Aces [#NANOWRIMO2017]

Ace Makes An Obscure Brian Regan Reference

Mᴏɴᴅᴀʏ, Fᴇʙʀᴜᴀʀʏ 12

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The weekend had been fairly uneventful. I'd spent almost all of Saturday kicking butt in New Super Mario Bros (in your face, Goombas). On Sunday, I'd briefly considered hooking up with the hot Starbocks barista who I knew ended her shift right about now, then decided "screw her" (or, well, "don't screw her" depending on how you want to look at it) and went back to destroying Bowser's minions.

So, yeah. Productive weekend, am I right?

This morning, though, I decided that saving Princess Peach could wait (pfff, who am I kidding, the poor sucker can rot in Bowser's castle for eternity far as I'm concerned), and I hopped on my bike and pedaled to wherever my mind decided to take me. I wasn't really sure where I was going; I was just following a gut feeling. I wasn't actually even expecting to end up somewhere I recognized at all.

Imagine my surprise when I found myself staring directly at the walls of the school building.

Well...

I certainly was not expecting this to happen.

After a moment of what the actual flying frick is wrong with you, Ace, why would you come to school of all places, I realized that this might have actually been an okay decision. After all, I hadn't spent any time thinking about how I was going to get Sera's bracelets off of her; maybe today, the opportunity would present itself.

But for that to work, for me to run into Sera, I'd have to —

Have to go to —

Sorry, I just... really don't want to say it.

I'd have to... go to... class.

Yuck. Wish me luck. Please play "Never Gonna Give You Up" at my funeral.

So, the good news is — I survived the first period. (Yay!)

The bad news is, I still have four periods left. (Boo.)

If I'm being totally honest, though, period one wasn't actually that bad. We worked on some dumb math equations that I'm never gonna use once I leave high school, but while it was boring, it wasn't awful.

Hey, you know what? Maybe I'll actually survive an entire day of school this time! Maybe today is the day that I turn my life around and finally get a good education! Maybe coming to school was actually a good idea!

Coming to school was a horrendous idea. Possibly the worst idea I've ever had, and trust me — I've had plenty of bad ideas.

We had a supply teacher for English today, so I asked her if I could use the bathroom and she wasn't suspicious at all. Score.

I didn't go to the bathroom, obviously. I went outside and sort of camped out by the doors so I could call Hazel without a teacher catching me and sending me back to class.

As always, she picked up on the second ring. "Ace? Aren't you supposed to be in class?"

Damn. I'd gotten so used to only calling Hazel after school that I'd forgotten why I only called her then. Hazel still thought that I was a nice, well-behaved, rule-following schoolboy. Hazel had done everything she could to be a good role model for me growing up, and I was well aware of the fact that if she knew I skipped school every day, gambled on how much chaos I could cause without being arrested and/or killed, and hung out with a gang of idiotic boys plus one girl with bright blue hair, she'd probably have a heart attack.