[ IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT AT THE END]

Yesterday was another sleepless night where I passed my time by finishing the assignments that were given to us. We had to submit them by Monday, but it looked like I was almost done with everything. By the time I completed them, it was already four in the morning. I could hear Jude's light snores as I lay on the bed and the ticking of the alarm clock on her bedside table.

In the morning, I leave before the others do. I make my way to the dance studio slowly. It's open when I reach there and I hear someone humming inside the room. Recognising the voice, I open the door and the sound stops. Valeria turns to face me and her blank expression is instantly taken by a smile. My eyes go to a box-like thing wrapped in red wrapping paper. She follows my eyes and reaches for the gift, grabbing it and walking behind the table to put it back on the desk.

"It was from a student," she says without looking up. Her voice is calm right now and she seems like a different, more relaxed person like this. "She got expelled last year. She'd have been in the third year if she was still here but I was fond of her. She gave me this before she left."

I nod, wondering why she even bothered with the explanation even when I'd said nothing to her. "Why did she get expelled?" I ask her.

She smiles, shaking her head. "She simply didn't live up to the expectations of this school." She looks up at me. "Anyways, why are you here? Most students in their first year wouldn't even bother to come here at six in the morning. Did you get enough sleep? You look tired."

I flash a small smile. "I had trouble sleeping last night. I was here to take my mind off some stuff but you're here so..."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I won't disturb you at all. I was just going to go to my personal office right now."

"No, actually," I say, walking towards her desk. "It's better that you're here. There's something I'd like to talk to you about."

"With me? Right now?" she questions, a confused expression on her face. "Go ahead, Harley."

She looks at me calmly as she listens to me, not interrupting me even once as I speak about the incident with the group last night and how both the groups were not prepared at all about it. When I'm done, she just flashes a small smile to me, asking me to sit down.

"I'm afraid I'm not allowed to tell you any more than I already told you about the evaluation right now. You'll have to wait till the evening for it. However," she pauses, "please don't mind my lack of reaction right now. But the school does take action against a student who inflicts violence against the other students. I received a similar complaint from two students of the other group via text last night as well. It isn't something new, though. During their first group activities, the conflicts between the students tend to grow."

"Thank you," I say with a small smile. "Are you going to deny everything else I said to you?"

She shakes her head. "I'm not going to deny or agree with you. As per the rules, we can't be biased towards any of the students. It wouldn't be fair to the others if I tell you things that you're not supposed to know. However," she leans on her elbows, resting her face on her palms, "I do know that you're faster than the others and that you're not the kind of person to memorise things. You're actually smart, Harley, aren't you?"

I don't reply to that. I didn't know that the teachers are allowed to talk to their students like this.

"Pretty far from the current topic but tell me one thing." She looks right into my eyes. "Where did you really learn to dance like that? I honestly have trouble believing you're self taught. I can believe that you have no stage experience but to have taught yourself like that? I can't imagine it."

I scoff, reaching for my bag. "I watched the people around me and learnt it myself. I'll not get anything in return if I lie about it, will I?"

She nods. She doesn't drag the conversation on after that. Instead, she looks at her watch and sighs. "It's time for breakfast. You should leave. And sleep early from next time, yeah? Rest is important for an elite dancer."

I don't want to leave but I grab my bag and leave the room. It feels colder now. I'm wearing one of my red shirts with black tights and almost shivering, thinking about why I didn't feel cold back when I was walking here.

I walk up to my room and grab my uniform, walking to the bathroom. When I'm out, I get my bag from my room and move to the common room, where many of the students are sitting there and talking loudly. Some of them have just walked in whatever they were wearing last night. Aarav and Aaron are sitting on the couch together, bickering. When they see me, they smile or say, "Hey, Harley," or just wave.

I sit at the small couch near the table where Elliot's sitting, doing his work. I scroll through the rankings of yesterday's quiz and the results are a little surprising to me. No, a specific name on the list is a bit surprising to me.

