212 Surprising News

When school ended came the time for us to make our way over to the club room in the secondary building. The walk over there wasn't anything special since we've taken this exact route every day for almost the entire school year up until now. Come to think about it, since it is technically the beginning of Spring now, that means that it's almost an entire year since I got the Socialization app. It's still somewhat early to be thinking about the whole one-year anniversary thing because there's still an entire season to go until summer, but I still feel as if I've been through a lot in the short time that I had the app installed.

"Hope you're ready for Erith," Irina tugged on the sleeve of my blazer and whispered to me.

"I think I'll manage," I bitterly chuckled as I waited for Loyd to unlock the clubroom door.

Since Loyd is technically the club leader, he has the keys. That means that no one is in the clubroom, so I can still relax for a bit longer until the eventual confrontation with Erith. What does she want though? She talked about wanting to see who the person was that lured Luna away from her usual social circle, but that could mean a lot of things. Ever since this new timeline replaced the old one, I still have not grasped clearly what is different in its entirety.

"Nervous?" Muria smiled, amused by my countenance of discomfort.

"Somewhat," I sighed.

I followed Loyd and the others into the club room, and I had to stop myself and think for a second. I almost subconsciously made my way over to the seat by the window where I sat when I was Alvelyn. Now that I am back as Alevian, and the real Alvelyn is there, that means my seat is back to the one by the doorway at the very end of the long, rectangular table.

"Still not used to being back?" Noah whispered to me in a cheeky manner.

"Somewhat," I muttered back.

"So what do you think?" he grabbed a chair and sat down next to me. His gaze was over at Loyd, and I followed his gaze to where Loyd was. At that instant, I caught a glimpse of Loyd looking up and glancing over at Alvely, holding that stare for a few seconds, and then looking down at the homework notebook that he had taken out from his school bag.

"Right," I sighed and frowned. "That's a thing."

"What're you gonna do about it?" Noah asked me in a soft whisper.

"I don't know," I responded. "Knowing that Alvelyn is technically me, I'm kinda against her being with a boy... Just the thought of me—you know what, it's kinda disgusting for me to even think about that."

"Wow," Noah whistled.

"But it's her choice," I ultimately said. "I guess it's the same for her, so I'm not gonna do anything to try and interfere. She has her own conscious now, so my thoughts aren't the sole determiner for her decisions."

"Pretty mature of you to think that," Noah chuckled.

"Shut up," I looked down at my phone that I had just retrieved from my pant pocket.

Noah then continued to stare at me for a bit, keeping his eyes open as he gazed at me. However, after a few seconds, he seemed to be bored so he got up from the seat next to me and moved over to where he usually sat opposite of Loyd. Then, he started chatting with Loyd to pass time. I didn't take part in their conversation. Instead, I was trying to relax by reading a novel on my phone. It's been quite some time since I've read this novel. I didn't have the chance in the past month when I was Alvelyn, and I didn't come to reading it while at home so the story of this novel is a bit hazy to me, but I'm pretty sure that after a while I'll remember.

Reading something did somewhat distract me from Erith, but when there came the sound of footsteps at the door, my heart started palpitating. For some reason, I was quite nervous and somewhat anxious about the whole situation, even though I know for sure that no real harm would come to me. To be fair, I don't think anything would happen. Erith is a nice girl. I learned that when I was Alvelyn. However, it's still somewhat unsettling for me.

"Hey yo," Zaksus slid open the door and greeted us. On his face was a pleasant and joyful smile, indicating that he's in a good mood.

"It's you," I let out a sigh of relief as I brought a hand to my chest to calm down my palpitating heart.

"What do you mean it's me?" On Zaksus's face was a confused expression, but it was only for a brief period of time. The smile on his face quickly returned as he took a seat in his usual spot.

"You're awfully happy for a Monday," Loyd commented. "What's the news?"

"It's almost Spring break," Zaksus explained.

"That's it?" A look of disbelief appeared on Noah's face. "You got all excited for that? It's still weeks ahead of us."

"Let me finish," Zaksus complained. "The basketball team's gonna be doing a week-long camp with other school's teams for the first week of break where we're just gonna play for the entire week straight."

"And you're excited for that?" the look of bewildered disbelief on Noah's face transitioned to one of a genuine confusion."

"Yeah," Zaksus nodded. "Cause ball is life."

"Come to think about it," Loyd said as he looked over at me. "Alevian, you're a huge basketball fan, aren't you?"

"Y-yeah," I said, looking up from my phone to see a look of pleasant surprise on Zaksus's face.

"Alevian's pretty good too," Loyd added.

"Really?" Zaksus said as he looked enthusiastically over at me. "Did you see the game last night? The Royals vs the Vanguards?"

"Part of it," I answered, thinking back on the time that I spent as Alvelyn sitting in front of the living room television.

"We should definitely play sometimes," Zaksus exclaimed.

"Huh?" I chuckled in disbelief. "Me versus one of the nation's top high school prospect? That sounds kinda fair."

"I'm not saying one-on-one," Zaksus continued. "Stop by the gym sometime after school once we're done with the Spring tournament. That's our last big competition so after that, we just play every day."

"Maybe," I nodded.

