EX-Grade Grass

Chapter 1

“Clean it, Ren.”

Victor Kane spat on the floor right in front of him. The spit landed near Ren’s old shoes. Victor’s blonde hair shone under the hallway lights. His clothes looked expensive enough to buy food for a month.

Ren held the broom tight. He kept his face calm, the way he always did. He bent down and cleaned the spit without a word.

Victor laughed. “Four copper coins, right? That’s all you’re worth.”

A few students stopped to watch. Some snickered. Others just stared. Everyone knew Ren. The quiet orphan who swept floors and never talked back. The one who would do almost anything if you paid him.

Victor’s friend Leo stood beside him, chubby and grinning. “Pay him a silver and make him dance next time. He’ll do it.”

Ren finished cleaning and stood up. He looked at Victor and said in a flat voice, “Four copper coins.”

Victor tossed a silver coin at his feet instead. It bounced and rolled.

“Keep it,” Victor said. “I want more than cleaning today. There’s still time before the awakening. I feel like having fun.”

Leo’s eyes lit up. “You serious?”

Victor cracked his knuckles. “One silver coin. You take a beating from both of us. Right here. In front of everyone.”

The hallway went quiet. More students turned to look.

Ren stared at the silver coin on the floor. One silver could buy food for days. But the look in Victor’s eyes was not just mean. It was the look of someone who knew no one would stop him. His father was a baron. Teachers looked the other way when Victor caused trouble.

Ren’s hands stayed still at his sides. Inside, something old and tired whispered that he should just take the money and get it over with. That was how he had survived for years.

He picked up the coin and put it in his pocket.

“No,” he said.

Victor’s smile faded. “What did you say?”

“I said no.”

Leo stepped closer. “You refuse a silver coin? Are you stupid?”

Victor’s face turned red. He shoved Ren hard in the chest. Ren stumbled back but did not fall. Victor shoved him again, harder. This time Ren hit the wall.

Students whispered. Someone laughed.

Victor raised his fist. “You think you can say no to me? On awakening day? You’re nothing. You always were nothing.”

He swung.

Ren did not block. He did not fight back. He had learned long ago that hitting a noble only brought worse trouble later. The fist landed on his cheek. Pain flared. Another hit came to his stomach. Air left his lungs. He dropped to one knee.

Victor kicked him in the side. Ren tasted blood.

“Say you’re trash,” Victor ordered. “Say it loud so everyone hears.”

Ren stayed quiet. Blood dripped from the cut on his forehead onto the floor.

Leo grabbed his collar and pulled him up. “Say it or we take the silver back and break something that won’t heal fast.”

Ren’s vision blurred for a second. In that second he saw two faces in his mind—Lisa’s tired smile and Luna’s hopeful eyes when he brought her sweet berries. Those two were the only reason he had stayed calm all these years. If he fought back now, the nobles would not stop at him. They would go after the people who took him in.

He opened his mouth to say the words Victor wanted.

Then something inside his chest shifted.

It felt like a door that had been locked for fourteen years finally cracked open. Warmth spread through his arms and legs. The pain in his side faded a little. The blood on his forehead stopped dripping so fast.

The floor under Victor’s shoes moved.

Tiny green blades of grass pushed up between the stone tiles. They grew fast—faster than anything normal. In two seconds the grass was ankle-high. In three seconds it wrapped around Victor’s boots and held tight.

Victor looked down. “What the—”

The grass climbed higher, twisting around his legs. It was soft at first, then it hardened. Victor tried to step back and almost fell.

Leo let go of Ren’s collar and jumped away. “What is that?”

Students gasped. Someone shouted for a teacher.

Ren stood up slowly. The cut on his forehead still hurt, but the strange warmth kept spreading. He looked at his own hands. A thin blade of grass had grown from his palm without him asking for it. It was sharp enough to cut skin.

Victor finally tore one leg free and pointed at Ren. “You did this! What kind of cheap trick is that?”

Ren did not answer. He did not fully understand it himself. He only knew the grass listened to him. It felt as natural as breathing.

A teacher’s voice echoed from the end of the hallway. “What is going on here?”

Victor’s face changed in a second. The anger turned into something colder. He forced a smile and raised his voice so everyone could hear.

“This orphan just attacked a noble with some weird plant trick. On awakening day. I demand a public trial. Right after the ceremony. If he loses, he kneels in front of the whole academy and apologizes. Then he leaves and never comes back.”

Leo quickly added, “And he returns every coin he ever took from us.”

Students started talking all at once. Some looked excited. Some looked worried. A public trial on awakening day was serious. Losing meant Ren would be thrown out with nothing. No free awakening. No chance to ever enter the dungeons the normal way. Lisa and Luna would have to survive without the small coins he brought home.

The teacher reached them and frowned at the grass still holding Victor’s other leg. “Both of you, stop this. The ceremony starts soon.”

Victor shook the last of the grass off and smoothed his expensive shirt. “I already made the challenge. Everyone heard it. He used some strange power on me first. I have the right.”

Ren looked at the silver coin still in his pocket, then at the students staring at him, then at the green blades that had grown from nothing.

The warmth in his chest had not faded. It felt stronger now, like it was waiting for him to use it again.

He wiped the blood from his forehead with the back of his hand and met Victor’s eyes.

“I accept,” Ren said.

Victor’s smile returned, sharp and sure. “Good. After the ceremony, in the training yard. Try not to cry when you kneel.”

The teacher ordered everyone to the auditorium. Students moved, still whispering. Victor and Leo walked ahead like they had already won.

Ren stayed at the back of the group. The grass on the floor slowly withered and disappeared, as if it had never been there. Only a few green stains remained on the stone.

He touched the cut on his forehead. It had already stopped bleeding completely.

Something had woken up inside him.

And in less than an hour, the whole academy would see what it could do.

The big doors of the auditorium opened ahead. The awakening crystal waited inside, glowing softly.

Ren stepped through the doors with the others.

He did not know yet that the crystal would refuse to give his talent a normal grade.

He only knew one thing for sure.

He was done cleaning spit off the floor.