Chapter 4: It’s like High-School (Without Musical)! (4)

Betareader: Ant0nius (FFN)

~Hope’s POV~

When she took a seat beside Miles, she had thought that things wouldn’t be too horrible to deal with today.

It was a strange degree of optimism that strayed from the calm exuding from the Cat Prime, Shin, and Frankie about the lack of concerns for today’s activities.

The first lesson, Math, wasn’t one of her best subjects.

In fact, not only did she dread the return of calculus after the difficult topics she faced in high school, but that this wasn’t even the worst way she could have started her first day here. 

In comparison to the places she had been at in the past few years, the classroom was massive.

Housing about fifty to sixty other students in various chairs set in five large counters that served as desks for entire lines of people sitting close to those, the place looked top-notch in terms of design and construction.

The walls looked to have been repainted quite recently, the benches and chairs were undamaged and seemingly new, and the class itself seemed to calm down once the teacher had arrived in the room.

Placing down her notebook, pens and some erasers, the young woman had planned to give her utmost attention to the lecture, ready to write down hundreds of words in her notes so that she could already start her experience at Prism Uni in the best of situations.

And maybe Shin would praise her for her hard work.

But of course, this thought was secondary to her inner worry of messing up this early, and… her uneasy state didn’t seem to influence much of what Miles was doing.

Doodling on  pages of his notebook while giving the barest attention to what was meant to be just an introductory session to prepare students to the topic they were meant to be starting from this year.

Professor Bellman was a gray-haired dark-furred Mouse Prime with dark-blue eyes.

He had a little bit of belly on his sides, but that barely seemed to break the kindness his expression and overall appearance was displaying to the class.

Rather soft-spoken, he started the lesson by making use of a microphone despite the utter silence domineering in the classroom.

The explanation for this necessity came together with his presentation speech.

The old man started to calmly point out how some medical circumstances got him incapable of raising his voice above a certain pitch, and that he would resign from his post at the end of this school year to retire with a lengthy career.

It sounded fairly sudden for a decision, at least for something that was meant to introduce students to his class, but some of the older students there seemed to not mind it.

In fact, a large majority didn’t seem to actually care for this knowledge, and decided to merely roll with it without any inquiries.

Kind of saddening, but maybe Professor Bellman truly deserved some peace after working for several decades.

The lesson began with a steady but easy pace that managed to get her interested in the topics detailed by the teacher’s words about the basis required to properly begin the study of Uni-level Math.

Some exercises that were meant to be taken as some early homework for the first week were assigned to all first-year students in order to give some preparation about the difficulty the lessons were planning to be once the school session was in full swing.

Nothing too burdening, but still, it was quite surprising for Hope that she had to already sign down some homework… while also urging Miles to do the same.

He seemed highly-receptive of her annoyance when she voiced the importance to at least writing down the homework that had just been left.

Just like Frankie had told her in a brief moment of privacy before parting ways in the two different groups, the Cat Prime’s act was mostly a smoke-screen meant to gain attention and that he was actually polite enough to accept her help if he seemed to need it.

Whispered queries from the young man about some bits of the lesson further cemented the idea that he was somehow still paying attention to the lecture itself.

There were no notes there yet, but Miles was putting genuine effort in keeping up with both his act and what the teacher was talking about.

Briefly sighing  while taking a moment to glance back at her notes, Hope nodded at how well things were faring, considering how nervous she had been earlier that morning.

Her green eyes then looked to the side as Miles stifled a silent yawn behind his right hand, lips quick to close up as he returned to stare with a hint of boredom at Professor Bellman’s desk.

It was about an hour in the lesson, another hour left to pass before the first lecture had wrapped  up to a closure, but the Gazelle Prime could see why the Cat Prime was having difficulty to keep up after so much time.

Despite the incredibly well-explained topics detailed by the elderly teacher, the strain of enduring two hours each lesson was fairly tiring for anyone that hadn’t been experienced in long waits.

Hope’s saving point was how she had developed something of a strong patience that stemmed from dealing with lengthy singing lessons.

Her voice was harmonious alright, but proper practice had been a must in refining her talent, in what she now felt sure was her main nature.

Singing was relaxing, soothing and… it wouldn’t be a lie that her wish was something she would truly fight for to the very end.

Not only for herself, but to those back home that had shown her support.

Her mother, her father, her sister- everyone that she knew back in New Boothbay.

Another calm sigh left her quiet lips, her stare resuming back to follow the teacher’s figure as the old man continued to explain the formulas that were going to become a must to learn by memory.

Yet, instead of being fully dragged back in that tiring lecture, her attention was spurred by a poke to her elbow.

