NOVEL FROG Chapter 12: Heat of the Moment
Chapter 12: Heat of the Moment
“I’m back!” Kaede came rushing up to us, carrying two packets of takeaway food. Upon noticing Scarlette’s relaxed expression, her face lightened up as well. “Feeling better now?” she asked.
“Yeah, thanks for the food,” Scarlette accepted gratefully. At the same time, thunder boomed in the distance, and it started to drizzle.
“Oh no, we gotta get indoors or the food will get wet!” exclaimed Kaede.
“I got it.” I activated my Ability, I manipulated the kinetic energy in the raindrops, deflecting them away from us. “You can eat in peace now.”
Scarlette still stood up. “Thanks Cadel, but I don’t wanna trouble you anymore. Besides, I could use some alone time right now. I mean the good kind of alone time though! I just wanna lay on my bed,” she laughed. “Don’t worry, you guys can text me if you wanna check in.”
“You sure?” Kaede asked cautiously.
“Yup! I really do feel better now after confiding with the both of you.”
We started walking in the direction of our dormitory, my Ability still sheltering us.
“So uh Cadel,” Scarlette started.
“Yeah?” I looked at her.
“I think I could er… use a little bit of your help… Cus’ if I wanna get stronger, I gotta get some practice right? I was hoping maybe you could help me with that?” she asked shyly. She walked with her head down, arms behind her back.
“Hmm? Yeah of course.” I replied. “When though?”
“Maybe tomorrow? If you’re free.”
I saw Kaede tense up a bit. That was a bit of a problem. I decided to let Scarlette know of my plans. “Sorry, I was planning to visit the cinema with Kaede tomorrow, and have a training session with her after.”
“Huh? Oh. That’s fine, we could do it another day then.” Her voice was laced with disappointment.
Kaede was being oddly quiet. Maybe she was feeling guilty? She finally spoke up, “Actually, it’s fine Cadel. I don’t mind Scarlette joining us tomorrow, if you don’t mind either, of course.”
I was fine with anything. I was just about to agree when Scarlette interrupted.
“There’s no rush, I wouldn’t wanna interrupt you guys. Maybe sometime next week, Cadel? I don’t wanna take up your Sunday as well. You should have a day’s rest at least,” she stated.
Right as she finished her sentence, she reached over and poked Kaede in the side.
Kaede yelped, flinching. “Ow! What was that for?!”
“Don’t think I don’t know what you’re up to~” Scarlette said with a smirk.
Kaede blushed. “It’s not what you think,” she stammered.
I watched the two girls squabble. I didn’t understand what they were babbling about, but I appreciated Scarlette leaving my Sunday free. Rest was important, and I didn’t want to overwork myself unnecessarily in the first week. It would have been hard to turn her down had she asked.
Shortly after, we reached the dormitory. I parted ways with the girls and headed up. Once I washed up, I started getting to work on my assignments until my eyes started closing. “What another eventful day,” I thought as I crashed into my bed. I made a brief check on my phone, noting that Scarlette had apologised and let our team’s group chat know that she was feeling better, to the relief of not only Mira and Jonah, but also Kaede and me.
The morning sun beamed its way into my room. It was my first weekend at Waning Crescent Academy, and I would be spending it up and about. I had agreed to meet Kaede at 10 AM, so I still had some time. I browsed the Net and the school website for any updates and developments in technological advancement, most notably any involving time manipulation. Once again, there was nothing of note— but I did come across something else that was interesting though. It was promoting a new device called the DreamPod, which boasted Mixed Reality gaming features.
Last I remembered, Mixed Reality, or MR for short, was a combination of Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR). Such technologies have been around for quite some time now. The article I was reading was saying something about incorporating esper abilities into the system, which seemed fascinating. We didn’t have anything that advanced yet. I had to leave any further research up to late though, as I had to start getting ready to meet Kaede.
I put on a random casual outfit and made my way downstairs to find Kaede already waiting for me. She was dressed in an oversized shirt with track pants, with her signature lavender-coloured hair tied in a ponytail. Come to think of it, it was my first time seeing her outside of her school uniform. We started walking.
“Sleep well last night?” she asked.
“Yup, any preferences for breakfast?” I replied. It was unfortunate, but the cafeteria wasn’t open on weekends. Usually, we had to buy something from one of the food outlets scattered around the campus, but since we were heading to the mall today, we could just get something from there.
Kaede thought for a bit before replying. “I was thinking of grabbing some doughnuts?” she suggested.
“Sure,” I agreed. We continued making idle chatter on the way to the mall. Upon arrival, I noticed the mall was packed with students, more so than usual. After a long queue for the doughnuts, we headed up to catch the 11 AM screening of the movie. It was fortunate we managed to snag two bookings for the movie last night, because I was sure it was gonna be a full crowd.
There was still a bit of time before the theatre opened. As we waited outside the cinema, I spotted a familiar face in the crowd. She seemed to spot me at the same time as well.
