After that whole ordeal with the Brotherhood members and Mystique, we were able to continue on without any further unexpected interruptions. Felicia split from us shortly after leaving school grounds, and I stopped by the fabric store with Gwen before we stopped by the dojo for a few hours and eventually made it back home. A few tough hours of dungeon diving later, the day was over.
The next day, we were met with bad news at school. Nothing to do with the mutants or further trouble with the brotherhood and principal but something more mundane. A surprise test that would happen the next day.
What devious teachers, coming up with new and unique torture methods. If it was a sudden test on the same day, at least we could fail with an easy heart knowing there was nothing to be done, but he gave us 24 hours to give the illusion that we could succeed. Absolutely diabolical of him.
"Gwen…" I look over, giving my best attempt at puppy dog eyes to the one person who can save me now.
She barely glanced up from her notebook before shooting me down. "No."
"I haven't even gotten the chance to say anything yet though…"
"I already know what you're going to ask for."
"But what if I was going to say something entirely different? Like compliment your hair or ask how your day was going?"
"Then your voice wouldn't be sounding as desperate as it is right now." She shot me down brutally.
I groaned and slumped on my desk, "Please? I haven't opened my text book for several weeks…"
I had done zero studying since getting the system, my free time has gone toward the dojo, dungeon or more recently armor crafting.
She paused, giving me the kind of look a person gives a wet stray animal at their door during a thunderstorm. Then sighed. "Fine. We'll study together after school."
"Yippee."
Felicia sitting on the other side of me was leaning back in her chair, eyes closed as she looked like she hadn't slept the entire night. When Gwen questioned her about it, she simply said she had been visiting a lot of art galleries recently, and it was tiring. "Study group? Mind if I take part? I joined like halfway through the semester, so I haven't gone through all materials yet."
"Sure." Gwen answers easily, almost making me choke. Why was it so easy for her.
"Don't look at me like that" Gwen says as I stare at her. "We were already going to study together anyway, no harm in adding another person now. We're going to your place after classes then?"
"I guess so-. " I start before remembering the blue menace that inhabits my apartment now. "Uhh… actually the place is kind of messy right now. Maybe not the best idea."
"Since when have you started caring about that?" Gwen raised an eyebrow.
"Since people start judging me for it?" I ask, hoping she lets it go.
"Hey, I won't judge… a lot." Felicia intervenes. Damn it.
"No, no." I insist. "I really think it's best if we do it at Gwen's place. It will be way better there."
I really didn't want to explain the existence of Jeff to anyone, since he was definitely not an animal that existed naturally on earth. Gwen didn't push it, thankfully.
"Fine. My place it is. Unlike some people, I clean regularly. Just don't spill anything on my carpet… again." She stared right at me for something that happened a long time ago. She seems moody, probably hasn't gotten enough sleep with all that work she has been doing at night.
Thankfully, Felicia bailed me out, mock saluting Gwen. "Aye, aye, sir,"
After school ended, we packed up and headed out, this time the main path to avoid getting dragged into some random bullshit cutscene again. But right as we were leaving the main gates, Felicia suddenly stopped.
"Actually, just send me the address and I'll meet you guys at Gwen's. I forgot something in class. Be right back."
She spun around before either of us could ask, vanishing into the building again.
"Think she actually forgot something?" I asked.
"No chance, looked like she was planning something…" Gwen said before shaking her head. "Whatever, I'll text her the address, and we can go on ahead."
Turns out Felicia was rather quick on her feet as even though the two of us went on ahead, she caught up only a few minutes later, moving with surprising agility as she pushed in through the closing subway doors just in time.
We arrived at Gwen's apartment soon after and as her dad was still at work, the place was quiet and spotless. We entered without problems, but just as she opened the door her eyes went wide, and she dashed forward at superhuman speed, grabbing a blanket from her bed and throwing it over Felicia's head to block her vision.
"Hold on for a second! I forgot to clean." Gwen shouts out panicked before picking up the costume she has been working on that was left out in the open. She moved at lightning pace as she grabbed everything and shoved it into her closet with practiced movements, as if she had done this several times already,
Something tells me George almost came across her working on the suit before.
A few seconds later, she breathed a huge sigh of relief, closing the closet doors. "Okay, you can look now, sorry about that. Wasn't expecting visitors."
"Do I even want to know what kind of… toys you left out in the open?" Felicia ripped the blanket off and blinked before turning to me. "And it was me who couldn't look, but he was allowed to, huh… rather suspicious."
"No," Gwen said, and I decided to be smart, and staedy quiet.
Of course, Felicia wasn't one to just let things drop. Her eyes scanned the room like a hawk, and unfortunately for Gwen, her attention landed on the small table by the desk where she had been working on her secret project.
