Chapter three
(Sept 15th Monday)

A particularly rainy ngày at the school, The Inner-School courtyard was almost pool-like with how much water it contained. Its lack of drainage-ways caused the intake to be at least three-inches and slowly climbing. It started like this a ngày prior, and hadn’t shown any sign of stopping.

At first there were complaints, but a group of students decided that they enjoyed splashing about and thus the school let it stay for the time-being in that one spot only.

Most of the students had decided to stay in bed, pretending to be under the weather, as they did not want to attend their classes. Few students actually understood that the weather was controlled bởi the school. These students were allowed to stay in giường however as a means to teach a lesson to those who choose to try and cheat the system.

However around thirty-percent of the rest of the students were huddled in the thư viện that was not attached to the main school, but was actually located inside the courtyard. It supplied computers, televisions, naturally books, soda machines, furniture, music-lounges, and even a small gift-shop with coffee and hot-cocoa machines. The mô tả of the inside varied from light-colored to pale-brown. It seemed that the farther back bạn got, the less light-grey you’d see, and the thêm bland-brown bạn would. The shelves were tall, and stretched out well. Too well unfortunately, as well as too multiple. If bạn passed enough, one would either see a couple of students plotting little schemes, sleeping, hoặc in romantic actions.

A vast amount of the students inside this three-story building had stuffed their video game into their backpacks and rushed into there. They were currently paying for another giờ of television-gaming-use.

Other students also packed certain items, mostly card and board games, as well as books, which they found a vast amount of entertainment from. Sadly though it was still a library, and when someone yelled out “UNO” hoặc “BINGO” hoặc “REDEMPTION”, not even the staff would have to shush them. There were so many “brainy” students there who despised such noise, that to make a loud sound would be to risk the horror of a weaponized-hard-cover book.

These students were ones who had no classes this ngày at all, hoặc had already finished. They were được trao the privilege of spending their ngày in the thư viện and deeply appreciated the reward. Of course however, there were also students who were working on school in the thư viện also who were having a less enjoyable time.

Some students simply sat at the main entrance, which was directly aligned with the gift-shop. There were large blandly-colored couches, with backs leaning against the windowed-walls, and directly to their side, across the entrance-width, was a young male student attempting to almost place the dollar into the television-slot, have it scanned, then pull it out before it was sucked in.

The boy apparently succeeded, but unfortunately he did this with very little subtlety. The shop-lifting-alarm blared, sending a good amount of students into a terrified stampede for the exit. The very few, but still thêm than five, librarians informed them that nothing was wrong, and only a portion disbelieved this notion, and left. Dark glares were sent to the student who sent off the alarm.

“Ugh! I was almost asleep!” A male student, whose name was Night, complained. He was a navy-blue hedgehog boy, with black hair, and white bits of lông, lông thú around his body and chest. A black áo khoác with white rolled up cuffs and black shoes with white ren was his attire.

A female student, whose name was Trinity, also a blue-colored hedgehog, but much paler, with pale tan arms, black hair, a white tang-top and black váy for her attire, approached him with a non-amused look. “What if it was a fire?”

“I’m sure bạn could carry me outside hoặc something.” Night smirked, though his tone was that of an annoyed variety.

“Well maybe bạn could patrol her now.” Trinity suggested as she sat on the đi văng tiếp theo to him, looking out towards the rain.

Night yawned as he hoisted himself up to look through the window. “She’s still out there?” They were referring to a very soaked large-eared lynx who seemed to be enjoying catching the cold outdoors. Rynk was partially-well-known bởi some students at this point, though mostly for strange situations such as this. She was not notably bothered bởi the rain and seemed to be even hát on occasion. The two teenagers found this partially entertaining as the lynx-girl had slipped on the wet ground an unhealthy amount of times and yet continued to disregard the weather’s danger.

After a while however Rynk had decided to stop playing outdoors and instead began casually walking around the center-tree.

“Yep. Still there.” Trinity answered. “She just keeps circling the tree, then stops, looks at the moon, then continues walking.” Trinity chuckled slightly. “Maybe she’s got lunar-powers hoặc something.”

“Well,” Night đã đưa ý kiến as he propped himself up a bit more, “this is a school for supernatural-mobians after all.”

Trinity shrugged. “Yeah. Maybe we should let her i- never mind. Here she comes.”

Rynk was soaked and dripping wet upon entering the library, and promptly began to squeeze out the water from her áo sơ mi and hair. Her normal Persian/Indian-attire was replaced bởi a pale-grey T-shirt, a dark-purple hoodie, and black jeans. She had her bare-feet, and blood-stained anklet on, which was another reason the other students found her a bit off, and her golden-colored earrings still hung from her almost rabbit-sized lynx-ears.


“Decided to not catch a cold?” Trinity asked with a confused look.

“Never caught one before. ‘Sides,” Rynk replied with a smile and a shrug, “It’s refreshing.”

