Chapter Twenty-Two:

  The next day of school started with an assembly on the grounds.

  The air was thankfully crisp and cool, but he couldn’t help but wonder why the address had happened outdoors instead of in one of the many halls. But at least it gave him a chance to fully see how many students there were. The dining hall only had people eating during their free time or lunch hour, and most people ate at their dorm kitchens or even the school store, so it was never a true reflection of how many students there were.

  But now, he realized how massive the school actually was.

  All the students gathered before the massive podium and staff stood in 12 groups. One for each dorm of course.

  The two smallest dorms were the Cancer and Aries dorms. The Aries dorm only kept the top five students per year and the Cancer dorms only kept the top school rejects.

  The rest of the dorms had nothing less than a hundred students each standing in order. And there was even more staff than he realized. Behind headmistress Lenden there might have been at least a hundred people seated behind her.

  He kept forgetting how prestigious a school this was since he was always disrupting the usual flow of things. Most students looked proud- even happy to be standing here for an assembly of all things. There wasn’t any whispering or loud conversations going on either. There was a maturity about the place, a purpose for most of these students. And when headmistress Lenden stood at the podium and greeted the school. Everyone greeted back in enthusiastic unison.

  She looked as dignified as ever, the sole bit of colour in the whole of the world outside. Her royal blue suit made her stand out even amongst the sky, whose own blue paled before her.

  “Good morning indeed.” She said pleased at the response. “I trust you are well after your semester break. Of the assembly today there are several matters that must be discussed. But first I must welcome you all back to another semester at Boxtens. This will be a busy semester, but I have faith in my students and staff that we will be even more successful despite this. Students… For some of you here today it will be your final semester at Boxtens and we wish you the best of luck. As a teacher it becomes difficult to say goodbye to so many of you every year, but I look forward to the day when we meet again. And I know that all of you here will continue to uphold our values and our teachings even though you’ve left. I have no doubt you will achieve everything you’ve wanted to. I wish you all the best.” She paused for a quick breath before she continued. “Now for the matters at hand. Firstly, on behalf of the staff and myself we would like to offer our congratulations to you on the results of your examinations. Last semester our school had written the Keralian national qualifier examinations across all grades and once again, our results have ranked us as the highest performing school in the country.”

  There was an enthusiastic round of applause and cheers across the student body and the teachers smiled and clapped for their student’s celebration as well.

  “Secondly,” she continued, and the school turned attention to her again. “Once again, the dorm games will be held this semester. For the five hundred and twelfth year, we continue our proud tradition. And for the first time in twenty years we welcome the back the cancer dormitory to the dorm games.”

  The crowd shifted slightly at that. There were a few unintended sniggers and a few surprised looks, the rest looked either entertained or unthreatened an bored. Surprisingly, Maizley and the Aries dorm hadn’t spread that news around, judging by how surprised so many people were by the news. Who knows maybe the other dorms just didn’t care? Or maybe… Maizley didn’t take Jess seriously at all.

  “As for the first challenge of the dorm games.” The headmistress said. “It will take place in two weeks. The official announcements for the public will be in papers, tv, and radio in one week. I scarcely need to remind you the honour it is to be a Boxtens student. The crest of our school is a heavy one, and we wear it over our hearts. To our competitors this year, you are Boxtens students first, and competitors second. Uphold our values before your own interests. The first challenge will be announced in one week to the public. Be ready for it.”

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  It was only fifteen minutes after the assembly that Jess stepped into the biology room for his first class of the day and the first class of his semester.

  The professor was already here, sitting at his desk with a clipboard. A small slim man who looked to be in his late twenties, with spiky blonde hair- with frosted tips of all things. He wore jeans and a black shirt with locks on it and a bright white lab coat.

  The professor looked at Jess.

  “Jess Goldwyn.” He said to himself and marked down on his clipboard that Jess was present. But strangely, the professor kept writing on the clipboard and peeking up to glance at the students. He was definitely not marking a register. Ironically, that behavior was going to land him on a register.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  This class also had students sit in pairs.

  The class was about full at this point. There were a few extra desks littered around the room, but most people were paired up. The only people alone were Matt and Nora. Matt looked bored by himself and sat staring out the window at the back of the classroom. Nora looked pleased by her solitude and the other people in the desks surrounding her looked immensely displeased that she was there.

  “Alright, that should be everyone!” the professor said, in a strange and confused accent that was unsure whether it was British or Australian. “Pair up please, if there are free seats.” He added to Jess- who was still standing in no man’s land. “Actually no, we have an extra now… Okay! Actually, lets have our Cancerians pair up shall we.” He said in an uppity little voice, like he had jolts of electricity running through him.

  Unsurprisingly, Jess ended up wedged in-between Nora and Matt who still couldn’t stand each other enough to sit next to each other. The desk was uncomfortably cramped with the three of them crushed in it. A few other people kept glancing back and sniggering.

  Jess was becoming increasingly sick of these people, but he couldn’t keep going about dropping lunch trays on people.

