LAX SUNDAY

Christian hurriedly accepted the first quest and jumped on his bed, pretending to be asleep.

The door made a click sound, and three figures hurriedly stepped into the room. 

"he's still asleep after all this time?" Christian heard an unfamiliar voice asked. 

"Nope," Sam replied "He's pretending" he added as he walked over to Christian's bed and pulled at his cheeks hard. 

"Ya, ya… Sam what did you that for?" Christian asked as he sat upright, and caressed his slightly red cheeks

"Why were you pretending to be asleep?" Sam asked back

"I wasn't!" Christian lied, avoiding Sam's gaze

"There's no need for you to lie," Kelsia said lazily, with a bored expression on her face. "We both saw your shadow move under the door right before we came in" She added 

"Oh…" Christian huffed, surprised 

'ya… why didn't I think that they would have noticed my shadow… besides, why did I even pretend to be asleep in the first place?' Christian thought 

"So, why were you pretending to be asleep?" Kelsia asked as she squinted her eyes at him, "did you do anything you were not supposed to?" She added

"No, I did nothing wrong" Christian responded calmly, he shrugged his shoulders then continued "Why would you even suspect me of doing anything wrong?" He asked 

"Well, for starters, you laid on the floor all night next to that weird-looking book of yours, with a frown evident on your face, and you were muttering some sort of gibberish words I couldn't understand" the third figure in the room, Paul, suddenly said.

"Oh, did I?" Christian asked nervously

'crap, I totally forgot that I was sprawled on the floor when I lost consciousness' he sighed inwardly 

"Yeah you did," Sam said staring intently at Christian "is there something you would like to share with the both of us?" he added raising a brow at Christian 

'f*ck Sam now's not the time to be playing detective…' Christian groaned inwardly then said 

"I have nothing to share with you guys," Christian said plainly and shrugged his shoulders as he laid back on his bed. 

"But…" 

Sam was about to say something when Kelsia interrupted him and shook her head at him as if telling him not to chase the subject anymore. 

Even she was feeling worried about Christian as something seemed off about him from the moment she stepped into the room. She didn't know why, but she had a weird feeling from the connection she had with him that something had changed within him, something that wasn't there a day ago was now baring itself and she didn't know if it was a good thing or a bad one, but she made up her mind to let the case rest for now as he didn't seem to be in any sort of pain or inconvenience from it.

Christian naturally saw the exchange between Sam and Kelsia and he let out a breath of relief, inwardly thanking Kelsia for helping him out of a tight spot. 

The atmosphere within the group suddenly turned awkward and silence stemmed in their midst, the sudden calm setting made Christian uncomfortable and he turned to his side praying to all the gods he knew to help him fall asleep and escape the probing eyes of his friends. 

'you know they are still staring at you right?' He heard Samantha asked 

'yeah, I can still feel their gazes on me, but how did you know they were staring? It wasn't like I was looking in their direction' Christian replied 

'We are connected now, so logically I can see and feel whatever you see and feel' 

'ya... hope you can't read my mind or do stuff like that' Christian asked alarmed 

'No,' Samantha replied instantly and continued 'the most I can do is read your surface thoughts, and that's how we are able to communicate now, without you having to say a single word' she added 

'good, that's really good, I feel more secured now' 

'secured? Just what kind of thoughts are running through your mind?' Samantha asked a bit bewildered 

'my thoughts belong to me alone, don't poke your nose where it doesn't belong' Christian said childishly, mentally poking his tongue out at Samantha who scoffed at him and replied with just one word

'rude!' 

Right at that moment, Paul's voice sounded in the room and dispelled the lingering silence that was starting to drive Christian nuts. 

"there's still up to five hours before sundown, what do you guys propose we do with it?" Paul asked staring at Sam 

"Why are you looking at me? I have no plans or whatsoever, I'll probably just stay in the room for the rest of the day" Sam said decisively while he shrugged his shoulders 

"what about you… uhm… Kelsia right?" Paul asked as he turned to Kelsia 

Kelsia simply stared at Paul briefly with an unfathomable gaze as she stood leaning over Christian's bed before retracting her eyes away from him. She didn't offer a reply to his question and instead turned to face Christian on the bed then said;

"Christian, can we go continue our training now?" Kelsia asked Christian with big round expectant eyes 

Christian opened his mouth to say something but decided to force it to shut at the last second, as he was at a loss for words. He cursed this Paul character silently in his heart when he brought up such an issue, and wondered how he even got on speaking terms with Sam that would outright ignore most people that spoke to him

'but thinking back to what I did to him yesterday, the least we can do is to get along with him right?' Christian wondered 

"why is it taking you so long to reply!?" Kelsia suddenly asked, angered by the fact that he was hesitating to reply to her. 'there is no way you're avoiding training with me! Hmmph! Scrap the master fact, I'll beat you shitless then drag you all the way to the training Hall if I have to because there's no way in hell am having a lazy and weak human as my rider!!!' She screamed inwardly to herself while she dawdle for his response. 

