chapter 3 .ೃ࿐
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Ashvina D/O Shivaamithan
As usual, Ashvina woke up two hours before school even started. She hurriedly got her uniform out of her closet and threw her timetable on her table. Her body seemed used to waking up at abnormally early hours for school, it was a habit that even being out of school couldn’t fix. It seemed that her body would remain used to the school system for the rest of her days.
Her roommate, Aarunya Sharma, just finished showering and peeked into Ashvina's room. "You might want to be quick, breakfast is going to start," she explained with a grin. Her hair was tied up in a bun with black bees flying around it. Aarunya descended from Bhramari, the Goddess of bees, hence why she was in the Academy of Magics, Daewon. She needed to learn how to control and use her bees to their fullest potential. She also had other abilities as well.
She always found Aarunya's bees cool though she would never go near them due to fear of being stung. Aarunya had always reassured that her bees were harmless and that she had full control of them but that did little to convince Ashvina. She was still afraid of them. They were still insects. Nothing would ever change that fact.
There were other people like Aarunya in Daewon, people who can control bees, but descended from different people. Different mythologies. It was amazing how so many different kinds of people could just exist all under one roof.
"It's the second week and first day of lessons, they aren't going to punish anyone," Ashvina replied, her mind temporarily forgetting of the troubles her dearest friends got themselves into.
"Didn't Ivy, Afrina and Lis clean the whole school as a result of being late?" Aarunya asked, frowning her eyebrows at Ashvina. "I am pretty sure that happened."
How could she have forgotten of her friends’ latest adventures? "Of course they did," Ashvina sighed as she got back to packing her bags, something which she finished in a matter of minutes. Aarunya left their dorm while she was packing. Aarunya always managed to wake up earlier than Ashvina, hence more time for her to finish completing what she needed to do before school every single morning. However, it also caused Aarunya to suffer from a severe lack of sleep. Ashvina often wondered how did Aarunya survive all these years in school, she wondered how anyone survived with such a severe lack of sleep. She didn’t know how she managed to survive with her own lack of sleep. Why was sleep such an issue?
Ashvina hopped into the shower the moment she finished packing her stuff. Like how she packed up her items, she finished showering in a matter of minutes as well. Ashvina took the hair stick that Ivy gave her just days ago. It was both a hair stick and a dagger, a really small one. Ashvina used it to secure the top half of her hair into a neat bun and allowed the bottom half to roam free, letting the wind tangle with it.
She was surprisingly early. The sun was still nowhere to be found, breakfast usually began when the sun began to rise and everyone needed to be back in class before the whole sky became a shade of sky blue for flag raising and other matters that their teachers would have to settle before lessons officially began for the day.
She decided to make her way up to Afrina's dorm at level 6. Ashvina's dorm was on the fifth level and Ivy's was on the seventh and she always complained about that. Ivy often complained about how she was always a half dead zombie by the time she made it to her level, the ends of her hair often dripping with her sweat. Before leaving, Ashvina ensured that she had all of her items ready before exiting and locking her dorm, ensuring that nobody could enter and steal anything. It was always better to be safe than sorry.
Afrina was already out when Ashvina arrived on her level. It was pretty clear that she didn't get a good night's sleep, the eye bags below those bright eyes of hers were evidence of it. Afrina’s lack of sleep was something that Ashvina blamed on homework. Was a good sleep really possible when school was a thing? Ashvina wondered when was the last time someone managed to get a proper sleep while still being in school. She hadn’t met anyone that could get proper sleep for school. Was school really something that everyone enjoyed?
"Do you want to get Ivy?" Afrina asked as she ended the sentence with a yawn. "I think my new roommate is coming over today."
"Ivy is probably already waiting for us," Ashvina replied. Ivy usually reached the cafeteria pretty early to rush her incomplete homework, it has been her routine for years, rushing homework while being fresh out of bed. None of them ate breakfast, they never do, lunch and dinner were the only meals they had. "Hopefully your roommate isn't a terrible one."
