Crystalline Cavern: The Brigaders

Chapter 16

Andy

      I walk towards the cafeteria and walk through the doors to get some food. It was my turn to take that stupid test and I was starving throughout the whole thing! I am never skipping breakfast ever again. I grab a tray so I can put the entire food supply on it. Of course, I'm hitting the gym after here to work off the added calories.

       I took a salad bowl and begin to create a big ass salad. I put in lots of lettuce and croutons, slices of tomatoes, shredded up carrots, onions, some black olives and, finally, some dressing. As I went to pay for my food, I grabbed a protein shake and headed towards the cashier. She was a student volunteer about my age. I'm not gonna lie, she was pretty and she's also in my science class if I'm not mistaken. She looked at me with the weirdest smile. "Hi there, is it just the salad and shake?"

      "Uh, yeah, that's all."

      "Cool, that'll be $8.37 please." I handed her the money, but in the process, she brushed her hand against mine. I saw her eyeing my armband and I noticed her admiring the two crossed swords under my level number. Only students who have swords under their level number are the ones who are a part of the school's representative team. Only six students have it and that's me and the rest of the Brigaders. "I feel pretty honored to be speaking with one of the Brigaders. Not to mention my favorite member." I just rolled my eyes. I hate it when girls flirt with me just because I'm on the school's representative team. "Um, yeah. Can I have my receipt now?"

      "You know, I'm pretty fond of strong warriors." Ok, this is already getting old. "Alright, good for you I guess, a strong guy is what any woman needs, but for you, well I'm just not the one you're looking for."

      "How come? You're one of the strongest in the Advanced Division."

      "Yeah but I'm more into the strong woman type, and I don't think you're my type." She looked a bit angry. I saw that her armband said she was a level 5, typical. "What makes you think I'm not strong?" Calling a warrior weak in their face is like one of the biggest insults to us. To her, it might seem like the end of the world. "I know you, you're Jessica Lanier, right? You were ranked one of the bottom thirty in last month's Rank Rage. Maybe you should focus on your own strength instead of seeking out someone else's." And with that, I snatched my receipt out of her hand and just walked away. I like to take the liberty of memorizing who's on top and who's rock bottom. Lets me keep track of potential rivals. I sat down at a nearby table and began to enjoy my food in peace.

Kai

      I finished up my training session and headed towards the cafeteria. I couldn't stop thinking about Alina yesterday. After seeing her, I forgot how much older she's gotten. I heard she found her Aura Núte and I couldn't help but feel a bit upset about it. But the way I feel about her is in the past now because I've found someone that makes me feel happier than Alina has ever made me feel. I looked at Violet's face when I looked at Alina and she looked kind of annoyed. Maybe she thinks I still have feelings for her. I noticed Eliza walking down the hall with Ruby. I waved to them but Vi only walked into her next class. Jane gave me an apologetic smile and walked into the classroom behind Eliza. Did I hurt her feelings somehow? I put my stuff in my locker and went into the cafeteria where I saw Dark sitting at a table eating the biggest salad I've ever seen. I grabbed a tray, along with some food and water, paid, and sat down next to him. "What's up?"

      "Playing the guitar, what does it look like I'm doing?" I rolled my eyes. "No dude, I meant how are you?"

      "Right, well I'm just here eating." I swear, sometimes I just want to punch him in the face. Repeatedly. "Ok. How'd you think you did on the test?"

      "I don't know. I honestly just wanna finish my food without having you mention school."

      "Fine whatever." I start eating my food in silence. Andy took a big bite out of his salad and swallowed until he spoke up. "So, I'm assuming you haven't read the flier they gave everyone. It's all anyone's been talking about since they handed them out yesterday."

      "What flier? I haven't really been focused on anything lately." He looked at me sternly. I haven't told him about what happened between me and Eliza and I plan on keeping it that way for a while. "Why haven't you been focused? You know you need to be focused on your training. Especially due to TNT's new arrangements." Dark has always been the one to keep us in check about our training. He's the one that's expected to make level 10 before any of us, even before Nicole. "What arrangements? Enough about training already, Dark. You should be telling that to Tyler. He has his leveling next week."

      "True, but at least he's training and focused."

      "Who's to say he's actually focused? I've seen the way he looks at Jane." He just shrugs and turns on his side. "Why are we even talking about this right now? We should be talking about the thing that's going on with TNT."

      "What's going on?" He took out a folded piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to me. I unfolded it and read the contents carefully. I stared at the paper for a while in disbelief. "I figured that would be your reaction. Forest?" I crumpled up the piece of paper with aggression and threw it across the room. "What is it really necessary to litter?"

      "Are you fucking serious?! That's like two years from now! By the time TNT comes around, we'll all have our Aura Núte and even be like level 9 or something!"

      "Hey, having that strength in the future will be beneficial to us, not to say that I'm not pissed, but I don't think the NightWalkers are gonna wait until 2218." I took a deep breath and recomposed myself. "You can say that again. How much you wanna bet they're gonna call us out for a side spar?"

      "No need to bet, I already know." Andy and I finish up our food and put our trays on top of the other dirty trays and walked out of the cafeteria. I looked at his annoyed face and I could tell something other than TNT was bugging him. "So, did anything interesting happen with you at all today?"

      "Oh Hur Tur, I don't wanna talk about it, it's too embarrassing."

      "Aw, come on! You can tell me. I can keep secrets, you know that!" He let out a sigh of defeat. 

      "Alright, but don't tell anyone about it ok?"

      "Is it really that bad?" He just shrugged while looking at me. "It's the same thing that always happens."

      "Another admirer?" He just nodded in annoyance. "Yeah. This time it was that girl, Jessica. She was working at the cashier today in lunch as a volunteer and started flirting with me." I just looked at him sympathetically. "Sounds like one of those shallow chicks to me."

      "Yeah, and she isn't even a strong warrior, not like our girls anyways." I nodded. "Yeah, I get what you mean."

      "So, how are you and Eliza doing? Anything happen while you guys were studying?" I still don't want to say anything about what happened. I feel as though it needs to stay between us. Plus, she looked annoyed with me about something. Maybe it was about TNT. "Not really. I mean, not anything that's worth discussing anyway." He just narrowed his eyes back forward while we both continued to walk down the hall. "You excited about this month's Rank Rage?" I was always excited about it. It really helps me blow off some steam and also get some training in. "Why? Are you gonna pester me about me not training enough for it?"

      "Maybe." We both laughed until our phones went off, notifying us that we got a message. We took out our phones and saw that it was Eliza, calling a team meeting.