2.1 - Academy

"If I were someone else, I'd still love you as much as I do now,"

—

Blake sat in class, staring out the window, letting his mind wander as his professor explained mathematical formulas up front. He couldn't care less about the Pythagoras Theorem or how to divide anything by 100. He could do that already. He learned that in his previous life as Kazuha. So, as a student, he continued to gaze outside the window and into the trees.

Soon, the bell rang, and after packing up his books, he walled out of the lecture hall and immediately went to the courtyard. The courtyard was vast and was decorated beautifully by the gardeners of the academy. As it was spring, the flowers bloomed and covered the bushes with various shades of blue, white and purple.

"Blake!" someone called out. With books in his arms, he turned to see a familiar head of brown hair.

"Daniel!" Blake exclaimed back with a wide grin. Daniel rushed over and took a few books off of Blake's hands.

"How was your mathematics class earlier?" Daniel asked, holding half of Blake's books in one arm while holding Blake's hand with the other.

"Boring! Why do I have to relearn something I've learned before?" Blake sulked, puffing his cheeks out in protest.

A small giggle escaped the brown-haired boy as he stared at Blake with emerald irises.

"Well, as someone who gets top place every exam, you'd do fine even if you skipped a few classes."

"...I'm tempted to. However, I would get caught almost immediately as soon Evan finds me," he groaned.

"The 12th year that tutored you before you joined the academy?"

"Oh yes, him. I would've gotten away with burning down that scary willow tree behind the academy if he didn't interrupt!"

"That was a dangerous scheme. I'm glad you didn't go through with it," Daniel chuckled.

"I'm sure it would've turned out fine," Blake shrugged.

Both boys walked back to the dorm buildings, hand in hand as they talked about various things. Inviting Daniel in, Blake threw his shoes off by the door before burying himself into his bed, wrapping himself in his covers as he hummed in satisfaction.

"There is nothing better than being in the comforts of my bed," Blake stated, wiggling in his covers as Daniel giggled by the edge of the boy's bed.

Glancing over to Blake's desk by the window, he saw letters piled in the centre of it.

"Oh, it's letter day!"

"Letter day?!" Blake jumped out of his cocoon and rushed to his desk to retrieve his letters.

There were four letters addressed to him from four different people. The one on top was a familiar blue and creme envelope with a dark green stamp, the second one was a plain creme envelope with a blue stamp, the third was a light green envelope with a yellow stamp, and the last one was a white envelope with a red stamp.

Hurriedly, he opened the first one. The scent of a familiar perfume wafted through the air as soon as he opened the envelope, there he saw Flora's name on the backside of it.

𝑫𝒆𝒂𝒓 𝑩𝒓𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓,

𝑯𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒘𝒆𝒍𝒍? 𝑰'𝒗𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒘𝒆𝒍𝒍, 𝒉𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒊 𝒅𝒊𝒅 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒅𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒂 𝒍𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒄𝒐𝒍𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒅𝒂𝒚. 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒂𝒚𝒔 𝒘𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒃𝒚 𝒔𝒍𝒐𝒘𝒍𝒚 𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒄𝒂𝒅𝒆𝒎𝒚. 𝑰 𝒘𝒊𝒔𝒉 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝒂𝒔 𝒔𝒐𝒐𝒎 𝒂𝒔 𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒚 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒎𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆. 𝑩𝒖𝒕 𝒎𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒔𝒂𝒊𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒏.

𝑰𝒎 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒄𝒂𝒔𝒆, 𝑰 𝒉𝒐𝒑𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒐𝒍𝒊𝒅𝒂𝒚𝒔 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒒𝒖𝒊𝒄𝒌𝒆𝒓! 𝑰 𝒉𝒐𝒑𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒇𝒖𝒏 𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒄𝒂𝒅𝒆𝒎𝒚, 𝒃𝒓𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓! 𝑫𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒎𝒆!

𝑳𝒐𝒗𝒆, 𝑭𝒍𝒐𝒓𝒂 𝑨𝒄𝒌𝒆𝒓 ☀︎︎

With a chuckle, he opened the next envelope.

𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐁𝐥𝐚𝐤𝐞,

𝐈 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐞𝐱𝐚𝐦𝐬 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧! 𝐈 𝐚𝐦 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐲 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮, 𝐦𝐲 𝐬𝐨𝐧. 𝐈 𝐡𝐨𝐩𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐩𝐮𝐬𝐡 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟 𝐭𝐨𝐨 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐝. 𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭, 𝐰𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐠𝐥𝐚𝐝𝐥𝐲 𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐧 𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐬.

𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐟𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐚𝐬𝐤 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮'𝐯𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐮𝐩 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐲, 𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐝𝐨 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐢𝐦 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬.

𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞,

𝐀𝐥𝐢𝐲𝐚𝐡 𝐑𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐧𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞.

