Tough Love (3)

'' Ah. it's raining.'', I say in my most normal voice

'' No, it isn't..''

Lecia stops speaking suddenly after seeing my tears.

'' What ?'', I say in an annoyed voice.

A small smile appears on her face,

''Nothing.'', saying this she turns her head to the front.

She takes hold of my hand and we both swing together as if none of what happened just now happened.

We goof around for a very long time before heading back.

~~~~

8 years later,

I sit at the very back of the classroom, bored out of my mind. Unlike popular belief, our middle school years weren't the best time of our lives. The usual conception of middle school was that it was a blissful time where innocent children interacted with the real world for the first time.

But the reality of the situation was that children are little devils that think they can get away with literally anything. They're all little shits and right now I was a kid as well.

Damn it all.

Our homeroom teacher enters the classroom and the entire class becomes silent, She looks at us with her usual frown and walks towards the podium in the front of the class. She arranges the files in her hand in some way and clears her throat and starts speaking,

'' Good morning, children.''

To which the entire class sings back,'' Good morning, Miss Herbert.''

''As you all know, today is a very important day for you all. One month from today you will all graduate from middle school and become high schoolers. But today isn't about that. Today is about your future, the choice you make today will affect your entire life. So make your decision after very careful consideration.'', saying this she hands out a piece of paper to all the students.

Some students looked nervous, some looked excited. I was neither nervous nor excited because I knew exactly what the piece of paper contained. It was to choose a high school that suited the future that we envision for ourselves. After the arrival of the angels and the 'Great Catastrophe', The common sense of the world entirely changed as new values were given birth.

One of the new things that came up was that middle school students had a lot more stuff to study and high schools for different professions came into being. Not exactly different professions, but more like different streams. There was a multitude of different courses to choose from and your education was tailored specifically towards that stream of studies.

For example, students who choose ' Business' as their mainstream in high school are only taught things concerning business. The same concept was applied to those that chose the ' Hero' course. Of course, that doesn't mean that they were taught anything else. It just meant that the main focus was on the mainstream the student chooses. The student also had the option to choose a secondary and third stream of studies as well.

I was fifteen years old this year, and the plot of the novel is finally starting. It starts with Max choosing the Hero course, after getting into 'The Unity', which was the school that was said to offer the best hero course in the entire world. But I don't plan to go an inch near 'The Unity', I already looked into a high school that I could get into with a scholarship that offered a decent hero course.

I almost thought about going to the Unity, not because I care about Max or anything, but because Lecia got into The Unity. I mean who would have thought that little scrawny little brat would get into The Unity, one of the most prestigious schools in the world. The reason I decided against joining The Unity even though Lecia got in, was because she wouldn't be in any real danger as the students in the ' Arts' course did their work in an entirely different building and they rarely met up with students from the hero course.

I look at the paper that was handed out to me and chose the school I wanted to get into and then specified that I wanted to get into the hero course.

I get up and walk towards the teacher and hand her the paper and walk out of class like a fucking chad.

~~~~

Mrs. Herbert and the rest of the students remain silent.

Mrs. Herbert looks at the paper in her hand, it said that the student's name was X or something and that he wanted to get into Northside Academy and join the hero course. That was fine and all but-

Mrs. Herbert looks up and asks the students in a dazed manner,

'' He does know that class hasn't ended yet right ?''

The students remain silent.

~~~~

It seems that the class hadn't ended yet.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Well, we all make mistakes.

I got a lotta shit from Mrs. Herbert for that.

I'm walking back to the orphanage right now, ever since I started going to middle school, Mark stopped driving me. I'm alone right now because I had to stay back as Mrs. Hubert wanted to 'talk' to me. She also told me that she would talk about my stupidity to Mark, so that was something to look forward to.

I feel someone's hand on my shoulder. I look back to find three children whose appearance yelled out 'low life'.

'' Sigh''

I don't have time for this.

'' Look at this guy !'', says bully 1

'' He thinks he's some hot stuff.'' says bully 2

'' Let's teach him a lesson.'', says bully 3

Such cliché lines.

At this point, all I feel for them is pity.

'' Hold on.'', I say while raising both my hands in the air.

If I wanted to I could beat these low lives in the blink of an eye. I mean I wasn't exactly sitting still all these years. I inadvertently think of my status and the familiar blue screen appears before me,

-----------------------------

Name : X

Age: 15

Potential: D

Strength: F+

Agility: F-

Stamina: G+

Intelligence: F+

Mana Grade : D

Vitality : G+

------------------------------------

Job: Swordsman lvl: 1

You have a innate understanding and talent for the sword.

Techniques: None.

Skills:

Author's Authority [ SSS rank]

Using your lifeforce you can change the present to your whims. The more significant the change, the more vitality is taken. Can only be used once a day.

-------------------

Even though it wasn't E rank like I had hoped , considering my circumstances I'd done pretty well for myself. Everyday I would train my body intensely, and after about 4 years of hellish training, I started to spot differences within my body. I was slowly raising my rank. I was so happy that I hugged Lecia, which terrified her. She said that she thought that I had finally lost it. The reason it took so much time was because of my trash potential, The lower your potential, the more harder it is to increase your rank. Seeing as how I toiled away for so many years and only yielded little, I decided to take a different approach. Let's think about that later though, I have some bullies to deal with.

Seeing their appearance and the way they were talking, they seemed to be used to this kinda stuff. Let me tell you the easiest way to deal with bullies, just stop trying to fight them and give them what they want.

I take out a black wallet from my pocket and give it to them.

'' I-i don't w-want a f-fight.''

Seeing the wallet, the faces of the three shits light up and they snatch it from me.

One of them pats my shoulder and says in low voice.

'' Good. You respect you seniors. That's good.''

They were high schoolers !

Wow. Just wow.

I bow my head and run of in the direction to which the orphanage was located. Using my F- Agility, I reached the orphanage quite quickly even though there was quite a distance to cover.

~~~~

'' Did you hear his voice, boss. It was shaking so much. Hahahahahah.'' , Bully 1 says in an annoying manner.

'' Yeah, I thought he would piss himself, Hahahahahah'', says Bully 2 in the same annoying manner.

Bully no.3 who appeared to be the boss laughs with them.

After their weird laughing session, the boss asks,

'' So, how much did that little piss boy have ?''

The Bully 1 who appeared to be the boss's underling takes out the black wallet and opens it, he pulls out the money from it. He shows the boss the bundle of cash in it and the three of cheer.

It seemed like they hit jackpot!

The squat down on the ground and start counting, as soon they start counting the three of them soon say the same thing in the same confused manner,

'' Isn't this monopoly money ?''

The three of them look at the bundle of monopoly dollars in a dazed manner.

~~~~