Soul Stone

Fancy Cooking

While the incident in the woods hadn't made things any stranger for Zeke and Kael (if anything, it had been a load off his chest knowing that there was one less secret between the two), it had definitely made Sara's daily visits that much more uncomfortable. She clearly despised Kael, and he was generally indifferent in regards to her constant presence. Even outside of his down time, her dislike of Kael was beginning to strike him as a tad obsessive. It had literally gotten to the point where she spent the two classes they had together seated next to him, badgering him to demand another transfer as far away from Kael as humanly possible.

"Why would I even want to do that?" Zeke asked, rolling his eyes.

"He's already told you that he's planning on stealing your...oven (their substitute word for 'soul stone' whenever they were in public), at some point in the future, right?" Sara asked.

"Yeah well, I figure I'll be able to prevent it at some point in the future. I mean, the whole idea is to help me get better at cooking so that I can use the ingredients I have better in the event that I had to, right?" Zeke reasoned.

"Of course," Sara agreed "but if he steals your oven, your ingredients are suddenly useless because you can't cook"

From the row in front of them, Kyle Buzznick, a guy Zeke always wound up having classes with, turned around, and cast them a confused glance. "Why are you guys ALWAYS going on and on about food?" he asked "There's more to life then food, you know!"

"I for one admire your change in heart when it comes to cooking" Sara replied, seemingly impressed.

"Yeah well, Chef Hardass, my mentor, is kinda forcing me to get serious about it..." Zeke replied, averting his gaze to the analog clock above the classroom door.

Sara smacked him upside the head, and went back to copying her note.

"Ms. Castle, and Mr. Alstair, if you're quite finished flirting, we do have a note to copy" The teacher called over to them.

"If Ms. Castle could keep her hands off of me for a minute at a time, I would be finished by now" Zeke answered, chuckling.

"If Mr. Alistair could stop caressing my butt, maybe I wouldn't feel so uncomfortable and I'd be able to write my note" Sara replied, without a hint of a joke on her face.

Zeke stopped, put down his pencil, and glared at her as the entire class turned to look at him. "I never came near your ass!" he replied, louder than intended "What is wrong with you?"

"Maybe you should both sort out your little sexual misconduct issue with the Deputy Headmaster?" The teacher suggested, pointing to the door.

"Smart move" Zeke snapped at her "Now we have to go talk to the principal, and our entire second period class thinks I'm some kind of screwed up rapist"

"You shouldn't start things that you don't plan on finishing" Sara replied, an echo of a smile finally crossing her face.

"Damn it, this isn't funny!" Zeke replied, exasperated. Finally, the humour began to strike him and he chuckled slightly. "Don't you dare laugh," Sara replied, hardly containing herself "Your..... diddling.... isn't a laughing matter!"

That broke the dam. Zeke doubled over with laughter. "What the hell is diddling?" he asked, genuinely unaware.

"You were doing it." Sara replied, still feigning self-righteousness.

Zeke leaned against the door to the Deputy Headmaster's office. "Yeah" he replied sarcastically "I just diddle everyone, and everything in sight. Just call me the Diddler."

At that moment, the door opened, and Deputy Headmaster Smith stood there, looking down at Zeke. Smith was a near-mythical figure at the Academy, every bit the image a child had nightmares about when picturing a disciplinarian. He was a little over 6'4, with a shaved head, broad shoulders, steely gray eyes, and covered in scars of various shapes and sizes. Nobody was quite sure how he'd acquired them, and nobody wanted to find out. Zeke looked up at him, awkwardly. "When I said...uh.." he began, not sure how to explain the situation, Smith burst out laughing. "The things you hear just wandering through the halls, right?" he asked.