"Ooh!"
Sam groans in pain. Holding his stomach while keeping pace with them.
"Sorry."
He chokes out the words, tightly kneeled over to the side now.
"Hahaha."
Melody chuckles, bouncing along beside them, she holds her hands clasped behind her back as she skips.
"Well, it sounds like a good day. Mine was just okay."
Melody exclaims. She springs beside them, humming to herself.
"Well, that can't be true."
Sam says, finally walking upright again. His eyes close a bit, suspicious.
"Yeah, that's not like you."
Mason agrees, slowly speaking.
"Wha-"
"Come on, what did you do?"
Mason shoves back at Melody, showing some intrigued personality. He digs in with his elbow.
"Er- Fine!"
Melody shoves Mason away.
"I hit some guy while he was blinded."
Melody reveals, curling a tuft of her hair in her hand nervously.
"Ah"
"Did you win?"
Sam and Mason laugh, throwing her question back at her in unison.
"Shut up. He was being a real di-"
Just then, the group of friends is bumped into by a backward walking Mr. Gentus.
"Oop. Students."
He nods his head, blankly looking back still, looking far off for somebody, then,
"Oh!"
He realizes who he bumped into.
"Mason! Good, you're still around!"
Mr. Gentus grabs the young man's hand and shakes it firmly.
"I wanted to say, I'm glad I caught up to you here. You don't have to hand me your essay."
Mr. Gentus finishes holding his hand, letting it fall in the air.
Sam's eyes pop out of his head in exaggerated surprise.
"Wha-"
"Okay… but why?"
Mason questions, a little weirded out by the sudden taking back of his barbed order, but still willing to accept that he no longer has work to do.
"Well, actually, I have to say I was impressed by your apology."
Mr. Gentus nervously chuckles, rubbing his cheek with his index finger.
"Really?"
Mason and Sam react, dumbfounded, knowing that he gave it as minimal an effort he could.
"It takes a lot of something to admit when you've done something truly dumb."
Mr. Gentus smirks.
"Er- Sir, I think it's When you've done wrong."
Sam raises his finger, a meek expression of raising his hand to correct him.
"No, no. Dumb."
Mr. Gentus assures the students, gripping Mason's arm as he says it.
"Nrgh."
Mason fights his urge to draw his blade again.
"Besides, I wanted to apologize for suddenly hopping on your desk and making a scene of your...peculiarity."
Mr. Gentus rubs at his own chin, remembering the tiny mustache and beard Mason sported. His curious eyes squint now, staring for a brief moment.
"Yeah… it's fine,"
Mason looks away, awkwardly remembering the closeness of their faces. Melody quietly blushes and squeals at the image, seeing how attractive their new teacher is.
"-I've been dealing with it since I was born."
Mason finishes, brushing off the moment.
"Since he was born?"
Mr. Gentus thinks to himself, still rubbing his chin.
"Ah, yes, well, as I said- don't worry about your homework. We'll consider it moot and move on."
Mr. Gentus waves them off and turns towards the back of the campus, where the rest of the student body seems to be going.
Mason nods his head up and down, about to turn away to head on home with Melody and Sam.
"Aren't you coming to the Welcoming?"
Mr. Gentus stops, noticing them leaving, he tilts his head curiously.
"Ah- we actually were just going to hang out ourselves."
Sam answers, speaking up due to the distance.
"Yeah, we're not about to watch Bre-"
GMP
Sam shoves into Melody's side hard and fast.
"Ah- Sorry."
She cuts herself off.
Mason stops in his tracks, his katana falls from his shoulder, the base of the sheathe touching the pavement beneath them.
"Well, suit yourself!"
Mr. Gentus walks away, raising his hand in a wafting goodbye wave.
"I'm excited to see just how impressive this Breck is- he's supposed to be headlining the event."
"No."
Sam and Melody think in unison at Mr. Gentus' announcement.
"What."
Mason shudders, his teeth grit tighter than ever.
Mr. Gentus half-turns back to the group.
"Yeah, this Breck character, I hear he's your school's strongest. The other faculty seem to herald him damn near the next coming."
He shrugs his shoulders lightly.
The hollow wind blows over the four of them. A cold chill filling the atmosphere surrounding them.
KWEEROOOOOO
"-thousand."
Mason softly declares.
"Sorry?"
Mr. Gentus turns now, fully face-front to Mason and the others. He cups his ear with his right hand.
"Mason, we should go."
Sam suggests, reaching for his sleeve. Melody holds a cupped hand to her mouth.
"FOUR THOUSAND WORDS."
Mason shrieks, angry and disturbed. A few students several meters away are shocked into looking over at the group of students and their teacher.
Mr. Gentus squints his eyes a touch.
"What? Not good enough? I'll do Five!"
Mason turns away, raising his spread apart fingers in the air.
"I'll have it on your damn desk tomorrow morning, Gentus."
Mason spits his name into the wind. He walks away.
Mr. Gentus watches Mason walk away, disturbed by the sudden rage. He watches closely and sees that Mason is hugging his katana's band tighter to his shoulder and back.
Gripping onto it so tightly, a thin red slice forms beads of blood across Mason's hand. Sliding his hand across his jacket, Mason wipes the blood off of him and waves Mr. Gentus off.
"Enjoy the fight."
Mason's voice sounds as hollow as the wind.
Behind him, Sam looks back at Mr. Gentus and offers him a shallow bow, not out of disrespect, but in haste to get back to his friend. Melody's eyes have a shade of budding wetness to them, she nods her head at Mr. Gentus even smaller than Sam's bow.
The three friends walk off of the grounds of Masquerade, silent.
Only the wind rages around them, mixing into the uproarious cheers coming from the veritable colosseum behind Masquerade. To which, Mr. Gentus gives one final look at Mason and his friends and heads off towards the match.
"What happened to that boy, I wonder?"
Continued in PART TWENTY-EIGHT…