FIRST ASSESSMENT QUIZ: TOP TEN RANKERS

Harley Kingsley | Serpens

Rhett Carter | Delphinus

Yua Matsumi | Lacerta

Anaya Srivastava | Cepheus

Hayette Fetcher | Serpens

Julian Hayes | Serpens

Atlas Elias | Lacerta

Remi Lorenzo | Lacerta

Lian Zhao | Delphinus

Ana Vorklov | Cepheus

Hayette's name on the list is what catches me off guard before I realise that she was the twenty fourth rank in the entrance. I'm scrolling through the rankings of the other years when I hear someone say something to me.

"Hey," I hear Leo say and turn to face him. I smile a little. "How was it with Sam yesterday?"

I sigh, closing my phone. "He'll be fine. I think. What happened after we left?"

Leo rolls his eyes and takes a seat right next to me. "He just laughed and left. He was saying things about how bad Line's choreo is and how...obsesssive Sam and you might get with things. We didn't react. He's crazy. How did he even make it into this school? I think they should do a personality test before admitting people in this school. If Remi pulls a stunt like that during a performance, he'll be expelled."

"He won't pull something like that in an official performance," I tell him, "He's not dumb enough to do it."

"True," he agrees with me. Probably hearing our conversation, Elliot turns to face us both with curious eyes. Up till now, he was buried in a notebook, probably doing his assignments.

"It's true, then?" Elliot asks us, "That guy, Remi, and Sam got into a fight last night?" Leo and I exchange looks and nod, an understanding that people don't need to know everything that was said yesterday between us. I really want to know how the news has managed to reach Elliot. If he knows it, then most people must have gotten a gist of the situation as well.

Leo leans back, closing his eyes. "I feel so bad for the Sam guy, though. He got beaten up pretty bad last night. Do you think he'll be there for the evaluation today?"

I shrug. "I don't know. He should be. It's compulsory for everyone to attend that session. Need to do something to keep them both apart."

"And you too," Leo points out, "From Remi. He seems to talk a lot when either of you are around. If you don't do it, I'll break his face."

"You guys really seem to hate this guy. Probably the first time I've heard you talk like that about someone, Leo."

Thinking about it now, I've never heard Leo speak shit about anyone or even curse much. He's the type of person to stay calm and the one who steps in to calm two people when they're bickering or fighting. Making these kinds of people mad is a huge and dangerous feat, you could even say it's an achievement.

"Are you done with your assignment?" Leo then asks Elliot, who just shrugs and shakes his head.

"I don't know how to solve the last few questions. Did you both do it?"

"Nope," Leo says and the two of them look at me, expecting an answer.

When I realise that I have to answer, I sigh and nod. "I'm done with all of them."

Leo jumps forward to get a better look at my face, probably to make sure whether I'm kidding or not. "You're joking, right?" Elliot asks me in disbelief. "You can't be done with all of the seven assignments this soon."

"But I am," I say and I'm not lying. "I couldn't sleep last night and didn't have anything to do so I just finished them."

"You finished them because you had nothing else to do? What kind of a person does that?"

"Hey, I told you I had nothing else to do." Leo shakes his head, muttering something under his breath. "You can't expect me to scroll through my phone all night, can you?"

Elliot turns to face us completely after closing his notebooks. "Harley," he says, "can I copy your work? I'll change some answers, of course, but please-"

"Yes! Me too. Please," Leo exclaims, holding my arm and tugging at my shirt as I close my eyes, leaning back with a ghost of a smile on my lips. "In fact, just let me copy yours and I'll try to understand everything on my own. If I don't, then you can explain them to me."

"Yes, exactly," Elliot chimes in.

I let out a small laugh. "What am I, your personal tutors?"

"Yes," the two of them say in unison and I sigh again because tutoring someone is not my forte.

"No, just copy it for this once. I'm not going to tutor you or anything. That's a pain in the ass."

Elliot and Leo exchange looks. "I mean," Leo mutters, scratching the back of his neck, "Fair enough. I'll do it tomorrow. Just give your work to me."

