Angel waited patiently. She had no doubt whatever their teacher was going to do next was going to be worth the wait. Right now, Xia was typing something down on her phone, but soon she looked up.

“Okay, I have permission! Unfortunately, for this next part, you guys can’t see.”

“What do you mean?” Matthew asked. Xia smiled brightly.

“Bye bye!” Angel heard the distinct sound of a button clicking, and the classroom was filled with shocked cries. Amber tilted her head in slight confusion. There was no noticeable difference she could sense with her Art. Perhaps the light turned off? Angel ignored the fear slowly spreading and focused on her senses.

Not being able to see wouldn’t be a problem for her. The Air told her where everything was. Xia silently traveled down the classroom and paused at Reina’s seat. Angel quirked an eyebrow when the teacher bent down and rummaged through the younger girl’s cloak.

She left Reina and made her way back, thought something was weighing her down. Angel concentrated around her hand and found a large cube. What was that supposed to be?

Xia reached her table and gently lowered the cube. Then she walked over to the lights and flipped the switch. There were gasps as the sudden light blazed their retina. Not for the first time, Angel was glad she didn’t have to go through that. People said sight was so good but if all you needed to get rid of sight was light, then what was the use?

“Xia? What’s that?” Dawn asked, pointing at the cube. Xia grinned.

“This, my dear students, is your final task for my class! You know, I’m actually really feeling good about myself! I’m the class they chose to show this off, not Arcturus or anybody else! Take that, Arcturus!”

Nobody knew quite how to respond to that. Angel reminded herself that a lot of the teachers didn’t seem to like Arcturus, though none quite as vocal about their opinion as Xia. It could be that Arcturus was just an insufferable jerk, but at the same time, there might be something else behind it.

“This is a cube, I’m sure you all know that, or you shouldn’t be in Advanced Math. Can anybody tell me what’s so special about this cube?”

Angel extended her senses but couldn’t detect any mechanics of the sort. Her ‘sight’ wasn’t perfect, but very few devices could slip by it. Every single device had an electric current running through it, which she could detect to at least some degree. There was none in this, and Angel took that to mean it was pure metal 100%.

Not all of her classmates believed that.

“It’s going to shock us if we touch it!”

“It’s a bomb!”

“It’s super hot!”

Xia hummed and shook her head. “No, nope, and na. This hunk is pure metal, nothing else! Just tungsten and a few other alloys. Cute, isn’t it?”

“Um, yes?” Felicie said.

“But I didn’t bring this guy out here to allow you to marvel at its brilliance. I’m far too selfish for that. Your job is to attempt to lift this bad boy!” Xia patted the cube and for the first time, Angel realized she had gloves on now. How come she didn’t sense it before? And. . .Angel closed her eyes and manipulated the air around Xia’s desk. Was that a cake hiding in a drawer?

Owen chortled. “What does that have to do with math? Are we going to measure it or toss it down the window?”

Xia smirked. “Why not?”

Owen stalled. “Say what now?”

“If you guys can do it, toss it out the window! I won’t stop you and you won’t get in trouble, I swear.”

“Wicked!” Owen said and several other classmates agreed with his statement. Angel merely was saddened at their stupidity. There had to be a trick somewhere.

“You seem confident in your abilities. Come, Owen, and attempt to lift this!” Xia said.

Owen laughed and flexed his muscles. Angel fought back the urge to gag. “I’ll do one better than that!” He strolled over to her desk and patted the cube. “Not hot, Lincoln!”

“Shut up!” Lincoln said.

Owen tried to get a good handle on the cube for some seconds. Eventually, he wrapped his arms around the sides and tried to lift. A laugh slipped past Angel’s lips when the cube didn’t budge.

Most of the class believed he hadn’t tried yet and Lincoln called out, “Dude, hurry up! I want to try!”

Owen tried to regain his confident facade. “Of course, Lincoln!” Huge muscles bulged as he struggled to lift it to no avail. Angel laughed again and by now, people were starting to realize the truth.

