Sitting on a roof

No matter how much I would say it wasn't hard, I didn't say it wasn't hot. Whenever our group went inside the gym you could feel the contrast from the outside. It was like walking into a kiln, and the worst part was that our school's old heat regulation system had already been scheduled to be upgraded after my class graduated.

When I figured that out I nearly got expelled from the amount of messages I sent to all of the administrative staff. 

To have us do these tests inside of this heat is diabolical.

Luckily, by the time it got unbearable, we had already completed all of the tests, so we were released onto our break early. We had managed to finish 20-minutes early, so I decided to get a shower before everybody else tried to compete for them.

I quickly made my way over to my backpack, and swiftly grabbed it, and made my way to the showers.

I kept a brisk pace as I strode down the halls, and into the shower room. There was nobody else inside, so I took a nice long shower. 

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-__-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

My shower ended abruptly when the break actually started, and all the other kids were set free.

I had already enjoyed myself thoroughly, but I could've always stayed longer.

To not be too big of a jerk, I left when the other kids were starting to steadily file in, and that proved wise because soon after the first 10 appeared, a few hundred started to pour in.

It was like a massive swarm of monkeys, and if I could control them with Swarmkeeper, I would've been the strongest in our whole city.

I nearly fought my way out of the shower room, but I thankfully didn't need to engage with the smelly mob.

When I had left I decided to go back to the impossibly hot gym, and see if I had missed anything because we were released earlier than the rest.

As I made my way back to the gym I encountered Juliana, and her friends who seemed to have had the same idea as me. They seemed freshly showered, and were already on their way back to the gym.

I passed them on my way to the gym, and when I got there I was able to see my group's administrator, and I ask him if we had missed anything.

"Well your group did well enough that it was fine to let ya'll out earlier than normal. Don't worry if you missed anything because all Arthor gave was an announcement that they were free for now, but they had to come back by 13:10A," he calmly replied.

He was being pretty nice, so I thanked him, "Gotcha, thanks for the information."

He gave a light chuckle, "Don't worry about it, good luck on your next test."

"Thanks," I said as I walked away, I couldn't keep myself away from my sandwiches for much longer.

I walked away from the sweltering gymnasium, and made my way outside to head up to the roof.

There was nothing like being outside to eat a lunch.

The fresh air was incomparable to the disgusting mixture of school lunches that permeated throughout the cafeteria air.

And the noisiness that made it hard to even hear my own thoughts was absent whenever I was outside.

I was somewhat free, or at least bothered.

I even had a special spot where I hadn't seen anybody else go before.

Actually, I had three, but I had to rotate because somehow people just kept finding them.

Putting that thought aside I made my way over to the new spot.

It was a more advanced version of the shitty door entrance. 

To get there you would need to know where the shitty door is, and how to get up there, but after that you'd need to continue going up. 

I quickly got to the point where you could climb up to the door, and flung my backpack up there, and climbed up the walls for the second time in the day. 

This time I quickly picked up my backpack, and made my way to the ladder leading up to the second floor's roof.

It was relatively safer than the way onto the main floor's roof, and that was because the staff were too lazy to make it harder. The ladder to the second floor was actually for getting on top of the gym, so it was already an intimidating climb for people afraid of heights.

I quickly climbed up the lengthy ladder, and surmounted it with a natural fluidity unfitting of an honor student.

Finally on the roof I got to work eating some sandwiches with some peace of mind.

The first of my sandwiches was a peanut butter & jelly sandwich. It wasn't the best sandwich I had ever had, but for some reason I just couldn't escape the fruity taste of the jelly. The textures the two condiments provided were mystical.

It was just sad that my bliss wouldn't last for long

(Are you ever going to use my power?)

What do you mean by that? I wondered. I was sure that it was obvious that I didn't have any idea if it was detectable, and I didn't want to take that chance when there were people above magnitude 1.

(I mean that you could have easily infected TONS of people)

(Do you know how many people wouldn't even notice it?)

(I know that you may not be the most risky person ever, but if you unleash it in the crowd of students even if it was discovered they wouldn't be able to link it back to you)

(And that is assuming they even discover it)

(Are you able to detect when a foreign bacteria enters your system?)

(NO)

(This is literally the perfect breeding ground)

Be quiet already, I get what you are saying. I simply forgot about it because I have been trying to figure something out to make Swarmkeeper work, I tragically accepted my defeat.

I had indeed been slacking, but I didn't know that it wanted me to cause a mini pandemic with my power immediately.

I can do it when I get back in the gym because we will all probably be put into the giant chair mass for a new lousy speech, I tried to reassure the impatient 'system'

I started to eat my second sandwich: another peanut butter & jelly.

