Chase was silently nodding along with the book that he found himself quite lost within.
Vivian sat on the other side of the desk, her dark emerald eyes shining like a vibrant shard of pure jade.
The two were quietly reading their own books inside of the grand library of The Phoenix Academy.
A day had passed since his first Aetherball game, and he was still processing everything that had happened since.
After the game: Coach Gerald had been too stunned to even give a post-game speech, was brutally honest.
He had said, "I didn't expect you guys to win, so uh yeah. Go celebrate or something..."
Which left the team silent, and everyone was in a pretty poor mood the rest of the night.
Including Equan, since he must have expected a lot more praise, considering that he had scored three of the four goals that game.
Chase gave him a pat on the back as they all went back to their dorms, surrounded by crowds of people.
Then if he was being entirely honest, he just kind of passed out once he reached his dorm.
And by passed out, he quite litterly didn't even make it to his bed before he hit the floor.
When he woke up, he was once again late to his first class by about twenty minutes.
He felt strange when he had arrived, as if winning in those impossible odds had meant nothing to his peers.
He still had felt people staring at him like some sort of pest, and heard the quiet insults behind his back from afar.
That was Chase's true curse: He had quite good hearing, and could eavesdrop on just about any conversation.
Throughout the day, the only strange occurrences that had taken place: Was how friendly Jack had been toward him and Equan, as if there was never any hostility in the first place.
It was as if Jack no longer seen Chase as a scumblood, and just viewed him as a fellow student and teammate.
At first he was quite confused, and just ignored the red-haired boy, but eventually just decided to make it mutual.
Instead of training in the courtyard that day, he had actually decided to eat lunch with his new fully formed friend group.
It was him, Jack, Michael, Equan, Gabriel, Gemini, and strangely enough Vivian had joined them for lunch.
Hence why he and the daughter of his combat teacher, had went to the library right after eating.
She offered a real rematch at the so called Paladin Chess game, but Chase was inclined to decline after the events of their first match.
He could still feel the distant hum, where the ruin on his shoulder was located. It was like Sparky had been actively trying to bring himself back into existence.
The poor dog probably hated living inside of Chase, which made him feel kind of bad.
'I'm trying my best.'
He thought, closing his eyes.
Again, he felt like the young hellhound was trying his best to answer.
Far away in the vast expanse of Chase's soul, he could feel a low growl.
It gave him shivers down his spine and made his physically flinch, which gained him a strange look from Vivian.
He looked down at the book that he was reading, and tried his best to focus.
It was a book about summoning magic, but it felt as if the words were being seen, yet had decided to avoid Chase's memory.
He had to reread several paragraphs, before he was actually able to learn anything. And all of the things that he had read so far, were completely useless.
'Why in the hell would I need to know how to summon a giant frog?'
He thought, feeling frustration start to burn within his soul.
It was clear that he was still mad about how he was being treated by other classmates, in fact even The Ivory Princess had decided to avoid eye contact with him for once.
As if it was finally beneath her to start an argument with him in the middle of class.
He bit his tongue, somehow feeling a strange sensation build up within him.
'Why am I even mad about that?'
He thought, setting the book down and obnoxiously rubbing his face.
Before he had left for his first class of the day, he had taken a look at himself in the mirror. He was still quite confused by how much his looks had changed in the span of a couple weeks.
He was starting to grow muscle, and actually gain a little bit of weight for once.
Granted, he still looked like a skeleton who had crawled up and out of his grave; however, now he just looked like the skeleton had tried to take some sort of physical enhancements before he decided to come back to the world of the living.
His skin had somehow gotten sunburnt as well. It was almost like he was immune to a normal tan, and his skin would rather burn itself before it ever decided to get darker.
Which probably didn't help with the stares from his classmates, considering he looked like he had taken a bath in pink dye.
"Ughhhh!"
He groaned throwing his head back, and gazing at the glass ceiling of the library.
"What's wrong with you today?"
Vivian asked him, with a look of worry on her normally distant expression.
"Nothing."
She raised an eyebrow, and her shoulders slumped.
"Actually, scratch that... I think I just hate people."
She let out a dramatic sigh, and looked away. The girl remained silent for a few moments before finally speaking in a sarcastic tone.
"Reasonable."