Alex blinked groggily as his alarm went off and quickly turned it off and rubbed his eyes. He slid out of bed and tossed the covers up before moving to the bathroom. It didn’t take him long before he was dressed and ready and on his motorcycle. He was a little surprised that Zeltis hadn’t bothered him yet but he didn’t think too hard about it, in case that would jinx it. After parking, he was a little nervous about going in. He couldn’t help but worry about running into Hugh again. A few people looked at him oddly when he crept in, glancing around everywhere. He only relaxed when he finally slid into his seat in class and was able to play on his phone. He thought he heard a laugh but wasn’t sure where it came from.

He continued to be edgy and rushed around grabbing his lunch in record time. He almost went back to his previous spot, but decided that since Hugh knew where that was, he might find him there again. So he turned and headed the other way, trying to find another hideaway where he could eat in peace. He found a small bench in a corner that seemed neglected based on all the weeds around and the slightly rotting bits of the bench, but it supported him well enough. He was eating quietly when he heard footsteps coming around the side of the small building he was in front of. It was most likely a storage shed based on its looks but he couldn’t see inside so wasn’t sure and didn’t really care.

He was worried at first that the people who were walking would come out where he was, but they stopped in the shadows at the side of the building. He was a little curious, but continued to eat now that he knew they wouldn’t come out and bother him.

“We saw what happened yesterday and you should know that it’s against the rules to approach the prince.” A feminine voice said in a low angry voice.

Alex heard a loud thud and a grunt like someone was pushed against the building.

“Yeah! Only Veronica is worthy enough to even approach him. How could you even think to talk to him and even t..touch him.” The second girl said haughtily at first and then stuttered and he heard a chorus of agreement from a few other female voices.

It couldn’t be! He stood quickly and peeked around the side to try and see if it might be who he thought. And he caught a glimpse of curly black hair on a small head and body surrounded by about four other girls. He didn’t really know what to do. He couldn’t help but worry that he could just make it worse.

“Are you really a man or not, you pussy?” Zeltis scoffed internally.

“Of course not.” Alex whispered back and straightend up with determination.

He started to move forward just as Summer started to talk in a slightly hesitant voice. “I..if you l…like him you should talk to him and not impose all these strange rules that just end up making him feel lonely.”

He paused for a moment and his eyes widened in surprise. Still a second later he saw one of the girls raise her hands to slap Summer. He rushed in and pushed his way through hurriedly, arriving just in time to block the slap with his arm.

“What the hell….” The girl started and then gasped and covered her gaping mouth with the hand she had almost hit Summer with. “P..P..Prince Sir!”

All the girls backed off and gasped, and gaped at him. Some blushing and looking away but most stared at him starry eyed. He couldn’t help feeling uncomfortable and wasn’t sure what to say. He couldn’t see Summer’s expression but he was still angry.

“I am not a prince dammit! Don’t call me that again!” Alex commanded and almost like military they stood in a line at attention.

“Y…Yes sir.” A couple girls said, sounding a little odd, they all looked dazed still.

“I don’t want you to bother Summer again, she is my friend. Please leave us alone.” He said, and without another word, the other girls simply turned and started to walk away, leaving Alex to gape at them in surprise at their quick compliance.

“How in the world did you do that? They left so quietly and quickly.” Summer said from behind him.

“I have no idea.” He said, as he continued to watch them walk further away. Then realized why he had butted in, in the first place, and turned to Summer. “Ah, are you ok? They didn’t hurt you or anything, did they?”

She laughed a little and waved her hand dismissively, “no, no, I’m fine, see.” She turned around slowly in front of him to show him she was ok.

“I’m so glad,” he sighed a little in relief. “Why don’t you join me for lun…” he trailed off as he realized that she wasn’t carrying anything.

She noticed his glance and shrugged. “Well, they kind of dumped it out in the trash.” She said and glanced away.

His chin shot up and turned toward where the other girls went and was about to go after them but Summer grabbed his arm.

“Hey, it’s ok. Confronting them again might make things worse again and won’t get my food back anyway. I won’t die if I don’t eat lunch.”

“But you didn’t eat lunch yesterday either!” He says and as they get to the bench he sees that he has some food left. “Ah! I have an unopened sandwich that you can have. It isn’t much, but it’s better than nothing and we can share the chips.”

“But that’s your food.” She looks up at him uncertainly.

“I’ve already eaten one sandwich and I would feel bad if I didn’t offer it to you. One is plenty, they are a little big if you eat two of them. I was actually just going to save the second sub sandwich for later, so don’t worry about it.” He grabbed it and held it toward her.

“Ok, ok. I feel a little awkward but it does look good. Thanks.” She took the sandwich and sat on the bench.

He sat across from her and ate a few chips then took a gulp of water. “Oh,” he looked at her and held the water bottle out to her. “You need a drink too?”

She had just took a bite and almost choked. “Um,” she swallowed and laughed a little taking the bottle a little reluctantly, with a slight blush. “Thanks again.”

“NO problem,” he turned away awkwardly and pulled his hand through his hair in a slightly nervous gesture. He had just now realized how weird it was to share a water bottle with a girl. Still, she was a friend so he didn’t think it was too odd.

It was quiet for a bit as Summer ate but it was a compatible silence, peaceful. They just watched the clouds go by or birds flying.

“I wonder if that’s another one of your powers?” Summer commented suddenly, after taking another small drink.