Afrina laughed as they headed down the stairs and left the girls' dormitory building. The school was just a sevenmetres walk from their dorm. Several other students were on their way as well. The noises of various chatters echoed throughout the hallway towards the exit, how could people have so much energy early in the morning? Ashvina couldn’t hold a conversation for long early in the morning, unless it was with her friends, but even that didn’t last very long.
Ashvina caught sight of Lis laughing away with his basketball friends and Afshin Nouzari was behind them. Afshin was busy talking to his friend as well. They were all in the same class for their final year. None of them had grades that were worthy to be proud of. Maybe one or two subjects were good but overall? It was a different story.
The kind where people would pick up once and never read again.
"Did you find any handsome boys?" Teased Afrina as she looked in the direction where Ashvina was looking, looking like an idiot scanning the crowd.
"Why would I ever do that?” Ashvina responded, a hint of an unbelievable tone could be found in her voice as she tore her eyes away from the boys.
"Since when is Lis friends with Hiroya?" Afrina suddenly blurted out as she looked at the group of boys.
Kashiwa Hiroya (柏 浩也), was Ivy’s former boyfriend, an Argent and Flarion. Things had ended badly between them as the both of them were freshly teenagers when they started going out with each other. The lack of maturity the both of them had led them towards a mess of a relationship which ended on horrible terms, except Hiroya tried to fix things but Ivy just ended it all. She still talked to his twin sister, Kashisa Nagisa (柏 凪紗) since they were friends before the relationship and Hiroya wasn’t entirely faultless in the relationship. He didn’t care that his sister was still friends with someone like Ivy. It was her loss, Ivy knew what she lost.
"They are both Argents," said Ashvina. "And isn't Hiroya on the same basketball team as Lis? Lis leads the team."
"I have never seen them talk," Afrina replied, surprised by the new revelation.
“I think Ivy said that they have always been acquaintances, they only talk about the team,” Ashvina replied. “Not best friends but they do get along most of the time.”
Eventually, the duo finally reached the school's cafeteria and found their usual seats. Ashvina offered to stay while Afrina went ahead and used the toilet first before buying a snack, in case someone decided to steal their seat.
"You'd think Ivy would be here already," said Afrina as she got back from buying herself some snacks, something she rarely ever did when the sun wasn’t up in the sky. "She is unusually late today."
Ashvina looked around as she tried to spot Ivy among the sea of people. Nothing. Maybe she wasn’t tall enough to be seen? There were plenty of people taller than her in the crowd and it made sense to Ashvina that Ivy just wasn’t tall enough to be seen.
"This is weird," Ashvina commented as Kashiwa Nagisa slid into the seat meant for Ivy.
"Morning Afrina," Nagisa greeted as she waved at Afrina with a grin. "Hi Ashvina!" Nagisa grinned.
"Hi," Ashvina smiled back. She didn't talk to Nagisa very often but Afrina and Ivy did, Nagisa was in the same volleyball team as Afrina. Afrina was the captain of the school's volleyball team too. Afrina was one of the best when it came to volleyball and she knew how to properly lead too. She was well-liked, everyone on the team wanted her to be their leader, they trusted her immensely.
Kashiwa Nagisa was around the same height as Ivy, just slightly taller. She was a Glazer and Lumina too. She was extremely different from her brother as well, Hiroya was the same height as Ashvina. Nagisa had short wavy hair with curtain bangs. Hiroya had a mushroom looking hair, one that Ivy thought resembled a bowl with hair glued on them many years back. Though she decided that his hair was good after they first got together. It was something to laugh about. The way Ivy would change her mind about certain things on certain guys after she developed feelings for them. Afrina and Ashvina managed to get a good laugh out of it for years.
"Do you know when our first practice is?" Nagisa asked. One thing to note about Nagisa was that she wasn't the brightest with languages. Something that Ivy has always made fun of as she was good with her languages, and Nagisa would bring up math to shut Ivy up. Those two could never go a day without making fun of each other.