"What's this?" She moved with cat like agility, quickly scooting over to her desk and picking up a small device that looked like the web slinger I had given Gwen earlier, except now modified and recolored to be white and pink.
Gwen tensed. "Put that down."
"This is... really well made. Some kind of toy I haven't heard of before?"
"It's not a toy," Gwen said as she stepped forward to snatch it back
"She and I are working on it for a project," I said quickly, giving her an excuse. "Competition. Robotics stuff."
Felicia raised an eyebrow, not believing me, right away. "Really?"
"Yeah. Gwen's designing it, I'm doing the wiring and tech."
"You do wiring?"
"I am pretty good with my hands…" I say, getting an immediate weird look from Felicia. "Not in that way. Your mind is in a very weird place today."
It wasn't the worst lie I had ever told, but Felicia wasn't buying it either. She didn't look like she cared to dig too deep though and just handed the web slinger back to Gwen, who all but threw it into the closet.
"Okay, let's just study and pretend none of that happened." She said, and we could move on from this little quick time event to actually get started with our purpose for gathering.
The study session began surprisingly well. Gwen was a patient teacher, Felicia was sharper than she let on, and I only got distracted about five times per hour, which was a new personal best.
Then the noise started. A dull thump. Followed by another. Then the distinct sound of something crashing. All from my apartment that was just on the other side of the wall. My and Gwen's bedrooms were only separated by one wall, and we could practically shake hands if we both leaned out of our respective windows a bit.
Gwen paused mid-sentence. "... Was that from your place?"
"Nope," I said instantly.
Felicia, who was already aware of us being neighbors, raised an eyebrow, "Sounded like it came from your direction."
"It's probably… uh, the guy upstairs. Heavy sleeper."
"We're on the top floor," Gwen said deadpan.
"Then the guy downstairs. Really loud dreams." I quickly follow up. "Let's just get back to studying, we are on a time limit here."
I give a quick look to Gali who had been floating around aimlessly as she usually does when not sitting on my shoulder or head. She understood my look right away and flew through the wall to settle Jeff down and tell him to stop being so loud while playing. It is hard to keep that thing contained.
We studied for another hour, managed to get through two full chapters, and even ran through practice questions without anyone flipping a table.
At some point, Gwen caught me spacing out. "You good?"
"Yeah. Just... praying I pass."
Felicia stretched her arms overhead, her back cracking like a glow stick. "Honestly, this isn't as bad as I thought it'd be. Studying, I mean."
"That's because you're actually good at this," I muttered. I might have created the web slingers for Gwen and was making my own armor, but all that came from the Inventor skill rather than my own smarts which were fully MIA.
"Gwen's just a good teacher," Felicia replied with a smirk. "You should pay her."
"Pay her? I already feed her emotional support and sarcasm. What more could she want?"
"Cash," Gwen replied without missing a beat. "Or silence. Either one works for me."
I sighed and laid down on Gwen's carpet. I was exhausted and just wanted to go into the dungeon and kill rather than deal with this. Wait, am I turning into a psychopath?
Felicia snorted and threw a cushion at me. "Come on, we have one last section left. Push through, and then I'll treat you both to milkshakes or something. Deal?"
"Bribery now? I like it." I sat up, reluctantly flipping to the next chapter. "It feels good to be bribed, I understand why it's so common in the government now."
We worked through the rest in something close to harmony. When we finally wrapped up, I collapsed backward like I'd just finished a marathon.
Felicia stood and dusted herself off. "Alright, I'm heading out before my brain turns to soup. Thanks for the help."
"No problem," Gwen said, already starting to clean up. "Hey, what did you go back to class for, by the way? I swear I didn't see you leave anything behind."
She gave us a sideways glance, then reached into her bag and pulled out a neatly stapled packet of homework sheets. "These."
"Wait. You actually did forget homework? I just copy mine off Gwen," I said, getting a nasty look from the girl.
"No," she said, smiling slyly. "I slipped into the classroom next to ours where the brotherhood idiots were and grabbed theirs. Since they are close with the principal and have suspiciously good grades for the lack of brain cells in their head, I figured I would find the completed work with correct answers in their hands."
Gwen looked displeased, "So you stole their homework?"
"No, of course not." Felicia denied. "I borrowed it. Without asking. I'll return it later when I'm done copying the answers."
"You should really just do your homework… and you too, Reo." Gwen sighed, rubbing her forehead.
"Hey, a girl can be busy." Felicia excused herself as she turned to walk out. "Some people have work to do at night. Can't be wasting time on useless stuff. I'm sure they don't mind lending their homework to someone as pretty as me."
***
Author Note: Very late chapter today as I was busy for most of the day and only got to writing late in the evening.