"Suit yourself, though, they might kick you out the academy if you're late." Steve stressed the word 'kick'.
Immediately after hearing that, Khael stood up and went to wash up.
"Why do they even want us to wake up before sunrise anyways?" Khael said while clutching his head, feeling dizzy from standing up too fast.
"Who knows, they said we were going to do an activity, probably trying to test us or something." Steve shrugged.
Clay yawned while looking at himself in the mirror.
'This uniform doesn't look or smell dirty, is it also self-cleaning?' Clay inspected the uniform once more, amazed at one of its functions.
'That's pretty neat.'
He then went out after seeing that there were indeed no smudges or stains on his uniform.
"I'll wait for you guys at the cafeteria, don't take too long." Clay said to the others.
"Yeah, sure. Tell us if the instructors announced anything." Josh replied, arranging his collar.
Clay nodded and left the dorm room.
'I'll go check out what free meals the cafeteria has today, if I want to get something else I can just use my system shop, much more cheaper that way.'
A few minutes later, Clay was back at the cafeteria.
Clay noticed that there were not that many people in the cafeteria at this time of the day.
Almost all the tables and seats were free.
Without wasting any more time, he took his place at the back of the line.
Clay looked at the choices that one could add to their meals, checking if they change daily as well or stay the same every day.
'I guess they stay the same.'
There were so many options one can choose for their meal, there was salad, stew, curry, soup, mashed potatoes, you name it.
He wondered which would become today's free meal.
Before long, it was finally Clay's turn.
"Hello, what would you like?" The cafeteria worker turned to Clay after confirming the payment of the previous person.
"Good morning, what's for today's free meal?" Clay greeted.
"Good morning, we have mashed potatoes and lasagna with salad at the side for today." The cafeteria worker replied.
'That's not too bad actually.' Clay's eyes brightened.
"Alright, I'll get that then."
The cafeteria worker nodded, preparing a tray and placing Clay's meal in it.
"Here you go, please enjoy your meal. Next person!" The cafeteria worker smiled.
"Thanks, you too." Clay nodded.
He froze.
'Wait. What did I say? 'You too'? Why did I say that?' Clay turned around and left quickly in embarrassment.
'That makes the seventh person to say the same thing today.' The cafeteria worker chuckled to herself.
Clay gave his thanks for the food and then dug straight in after.
First, of course, you have to try the mashed potatoes before it gets cold. Secondly, the lasagna goes next to pair with the mashed potatoes. The salad goes last to reset the palate for the next round of chewing.
Clay repeated this perfect cycle a few times, and before he noticed it, his plate was already empty.
He gave out a satisfied sigh.
'That was delicious.'
Clay drank a cup of water to finish up.
'Are they still not here yet?' He wondered what was taking the others so long.
Clay didn't realize it, but he had only spent a few minutes eating, not nearly enough time for Josh and the others to arrive.
But just as Clay was about to stand up and head back to check on the others, he saw something at the corner of his eye.
He hadn't noticed it before since he was too focused on eating, but on the table on his right there were two boys having a conversation with a girl.
One of the boys were leaning on the table the girl was sitting at, the other was standing beside her like a strict parent.
From what Clay could see and observe, the girl clearly looked uncomfortable.
She was shifting in her seat and glancing around frantically, as if wanting to get away from the two.
Seeing this, the boy leaning on the table slammed his palm loudly. Not loud enough to be heard by everyone, but loud enough to be heard by Clay who was quite near them.
The girl, startled by the sound, quickly stopped glancing around.
'This is not my problem.' Clay was about to get up and quietly walk away when suddenly he saw a person approaching them.
"Hi, everyone. Is there a problem here?" Steve placed his arm around one of the boys' shoulders.
The girl was about to speak, however before she could, one glare from the boy leaning on the table shut her up.
"No, there's none. Who are you?" The boy pushed away Steve's arm from his shoulders.
"I'm Steve, how about you, miss? Is there any problem here?" Steve smiled politely at the girl.
The girl, feeling that it was safe, opened her mouth, but she got cut off before she could say anything again.
"Actually, we do have a problem." The other boy approached Steve.
"Oh yeah? What is it?" Steve shifted his stance a little.
"It's you, quit sticking your nose where it doesn't belong. Scram." The boy brought his hands together, traces of electricity jumping from his fingers, the other boy also got closer to Steve.
Steve squinted his eyes, ready for an attack an any second.
But before anything could happen, Clay suddenly jumped in.
"Okay, okay, everyone. Why don't we all relax before anyone gets in trouble." Clay gave a nervous laugh, a bead of sweat trailing down his temples.
Realizing that numbers weren't on their side anymore. The two boys glanced at each other before scoffing and ultimately deciding to take their leave for now.
"Let's go." One of the boys turned around, clicking his tongue.
Clay gave out a relieved sigh seeing that the situation has more or less calmed down.
'How many enemies do I have now? Three? Great, just great.' Clay felt like ripping his hair out.
"Are you okay, lady? They didn't do anything to you, right?" Steve came up to the girl.
"Ah. Yes. I-I'm fine." The girl blushed.
Clay was speechless at the sight.
"That's good to hear, if it's alright with you, may I get your name?" Steve extended a hand.
"R-right, my n-name is Maria, I'm Maria Yizabell Glavere." Maria shook his hand clumsily.
"And I'm Steve Brine, nice to meet you. By the way, what's your favorite food?"