"Mrs Minah hasn't said anything yet," Afrina explained. Their volleyball coach was a Southeast Aserian hijabi lady named Minah binti Sugriwa. She was slightly shorter than Ashvina and even played on the national team in her home country until she suffered a severe injury that had her out of the team and Daewon hired her to teach the school team. Since then, Mrs Minah has been teaching a bunch of children, hoping that one day, one of them would be able to reach her former glory, or perhaps even reach beyond that. She had hope in everyone, always so encouraging and lovely. Afrina had said that Mrs Minah reminded her of a mother.
"Did she forget about us after her wedding or what," Nagisa joked as she rested her head on the table. "Wait, where is Ivy?"
"Possibly fucking your brother," Afrina laughed. Ashvina sighed in disappointment, Afrina and her inappropriate jokes. Ivy was the same, it felt like Ashvina was a mother to two wild animals sometimes. It was everyday that she wondered if her friends escaped from some sort of a zoo because they were just so… not normal. Especially Ivy, that girl was on a whole new level when it came to being a weird creature. Sometimes, Ashvina would run out of patience dealing with Ivy. Thankfully, Ivy could tell when Ashvina runs out of patience and stop immediately.
"Devil's shit don't plant that image in my mind!" Nagisa protested in disgust, her face contorted into one of absolute horror. "I am a pure child. Also, my brother is talking to Lis."
"And her roommate is talking to Aarunya as well," Ashvina pointed out, looking at the queue of the popular drink store in the whole school where Ivy’s roommate was busy chattering and laughing with Aarunya.
"I am guessing that she is sleeping," said Nagisa. "We arranged to go out and buy some items we needed like a few weeks ago and she was two hours late. I ended up walking around like an idiot waiting for her! She failed to wake up on time and her hair was still dripping wet when she arrived."
Ashvina sighed once again, classic Ivy. She was late to everything. And her reason was always her hair or she overslept, sleeping past the noises that were supposed to ensure she would be awake. Sometimes it could be both. Or it also could be the fact that she got lost every second. Ashvina has never met someone who could get lost as much as Ivy. There was one time where Rina told Ivy to walk in a straight line and she still somehow managed to get lost and ended up on the opposite of where she was supposed to go. Ivy was a hopeless case when it came to directions.
Breakfast passed by and there was still practically no sign of Ivy. Classes officially started, making it the worst day to be late, that would have given their teachers a bad impression of her. A lazy sloppy student who did not care about her grades and allowed it to plummet even below the depths of hell. A spoiled girl thinking she was above the world just because she was born privileged. Ivy wasn’t the latter.
They were all in their final year in Daewon, unless they wanted to stay for one more year. Afrina, Ashvina, Ivy, Nagisa and Hiroya were all in the same class as well, the bottom third, Class H3 D. They were all in their final year of High school, preparing to move on into college or university if their grades would allow it. It was either repeating a year or stop studying as a whole and hope that life would be good to them after that. Would the working life embrace them with the warmest hug known to man or would it hit them with an unbearable wave of despair?
Class H3 D consists of people who have failed one subject. Ashvina failed Biology, Afrina failed Chemistry, Ivy failed Math, Nagisa failed Zopenese and almost failed Esamese, Hiroya failed Geography. Also in their class was Lis Phia Vang and Afshin Nouzari. Lis failed Physics and Afshin failed Priaqesian.
Afrina and Ashvina went all the way behind as their teachers hadn't assigned them an official seat yet. They would know what it was on this very day though, it was always the first day where their seats would be revealed to them. All of the important items were settled on the first day of lesson so that there would not be any hold up for future lessons.
Their teacher stepped into class, Mrs Cereza, her full name was Luella Marietta Marapao Cereza and she was of Filiocan descent. She was rather short, standing at 160cm and she has straight, shoulder length hair. She has rather wide eyes, a small nose and a heart shaped lip. Her friendly face always warmed up the days of her students. The way she starts her class with the same amount of excitement everyday was what led to everyone loving her lessons.