(You better do that because when you get to your exteemed Academy, you won't want to be unfamiliar with it)

(You're smart enough to have already figured out that it would scale based on how powerful the person infected is, so I don't think you want to be caught poisoning them)

Wow, you're correct. One thing though. You've been talking on and on about infecting people, but to do that I would need to be like coughing, or put something in their food. Do you have another way to infect them? I will need it to actually infect people you dastardly system, I shot back.

(So you do have a brain)

(Lucky you, I have already made it possible so that just touching the target will allow your bacteria to spread across them)

Pause. You're sounding creepier than a stereotypical uncle, I continued eating my sandwich as I pointed out its flaws, Secondly, that would have to be on bare skin, and the uniforms don't allow for that, so what does the almighty system think I should do?

(Did you not learn how bacteria is spread?)

(I obviously wasn't going to give you that, I was also going to mention that your sweat and breathe also carry your bacteria, so you won't need to worry as long as you just move around)

Wow, so cool, I remarked.

(At least you can do something with the power I am giving you)

I decided to open up my third sandwich--it was also a PB&J.

I was about to chow down on my third delectable, but I was interrupted by the sound of someone climbing up the rungs of the ladder, so I quickly put it away, and focused on who might be coming up.

It was a softer sound than the ones that I make whilst I climb, so I was guessing that it was a girl, but then the sound started to get faster.

It turned from the sound of someone steadily climbing up to the sound of two people, and then to three.

I quickly realized I was going to lose my privacy, and thought about the possible options to proceed.

I can't escape without a confrontation because the ladder is the only way on here, and I can't jump down just yet. That leaves me with a few options, I can talk with them, I can just leave after they get up here, or I can just sit in silence, and leave just enough to be on-time for the start of the second test, I checked my watch, it was 12:30M, I still had another half hour before I was needed back into the gym. 

I was stuck.

I resigned myself to my fate, and waited for the intruders to show themselves inside of my nest.

As the first of the three neared the top I was greeted with a familiar face: it was Juliana.

She finished getting up, and looked down at her friends, and within a minute the second one had appeared.

She was a girl with , and her height was enough to almost surpass me.

I could look her in the eyes with the slightest downward look, and it was slightly intimidating.

Her brunette hair, and her light green eyes perfectly complimented each other, and created an impossibly perfect face.

Somehow she was struggling to get up. I had seen how Juliana and the blonde one got up easily, so I assumed that she was able to get up easily, but she was still struggling even after the twenty-seconds it took for me to recall her features.

It seems that she was trying to get up without using the bars that were there for helping with the end of the climb.

Her friends had used them to get up, and I made sure that they were clean, so I don't know why she wouldn't use them to get up.

Juliana broke my thought process because she called out to the struggling girl. "Ariel, the thing in front of you is a bar for you to grab on," she sighed.

Ariel looked at the thing in front of her, took a moment to process what she was looking at, and grabbed onto the bar, and pulled herself up with a red face.

After she was up, she looked at Juliana, "Thank you, Juliana."

"You're welcome," Juliana replied.

Once they were all up, they finally looked around, and noticed me.

I was sitting there staring at all three of them because they were invading my space, and they looked back at me in a moment of surprise.

I decided to break the silence, "Why are you looking at me like that? I was here first."

My childish actions gathered a mixed response from the diverse cast of characters in front of me; Juliana's face became a little red, Ariel's face grew a small smile, and the blonde one started to laugh up a storm.

Her laughter sounded kind of lighthearted and sweet, and it could have been a little disingenuous, but it was better than the cackles I was used to.

I don't know if what I said was funny enough to warrant that reaction, but it was better than an awkward mood.

Gradually the laughter died out, and the blonde one spoke up, "Sorry about laughing my ass off, but I just wasn't ready for something like that."

"From your silent and cold-hearted behavior from earlier, I thought you were some overly serious person who didn't know what comedy was," she continued her ramble, "You see, we were just coming up here because we were on a self-made tour of all of the cool lunch spots, and this was our last spot."

"Yeah we're sorry for bothering you if we are intruding," Juliana followed up. Her face had died down, and there wasn't any red left on her cheeks.

"No, it's fine. You guys aren't intruding on anything because I had already finished eating," I said in a semi-neutral tone, "If you want the spot to yourselves, I can leave, but for now, I am just going to finish researching Academies."

"Oh yeah, you're the guy Juliana said was really smart," the blonde girl said as if she had experienced enlightenment.

"Can you help Ariel and I go to a good Academy?" she asked with a surprisingly polite tone, "We can probably go somewhere good, but we don't know which Academy we should go to?"

I thought about it for a moment, "What do you want to do in life?"

"Why are you trying to bring philosophy into this conversation? Last time I thought about it there was no need for that?" The blonde girl said in a grimace.

