Chapter 4

The first thing that I noticed when I first entered the Astronomy classroom was the night sky looking ceiling. Star constellations of all sorts were marked on top of the ceiling, and it seemed like the stars were glowing. I stared in awe at the detail and colors of it, that I didn’t realize that I bumped into a student. Startled, I turned around and started to apologize right away, but then I saw that it was the guy from last night; P-Goon, was his name. He looked down at me with a very cold and judgmental face. I was hoping that he wasn’t thinking bad things of me already.

“Ah, Trinity, it would seem that we share the same class.” He said.

I stood there, bringing my hands up as I fondled them together in a nervous matter. “Y-yes,” I responded as I remembered what Hojoon said about P-Goon and his ways.

“Well, I hope that you have been learning well, you might want to pay attention because of your condition,” P-Goon said as he got a seat in the front of the class. All of the other students in the room quiet down when he sat in the front. In fact, two boys who were sitting on both sides of P-Goon got up and went towards the back of the room to sit down. I looked at the other kids and they were whispering amongst themselves. If Hojoon or anyone else was here, I would ask if other students were like this around P-Goon. What was his problem? He was the leader of the group that walked around here and everyone seemed to be scared of him. I sighed and slowly approached him in the front. Carefully, I tapped his shoulder and as he turned around his face went from surprise to…well, not so surprised.

“Yes?” He asked.

I gulped in nervousness and fiddled my fingers. P-Goon obviously didn’t find my gesture to be cute at all as he furrowed his eyebrows up at me. “Um, how are you?”

Seriously, Trinity? That’s all I could come up with? P-Goon gave me a weird look and nodded. “I’m fine, why?”

“Oh,” I was taken aback by his response, although it wasn’t the best answer, or the nicest, it was an answer nonetheless. “Just, you know, making some small talk, starting a conversation.”

Before he could go on, the teacher came into the room, carrying a suitcase. He had light blonde hair that was swooped to the side, a white coat, and spectacles were hung low on his nose. The teacher set the suitcase down on top of the desk and clapped his hands in front of him. “Alright class, please settle into your seats.” Everyone went into their according seat, while I was still standing next to P-Goon. “Ah, you must be Trinity, I’m your Astronomy teacher, Mr. Maz. Your seat will be next to Mr. Park,”

Mr. Park? Did the teachers have to treat the members like they were higher than them, too? Or was it just because he was the leader of the group? P-Goon rolled his eyes as I sat in the desk seated next to him, saying my thanks to the teacher. Although I didn’t really want to sit next to me, I could feel that he doesn’t really like me as much…unless I’m getting the wrong feelings from him.

“Alright, now, class, how are you feeling today?” No words were spoken from anyone as Mr. Maz sighed and sighed. “Tough crowd, tough crowd. Well, it is your first day of class, so I’ll let it slide this time! So, Astronomy, we all know it! Stars, constellations, zodiacs, and the best thing about it, it’s endless! And it connects!”

This teacher was very animated in his teaching. Everything that he said, he would fling his arms up and around him, as if this was a way to help students keep connected and paying attention to his words…and it worked. At least for me it did. Out of all of the teachers, Mr. Maz seemed to be free spirited and laid back.

“Stars have existed since the beginning of time, giving people and scientists alike to be given the thought of imagination and possibilities, as well as discovering. But this class isn’t your normal science astronomy class, oh no, this class is just focusing on none other than, you guessed it, the zodiac.” Mr. Maz said as he opened up his briefcase and inside was little models of the 12 zodiac signs in constellation form. “As we all know, there are 12 zodiac signs, each sign coordinating with the constellations. The stars were connected together to create a picture, like one big connect the dots. Each person was born under a zodiac sign; a constellation that was practically present during their birth. We have Aries, the ram,” he started to bring out the models from the suitcase, putting them on top of the desk, “Taurus, the bull; Gemini, the twins; Cancer, the crab; Leo the lion; Virgo, the maiden; Libra, the scales; Scorpio, the scorpion,” P-Goon smiled when he said that, as though he was proud of it. Was he a Scorpio? “Sagittarius, the archer; Capricorn, the goat; Aquarius, the water bearer; and last but not least, Pisces, the fish. These 12 symbols make up the zodiac. The reason why there are 12 zodiacs is because there are 12 months in a year; hence they split up evenly and create balance. These are what you call your Sun signs. There are other signs like your Moon and Planet, but we’ll get into those later. They also have different elements that divide into three per sign. Libra, Aquarius, and Gemini possess Air; Cancer, Scorpio, and Pieces possess Water; Capricorn, Virgo, and Taurus possess Earth; Leo, Aries, and Sagittarius possess Fire. The elements that they possess connect to the person. For example, people who are a Fire element tend to go off easily than others. And those with the Air element tend to be more at peace and are calm. Ah, Trinity? It would seem that you have a question?”