“Hmm?” He turned at her in confusion, not sure what she was talking about at first. “Ah, oh that.” He laughed a little. “What kind of power could that possibly be? Maybe they just realized they were wrong themselves.” He didn’t really believe that but it was hard for him to accept anything supernatural despite all the evidence he had seen.

“Maybe persuasion or coercion but it was way too sudden and odd the way they left like that. It couldn’t have been natural. You had to have caused it somehow.”

“But you didn’t seem affected at all?” He looked at her for confirmation.

“Not that I can tell, but for some reason recently the girls have seemed a little more obsessed than before.”

“Really?”

“Well, it’s kind of hard to tell with them,” She laughed at her own corny attempt at a joke. When he looked at her seriously with a slightly confused face she smiled with a sigh.

“Why did you sigh, I’m sorry if you were trying to make a joke. I’m not very good with some humor. I tend to take things too literally, so…” he said, looking away embarrassed.

“Oh, that’s ok. It wasn’t really a great joke. People always tell me I am too light hearted.”

“I think it’s amazing that you are so cheerful, especially in this school.”

“Ha, ha, I know what you mean. This place is so stiff and formal and everyone are so concerned about appearance and money. Still you can’t let things get you down. I just feel that if one person is cheerful, they can pass that on, even a little and brighten other people’s day. Not to mention it helps to keep me from feeling too depressed if I keep smiling.”

“That’s cool. I don’t know if I could do that but I will try to be a little less gloomy, K?” He smiled lightly and she smiled back

The bell rang. “Ah, darn. I was hoping to hear if you had met anyone else with cool powers or seen any ghosts.” She paused and looked at him earnestly. “You won’t laugh will you, if I tell you something?”

He had started to get up, picking up the tray and looked at her in surprise. “Well, I will do my best to not laugh.” Not sure what she could say that would worry her so.

“Actually I can sometimes see strange things. Like, you know ghosts and stuff.” She looked and glanced away and back at him, gauging his reaction.

“Hm, well, I never really believed in them before, but if you believe you saw them then I won’t doubt you unless it is proved false. I’ve seen some pretty strange things myself so I can’t really discount things like that anymore, even if I wanted to. Come on, we better move before we run out of time.”

She nodded and smiled brightly at him. “I’m glad you believed me and didn’t laugh. A few people have refused to be friends with me after they found out.” Her face fell a little at that comment. She grabbed a piece of trash and crumpled it in her hand absently.

They started walking back together. Alex didn’t really know what to say to that, so they were quiet and split up before they got back to the school building. Alex watched for a moment as she walked away, then hurried to drop off his tray at the cafeteria.

It was Friday, so he made sure to take all the books he needed for his weekend homework. He had been so distracted with thinking about random things that he hardly remembered the rest of his classes. He let the wind clear his head as he made his way to the dojo, looking forward to the class and hanging out with Chris again.

Chris was in the locker room when Alex came in. He finished pulling a t shirt over his head and caught sight of Alex. “Hey Alex, good to see you. Hurry and get ready, I’ll clear us a space to hang out until class starts.”

“Sure, thanks.” He smiled and Chris gave a wave before stepping out. It didn’t take long before Alex was changed and sat down next to Chris.

“I wonder if we are going to learn anything new today?” Chris commented.

“Just practicing what we did last time is enough for me. I kept falling behind with just that, so if I learned something else it might be even harder to keep up.” Alex sighed.

“Hey, you did all right, but I see what you mean. We are the most awkward and slowest guys here. Even the girls seem to be catching on faster than we are.”

“Ouch, that hurts what is left of my pride.” Alex laughs good naturedly knowing Chris wasn’t trying to make him feel bad.

“You know you at least have had some experience. I feel like I am a hopeless case.”

“Are you doing strength training too? I run and work out in the gym when I can and every little bit helps. It can get boring and repetitive but your strength and stamina slowly improve the more you do it.”

“You’re probably right. Ugh, I’ve never even tried sports or anything but if I don’t do anything, things will never change. I will try and start some weight training, at least. My dad has a set of weights I can borrow. I would hate having to do it at a regular gym or even here where people can watch me.” Chris frowned.

“I know what you mean. I work out in my gym at home. In the class we are all doing the same things so you don’t notice each other but in the gym people have more time to look around and I always hated the feeling of being somehow inferior.” He said this softly so the other groups around them wouldn’t catch their conversation but no one was even glancing at them.

It was almost like school with small little cliques that didn’t mingle much. Still based on the dojo he went to before, that would probably fade and the whole class would get to know each other. It might be different here but he doubted and hoped it wasn’t.

Seeing the owner and other teachers walk over, the class slowly stood and bowed then formed lines.

“I have a special treat today. A great Chinese martial arts master and good friend of mind has come to join us today and has brought along one of his disciples.” The owner said with a smile and motioned as an older man came over followed by a younger man, about my age.

Wait! “Ahhh!” Alex yelled in surprise.

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Authors comments

ha ha, my first lame attempt at a cliffhanger. It's hard for me to cut off like that. I am usually really precise and each chapter is a complete scene so it is weird for me to end in the middle like this. Still I wanted to attempt it and also wasn't sure how much longer it would take to finish the chapter and wanted to post it sooner since it had been about that long. Man, I always think it's been a couple days and then I look at my last post and count and it always ends up being longer than I thought. I'm afraid to take to long and have people forget what is going on or even forget the story entirely. Maybe I am too paranoid lol.

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