“Hey! Cadel! How’s it going?!” Colleen rushed over, leaving her own group of friends.
I haven’t seen Colleen in person since the bus ride to school, and we had barely texted recently.
“I’m fine,” I acknowledged. “And yourself?”
“I’m doing great! Is this your friend?” Collen asked, smiling at Kaede, who was standing awkwardly.
“Yes, I’m Kaede, nice to meet you,” Kaede introduced herself, bowing slightly.
“I’m Colleen, a pleasure to meet you too! Are you guys here for ‘The Agent’s Shadow’ as well? I’ve heard good things about it.”
“Yup,” I replied. “I hope the facilities are good.”
Colleen winced. “Err… yeah. Anyway, my friends are waiting. Catch you another time!” she waved as she left.
“A friend of yours?” Kaede asked.
I nodded. “I met Colleen on the bus on the way to school on the first Orientation Day. She’s from the Research Division.”
Kaede’s expression shifted slightly. “Sounds like you two get along really well.”
“She’s a good friend. I haven’t really been talking to her lately though, with how busy last week has been,” I said, taking a bite out of my doughnut.
“Mhm,” Kaede mumbled. She took a bite out of her doughnut as well. “Oh hey, we can enter the theatre now.”
Students were now queuing up to enter the cinema. We followed suit, quickly polishing off our doughnuts and got in line. Once we scanned our ID cards, we entered the theatre.
It was what you would expect of a school theatre. It was of decent size, but the walls and interior furnishings were a bit worn and shabby. There were bits of popcorn on the floor; I guess the cleaning crew had only put in a half-hearted effort. Still, it met all the requirements for enjoying a movie in a theatrical setting.
After a short wait, the screen flickered to life. Despite the less-than-perfect surroundings, I was still able to enjoy the movie to a respectable extent. Kaede was rather quiet the whole time. Well, she was just displaying proper cinema etiquette. I wondered if she was enjoying the movie.
Before we knew it, the credits were rolling.
“Man, that was good!” Kaede exclaimed. “I’m like all hyped up now. What did you think?”
“It was great. The build-up was good, and the climax where the protagonist saved his wife from the bad guys was satisfying. It was a great story all around.”
“Right? I’m glad we watched it,” she continued. “It’s lunchtime now, wanna have a meal at the food court?”
“Sounds good,” I replied. There were many cheap options there. I also observed that Kaede was uncharacteristically animated. However, that thought would have to be put on hold.
We exited the theatre only to hear excited shouting and loud murmurs from the students throughout the mall. I looked in the direction of the kerfuffle, curious to identify the cause. It seemed like there was a large crowd gathered in the foyer. I squinted my eyes.
There were two youths facing off. Behind one of these youths stood a group of students. The most jarring feature was the butter-coloured blazers they were wearing. From my vantage point, I could see the logo of a rising sun peeking over a mountain emblazoned on their backs. The school logo for Horizon High Academy.
The two schools in District 4: Waning Crescent Institute and Horizon High. From what I heard, there was a fierce rivalry between the two of them. Our school would do battle with them during the inter-school games every year, in order to decide the chosen few from both schools to represent District 4 for the inter-District games.
“Spencer!” I heard Kaede gasp.
I refocused my attention on one of the youths. Now that Kaede had mentioned it, he did seem to resemble the pudgy boy from our class. The pressure in my blood rose slightly. More importantly, if the Horizon group had dared to start an argument with our students in our territory, they must be somewhat powerful.
“Come, I wanna see what’s going on,” I urged Kaede, brisk walking to the escalator.
“Yeah, let’s go,” she readily obliged.
Now that we were on the ground floor, I could hear them more clearly.
A muscular, Horizon High student with a golden crew cut appeared to be needling Spencer. The latter was dressed in casual clothes but it was clearly him.
“I told you to apologise, and we’ll leave in peace,” Golden Hair sneered.
“You were the one who bumped into me!” Spencer retorted.
“Listen, nerd. You don’t have much of a choice here. You made me drop my drink, so either you apologise, or you buy a new one for me. This is the last time I’m saying this.”
I looked at the ground. There was a cup lying on its side, with soda spilt out of it.
“No way, you dropped it yourself! You bumped into me on purpose!” Spencer wrung his hands in disbelief.
“That does it.” Golden Hair raised his hand high above his head. Glowing red liquid started slowly dripping from his fingertips. It spattered on the floor, turning black as it cooled. The crowd collectively gasped. Spencer jumped back, eyes wide in terror.
This was the first time I had seen anything like it, but I couldn't stop myself from grinning. I wondered just how much energy lava would be able to provide me.
Administration Notes
School: Waning Crescent Institute
Name: Spencer Dallen
Gender: Male
Year: First-year
Rank: 1-Star
Division: Combat
Ability: The only known use of his Ability at the moment is that it can change the colour of objects. From what was observed, the pattern and size of the object is currently limited to the size of a door. May offer potential utility skills like camouflage.