She glanced back at Miles, and his golden eyes were staring back with a curious look.

“So… wanna talk a little?”

A perplexed expression fell on her face, her eyes narrowing in minor confusion at the unexpected request, but she blinked and… nodded.

“Only a little,” The young woman conceded.

While the two were seated fairly far away from where the teacher was and their distracted selves were covered by some other students, the risk of getting caught not following the lesson wasn’t something she was interested about.

Yet curiosity had started to slowly gnaw at her interest over the subject, her mind now shifting to see what the fellow Prime had planned to talk about.

“You know, I think you aren’t being too  subtle about that thing you are trying with Shin.”

...Nevermind, returning back to the lesson at once!-

“I-I don’t know what-”

“Look, Hope,” The Cat Prime interrupted quietly, almost sounding like a half-whispered voice. “I understand that there is some stuff I don’t know about, but even I’ve noticed that you look at him quite intensively. So what’s up with that?”

Her lips parted to reveal surprise, but no words left her mouth.

Actually, nothing was on her mind over what she was supposed to do now that she had been called out so suddenly and without much notice.

“I-It’s… private?”

He stared at her for a little while, silence still reigning over while the lecture was still going and the young woman felt cracking a little at the pressure exerted by those golden eyes.

Part of her was curious beyond the state of fright she was going through, about what the young man was now going to say with her weak defence when-

“Okay,” Miles hummed quietly before staring back at Professor Bellman, his mood moving away from the discussion and leaving a shaken Hope to face the strange lack of other escalations from that point.

“W-What?” She almost squeaked, but her common sense long overruled her little moment of fear and she gave just a curt whisper.

“I mean, I understand that I shouldn’t be prying into private matters and… I think it wouldn’t be right to poke too much over this very topic,” The Cat Prime explained quietly, still glancing at the teacher. “But I just found it odd that you were staring at him so much.”

...He wasn’t suspecting anything from the attention she gave Shin?

No, there had to be at least something  in his mind about that possibility, and yet he was trying to sound as if he wasn’t aware of the predicament she had been dealing with in the last few years.

“Why?”

There was no way she was just going to ignore this new development as it was.

With Miles now aware that something was afoot between her and the White Tiger Prime, the chances of having to give an explanation in some inopportune moment might end up becoming a dreadful reality.

He seemed to barely notice her quick question but he sighed.

“Feeling like we can both find an agreement about this circumstance,” The Cat Prime admitted with a small smile. “You see, I’ve seen something that might help you with… whatever you want to do with Shin.”

She took a long sigh and asked. “What do you want?”

His smile faltered a little and he groaned. “It’s nothing about me as… me,” He started to explain. “It’s more about helping someone that might help you. And that isn’t me.”

… “What are you even talking about?”

Nothing of what the fellow Prime was saying was making sense to her, but for some reason her worries seemed to dwindle away as he showed a sheepish look.

“You see, I’ve noticed earlier this morning that Shin is slowly getting warm with Frankie. In fact, I could say he looks up for advice from our mutual humane friend,” Miles finally answered multiple of her inner questions at once. “Given time he could get to know him on a deeper degree that you can since he is a… dude.”

Hope nodded as she knew about what he was mentioning about, but she gestured for him to continue.

“Well, you could ask him to help you with this situation,” The young man pressed with a sigh. “In return, you can help him find a girlfriend himself or something like that.”

Thinking well about his words, the Gazelle Prime took a moment to ponder over the information she had just been given and… there was some logic behind Miles’ plan.

She had long tried to rope someone else to give her some more details about Shin’s private life, but her closest confidant until now had been Shin’s younger sister and… she was just ten.

Very smart, but still too young to understand what kind of thoughts her brother might be having when he was alone and properly give her news about those.

And Frankie did seem like a trustworthy individual.

The little moments spent at lunch and dinner had brought out more of the personality she had just seen only glimpses about, and there was no denying that the only human of Prism Uni was someone that she could count on about this matter.

But while her acceptance of asking for help from Frankie was undisputed, the issue that truly weighed much on her head was why Miles had given her this kind of support.

“And you don’t want nothing in return?” The young woman pressed on with a careful tone, getting a snort from the Cat Prime.

“You see, if Frankie manages to get his first relationship going, I can ask him for help in getting a girlfriend myself,” He replied happily. “The issue of me directly helping you is that I have a pretty normal situation with Shin, nothing about trust just yet and… Frankie can help you as much as you can help him.”

“So you want us to cooperate to solve our respective love issues,” The girl started to summarize quietly. “Because you can then ask for advice from Frankie… without having to give him anything  back.”

