136 You Still Need to Relax Somehow

The month of November soon passed with nothing particularly exciting happening at all. The school has placed its main focus on the preparation of the students for their finals such that many of the clubs temporarily suspended their meetings aside from the occasional meets for the sports club such as Zaksus's basketball team as they prepared for the upcoming league tournament.

Waking up in the morning for school has become increasingly difficult for me each and everyday. This is largely due to the fact that the low temperature makes sleeping in one's warm and comfortable bed extremely appealing, making it so that I'm constantly extremely drowsy in the morning. In addition, when I do wake up, I would be reluctant to leave the warmth of my bed, resulting in me burying my head underneath the covers and pressing snooze over and over again. This bad habit of mine would've resulted in many tardies for me if not for Loriana who would wake me up by knocking on my door. I'm actually quite impressed at how she's able to force herself out of her bed early enough for her to prepare for work as well as stay behind and work overtime to complete the research that she's working on at the Nocsinis Imperial University, but I guess that is what adults have to do.

The advent of December brought with it the true winter as temperatures dropped to a chilling degree such that leaving one's house without wearing a winter coat resulted with great shivering. Many of the students of my high school had started wearing layers underneath their blazers, with the most common being wool vests or a hoodie that they wore over their dress shirts. As for me, I simply wore a navy blue woolen button up coat over my blazer along with a dark grey muffler scarf.

The winter weather must be particularly difficult for girls to endure since they cannot escape wearing skirts so unlike us guys, their legs are constantly exposed to the winter breeze. This resulted in the girls at my school and any of the other high schools in Vilheim to don knee high socks. However, from their often energetic nature, it would appear that they're quite used to dealing with the cold, but aside from wearing longer socks, the exact method I do not know. I guess girls just have their ways...

Anyways, school continued as usual, but different from November, the lectures had entered review mode. Every single class of the day were reviews for the content that we had learned in the semester, making every day extremely boring. Well... it wasn't like learning new things were particularly exciting anyways. I guess it might be because I understand the concept being taught almost immediately while it will usually take some time for normal students to learn.

I could still recall the majority of the content that was taught over the course of the semester so I wasn't particularly worried about the final exams as my goal was to simply pass, unlike the many other students in my class and the school in general. Everyone focused in class, paying great attention to what the teacher was saying as well as writing on the large smart board at the front of the classroom using a stylus on the screen. While they're doing so, I would simply gaze out the window and look at the blue sky outside which occasionally would also be grey if it was cloudy that particular day.

After school, life would continue being the same as before. Even though club activities were technically suspended for the time, our group would still gather in our club room on some days either to study or just to relax. On other days, we would leave school and go get some food or have fun in the city to release some stress from studying. The latter we usually accomplished by heading to arcades.

"Yo, air hockey!" Noah exclaimed as we walked around the noisy arcade where numerous other young adults and teens stayed to entertain themselves. "Let's play!" He said as he grabbed the two blue strikers on one side of the table.

"I'm down," Zaksus smiled and walked over to the other end.

"Y'all wanna do duos?" Noah asked with a large smile on his face as he looked over at the rest of us.

"I guess," Loyd chuckled in response. Then, he looked over at the three girls, Luna, Muria, and Irina, that were with us. "How about you three?"

"Sure," Irina smiled. She seemed to be in a state of great excitement since she probably never been to an arcade due to her status and gender. Since she's famous and often have plenty of jobs lined up, its obvious why she couldn't just simply go wherever she wanted. Since she's a girl, it's also quite awkward for her to visit an arcade alone where the predominant majority are boys. Therefore, I guess this was the first time she truly visited an arcade.

"At least this area is quieter than the other places," Muria sighed as she crossed her arms before her chests.

"I think it'll be fun," Luna added with a smile on her face.

"Let's start with boys versus boys duos," Noah excited suggested. "Zaksus and I against Loyd and Alevian."

"Let's get it!" Zaksus shouted in an excited voice as he walked over to stand beside Noah and picked up a striker that Noah had placed on the smooth air hockey table. "Y'all aint got shit on me!"

"Let's whoop their asses," Noah smiled in a mocking manner as he looked over at us. "Get your weak pussy asses over here. Daddy's bout to go ham!"

To be honest, seeing that face of his really got me kinda riled up, which is oddly rare. Usually, I wouldn't care much, but for some reason I do care right now. I felt myself being somewhat angered by his taunts which led to my eyelids twitching somewhat, but that doesn't matter. I wanted to teach Noah a lesson.

"Alevian," Loyd said with an oddly calm voice. Then, he looked over his shoulder at me, and that was when I saw the look of suppressed anger on his face that was restrained behind that smile of his. "Just like old times?"

"Let's do this," I nodded.

The two of us then walked up to the red side of the air hockey table and each grabbed a striker. Then, Noah scanned his phone at the scanner to pay for the match in order for the machine to release the puck onto the table.

"We'll start," Noah said as he reached forward for the puck and brought it closer to their side of the table."

"Remember it's just a game!" Irina called out as she stood by the long side of the table with Muria and Luna standing next to her as they spectated.

"I know," Loyd chuckled and acknowledged her. However, his voice was oddly serious. "I hope you still got it in you, Alevian," he smiled towards me. "Don't you dare hold back, you know?"

"I might need to warm up a bit," I sighed and cracked my knuckles, "but I should be back at full strength."

With a swift motion, Noah struck the black puck with his striker, hitting it hard with great strength in his movement, and pushing the puck at a fast speed towards the slit at our end of the table that was the goal. It was a fast moving puck that was at a speed that I believe was extremely above what the average player would be able to achieve. It is considered extremely hard to stop, almost a near score against ordinary players. However, I'm not worried and neither was Loyd. Who said that we're ordinary?

"Ha!" Loyd called out as he quickly brought his striker over to the predicted path of the puck at inhuman speed, blocking the puck and causing it to rebound at an angle and hitting against the sides of the table in a zigzag motion back towards the other side until it quickly shot into the goal.

"H-how?" Noah exclaimed with bewildered eyes. He looked down at the slot where the puck was to be retrieved after a score and then back up at the two of us with great shock in his widened eyes. Beside him, Zaksus had a similar reaction, but it was a bit more contained.

"I forgot to tell you," Loyd chuckled and said. "The two of us used to dominate the local arcade at where we used to live."

"That's a few years ago though," I sighed. "It looks like you're not as fast as before."

"I'm a bit rusty too, you know?" Loyd laughed.

"Hmhmhm," Zaksus laughed as he retrieved the puck and placed it back down on the white, smooth air hockey table. "I expected at least that from you. Now it's our turn."

Then with a quick and powerful motion of his arms, he smashed the puck hard on its side with the striker, causing it to bounce back and forth rapidly against the sides of the air hockey table. The odd thing about it was that it moved side to side with no signs of it ever moving forward of back. Then, that was when I noticed what he was after. He wanted to make us distracted by the rapid movement of the puck as it moved side to side and he'll strike when we least expect it, pushing the puck either at an angle or directly at the goal.

"No!" Loyd cried as both of us were too late to react to the rapid movement of the puck as it flew right by our defense and into the goal.

"Too naive," Zaksus laughed. "You really think we're that weak?"

"You might not be," Noah softly mumbled with an awkward expression on his face.

I should've known. Zaksus is the ace player on the basketball team, the rising star in the basketball world. Therefore, he has great athleticism, strength, and reaction speed. Therefore, he will definitely be extremely good at this game.

I let out a sigh and shook my head.

Looks like it won't be as easy as we thought it'll be.