“Yes,” I lowered my hand slowly as I saw P-Goon looking at me carefully as if I had to choose my question wisely. “Was there ever a time when one of the constellations accidentally got in the way of the other?”

Mr. Maz stood there for a moment and nodded his head. “Those are what we call cusps; which basically mean they possess two different signs and elements. If someone was born between a certain time when a zodiac was ending and one was starting, that’s what we call a cusp.”

Well, that wasn’t really my question, but it kind of worked. I nodded my head as I saw P-Goon cross his arms, and it looked like he was studying me. Not going to lie when I found his behavior a bit odd.

“But wasn’t there a disturbance…at least once?” I asked without raising my hand.

P-Goon raised an eyebrow at me and looked at the teacher who stood in what he looked like fear. He looked at P-Goon cautiously and he just nodded his head, if by only a little, at the teacher.

“We’re not allowed,” He whispered over to P-Goon.

“Just a little, I allow it,” P-Goon answered.

“Very well,” Mr. Maz sat down in his chair and, removing the suitcase, he arranged the figures in front of him in a circle, arranging them by the zodiac positions. “It happened a long time ago…but in between Scorpio and Sagittarius, a constellation came into play. It threw off everything and everybody. But, there’s nothing more I can say.” And with that P-Goon nodded his head and the teacher returned the action. “Now, for the fun part of the class! For your first project, you will pair up with the person next to you and you will begin on the Zodiac project. Each group will have to come up with all of the information that you can find with the assigned Zodiac given to you from me. P-Goon and Trinity, you will look up facts about Libra, Krystal and Tim you will be…” As the teacher went on with who is looking up who, P-Goon turned towards me and glared at me.

“What? Did I do something wrong?” I asked.

“What were you thinking?” He whispered.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t know what you are talking about,” I whispered. “It was just a question!”

“A question that is risky,” P-Goon answered.

“Alright, now that we got the assigned Zodiac’s to everyone, you will each take a laptop and one of those books over near the window and each group will write a five paragraph essay along with making a PowerPoint about the important facts and characteristic traits of your given Zodiac. The project is due Wednesday and you will have all of class today and tomorrow to finish. And start!” Mr. Maz clapped his hands together and once he did, everyone went over and grabbed a book and laptop just like he said. P-Goon stayed in his seat, arms crossed, and looking annoyed as ever.

“Are you going to get them?” He asked.

I was taken aback by his words, but I just nodded and got the items that we needed. As I set the book down and turned the laptop on, P-Goon didn’t touch the book, but instead leaned his head back and started to close his eyes.

“Hey!” I nudged him lightly, in which he returned with an evil glare. “If we are partners, we would have to do it together.”

“Why do I have to do this when I already know everything?” P-Goon asked.

“Knowing everything or not, we still have to do this together.” I tried to get it through his head.

P-Goon looked at the laptop screen and sighed, rolling his eyes; he started to do research as I started to read in the book. Libra; symbol is the scales, it starts from September 23 to October 22, and is the Air element. It’s the seventh house in the Zodiac and is based on the Scales of Justice. Another thing that I found out was that the Zodiac was ruled by a Greek God or Goddess. For Libra, it was ruled by Aphrodite, Goddess of Love and Beauty, the ruling planet being Venus. As I wrote all of this information down in my notebook, I looked up to see P-Goon…not doing a damn thing. All he did was get as far as getting to an informational page about Libra. This wasn’t fair at all! He’s making me do all the work!

“Look, if you already know everything, why are you even taking this class?” I asked, curiosity hitting me again. “You look like you should’ve graduated already.”

“That is classified.” P-Goon sighed.

“But why?” I asked again. “Why do all of the teachers seem to treat you and your group like you are higher in superiority?”

“Do you always ask these questions?” He asked me back.