"Yeah, same," Elliot says.

"Good luck identifying my handwriting."

That's when Elliot's face drops. I'm not surprised that it does, though, since he sits right next to me during classes and sees me writing some stuff. My handwriting was average before the accident but ever since I've injured my right hand, I've lost a great amount of control. I don't let it show in my dance somehow but my handwriting now is like a doctor writing a prescription for a patient.

Speaking of my arm, after the regular dance practice and handwritten multiple homeworks, my hand has begun to feel numb randomly. I know I need to give it enough rest but there's nothing I can do about it right now with the dance classes going on everyday. Valeria would sure give me a break if she learns what my arm feels like but I don't want that for now.

"I completely forgot your handwriting," Elliot mutters under his breath, sitting back. "Trying to understand it would take me like, two days."

"You're exaggerating. It's not that bad."

"Wait, what? Harley's handwriting is bad? Even worse than mine? Finally. Thank you for being my competition in something I can actually beat you in."

Elliot rolls his eyes. "I haven't seen your handwriting, idiot. But I'm pretty sure it can't be as worse as hers"

"Why are we even discussing this?" I snap in annoyance. "Don't you guys have anything better to do?"

"You were the one who brought your own handwriting in the conversation," Leo deadpans and I don't reply because technically, it was true. At the same time, the topic wouldn't have been brought up if they hadn't asked to copy my homework. Just then, my phone vibrates against my thighs and I immediately open it, checking whether it's the person I think or not.

"Ah, rare sight," Leo comments. "Harley being excited for someone's text."

"I'm not excited," I mutter under my breath but I don't think either of them heard me. My heart literally leaps out of my mouth when I see that the girl has replied to me. I didn't think she would but she did.

Unknown: Hey Lee, how've you been? You literally cut all contact from me didn't you? I was shocked when I saw your text and you don't know how bad I'm smiling right now. Do you want to maybe like, call sometime? So tell me, how can I help you, my lady?

I bite my lip so hard that I can taste the blood in my mouth.

I begin to type in my reply, knowing that it had the capability to change the flow of the conversation in a minute.

I know I can't force her to do anything at this point.

I can only hope she understands without me explaining anything to her.

***

I've never stood in such a tense environment before.

We've all been in the auditorium for five minutes and we're standing on the stage with the second and third year dance students seated in the back rows, looking at us. There's something in their smiles that confirms everything I've thought about this evaluation. My eyes go to the seniors sitting on the last three rows of the auditorium. I see Nate amongst them and lock eyes. He smiles at me and I look away, not wanting to get distracted.

My eyes rest at Valeria, who's sitting behind a table placed at the centre with Park and Neora. They're engaged in some conversation about something. By the looks of it, it looks like it's something important. The students around me aren't even talking to each other. Remi is standing all alone with a smug expression, occasionally glaring at Line, Sam or me.

Line, Akira and Freva are standing together. Line looks like she's about to break down any moment, Akira and Freva look more anxious than ever. Zia standing next to me quietly. Leo and Zed are together at the other end of the stage, standing next to each other but they haven't said a single word since they've arrived. My eyes then go to Sam, who's standing at the edge of the stage, looking like he doesn't care about anything at all.

The other group looks even more broken than us. None of them are even standing or even looking at each other. And thinking about it, I don't think the group has even met once as a whole after Tuesday. They've probably had it worse than us.

"Alright everyone," Valeria finally says, "Line up in your groups. Rhea's not here today, she's at the doctor's doing the final check. She will be joining all of you from the next evaluation." Rhea was the tenth girl who was supposed to be in our group but had an injury, making her unfit to participate.

Hearing her, the students on the stage start to group. No one makes a single sound as they stand together.

"So, which one of you want to go first?" Valeria asks seriously and if I didn't know what the deal with this was, I'd be getting way too much anxiety just like the others in here right now. When none of us reply, Valeria speaks again. "Well? No reply? You know that this assignment cost you a part of your grade right?"

