The Echoes of Rivalry & Ruin (The Acamancy Series I)

Chapter 24: The Academy of Romance and Jealousy

As October is coming to a close, I begin to practice more and more for AEEs, which means spending more time with Bee, Mal, Lylah, and Alaska to perfect our Battlefield section, since this is what I am the most nervous about. I feel confident, from my surprise quizzes from Calum, that I am ready for Knowledge, for me surfing and swimming are second nature, and my part in sculpting for Artistry is minimal. I have yet to perfect my Poetry Waves piece, but I have plenty of time and could practice whenever since it's a solo event. So as of now, my top priority has been AEE Battlefield which also means practicing for Defense Against Danger since Paxx is able to join us for some of our meetups. Even when Paxxon cannot be there it's still good practice for Defense anyway.

Since they split us all up for AEE Rotations we have been using our lunch breaks to practice almost every day. Today we have Defense with the Fire Mani's so we wanted to get as much practice in as we could, Paxxon is grabbing a quick lunch for all of us and meeting us at the South River, since Theo and I were already here for Water Mani Skills Training and he wanted to sit in and observe today. I am not sure why he wants to, he isn't going to be doing a group Battlefield in AEE and he isn't in our group for Defense. I would bet money on it that Calum convinced him to spy on us and report back so they could steal our attack.

As the girl approaches us, I greet them all with a hug, well all of them aside from Bee since she walks right past me and over to Theo. I watch her glide to him, it's as if she is an Ice Mani skating on the river. Theo doesn't even notice her at first but as I approach them to greet Bee and tease her for walking right past me, I overheard the reasons why.

"Hello Theodore, thank you for hanging around today. I have been wanting to have more time to talk with you and thank you for all you have done for the gardening club. Your tips on dew drops and water conservation have reduced the number of wilted flowers by half for this season," Brynn tells him as she pulls a daisy from her hair.

"I mean just look at these, are they beautiful?"

"What, um yes yo- they are," Theo says, clearly avoiding eye contact with Brynn.

"I would love it if you could attend our club meeting tonight as well. We always appreciate your knowledge and tips, or just your company."

"Um yeah sure thing. I'll be there."

Bee smiles as she literally skips away from Theo over to me.

"Bee... what was that all about?" I ask her.

"Theodore is brilliant and saves so many flowers for us and I was just inviting him to the gardening club tonight for more tips."

"Yes, just inviting him to your club, just like you just invited him to stay here after class just so you could ask him to attend said club, right?"

"Yes that's right," Bee says as she watches Theo adjusting his glasses before he resumes toying around with dew drops and avoiding eye contact with any of us girls.

I shake my head at Brynn as she giggles and walks back over to the group, and I follow her. We get some practice in before Paxxon joins us with our sandwiches. We decide to take a lunch break and I watch as Brynn walks over to Theodore to offer him half of her food, since Paxx didn't know he would be joining us and didn't bring enough. I also watch as Baylee, who also stayed in class late, approaches Mal to ask where Mitch is. After Mal informs her and she strides away I sit next to my best friends to get some much-needed details.

"What was that about? Are Baylee and Mitch a thing now?"

"Sort of I think, I don't even know anymore," Mal says before filling her mouth with more of her turkey sandwich.

"Ignore Mallory, she is just salty because she is playing middleman for Baylee and her brother, but I refuse to play middleman for her an Ry–"

Mal cover's Lylah's mouth before she could finish the sentence.