NOVEL FROG B1.CH3: Thanks, Miss Popularity
Reina
Age: 18
Meta: Weapon Forging
Career: Pending...
From a nightmarish death experience to waking up as a meta-human in the making. I headed to campus alone, Sophie being called in at the last minute for a shift at the kitchen. She was heated about it, but I reassured her that I was fine going on my own. Her support was genuine, and I appreciated Sophie for being the hype that I needed in seeing all of the positives in my transformation—it was a hard reset that we needed. As far as I was concerned, last night didn’t happen. There was no point in mulling over something I couldn’t understand anyway.
I pushed it onto the backburner. I’d take being a jacked up platinum chad than being six feet under any day. When I hopped off the bus, I rushed down the block toward campus, crossing my fingers that I’d make it in time. Right now, final applications were pouring through. At 9am, registration was going to close. I had literal seconds left, my heart pumping hot blood through my veins. Each beat was like a countdown, like the final seconds of a ticking time bomb that threatened to derail my future career. And then, another barricade—
“Pardon me!” someone shouted, an arm zipping right in front of me as soon as I barged through the front door of General Hall. I jerked back, falling on my ass as I tried to hold myself from colliding right into Reina, the stuck up, spoiled bratty princess of campus. She was the rich popular girl of 4th year, with long auburn hair, gold-umber eyes, and a pair of fluffy fox ears on her overinflated head.
“The nerve of some people!” She crossed her arms under her breasts and looked down at me with a death stare. “You have two eyes on that pea-brained head of yours, don’t you? How about you use them!” she hissed in that annoying preppy accent of hers. “You nearly scuffed my loafers!”
Ignoring Reina’s condescending remarks, I scrambled to my feet, brushing off the dirt from my jeans. I didn’t have time for her or her designer loafers. “Move it, princess,” I shot back, not even glancing in her direction. “Some of us have real problems.” I rushed past her, trying to get to the sign up board, but my luck must have run dry this morning. Reina just wouldn’t leave me alone, grabbing the back of my collar and reeling me to her again.
“Not so fast. Only the Acadia student body is allowed to use this designated board for Hunter Corp registration.”
I brushed her hand off of me, irritated. “Knock it off, Reina! You’re in my way!”
“Excuse me? How do you know my name?!”
I scoffed. “From the amount of times I hear people cursing you out, how do I not know your name?” I shot back, until I remembered that I physically looked different and that Reina wouldn’t know that I was Nero Aldeon.
“You quit being smart-mouthed with me and answer the question! My name is not something that any stranger has a right to throw around! I’ve never seen you a day in my life, and I’d be damned if—” her eyes grew, a cue that she’d finally connected the dots. “Nero?”
I rolled my eyes. “Congratulations, you figured it out.”
She cringed. “But I don’t understand… the scales, the fangs… and God, what did you do with your hair?”
“Hey, honestly, I’d love to entertain this boring conversation more than anything, but I need to sign up before registration closes,” I insisted, stepping around her only for her to step right in front of me with her hands pinned to her sides. “Woman!”
“You’re not a meta-human,” she tweeted with a cheeky grin on her proud face. “Nice try, Nero. That disguise won’t work. Did you seriously think that pretending to be a demi would change the fact that you’re a reg? The entire campus knows you’re a meta-less loser who couldn’t even pass a simple entrance exam to get into Acadia High! What was it again that got you strolling down these halls? Oh, I remember, it was your mother’s constant begging to the board!”
My eye twitched.
“That, and a few extra Bens, I’m sure. It’s not a trade secret, Nero. You never belonged here. Honestly, you should have taken the easy route and followed that blond friend of yours to Windsor Academy. It would have saved you the trouble, and the money.”
“Your opinion is as valuable as your talent, Reina,” I retorted, making a clear attempt to sound indifferent, and then I circled my fingers into a zero and shoved it at her face as I walked off. “Goose-egg.”
Game set and match. Everyone knew Reina had a huge insecurity, just about the only insecurity she had. She hated her weak talent. Not to blame her, the skill was downright useless in her hands. She could forge any type of weapon she wanted from thin air, but that kind of power was useless for someone who didn’t bother working on dexterity. Reina hardly used it, and sometimes the new freshmen rolling in the fall semester would mistake her for a reg.
When I finally got her to shut up and stop interrupting me, I made it to the registration board. To my regret, sign up was closed. I could feel my face pale when I realized my one shot had flown right out the door! I’d have to wait an entire year or even longer to sign up again. All thanks to the nosy body back there getting in my business!
