Worrying Thoughts

"Hey Cat." Jake said as he came out of the building for third years when he was done taking a quick shower in Anna's office. He had taken new clothes from the wardrobe in Anna's office and he wasn't going to forget to ask her what male clothes were doing in her office wardrobe.

"Hey, are you also just finishing your training?" Cat asked.

"Yeah, that was my private training with Miss Anna. We finished the general training about an hour ago. How come you guys are finishing now?"

"It's our teacher, he said we had to do 40 sit-ups."

Shocked at what Cat said, Jake asked "40? He didn't consider the fact that some of you are girls?"

"That's why he told us to do 40, he told the boys to do 70. But he didn't say we must do it all at once, we did it little by little."

"Well since we're done, let's go." Exiting the school premises, Jake saw Nikki near the sidewalk buying something from a stall. "Hey Nikki."

"Jake." Nikki said as she turned around and gave Jake a hug. "Are you also just finishing with your training?"

"Sort of. Are you done with what you're buying? If you are let's go."

"Give me a minute." Returning to the stall, Nikki finished with what she was buying and put everything she bought into a ring she was wearing then went to meet Jake and Cat.

"Nice ring." Jake said. "Is it just for storing things?"

"This one is, the other one I have at home also has a tracker on it. What does your ring do?"

Lifting the hand which had the ring on it, Jake replied "This is just for tracking, I think. I've never tried using it for something else."

"If it can be used for storing things too, all you have to do is think about. When you think about the ring opening up so you can put something inside it, a portal opens, then you keep whatever you want to inside and it closes back. But you can't keep living things in there, at least not yet." Nikki explained.

"Okay, let me try it out." Thinking about the ring, Jake did what Nikki said and he saw a portal open up from the gem on the ring. "This is very handy." Jake said as he dropped the bag which contained the clothes he wore to school into the portal and closed it.

"I almost forgot." Cat said. "What happened to the clothes you wore to school this morning?"

"They were dripping with sweat so I had to change them."

"But these aren't your clothes." Cat said.

"How do you know?" Jake asked.

"I know the kind of clothes you wear, and this doesn't look like something you'd buy." Cat answered.

"You're right, I took these from Miss Anna's wardrobe. I didn't have any clothes in my locker, I have to remember to put some in there."

"Don't worry about that, I can do it for you."

"Thanks." Jake said then brought his lips down to meet Cat's.

After allowing them to stay like that for a while, Nikki spoke "Hello? People? Are we going to sleep here? If not I suggest you guys save this for later."

"Nikki's right Jake." Cat said after separating her lips from his.

"Should we walk or should we get into a Glist?" Jake asked.

"Let's walk." Cat said. "How about you Nikki?"

"Let's walk." Nikki answered.

"Then let's get going." Jake said.

With his hands on Nikki's and Cat's shoulders, for a moment Jake tightened his grip a little bit with affection. "Nikki I never asked you, do you have a boyfriend? I don't want some random person jumping me because his girlfriend is hugging me or something like that."

"Na, I'm a free bird, for now." Nikki answered.

"Cool."

Walking home together, Jake was thinking of where he was going to take Cat for their next date. He had only taken her out on one date because he hadn't had the time to do another due to everything that's been going on. But he would be free tomorrow and he wanted to use the time to take her out on a second date.

Nikki's house was a little bit farther than Cat's house so after walking with Cat to her house, Jake kissed her then walked Nikki to her house.

Getting into his house, Jake saw Andrea in the kitchen cooking and Sky in the living room switching between using his phone and watching TV.

"Welcome back Jake." Andrea said from the kitchen. "How was training today?"

Going to the living room and grabbing the remote control, Jake answered "Same as usual. How was work?"

"It was fine." Andrea replied with a brooding expression on his face. Andrea hadn't heard from Lumian in a while and he was getting worried. Lumian might try to do something to Jake and Sky, and the fact that he hadn't contacted Andrea in a while didn't help in keeping Andrea's mind at ease. 'Maybe I should try contacting him.'

"Hey I was watching that." Sky said as Jake changed the channel on the television.

"Really? You were watching the news? How old are you, 50?"

"They were talking about something concerning Repol. You know, the planet our attackers live on."

"Then go watch it in your room or just use your phone." Jake said.

"Oh come on, so you don't wanna know what the latest news on the Werts are."

"Fine if you want to watch it that bad, be my guest." Jake said as he changed the channel back to what Sky was watching and got up from the couch. "Call me if dinner's ready, I'll be in my room."

Going up to his room, Jake sat on the bed and remembered his quests. 'I might as well complete those quests now that I have the time.'

Thinking about the system screen for his quests, it appeared in his line of sight and he took a look at his quests.

[Quests]

[Practice using magic for 1 hour= Magic +2]

[Deplete mana completely and keep using magic for 3 minutes= Mana +3]

"Damn it, I didn't think of these quests earlier. The magic I have is Cat's magic, empathic telepathy. I don't want to be listening to other people's thoughts for one hour. What do I do?"

After sitting on the bed doing nothing, Jake had no choice. 'If I want to complete these quests tonight, I'm going to have to use Cat's magic whether I like it or not. I think it works within a certain range, so if I can leave the range I should be able to use the magic without hearing the thoughts of people.'

Standing up from his bed, Jake went towards a window in his room, looked down, then jumped silently.