Hearing this, the members of our group exchange glances.

"Choreographers of both groups, step forward," Park says. Line steps forward, followed by Quinn Wyatt from the other group. The two of them exchange glances and it's as if they have a whole conversation like that. They probably felt good to know that they were on the same page. "Are your groups prepared for the assessment?"

Line then clears her throat and keeps her head high. "I'm sorry... but we aren't."

"You aren't?" he sighs, then moving his eyes to Quinn. "What about you?"

"We aren't either," Quinn replies as well, his head hung low. "I'm willing to take the blame for it."

"I need a solid reason why you weren't able to complete this project." Valeria's voice is cold and angry, catching everyone off guard. Even though she has an expressionless face put up, her gaze makes a chill go down her spine.

And just then, an unexpected person decided to speak up. "It's because of her," Remi's voice echoes in the auditorium. He's pointing at Line, while the others just look at either Sam or me, knowing how the situation would end up like. "She was the one who came up with everything at the last moment and expected us all to just agree and accept everything she said."

What a fucking liar.

Valeria raised her eyebrows. "Is that so, Emma?"

Line swallowed. "It's true that I came up with everything a little later than the others and held the first meeting on Monday but I did ask the others about their opinion on it. No one disagreed with me."

"There you have it," Valeria says, looking at Remi. "What's with this little blame game of yours, Remi? All of you were a single team and that means you all have a right to ask questions. No one's stopping you."

"But-"

"At least your choreographer came up with something," Amir from the other group says, scoffing. "Ours was a fuckin' idiot."

"Mind your language," Neora snaps. Her voice is thin and shrill and I realise that this is the first time I've ever heard her speak. "This is an official class, all of you. It's a group discussion about why none of you were not able to come up with something to present today."

Her words go ignored by the others when Quinn turns to face Amir with a furious expression on his face. "What do you mean I didn't come up with anything, huh? You were the one who didn't like any of my ideas. Do you even know how hard it was to come with something in the first place?"

"Oh my god, take out the pity card, won't you?" Iris Hart says, sarcasm dripping in her tone. "Your moves were complicated everytime. It seems like you choreographed it for some kind of robot. And it also felt like you were dictating everything."

"I wasn't!" he tries to defend himself. "You guys were the ones who just stopped showing up for practice. I was the one repeatedly sending text messages to each one of you but none of you seemed to care about it at all. How the hell is that my fault?"

"Yeah, well, you don't exactly look like the kind of person who's bright enough to know that it's all your fault. Turns out you're exactly how you look. Well, well, isn't that a surprise?" Julia, a girl who I recognise to be in my own class, snaps. I haven't really seen her around here honestly, she seems like the kind of person to keep to herself. But her speaking out like this? I definitely didn't expect this.

Hearing them, Akira raises her hand and Valeria allows her to speak, taking no action to stop the argument that has broken amongst her students. The seniors look particularly amazed by this.

"I think the groups were heavily imbalanced," Akira says confidently and I realise that she's going to say what Leo did last night.

Valeria leans forward. "What are you trying to point out? The groups and choreographers were chosen at random- shut up!" She finally gets up and the room goes silent as she glares at the students who were bickering just a few moments ago.

Taking a deep breath, she walks towards us and stands right in front of the stage, eyeing each and every one of us.

"Alright, one by one. How many of you guys have problems with this evaluation? Raise your hands."

Over half the students raised their hands. Valeria massages the bridge of her nose and sits on the front row.

"Put your hands down if your problem is that you only had a week to prepare for this," she says, her voice low but since no one was making any sound, she was fairly audible. I look around me and see that out of the twelve students who had their hands up, seven have now withdrawn. The results of it make me laugh but I manage to suppress it with a small smile.

One by one, she heard everyone's problems. Iris' problem was that the group choreographer had no idea what he was doing and was forcing them to do stuff. Amir's was the same as hers but hearing him say everything felt like he had something against him in general. Julia's problem was her shitty teammates who only fought and did nothing else. Akira thought that it was unfair to have unbalanced groups.