I slammed the book shut and turned towards him; this time I was annoyed. “Look, I’m only curious because I don’t know. When I came here, I didn’t have really any knowledge of anything. I’m asking these questions to get answers…and so far you’re not in the least bit helpful. Even Hansol was more helpful than you. If you are the leader of your little group, I would’ve expected…more.”

“Curiosity…” P-Goon started, but I butted in.

“And don’t you dare say curiosity killed the cat.” I gave him a look. “It would seem to me that you know about something that the teachers can’t teach, talk about, or they need your permission. Why?”

“Some things are better not to be said. Don’t ask about this again. It would just lead to trouble. Someone told me that Mrs. Port from your History class gave some information away without my permission. Well, we can see where her career is going.” P-Goon shook his head. “And she was a good teacher, too.”

“Whoa, what do you mean?!” I asked. “They’re going to fire her?!”

“By the looks of it, they will have a replacement for her tomorrow morning.” He answered as the laptop was starting to go into a screen saver mode. “And I already know that it was you who asked about it. It’s not a surprise since you are asking me all kinds of questions; especially when those questions are private. You will not ask about it again, do you understand?”

“You know that it was her decision to tell?” I said.

“But you know that it was your question?” P-Goon asked as he made to make it sound like it was my fault, although, I’m not going to lie that it might’ve been partly my fault. The look on Mrs. Port’s face after she told the information filled my memory and the look of worry filled her face. It was like she knew that she was going to get in trouble. But…who told? 

“If you’re thinking that will make me stop being curious about it, then you are wrong,” I whispered.

“Well what if asking will cost you your stay here?” He asked with a serious look. “It won’t be the first that a student will get kicked out of this school because of curiosity. So, if I were you, I’d watch what comes out of your mouth.”

He turned back to the computer and actually began to do some work. Hojoon was right; I had to be careful of P-Goon. Stubborn, irritated, and controlling was P-Goon’s characteristics and it was not something I was expecting. As I opened up my book again, I took a quick glance over to him, and, just underneath his eyes, it looked like dark circles were starting to appear. But with his bangs hanging down, it would look like normal shadows to anyone standing next to him. Was he getting enough sleep? Maybe because he was the leader, he would be stressed out? Well, whatever it was, maybe that could explain his attitude.

“Hey, I don’t mean to sound curious,” I said in a not so sorry way, “but your uniforms are different from the rest. What is with your group? Are you the student council or something like that?” This question has been running through my mind since the first time that I saw them.

“Why don’t you just shut your mouth and focus on the task at hand.” P-Goon said.

I did as he said and kept my mouth shut as I got more information about Libra and P-Goon would start the PowerPoint on the laptop, getting pictures for the presentation. The rest of the class went like this and as I was about to get kind of bored looking at the same pages over again, I turned to the Scorpio and Sagittarius chapters in the book, but in between them was…nothing. Didn’t the teacher say that there was a constellation that got in-between them once?

“Hey…how come there isn’t any information about that one constellation that Mr. Maz was talking about?” I asked P-Goon.

“What have I told you about those types of questions?” P-Goon asked, not taking his eyes off of the laptop screen.

I sighed and nodded as I continued to read more about the relationships between Libra and other signs. But before I could, Mr. Maz looked up at the clock above the chalk board and clapped his hands, making all of us get out of our little translate state. “Alright class, I hope that you all have a lot of information for the presentation! Remember, you will have tomorrow to work in class. And of course, you may use your laptops that you brought with you from home, or you can always use the laptops in the library. It’s time to shut down your laptops and you may head on out to your next class.”

P-Goon wasted no time as he saved the presentation, closed the laptop, and headed out of the door. I wasn’t surprised at all that he did that. He looked very irritated with me asking all of those questions. But I had to know…what was with his group? And why are they more superior over everyone else? Mr. Maz started to put away his suitcase and got ready for the next class. Before I could leave the classroom, I turned towards him and tilted my head.

“Mr. Maz…why is it that P-Goon, a student, has power over you, a teacher?” I asked.

“Because he just does.” Mr. Maz sighed. “There’s really nothing more I can say about him. You will learn in time…whether it is the bad way or not.”

“But he’s a student…shouldn’t he respect the teachers?” I asked again.

“Oh, he does respect us,” Mr. Maz started. “It might not look like it’s the best way, but he has a way of his own.”

“It’s just not fair towards the other students, though,” I sighed.