“That’s correct,” Miles said calmly, smiling widely at that correct statement.

…

“How exactly are you and Frankie friends anyway?”

He huffed. “Now, that’s kind of rude, you know?”

“You seem quite irritating when you talk to him, yet he just...” She trailed a little, unsure how to conclude the sentence.

“Doesn’t do anything about it?” Miles guessed with a hum. “You can say that it’s just… something between boys. Nothing that can be exactly explained in public.”

What kind of stuff was he referring to? Only for boys?

She shook her head, unwilling to pester him for more explanations as she was starting to already feel the beginning of a headache the more she continued to think about this convoluted trail of thoughts.

Instead of continuing the discussion, Hope’s attention returned back to the teacher and… the lesson that would be over in less than 30 minutes .

Surprise was painted on her face, but the girl merely accepted the fact that she had missed a quarter of the lecture for this conversation.

Not only now did she have something, or rather someone that she can ask help from, but she was also given an outlet away from the boring sensation grating her mind before engaging in that talk.

With a pleasant tune playing on her silent lips, the young woman resumed writing down some more notes while her mind started to formulate how she was supposed to share a private discussion with the human.

And while the general line of planning was simple, Hope found out pretty quickly that creating a proper diversion to share that discussion would take more than a few moments of quietness.

Thankfully, something will come up to her just in time.

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~Frankie’s POV~

After the History lesson was over, I found myself dealing with quite the share of strange circumstances to ponder about.

Starting from the odd instance I was dragged into when Professor Aker started his lecture with my ancestor being the initial point, I was quite confused as to why the man had thought it correct to actually put me in that spotlight.

I didn’t mind too much, since the only reason why I was forced to stand out was because of my ancestry rather than something about me being a human being here at Prism Uni.

Was I a little shaken by the unexpected development? Just a little bit.

I wasn’t angry, not even irritated, but I was annoyed by how things had unfolded so suddenly and without a warning.

Shin had been keen to inquire how I was before overwhelming me with comments about the ‘Grim Maverick’, something that was as heartwarming as draining on my already-stressed brain.

It was just the first lecture of the day and I was already forced to endure these tiring circumstances, but I wasn’t giving up so easily, and without putting up a fight before truly collapsing.

Just as we both reached the nearby exit to leave the classroom, we were stopped by someone I had never seen before.

Tobias Wainwright was, in a correlation that many could see as enlightening as confusing, the lighter version of Miles.

Very friendly, but also an extrovert that knew how to strike a conversation with someone he didn’t even know on a normal basis.

His mannerism was on spot, maintaining a degree of politeness and easygoing that made him quite the fascinating fellow to get to know.

The Lion Prime was part of Prism Uni’s Football team, and that was quite the important role considering how impactful the sport was in the continent.

It had been quite surprising  when I first heard about this detail, about how well-based football was in this Kingdom- actually Queendom from what Shin had told me before the beginning of the lesson.

I was mindful to not give out my trust to this still-unknown individual as I had my fair share of those that looked to be trustworthy, but turned out to be just some devious pricks waiting to strike at the opportune moment.

Yet my early carefulness mollified the moment Toby decided to keep his interaction limited, merely inquiring how I was feeling after that little close encounter with the fright-inducing teacher, and if I was getting accustomed well with the campus life here at Prism.

The conversation only lasted for  a couple of minutes, as the Lion Prime mentioned having some unforgiving schedule that needed to keep up with before bidding us a pleasant day and delving away into the mass of Primes crowding the hall we had been standing by.

Nodding at each other, Shin and I decided to make our way to the little spot we were meant to regroup together with Miles and Hope.

With the schedules having our group split in various two-members combinations, it was easy to meet-up somewhere so that we could best coordinate  our presence in the various classrooms with people we knew about.

Of course, this situation was only meant to last until we got to know more people from the various classes, thus making our lives easier to go by without having to make some crazy runs left and right just to not be late for the other classes.

I yawned a little, but Shin decided to hum a little about the situation.

“It is quite overwhelming,” The White Tiger admitted nervously. “I didn’t expect the pace to be this draining, at least not to this level.”

I blinked at that and nodded. “Uni is a big step beyond High School, Shin,” I replied kindly. “And while you might have the requirements to fit well with the various classes, you still will need some time to grow accustomed to the rhythms with your body.”

He returned the nod, but his green eyes strayed back to the direction we were walking by.

“Do you think Hope and Miles are doing well with Math?” He inquired quietly. “I know Hope is good at it but-”

“It’s just the first lesson, and Miles will probably pay it little concern, but at least give it some  attention for the sake of not failing the subject so early on,” I answered slowly. “He knows well-enough that screwing around too much will end up with him hauled out of the school.”

