Rise of the guardians- Modernized: Chapter 4

~ Chapter 4 ~

Days passed and became weeks. The weeks became months; and little by little time seemed to fly by and change from the warm summer weather to the cool crispy fall, and into the icy cold winter. It was now early February, and hockey season was in full effect. Jack was continuing to try his best in improving in his hockey skills; as well as impress his coach. Frankly, he was doing pretty well considering it was the concern of not becoming team Captain by the end of the year. And although it was difficult, Jack tried his best to stick to Aster’s standards of “respect”;  which included no bizarre nicknames. Needless to say that was the biggest struggle. However, he cared more about the team position then his everyday prank.  So he dealt with it despite it all.

Jack was currently sitting in on one of Ms. Toothiana’s lectures in her biology/dentistry class, he twiddled with his thumbs as he nonchalantly watched the powerpoint lecture shift slides; waiting for her to continue to speak. The clock ticked quietly above the door and his eyes seemed to gaze up every few moments or so.

Just ten more minutes…..

Jack looked back at his teacher and the notes one the slides and frowned. Once again he had missed some notes while staring up at the clock. He wrinkled his nose as he typed up the current notes. He could certainly get the notes from Seraphina or someone else reliable later. Jack was about to type up the last bit of notes for a moment when there was a knock at her classroom door.  Toothiana flinched slightly and looked up at the clock. She frowned slightly in puzzlement. “Oh my….” She muttered to herself before looking up at her students.

Toothiana chuckled nervously and brushed her bangs to the side. “Please excuse me for a moment class. Carry about your business till I come back.”

Toothiana then shuffled off towards the door and exited briefly while still leaving the door propped open so she could hear in on her students.  Once outside her classroom she saw it obviously wasn’t an anxiously let-out-early pupil but instead it was Nightlight with a young looking female student. The young female smiled weakly; clutching tightly to her backpack straps.  Nightlight raised his eyebrows at seeing the young ladies actions, but paid no heed to them. He cleared his throat soflty and smiled at Toothiana. “Good morning, Toothiana, I hate to interrupt your class but you see this young lady just moved here to Burgess from Italy. And she’s now attending the academy so I’m here giving her the tour, and on her schedule she has you for one of her classes.”

Toothiana blinked in surprise, greatly puzzled by this notion. She knew every single student off the back of her hand; and this young lady didn’t look familiar nor did she know of her joining the school nonetheless her own class. Toothiana was about to say something but Nightly put his hand up calmly, “Don’t fret too much, Toothiana. Her arrival was mentioned in the last faculty meeting, and I know you were unable to make it because of your family  emergency.”

Toothiana breathed a little and smiled. “Very well then, would you like to come and introduce her to the class so she knows who she’ll be learning with?”

“Certainly, Ma’am.”

Toothiana chuckled, and led the two into the classroom. She ushered the young lady to the center of the front and quickly clapped her hands twice to get the students attentions; it worked. A bunch of the males began to blush and smile in shock over seeing the new students look. Her appearance did catch Jack’s attention; but it certainly didn’t make him ogle over her. To him, Seraphina was more attractive than the tan-skinned female that stood before him.

The young female was tall, tan, and had flowing light brown hair. Her eyes were a beautiful baby blue shade, and her cheeks were nice glossy pink color. She wore a maroon long sleeve shoulder shirt that had flower patterns on it, and tight skinny jeans that were covered up at the bottom with her black boots.  To every other male in the room, she looked like an angel dropped from heaven; but to Jack she was nothing special; just another lady in the school.

the young female shifted her weight and chuckled softly. “Hello…. My name is Lauren. It’s wonderful to meet you all, and I hope to have fun here with everyone.”
Several murmurs could be heard throughout the class room. Some were saying how cute she was; others were talking about her light and sweet Italian accent; others about her clothes;  and others how it was odd for her to arrive so late in the year. Jack, however, said nothing. He just sat there not really amused, but more or less bored and ready to head to lunch.  

Riiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnngggg

That was the bell. The students packed up their things and either swarmed around the new girl or shuffled off to lunch; Jack being one of those few. As he was leaving the classroom he felt Lauren’s piercing blue eyes watch him. Despite being the current center of attention,  she found Jackson Overland ten times more appealing; and she wanted to make sure she was as good as hers.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What was never mentioned earlier, Valentine’s Day was coming around the corner and that meant a Valentine’s Day dance was coming up as well. It was an annual event that Manny and the rest of the faculty had been holding for the past five years or so, and every year the students would, without fail, get hyped for it. The way the dance sort of went was that it was treated almost like a pre-prom sort of ordeal.  And the week of the dance, leading up to it, there was a huge contest and events in between such as a big hockey game, show choir performances, cooking activities; and many other entertaining ideas to help the students to get into the spirit.

But because the dance was coming up soon as well as the holiday, Seraphina felt slightly rather uncomfortable, with the fact that practically everyone in the university will be going to the dance with a partner, whilst little ole her will be partner-less yet again. Not that she didn’t mind of course; Seraphina wasn’t the typical type of gal to be into dating or relationships. She was more focused on her grades and schoolwork along with making her late parents proud of her success and achievements thus far. So not having a partner for the Valentines’ Day dance wasn’t that big of a deal for her.

However, being recognized wouldn’t be all that bad either…

Seraphina blinked out of her train of thought and sighed. She felt a strong, sturdy hand touch her shoulder. She flinched slightly and glanced behind her only to see Aster standing behind her.  Aster chuckled softly and smiled down upon the young raven-haired lady. He hated to interrupt her deep thinking but her class had ended and it was time for her to go to lunch.  And if he didn’t usher out of the classroom, she’d sit there entirely until it was time for her next class. It was a habit she had gotten into around last year during the spring semester. He never bothered to ask her why she stayed longer than required, but whatever the reason was it made her happy. So he let her do her own thing. After all, Aster enjoyed the young pupil’s company. She may not have been very talkative, but he still appreciated being able to sit in his art room (or as he sometimes called it: his escape route) and continue forth in working on whatever he wanted to whilst she’d pitter patter away at whatever he had assigned the class to do. Although, during that time, she had managed to get weak and fatigued by the lack of nutrients and fluids she’d be putting in her body.  Although she was overachieving in all her classes, she also was skipping a majority of her meals. Some days would’ve gone without sleeping, and would only eat at dinner time because she’s be so crammed with her studies and endless art dedication.  So after nearly collapsing from pure exhaustion, Aster now made it so she had to go eat her lunch first before doing anything else. He knew she didn’t always like it, but it was for her own health benefits.

Seraphina frowned and glanced back at her wood cut-out of a forest Nymph. She hadn’t gotten nearly as far as she had desired today. However, it had to suffice for the time being. She sighed once more and ran her fingers through her loose ponytail.  “Guess it’s that time huh, Professor Aster?”

“I’m afraid so, Seraphina.” He said softly as he glanced down at her artwork, “But you can come back later after your classes to get the razors and your plaque if you wish.”

“Really?”

Aster shrugged nonchalantly. “I don’t see why you couldn’t. You’ve certainly been working hard this year. I don’t see why you can’t have some special privileges.”
Seraphina grinned from ear to ear and quickly stood up out of her chair, hugged her professor, cleaned up her spot and made a beeline for the lunch room; leaving Aster to himself.

Aster chuckled softly to himself, shaking his head slightly as he began to make his way over to his desk where his lunch box sat. Aster grabbed and opened it up only to reveal a nice hearty protein smoothie and bag of carrots. He smiled contently to himself as he unscrewed the top to his smoothie and began to drink it. The taste of the fresh assorted fruits was quite refreshing despite the icy cold outer weather conditions.  Although it was nippy outside, inside his classroom, it was warm and occasionally stuffy.  So having a fresh, cold smoothie was always enjoyable to him.

Aster was perhaps alone for maybe a good solid fifteen minutes when Toothiana knocked at the door.  Aster practically chocked on his smoothie when seeing it was she at the doorway. Toothiana gasped softly and rushed over to him. She placed her hand on his back and cried out in concern, “Aster is you alright?”

Aster took a deep and laughed. “Yeah, Sheila I’m fine. ‘Preciate your concern and all; but I was just surprised by your abrupt knock.”

Toothiana frowned slightly. “Is this a bad time, perhaps?”

“Naw, not at all. What can I do for you Toothiana?”

Toothiana shrugged. “Not much really; I came to come spend some time with you. You never come to the faculty lounge for lunch so I’d thought I’d come and eat with you today so you weren’t so terrible lonely. Is that a problem, Aster?”

