Black Flame

Chapter 17: The Buck

Alex completed his last two periods with various levels of success, with History's lesson being on Dinosaurs, a subject that surprised Alex given the lack of religious undertones within it, something that he had expected. Instead, the lesson, led by a male Ostrich named Mr. Jones, was more focused on their theorized daily lives and the archeological discoveries that had been made throughout the years. He was willing to absorb the knowledge given to him, and when tasked to answer questions on a worksheet, did so flawlessly.

Meanwhile, Moral Studies was taught by a Lion named Mr. Manda, and was a little bit different from the rest of the classes with the class seemingly focusing less on academic research, and instead, going over a wide range of social and philosophical questions, some having a noticeable amount of religious content. This led to Alex somewhat struggling through the lesson, not knowing the plethora of social etiquette and morality systemologies that the class seemed to focus around.

This caused him issues when he was assigned a worksheet filled with questions such as "When riding up an escalator, on which side should you stand on?" and "You're speaking on a phone when you step onto a subway train, how much longer do you have to speak?" and others such as those, that not only involved hyper-specific questions but also involved things he had never even heard of before. It shook him to his very core, skipping question after question trying to find one that he could have the slightest hope of answering correctly.

Alex debated on calling the teacher over for assistance but feared the embarrassment he would feel at requiring assistance with something that seemed trivial to the students around him. So instead, Alex dreamt up a plan to get him out of class. Placing his elbow down onto the table with his arm sticking upwards, he lowered his head and upon making sure no one was watching, pressed his nose firmly against the top of his hand before starting to discreetly rub it roughly, a trick he had learned as a way to get a break from studying.

Soon enough his method worked, and his nose began to dribble blood down onto the worksheet below him, staining the paper with crimson droplets. He smiled smugly to himself as he noticed that he was successful, and raised his head to call for the teacher, but before he could, the female Pronghorn next to him let out an ear-splitting scream, Alex's smile disappearing as the entire class focused in on him immediately, including the teacher.

"What's wrong?!" Mr. Manda asked as he looked up towards Alex and the Pronghorn, before letting his jaw slack.

Not wanting to stain his clothes, Alex tilted his head upwards as the Lion ran over, stopping a little bit away from him.

"Are you okay?!" The beast exclaimed in a panicked tone, turning his attention towards the bleeding boy, Alex nodded his head quickly.

"Uh... Yeah...? It's just a bloody nose. May I be excused to the hallway so I can treat it?"

"No! You have to go to the infirmary immediately!" The Lion yelled, shockingly loud, his voice managing to block out the murmuring that had also filled the room.

"Why?!" Alex replied, slightly panicked.

"Because somethings wrong! Now hurry!"

"But bloody noses are-" Alex started to explain before the Lion cut him off.

"No buts! Go!"

With one final nod, Alex stuffed his things into his backpack before standing up and leaving.

By the time Alex reached the infirmary, his nose had stopped bleeding, however, he still felt compelled to be examined, given that it would get him out of having to go back to class.