The Prime opened his mouth, but then he closed it in quiet contemplation about my comment.

Finally, he spoke up. “But why wouldn’t he pay attention? It might be boring for some but… this is Uni.”

I sighed at Shin’s little confusion over the mind of the Cat Prime but I just shrugged.

“Miles is lazy,” I hummed quietly. “Differently from many, he has yet to learn that duty should come before fun. But he will learn it, trust me on that.”

The blond nodded, giving no continuation to this last topic as we finally ended up right to the meet-up place and… Hope and Miles were already there.

The two other Primes slowly started to approach us and soon some words were shared.

“Frankie, it was horrible!” Miles whined, almost falling into my arms but I pushed him to stand up. “Math is boring!

“Of course it is, but that doesn’t mean you have to behave like a child about it,” I huffed back at him, then I glanced at Hope. “Did he create any issues?”

The girl’s green eyes widened just a fraction, but she swiftly shook her head. “Not truly, no.”

I sighed in relief at that, while Shin merely pressed on with a polite tone.

“Was the lecture difficult?”

“Actually, it was pretty easy to listen to,” The Gazelle Prime admitted with a smile. “Professor Bellman is quite exhaustive with his words and I think it will do alright on my own.”

The blond nodded happily. “That’s good to hear.”

“We will be able to see it by ourselves since Math is the last lesson for today for us, Shin,” I pointed out with a quiet hum. “But now we should focus on… Prime Literature?”

I paused for a moment as I finished reading the title of the subject, my brain losing a couple of instants to try and connect what kind of subject it truly was.

Maybe it had different topics compared to English Literature? Or perhaps it was the same but with a different name?

My confusion was drowned away as I saw Hope walking closer to me and… grasp at my left arm.

“We share the same subject,” She said swiftly, starting to pull at my limb. “And it’s best to get going already.”

I was surprised at her sudden interest in reaching the class so early on, but before I could even try to have her calm down a little, her pulling got stronger and more difficult to hold up with.

Getting dragged around by someone that was shorter than me and fairly small with her figure, I find myself shocked that I was being literally yanked around across Prism Uni by Hope.

I had just the chance of glancing at the two other Primes, with Shin looking incredibly surprised by this development while Miles…

He was smiling, smugly so, while he waved at us leaving and I knew that there was something wrong about it all.

My nervousness increased as I noticed that we were taking some turns that actually strayed away from the correct path.

It was after  five minutes of walking that  I was finally granted leniency in the form of her letting go of my arm, and taking a few steps away from me.

I took this little pause to recollect myself and my thoughts, my mind quickly picking up the fact that we were in some deserted corridor of the building and… she was looking at me with a blank look.

My panic intensified even more at that stare, and I gulped nervously.

“Uh… is- is there anything wrong?”

Hope blinked twice, but then sighed and nodded. “I want your help for something important.”

...What?

“Something important?” I parroted thoughtlessly, trying to make sense of what was going on.

“Look, Frankie, I don’t want to sound too creepy or anything,” The girl continued with a now-nervous tone. “But I want you to promise me that you are not going to tell anyone about this. It’s really important.”

I frowned and blinked at her words as I felt drawn more and more in this neverending confusion.

“Is it… anything worth of concern? Like anything dangerous or-”

“Nothing dangerous, no,” She assured me with  a quick nod. “But it’s important… to me. I’m asking you as a friend and, while we haven't known each other for long, I think I can trust you about this… in exchange for help.”

“Well, if it’s something this important and private to you, I don’t see why I should divulge it to someone else,” I admitted with a kind smile. “I suppose it’s pretty big if you got all this secrecy going.”

The Gazelle Prime sighed and nodded. “Thank you for that and… I guess I can already tell you that-”

Her eyes looked so intensively into mine and I felt a paralyzed by that strong, unexpected stare.

“I love Shin.”

Three words were more than enough to twist something deeply in my chest in that strangely-intense moment, and I blinked.

“You love… Shin?”

She nodded and I blinked again, this time pondering about the situation as a whole.

I was particularly shocked, yet somewhat still confused and also a bit disappointed as I had expected something else, but I thought back to the day before when Hope had felt nervous about something.

And it hadn’t been something about the school as I had expected. Not at all.

“And… you want my help for… set him up for you?” My breath felt a little bit itchy, but Hope seemed to ignore that particularly strange instance I was going through, giving me another nod.

“I know it sounds bad that two friends should conspire about this,” The young woman started to explain. “But I’ve been trying for years to get something accomplished and… I’m still stuck as his best friend.”