“There’s a reason why he has more of a higher position than us, you just don’t know it yet.” Mr. Maz answered.

“But…” I started.

“Now go ahead to your next class, wouldn’t want to be late.” Mr. Maz shooed me out the door. The halls were bustling with students as I made my way towards my last class; Element practice. As I made my way through the crowded hallway, I finally made it to the stairs, but when I saw my teacher from Air class coming down the stairs, he smiled at me and pointed to go outside. I’m guessing that he is also my teacher for Elemental practice. Turning on my heel, I caught up to him, getting away from the crowd as we headed outside.

“I’m guessing that this class always happens outside?” I asked Mr. Eves.

“On days that are nice enough.” He answered as we went around the Academy and headed passed the cafeteria and the dorm buildings to an open field. In the distance I could see things stacked in the grass and the students talking amongst each other. As we were getting closer the sun was getting more in the way of my sight as it was starting its set. One of the students turned and I could tell who it was as A-Tom waved his hand in the air and shouted my name. Yano was right next to him, of course, and had his arms crossed, not giving a care in the world. And as another student faced us, I knew who it was. Once I got close enough, a big smile appeared on my face and Hojoon met me half way.

“You ready?” He asked.

“I’ll try,” I answered.

“Aw, come on Trin, you got to have more confidence than that,” A-Tom said as he nudged me into my side lightly. “You should’ve seen Yano when he first tried his powers! He was like a pro!”

Yano had a tiny smirk on his face from A-Tom’s comment.

“You can do it, I know you can,” Hojoon smiled, but then he noticed that I didn’t have his flower that he gave me and his face went into a small frown. Already I could tell what he was thinking.

“Hansol took it,” I answered. “He…he didn’t want me to get in trouble with Seogoong.”

Hojoon nodded in understanding and I could tell what he was thinking by the look on his face. “I’ll get it back, I promise,” I smiled to reassure him that I cared about the flower.

“Alright class, we meet again!” Mr. Eves said. “It’s a beautiful afternoon to be practicing! See those stacked soda cans? Today you will practice with just a simple blow of wind to knock them down. The person who knocks all of them down will be dismissed for the rest of the day and will be able to go to your dorm rooms.”

“But…this is our last class for some of us…” One student said.

“Yep, so, if you would like to be dismissed for the rest of your day by my permission, I would get to work. And Yano, A-Tom, and Hojoon…this doesn’t count for you.” Mr. Eves gave them a look. Hojoon nodded towards him understanding, while Yano pouted trying to give the teacher a different thought to the situation, but nothing worked. “Ok, you have the rest of the class to knock these cans down…and start!” Mr. Eves blew his whistle and every student got in front of a stack of cans and everything went silent. I looked over at Yano and A-Tom as they knocked down their cans the fastest and the easiest.

“Can we be excused?” Yano asked.

“Yano, what did Mr. Eves say?” Hojoon gave him a look.

“Yes, mom,” He replied as he took A-Tom along with him towards a tree where shade was provided.

I clenched my hands into fists as I took a look at them and back towards the stacked soda cans. How was I supposed to provide the power of Air? Hojoon helped me, but using them and bringing out some of the power was the hardest part. Hojoon came up by my side, leaving his stack of cans untouched.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“The task doesn’t apply to me, remember? It’s best if I went to my next class.” Hojoon smiled. “Besides, I think that there are more important things to worry about.”

I knew that he was talking about me as I felt my cheeks blush.

“Just relax…” I heard Hojoon whisper in my ear.

I took a deep breath and relaxed my muscles. Feeling the sun’s warmth on my skin, I closed my eyes and blocked everything out; the sunlight and the sounds of crows that would sing here and there throughout the field. The picture of the stacked cans filled my mind with me standing just a few yards away from it. To my right I could see Hojoon studying me carefully. The feeling of lightness filled my entire body; it felt like my veins aired out and my mind was clear of thoughts. All I focused was the stacked cans and, raising my hand, I felt an air current flow through me and as I opened up my eyes, I could feel something coming through my arm, like a snake creeping its way towards its prey on pavement. With a sudden movement of my hand flying back, a sudden blast of wind stung from out of my hand and headed towards the cans, knocking down the first top half. My eyes widened at what I just experienced right in front of me as I could feel my hand shaking from the feeling of how the wind felt. The feeling was a stinging sensation, as if needles were flying out of the little pores in my palm.

