Darwin High

Cyril's POV:

I slept beautifully.

Despite having quite a few naps throughout the day and having a lot to think about, sleeping was still as blissful as ever, and it is only more precious now that I know that there is not much time left to have such nice sleep.

So it was just horrible that I didn't get much time to enjoy myself at all.

"WAKE UP BITCH!" Aza burst into my room first thing in the morning. At least, it was not surprising, I knew she was coming from miles away from all the clicking and clacking coming from outside all morning. Sleeping while maintaining alert is a habit that I wish I could just forget in this instance. I just really really really hope she won't come in, yet, here we are. "WE ARE LATE ALREADY!"

I lazily reach out for my phone to confirm the time myself, it was almost 8.30 am, and school started at 9. At this point, might as well skip school.

But the thought disperses as fast as it pops up, remembering mom's fury brought shivers down my spine as I sluggishly force myself up.

Last night, when Aza held me up and the "discussion" was getting a bit heated, the only reason we stopped was because of a sudden knocking on the door. With me and Azia already in the room, the knock was obviously from mom, and both of us immediately shut up.

In a luxury apartment, our walls are pretty thick, but they are by no means soundproof. The knock was a silent warning, but it was horrifying nonetheless. So we end up quickly finalizing the minor details like what our cover to our friends will be, when to awaken to Xius, what immediate action we could do to prepare for this Friday... you know, the boring stuff, and went to bed pretty early.

Still, I reckon I still could do a 10 hours nap at any given moment.

I lazily drag myself to the bathroom for my morning routine, which is all the way in the living room and is shared by both me and Aza. Mom's the only one with her own private bathroom in this apartment, but I ain't complaining. I don't remember paying rent.

"Took you long enough." Azia grumpily greeted me with a mouth full of food as I exited my room. "Hurry up, I think we need to leave in like, 5 minutes if we were to make it in time for the train."

I grunt back in response and make my way to brush my teeth.

It was nothing noteworthy to talk about as I idly prepare for school.

Surprisingly, after only about 5 minutes, I was done. I am really just low maintenance like that.

I followed Azia out with backpacks of unknown content that I just picked up from the corner of the room and in our school uniforms, which are grey pants/ skirts, white shirts, and a black blazer with our school logo on the chest pocket. Very neat.

To be honest, the whole way to school, I just shadowed Azia.

She seems to know what to do, scouring through her phones looking for directions, turning left and right furiously until we are on the 8:45 train to school. She was so efficient that I thought I was the only one who regressed.

As we found ourselves empty seats to sit on, Azia suddenly turns to me and smirks. "So? How are you feeling?"

"What?" I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion, still munching on my breakfast sandwich. "How's what? Why are you asking me that all of the sudden?"

"Oh come on, I see you looking around being all curious the whole way here." Aza smugly acts like a senior out of nowhere. "How do you feel walking around the city? It's nice, isn't it? All peaceful and stuff."

I scoffed.

Well, it is nice. The fresh air, the peaceful and safe roads, the laughter in the atmosphere, and even the panic running office men. Those are not things that could be found later on. Although I am not the type to enjoy a walk in the park, but you really don't know what you got until it's gone, and it is indeed very refreshing after having to trudge on civilization ruins for the past 15 years to enjoy peace again. It's amazing how a simple 10 minutes walk makes something inside me just want to do my best in preserving the people and the current order.

I, of course, refuse to admit it and give Aza a sense of victory.

"Too bad it's gone soon." I reply to Aza's question.

Although I have fully prepared myself for a pinch in the waist or something for saying something so negative, Azia surprisingly just sighs in response. "I know, right."

Her sudden affirmative reaction somehow got me a bit annoyed, but I kept my silence.

Just like that, we do our own thing until the train arrives at our station.

As we step off the train, Aza turns to me. "Cy, run." Her face was full of panic as she showed me the time. It was 8:57 am, I cursed to myself as I also pick up my speed.

It's not like we love school and want to show up on time or anything. it was just that our school has a rule that still traumatizes me to this day. 'Students who are late more than 10 times without permission are refused entry.' And well, we probably already used up our 10 lives, and we certainly don't have permission. So we run.

Thank god the road from the station to school is a straight line and is fairly short, we barely made it in time and sneak past the gate, with probably half a second to spare as I could see some students behind us are kept back.

"That's tough..." I muttered, looking back at the poor souls with a sour look, offering my silent prayers.

Finally in, I took a gander around, taking in the surrounding with nostalgia.

Our school, Darwin, is not huge. But it's terribly compacted. I don't know the exact measurement, nor do I feel the need to, but you could probably leisurely walk from one side to the other in about like 5 minutes. But somehow, in this square vicinity, they manage to fit in a full basketball court, a mini soccer field, a library, even a swimming pool, and a tennis/volleyball field in the lower level, yet still have space left for some greeneries and some small gardens around. While the students, staffs, and teachers use two 6-stories modern-looking buildings for daily activities, the West and the East.

If you think it is luxurious, it's because it is. After all, it's private education and the sky-high tuition fees have to go somewhere. Azia and I only manage to study here because mom somehow got a special deal to reduce our tuition fees through her connection.

