Jungle Madness

Chapter 1, P7 - Bitter truth

Arthur raised his paw hesitantly, interrupting the peacock from speaking further. "E-excuse me. I'd like to ask something."

She looked extremely displeased, as if he were insulting her or something. "What? What do you want?"

"Where's Ryuu?" He winced, feeling the rage of a middle aged woman ready to tear him a new one. "His stuff is under the desk yet he's not here...but I hope you didn't mark him as absent today."

Dianne, overly upset by his clarification, took the register and scribbled down 'absent'.

"Ugh, this is so annoying. I specifically asked Yvonne to not give me homeroom hours. 'Mrs. Dianne, I am very sorry but the number of classes have increased and we have yet to hire new teachers. Your help is greatly appreciated and you will be rewarded,'" the bird mocked in the headmistress' tone of voice, a thick layer of sarcasm layering her tone before converting to her normal dissatisfaction. "You better be paying me more. Honestly, who can live on these teacher's wages?"

Nova, who was drifting into the land of dreams, awoke when his brain registered Ryuu's name. He quickly glanced over towards his desk, noting Arthur's observation to be correct.

Ryuu told him he'd be back by the time school starts...but he had yet to show up. Did something happen? Mark was also absent, but that wasn't uncommon so he was unable to confirm if the two were out together. And even if they were out together, would they be fighting? What if Ryuu was lying somewhere, too prideful to ask for help, all bloodied and bruised? What if they both were? Now that he thought about it though...why was everyone so blase about their absence? Mark he could somewhat understand, but Ryuu? Even the teachers were nonchalant about it.

In that moment, it hit him. He couldn't keep up anymore. Natalie, Ryuu... Everyone needed help, but Nova couldn't be there for them all; he was unsuited for the role he so desperately wanted to take. He didn't consider himself a great help. What happened so far wasn't by his initiative or his intervention. He was just getting dragged around, taken in by the current. Trying to do something about it resulted in him sinking deeper and deeper into the situation, swimming with the problems. The panda questioned his actions, questioning whether or not his presence was even necessary. The adults should've taken action already, yet no one has. They all watched it happen, thinking that it may fix itself if let to play out.

Nova shook his head, trying to shake the unnecessary thoughts. In the end he had voluntarily joined in, despite not knowing the full extent of the situation. It wasn't fair to walk out on anyone.

"What?! For real?!" The entire class shouted, several growls and exclamations flying across the room, freaking Nova out. What did he miss? What was the fuss about?

"Silence!" The bird screeched, feeling that she is the only one entitled to speak. "Don't ask me questions. I don't know; I don't care. That's what I was told to say."

"I am so excited to meet them," Esmeralda exclaimed, placing her wings together in a happy motion.

"I see." Farris commented from her small branch. "That explains why the starting ceremony has been postponed for a while."

"It's Thursday now." Fan opened her phone to double check the dates, just to be one hundred percent positive. "It's next Monday, isn't it?"

The panda's ears twitched from conversation to conversation, his state of confusion and curiosity deepening with each word spoken. He was hoping to catch on to what they were talking about; however, no one was being clear!

"Didn't you guys hear me?!" Fed up with the disobedience, the professor slammed an empty, glass cup on to her desk. The loud noise that erupted from it instantly neutralized the ruckus. "Another word during my hour about this topic we just had and you'll get penalized! I am sure none of you want to start climbing with a negative score shown visibly on your ranking."