Chapter 3

Jael was right. The prying gazes and the whispers assured him that he had become an internet joke again.

It wasn't anything new but this time was different. It was because of Stacie.

Jael didn't mind the eyes of his fellow classmates as he  stared straight at the teaching lecturer.

This was Mr. Baum's class, the meditation class. It was one of the classes Jael categorized as useless because he couldn't do anything with the information they are teaching when he was an ordinary person with no powers.

He still likes the teacher though. Mr. Baum was very serious with his work. He didn't ignore the students with no powers as most teachers do. He carries everybody along with his lesson regardless of their status.

Inevitably, Jael stopped looking at Mr. Baum. He had covered all what the lecturer was saying.

Sometimes he requests off days from school to do his part-time jobs. He had to burn the midnight candle by going over the curriculum at his own pace in other to keep up with the rest of the class.

Now, whatever Mr. Baum was saying was just repeating everything he had already known about.

He turned his gaze to the window in deep thought.

"Mr. Monroe." The lecturer called, "Mr. Monroe, please give us the answer to the question."

Jael groaned inwardly. He should have kept his eyes on Mr. Baum. Now, the lecturer's eagle eyes were on him.

"What was the question sir? I wasn't able to catch it the first time." Jael said as he rose to his feet.

Mr. Baum gave him a look.

"I haven't asked the question yet." Mr. Baum said, "What are the benefits of meditation?"

'Thank God it is a simple question.'

Jael hid his delight before facing Mr. Baum squarely. All the eyes of all the students offering Mr. Baum's meditation class stared at him.

He knew they are looking forward to him making a joke of himself. Sadly, they were going to be severely mistaken.

"Firstly, meditation doesn't work on those that are not awakened. It solely works on those with abilities. It might make ordinary humans energized but for awakened people, it acts as a medium to increase the concentration of your powers." Jael explained. He was about to sit down when Mr. Baum gestured for him to remain standing.

"You said something about ability concentrates. Expand more on that." Mr. Baum instructed.

Jael stomped down the frustration from Mr. Baum's intense questioning. The questions were easy but he didn't like the way Mr. Baum was on his tail.

"Humankind had discovered meditating can increase the concentration of their powers or abilities. The storage of a person ability can be said to be like a well in theory. By increasing the quality of the liquid, the person grows stronger. Humans divided the level of concentration in each person into several ranks." Jael said and sat down. He didn't wait for Mr. Baum to improvise a way to stop him.

Mr. Baum moved his sight to another student.

"Mr. Greg, please tell the class how ability concentration is divided."

The student that was called stood up and answered.

Jael kept his eyes on Mr. Baum but his mind was elsewhere. He didn't even know the answer the kid said.

Soon the bell rang and the teacher dismissed the class. Students poured out of the class to head to their respectively destination.

Jael was heading to the cafeteria when he was stopped by a hand.

He scanned the person that halted his advance. It was his deskmate, Will.

Will McPherson was another part of the majority that was the unawakened. He was the kind of person that was outgoing and he didn't let his situation hinder him.

He had the ability to click with people. He and Jael had exchanged more than a few words.

Jael wouldn't consider him his friend but he was more than a passing acquaintance. Jael waited to listen to what Will is about to say because of their barely close relationship.

"I have an interesting preposition. Do you want to hear it?" Will asked and Jael stared at him like he was retarded.

If Jael wasn't interested in what Will has to say, will he still be standing here?

Will realized his mistake when he was subjected to Jael's judgemental gaze.

Will cleared his throat, "Oh, sorry about that first question. Can we go to somewhere private?"

Jael nodded and Will lead him to a secluded corner with sparse students still loitering about.

"I chanced upon a job and it needs tbose that are unawakened to do it." Will paused, "That's not all. The job description is just to tend to an high-level array but it isn't mandatory fir the workers to have prior experience tending to arrays."

Jael appreciated how Will went straight to the point. He didn't have much time to waste.

After going to the cafeteria, he still had to go for his remaining classes. No matter how Jael hails the classes as useless, he wouldn't miss one.

No knowledge is wasted and he would not want to drop the already bad impression most teachers have for him.

"What about the pay?" Jael queried.

