The Raven's POV-Chapter 26: Next Class

The miniature war involving food bought everyone 30 additional minutes before next class.

For cleaning themselves up, as for the penalties, aside from credit deductions and now mandatory cleaning duties.

Everyone also got a taste of the good ol’ plastic batons regardless of whether they were involved or not.

Among those delivering this blind justice, two stood out, because of their impeccable teamwork and contrasting expressions, one ever so stoic, other grinning like a madman.

Among the guards those two moved like seasoned veterans, moving with precision, never missing any student regardless of how hard the other party tried to dodge.

After all that justice was given, students were fined 3 credits for their misconduct, the look of horror on the student’s face as they realised that their credits can be taken away gave Rowayne solace.

He used the fleeting satisfaction he got from their despair to offset the bitterness of having his credits unfairly taken away as - as he would put it.

"Why did you do that?"

"What exactly did I do?"

"you know... Instigate a fight"

"I never instigated a fight.", he flipped pages of his book as he said that

"I just threw a donut at a random person’s face. Had they reacted in time, there wouldn’t have been a fight in the first place."

"still why?"

"No reason whatsoever.",then he made a thoughtful expression and said

"hmm... I just felt like it would be fun - it was fun"

"getting beaten by guards was fun?"

"except that part"

***

I stopped flipping pages of my history book and looked sideways – at Ariel.

She raised a good point. Why did I do that?, I could say I don’t know and it would be true, I truly didn’t know why I did that, I just acted on a whim.

So I told her exactly that, but something about those green eyes made me think deeply about my actions. What is it about those shiny eyes that makes me want to answer with utter honesty?.

They are bright, unlike this white monochrome world.

First few months were enjoyable, discovering new things, new places

But the novelty soon wore off.

And as my life fell into a steady rhythm of training, sleeping and more training. I found the world turning bleaker and bleaker.

It’s always the same thing, eat, sleep, swing a damn sword, hundred or thousand times and repeat.

Again.

And again.

Same fucking thing, what’s the point anyway, without a reason it’s all pointless.

It only took 4 months for this place to feel like a prison, I cannot get out, I am basically stranded here.

Like a bird in a cage, I don’t even know what the outside world looks like, only impressions of it from the diary. They say there are 4 moons, in here it’s all fake, the sky is fake, you can tell, anyone can tell.

While others marvel at the human ingenuity capable of altering a hostile and foreign gate in a way that it resembles their home and is safe for domestic use.

I am stuck here, not knowing what the real world looks like, and it will be like this for the entirety of the next 6 years here.

And I fear that... Even if I were to go out there, in the real world. Nothing will change

It will be the same.

So when I was looking at that donut, I was thinking why should I care about the norms, why shouldn’t I just live in the moment.

But I don’t think she would get it, or any of them would get it.

After all, being stuck in a world where everything feels so alien, it’s like being stuck in a crowded place, except only you aren’t moving, everyone around you has places to go, things to do, while you just stand there.

Wondering why everyone is so different from you, don’t we all share the same skin and bone, don’t we wear the same clothes,

Then what makes them so different, why doI always feel like I am missing something.

I look at myself and it all feels so mechanical to me.

So Ariel, it was -

"fun, it was fun"

Believe me, it was just a whim. Nothing too serious