“What you’ve got some kind of-“

Trinity’s reply was interrupted bởi a very angry voice yelling out “I HATE RAIN!”, as Grace walked into the library, soaking wet.

“You okay, Grace?” Rynk asked as she rushed over to aid her. So far the friendship between Grace and Rynk had been mostly one-sided, but Grace had gotten to the point where Grace found Rynk to be a non-nuisance.

“Do I look ok- what happened to your voice? I thought bạn were Persian.” Grace noticed. In actuality, Rynk’s voice did now sound farther from a Persian dialect and now much closer to that of an English one. The other students did not address this because they did not know her well enough to realize the change. When Grace asked the question, Rynk’s face made a sort of half-cringe.

“To be honest it’s hard to explain and I’m not really sure how it happened…You need a blanket hoặc something?”

“… No. I’ll be okay.” Grace sighed. She could feel another one of Rynk’s over-friendly moments coming on. Nothing particularly annoying ever happened because of these, but for some reason Grace felt some form of dread from them.

“What brought bạn inside here?” Rynk asked.

Grace shivered a bit, rethinking the blanket-offer. “I needed to be outside, fresh air and all. When I walked out it I got drenched. I came in here to escape the boredom of the main building.”

“Oh… are bạn looking for a book hoặc something?” The lynx-girl asked.

“… That’s… actually not a bad idea.” Grace walked past the main bàn and looked around for a while with Rynk following closely behind, offering the warmth of her hoodie a một giây time, which Grace refused in a still-annoyed tone, but managed to without seeming rude.

“Interested in a specific kind of book?” Rynk asked as they went up some stairs.

Grace shrugged. “I feel… Noire-ish for some reason.”

“Right I tình yêu that dessert.”

Grace halted for a split-second, and replied as she returned to her browsing “Not a word you’re familiar with?”

“Nnnnnnno-pah!” The lynx đã đưa ý kiến with a shake of the head despite Grace’s back pointed towards her.

“It’s… a… er, I guess it depends on what you’re planet is like… there’s… mysteries and police involved, with a lot of narration.”

“Sounds cool enough. Wanna use one of the computers to find the book?”

“It’s a Genre, Rynk.” Grace corrected as they went between rows of bookshelves.

“Oh… Huh, well how are we gonna find that?” Rynk’s tone raised a bit. “I mean, there’s like, three-hundred dimensions connected to this thing.” She then mumbled to herself “Still having trouble wrapping my brain around how they keep all the students here.”

“Hm…Where ARE the computers?”

“Uh…” Rynk walked ahead, sticking her head out among the shelves left and right. “Oh there’s one!” She ran to the end of the room. Grace followed at a half-jogging pace.

The computer looked very much like an ATM-machine, though with a much thêm complex key-pad. The keys were blank and upon being touched, a small light flickered, and the letters for the keys appeared.

Rynk looked over the keyboard with interest. “So… that’s how your language works?”

“Yeah, bạn don’t know what English is?” Grace questioned rhetorically while searching through the database.

“Oh, that’s English? I didn’t learn much of that, Persian and all.” Rynk noted, still concealing her other mixed-nationalities.

“Persia stopped being a c- oh forget i- xin chào look they do have it.” They both stared at the screen.

“Cool, which one bạn want, ‘cause I can’t read any a’ that.” Rynk chuckled.

“I guess I’ll just pick one at random… This looks good.” Grace clicked on a story labeled ‘The Last Untarnished’. A một giây flash on the screen went off, followed bởi a sign on the screen telling Grace to pick up her book at the front desk.

The two went to the front, and picked up the book. “Are bạn going to stay here hoặc go outside or…” Rynk paused.

“Guess I’ll leave.” Grace replied with a final glance around the library. “Not really big on crowds.”

Grace started for the door, but felt a fuzzy-like-material go over her shoulder as she went. She looked over and saw Rynk put her áo khoác over her. “You might need it.” Rynk suggested, gesturing to the fact that because of being locked out improperly, Grace was wearing a tang-top and jeans, which did not give her much heat.

Grace nodded and walked out, with Rynk following.

They both looked up for a moment and noticed that it was still very dark. It was like the night just stopped, and the clouds reflected the blackness of it. They could only see the moon shining through the clouds, then Grace looked over and…

“Why are your stripes glowing??” She asked with widened eyes. Rynk looked at her own hands and saw that the moon-shaped cups of her black stripes were in fact glowing bright-blue.

“Uh… I ate a flash-light?” Rynk fibbed. “I dunno. Been that way for as long as I can remember. Doesn’t do anything as far as I can tell. … Hey, who’s that?”

Rynk pointed to a male figure sitting on the bench under the tear-tree that kept the area below it ever so dry and untouched. It was a cáo, fox she assumed, though she would need a better view.

“Why not sit down there to read?” Rynk suggested.

“Aka, why not hook me up with some stranger??” Grace guessed with a slight glare.

