As the Ferris Wheel stopped at its peak, the two of them both looked out to the window.
"The view up here looks nice, doesn't it?" Katherine murmured as the orange sky illuminated the capital in the distance.
"Yeah..."
The two sat in silence as the Ferris Wheel began to descend until it returned to its starting point.
"Let's go back home now."
Alex nodded again, taking the initiative to grab her hands as the sunlight shone from behind.
---
"Alex, Alex, wake up. It's the Wednesday morning already."
"Hm?"
As Alex slowly opened his eyes, Sophia was shaking his arm as she stood by the bedside.
"Come on, we still have school today." Sophia hurried as she started shaking his arm even harder.
"Okay, okay. I'm getting up."
Just as Alex got up from the bed, he could feel a slight cramp around his leg.
"Annoying period..." Alex murmured as he could feel himself feeling a lot angrier than usual.
After getting out of bed and changing into his school clothes, he quickly packed his gym clothes before heading to the bathroom.
With his tooth brushed and face washed, he was fully ready as he headed into the living room with his backpack.
"Good morning Alex... You had a nice sleep yesterday?" Katherine curiously asked after noticing the black circles were gone.
"Yeah..."
"Mom, where's my milk?" Mary complained as the bread felt a little dried on their own.
"I forgot to buy it yesterday. You'll have to wait until tomorrow."
Mary disappointedly turned towards the cup of water as Luqing and Meiya finally came out for breakfast.
"Good morning..." Stay connected through m-v l|e'-novelhall.net
"Good morning... Are you two okay? You both looked a little sleepy today."
Katherine curiously asked, noticing the dark circle on both of their faces that looked a little similar to Alex's just two days ago.
"We're fine... I just stay up a little late to help Luqing advance her Qi a little more."
"Oh right, I almost forgot about that... Actually, what level is Luqing at right now?"
Meiya looked over to Luqing for a second and then answered it after seeing her nodding her head a little.
"She's at the peak of Core Formation Level... Or peak level 4 mage in the magic term."
The answer surprised the kids a little, as they had seen Luqing stand her ground against much higher-level mages during the competition.
Especially near the end, where they could remember her almost defeating several mages who were at least level 5.
"Miss Meiya, what level are you at?" Mary curiously asked, with Sophia looking just as curious.
Even Luqing and Katherine looked a little interested, with Alex being the only one whose mind seemed to be occupied with something else.
"Mary! Sorry about that, Meiya. Just ignore her question." Katherine apologized as she stared at Mary in anger.
Mary could only shyly scratch her hair as she realized how rude it sounded to ask her senior so directly.
After reading for a bit, more students arrived in the classroom, and seats began to fill up.
"Hey, Chloe!" Mary and Sophia both waved as Chloe walked into the classroom.
"Hey!"
Chloe quickly dropped her backpack next to Alex before heading to the back of the class.
"You look so nice today. Who tied your hair today?" Sophia curiously asked.
"My mom came to visit my dorm today..."
As everyone in the class was there, the noises from all the chattering made Alex close his textbook.
With nothing much to do, he laid his head down and started daydreaming about what happened last night.
"Alex... Wake up. Miss Amy is here." Chloe's voice made Alex immediately sit back up from the desk.
However, his eyes were only half open as he was still thinking about Katherine in the dream.
"Ahem, good morning everyone. I'm sure you're all ready for tomorrow's mid-term exam, right?"
All of the students let out a groan before Miss Amy tapped the board with a piece of chalk.
"Quiet. I'm going to go over the materials that will be on the test today. I better see all of you put your full attention in class today."
As everyone in class began taking out their notebooks, Alex remained zoned out, staring at the blackboard with his desk empty.
"Alex... You okay?"
Hearing the sound and his arm being gently shaken a little, Alex snapped back to reality again.
"Yeah, I'm fine... Thank you for waking me up."
Alex finally didn't zone out again as he took out his notebook and began to go along with the review material.
Two hours and a lunch break later...
As Miss Amy finished teaching the two-hour afternoon class, she quickly left the classroom with her bags.
"Good afternoon, everyone. I hope you all enjoyed your review with Miss Amy today.
Anyway, we'll be just running around the track and doing a few exercises before you all can go back home early."
After hearing Luqing's announcement, the students looked much more energetic.
They were all starting to get used to her class, especially ever since Miss Amy announced the midterm.
"Alex, you sure you're okay? You looked a little off today." Chloe asked as they got in line.
"Yeah, I'm fine... I just didn't sleep well yesterday."
Alex quickly lied at the last second, as there was no way for him to say that it was his period acting up.
"Okay..."
As the entire class arrived at the track, Luqing took out a clipboard with a pen.
Everyone could see some sort of list, with names in one column and long lines of boxes in the other column.
"I'll be tracking time from now on. The worst-performing student will be required to run two extra laps."
"That's not fair! How are we supposed to beat a boy as a girl?" One of the girls in the class raised their concern.
"I'm counting them separately... Okay, everyone. Get ready... Set... Go!"
Everyone started a slow jog around the track as the entire class learned how to run around the track efficiently.
Still, there was a clear divide, with the front being mostly boys while the back was mostly girls.