And finally, after that, Remi speaks up.

"Line is a terrible leader." So, he got straight to the point. "She's way too dependent on her sidekick. Her choreography seemed like something a person would make when they want us to fail."

He pauses, looks at Valeria, who calmly asks him to continue speaking.

Remi shamelessly does. "And then there's this girl," he points towards me, "and this guy. They're literal love birds, always defending each other and fighting with the other members." Freva, who's standing next to me, looks like she's about to jump at him but I grab her arm, mouthing her 'Don't say anything' and she shrugs, annoyed. Sam and I look at each other at the same time. Our contact remains that way for a while before he sighs, shakes his head and looks away. "Then there's that girl who's always on her phone. And there are the first ranker's two sidekicks."

Zed and Leo don't mind him at all. They just do their best to ignore him.

"The worst part is, that girl who doesn't speak. Why was she even accepted here in the first place? She can't even talk, how the hell is she supposed to state her opinions about something in some way? No one's going to read her texts all the time, and no one here is interested in learning sign language either."

"Are you done yet?" Freva says, laziness apparent in my tone. "Because whatever you're saying is absolute shit. You're making fun of someone's disability after slut shaming a girl? I mean, how low can you even stoop?"

"I'm not really talking to you, bi-" He's cut off when I step in front of Freva, blocking his view of her. Everyone in our group instantly grows alert and my eyes go to Zia, who's just looking at me. She looks unsure of what she's supposed to say. "What's your problem, again?"

"What's my problem?" I scoff, shaking my head. "I should be the one asking you that. You don't really get to speak anything about Zia or Sam or Freva or Line or anyone else in the group when you clearly are the problem here. All of us had come to an agreement about everything but you always have to bitch about someone instead of putting a suggestion or stating your opinion. Do you really not feel bad about saying anything you just did? Hell, I'd say that it was sarcasm if I didn't know how dumb you were."

"You're calling me dumb? Just how egoistic can you be?"

I narrow my eyes and sigh in disbelief. I really can't believe him right now. I decide not to carry this conversation on for long and take a step back. "You should really go back to grade school and learn your manners," I say to him and turn away.

In just a second he grabs my wrist to stop me and immediate pain emerges in my hand, making me scrunch my eyes. A painful groan escapes my lips and knowing exactly what's happening, the other students on stage rush forward to push Remi away from me, not giving him a chance to say anything else.

"Mr Lorenzo, let go of her right now," Valeria's bold voice makes him loosen his grip and I stumble, clutching my wrist in pain. Sam and Zia are the ones who don't let me fall down, with both of them holding me from either side. Seeing that I've regained my balance, Zia let's go of me but doesn't move at all, but Sam doesn't. Instead, he looks at me with an expression I can't quite comprehend.

"Are you okay?" he whispers to me and I nod, bringing my hand up to me so that I can get a better view of it. It's shivering, not as crazy as it has numerous times before but just enough to make it noticeable. I move my other hand a little and Sam lets me go, still unsure about how I am. With my left hand, I grip my other hand tightly to stop it from shivering.

It's nothing, alright? It's all in your mind. There's no pain here. No pain at all.

I keep telling that to myself for at least ten seconds before it steadies itself. I let out a sigh of relief before muttering, "It's nothing," to both of them. I don't think either of them believed me but they didn't ask me any further questions.

"Line up again," Valeria says. Now, Andy is right by her side and the third person is still there, looking at all of us. "If any of you say a single word now, I'll deduct your already low scores and the school will take action about this."

Hearing her voice, it doesn't take long for everyone to line up. When everyone's standing together and no one's uttering a single word, Valeria turns to face Neora. "Put it up, Neo," she says and the woman presses a single button, just like the last time. The screen behind us lights up in an instant. Taking a look at it, it just has every single persons' name written on there in alphabetical order. "Thank you."