He was only interested in the pay. The job description didn't matter as long as it wasn't something inherently demonic or suicidal. For his goals, he was willing to work hard.

Will's eyes brightened and Jael was almost infected by his good mood.

"The pay is the important part." Will gave Jael a wink, "The rich man promised to give each of the people that participate a brand new awakening ritual array."

Jael felt his heart rate speed up at Will's words. It was like Will's words contained hard drugs like cocaine, he felt like he was intoxicated.

The hope in his heart that was like dead hay when he tried using his parents' gift to jump start his dormant powers sprouted again.

The high-level awakening ritual array he used was already damaged and he didn't know how to fix it so he used it as it was.

There was still a chance to turn everything around. His ability might wake up from its dormancy if he made use of a brand new awakening ritual array instead of a broken one.

Jael was caught at crossroads. He almost didn't want to try the brand new awakening array the rich man promised because he did not want to lose the hope he carefully nurtured again.

He let out a deep sigh as he steeled his heart. He wasn't the type of person to cower in places his bravery would bring results. There was only one way for him and that was applying for the rich man's job.

Jael didn't want to seem to eager to Will. Letting someone else know his bottom line wasn't his thing.

He whipped out his old phone that was held together by rubber bands. Some parts were missing from the handset. He had bitterly saved up money to get this phone and he cherished it like it was his lover.

Every little scratch on the phone was like a scar on his heart. Thankfully, the handset was the version that had buttons so it was a lot more resilient than its other counterpart, the smartphone.

"Give me your phone number, I will call you to inform you of my agreement." Jael said and Will called out his phone number.

Jael typed the number into his handset before dialling it after crosschecking with Will.

Will's smartphone rang from his pocket and he brought out his phone. Will ended the call before saving Jael's number.

He waved enthusiastically at Jael before leaving.

Jael kept down his excitement as he resumed his walk to the cafeteria.

The cafeteria's doors were open. Theee wasn't any guards at the entrance because of the security cameras littered inside the cafeteria.

If anything untoward happens, the security guards in the monitoring room would respond swiftly to quell the disturbance.

Jael scanned the cafeteria before heading straight for the counter that hands out food.

His school, Empire Star Academy has eight buildings specifically made for each of the years the government had mandated higher education to be.

Each building housed their own cafeteria and other facilities, making them isolated from each other. Nonetheless, the students still found a way to mingle in other buildings and the school authority closed one eye to that.

The cafeteria of the 7th building had chairs separated into the left and right sides with a little space separating them.

The school management hadn't divided the sitting arrangement like this. It was the students' doing.

They made sure they separated everything by status. The awakened and those afffiliated with them sat at the right section of the cafeteria. The left section that the unawakened occupied is the worst place in the whole cafeteria.

The unawakened couldn't do anything about the situation. It was like an unspoken rule that the school management approved from the dark.

Jael took a plate tray and walked to the meals he would prefer so the chef in charge of that area would dish the food out.

After Jael finished receiving his food, he made his way to the left section of the cafeteria.

As he walked, Jael made sure to be careful with his food tray. The school cafeteria only provides these meals once. If something happens to the first free meal, the second one would be paid for.

Jael didn't want to spend money on things that could be waived so he usually treats the food he gets from the cafeteria preciously. He would not want to buy another meal when he could use the money to do other things that are more important.

Jael could overhear the videos the students were playing that depicted him confronting Stacie at her house but he ignored them. He didn't want to do or notice anything related to Stacie right now.

Jael saw a boy walking towards him as he was about to cross the little space separating the left and right sections. The boy was also holding a food tray.

Jael knew that for now, he had no way to go against those that had awakened so he wanted to keep any interactions with them to the minimum.

Jael shifted a bit to the side but the boy matched he steps. He went the opposite direction and the boy followed as well. The boy was haunting Jael like a ghost.

Jael's heart sank, he knew this boy was here to cause him trouble.

Jael didn't dodge the boy's advance anymore. This boy was targeting him specially, anything Jael does would be a futile endeavor.

The boy pretended to bump into Jael accidentally and the two meal trays in their hands fell.

Jael's meal consisting of a simple hamburger and a glass of orange juice crashed to the ground.

Everybody's eyes turned to them in an instant.