Just as I was about to look down and return to my novel, I saw Alvelyn glancing over at me. On her face was a rather interested look. Is she also interested in the sport? I guess if she's the female version of me, then she'll probably like the sport as well.

Suddenly, the door slid open once again, and this time, it was Erith and Luna. I quickly glance over and on my face was a look of surprise as I had forgotten about this whole thing when I was talking with Zaksus.

"Is this Alevian?" On Erith's face was a rather terrifying smile as she walked over to and stopped in front of me. She then leaned forward such that her face was mere centimeters from mine and just stared at me. "The face is pretty good, handsome. Stand up."

"W-what?" I stuttered as I was taken by surprise by her odd request.

"I said stand up," she repeated.

I looked behind her and at Luna who was standing there by the doorway with an awkward smile on her face.

"Just do it, Alevian," she said to me.

With a confused expression on my face, I did as I was told and stood up. I found myself looking down at Erith's face as she walked around me, eyeing me up and down.

Looking at her from here, she's not that intimidating, I thought as I took note of the difference in our height. Back when I was Alvelyn, I'm shorter than Erith, so maybe that's a major contributor to why I find her intimidating initially. Now that I'm back as Alevian, she's not that intimidating anymore. Rather, she's somewhat cute and pretty in a more erotic and mature way.

"Pretty tall too," Erith nodded her head. Then, she reached her hands out to my arms, grabbing and feeling them.

"Um..." I looked over at Luna for help, but Luna simply stood there with an apologetic look on her face.

Erith then pressed a palm against my chest, feeling them. "Chest is pretty sturdy too."

"Isn't this...sexual harassment?" I let out weakly.

I heard a snicker from the far side of the room towards the window, and looking over, I saw that Muria was trying her best to contain her laughter. I guess this is to be expected from her. The look on my face must be extremely hilarious to her. Next to Muria, Irina was blushing as she saw Erith feeling my chest. She seemed to be quite flustered by all this.

"Well," Erith took a small step back and winked to me. "According to society's definition, it's only sexual harassment if it's a guy doing it to a girl."

She's not wrong, but what kind of excuse is that?

"Luna?" Erith brought her hands to her waist and said as she stood next to Luna. "I don't see anything in him that should be interesting to you. His appearance is pretty good, but you're not the type that values appearance over personality that much. Besides, we're pretty good looking too, definitely above average, so I don't see anything else that might make you attracted to him."

"Erith!" Luna blushed and tried to hush her friend.

"You're all quite lively today," a familiar voice said from the doorway behind Luna and Erith. Looking past them, I saw that the voice belonged to Mura. Standing next to her was Emilia, who still appeared as calm and collected as ever. "Everybody sit down. Let's talk about what our plans are for Spring break."

We all listened to Mura's authoritative voice and took a seat. Then, we watched as Mura took a seat at the head of the table while Emilia stood by the doorway.

"May I take these two now?" Emilia asked Mura.

"Go ahead," Mura nodded.

"Let's go," Emilia turned around and walked out through the doorway and down the hall.

"Is she talking to us?" Noah leaned over and whispered to me.

"I think so," I sighed and got up from my seat. Before I left the clubroom, I glanced over at Alvelyn.

"I'll tell you what we talk about," I said to her in my mind.

"So," Mura said as the two walked out of the clubroom and slid the door closed behind us. "Any suggestions on the club's activity over Spring break?"

Noah and I caught a glimpse of Emilia turning the corner at the end of the hallway, so we employed a brisk walking speed to catch up to her. Since the hallway was quite empty, the only sound audible was the sound of our footsteps as well as the echo of Emilia's heels in the hallway. When we neared the room where the band practiced, there was the sound of instruments, and when we passed by them, there were also the rooms for the school choir and school orchestra, both of which had pleasant music emerging from the.

"She's taking us to the roofs," Noah commented. "What does she want now?"

"You don't know?" I glanced over at Noah in surprise. "Noone told me anything."

After walking up the final flight of stairs, we finally made our way to the closed doors that led to the rooftop. I brought my hand to the doorknob and slowly pushed it open. A gentle gust of wind blew by the moment we stepped foot on the rooftop, moving our hair and the tail of our blazers. Since it was still early Spring, the wind was still somewhat chilly, but it wasn't anything that's unbearable. The wind blew right past us and up to the blue sky overhead. I glanced in the direction that the wind blew in from and took in the beautiful city scene that was visible from the rooftop of the building.

I looked around the rooftop, and I soon saw Emilia leaning against the railing at the edge of the rooftop. Slowly, Noah and I approached her, and when we neared her, she turned around to face us.

"What is it?" Noah asked. "Do we really have to come up here to talk about this? You couldn't tell me when we're at home?"

"This also has something to do with you too, Noah," Emilia smiled and said in a cold and mysterious manner.

"Me?" Noah sounded quite surprised.

"Remember the reason why we sent you here?" Emilia asked.

"Wasn't it something about a test?"

"Right," Emilia nodded. "And that test begins starting now. From now on, you will no longer have access to your powers. You will have to deal with everything using only mortal powers."

"Wait...WHAT?" Noah's jaws seemed to drop to the floor as he stood there with eyes wide and mouth gaping.