Children of the Beloved

Chapter 2 - Old Friends

After a combat class full of sweating, swearing, and bruising (at least for the boys), the three friends made their way to the main entrance of the school a little bit earlier than the new underclassman students were supposed to arrive. They spent the entire walk arguing back and forth about their appearance and smell.

"You know..." Nova trailed off, initiating the conversation, "you don't HAVE to come show them around with me. I would be totally fine on my own."

"Why wouldn't you want the new students to see my beautiful face! I know Sarai would definitely love to see me." Declan responded, which was the truth nonetheless. It had been a while since they had seen Sarai; the beginning of the school year is the busiest part.

"For one, you look greasy and sweaty, and you don't smell any better than how you look," Nova started, making motions and gestures with her hands. "And two, you're wearing your combat clothing. You're making us look bad."

Declan simply pouted and shrugged. "I'm still coming if Nash is. We look the same." He whined, and Nova looked to Nash only for him to reply with a slight shrug.

"Ugh, whatever. Don't be too disruptive please, and-"

Before Nova got another chance to say anything, a higher pitched voice and loud footsteps could be heard from behind her, running down the hall. When the three turned around, it was already too late, because darting towards them was a shorter girl with brown hair; a bright, excited smile plastered all over her face and her intention clearly to play bowling with the three of them.

They had little to no time to react, because sooner than they could think, all three of them were on the ground in a piled up manner, Sarai laying on top of them. The excited girl was laughing hysterically while the three underneath her groaned in soft pain, only for them to eventually join her in her laughing.

They all sat up in due time as they started to get looks from the people around them that were simply trying to get to class, all still calming down from their fit of giggles. Sarai was the first to break the silence.

"Do you all know what deodorant is?"

---+---

The four of them were eventually greeted by a group of about 15 underclassman students, not including Sarai, after putting on layers of deodorant. This was their cue to begin their tour. The three of them split up into groups of five with the one group of six. Nova took the group of six so that she could have Sarai by her side while they toured. Declan took a group of five girls, thanks to Nova, and Nash took another group of mixed genders.

The first place on Nova's group's stop was the dormitories. The dormitories consisted of 4 different buildings, both 4 stories each.

"The dorms are split up by class and age. So, the first years will go in building 1, second years 2, etc. As well, the boys will always have levels A and B, while the females reside on levels C and D." She stated as they walked into building 1 and cycled into a dorm room. "There is, as you see, only one bed. The school is relatively lax when it comes to having friends in your dorm room, just don't let them catch you with someone in your room after 10," She winked towards the first years, to which Sarai scoffed a little at.

"Any questions?" Nova continued, to which she simply received 6 different head shakes.

"Great! Let's move on."

---+---

The first place that Declan's group visited was the combat room, simply for the fact that it was the room that Declan was decently familiar with.