Return to School

Beep! Beep! Beep!

"Ughhhhh…"

Beep! Beep! Beep!

Click!

"I don't think I'll ever get used to this…" Thomas yawned out as he slid out of his bed with sweat dripping off his arms as he moved.

After Thomas walked out of his room and grabbed a fresh pair of clothes out of the dryer, he walked into the bathroom and turned on the shower.

While waiting for the shower to warm up, Thomas removed his shirt and decided to look at his upper body in the mirror.

'I've definitely put on quite a bit of weight, pretty much everything about me is more defined and bulky now. But the feeling of my muscles is like that of butter.'

As Thomas continued to examine his upper body, he noticed something peculiar about his chest.

'Why is there a mark on my chest?' Thomas thought as he examined the star shaped mark on the center of his chest.

After unsuccessfully trying to scrub the mark off his chest for several minutes, Thomas decided to leave the mark alone for now and to get into the now warm shower.

Yet during the time he spent in the shower, the only things he could think of was the mark on the middle of his chest and the swordsmanship training he had just finished before being returned to his bed in Texas.

---

As Thomas walked out of the bathroom sporting a pair of somewhat somewhat small blue shorts and a black t-shirt, he tugged at the collar of his shirt.

'I'm going to need new clothes soon, these shorts barely fit and this t-shirt is tight as hell.' Thomas thought as he walked into his room and grabbed his school bag from beside his desk.

After tossing his school bag over his shoulders, Thomas turned towards his bed and grabbed Fallen Star out from under his bed.

'Should I bring Fallen Star to school today? No, Mom's going to be home all day today so I don't have to worry about it being stolen, plus bringing it to school makes it more likely to be stolen since there are quite a few bastards at school.'

Thomas then slid Fallen Star back underneath his bed before walking out of his room and towards the kitchen.

'Ten dollars should be good for lunch and a snack right?' Thomas thought as he grabbed a ten dollar bill out of his wallet stashed within a drawer in the kitchen.

After closing the drawer with his wallet in it, Thomas walked out of the kitchen and towards the front door, only stopping to grab his keys and to open the door as he arrived at it.

After closing and locking the front door behind him, Thomas unlocked his car, got into the driver's seat and started his car.

"I get the feeling today's going to be a good day." Thomas said to himself as he backed out of the driveway and began his drive to school.

---

After pulling into the school parking lot and parking his car in an empty space, Thomas took a deep breath before exiting his car and walking towards the school

'Nobody here can hurt you anymore Thomas, you're stronger than all of them. But just because I'm stronger than them now doesn't mean I should attack them, that would just make me the same as them.' Thomas thought to himself as he walked up the school steps.

Yet as Thomas walked into Winchester High, an unsettling feeling of being continuously watched dawned upon him.

But despite the feeling that everyone in the entire school was looking at him with confusion or suspicion in their eyes, Thomas continued to walk to his first period class.

"Hey, didn't you hear? Because of Thomas, Elijah and his cronies got suspended!"

"Really? How did Thomas manage to do that? He was always getting beat up by Elijah and his friends."

"He got lucky really, apparently Elijah had beaten up Carson in front of Thomas, which led to Thomas fighting back until the principal found them stomping on Thomas and Carson."

"So he's still the same weak Thomas then? And with Elijah gone for a few days at least that means there should be some relative peace here."

'Ugghh, so annoying. I love having internal energy and all but the heightened senses that lets me hear everything being said about me and CJ is just a pain in the ass.' Thomas thought as he forced himself to stop listening to the conversations of the students glaring at him within the halls.

Yet the whispers about his cowardice and weakness only spread like a plague, following Thomas throughout the day in every class period, until finally, during his fifth period class, Thomas snapped.

"Hey, I bet five dollars that once Elijah returns to school he's gonna beat up Thomas again." A student whispered in the middle of an anatomy lesson.

"I can hear your whispers, so would you mind shutting up?" Thomas said angrily to the student.

