The Last Hunt

The Second Hunt

“And we meet again.” He amusedly said while I was still in his arms.

“Chris.” I said. He helped me stood up properly.

“Let me guess what you're thinking; trees are not the perfect spot to read.” He said laughingly.

“Definitely not.” I said and laughed along.

“I didn't know you were also studying here.” I told him as we started to walk inside the school halls.

“Well we decided to stay here and see if we're gonna like it. And we did.” He said.

“We? Your parents?”

“No. My brothers. My parents died a long long time ago.” I looked at him and quickly apologized.

“I'm sorry.” I said.

“Don't worry. We're over it” He smiled at me reassuringly.

“Can I see your schedule of classes?” He asked. I nodded and gave him my schedule. He then gave it back to me after checking it.

“I'll see you in history class. I gotta go.” He said. I smiled as we bid goodbye to each other.

When I arrived at the classroom, all their gazes went to me. Unfortunately, I didn't know any of them. I took a seat at a vacant chair and just stayed quiet.

After some while, someone else arrived. He occupied the sole open seat, which was next to me. I overheard the female behind me making a comment on the guy sitting next to me's appearance in a whisper that I could hear. Our lecturer arrived on schedule and sat down next to me. Math was our first subject.

Our math professor started to write some numbers quickly on the whiteboard. I heard some of my classmates groaned in frustration as they couldn't understand a thing. I also saw one of my classmates, hands under their desk, playing on their phone. I took a glance to what our professor wrote and immediately knew what he was about to teach us. So I basically just stopped listening to our professor and just stared out at the window.

After a while, I heard someone calling me by my full name. I looked in front and saw our professor looking at me along with my other classmates.

“Yes, sir?” He looked at me suspiciously.

“Have you been listening to me the whole time?” He asked.

“Y-yes sir.” I lied.

“Can you explain to me how base eight works, the lesson I just taught you?” He asked me. I nodded my head slowly before I stood up. I cleared my throat before speaking up.

“The octal numeral system, or oct for short, is the base-8 number system, and uses the digits 0 to 7 instead of our normal counting system which is the number 0 to 9. In this system, there are only eight numbers. From 0 to 7. We don't need the number 8 and 9 in this system so the number that comes after seven is one-zero. Or ten.” I explained to them without stuttering.

At first there were silence, but after a second, they all applauded me. Our professor nodded at me.

“Eyes here on the board.” He said before going back to teaching us. I sighed and sat back again.

“Wow. I did not see that coming.” My seatmate said. I just looked at him before looking back at the board again.

“I didn't quite introduced myself. My name's Clark.” He said lending his hand.

“Nice to meet you. I'd like to get back to listening now so please stop being annoying.” I said in the most polite tone I could say. He chuckled.

“I didn't know nerds were like that.” He said. I looked at him offendedly. I have never considered myself a nerd, not even once, nor have anyone told me that I am a nerd. They all say I'm smart and independent but never a nerd. I don't even wear glasses. I'm not the type to just sit around the corner with a book and or solve mathematical problems. Math's annoying. I hate it as much as everyone. But unlike everyone, I actually study to have good grades because I care about my future.