“Wh- No! Well… I guess that’s an option but the point is it’s away from most people and its outside away from the rain. Look they’ve even got those little mini-light things around it.” Rynk gestured to a surrounding group of black-colored light-holders with yellow rays radiating from them and on to the bench.

“No way.“

“You can at least ask if he’d be willing to give bạn his spot… all… gentleman-like. C’mon, won’t hurt.” Rynk rushed over towards the male fox, with Grace grumbling as she slowly followed.

“Mind if we sit down for a bit?” Rynk asked as she and her hostage neared the bench.

“I beg of bạn to mind.” Grace groaned.

The cáo, fox shrugged. “Fine bởi me.” He answered in a very nice Australian accent. Rynk seemed to be enjoying this, while Grace was near gagging.

‘Oh of all the things, there’s some ngẫu nhiên buff-fox dude, with an Australian accent.’ She gagged in her mind. “All we need now is some monster for him to fight, and a boomerang.’ Grace refused to admit it, but some part of her was happily caught off-guard bởi the speech of this fellow student.

“You’re Australian…” Grace murmured mindlessly.

“… Uh… You’re Mobotropian... I think?” The cáo, fox replied, attempting not to say the wrong thing.

“And I’m Persian with a British accent.” Rynk chuckled, trying to lighten the mood.

The cáo, fox chuckled with her a bit. “Can’t tell if we’re all racist hoặc confused.”

“What no ‘G’day Mate’ hoặc ‘Sheela’ hoặc ‘croikey’” Grace quipped with rolled eyes as she sat down with her hands under her chin.

“G’day mate, Sheela, and croikey.” The cáo, fox đã đưa ý kiến with a smirk. Grace gave him a glare. He just smirked more.

“Well then, what are bạn two ‘Sheelas’ doin out heah?” The cáo, fox continued to tease.

“Locked out.” Rynk replied. “I’m Rynk.”

“I’m Craiger. Nice to meet you,” He đã đưa ý kiến to Rynk, “and nice to annoy bạn apparently.” He đã đưa ý kiến to Grace. “Not that I’m trying really. So I’m guessing you’re not going to tell me your name.”

“Foxlock Holmes strikes again.” Grace insulted without making eye-contact.

Craiger just shrugged. “Alright then. Guess I’ll have ta make one up for ya. Let’s see… Grumpy… Dop-“

“Grace!” She spoke it so quick it was almost a fatal strike. “G-R-A-C-E. Don’t go mis-spelling it.” The flustered cáo, fox glared with her eyes fixed with annoyance.

“Alright then. Not my place to ask what kicked your rump this morning, but I suppose this weather’s prone to do that.” He đã đưa ý kiến calmly.

“So which dimension are bạn from?” Rynk asked, hoping to lighten the mood.

“Mobocan.” Craiger answered casually.

“No kidding! Me too!” Rynk informed energetically.

“Really? Which country? I’m from Gei Si Heir.”

“Supreta. Guess that makes up arch-nemesis’s hoặc something.” Rynk chuckled.

“Only if the feds find out.” Craiger chuckled back. “Wait, bạn đã đưa ý kiến bạn were Persian.”

“Yeah.”

“But… you’re Supretan.”

“Oh… r-right, yeah. Mixed… nation…”

The chồn cái, vixen was slightly startled bởi this mixed-nationality statement, but it did not hold her curiosity. Grace rose up from the ghế, chỗ ngồi and đã đưa ý kiến “Well I’m sure I’ll be there at your marriage. G’bye.” She snapped as she quickly walked off. “G’bye” was on emphasis that she meant the least amount of good in the bye of it. As she started to come out of ear-shot Craiger called out “Nice to make your acquaintance, G-R-A-C-E.”

Even Rynk knew that he had just pushed it far. Grace stormed back and snarled “Knock it off, hoặc that tongue’s gonna end up in-“

“Alright, alright.” Craiger agreed, gesturing for her to keep things G-rated. “Sorry for upsetting you.” Grace simply acknowledged his reply then turned and continued off. Rynk waved good-bye to Craiger then followed.

“You didn’t need to get ticked at him.” Rynk complained. “What did he do?”

“He looked pretty. And I’m guessing all he wanted was to look at some other pretty things. And I thought” She turned to Rynk for a moment, still glaring “that we were just going to ask for a seat.”

“Doesn’t mean we couldn’t socialize at the same time.” Rynk defended.

“Not with him, not with any of the.” Grace answered sternly. While Rynk did not agree that this friendly and witty student was meaning those intentions, she did detect the hint of personal-past coming from Grace’s tone. She đã đưa ý kiến nothing in reply to the vixen.

Grace decided that she wanted to read alone, to which Rynk reluctantly agreed to. The large-eared-lynx left, and Grace found herself back inside her dorm, trying to concentrate on her book, and trying not to think about the males of her past.