"Hey, over here!" Olivia waved. She was wearing the same uniform as Liz. They stood off to the side of the entrance to the food court. Lee Seng followed the boys over to the girls as they all said their good mornings and entered the food court together. The smell of sausage caught Lee Seng's attention. He pulled away from the group and found himself standing in the cafeteria line. He peeked around the students in front of him and noticed the menu written in large font.
Today's Menu:
Sausage biscuits with gravy
Hashbrowns
Pancakes
Waffles
Assorted fruit
Lee Seng's stomach happily growled at him as he slowly moved to grab a tray. Most of the students were chatting amongst themselves as they started their school week. Lee Seng grabbed two plates and set three sausage biscuits on one and drowned them with gravy. He moved over and grabbed some hashbrowns before making his way to the end to grab some assorted fruit.
He lifted his phone up and allowed the lunch person to scan the QR code before he moved towards the drinks. He grabbed a couple of chocolate milks and found his friends finishing up in another line. Manny was the first to escape the line and wander over to the coffee.
"Ahhhh, sausages." Manny nodded. "You could literally sniff out sausages a mile a way." Manny grabbed a mug and filled it with hot coffee.
"So...?" Lee Seng adverted his gaze from Manny. Manny chuckled and patted Lee Seng on the shoulder.
"It's only been a short while since we've reconnected and you're still the same." Manny smiled as Lee Seng held his smile.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt'I'm still the same?' Lee Seng thought. He stared at his hot food. He could hear the rest of the group heading over to the drinks area. Manny finished putting in his creamer and sugar and set it on his tray.
"Where'd you go? We went to walk into line and you disappeared." Olivia asked Lee Seng. Lee Seng moved out of the way so people could get their drinks.
"I followed my nose and found sausage biscuits and gravy." Lee Seng told her.
"If his nose smells that, he can't ignore it." Manny grabbed his tray and moved out of the way for the rest of the students to grab coffee and/or drinks. He settled besides Lee Seng who was turning around to look for seating. The group finished grabbing their drinks and they all began to move to find a spot for all of them to sit.
They moved about halfway into the cafeteria before they found a table big enough for them. Lee Seng picked a spot where his left hand wouldn't bump into someone while they were eating and sat down. His tail curved off to the left and hung below the arm chair. Lee Seng managed to pull his bag off and set it on the floor next to his chair before he began to eat.
He happily bit into the delicious sausage biscuits and gravy and cheerfully began to hum to himself as his friends talked.
"Is there anything interesting that happens on the first day for transfer students?" Evan asked.
"Mmm, I don't think so." Manny answered with his mouth full. Liz, who had taken a seat next to Manny, swatted him across the head.
"Don't eat with your mouth full, idiot." Liz shook her head as she turned to look at the others. "Nothing usually happens. Usually the transfer students who did really well, get some recognition."
"During hell weekend or... during the exam?" Ritsuka asked.
"Both." Manny set his coffee down. "If you did well in both, you'll get a lot of attention. It's normal for people to keep their eyes on the competition. Some people may even go as far to recruit you onto their team."
"Recruit us?"
"Yup." Manny nodded. "So it's a blessing and a curse to be at the top. And from what I know, you all did pretty well on the exam, right?" Ritsuka, Lee Seng, Olivia and Evan nodded.
"And let's see... During the first event," Liz began to hover her finger around and point at Olivia and Ritsuka. "You two got out pretty fast while the other two didn't, right?"
"Sounds that way." Evan answered before finishing his toast.
"Did you guys do well on the goblin horde invasion expedition?"
"How would we know that?" Olivia asked.
"Check your grade on it. I don't see why your markings wouldn't be there already. The leaders all had to fill out points for the individual students and give them an overall group grade." Manny waved his finger over at Lee Seng and motioned him to pull his phone out. Lee Seng begrudgingly stopped eating his second biscuit and pulled his phone out.
The rest of the group had already started looking through the Academy app for their grade on the goblin invasion expedition. Lee Seng opened the app and found himself clicking on the grade button and seeing a single grade pop up.
"Oh, I got an A." Evan answered first.
"Me too." Olivia answered.
"Me, three." Ritsuka answered. They all turned to Lee Seng who was in between holding a laugh and a yell in.
"SHE GAVE ME A B+?!?" Lee Seng shouted loudly before bursting into a laugh. He tossed his phone onto the table and wiped away his tears.
"Is he... okay?" Olivia looked at Manny. Manny shrugged and leaned forward into the table and reached over and fished for Lee Seng's phone. His fingers locked on the phone and he pulled it to him. He flipped the phone over and Liz moved her head onto Manny's shoulder and glanced at it.
"What the hell?" Manny chuckled. On the phone, Lee Seng had already dropped down the markings. Everything seemed normal until the end.
"Made a bet against workers while on the job and took 1.6 million creds home. Knowledge is power, but really? B+ grade." Manny read aloud. Lee Sneg shook his head as he laughed louder, drawing more attention to him and his table.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm"She would do that to me." Lee Seng reached for his phone from Manny, who gave it back and rolled his eyes.
"So you're all As except for this one. He's a B+ student right now." Liz loked around at the group.
"Guess you guys are. Was it really that bad? What was the bet even about?" Manny grabbed his cup of coffee and began to sip on it again.
"If I could cut a shifters head off, I get forty times the value of shifter blood from the three extractor workers. If they won the bet, they would get 3 million creds each." Lee Seng recited the bet. Liz started to cough at the measly mention of a million creds to three million. She grabbed a napkin from Olivia and covered her mouth.
"1-1.6 million creds to a whole 9 million?!?" Liz coughed. "Why would you make that bet?"
"Because I cut off a female shifters head." Lee Seng answered. He watched as Liz, Evan and Olivia looked at each other in confusion before looking to Ritsuka.
"Is that true? Was this bet really a thing, Ritsuka?" Liz asked.
"Mmm, yeah." Ritsuka nodded. "He did make that bet. I didn't even know female shifters head denser bones than their male counterparts, so I thought it was just a weird bet to see if Lee Seng could flex hard or not."
"We learned this in class before, Liz. You didn't retain that part about shifters?" Manny teased. Liz rolled her angry eyes over to Manny and slapped him, again. "Ow, okay, okay. I won't tease you!" Liz stood up and wrapped her arm around Manny's head and began to curse at him.
"Fuck you, stupid! You're gonna tease me about not remembering the bone density difference between a male and a female shifter while you can't even remember where slimes came from?!?" Liz apparently had amazing arm strength because Manny was starting to tap at her frantically. She released him as his face was starting to turn red and a loud gasp of air came from Manny's mouth.
"I'm 1.6 million creds richer, I guess." Lee Seng shrugged as he finished the last bite of his third sausage biscuit smothered in gravy. He began to chip away at the hashbrowns as Manny's loud gasps for air seemed to catch Liz's attention.
"Stop being dramatic, Valentin, you can handle that." Liz shook her head and continued to eat.
"You managed to behead a female shifter? How did you even manage that?" Evan asked. Lee Seng made a swinging motion like he was holding a sword and dropped his head to the side.
"Infused the katana with gravity and released it at the last moment. Her head came off cleanly. Honestly, the one thing I didn't know about is the fact shifter blood was actually quite useful in crafting and brewing." Lee Seng recalled what he did and shrugged at the mention of shifter blood. Ritsuka looked at his phone and realized it was almost 7:30am.