"Thomas! Be quiet during the lesson, and watch your language too! I don't know what you're hearing, but I don't hear anybody whispering." The teacher snapped as she stopped writing on the whiteboard.

"You don't hear him talking? The student in the back right corner just bet five dollars to his friend next to him that Elijah would beat me up once he comes back." Thomas replied as he pointed at the student in question.

"Huh? How'd you hear that?!"

"Mr. Garcia! Did you really say that?"

"I did yeah, cause it's the truth! I bet five whole dollars to anyone that Elijah is going to beat up Thomas once he gets back from suspension!"

"Mr. Garcia, Thomas! Both of you will stay after class, now be quiet and pay attention to the lesson or I'll give you both an after school detention!" The teacher snapped as she returned to writing on the whiteboard.

---

"First off, I'd like to say I'm ashamed of both of you, especially you Thomas. You used to be a model student in this class, you followed instructions and had a solid grade. But then on the first day back after the incident on Friday you cause an outbreak in class. Why?"

"I was tired of them whispering about me, and they're not going to stop unless I confront them about it."

"Thomas, take this as a lesson. They're not going to stop whispering about you, even if you can hear the whispers or not they're going to whisper about you. And confronting them about it will only make them whisper more."

"He's right you know Thomas, and so am I about that bet."

"And you Spencer! Making a bet in the middle of a lesson about one student beating up another student is unacceptable. Now as this is the first time there's been a problem in class with you two I'll let this incident slide. But the next time either of you cause a problem while in my classroom I'll give both of you an after school detention. Understood?"

"Yes sir." Thomas and Spencer replied in unison.

"Good, now go to lunch, I have a meeting I have to get to." The teacher replied as he grabbed his bag and laptop before leaving the room.

"I'll take your bet." Thomas said as he grabbed his bag from his seat.

"Huh?"

"I said I'll take your bet, the one about Elijah beating me up."

"Are you crazy? You're taking a bet against you that favors a guy you've never won against?!"

"Wouldn't that be an easy five dollars for you then?" Thomas replied as he walked out of the classroom, leaving Spencer alone in the now dark and empty classroom.

As Myeol Mang walked down the hall towards the lunch lines, a familiar voice appeared in his head.

["That was stupid of you Thomas."]

"Oh, hello Master." Thomas replied in a low voice so the students around him couldn't hear him.

["That was a seriously stupid descion Thomas. You let your anger get to your head when you called him out on his whispering."]

"What else was I supposed to do? Sit there and let them bet on whether or not I get beaten up by Elijah?"

["That is exactly what you should have done. Though that entire situation could have been avoided if you had just relaxed your dantian from the beginning."]

"Wait, so the main reason I could hear all the whispers around me today was because my dantian wasn't relaxed?"

["Yes, since your dantian wasn't relaxed it was leaking internal energy into your entire body, heightening your senses and allowing you to hear everything everyone around has said today."]

"And you're waiting till now to tell me this?"

["I thought you had figured it out already since you didn't seem bothered about the whispers for most of the day."]

"I guess that's my fault for trying to ignore them then." Thomas replied as he finished grabbing three slices of pizza and a soda from the lunch line.

["Yes it is, now that I've told you that I'm going to go back to the Transcendental Path. Goodbye Thomas."]

"Later." Thomas replied as he took a bite out of his pizza.

After finishing his three slices of pizza and his soda, Thomas threw away his trash and walked towards the courtyard.

All year during lunch at Winchester High, the courtyard is open for students to relax in, yet it was barely used during the first few months of school because of the sweltering Texas heat. Yet despite the heat, Thomas walked out into the courtyard and set his bag down on the bright green grass before laying down next to it.

'Now that I think about it, me laying down here will just make them start whispering about me again, but hopefully it will be about me laying down on the grass rather than about me getting Elijah suspended…' Thomas thought as he pulled his phone out of his pocket.

12:17, Monday, September 6th.

'I've got thirty minutes or so before I have to go to class again, I think I'll just spend the rest of that time relaxing on the grass…' Thomas thought as he slid his phone back into his pocket and laid his hands underneath his head.