She claps her hands, looking at each of us before her gaze stops at me. "Your hand okay?"

"Yes, thank you," I mutter.

"Very well, then." She stands up on her feet, walking a little closer to the stage. "You," she says, pointing at the guy named Luis, from Cepheus, from the other group. Her eyes move to the girl next to him, whom I recognise as Maura, from Lacerta. "You. And Harley. Step forward."

The three of us do and instantly exchange looks. Maura looks unsure while Luis looks as confident as ever.

"They're the only ones?" Park asks in disbelief. "This is a dumb batch we have here."

Valeria shushes him and he smiles, his eyes flicking between the three of us. "Out of you nineteen students, the three of you were the only ones to figure out what this assessment was about. I've already heard Harley this morning and I'm sorry," she pauses, a look of genuine apology on her face, "I couldn't confirm it for you at that moment but your take on why we did this was absolutely spot on."

I flash a small smile to her.

"Maura and Luis, the two of you were close too, and thank you for coming forward to report things to me."

"Report things?" Quinn's face drops. "What-"

"Quiet," Valeria snaps. "You all got enough time to speak."

Quinn looks down on his feet. Valeria then whispers something to Andy. who rushes back to the table and brings a remote with him, which I assume is the controller of the projector.

"Now, I'll be showing you the results of this evaluation and explain it to you in the process. To start off-" she clicks a button which drops Line's name and switches the zero to a negative five. "Emma Lane loses five points for not being able to bring her own group together by today. Though her choreography does seem a little out of the league for you bunch, Emma's attempt was pretty great for the first time. She failed to take in account the other's specialities, such as utilizing Harley's skills while matching someone like Zed's, whose dance style differs a lot from what you've come up with."

Line nods, understanding. Valeria presses the button again, which drops Quinn's score to a negative eight.

"Basic choreography. Quinn Wyatt kept the others' skill in account and created something that could've worked and actually been presented today if only he'd been able to unite his team in the first place. Moreover, it seems like you gave up too soon. Texting people doesn't work. You're the choreographer. If they tell you their opinions, then you have to take their views into account. But at the same time, do not let them get to your head."

Another click. Everyone else in the other group drops down by three marks.

"Three marks from each of you to not listen to your choreographer and stop coordinating. Neither of you have to stop showing up to practice. To present something, all of you have to compromise a bit. Moving on.."

She presses a button and everyone on stage gasps. Two people have their sores deducted by further ten points. Ian Cooper and Carrie Everett.

"Ten points from Ian Cooper and Carrie Everett for inflicting violence upon each other."

Now, both their names are at the bottom. She clicks a button again and this time, it's Sam whose points have been deducted. His name drops down and a negative eight appears in front of his name.

"Samuel Andrews lost eight points for initiating a physical fight. Normally, you'd lose ten points but given the circumstances, I understood what you did yesterday was to defend your friend but I believe that you could've avoided it."

She lets out a sigh.

"Emma Lane's group had an almost perfect understanding among each other. Almost none of the others lost any marks because according to the observations, all of you seemed to have an understanding and genuine respect for each other. That being said, there's only one person to go now..."

She looks up again, her face morphing into an expression that tells me that she's enjoying the look in all our faces. We hear a soft click sound and a negative three appears in front of a certain someone's name, making all of my team members set their eyes on me for a couple seconds.

"Remi Lorenzo loses three points for failing to cooperate with his team members."

Click.

"Remi Lorenzo loses ten points for initiating unnecessary physical contact with a teammate and possibly hurting them."

Click.

"Remi Lorenzo loses ten points for initiating unnecessary argument and physical contact with a teammate yet once again."

Click.

"Remi Lorenzo loses ten points for provoking and attacking another group member, resulting in visible injuries."

Click.

"Remi Lorenzo loses ten points for calling someone out for a disability, which is classified as bullying."

Click.

"Remi Lorenzo loses ten points for initiating violent physical contact on stage with a team member which could have resulted in a serious injury."