I clenched my fists, an unfamiliar, primal rage bubbling to the surface. I turned around to glare at her, where she was lounging against the wall smirking, her red hair glinting in the light streaming in from the large windows of the hallway. She seemed to be enjoying my plight, her eyes scanning over to me with a fake expression of regret plaster on her face. “Early bird catches the worm, Nero. As always, you fall short.”
“No thanks to you.”
“Don’t blame me for your shortcomings. Not like they’d onboard you anyway. You seem to be forgetting the key ingredient to the trade—talent.”
“Oh, you mean that thing that you don’t have?”
She scoffed.
“For your information, I do have a meta ability.”
Her eyes grew. “Oh my… I must have missed the morning news with my chai tea and biscuits.” She patted her sides down like she’d forgotten something. “Forgive me, I… don’t seem to have an umbrella for the legion of pigs flying above our heads right now,” she drawled sarcastically, a corner of her lip curling upwards. And then she laughed. “You’ve piqued my interest, Nero. Do enlighten me, what’s your grand meta ability? Being chronically late?”
“You would like to know, wouldn’t you?” I sucked my teeth and went on about my business. Disappointed, the only thing I could do now was work up a plan on how I was going to tell Sophie about this. There’s no easy way I can break the bad news to her, I thought, until Principal Dominique Dubois walked down the hallway with his renowned white suit and smile.
The debonair blond who damn near every girl at school had a crush on walked up to us with a long smile on his face. He fixed his frames over his face and brushed the whip of long hair from over his temple and went on to approach Reina with open arms. “Congratulations, Miss Faust! You’re all set! Welcome to Hunter Corp!”
I choked!
“Thank you, Principal Dubois. I appreciate this last minute arrangement,” Reina curtsied. “I feel terrible being so unprofessional, but father and I had a long talk about this and… well, he decided it was best I… expanded my horizons.”
Dominique scratched his chin at her comment. “Hmm, doesn’t seem like a decision Mr. Faust would make so abruptly, or at all for that matter. Either way, I cannot support the decision enough! Being a hunter is a rewarding career choice!”
She bowed. “Thank you for your kind words….”
“Wait a minute,” I said, needing to butt-in. I looked the principal in the eyes and demanded answers. “How does Reina qualify to be a hunter?! That decision isn’t up for the divisions to make!”
“While this is true, Mr. Faust is the school’s biggest benefactor, which in exchange, plays an important role in promoting Organization VII and Hunter Corp. Because of this, Reina here has some pull. She will skip the preliminary review process, where countless files will be analyzed down to every detail—stats, talent, academia, character, contributions to society, etc. While she’d never been interested in becoming a hunter before, I made a call and, voila! She’s in!”
Right. So in the end, the wealthy wins? Was that seriously what it boiled down to?
“You don’t have to explain anything to Nero, Principal Dubois. Nero isn’t—”
“Hey! I don’t want to hear it!” I retorted. “You were in my business, Reina, now I’m in yours!”
“Nero?” PD fixed his frames over his green eyes and squinted at me before the realization kicked in. “Ah, Mr. Aldeon. What a pleasant transformation! Almost didn’t recognize you there. Is the new look part of your latest cosplay?”
Reina giggled.
“PD, please, I’m begging you, I need to register,” I groveled. “I know I’m a little late, but being a hunter means everything to my family!”
He cocked an eyebrow at me confused.
“I got my talent this morning. Super strength. I can prove it to you! Just give me a chance! I don’t need a free pass like Reina. I just need you to give me 30 seconds to register! Squeeze me in as an entry, and I promise, you won’t regret it. I’ll represent Acadia, your name, anything! Just please… a few extra seconds is all I’m asking for, here.”
“Hmm, unfortunately, there is no credibility behind your name, Nero.”
“Then call up those same people for Reina and say that I’m her plus one!”
“I beg your pardon?!” Reina squawked. “Absolutely n—”
I snapped my head back at her. “Don’t forget it’s your fault that I’m late in the first place. You owe me.”
“I don’t owe you a dime!” she sassed.
“Very well!” PD tweeted, taking my suggestion.
Reina jumped. “Huh?!”
“Me too,” a monotone voice said behind us, my head turning to Naomi standing by the front door. I hadn’t heard her enter, all three of us staring at her confused. “I’m having the same melodramatic episode as he is, and I suddenly find myself needing to enlist.”
