A/N: Chapter four is here!!!!! I might not update in a while, I'm feeling really sick. ALSO: OMFG 18 FOLLOWERS ADKLSJFEWJIO;FVIKWSO;GHRIEO;AHO;WJEO;O;
Dedication to The_Amythest_Raven for being such an awesome follower. Sorry for making the "evil weapon" in this book part of your username! Also, cressbookworm and TheBookworm327 and Kitkat1730 for being such amazing friends!
The days got colder and shorter as we progressed into late fall and Machna season. Machna, the school sport, was a game where two teams of ten people each competed to retrieve as many diamonds as possible from anywhere in an obstacle-filled arena. On top of that, we were trained harder and harder. The new shields seemed to inspire the Advanced Weaponry class, and even though the gen-ed Weaponry class would be going on a eight-week trip to build their shields, their trip was at the end of the year, making our class an object of jealousy. But when my classmates found out that we had done Power Embedding and survived, they were blown away. It was really all Ella, though, and when they realized this, we couldn't even get to classes without being gawked at. As I walked down the hallway one day, my earpieces, connected to my screenpage, blaring Shoot to Thrill, I passed my least favorite person in the whole school- Victoria. I would've walked right past her, but as I went by, I heard her sneer to a group of her friends,
"If it wasn't for that Ella Carelment, they probably would've died. I mean, seriously! Maya Rowlinson's as dumb as a rock! I don't know how she managed to get into all the advanced classes! And her cousin Kiara? God, if anyone was dumber than Maya, it would be her... or maybe Tessa Scotakos. She can't tell the hilt of her sword from the pommel!" Then she pulled out a picture. And not just any picture. THE picture. The most embarrassing picture of the four of us EVER. Her friends started cracking up.
I didn't know how she had got ahold of that, but I didn't care. My blood started to boil, and I was filled with rage. I hated Victoria at that moment. I wanted to rip her throat out, but before I could get to her, my brother Matt came through, his hair spiked up and his blue sash untied. "Are you trash-talking my family?" he asked casually. "And where'd you get that picture?"
I mentally screamed. Four of the guys Victoria was hanging out with were really buff Machna players. My brother was going to get skewered. I wanted to rush to his aid, but I was frozen in place. "None of your business, firstie," snarled Edward, the team captain for Cicuta, one of the four school teams.
Then Matt said, "Of course, because you are obviously much more intelligent than I am and should instruct me on what to do in case I make a grave error," and walked away, dropping what looked like a small adamant-titanium dagger on the floor.
"Firstie dropped a dagger," Jacob, another Cicuta player, sniggered. He bent down to pick it up- and a wall of whipped cream exploded outwards, coating Victoria and her clique in fluffy white foam. I hurriedly walked away, grinning, with the shrieks of popular girls ringing in my ears.
Unfortunately, I reached Honors Calculations seven minutes after the bell rang, resulting in my second tardy of the week. "Miss Rowlinson, seeing that you are not a first year anymore and know the castle extremely well, yet still deign to show up late to my class all too frequently, will do the textbook math problems while the rest of the class does calculations with Ambrosia chocolate," reprimanded Professer Limentus, an extremely tall, skinny woman who had supposedly defeated ten Catrops at once with just a roll of string.
I let out a tiny groan. Kiara and Ella shot me looks of pity- Tessa was already asleep. For some reason, she still managed to ace all her classes. I sighed. Ambrosia Sweets had the best candy in Sirotren. I sighed, resigning myself to dull calculations for an hour, when a young woman with auburn hair in a wedge cut and black, rectangular glasses rushed into the room and spoke softly to Limentus. I strained my ears, but I could only make out the snippets, "...ops...gathering...spirit...anarchy...host...raid..." I was puzzling over those words when Limentus said,
"Class, I will be leaving. Professor Turnell here will be continuing your lesson. There will not be any disruptiveness." She swept out of the room, and the class dissolved into chaos.
It turns out Professer Turnell was even stricter than Professor Limentus. She had the whole class doing textbook problems until the bell rang, then assigned us six pages of homework, due the next day. As we left class, I told my roommates what I'd heard. "So what do you think?" I finished.
"I don't know," Ella mused, frustrated. It wasn't often she didn't know, and she was very irked.
"Me neither. Maybe the 'ops' is part of Operations or Catrops," Kiara speculated.
"Maybe... I need to research something," Tessa said, the same shade of green she'd been the night we fought Victoria. She dashed off.
"She does know we have Lit in five minutes, right?" I asked. We looked around the library for as long as we could before heading to Advanced Literature.
Tessa didn't show up all of that period, and an annoyed Professor Prentice grabbed her clipboard and marked Tessa absent, then proceeded to teach us about Arthur Kingsbolt, the first Catrops hunter and noted poet. Most of his poems were about death and destruction, though, and for homework we had to write seven poems about our real-life experiences. Tessa still didn't show up.
In History, we were given homework that consisted of writing a two-page essay on Catrops population spikes, a worksheet about Arthur Kingsbolt, and a reading on famed general Lance Knightlot. All due in two days. Thanks a lot, Professor Griswald, I thought bitterly as we left the old man's classroom.
By lunch, we were starting to get worried. Tessa still hadn't appeared, and the three of us were hunched over our plates of rice, chicken in cashew sauce, and salad, discussing how best to go about finding Tessa. I thought I caught a glimpse of her bronze-and-sapphire sword through the cafeteria doors, but it seemed to be just a trick of the light. We ate our baked apples with much less gusto than they deserved, and even the apples, one of the best Viventi dishes, couldn't shake the thought that something bad had happened to Tessa from our minds.
And Tessa still hadn't appeared. In Advanced Wilderness Survival, where we were making Catrops-repelling fires, I dropped the dinef leaves in the fire too early and Kiara added too much wood to the fire, resulting in a barely passable flicker of flame. We would've failed the day's class if not for Ella, who managed to restart the fire and add the dinef leaves just before Professor Ollmack did his rounds.
In Advanced Science, we had to devise a remedy for the poisonous bite of the Catrops by analyzing Catrops spit. I saw Professor Limentus, with a slash on her cheek and a grim expression, walking through the hallways, towards Professer Almerwick's door.
Professor Elmwood had set up the Catrops-killer simulation in the lower gym for Field Experiences. When the bell rang at 4:20, signaling the end of the school day, Kiara, Ella, and I combed the school library for any sign of Tessa. Finally, at 5:30, we gave up and trudged back to our dorm.
"Hey, guys," Tessa greeted us nonchalantly. For a second, I was stunned.
"WHERE WERE YOU?" Ella screamed, which pretty much summed up how I was feeling.
Tessa took a deep breath. "Guys, you need to hear this."
A/N: Hehehehehehehehehe cliffhanger. Actually I might update sooner than you think. Do I sound totally lame writing A/N's to like nobody? I feel lame. Thank you if you take the time to read this!!!!!
-Deepio the Slytherclaw