She didn't seem to have understood my intentions, so I opened my mouth to tell her my reasoning, but Ariel cut me off.

"He wants to know if he should focus on making sure you go to the right Academy for you," she calmly said, "If you didn't want to fight, and you wanted to own a flower shop, he wouldn't recommend to send you to Zyphon Academy."

Zyphon Academy was a High Ranked Academy, and it was well known for having a ruling system among the students which was decided by how many people you have beaten.

"Oh," the blonde one mumbled meekly, "Sorry about that. The answer to your question is that I want to fight in the war alongside my family."

I nodded at her change in behavior, "It's fine, I would also have reacted like that if I was focused on joining the war."

"I have a Blue Grade if that help narrow your search," the blonde one chirped up.

Damn, I didn't know she had a blue grade. A friend group with an Indigo Grade and a Blue Grade, that is rare, I calculated the chances, "Do you have any odder requirements that you'd need for an Academy?"

"Nope, I have already resolved myself to not being with Juliana and Ariel next year," she stoically said.

"That isn't exactly what I meant, but it is nice to know that you are ready for an Academy," her face turned red and turned to the side, but I continued on, "You could probably shoot for the Top 100, but it won't be certain if you'll get in."

"I would say give it your best shot because with you what you've showcased today, you could get in," I said in an attempt to draw her attention away from her embarrassment. 

A small smile slowly grew on her pink face, and she looked me in the eyes, "Thanks for the encouragement, and good luck for your applications."

In response to that Ariel let out a quick giggle. 

I looked over at her, and could only see the face of somebody who had been trying to hold their laughter in. Her face was strained to the limit, and the hand over her mouth wasn't holding in her laughter anymore. Her giggles were so quiet, but they were the only things that could be heard for a little bit before the blonde one quickly mounted Ariel, and covered her mouth in embarrassment.

"Sorry about Ariel and Kari, they are constantly trying to one up each other," Juliana said as she lowered her head to probably not show me that she found Kari's situation hilarious.

"It's fine, as long as they stay safe," I replied, "They're a little too close to the edge of the roof."

"They'll be fine," she assured me, "They know when to stop."

"Actually, I've been meaning to ask you this, but which Academy are you going to?" she inquired.

"You see," she continued, "I think it would be wise for me to follow you because we come from the same school, and I think we could be good friends."

Juliana continued rambling, "The ability to band together in and Academy will be useful depending on where you plan on going."

"You would indeed be very helpful," I interjected, "But I currently don't know where I will be going, so I can't guarantee that I will be going to the same school as you."

"I do see the pros to your proposal, but I must say that I have no control over where I will be going," I said before she could bring up any other reasoning to sway me.

Her head lowered a little bit, "I understand that, if you do gain any further knowledge please do share it with me."

"I will tell you if I do," I looked at the two who were roughhousing earlier. Now they were at the center of the roof, and were tumbling a little bit more, but Ariel was still being controlled by Kari. The small blonde was surprisingly good at subduing the taller brunette. 

Turning my attention away from them I started to look through my pulsewave at numerous Academies that could work for Kari. 

Needless to say, with the lack of specifics from Kari, there was a lot of Academies that would work for her. Including the Blue Grade she would be beneficial to any academy outside of the Top 100.

In fact I think she could get into the first thirty of the Top 100.

I don't know her talent, and the glasses on my head aren't giving me anybody's talent for some reason, but I do know what she can do without her talent. She has the physical attributes necessary to compete with an Indigo Grade off the bat, and that is with something as a Blue Grade.

There is one little thing that I doubt about her though, and that is her Grade. I had never seen her in the testing center during the talent testing. I wasn't really paying attention back then, but I didn't see her once in the room where BronzeHeart tried to snag some talents. The only Blue Grade that didn't except that deal was a man with brown hair.

Putting that all aside I just decide to give her a more realistic answer for what she has provided me.

She obviously had some extra cards up her sleeve, and I didn't want to see them used against me.

So I called out to her, "Kari, realistically, I think you could probably get into Zyphon easily, and you could probably be one of the higher students there."

"In fact," I cautiously continued, "I think you could make it into Sun Spot."

Despite the very stupid name, Sun Spot is one of the Top 100. It sits at the number 76, and it is known for raising top of the line fighters. Kari has beyond Blue Grade strength, so she should be treated as an Indigo Grade, and that would be something any college would love to brag about.

Kari took a little break from terrorizing Ariel, and thought about what I had said.

A whole minute after I had given her my conclusion, she gave me a thumbs up, and came over to talk with Juliana.

Ariel also joined in now that Kari had left her alone, and I just left to go set things up for the second test.

A little bit after Kari started to talk with Juliana, Ariel joined, so I decided to give them some privacy.

I gave a quick goodbye, and walked towards the ladder, and started my descent.