“You can’t lift it? Hilarious!” Brandon shouted and the class burst out laughing. Angel felt Dawn look at Brandon wistfully, but batted it away. Just because she knew Dawn better than a lot of the other kids didn’t mean they were friends. There was no need to worry about whatever complicated mess of a relationship Brandon and Dawn had.

“It’s not that!” Owen grunted, his face turning red form the strain. “This thing is impossible to lift! It should have budged by now!”

Finally, he stumbled back, his shirt loose and sweat running down his body. He dropped to his knees and checked the underside of the desk. “There’s got to be magnets or something!”

“Nope! No magnet, nothing. It’s just heavy.” Xia said.

“There’s no way something that small is that heavy! I can at least make a refrigerator budge!” Owen insisted.

“If you find it so difficult to lift it, how about destroying? Use your Art to destroy the cube, without destroying the room.” Xia ordered.

Owen rolled back his sleeves. “Don’t worry, if I can’t lift, I can definitely destroy it!” Oh, right. Angel recalled he’d stated his Art was Earth, and he specialized in manipulating metal. Angel had the inkling it wouldn’t work out as he expected.

He flung his arms out, probably attempting to crunch the cube into a minuscule shell of itself. When nothing happened, he growled and kicked at the floor. “What the heck is that? Does it weaken your Art or something?” he demanded to know.

“No, it’s just a cube. Nothing more, nothing else. You just weren’t strong enough to change the metal.” Xia said matter of factly.

“That means it’s stronger than-“ Owen began to say.

“Ah, ah, ah, ah!” Xia stuffed a small cake slice into his mouth.“We don’t want to discourage the others, do we? Have a cake for being the first up.”

Owen went away, biting furiously at the cake. Xia smiled disarmingly. “Whose next?”

Before anybody could respond, Angel froze. There were footsteps. A whole crowd of people, 3rd years and older. It wasn’t long before everybody else could hear the sound as well.

The windows slammed open as heads stuck through. Angel’s classmates shrieked at the sudden invaders who had no eyes for them; they were only invested at the cube.

The moment they spotted it, they burst out laughing. “It’s here, they really have it!”

“What the-who are you?” Monica asked, disgruntled.

They paid her no heed. “Hey, Xia! I heard you were teacher but having the Cube as well? Come on, tell us the truth!”

Xia tapped her chin. “I don’t know, it just popped up one day on my desk! What a mystery, am I right?” A light twinkled in her eyes.

“Boo! That’s a lie, I call it!” one of them shouted.

“Hey, Ralph! Think you can move it now?”

“Laugh it up, you couldn’t move it either!”

Angel pushed her senses past the yelling and exclamations and went to the back of the group. There, she found her query. A 3rd year old student was explaining to a group of 2nd years who had come to see what the commotion was.

“In our first year, there was a metal cube our teacher told us to lift or destroy. None of us could do it, and the teacher told us for the past 5 years, it had never been moved by a student. It became something of an urban legend, a challenge. If you could destroy or move it, everybody would respect you. It only became more famous when it was rumored alumni couldn’t move it either! There were a ton of attempts to try and figure out what was so strange about it. It disappeared two years ago, which only added to its fame.” she explained.

“Dang it! Our year?” one of the 2nd years shouted. “We could have gotten fame!”

There were similar grumbling and the 3rd year shook her head. “The cube is no joke. It’s super heavy and durable, it’s crazy!”

Angel pulled back into the classroom where the older kids were encouraging her classmates to go. Already almost all her class had went at the words of their elders. Currently up was Lucifer.

After failing to lift it, he formed a ball of air underneath the desk. He let the ball gather momentum for a few seconds, the wind coiling wildly under his control. With a yell, he made a rude gesture upward, and the ball reacted. It exploded, releasing a funnel of wind upward. It sent the cube crashing through the ceiling and into the sky.

There was silence and everybody looked to Xia. She only smiled and shook her head. “Sorry, it doesn’t count if you lift it using your Art. You can only use your Art for destroying.”

There was a sudden outcry and Xia raised her hands. “Hey, I didn’t make up the rules. But since I didn’t clarify it, you still get a cake, buddy.”