The third envelope was familiar—an envelope he often sees coming out of his father's office. On the back, he saw his father's name written in expensive black ink.

𝒟𝑒𝒶𝓇 𝐵𝓁𝒶𝓀𝑒,

𝐼 𝓅𝓇𝒶𝓎 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝓁𝑒𝓉𝓉𝑒𝓇 𝓇𝑒𝒶𝒸𝒽𝑒𝓈 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓌𝑒𝓁𝓁. 𝑀𝒶𝓎 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝑔𝑜𝒹𝓈 𝒷𝓁𝑒𝓈𝓈 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽 𝑒𝓉𝑒𝓇𝓃𝒶𝓁 𝒽𝒶𝓅𝓅𝒾𝓃𝑒𝓈𝓈.

𝑀𝓎, 𝐼 𝓈𝓉𝒾𝓁𝓁 𝓇𝑒𝓂𝑒𝓂𝒷𝑒𝓇 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒹𝒶𝓎 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝑒𝓃𝓉𝑒𝓇𝑒𝒹 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒶𝒸𝒶𝒹𝑒𝓂𝓎. 𝒯'𝓌𝒶𝓈 𝒶𝓃 𝑒𝓂𝑜𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃𝒶𝓁 𝒹𝒶𝓎 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒻𝒶𝓂𝒾𝓁𝓎. 𝒲𝒶𝓈 𝒾𝓉 𝓉𝓌𝑜 𝓎𝑒𝒶𝓇𝓈 𝒶𝑔𝑜 𝓃𝑜𝓌? 𝐼 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝒶𝓁𝓌𝒶𝓎𝓈 𝒷𝑒𝑒𝓃 𝓁𝑜𝑜𝓀𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒻𝑜𝓇𝓌𝒶𝓇𝒹 𝓉𝑜 𝓈𝑒𝑒𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝑔𝓇𝑜𝓌 𝓊𝓅. 𝒩𝑜𝓌 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝐼 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝓈𝑒𝑒𝓃 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝑔𝓇𝑜𝓌 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽 𝓂𝓎 𝑜𝓌𝓃 𝑒𝓎𝑒𝓈, 𝒾𝓉 𝓂𝒶𝓀𝑒𝓈 𝓂𝑒 𝓆𝓊𝒾𝓉𝑒 𝑒𝓂𝑜𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃𝒶𝓁.

𝐼 𝒽𝑜𝓅𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝑔𝑒𝓉 𝓉𝑜 𝓋𝒾𝓈𝒾𝓉 𝒹𝓊𝓇𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓈𝓊𝓂𝓂𝑒𝓇, 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝓂𝑜𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇'𝓈 𝒷𝒾𝓇𝓉𝒽𝒹𝒶𝓎 𝒾𝓈 𝓃𝑒𝒶𝓇, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓌𝑒 𝓌𝒾𝓈𝒽 𝓉𝑜 𝒸𝑒𝓁𝑒𝒷𝓇𝒶𝓉𝑒 𝒾𝓉 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽 𝓎𝑜𝓊.

𝒲𝒶𝓇𝓂 𝓇𝑒𝑔𝒶𝓇𝒹𝓈,

𝒜𝑒𝑔𝓊𝓈 𝐿𝒾𝒶𝓂 𝒜𝒸𝓀𝑒𝓇.

Finally, a white envelope with a red stamp, signed by The Duchess, Cruella.

𝐷𝑒𝑎𝑟 𝐵𝑙𝑎𝑘𝑒,

𝐼 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑑 𝑓𝑖𝑟𝑠𝑡 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑜𝑖𝑠 𝑒𝑥𝑎𝑚𝑠 𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛. 𝐼 𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑛𝑜 𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛 𝐴𝑙𝑖𝑦𝑎ℎ 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐴𝑒𝑔𝑢𝑠'𝑠 𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑑. 𝑌𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑎 𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑑 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑖𝑠 𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑎𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑒𝑣𝑒 𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠. 𝑀𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑓.

𝐼 𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑘 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑤𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑒𝑒𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛 𝑑𝑢𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑚𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟'𝑠 𝑏𝑖𝑟𝑡ℎ𝑑𝑎𝑦 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑦. 𝐹𝑒𝑒𝑙 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑖𝑛𝑣𝑖𝑡𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑦 𝑖𝑓 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑓𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑠 𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟, 𝑤𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑏𝑒 ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑦 𝑡𝑜 ℎ𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚.

𝑈𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑙 𝑤𝑒 𝑚𝑒𝑒𝑡 𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛,

𝐶𝑟𝑢𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑎.

A wide smile spread on Blake's face as he immediately grabbed his pen and a few pieces of paper to write back to his family. Blake enjoyed getting letters from them, it reminds him of how much he is cared for here compared to when he was in his previous life.