"Good morning class!" Mrs Cereza beamed. Everybody loved her, she was a sweet teacher. Not a soul dared to badmouth her, or dire consequences awaited them from students who loved her with their whole being. Mrs Cereza was a kind, and amazing teacher, she knew what to teach and how to teach, so that her students would receive the best that she could ever give. She was like a mother to them, Ashvina enjoyed her lessons.
Thunk thunk .
The sound of somebody knocking aggressively on the door suddenly grabbed everyone's attention. There Ivy was, standing by the door, panting like she had just run the whole way from her dorm all the way to class. "Sorry for being late," she said sheepishly as she stepped into class. All eye contact was stuck on her as Ashvina sighed, Ivy had never been late and yet there she stood, as late as one can be. At least she still made it, right?
"Oh no worries! You're just in time, I was just about to show you guys your new seating arrangement!" Mrs Cereza announced as Ivy stood beside Ashvina. Just in time was certainly the right word. On time and Ivy simply belonged to two different worlds.
"Psst, why were you late?" Afrina asked once Ivy entered class and stood beside Ashvina.
"I overslept and my roommate didn’t bother waking me up," Ivy explained. Such simple reason, it was so much like Ivy. Of course that was the reason, what else could it be?
“Why am I not surprised,” Ashvina responded with a sigh, her tone and face as nonchalant as she could be. The amount of times she had heard similar things were astronomical. How did she stay normal despite being friends with two of the most abnormal creatures ever was anyone’s guess.
Mrs Cereza flashed the seating arrangement on the whiteboard, she was a Crafter so she could easily turn the whiteboard into a screen for her to show some important things. Magic was such a convenient thing to have.
Ashvina's eyes scanned the screen as she tried to look for her name. She knew that she was too tall for the first few rows so her eyes immediately jumped to the last few. There were a total of five rows and columns.
Ashvina Shivaamithan | Afshin Nouzari
So she was going to be sitting beside Afshin, this wasn’t so bad. Her seat was all the way back, in the middle row, at the second closest column to the outer windows as well. She decided that it wouldn't do her any harm to look at where her friends were sitting. Ivy's seat almost sent her into a laughing fit. She knew Ivy was going to flip out once she saw it. It was funny just thinking about it. She couldn’t wait for Ivy to see it.
Lee Aera | Lis Phia Vang
Ashvina turned her head to face Afrina and the both of them almost started laughing. Their bet was coming true wasn't it? Ivy's seat was close to the windows facing the hallway and it was in the middle column. It was also with Ivy’s “favourite person” in the whole world.
"Devil's shit what the hell?" Ivy whispered as she found her seat. "You're fucking kidding me." It made Ashvina want to laugh on the spot. Ivy might just find a new love from her seating arrangement.
"Maybe Mrs Cereza sees a potential with you and Lis," Afrina teased. “The both of you would be so cute.” Afrina continued cooing and annoying the living hell out of her dearest friend.
“Do you have a death wish?” Ivy asked, her eyes narrowed. “I could always ask my father to help with that, you know. Shall the crime be treason?” She tried to make the most intimidating face she could but the tiniest smile crept its way onto the edges of her lips.
“Do it then,” Afrina responded, “I dare you to.”
Ashvina continued paying attention to the screen while her friends argued. She was looking for Afrina’s seat as an unknown name caught her eyes. In the third column, first row, she had never seen that name before. Could she be the new student? Of course she was, why else would there be an unfamiliar name?
Kashiwa Nagisa | Afrina Munni
Kashiwa Hiroya | Rafeeda Jafari
Hiroya was sitting beside a girl, possibly Afrina's new roommate. Afrina sits right in front of Rafeeda too, and Nagisa was her seatmate. Ashvina sits in the row beside their's so they weren't far apart, however, Ivy's seat was the complete opposite from Afrina's.