"Are you blind?! Can't you use your eyesight? You can't even apologize." The boy shouted and Jael opened his mouth in preparation to give an apology. He wanted to be done with this. Although he knew this situation was a setup, it didn't stop Jael's desire to end this sprouting trouble simply.

The boy grabbed Jael before the apology could drop. He directed a punch towards Jael's lower jaw. Jael saw the fist coming but his reaction speed can't catch up with the information his brain was processing.

Pain bloomed as the boy's fist connected with Jael's flesh. Jael could hear his bones shift.

The boy continued raining blows on Jael and Jael tried hard to seem uninteresting so the suffering would be cut short.

His experienced trick didn't work this time. Bruises began forming on Jael's skin and he knew that he had to fight back now.

Jael bent down to grab his fallen meal tray and he swung it at the boy's face. Fury fueled his action.

The boy's hand waved and an unseen wind dragged the metal tray from Jael's hands.

"I don't know why Stacie protected you whenever we want to show you who is boss. You just cheapen her!" The boy snorted.

Jael scoffed inwardly.

Stacie was protecting him? Those words should be a joke. All through their months of dating, he was still bullied by her so called friends. Love had made him blind to things he should have looked out for. He should have seen the signs.

He even thought they were bullying him because they were jealous of his relationship with Stacie. He had thought Stacie was sacrificing a lot to date him so he loved her more. He didn't know he was just living in an illusion all this while.

Stacie deceived his feelings and here he was, still getting bullied on her behalf. Jael felt sick when he remembered that he had loved that kind of person.

The boy didn't give Jael time to think. He grabbed Jael's shoulder but Jael twisted around and brought the boy's arm to his mouth. With mounting anger, he bit down as hard as he could.

A metallic liquid flowed into his mouth with the boy's cry of pain.

The boy directed his murderous eyes at Jael. Jael felt like a beast was staring at him. He suppressed his shudder as he stared back at the boy defiantly.

It was at this moment that the security guards came in with a teacher in tow.

"What happened here?" The male teacher asked with a stern expression on his face.

"Jael bumped into me and when I tried to get him to apologize, he bit me." The boy explained first. When the boy swept his eyes across the room, cries of agreement rung out.

The boy's story was full of holes but nobody was going to call him out. His status as an awakened guaranteed so.

"Sir, he i—" Jael was interrupted by the teacher's gaze.

"Come with us." The teacher said. He wasn't willing to even listen to Jael's explanation.

Jael was led to the disciplinary committee's hall. Five teachers sat in a circle around Jael. Jael didn't mind their poor attempt at mind intimidation.

"Mr. Monroe, why did you fight in the cafeteria? Do you know that by doing that, you are disturbing other students' peace and tranquility?" Mr. Moore, the teacher questioned aggressively.

"Sir, that boy landed the first hit. The cafeteria's cameras should have caught his act." Jael defended.

"Mr. Monroe. The cafeteria's camera were faulty." Mr. Moore said sarcastically. The teacher's words made Jael realize that he had lost.

His opponents prepared thoroughly.

"Your punishment has been decided. You are to join the cleaning team to take out trash littering the school. You are on probation now. Anymore fights and you will have to leave the school permanently." Mr. Moore said as the other four teachers nodded in affirmation.

Jael clenched his fists.

He wanted to scream at their injustice but he didn't. Arguing or begging won't help matters at all.

They didn't listen to his explanation. This disciplinary hearing was already biased from the start. He and the boy should be here together but he was the only one facing disciplinary action. They didn't even try to investigate.

The five teachers that were on the disciplinary committee just turned a blind eye.

Jael had always known humans were corrupt and he knew that most people suck up to the rich or the powerful. This teachers that disregarded a student's words refreshed what Jael felt was humans' lowest.

He laughed to himself.

That boy was an awakened and he probably had a rich background too. It was no surprise that the teachers supported him.

Who will support a useless and poor person with no powers?

What they did was a normal occurrence in this world but even if Jael could understand their decision, it still infuriated him.

He studied their faces carefully as he stamped down everything he knew about them on the tablet of his heart.

Mr. Moore.

Miss Mudra

Mr. Murray

Miss Jumi

Mr. Riu.

Jael watched emotionlessly as they all left.

He was going to have his revenge.