“Wow…” Hojoon whispered.

“Alright Trinity!” A-Tom shouted from the tree.

“Good work, Trinity! For a new student, I wasn’t expecting powers like that! Given that you’re a new student. You’re almost good as Yano, and he’s been here longer than you have!” Mr. Eves clapped his hands. And when he noticed Hojoon by my side, he gave me a slight wink and continued looking after the other students.

I bit my bottom lip to try to take my mind off the pain, and as I looked at it, my palm was entirely red. “Didn’t think that it would hurt.”

“Air is one of the most painful elements to use first time round.” Hojoon said as he took my hand and studied it. “No one said it would be a breeze.”

A laugh escaped my mouth at his little joke. “Out of all the puns that were available, you had to choose that one?”

“Hey, it made you laugh.” Hojoon smiled. “Better than feeling pain, right?”

“Right,” I nodded.

Hojoon took out a roll of brown fabric from one of his pockets and, bringing my hand up, he started to wrap the fabric around it. The fabric was unlike anything I felt before. It looked rough, but it was smooth as cotton and it had a cold touch to it, making the pain of my hand die down.

“Got it from the nurse,” He answered, reading my mind once again.

“It’s like you’re always prepared.” I said as he sealed it and put the roll away.

“Well, I figured that you’d be in pain once you use the power. Every power is different using it for the first time.” Hojoon explained.

“Trinity, you are dismissed.” Mr. Eves smiled at me.

I looked at my stack and saw that there were some cans still standing on the bottom layer. Other students looked at me in disbelief as they were still trying to knock them down.

“But I haven’t knocked all of them down like you said,” I tried to explain to him.

“I understand and I could tell that you want to be as fair as possible,” Mr. Eves smiled. “But since you are new, I’ll let you go, just this once. You exceeded my expectations for your first try. Congratulations! Hojoon, would you care to knock down your stack of cans as well?” Mr. Eves gave him a quick wink as he escorted me away from him and towards Yano and A-Tom. A-Tom moved over so I can sit in between them. Yano looked like he didn’t want me here, but he would just have to deal with it. I did stick up for him against Hansol.

“Trinity that was awesome! You were just as good as Yano!” A-Tom patted my shoulder.

“I was better…” Yano rolled his eyes.

“Well of course you were, you knew about your powers, I didn’t…” I said as I brought my hand up. “That was one big surprise when I used them. I wasn’t expecting it to be painful.”

“Hojoon was ahead of us today!” A-Tom sighed. “He must think about you a lot if he went all the way to the nurse to get that.”

My cheeks flared up and I tried to hide the fact that I was blushing by coughing and scratching my head.

“So, your leader, P-Goon…” I started.

“Ah, she met him one on one.” Yano stated. “You can tell, just by her voice.”

“Anyway,” I gave him a look. “He seems to be…well…how to put this…”

“Not very nice?” A-Tom finished. “Intimidating?”

“Yeah…but I can’t cover his personality up with sugar.” I confessed. “He seemed very irritated with me.”

“Welcome to our world.” Yano whispered.

“P-Goon is always irritated with us youngin’s.” A-Tom nodded.

“Well…it wasn’t that I was younger than him. I kept asking personal questions. And apparently he didn’t want to talk about them.” I explained.

A-Tom turned towards me and tilted his head. “What kind of questions did you ask?”

“It was basically why he has more authority over everyone else, including you guys.” I answered.

Yano bit his lower lip and looked at the ground, starting to pick grass up from the ground.

“Oh,” A-Tom lowered his head. “You’re not supposed to know about that until later.”

“Yeah, I already know that. He doesn’t seem to like me as much,” I sighed. “And the students seem to be afraid of him as well…”

“Yeah, the students are always like that around him. But there’s a good reason as to why we get treated the way we do.” Yano said finally speaking up.

“I think it’s better than just ‘good’, Yano.” A-Tom nodded.

As A-Tom and Yano were going on and on about their little argument, I looked over at the students lined up in a row. My eyes fell on Hojoon right away and to my surprise, he was sitting on the ground, eyes closed, and completely still. How long has he been in that position? Hojoon suddenly began to stand up slowly, and putting his hands together, a physical ball of air circled between his hands, and once it became solid, he threw his hands towards the cans, making them fall with ease. My mouth hung open at how far he progressed. Hojoon smiled as he started to come our way, but I noticed when he came over, he was stumbling a little bit.