There were a total of five rows in their class and Ivy's row was the one right in front of the teacher's table and furthest from the door. Afrina's seat was the one closest to the door.
"Mrs Cereza, is Rafeeda Jafari a new student?" Asked Delphia Estelle Leones Viray, a short girl of Filiocan descent. She has long red hair which was often untied due to her being too lazy to style it in a traditional style from her culture. Delphia was very proud of her long hair, her long black hair used to be her biggest pride but she lost a bet and had to dye it red, but she ended up loving the new colour. Most of the older students didn't care about the school rules on appearance anymore and would show up however they like. Like how Lis has shoulder length, layered hair, Ivy doesn't bother cutting her bangs and tying her hair for school and Delphia having dyed hair. Magic has brought people the ability to colour their hair. Sometimes Healers and Crafters come up with the most creative things when they work together. They were like the dream pairing.
"Yup!" Mrs Cereza replied cheerfully, "She should be arriving soon."
Mrs Cereza's idea of soon clearly wasn't the same as the rest of the class. By the time Mrs Cereza finished teaching her Esamese lesson, which was one hour and thirty minutes long, the new student was still nowhere to be found. Not a sign of her was spotted. It was like she wasn’t even supposed to be here.
"Do you think she’s coming?" Afshin whispered as Ashvina shrugged, she was just as clueless as her dearest friend.
"Maybe she's coming after school?" Ashvina suggested.
Their next lesson was maths and the headmistress, Madam Ha Suji entered with a smile on her face. Ashvina turned to face Ivy, she looked sleepy and annoyed. Typical of her to look like that whenever she sees Madam Ha Suji, she has never liked that woman.
"Homework!" She demanded, her voice as loud as a canon, it even bore a similar threat to one too. The entire class reluctantly reached into their bags and took out a worksheet. Some had empty worksheets while some didn't have it at all. It was a sight many of their teachers were used to. What else were they supposed to expect?
It wasn't a surprising sight to see, considering how most of their classmates had no motivation for work, some had unstable mental health while some just didn't care at all. Not that the teachers cared about their mental health anyway. They pretend to care and the students pretend to care about their studies as well. Class H3 D was just people pretending all the time. H3 D often gossiped with other classes as well.
"None of you bothered to do it?" Madam Ha's loud voice echoed in the class as the majority of the class didn't bother to even look at her, all of their eyes were glued to the suddenly attractive table. She was rather hated among Ashvina's class. She didn't blame them, she hated her as well. There was not a moment where Ashvina had seen someone even speak positive words about their headmistress without being forced. But every teacher had their own various teaching styles, this was Madam Ha’s and Ashvina should respect it, at least she was still learning something so it wasn’t so bad. She was a mere teenager, what could she do aside from tolerating it?
"Do you even care about your future, you insolent brats!" She boomed, her voice almost scaring the soul out of everyone, suddenly, Madam Ha’s head turned to Ivy’s direction. "Lee Aera! Show me your work!" She was the only adult in the entire school that had the guts to drop Ivy’s real name, full name nonetheless. She feared no royalty, she does not fear what she despised.
Ivy's head shot up at the mention of her name and her face was a mix of both puzzled and terrified. Everybody knew that Madam Ha didn't have something peaceful planned in mind, especially since she called out Ivy, out of everyone else. Ivy cautiously and slowly handed her worksheet over to Madam Ha and she looked through it. Ivy's messy handwriting was apparent to the whole class. Ashvina could see Ivy’s hands trembling and the way she tensed up at the mention of her name. Ivy had nothing but fear flooding her mind. It wasn’t going well at all.
"Almost all of your answers were wrong!" Madam Ha screamed as she slammed Ivy's worksheet on her table. "Guess being a royalty doesn't mean you have a brain." The way Madam Ha’s mouth twisted into a sickly grin, her eyes sneering down at Ivy, whose head was facing the ground, at the suddenly interesting floor.
