and legs quivering like crazy.

"ERLIG, YOU FUCKING KNOCKED THEM OUT!?"

I tore my gaze from the guys that were lying down on earth. Jet was sitting on his butt, staring at me like I was some kind of criminal.

"I don't know why I did this Jet, my body just moved on its own." I extended my hand to lift him up. "I thought that you might be in danger, and before I could understand anything, I ended up lying on the ground."

"Do you think we will be in trouble?" he dusted off his clothes.

"Yeah, if we stay here. We got to go." I quickly went toward my bag and picked it up. As I did it, my gaze landed on the particular window on top of the main building.