“Are you ok? That was amazing!” I gasped as I got up and made sure that his balance was ok.

“Yeah,” he answered, but it sounded as if he was out of breath. “Using my power like that gets drains me of energy. But doing something like that…”

“How did you do that?” I asked.

“I honestly don’t know…it was the first time I ever did something like that.” Hojoon admitted. “Hurt like hell, though, I’m not going to lie.” He brought up his hands, and my eyes widened as I saw that not only were they red, but black and blue bruises were already marked on his palm.

“A-Tom, Yano, come help me get the patch roll.” I called to them.

In an instant, A-Tom and Yano ran to my side and grabbed the roll from Hojoon’s pants pocket. Hojoon’s hands were faced up as A-Tom rolled out the fabric. Yano held the fabric on the other side of Hojoon’s hand as A-Tom started to wrap the fabric around it. Hojoon gasped at the feeling and winced a little bit as the fabric was getting tighter and tighter around his hand.

“Ok, Trinity, rip the fabric, we wouldn’t want to have the tightness of the fabric to falter.” A-Tom instructed me as I took the roll and ripped it, Yano connecting it together. The same process happened on the other hand, and soon enough Hojoon was in wraps.

“Thanks,” Hojoon smiled.

“Might want to be more careful about your powers. It seems to me that you are pushing yourself.” Yano said. “Even I can’t do that, and my powers are the strongest right now.”

“P-Goon would want to hear about this. We might be getting closer to know what Zodiac and Element you really possess.” A-Tom said as he took Hojoon and helped him over by the tree.

“Speaking of P-Goon…” I started.

“You met him?” Hojoon asked as he sat down carefully with A-Tom and Yano’s help. It looked like he was avoiding using his hands for anything and I wouldn’t blame him. With them being in the state that they were, I would avoid anything that would involve hands on projects.

“Yeah, but I don’t think he likes me…” I said as I sat in front of the boys. I brought up my legs to my chest, trying to cover up as much as possible because of the short skirt. “I was asking him personal questions out of curiosity and he seemed irritated.”

“Ah, he’s just like that. He doesn’t like it when newcomers ask him all the questions.” Hojoon reassured me.

“I was just curious and I’m sure that almost everyone who came here already knew about this place and at least a little history,” I said giving Hojoon an understanding look that I wasn’t pointing him out because I was like him when I first came here. “It’s my first day here and I learned so much, yet so little at the same time.”

“I know where you’re going with that,” Hojoon said. “When I first came here, I didn’t know one thing. The next thing I’m trying all different elements and then these guys saw something special in me and well, you know the rest.”

“Hojoon, she already knows,” Yano said.

Wait…how in the world did he know about that little discussion? Well, that was another thing that I was going to save for my list of questions to ask.

“Relax Yano,” Hojoon managed a laugh, “I’m just reassuring her that she isn’t alone in this.”

“Thank you,” I smiled at Hojoon. He really made me more comfortable and…accepted. Along with A-Tom and Yano…well maybe just a little bit from Yano. Hansol…he was more difficult to explain, but I guess that I would find out what’s with him later on. He was like the rich boy with an attitude and girls faint over. And then there was P-Goon…it was going to be a bit more difficult to get closer to him, but I know that there was a way. If Hojoon could do it, then so can I. And there was nothing going to stop me from getting him to be more relaxed.

“Trinity, would you like to go back to your dorm and have the rest of the day off? You don’t have to stay here, you know?” Mr. Eves called out to our little group.

“I’m fine, thank you, Mr. Eves.” I shouted back.

“You would rather stay with us than have the rest of the day off?” A-Tom asked in disbelief.

“Next period for me is Study Hall, I can do my project for Astronomy in the library during that time.” I shrugged. “And what’s wrong with you guys?”

Although Yano was focusing on the ground, still picking out the grass blades and throwing them to the side, a small smile formed on his face. Hojoon leaned forward and crossed his arms, trying not to bend his hands all at once.

“You’re hanging out with two trouble makers and…” Hojoon started to say.

“And someone who makes me feel accepted?” I finished his sentence, which gave his cheeks a slight pink color, which made me smile. “Why do you think I’d rather be here with you guys? And although you two are trouble makers, you seem to be really fun to be around.”