A small group of three boys erupted into fits of laughter. They were the sexist boys of Class H3 D. Ivy often called them the most horrendous creatures her eyes had ever seen, which to be fair, wasn’t wrong. Though it felt a little bit too mean for Ashvina’s liking, but that might just be because she was a people pleaser. They looked down on anyone that didn't fit what they deemed to be perfect. Which was basically just a woman, a homosexual and more.
"Just what you’d expect from a woman," said one of the boys. The other two erupted into laughter once more as Madam Ha walked around the class, scolding everyone that didn't do her work. Ashvina glanced at Ivy, only to see her hands turned into fists and her head on the table. Lis didn't even bother to ask if she was fine, the answer was evident. She could get quite... aggressive if she was angry and didn't have enough self control to calm herself down. Ivy could have just flung a knife in class if it wasn’t for the fact that she hated getting into trouble. She didn’t hate trouble, she hated the consequences. She hated having the spotlight too.
Madam Ha took a look at Ashvina's worksheet and didn't say anything. She wasn't sure if that was good or bad. But she was glad that Madam Ha didn't expose her in front of the whole class. She didn't enjoy any attention at all, Ashvina, Afrina and Ivy all liked to be away from the spotlight. But it was rather hard for Ivy to stay away, considering her royal status and Madam Ha constantly picking on her. She was born to be in the spotlight but she never liked it, she wished the spotlight was allergic to her. Ashvina was glad she wasn’t born into a similar circumstance as Ivy.
The rest of maths class was hell. First half of maths was spent with Madam Ha screaming at three quarters of the class. The remaining quarter were her favourite students and they were allowed to slack. They got good grades for maths afterall, constantly topping the class. Not only that, one of them could constantly boast his grades and look down on all of the girls. It got really annoying but Ashvina couldn't do anything about it, she could only let them do what they wanted. She wasn't smart enough to get higher grades than them however. Besides she could put up with their annoyance, as long as she had Afrina and Ivy to rant to. Afrina was the same, she hated their guts as much as Ashvina and Ivy. However, Ivy had a small difference, she hated their guts to the point where whenever she saw them, she would want to bash their head against a wall and have their blood and brain matter splattered everywhere. The only thing stopping her was embarrassment. She was short and they were taller than her, they could easily overpower her and that would feed into their ego, and Ivy did not want that. That thought process was the only thing keeping her from entering a fit of rage. Though her physical abilities played a part in it as well.
The whole class was buzzing about the new student after their maths lesson, which was their fifteen minute break. Nobody has any clue about Rafeeda Jafari. The only thing they all knew was that she had been studying in Eupara. Nobody knew why she was transferring to Daewon, the school had said that it was personal matters. The only other thing they knew about her was that she was a Lumina and Dusk, a rare combination and the first their class had seen. The reason why she was going to join their class was because she failed Physics.
The Mystic classes in Daewon weren't graded, as they were considered useless in the working world. Only the subjects mattered. If they failed even one, they would be considered a loser with no future. Even Ivy couldn't escape this narrative. Madam Ha would constantly mention how Ivy was nothing without her family. People seemed to only care about all the As and Bs one could score. If there was one D, it would be the same as being doomed. Was it a horrible thing? Yes. Can anything be done about it? Maybe in Ashvina's dream, it's possible, but realistically speaking, impossible. Unless Rina took control of the education system and started doing something, Ivy would probably annoy Rina to do so anyway, she was rather persistent. If Rina wouldn't do it, Ivy would take over and do it, she hated the education system. The mindset adults had about grades was driving everyone insane.
"Do you know how to do this question?" Afshin asked, pointing to a maths question on their newest worksheet Madam Ha had given them as homework. Ashvina glanced at it, reading the question and trying to think of the formula that could be used. She was the best at the subject out of all of her friends.
"I don't understand this question..." She muttered, reading the question over and over again while fidgeting with her bamboo pen. It was a good thing that Daewon had good relations with the Mystic school over at Caiji that they shipped their bamboo pens and paper over to Daewon. Almost all of the Mystic schools had good relationships with each other and often did exchange programs.
