8 A Misplaced Hand

Lavender stood in front of me, angry for some unknown reason. I was at a loss as to what I should do at that point. So I tried the direct and straightforward approach.

"What's wrong?" I ask a bit hesitantly.

"You! How did you complete a quest while in the bathtub? Or did you get it from tricking me into thinking you didn't want a bath when you getting a bath was the real quest!"

"That's not it at all. You act like I know what I'm doing. I got this notification when I got to the house from helping Miss Grace get her purse back. I got experience from the world quest and a name change. I didn't know I would get older and wasn't sure who I could talk to about this quest stuff," I finished with a gasp, hoping I would get it all out before she tried to interrupt me.

Some of the heat seemed to drain from Lavender's expression and I could see the tension start to leave her body. Lavender's hands unclenched, and her face returned to its pretty lightly tanned complexion. She drew her hands behind her back. Taking a deep breath in that pressed her small breast out, making nipple dents in the front of her dress, she let it out with a long sigh that made her points disappear.

"It's fine. I'm sorry for barging in on you. So now we are on the same level. What did you pick for a class?" Lavender eyed me as she asked me the question, maybe she caught me looking, but wasn't going to challenge me on it.

"Random."

"Random? That's a choice? There are only five choices. How did you get random?" Lavender was leaning close, and I could almost see...

"Honestly, I think it's because of that," but then a terrible pain ripped through my body.

I heard Lavender scream as I hit the floor, convulsing, and then darkness.

I woke up to the smell of chicken soup, and I tried to open my eyes. The light came from the sun as it set, and as my eyes adjusted, I noticed Lavender, Tilly, and Miss Grace standing around a bed. The three women looked concerned, and Tilly held the soup on a fancy tv tray of some sort.

I was back in the room Lavender had shown me before dragging me to the tub and then the hallway incident. What made me hurt? I tried to tell Lavender about Destiny, and I guess the system stopped me. I guess NPC's aren't privy to all information.

Tilly sat the tray in front of me and said she would get buttered bread and another bowl of soup for me. When she left the room, I began to eat as Miss Grace talked.

"It seems you were over-hungry, and that should have been our priority, but this is now, and we can only go from here."

Miss Grace's words made sense, and I ate as the two women sat down on the bed. Lavender had changed into a white ruffled top and burnt orange skirt. Miss Grace sat in a casual green dress that was form-fitting in a way that made me feel a lot different than when my seven-year-old mind had looked at the woman. Once I finished my first bowl, Miss Grace spoke again.

"So I see you gained a lot of experience and you have reached the same level as Lavender, this is wonderful! We have a private tutor that you will join Lavender in studying. Since you are the same age, what did you take for a class? Yes, I know you got random, and I can hardly believe it, but I'm curious to know what class you got?"

I waited before speaking and looked at both of them, each in turn, and looked away.

"Hero," I quietly say away from them.

"Hero? That one I've never heard at the basic level. Let me take a look. Hold out your right hand with your small finger out only, palm up," Miss Grace showed me how to do it, and then she put her left hand over mine.

My AVATAR card popped up above her hand, and she began to examine it. Lavender even crawled across my legs to get closer to see. She almost pushed her hand into my crouch, but noticed at the last second and moved her hand, but then she slipped. I awkwardly tried to help Lavender with one arm pull her face from between my legs, but Miss Grace paid us no mind. Instead, she hummed at what she saw, and before finally pulling away.

"That is interesting, and this also confirms what I said about Destiny," Miss Grace said with a confident tone. "Tomorrow, you will train and learn with Lavender with Professor MTK."

Lavender had got up before her mother looked up and she was now trying to straighten her hair and dress. Lavender's cheek was burning as she looked away from me, but she didn't move or get off the bed. Instead Lavender looked at me and then down at the place her face had been and her cheeks turned a violent red.

Quickly, Lavender reached over and grabbed my soup tray and after almost spilling it on me, forced it onto my lap. I felt the pressure on the tray push down on my lap and realized why she was blushing. My face started to heat up, so I tried to respond to Miss Grace to distract myself.

"Who?"

"MTK is a Galaxsor Techknowledge. He has a weird name, but MTK is just a super smart Bugman in a humanoid Exosuit," Lavender laughed nervously as she explained while looking away like this was the most normal thing in the world, and maybe it was.

Both of them got up and left me to finish the last bowl that Tilly had brought in, but Lavender stood in the doorway for a bit looking at me before turning and leaving. I was exhausted, and my STATUS bar was finally getting filled to Satisfied. When I finished eating the rest of my food, it was dark, and I didn't even remember falling asleep.