Black Moon

7. Battles that need to be picked

My cheek throbbed at the place where I had the bruise as Levon stared at me without blinking.

The side of his lips lifted in an arrogant smirk as he snorted lightly before leaning slightly in as he said in a low voice, "You seem to have quite a mouth for a pretty face. Watch that damned mouth of yours, shortcake, before someone chews you up."

"I think you-" he didn't let me complete my sentence again as he interjected, "Hush, hush. You talk a lot. Me and my money, both don't give a fuck about your opinion. Remember that I don't happen to have the patience to listen to noises right beside my ear. If you want to talk so badly, then get lost from my face."

I just stared at the jerk for a whole moment before turning ahead to face Mr. Lint while he turned back to stare out of the window.

Mariana truly hadn't given me the wrong advice to stay away from him. He sure was bad, perhaps even worse than Zereck.

The rest of the class felt awkward sitting beside the person who neither concentrated nor let his neighbor concentrate in the class. Levon was playing on his phone under the desk with a slight volume. Though the professor might not be able to hear it all the way from the teacher's table in the front of the class, but I sure had a sharp hearing that distracted me from every other word that the professor was telling.

"Around 3150 BC-" 'thud' "-of Upper and-" 'blop blop blop' "-the first king of-" 'boooom! Thud thud!' "-Native Egyptian-" 'Allie down!' "-conquest by Achaemenid Empire-" 'Knockout! You lost!'

I pressed my aching head while hiding my face behind my hands. For the last fifteen minutes, that was all I could hear. I had to play the fill-in-the-blanks with more blanks than words that were happening verbally.

I turned around to openly stare at his mobile game that he was playing. It was one of those RPGs that some Chinese or Korean MNC with high graphics would have developed. I must say, he sure was pretty impressive with the character he was playing, though there would be someone else better than him at the end of the match.

I was still pretty immersed in the game that he was in the middle of when a big, wrinkled hand shot out from before me and snatched the phone away from Levon's hands.

Both of us ended up with protesting sounds that soon died in our throats when the owner of the hand turned out to be Professor Lint's. The man had such a mean scowl on his face that it looked better to mess with a Grim Reaper instead of this ancient being.

"You have a phone on you that you would like me to have a look at?" the old man glared in my direction making me shake my head in negative before sinking further into the chair trying to melt into it and disappear.

"This phone shall now be put on display in the school's personal museum. After all, it was an invaluable entity that demanded more attention than my class," Professor Lint announced before making his way back down the aisle of the seats as he added, in a rather loud voice for the entire class to hear, "If you want it back, get your parent to pick it up."

Frustrated Levon threw the book that was on his side of the table and leaned back. He sure was pissed off as he went back to staring out of the window again.

I did not find a need to comment on anything and turned my focus back on the lesson as Professor Lint resumed the class. I would be lying if I told you that I had this undying urge of rubbing it on his face. Make those wounds of his burn a little more with the sack of salt that I could apply.

But having a first-hand experience of the type of personality that he was having, I didn't need to create enemies I couldn't afford unless it was them that was trying to mess with me.

Although he had reacted rudely, it was a reaction to my interference, which was none of my business. So, it was wiser to not escalate the rude encounter into bad blood if we were going to share the same seats for the rest of the year.

I knew how to pick my battles and this one was not a battle that needed to be fought right now. What was more important was to concentrate on the ongoing class.

Finally, it was something that I could understand without all those distractions.

*******

I walked down the corridor following the map that the school had provided to finally find the room I had been looking for. Math with Mrs. Verne. And Math teachers tend to be monotonous, most of the time.

After being in Professor Lint's class, I wasn't exactly sure if I was ready for Math. Given that he was a strict guy, but he had a command of his subject. I would have preferred it better if he hadn't caught me distracted in his class because of Levon, at least then might have looked forward to more of them.

With things going south right on the first day, had exhausted me more than I had anticipated.

Releasing a breath that I hadn't even noticed, I finally pushed the door open and entered the class. Mrs. Verne was surprisingly younger than I had expected. She might perhaps even be the youngest teacher in this place. With that youthful face, platinum blond hair, and formal attire, she looked more like a fresh college graduate attending her first interview.

"Are you in this class, sweetie?" She asked in that sweet voice of hers that immediately made me drop my guard down. There was something about her that made me feel at ease.

"Yeah, I'm new here," I awkwardly announced.

"Let me see your schedule," she walked towards me quite gracefully as I offered her my schedule. She took a quick glance before informing with a sympathetic smile, "You are in Mrs. Verne's class, honey. She handles the AP classes. This is the regular class."

"So, I'm not in this class?" I asked looking around the class once to see before which faces had I made a fool out of myself. I could see the grumpy face of Alder Andeches, scribbling away something furiously on the piece of paper. Poor little paper.

"Unfortunately not." The pretty, sweet teacher before me grabbed my attention again with her sweet tone as she added, "If you head further down this corridor and then turn right, you will find the seminar hall. Mrs. Verne usually takes her classes there."

"Thank you," I nodded at her before turning around and heading in the direction she had given. And true to her Mrs. Verne was having her class in the seminar hall filled with students.

She was an old charismatic lady who leaned over the table and quickly ushered me to an empty seat in the hall. What I didn't expect was to share the class with Killian and Paul, whom Mariana had introduced just an hour ago. Those two enthusiastically waved their hands at me and motioned me to sit with them.

I took their offer and settled on the aisle seat that they had created for me by scooting over.

"Hey!" 

"Hello again!"

They greeted with bright smiles making me greet them back equally cheerily, "hi!"

"Have everyone settled down?" Mrs. Verne asked standing up straighter right when the bell went off.

"So, shall we start with today's class then?" She had only finished asking that question when there was a knock on the door and in came a face I wasn't expecting. Zereck.