"Arian!" Afshin shouted, waving to Lis and signalling for him to come over while he was trying to wake Ivy up before their next lesson, which was arriving soon; she decided to sleep during their break. Ashvina wasn’t surprised, Ivy either slept too much or slept too little. She never got the eight hours of sleep she was supposed to get.
"What is this?" Asked Lis the moment he took the paper from Afshin. "This looks easy... wait a minute... no… why is this stupid thing so hard? But it looks solvable…?"
"So is it easy or not?" Afshin asked as Ashvina watched quietly and awkwardly, her eyes darting between the two boys as they argued about the solvability of a maths question.
"This is confusing, give me a minute," said Lis as he carefully examined the maths question like a treasure map holding the location of a hidden stash of gold. He wasn’t even going to get anything out of solving the question.
"I don't know this question," Lis replied. "You could ask Nagisa, she's excellent in maths."
Nagisa had managed to get the top spot in maths in their class during the finals the previous year. She was the humble type but not so when it comes to Ivy. The both of them became friends over the books they read and they soon started to tease each other all the time. Ivy was always teasing Nagisa, and Nagisa would retaliate using her high score in math, which was something Ivy could not relate to.
The soft creaking sound of the class door opening caught the attention of the whole class, even those sleeping, apart from Ivy, she needed someone to smack her awake. Everyone turned to the source of the sound. There the new student stood, Rafeeda Jafari. Almost immediately, the whole class started to talk about her, not to her. She was plump, and looked about 179 centimetres tall. She also had long jet black wavy hair, her eyes appeared to be the same shade as well. She had the biggest almond eyes Ashvina had ever seen, downturned lips and a nubian nose with a high nose bridge. Hiroya went ahead and led her to her seat and almost immediately started to have a chat with her. Afrina immediately turned around and joined in the conversation, wanting to use the chance to know the new girl better. Nagisa was reading a book, she was too shy to talk to Rafeeda. Ashvina decided to have a talk with the new girl too, Afrina was there so it wouldn't be so bad, she had Afrina to rely on.
"So what after school activity would you like to join?" Afrina asked.
"Writing I guess," Rafeeda responded softly, as though she was uncertain. Her eyes faced nobody conversing with her and her tone, though soft, sounded extremely cold.
"That's cool," Hiroya replied. “I am in the soccer club. You can join more than one depending on the schedule.”
“Rafeeda right?” Ashvina asked, the other two had already introduced themselves to the new girl. “I’m Ashvina, nice to meet you,” she said with the friendliest smile she could master despite being slightly intimidated by the new girl’s tone.
Before Rafeeda could say anything, the teacher for the next class had arrived. Mr Kim, their chemistry teacher. Chemistry was a science subject that everyone had to take, but they could pick between Biology and Physics. It was one of Ivy's favourites, considering how she was always in the top 10 spot in their class. It was a subject where she always helped Afrina and Ashvina in, not that Ashvina needed much help as she was also good in Chemistry.
Everyone quickly returned to their seats as class began. Lis was trying desperately to wake Ivy up but it wasn't working. In the end, Mr Kim had to walk over to her table and smack it, hard, before saying that there was a mosquito and all he wanted to do was to kill it before it sucked someone in the class dry. Either way, it had worked and Ivy was now awake and ready to pay attention in class. His lesson was boring but always easy to digest as Ashvina had always found the subject easy. All Mr Kim did was talk. At least nobody had any complaints about him.
The rest of the day went by and before anyone would realise it, it was already a week since lessons started. Time flowed by quicker than anyone could anticipate. The weekends were once again arriving, making it possible for students to return to their family for a short visit. Their first class on Friday was their Social studies subject, which was Yeosyan history, politics, economics, culture, world history, world geography, literature and social studies. It was compulsory for all students to study social studies alongside another part of the subject they picked. Afrina, Lis and Rafeeda picked literature, Ashvina, Ivy and Nagisa picked world history, Afshin picked economics, Hiroya picked geography.