  Their elbows were bumping together as they the two of them tried to reach for their textbooks. (Jess had waited till the last minute to pick classes so he hadn’t bought any textbooks yet)

  “Watch your elbows!” Matt grunted.

  “If you touch me again, I’ll have you hobbled.”

  “I’m not even sitting next you!”

  “Oi!” The professor yelled out, and the class turned to stare at the three of them with him.

  “Cancer trio! It’s the bloody first day of class.”

  “Sorry, Professor Lansing.” Matt said immediately shifting his glasses embarrassedly. Nora made no effort to apologize.

  “Won’t happen again.” Jess added to wrap up.

  “Right then.” Professor Lansing said. “Eyes in front class!”

  And it seemed the class had moved on. Proffer Lansing had started on cell division. The class- though either annoyed or entertained had shifted back to the lesson-

  Till Nora whispered:

  “Teacher’s pet.”

  “What did you say to me?” Matt hissed at her.

  Jess groaned. It was way too easy for them to aggravate each other.

  “Shut up, both of you.” He muttered at them.

  “Cancer Trio!” the professor pleaded angrily. This time frowning with his hands on his hips, then finally throwing his hands in the air in defeat. “Bloody hell, man. Detention for you three! First day of class…”

  The detention was booked for the end of the day. It was supposed to be an hour long. But Professor Lansing was surprisingly lenient with them. He seemed to sense the tension between them, and he knew Matt wasn’t a troublemaker so the three of them got let out a half hour early- after promising not to disrupt the class again.

  The three of them walked out of the door at the same time and even though they were all going back to the same place, Matt and Nora immediately split off in two different directions.

  Jess made it back first of course. He had just hit the walkway leading back to the dorm first, but to his surprise he heard screaming and arguing from the lounge. The sound was easily audible from outside- since the front door was hung open now that the handle was gone.

  “What the hell?” he muttered stepping inside. Could these people not just keep the peace?

  The entire dorm was in the lounge arguing- aside from Matt and Nora.

  “Look! Look! There were go.” Fernando said pointing at Jess as he walked in. “The cause of it all.” He said, his accent with thick now and his bitterness even thicker.

  “Did I do something to you?” Jess asked threateningly.

  This whole time he’d really tried not to bite back when his dorm mates were being full of shit. But if they weren’t going to give him the same respect back…

  “They robbed us!” Fernando yelled back.

  “What?”

  “Hazing.” David said, with his arms folded. “It happens often here. But especially during the dorm games.”

  “So, what? Someone took our stuff?”

  “All of our stuff.” Gwen said. “Everything in our rooms.”

  “Jess,” Kate said, sitting on the sofa with her knees pulled up.

  Her eyes were red, and slightly puffy- like she’d been crying.

  Okay.

  Okay.

  Hazing was one thing. But purposefully torturing his dorm? And Kate crying and having her stuff stolen?

  “They even took Brainrot.” She sniffled

  Oh. Shit.

  Brainrot was going to kill someone, and Jess was going to prison.

  “Who took everything?” he demanded from David.

  “Hard to say, could be any of the dorms. We need to report this to the headmistress right now.”

  There were swarms of agreement from everyone.

  “No.” Brentley said, smiling in disbelief as he strolled to the center of the room and immediately taking everyone's attention. “We’re not going to report anything. If we're being hazed and we report anything, the other dorms will turn against us too.”

  What kind of cultist bullshit was that? Jess wondered.

  “That’s easy for you to say!” Khanyi argued. “None of your things were taken.”

  Oh, well that was interesting, Jess thought.

  “It’s suspicious, no?” Fernando said. “Only your room was left alone!”

  Brentley smiled and placed a hand on Fernando’s shoulder. “Maybe because they knew when to leave well enough alone.”

  Fernando was stunned for a second but got the message quickly.

  “We don’t report anything.” Brentley said to David. “We don’t go to the headmistress. This is just a bit of... Good spirited rivalry and we have every right to fight back. Do we really want to show the school we can't handle a little prank before a life or death contest?”

  “This is not hazing or rivalry.” David said. “This is theft! All of our possessions were taken. Gifts, clothes, everything- even Jess’s dog. We’re reporting this. This is not the time for high school pettiness. People’s feelings possessions are too below the belt. We’re going right now.”

  Jess shook his head- and as much as he hated to admit it, he agreed with Brentley. Morals were nice to have and David was right to respond like he did. But the other dorms wouldn’t see it that way. Those stupid cultist elitist eggwashes would turn against them even worse after this, because they ran and tattle-taled after some hazing.

  But.

  They had Brainrot. If the demon woke up in the dog, and those idiots who stole him provoked him... That would be a problem.

  If going to the headmistress got them the dog back, then that’s what needed to be done.

  He was looking at being an outcast in Boxtens or being a demon worshipper in prison. And honestly he had the worst feeling that prison would have nicer roommates than what he had now. But he was in no mood to take that chance.