Chapter 65 - Attack

As I made my way from the Principal's office to my class resting my hands inside my pocket where I put my phone. I know I'm not supposed to be carrying one with me but my mother forced me to take it.

I encountered a large number of upper class students, or seniors as we call them. But I must say that the atmosphere among the seniors is not the same as among people in my age group. No one, in particular, is staring at me with daggering eyes. This is an experience I haven't seen for a looong time, I must say.

Maybe the rumors about me were most effective at those around my age group. But this still unusual, I have been using the same route from the time I used to yet I never encountered this much crowd. I wondered about it earlier but at that time I had some more urgent matters to attend to but now I have time to wonder about it.

I guess all the third years have something to do here. I could have asked someone but why bother if I won't be staying here forever. I don't know any third year and if I would suddenly to ask some third year it would be weird, at least to me.

[THIS IS AN ANNOUNCEMENT RELATING TO THE GATHERING OF ALL THE THIRD, SECOND AND FIRST YEARS TO THE AUDITORIUM 2. FROM CLASS 2-E ANNA AND ALLEN, PETER AS WELL AS FROM CLASS 2-A IRIS AND LILY, MIKE ARE REQUESTED TO REPORT TO THE AUDITORIUM 2. ALL THE ABOVE MENTIONED STUDENTS NEED TO CONTACT THE PRINCIPAL AS SOON AS THEY ARRIVE IN THE AUDITORIUM.]

Huh? Why all of a sudden? Maybe it's what I said earlier to the Principal, making me work with Anna. But with so many audience I can't talk to her much as well as I can't approach her. Well anyway let's see what happens.

If I'm correct the Auditorium 2 have an inbuilt stage. Well we can't exactly say it a stage rather an uplifted area.

…

I was going to arrive to class first, but after some consideration, I decided not to. The only reason I was considering coming to class was because I was thirsty, but I could simply wait till whatever the senior event is. So, instead of going to class I went straight up to the auditorium 2. Thirst could wait for another an hour or two.

…

"What did the teacher say, is this about?" a boy said.

"It's a workshop I guess?" the girl looked a little confused. Maybe the information hasn't been revealed yet.

"Even I know that much, I meant like what's the theme?" this time it was some other guy.

"How would I know? I was sitting beside you the whole time…" the girl still had doubts.

A couple of third years were walking in front of me. I didn't mean to eavesdrop them but they talked considerably loudly and through that conversation I got to know that a workshop is taking place. It's going to take more than an hour. Even for the second years a workshop was held and it was something about carrier counseling.

Maybe the same thing is taking for the third years. Well, the only way to know is to go there myself. It's going to be a drag.

Looking out the window of the building, I spotted a couple of birds perched on the same branch, but then suddenly out of nowhere a third bird jumped in making the beautiful pair part away. I'm curious as to what that bird's real intention was. Anyway, I moved ahead as I made my way towards the auditorium.

As I was about to enter the auditorium someone called out to me.

"Is your name Allen…?" I turned back to who it was.

"Yes, do you want something with me?" the one who called me boy or to be more precise he was a senior, who was wearing glasses. He had the appearance of a studious person. I guess it's only because of his glasses, probably.

"Where are the others?" he asked me.

"Are you talking about those who were called alongside me?"

"What else could I be talking about?" he said rudely. I know he is a senior but he could at least talk a little bit nicely.

"Who knows? I came here alone," I said.

"What?" he appeared to be irritated. That's a given; no one like being spoken to rudely.

"Do you want anything else with me? I have some more important matters to attend to than argue with-" I didn't complete the sentence intentionally.

"With what? Say it," he tried forcing me to say it.

"Does it matter?" I said haughtily.

"Hmm… I see," he made a remark.

"What does that mean…?" my intention was to move ahead but now I think I don't need to.

"What? Did you think the rumors about you haven't reached the third years yet? Well it does. Till now no one hasn't said a word to you because I told them not to," he said something that made me think if it's true or not. It could be true, since I haven't been starred by any third years but it could also mean that it doesn't bother them or maybe they don't know about me yet. All of them could be possible.

"So, what do you want with me?" it wasn't a coincidence. He planned it all. I guessed it since I noticed that after a couple of students one particular student was constantly looking back at me, this made me think if it was just a coincidence but it continued until he approached me.

"You see, I established this school's reputation and put everything I had into it to reach it to where it is today. You don't have a single clue what I had to do to make this possible and no matter what happens I won't let it blow my future. But now, all of a sudden, because of someone, it has commenced to shrink. I will not let my achievements crumble to grounds this way. I don't care about this school's reputation but if it does something to me I'm going to take this personally," he remarked as he locked his gaze on me.

"I still don't know, what exactly you want with me," I said to him. Neither I averted my eye nor he. 

The crowd was passing through us. No, the crowd was the same since the beginning but the way it was moving was rather suspicious because this way we were out from the teacher's range.

"I'm just saying that sooner or later you will have to leave this school," he smirked at me, "And if you would ask me it's going to be sooner."

"Well, we'll see abo-" before I say another word another announcement was made.

[IS THE SECOND YEAR NOT HERE YET?]

"Don't sweat it," he paused, "Junior." He intentionally made it sound like I was inferior to him. But I don't have single clue how he will attack me so as of now I have zero ways to counterattack him. And if he is serious, and talking to him I think he could make this possible if I'm not careful. Odds are against me this time.

"…" I stared at his back as he vanished in the crowd.

"Allen…!" I again heard someone calling me but this time it felt familiar. I turned around to see who it was and noticed Lily walking beside Mike and Iris. But they were quite far away. I decided to wait here and waited for them to reach me. But I noticed something.

"W-wait…" she tried to make her way towards me but was not successful. A sudden increase in the number of student's coming inside significantly.

I raised my hand and signaled for us to meet at the nearest corner. She also raised her hand and gave a thumbs up in response.

Slowly but gradually the crowd decreased and all the third years were about to settle that's when Lily and her company were able to talk.

"Did you need something from me?" I asked Lily as she was the one to call out to me first. 

"Hmm? N-no I just called out to you-" she was hesitant in answering me. I waited for to say something, while I glimpsed at Mike and Iris. Unfortunately Iris and mine eye's caught each other.

"I wanted us to be together with you that's all," Iris blurted out.

"But why?" I said.

[IS THE SECOND YEAR'S STILL NOT HERE?]

Ah… I totally forgot we need to report to the Principal.

"What is she talking about?" Mike asked me.

"We need to report to the Principal," I said.

"Why didn't you tell us that already?!" Mike exclaimed.

As we were about to leave, I spotted Peter and Anna walk in. I could have called out to them, but I chose not to because they had already seen me and were following us. But before we could approach the Principal someone stopped us on our tracks.

"Are all second year's here?" one of the invigilators contacted us and asked us a question. Peter and Anna had also caught up by then.

"Yes." Lily replied politely.

"Alright, follow me," is what she said and we started following her accordingly. She walked towards where the Principal was sitting.

As I was walking forward I peeked at the Principal as I saw her, at that instant she signaled something. I couldn't make out exactly what she said but what I could make out was that something is going to take place here.

"Huh?" instead of stopping beside the Principal we just walked past her and were straight going towards the stage.

"…. Don't back down," as we were passing through the Principal, she whispered to me something that I didn't know the meaning of.

TO BE CONTINUED…