Both Ashvina and Nagisa just so happened to sit close to each other in world history while Ivy’s seat was once again far away. Ashvina and Nagisa's conversations were always short and awkward. They were never really that close. Ivy was the one that was the closest to Nagisa. Afrina only talked to Nagisa about their volleyball training and they hung out occasionally, with the rest of their teammates. Ashvina really didn't have much to talk to Nagisa about.
Ashvina's seat mate was a boy from another class, Class H3 E. They only talked to each other in class. They rarely interact outside of history class. They didn't have much in common anyway. Ashvina's friends outside of Afrina and Ivy were her friends in maths, they bonded over that subject, which was always weird to Ivy, considering how much she despised that subject. Ashvina however, liked the subject, it was easy for her, she could memorise it easily. Though there were definitely some questions that she couldn't answer. Afrina struggles with maths too but not as much as Ivy, though they did fail together sometimes.
♤♤♤
"I don't even understand the new topic," Ivy whined. It was about maths, as usual. It was their lunch time, and Ivy bought her usual iced coffee. She loved the fact that coffee got introduced to Yeosya. She loved whoever created coffee. Ivy’s addiction to caffeine was something Ashvina could get behind. For once in their friendship, Ashvina and Ivy found something they could agree on, and that was shocking.
"I only understand it a little," Afrina replied.
"I could help you guys with that," Ashvina replied. They were always helping each other out with their various subjects, if they could. That's what friends were for, helping each other out. That was what they were supposed to do.
"What's the next lesson?" Ivy asked, she never memorised the timetable. She couldn’t if she tried.
"Oh... Its mother tongue," Afrina replied, after checking her timetable, which she folded and placed inside her bag
Ivy was in one of the top three classes for Yeosyan and took her Cainese class after school. This was how it's like for mixed students with two or more mother tongue languages. They would take one during the school period and the other one after school. Ashvina was having Cainese later as well. Afrina was having Beshari. Ashvina was in the fifth class for Cainese while Afrina was in the forth class for Beshari.
"Dang it," Ivy mumbled. "I have barely any friends there."
"You could always ask to go to the bathroom and escape for like five minutes," Afrina suggested.
"I've been doing that since last year," Ivy replied. "I think my teacher is starting to get suspicious. I mean I do talk to her like she’s a friend sometimes but I can’t just run away from lessons.”
"Too bad," Afrina replied. “I don’t have any more ideas.”
The trio headed back to class after they were done with their drinks and food. They never had much to do during recess so they always returned to class and had a talk, or Ivy would be rushing some homework. This was their simple routine. The boys were up to their usual things, playing games with each other. Board games. Their screams and shouts were higher than their grades.
"You idiot! Do you even know how to play?"
"You're so stupid! Why are you even playing!"
This was unfortunately very common in their class. Most of the boys enjoyed playing those games but very few were sore losers and screamed at others when they lost. Ashvina, Afrina and Ivy wanted to rip their mouths off whenever that happens. So instead, they would just stick to their corner and continue talking, or they would leave when it gets too annoying. Sometimes, it would set Ivy off so much that she had to vent her anger out on something. Sometimes, it would set Afrina off to the point where tears formed in those sparkling eyes of hers. Sometimes, it would set Ashvina off to the point where she never or barely spoke for the rest of the day.
This was pretty much their class, annoying but on special occasions, they could be fun. Ashvina remembered many moments where her class had sent her into fits of laughter, the cause were usually the loud, rowdy girls. The boys almost always made her roll her eyes and rest her head on the table due to a tired day. They had their moments sometimes. Ashvina often enjoyed those moments of laughter that they shared.
She wondered how much she would miss this silly little class the moment she graduated. She had been with this class for a year now, and they seemed to be well bonded with the exception of a group of boys for obvious reasons. They were annoying sometimes but god the laughter she received during her days in the class. Maybe she would miss it a little? Who knows? Only time would tell.