Weren’t they like childhood friends? Wasn’t that quite the lengthy friendzone? 

Suppressing the surprise, I managed to give her a confused frown.

“And you are asking me for help… why?” I inquired quietly, knowing exactly that she had no reason for picking me as the best candidate for such a predicament-

Oh…

I thought about that smug smile present on a certain Cat Prime’s face, about the way he was waving at us like a moron, and my mind picked up quickly on those little clues now that there was a foundation where to settle these pieces.

“It was Miles,” I replied to myself and she showed some surprise at my tone. “He had this giddy grin on his face, I bet he said something about-”

“Shin trusts you,” Hope interjected calmly. “And I’m not asking you to deceive him or anything, but that you help me with this.”

“I would still have to go behind his back to pass you information,” I pointed out firmly. “And I think Shin is insecure enough as he is right now to be dealing with this kind of stuff.”

“It wouldn’t be that ba- wait, what are you talking about?” She stopped herself in her charge as the last words of my reply reached deep in her mind. “Insecure? Shin?”

“While he might appear polite, he is still facing the reality of keeping up with people older than him,” I said with a strong voice. “He is expecting some bullying already, and he thought that Miles disliked him about a cheeky comment he made early this morning.”

Her jaws dropped a little, but the young woman seemed to take a more serious stance.

“Do you think he needs some space then?” The Prime asked with some worry.

“I think he just needs time to adjust to the pace and the new faces around,” I assured her with a sigh. “Nothing too concerning, but I was thinking of organizing a study group after school hours in our dorm. You are free to join if you want.”

Hope smiled at the proposal and nodded. “I will be there and…” Her lips closed momentarily as she seemed to be thinking about something.

“Do you accept or not giving me help about-”

“Two conditions,” I said, biting down a groan at her pressing. “Without these confirmed, I will outright refuse any help, but I will not tell him anything about your feelings.”

Her eyes narrowed in a mix of surprise and suspicion. “And those are?”

I held my index finger up. “We’re not going to pull the fake couple act… ever,” I muttered with a resolute tone. “It never works, and it tends to create awkward situations to face without a plan.”

With that first point, her face eased a little bit and nodded, sporting a brief sheepish look.

“That is quite the horrible case, yes.”

I nodded back and continued. “If he feels uncomfortable about these advances and I tell you to back off, you do that,” I hummed quietly. “If you ‘love’ him, you will understand that you can’t just burn the path ahead of you for-”

“I-I know what love is, and I will not do anything that sounds too creepy,” She admitted with a light stutter, but then stopped at my amused snort. “And what’s that about?”

“Do you know where you took us?” I replied with a flat tone, gesturing over the deserted corridor and… her green eyes scanned around, widening a little more as she concluded her little analysis.

“I-I wasn’t exactly looking for the creepiest hallway,” Hope admitted with a huff. “Plus, why would I of all people sound like a creepy individual?”

“‘I have something important to tell you’ and ‘You need to promise me that you will never tell this to anyone else’ kind of did the trick there-”

She gave a light-punch to my arm and I recoiled in mock-pain. “Ouch, you know that’s true.”

“A little,” The Gazelle Prime admitted. “And I guess I accept your little conditions.”

I nodded at her with a thankful glance and…

…

Wasn’t I forgetting something important?

…

Oh right, there was the little issue about-

I tensed up in sudden panic, Hope looking surprised at my mood swing as I got hold of her hand and started to walk away from that corridor.

“H-Hey, what are you-”

“We lost too much time talking,” I interjected firmly, my mind shifting all of my attention right on remembering the correct track to follow for the classroom. “We risk being late for the second lecture and-”

“That would be bad,” She jumped in while she kicked up her own pace to match up with my speed. “Really bad.”

I nodded and we both rushed away from that deserted hallway and back to the more crowded areas of the building.

Thank God, neither Hope, nor the rest of the students noticed that we had been holding each other’s hands until we were in front of the classroom’s door.

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AN

The first arc for the story has wrapped up. The bets have been placed and now the world shall see the victory of this incredible duo!

Or maybe a curious defeat. One that would end up in quite… the fun way.

That would be too cliché tho-

Didn’t you ask Naerie about some of her thoughts about Shin?

F-For scientific purposes! An author should never ignore the endless routes to take, and eventually take the road that would bring up the best emotions out!

You just want it to not sound too much like an Anime. I’ve seen what kind of ‘early-early’ draft you had prepared~.

Nonsense! I never wrote it down and- wait, how do you even about it?

Se-cret~! But let us move on to the next adventure… shall we?