Lucifer trembled and toppled over, hitting the ground with his knees. Dawn jumped out of her chair and rushed over, gingerly helping him back to his feet. Angel’s eyes narrowed when she heard the two of them talking, but the uproar in the class made it exceedingly difficult to focus on them.

“When’s the cube coming back?” somebody asked.

“Well, you better hope Lucifer threw it straight up. Otherwise, it might fall on one of your heads!” Xia crowed.

Angel hastily formed a air bubble around her. It may not completely protect her but it would definitely slow the cube down. Most of her classmates did the same with their respective Arts, and several others in the hallway did too. Felicie ran over to Reina, presumably to protect her.

Luckily, Lucifer did throw it straight up and it came crashing back down. It was a blur but everybody saw Xia reach out and pluck the cube from the sky and place it on her ruined desk.

“What the hell?!” was the general thought of the population but Angel was more focused on her hands. Could the gloves have something to do with it? Angel had only sensed it after Xia took the cube from Reina.

“Seriously, Xia?” An old head with a short bread appeared from the hole in the ceiling. “I have a class to teach! This is no time to be making damn jokes!”

Xia chuckled nervously. “Sorry, sorry.”

“Damn right you should be sorry!” another voice said from above. “You broke through my class too! Today of all days?!”

“And mine!”

“Mine as well!”

“Stuff it, I’ll fix it later.” Xia reclined in her chair, rubbing her forehead. “Now, as you can see, the cube is intact without a crack. Who wishes to try next? Angel, you haven’t gone. Why not you?”

“No thank you. I would rather not make a fool out of myself trying to do something I know I won’t succeed in.” Angel stated. There was some grumbling at that but no one objected.

“Aw, you take the fun right out of it. Alright, No-Fun Angel has declined. Whose next?” Xia asked.

“What about Reina? She hasn’t gone yet.” Dawn suggested.

Angel narrowed her eyes. At Reina’s name, Xia tensed up. Every muscle in her body had just tightened, and her fists were clenching and unclenching nervously. What was happening here? And why was Xia shaking her head furiously?

“Reina? Why, she’s sleeping right now so, uh, let’s not disturb her, right guys!?” Xia all but growled out the last few words.

“R-right! Don’t disturb Rei-Rei!” a boy shouted.

“Rei-Rei?” Angel repeated drily. Could these people get any worse at lying? If so, she would like to witness it.

The boy froze when all of his classmate’s disgusted looks leveled on him. “W-what? She never said I couldn’t call her that! Teacher, why are you looking at me like that too?!”

Xia groaned, checking the time. “You know what, all of you non first-years, leave! Don’t you have class?”

“It’s break for us, Xia,” seemed to be the typical response.

“Don’t say that with such a happy look on your face or I’ll send you to Arcturus! Times almost up, so leave!” Xia commanded.

“Fine, fine. Let’s go, guys.” Slowly, the amount of people leaning through the window dwindled down and their class was left alone again. Xia rubbed her head.

“I wasn’t lying, break is almost out by now, so-“

“Xia, what’s this about Reina? Why is she still allowed to sleep?” Angel asked. She was not about to let this slip past by. Reina was an anomaly and she was determined to get to the bottom of this.

“It’s nothing.” Everybody gave her an unimpressed look and she sighed. “Shouldn’t you respect teachers? That’s why I became one in the first place! If you want to figure it out, ask Veriy.”

“Who?” Matthew asked.

“Veriy. You have him next class, which is starting around. . . .now.” Xia tapped her watch.

“What? What about break!” Brandon asked.

“You think the cube challenge was 10 minutes? You guys used your break up for that, now leave! I can assure you, Veriy is far worse than Arcturus. If you’re late, you probably won’t survive.” Xia said.

Everybody packed up and zoomed out of class. Angel sensed Dawn approach the still sleeping Reina, until Xia intercepted her. As Angel left, she heard Xia tell Dawn, “Actually, I need to talk to her. Is that alright with you?”

“Um, sure.” Dawn left the classroom as well and Angel had to make the decision if she should stay and eavesdrop or follow her peers. In the end, she decided to go for the latter. She had other ways to find information.