To Kelsia, the current Christian was nothing more than a cannon fodder that could be easily disposed of in battle and is nowhere near a standard dragon rider that is worth her boasting of, her head hurts every time she thinks about the numerous places she intended to venture when she successfully obtained a rider, only to get stuck here with an overly lazy rider and annoying humans that were like flies buzzing over her face every minute with a few gazing at her weirdly, and unable to mask the lewd thoughts running through their minds… 'ugh!!' she shuddered involuntarily from the thought alone. 'those detestable beings, I'll kill them all one day' She swore as the look on her face turned sinister and the images of whom her first victims were going to be flashed through her mind

*Sigh* 

Christian let out a troubled breath and shook his head lightly with a dejected look on his face. "Kelsia can't you be more lenient towards your master? My sides are still sore from your last training session and my brain is jumbled from all that has been happening lately, tsk, if things keep going at this rate then I'll have no choice but to resort to my bitter fate of dying at your hands through your training" Christian said with a dejected look on his face still shaking his head

"wha…" Kelsia almost yelled out, infuriated by what Christian said. 'that does it, am definitely beating him shitless!' Kelsia thought not daring to voice it out

"what do you mean by your sides are still sore from the last training? You've clearly been healed of that a long time ago! You, you're just looking for excuses to drop out of training today aren't you!?" Kelsia asked perplexed 

"took you long enough to realize… anyways, today is Sunday and I just want to take a step back from everything and be relaxed for a while. Is that too much to ask for Kelsia?" Christian asked raising a brow 

"well, you should have just said that from the beginning instead of giving unreasonable excuses" Kelsia replied and settled back on the bed, having decided to let the day's training slide. 

Kelsia felt rather satisfied with her decision as she believed that imposing her will on Christian would not in any way help both parties achieve what they want and would only serve to drive a wedge between them. 

"uhn? Is that it? Kelsia you aren't chasing this issue anymore?" Christian asked stupefied

"what's the use? You've clearly made up your mind about relaxing today, who am I to force you into something you don't want to do" Kelsia said calmly with a slight smile on her lips

"ya… if you put it like that then I really have nothing to say" Christian said and smiled cheekily. 

Even he was expecting Kelsia to somewhat be angry at him and try to convince or force him to train with her, but what he wasn't expecting in the least was what turned out to happen 'you really can behave unexpectedly at times you know' Christian thought with a huge grin still plastered on his face

"well that was a surprising turn of events, I was even anticipating how much of a fight you could put up before being dragged out that door," Sam said 

"ya… Sam, not you too" Christian said staring at Sam in disbelief 

"fuu…" the forgotten figure John suddenly let out an exclaimed breath to remind the trio of his presence. 

Naturally, the three simultaneously turned their head to face his direction "pfft…" Sam took the initiative to burst out laughing first while he held on to his ribs that hurt a bit from laughing

"Sorry man, that's just how we are, we mostly stick to ourselves so we tend to forget the presence of another individual if there ever was another in our midst… pfft…" Sam explained and continued laughing while Christian was in his thoughts thinking about how Sam and Paul got close so fast that Sam even bothered to clarify the awkward situation to him 

"it's alright, I mean I think I would have done the same thing if I was the one in your shoes" Paul replied with a hint of sorrow in his voice "well anyway you guys have fun because this daddy is exhausted and needs a rest" He added and fell right on top his bed with a heavy 'thud' 

"So it's a lax Sunday right?" Christian asked then added, "what do we do with the rest of the evening?" 

"I would save most of my strength for tomorrow if I were you guys, I heard from a few students that the first-class tomorrow is going to be haywire" Paul suddenly said from the bed 

"well I'll be damned" Sam muttered as he found his way to his bed "I had no intention of going out before, therefore resting is the best option" 

"you guys are no fun" Christian said bored then turned to Kelsia only to face an empty bed

"wha… when did she…" Christian jaw slacked and he was left speechless by the sudden disappearance of Kelsia 

"you guys do know how to ruin the mood", said then laid on the bed "just hope the first day of class won't be anything hard" he muttered as his vision gradually faded away