Aster shook his head and chuckled before taking another sip of his protein smoothie. “I don’t mind that one bit, Toothiana. That’s actually quite thoughtful of you to do. I typically spend my lunches alone so I can get some work done for either my next class or for the upcoming hockey games. I don’t mean to be rude to you or the other faculty members; I just got to get done what I need to get done.”

Toothiana nodded. She understood where he was coming from, and held nothing against him because of that. She took a seat down in one of the chairs and smiled at her friend. “its okay, Aster. I know what you mean by that. I just didn’t want you to be too lonely.”
Aster chuckled at Toothiana’s remark. Although he never really accepted it, Aster was quite the introvert. He never intended to be ant-social. Aster just preferred to keep to himself because it made him most comfortable. Most of the other faculty members left him to do his own thing such as eating lunch by himself, because they figured it were he was either too busy or just wanted to keep to himself and his art. However some of the others, such as North, would tease him and try to convince him to come eat with them. Aster didn’t appreciate when he was teased like that. He typically shrugged it off; finding no need to stress about his own life choices. But then again, no one took the actual effort to go see him unless it was to pester him. So when Toothiana made the effort to come see him, he found it quite sweet of her to do. It showed that she really was a sweet woman, and did care about the people around her. And that made him appreciate her all the more.
Elsewhere in the cafeteria, Seraphina was sitting a table by herself with her psychology text book propped open next to her as she ate her bowl of French onion soup. She was paroozing through it in preparation for her upcoming psychology test that was the following Monday.  She wasn’t reading through it heavily like she would if the date was closer, but she was reading enough that she could begin to start remembering the material.
As she turned the page in the book, she heard footsteps coming up from behind her. Before even the figure could touch her, without looking behind her she said bluntly, “Don’t even think about it, Jack.”

Sure enough, it was Jack. Jack sighed and then chuckled as he slunk down into the next to her. He was wearing his hockey jersey once again and had on a comfy pair of  jeans. He flashed his usual crooked smile at her as he observed her every move; trying to avoid his eye contact. Eventually she gave in.  Seraphina glanced up at him and frowned slightly. “May I help you?”

“Certainly Sera, I’d thought you’d never ask.”

oh boy…

Seraphina rolled her eyes and went back to her lunch only to quickly find textbook ripped away from her. “Hey, Jackson! Give it back to me.”

“Why? Our test isn’t till Monday. It’s Wednesday, Sera.  Lighten up a bit. Besides I got a favor to ask you.”

“Oh? And what might that be?” She said before taking a sip of her ice tea.

Jack shifted his weight in the chair and rested his ead upon the table. “Well, you know how the Valentine’s day dance is coming up in about two weeks?”

“Y-Yeah….” Seraphina responded, now blushing wilding as she allowed her mind to wander.
“Well I noticed something, Coach Aster never comes to the dance. And I think it’s because he’s dateless.”

“What are you implying Jackson?”

“I say you and I play a little game of match-making with Coach Aster, and help him get a date.”

Seraphina looked at Jack completely stupefied. She gaped at the thought of trying to assist her favorite teacher into finding a date. It just seemed so bizarre to her.  She took a quick sip of her tea again and looked back up at Jack’s big brown eyes. “Are you drunk or something? Match-making? Really?”

“C’mon, Sera, It’ll be fun!”

“But Ja-“

“Just the two of us. C’mon I already have an idea on who to set him up with.”
“Who?”

“Ms. Toothiana of course. Have you seen him ogle over her? They’re a couple made in the sky.”

“Jack-“

“Please Seraphina….. I wanted to ask you because you get along with him better. And I’d thought you’d be willing to help me. So please? It’ll be really fun I promise.”
Seraphina sat there for a moment and thought about her friend’s little antic to try and help out his coach with getting a date. She didn’t really find right for her to try and match-make him with someone. However, if what Jack had declared true about him ogling over Toothiana; then by all means she didn’t find it that bad of a plan.

Seraphina took a bite of her soup and smiled at Jack. “Fine, I’ll give it a shot with you. Fair enough?”

Jack’s playful crooked grin turned into a full on smile. He chuckled, and then wrapped his arms around Seraphina’s waist; hugging the young lady tightly to his chest. “You’re so awesome, Sera. Thank you. See ya later, pretty lady.” He said as he let go and ran off to the gym; leaving Sera completely awestruck.

What had she gotten herself into this time?