“Now you wait just one darn minute!” Reina ordered in a fit. “I am not a conditional ride that you two can just use as a ticket out of your tardiness!”
Reina’s complaining went through one ear and out the other as Naomi walked between us. My stomach began swimming in butterflies as she walked by, as my mind randomly thought back to last night. The silhouette I’d seen… I knew it looked familiar….
“Move aside,” she brushed me off, and I took two steps away from the principal before she reached her hand out.
“Miss Brunsfield, what are you doing?”
“You have to scan my hand, don’t you? To make sure I have a meta ability?”
The principal paused for a moment, and without much context, he pulled out a smile as well as a tablet he had hooked on a carrier belt, tucked underneath his jacket.
My eyes jumped, Naomi noticing how baffled I looked. She turned her cold emotionless eyes to me and asked, “Is there a problem?”
“P-p-roblem? No, heh! Not at all!”
“Good.”
“Just one question, though—why are you signing up?”
“It’s a free country, isn’t it?”
“Right, but you had time yesterday. I saw you on campus.”
“I’m sorry, am I only entitled to enlist on Nero’s time?”
“No, I was just—”
She turned herself to me fully and stared at me hard. “If you don’t want me on your team, tough luck. This isn’t a decision for you to make. I revoke your right to do so.”
My team? Revoke my right?
“Consider yourself worthy to have someone like me ready to haul your poor excuse of a record to victory. I doubt you could get sponsors on your own with those stats, anyway.”
I looked down at her halfway insulted. “Hey, you’ve never seen my stats. And I’m sure they qualify anyway, especially considering—”
“Considering what?” she interjected, Naomi leaving me speechless. I didn’t know why I hesitated, because it wasn’t a secret that I had powers if I were enlisting. I also physically looked different, and stronger. So… why the hell was I afraid to tell her that I was gifted?
“Nothing,” I said simply, then gave her a genuine smile. “Thanks for volunteering to be on my team.”
“You won’t regret it,” she said flatly, scanned her hand with the PD, and then walked down the hallway to the exit.
Such a strange girl….
“You two will be granted a preliminary waiver along with Reina. Nero, welcome to Hunter Corp!”
“But why?!” Reina begged.
“Because it makes sense. The three of you constitute a working team. That is, of course, if Nero here is actually gifted.” He smirked. “Never in my years have I witnessed a late bloomer. If you may, place your hand on the pad.”
I nodded. “Sure.”
I placed my hand on the device with the node readers on the screen, looking forward to the same response it gave Naomi just a few seconds ago. It was warm to the touch since it’d undergone thermal purging. The scan analyzed micro fluids along the skin and dissected DNA from those fluids to determine a meta ability present. Since Sophie had been confident that I had an ability, I was too, and there was no doubt in my mind that the screen would turn the color—
“It’s green…” Reina sulked.
That made it official…
“Ah, so it’s settled!” PD slipped his analyzer back in its sash and took out his iPhone. “Reina, Nero, and Naomi! What a dynamic team! Super strength, weapon forging, and telekinesis! It’s perfect! The three of you would still need to pass mentor evaluation. This arrangement doesn’t solidify a seat in Hunter Corp– your placement is still contingent on your mentor’s approval. If they decide that you’re not fit for a hunter career, then we’ll have to reassess the structure of the team without you. Remember, there are no second chances at Hunter Corp. Once you’ve been disqualified, there is no reapplying. So give the evaluation your all!”
I knew well how important this was. I was planning on passing that evaluation, no buts or ifs about it! If you failed the evaluation, there were other avenues for talent, but nothing as rewarding as being a hunter. Everything else was minuscule compared to the hunter life, so I was ready to give it my all.
PD clapped his hands together once and then, with a broad grin, he insisted, “Why not mark this exciting moment with a picture? There’s always time for a memento, no?” he said, and I immediately reeled Reina’s shoulder in and brought a cheesy smile out. Reina on the other hand was cringing hard, which got me in a better mood. She’d tried so hard to get in my way, which actually ended up helping me big time.
Talk about a quick dose of karma.
PD chuckled to himself as he saved the picture. “Right then. Let’s make that phone call and get this all squared away. Check your school emails for further instructions in the next few hours. And if I were you, I’d pack your bags as early as possible. Preferably by tomorrow night. The organization already had a destination set for Miss Faust…”
“Where?”
“Utoro, Japan.”
Hey you!
Yeah you, in the bushes!
I see you there not leaving a rating...
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