“Awe, Trin!” A-Tom flashed a hand heart towards me.

“So, any thoughts of what you’re going to do for Study Hall?” Hojoon asked me.

“Yeah, I’m heading towards the library.” I answered along with a sigh. “Mr. Maz paired me up with P-Goon to do a project about the constellation Libra.”

“Yano knows all about that! He’s a Libra himself!” A-Tom pointed to him.

“You can say it has its weights.” Yano whispered.

Hojoon and A-Tom threw their head back in laughter and once I got what he meant, I laughed along, a small smile appearing on Yano’s face.

“At least some people get my corny jokes.” He added.

“That’s why we love you, Yano,” Hojoon nodded. “But you do remember where the library is, right Trinity?”

I brought my arms around my legs and nodded, smiling. “How could I forget? You were the one that showed it to me.”

“Are you saying that you remember something because I did it?” Hojoon raised an eyebrow.

“Maybe…maybe not.” I smirked.

“Ok you two, stop flirting!” A-Tom raised his hands in between us.

“We’re not flirting!” We both said at the same time, which caused us to blush.

“A-Tom, they are flirting, there is no doubt about it.” Yano moved A-Tom’s hand away. “Just look at their faces.”

Soon, the bell rang indicating the last class of the day. Saved by the bell! Literally! I helped Hojoon stand up from the ground and the second he started walking, he was a lot better.

“Hojoon, we have a meeting tonight, don’t forget!” A-Tom said as he opened up the door to the Academy.

“Ah, right, thanks for reminding me!” Hojoon smiled.

“You should’ve seen Hansol getting the reminder…” Yano said.

“B-Joo?” Hojoon sighed. “Yeah, there’s no doubt that he would get the reminder with him. Well, this is where we depart.”

“Why are you saying it as if we were in an old romantic movie?” I smirked with an eyebrow raised.

“What? You don’t like to be old fashioned?” He asked back.

“Yes…” I answered as I remembered what I said to Hansol about being old fashioned. “Sometimes.”

“Well, then, until next time,” Hojoon did a little nod and gave me a wink before he turned around on his heel and went to the Astronomy wing. I could feel the eyes of the students on me as we made a little scene. Blush rushed on my cheeks as I turned around and went back upstairs, nodding to the men standing at the top. The memory of going to the library from last night ran into my mind and once I turned the corner to the library doors, I ran into someone.

“Excuse me,” She sounded like she was crying. I looked up and saw that it was my history teacher; Mrs. Port.

“Mrs. Port?” I asked. She stopped in the hallway and the students who were walking the halls went around us, making space.

“YOU!” She shouted.

I jumped at her shriek, and I think mostly everyone who was around noticed. I bit my lip knowing all too well what was happening with her; she just got told she was fired.

“It’s your fault!” She pointed at me.

My heart was racing at what was happening. “If you’re thinking I told anyone, I swear I didn’t!”

“That doesn’t matter!” Her voice shook. “I blame you! Learned your lesson, yet?”

Mrs. Port her heel and pushed students out of her way, making little crying noises. Sadness filled my heart and I understood where she was coming from…it was practically my fault for asking, but it wasn’t my fault for her decision to tell. It’s not like I forced her to tell. Sure, my curiosity could’ve sounded like I was desperate to know, but I could’ve waited. Sighing, I continued my way towards the library. And this time, when I entered, there was a counter clerk, a woman right next to her, and students; a whole lot of students this time around. They were either walking around with stacks of books in their hands, at a table reading, or at a computer doing research.

“Name?” A woman asked whom I guessing was the librarian. She had brown hair that was put up in a nice bun, and she wore an outfit that looked like someone from a news station would wear.

“Trinity Hess, ma’am.” I answered.

The librarian went over to the desk computer and seemed to be typing away. A few clicks of the mouse later and she smiled. “Ah, there you are! You seem to have Study Hall for the last class of the day. What a perfect way to end the day! Is there anything you need help with?”

“Uhm, no thank you, I think I’ll explore on my own.” I nodded.

“You may explore anywhere you’d like; except, you are off limits to the Biography section; seniors only.” She put up a finger.

“Thank you,” I nodded as I made my way past all of the shelves of books. I read the signs that I didn’t notice before from last night and as I kept going past the ‘Fiction’ section. Just when I couldn’t find it, there were three bookshelves were labeled ‘History’. Let the research begin.