CROWNED - unOrdinary

5♛

A sinking feeling grew in the pit of his stomach. "Guilt" He thought. "It must be guilt." Throughout the interview, Arlo hadn't noticed how much he'd revealed about his personal beliefs. Even if the school agreed with him, Rei might not. Arlo knew Rei would never become upset with him for stating his opinion, but Arlo wasn't sure he could bear the awkward silence that would continue between the two once Rei found out how Arlo really felt about his leadership. On numerous occasions, Arlo had pointed out his concern and disagreement with the way Rei was running the school. Not once though, had he blatantly stated that what Rei was doing was pointless. Was this really worth winning the favor of the student body? At the cost of ruining the relationship with his mentor?

His phone buzzed inside his pocket. He pulled out his phone and opened up the notification to find a message from Rei.

We have turf wars in three days

We're going up against our rival school Agwin

At what time?

4:30 pm. I'll meet you outside at 3 with the rest of the team so we can go to the station together

Alright. I'll be there.

Arlo almost pocketed his phone until he saw the small 'typing' icon at the corner of his screen. "What else does he need to say?"

You've been having some trouble with gaining respect from the students right?

That's why me n Ophelia scheduled the turf wars

Do your best okay?

Arlo shut off his phone immediately, without replying, and stuck his phone back inside his pocket. He slid down against the wall until he was sitting, and then pulled out his phone again, to reread the last three messages. "Do your best." Arlo fingers were positioned to type something, but he couldn't. He shut off his phone once again, and rested his head on his knees. The sinking feeling in his stomach began to hurt a lot more.

. . .

"So he's just gonna leave me on 'read' like that?" Rei said out loud. "He could have at least said okay or something." Rei pocketed his phone and continued to walk to the cafeteria. As he walked through the halls, he noticed that they were empty, him being the only one. "Strange." He thought. At around this time, Wallick hall was filled with students who'd just finished morning classes. The hallways were noisy during this time, with students chatting as they went down to the cafeteria for lunch break. He stopped once he heard what sounded like a swarm. Rei quickly sped up his pace and followed to noise to locate the commotion. He stood before a crowd of Wellston students all cheering. He made his way through the people to find that at the center of it, there were 3 mid-tiers attacking what looked like a low-tier. Rei moved through the horde to get closer to the front so he could dissolve the fight, if that was what you could call it. Instead, someone else stepped in.

"Back up." Arlo said loudly. The majority of the students had noticed Arlo standing there and moved away, to avoid being reprimanded for participating in cheering on the fight. A few students who either never heard Arlo, or simply didn't care continued to surround the four students and jeer at the poor low-tier who was already beaten badly. "Stop right there." Arlo commanded the three mid-tiers. They finally seemed to acknowledge his presence. A tall boy with dark blonde hair looked up at him. Rei recognized him as one of his classmates.

"Who the hell is this kid?" he asked.

Another mid-tier with long green hair tied in a ponytail said, "Isn't he the Jack or something. Yeah my friend said something about our new Jack being a midget. Whatever." The three of them laughed along with a large portion of the crowd which had still not dispersed.

"I am the Jack." Arlo said, annoyed. "Move away from him." he said motioning to the low-tier, who was bleeding from several cuts.

"Why should I? If this stupid weakling wouldn't move out of the way, then I get to beat him up as much as I like." The blonde said.

"To this extent? Are you so weak that you need to have two other students backing you up, just to take on a simple low-tier. Are you that scared you'd lose to him, because you're weak?" The blonde's angry face grew red.

"Shut up!" he yelled, activating his ability and running at Arlo. Rei instinctively activated his ability too, but didn't need to stop the mid-tier. Arlo already had. A translucent yellow barrier had appeared around Arlo, and the punch that the mid-tier had thrown at him was reflected. The blonde stumbled backwards clutching his side in pain, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth.

His two mid-tier friends looked at him in shock. It was quickly replaced with anger as the girl charged at him, summoning several blades that were bright green in color. Arlo shook his head in disbelief. "Were all mid-tiers really this stupid?" He casually raised his barrier once more and the girl fell back, covered in slashes. The last mid-tier finally took a hint and backed away scared. Arlo walked over to the low-tier and helped him stand up. He turned to face the mid-tiers once more.

"Next time I find you teaming up on a student, you'll be left with more than just a few cuts and bruises." They glared at him angrily but said nothing. As the commotion died down, Rei made his way over to Arlo.

"Arlo! You handled that really well! I didn't expect you to be here, let alone intervene. I thought you were all 'hierarchy this, hierarchy that' and all." Rei smiled as the low-tier walked off. He was more than glad to see Arlo doing this.

"Three students on one isn't enforcing order." Arlo said, briskly walking away, leaving Rei standing there confused. Arlo was reluctant to say more, not just from the guilt, but because a familiar pair of purple eyes had watched the entire scene.

✒Thank you for reading.

-annalycheee