She keeps the remote on stage. There's a pin drop silence in the room. Not even the seniors, who were previously whispering or commenting on the deductions were able to say anything at this.

"In conclusion, Remi Lorenzo has lost a net total of fifty three points, breaking the previous record of fifty one points that was set two years ago."

"What the hell?" Freva mutters under her breath, nudging me. "This is gold."

"I've never been more satisfied with another person's loss this much," Akira comments, suppressing a small smile.

Meanwhile, the look on Remi's face is priceless as he tries to process the results. He runs a hand through his hair, muttering something under his breath. The feeling of warmth and satisfaction spreads through me as I look at him. He turns around, his gaze resting on me. He looks angry, deadly and confused at the same time as he takes a step towards me, grabbing the neckline of my shirt to keep me from going away.

"You ratted me out, huh?" he growls. I don't say anything but just flash a small smile to him, pissing him off even more. "Are you that desperate for someone else to step in for your fights every time that you'll go as far as complaining about me to a teacher? Are you not strong enough to stand up for yourself?"

I don't reply. He's about to say something when Park comes on stage to push him away from me. "Hey, man, that's a very low blow. Step back."

Remi did step back but was still looking at me.

"Just for your information, Mr Lorenzo, Harley didn't rat you out. In case you've forgotten, every move you make in this school is monitored. I think you've forgotten that there are cameras in all the dance studios. You're being watched when you're in there." She pauses, her composure and tone not changing at all. "I want you in my office right now. You're not allowed to be violent against any other student from now on. This is your very last warning. Another complaint, and you might be expelled."

His face drops but he doesn't say anything anymore. He looks away from me.

Valeria claps her hands to get all our attention. "I want all of you to go to the studio. The seniors will accompany you. Your deductions will be updated in your main ranking charts tomorrow. They'll be up by six in the morning. I want you all to be there for the formations of the next groups for the evaluation next week. Use whatever you've learnt today in that."

"If we end up performing the next week, will we get positive markings as well?" Luis asks.

Valeria shrugs. "Who knows? We're not allowed to tell you about the marking system about a weekly evaluation before the Friday where you perform. Oh, and there are no chances of if. It's a must to perform next time. Not performing itself will cost you a total of twenty five points each."

With that the session ends. Park walks off the stage with Remi right next to him. He throws me one last look of disgust before facing away. The second and third years who were sitting as the audience begin to get up as well. I go in a conversation with Leo and Akira until I feel someone's gaze on me and I turn, realising that it's not just one person but a group of people.

Summer, Nate, Lily and another tall guy, who I recognise as Mason Shaw from the Red Primas, stand at the gate of the auditorium, watching me.

Turning around, I come face to face with Zia. "Hey," I say to her and she smiles.

She makes a familiar gesture with her hands and it's something I recognise instantly. I've seen it in multiple videos and workshops we were forced to take up back when we were in middle school

Thank you, she's saying. My lips tug up in a small and kind smile. "You're welcome, Zia."

I look around at everyone else on stage. Our group looks happier than yesterday. Remi's deduction sure made everyone of us happy. He deserved it, considering the way he's behaved and the hurtful words he's said to each one of us. If he carries on this behavior, he'll be expelled and will drag down his house with him.

With the second week of the academy winding up, one of the first situations I've faced here comes to an end as well. However, it was just the beginning.

The next few weeks are going to be more hectic and strange than before.

There is a storm coming, and I'm pretty sure that I'm right in the middle of it.

***

hi everyone! how're you guys doing?

i know i disappear and reappear a lot but anyways, i apologise for that. first question: how are you guys liking the rewrite version of ae? i still think i can do a bit better but for now, i'm letting this be like this.

second and the most important question: if i were to shift to patreon for writing, how would you guys feel about that? i won't be making amber eyes book 1 paid; atleast not while it's ongoing. i'm thinking of shifting platforms because i don't like publishing stuff on wattpad anymore and i want to do something better with my writing as well.

so, let me know in the comments! thank u & have a great day :)