The Hunter Academy

Chapter 4

As Max shoved me into the room, my feet got tangled in each other and I stumbled. I turned to give Max a glare but he was no longer behind me. With realization that I'd literally stumbled into the room in front of everyone, I slowly turned my head and saw about 30 pairs of eyes staring right back at me. Some were hiding giggles and laughs behind their hands, and others were chuckling and shaking their heads. I was frozen still. I mean I just managed to embarrass my self in front of my entire first class. I knew this was going to haunt me forever now.

Snapping back into reality I quickly shuffled forward towards the teacher, Mr. Jones, who also had a big smile on his face. “You must be Artemis, I'm Mr. Jones. Sorry about Max, he doesn't mean any harm, he can just be a bit rough.” I simply nod, still too mortified to do anything more. “Find a seat and take it please.” I walked to the middle of the room and sat. This is going to be a long day, I can already tell.

English was a breeze. Mr. Jones was actually a pretty cool teacher. He made things interesting instead of just letting us deal with it. He created activities and even put on a one-man performance about the play we were studying. He laughed and made jokes. At one point he even made paper airplanes, wrote a character name on it and flew them around the room and if it landed on or near you or your desk, then you had to play that character, even if it was gender swapped. Everyone seemed to forget about my early morning trip and was really focused on what Mr. Jones had to say. The class seemed to pass quickly and before I knew it the bell was ringing and I was on my way to find my next class. Math. Lord help me.

I used Max's description of the room system to help me find my next class, but when I was half way there, or so I thought, I heard someone call out my name. I turned around to find Max chasing after me waving frantically looking like an excited puppy with the way his shaggy, light brown hair bounced on his head, the goofy smile on his face also helped with the description as well. “Arti!” his shout drew the attention of the students in the hall way to his bounding figure, which also acted as a signal for ‘move I’m coming through’ as I saw numerous students jump to get out of his way before they became apart of a collision. “Hello.” With his panting, you could honestly mistake him for a Golden Retriever. He bent over with his hands on his knees trying to catch his breath while I looked on with an amused smile.

 “Why hello there. What’s the big rush that caused you to come running at me?” I asked, still with a bemused smile.

“Oh, well I would say I was excited to see you, but then I’d be partially lying. I’m running from some guys, I may or may not of stolen something of theirs as a practical joke so now they may or may not be chasing me to end my life.” As he finished, I heard the faint calling of his name. And the person did not sound happy. Before I could turn and see who it was the yelled out Max’s name, Max had grabbed my arm and dragged me along while he continued to run away while laughing.

We continued to run till we hit the back doors of the school where Max dragged me outside before slamming the doors shut after us and leaning against it, and yet he still had enough breathe to laugh while I was panting and coughing my lungs up. I need to get in shape. But Max, how can one laugh after sprinting through the school? Actually I don’t think I want to know.

I leaned against the metal handrail as I tried to catch my breath, and I couldn't help but let out a laugh as well. “You know, I should be in math. Not really a good impression to skip class on the first day." 

He lifted his head off the door and stared at me with a small smile. “Screw it, no one needs maths anyway. Well maybe, but it can also be very useless. I’ll make sure you get to class for period 3 though, okay?” I smiled and nodded in return. “Come on,” he said pushing himself away from the doors with a spring in his step “let’s take a walk while I show the outside of the school because we are now actually locked out of the school until break before third.” He rushed to say.