Blackstone Academy: The Rogue

2. Troy Roman

Troy (Male P.O.V)

Date: September 14, 2238

A short whistle came from behind me as Mr. Lennox reentered the classroom. I turned to see Kayden, my mentor and, more importantly, my friend since my Freshman year at Blackstone, standing there.

"Two weeks? What did you do to deserve that?" He asked.

"Nothing."

He raised one thick eyebrow and cocked his head slightly to the side. "I'm not buying that. Mr. Lennox is usually pretty chill...unless you piss him off. So what did you do?"

"Tried to start a revolt," Pete answered, earning a glare from me.

"W-what?!" Kayden sputtered.

"Why are you still here? I thought you wanted to leave."

"I'm going. I'm going." Pete chuckled, backing down the hallway with his hands raised in mock surrender.

Kayden wrapped his arm around my neck, dragging me in the opposite direction. "I swear, Troy. Only you can find faults in the world's easiest class. All you have to do is sit there and watch the video. That's it."

"Well, unlike the rest of you. I know nothing is ever that easy." I dropped my voice to a whisper as we passed by the guards. "And if it was, why the fuck would they need to record us doing it?"

"You finally realized that? Huh?" He asked as the doors along the hallway opened, and students spilled out from the rooms.

"Yeah...well, not really. He kinda told me." I jerked my thumb over my shoulder in the direction Pete had gone.

Kayden slowly bobbed his head, causing his lustrous sun-bleached blond locks to flop over his forehead, covering his eyes. Soft gasps and murmurs of approval sounded through the hallway as he pushed the strands back, baring one emerald and one dark brown eye.

Who knew women found Heterochromia attractive?

Those mismatched eyes and hair were a lethal combination that wreaked havoc on every female hormone in a ten-mile radius. Unfortunately for me, since I was a close friend, I suffered through countless women expressing their fantasies in his stead when they couldn't reach him. Somehow he found time to maintain his athletic build even though he spent hours confined in the lab of his own volition. He was a slave to his desire to learn about all things science. Therefore his love life was practically nonexistent, and that only intrigued the ladies more, making them relentless in their pursuit to seduce him.

"Did he tell you why?" Kayden asked, breaking me out of my thoughts.

I shook my head. "No. Will you?"

"Sure," He lazily shrugged one shoulder and pushed open the door to the stairwell. "But there's not much to it."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean..." He stopped halfway down the stairs and turned back to face me. "That class is always being monitored. It's been that way since I was a Freshman and probably even longer. And I doubt it'll change anytime soon."

"Yeah, but why?"

"I-I have no idea. Mr. Lennox is probably the only one that knows the truth."

"Oh, I thought you would know."

"Why?"

"Because you work in the Research Department." I started down the remaining steps in an attempt to hide my smile for what left my mouth next. "And everyone knows all you guys do is sit around and gossip."

"Fuck off!" He exclaimed, lightly shoving me. "We actually do important shit, unlike the musclebound dickheads that go out looking for mutants that no one has seen for the past nine years. And only end up dying from starvation long before they ever see one."

"Like what?" I continued to tease, even though I already knew the answer.

Fight mutants or work with a team to help create a cure. Those were the two choices given to every student that attended Blackstone Academy. It built its core curriculum around combat and science. We took classes five days out of the week, training for a chance to fight mutants or be a part of the team that would hopefully create a cure.

The chances of creating a cure were astronomically low, so it was no surprise that most students chose to fight instead. It was faster.

Over eighty percent of the students, including me, chose to be a fighter, so our schedule was weapons training and self-defense classes with basic science classes like chemistry.

Kayden's schedule was slightly similar to mine, except he spent extra time in the lab training under a team of epidemiologists. So I mostly only saw him when he took a quick break from working in the lab or if I went to see him.

I wasn't book smart like Kayden, so if I chose to work in the lab, the only thing they'd probably have me do was clean up. And while that was honorable work, it just wasn't me.

Being a fighter suited me better.

But since most students continued to choose to become a fighter despite the disappearance of the mutants, First Foundation decided they no longer needed as many.

Needed.

That was a polite way of saying they didn't want to explain to your next of kin that you died from starvation or anything else while looking for mutants, so after graduating, we were assigned other positions.

Either way, we were still guaranteed a job, housing, and protection for our family. We no longer had to scavenge for food or battle the elements trying to survive, but most of all gave us a chance to be a part of something bigger.

"Join us and find out," Kayden said.

"Hmm... I'll think about it."

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Thank you for reading!