I am forever grateful for that. But damn, the rules are strict and the condition for the scholarship of keeping our marks above a certain level is exhausting.

My trip down memory lane is cut short by a sudden punch in the shoulder.

"Snap out of it." Aza grumbles. "Hurry up, we are late. First class is homeroom."

I nodded as we enter the main entrance to the west building and walk our way up to the 4th floor. I continue to follow Azia's lead as she navigates her way with a full class schedule on her phone.

The inside of the school is no less modern than the outside appearance. The first and second floor is solely space for commute, meetings and is where the library is situated. Starting from the third floor upward are rows of students' lockers, classrooms, and faculty members' rooms.

Although I somehow still faintly remember my locker number, I didn't even have time to apply it, as Azia lead us right to our homeroom class.

But just before entering, she stopped.

"What's wrong?" I asked, eyes still looking around the familiar surrounding. "Why are we stopping, is it the wrong room?"

We stopped right outside of the door, so I take a step forward to look through the door glass slit, checking for myself whether it is the right room or not. But Aza pull me backward before I got a chance to show my face.

"Fuck, Cy, it's the right one. I'm just nervous." She whispered in a low voice. "I hear Ellie's voice already. I will act weird, I already know it. Ellie will definitely sniff it out, she's a damn wolf. Fuck, let's just practice our interaction a bit before headin- Hey hey!"

Before Aza finished, I choose to ignore her bullshit and just open the door and walk in.

"Bro, we thought you were dead! Where have you been?" A familiar voice immediately greeted me and I smiled in response.

"Hey, Reyner." I return the boy sitting in the back greeting. "I overslept yesterday and was refused entry, can you believe that?"

"I knew it! Jess, you owed me 25 Efir." Reyner laughed.

"Shut up Reyner, I didn't remember agreeing with your bet." Jess, sitting at the table right in front of Reyner snap back at him. "Hi Cy, you barely made it in time, miss Celine is not here yet."

"Cy, where is Aza?" A girl standing next to the both of them asked before I could even open my mouth to return Jess's greeting. "Is she in the bathroom or something? Why didn't the both of you answer any texts yesterday? I almost had to call you mom or something!"

Too many damn questions.

Why are they all asking at the same time?

"Hi to you too, Ellie." I answered and look back, looking for Aza, who is shy all of the sudden. "No, she is here, Aza?"

There was no answer.

"Aza?" I ended up having to go back out just to look for Aza. "Aza?"

Just to see her still standing silently out of sight, rooted on the spot.

"She knows." Azia glare at me as if I somehow wronged her.

"Stop being an idiot." I forcefully drag her by the arm into the classroom. "Ellie, won't bite. I think."

"She fucking does!" Aza lamented, but offer no resistance to my pull.

Soon, we are both inside, with 3 pairs of eyes looking at us.

"Hey, guys…" Aza gave her weak greeting to the gang.

For a person who always worried so much about her acting and keeping secrets, this girl really does her absolute worst. Every single time.

"AZA! Here you are! Why haven't you been answering my text?" Ellie, being Ellie, start attacking Aza with a barrage of questions and made her way over to us. "Are you sick? Why do you look so pale? Did you oversleep yesterday like Cy? Do you want to go to the nurse's office? We should really go to the nurse. Let's go!"

And they are off.

More like Aza being dragged away by Ellie, but those are insignificant details.

"Ellie bro, always so annoying. Why are you still standing there, Cy?" Reyner asked from the back. "Come here."

"Yeah yeah." I decide to ignore my sister's situation for now and go toward my designated seat next to Reyner. "So, what did I miss? And where is Jake, by the way?"

"His family is having a situation, again." Jess replied. "Apparently, his mom storms off after arguing with his dad. She went all the way back to their mansion in the Zueshire this time, and she's taking Jake with her. I think it's serious."

"What?" I asked in surprise. "So he is not even in Central city? That's crazy."

"I know right." Reyner replied. "But Jake says he is ok and the situation is not that deep, he'll probably be here by tomorrow. Unlike you and Aza, Jake keeps us updated."

"My bad. Uh, mom got really mad this time and gave us time out, no phone or anything for the whole yesterday." I replied with a rehearsed answer, feeling a bit guilty for using mom as my shield. But I really really can't think of any other valid reason for both Aza and me to not use our phones the whole day. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

"What, hahaha." Reyner laughed heartily. "TIME OUT? That's so old fashion!"

"That's light." Jess remarks. "I would probably be punished with even more tutoring. It's close to exam season too, you guys are lucky."

"Sounds like a rich kid problem." Reyner teased.

"Shut up, my parents are just strict." Jess glared. "And I was talking to Cy, mind you."

"Cy would agree with me, anyone would, Jess."

"Your words have no value."

Stuck in between their back-and-forward bickering, I could only smile helplessly.

I don't even know how I feel about this. It's kinda weird, to be honest.

The world is going to be destroyed soon, and the only ones who could probably change that end are me and Aza. And what are we doing? Going to school, participating in random chit-chat of course, what else.

But deprecating jokes aside, being surrounded by our friends once again…it's not a bad feeling, not at all.

It's kinda fun.