Plans To Get Stronger

Waking up the next morning, Jake remained on his bed staring at the ceiling. Thinking about how he leveled up yesterday, he decided to take the whole system thing a little bit serious. 'I mean, if I'm stuck with it, putting in some effort won't hurt.'

"Jake, you up?" Andrea asked while knocking on the door. "You gotta get up or you'll be late for school." "I know dad, I'm up." said Jake, while slowly getting out of bed. Walking towards the bathroom to take his bath, he decided to check his quests to see if he could complete anyone today.

[Quests]

[Run to the Superstar Mall within 15mins=Speed +2, +10exp]

[Lift 30kg dumbbells 15 times=Strength +2, +10exp]

'Okay. I could probably do the mall quest after school today, and Sky hits the gym like three times a week, maybe I'll follow him there for the dumbbells quest.'

After having his bath, Jake went down to have breakfast before heading to school. Seeing Sky there already, Jake was surprised. "Damn, you're already here? How late did I sleep?" "Don't ask me. I wasn't the one sleeping like a log of wood instead of getting ready for school." Sky replied. "Yeah yeah whatever, " Jake replied. "what's for breakfast?" "Toast and scrambled eggs" Andrea answered him, "grab a plate from the counter."

***

Sitting in class and staring at Cat while the teacher was explaining the topic of today, Jake was thinking of the kiss she gave him on his cheek on their first date. She had approached him this morning when he and Sky had reached school to thank him again for the nice dinner. "No problem," Jake had told her, "we should do it again sometime." "Yeah we should" she had replied. "How does Saturday sound?" Jake asked. "I can't make it on Saturday, my aunt is taking Cassandra and I to the mall." "The Superstar mall?" "Yeah, you know it?" "Sort of." Jake answered. "Well anyway, rain check?" "Sure. I might decide to swing by to steal a glance of that smile of yours." Jake said smiling at her. "Really?" Cat said smiling back, "well should I be expecting you?" "That depends." "On what?" Cat asked, "Are we gonna be able to spend some time together afterwards?" "Hmmm," Cat said while pretending to think, "why don't you come to the mall and I'll see what I can do. Sound good?" "Yes ma'am."

Coming out of his reverie, Jake was looking up at the stoic face of the teacher in his class. "Mr. Cayden, I'll have you know that I do not permit daydreaming in my class. Keep whatever you teenagers think about outside my classroom, I am going to forgive you just this once because you are a fairly new student. Is that understood?" "Yes Mr B." "Good, and it's Mr Blackwell to you. Now as I was saying class, the ratio... "

***

Strolling around the school premises after the bell rang for break, Jake was looking around and was only just noticing how large the school really was. There was a field large enough to contain the whole students in the school whose numbers reached up to 500, the school hall which was also as large as the field along with other smaller halls, the different rooms for different levels of training which is used by the senior students. "Well the school's not the second best in Ansteria for nothing, though I wonder how the best school will be if the second best is already this good" Jake thought out loud.

Jake was still taking in the view of the school when he saw Cat sitting under the shade of a tree near the gymnasium.

"Hey, what's up?" Jake asked after walking over to meet her. "Hey" Cat said after looking up and seeing its him. "Shouldn't you be in the cafeteria eating?" asked Jake. "I could say the same about you." Cat replied, "sit with me." she said tapping a spot next to her. Sitting next to her, the two of them stayed in silence for a while. "It's nice isn't it?" Cat asked after a while of sitting in silence. "Yeah, it is. Except for the noise coming from the cafeteria." Jake replied. "Yeah except for that" Cat said chuckling a bit. "Have you thought of what you want to be after we graduate from here? You know, which academy you're going to." "I haven't really thought about it." Jake answered. "We still have a full year to go till we graduate, so why think about that now?" "I don't know, to prepare I guess." "Prepare for what?" Jake asked. "For whatever it is you're going to face in the academy you go to. I heard the academy's going to push their students harder now, you know, because of the rumours that another war might start again." "Yeah I heard about that, but I don't think you should worry about that right now. We've still got one year so instead of worrying, let's make the most of it. Plus our exams are coming up soon and I'm gonna need your help to study." "Yeah you're right," she said, smiling at him "we should go back now. Classes are about to begin again." "Did you put a timer in your head or something? How do you know?" "Stay here long enough, and it becomes a part of some of us." Cat said, standing up and going back to class.