Wizard and Witches: Griffith Academy

Naomi Gerult

The shout made Naomi’s body jolt away from the small oak desk she was sleeping on. The young girl immediately tidied up her messy dark blue short hair. At the same time, her cyan eyes looked around in a panic to process what just happened.

Her whole body froze when she realized what was before her.

It was her history teacher, standing right in front of her desk with his hands crossed in front of his chest. The teacher’s wrinkled face became even more wrinkled from anger. With the addition of knitted eyebrows and intense staring under his round glasses, there was no denying the teacher was furious at her.

“Naomi Gerult!” the teacher called out her full name.

A very, very bad sign.

Naomi couldn’t bring herself to keep eye contact with the old man and opted to cast her gaze down to the floor.

“How many times have you fallen asleep in my class?! And you call yourself a high school student?!” the teacher continued. Naomi stayed silent while keeping her eyes fixed on the ground.

“I-I’m sorry, Sir Hugh!” she tried to apologize. But it fell on deaf ears. It didn’t work on him the first time she used it; it won’t work the millionth time she used it either.

From the face alone, it was apparent that her teacher wanted to continue yelling at her. But he didn’t. The old man just walked back to the front of the class, mumbling to himself all the way. Really, it wasn’t her fault that his teaching was so dull and sleep-inducing.

After that accidental sleep, though, the class went on as usual. Naomi tried to follow the course but failed miserably. Most of the time, her eyes just stared blankly at the whiteboard. The teacher may say nothing, but she caught him throwing a couple of angry glances at her. At least she didn’t fall asleep again.

When the school bell finally rang, the teacher dismissed the class and left in a hurry. Her classmates also immediately tidied up their stuff and made their way out of the classroom. In the end, only three people were left in the room. Naomi. A girl with long brunette hair in front of Naomi. And the new transfer student who was cleaning the whiteboard.

The brunette girl was Lisa, her childhood friend. And after so long befriending Naomi, Lisa knew all the ways and tricks to snap Naomi out of her daydreaming habit.

After finishing up writing her last note, Lisa turned around and flicked the tip of Naomi’s nose. As expected, it immediately worked since Naomi’s blank stare turned focus, signaling her return from the dream world to real life.

“Lisa! You know I don’t like you doing that!” Naomi complained as she rubbed the tip of her nose. Lisa only laughed at her friend’s response.

“I’m going to keep doing it as long as you keep daydreaming in class. Well, as long as I’m aware of it at least.”

Earlier, Lisa was too preoccupied writing in her notes to check up on Naomi. She only realized her mistake after the teacher walked up to Naomi’s desk and slammed her table while shouting wake up.

“I was just one more s***h away from beating the boss! Now the Goblin King is going to ravage the land!” Naomi said. She stood up and grabbed her bag.

Lisa couldn’t help but chuckle. Her friend’s protests were also part of her daily routine. Each time Naomi was snapped back to reality, she would complain about the flick then followed by saying something ridiculous like Dragons or Goblin King.

“Whatever you say, Miss Knight,” Lisa said with a smirk.

As Naomi waited for Lisa to finish tidying up her stuff, she couldn’t help but notice the only other person in the room beside them. It was the transfer student who was wiping the whiteboard.

If she recalled correctly, his name was Neo. He was transferred to her school just around three weeks ago. But in that short amount of time, he already amassed a massive following of other students. It was pretty obvious why. He had striking golden eyes with pale blond hair that would swoon anyone over. Skilled in sports. And for the cherry on top, he was charming and kind. It wasn’t only the girls that were charmed by him, but also the boys. While the girls admired him for being sweet and kind, the boys focused on his ability in sports.

Though... he wasn’t perfect. He was not a genius academically, and the fact he had unique hair and eye color was nothing new. Naomi and Lisa, among some others, also had a different color. But they didn’t stand out as much as Neo did.

“Hey. You’re Naomi and Lisa, right?”

Neo, out of nowhere, walked up to the two. A small smile was plastered on his face.

The two girls exchanged glances before nodding. Neo seemed more enthusiastic than usual. He was usually calm and relaxed, which was another reason why the girls were attracted to him like moths to a flame.

“I saw you two yesterday, and I think our home is in the same direction. Do you guys mind if we walk back together? I’m pretty much done with cleaning duty,” Neo asked politely.

Naomi internally admitted he was charming. But not to the point that she would fall over heels for him.

“Sure, I guess,” Naomi said as she shrugged.

“If Naomi’s fine with it, then I think that’s fine,” Lisa said.

“Great! I will go get my stuff.”

The two waited for Neo to stuff his books into his backpack. When he was done, the three walked back home together.

Their journey home started out in silence. It was only after Neo began a conversation that they started talking more openly. They started by talking about the school, then other students, then somehow they ended up talking about movies. Naomi didn’t expect Neo to also like some of her favorite movies.

The more Naomi talked with him, the more she realized that he was not like what she expected. She thought he would be an elite guy with elite taste or something like that. But, it turned out he was not that different from her. Neo was just a regular boy with similar likes to her.

Amidst all of their talking, Neo tried to flirt with Naomi. It was a bit vague, so she gave him a warning by gently knocking him in the head—a gentle knock just for now. Before Neo, others had tried to flirt with her, but all of them ended up with a pounding headache. And the new kid was not an exception. It was because he was unaware of that fact that she gave him a warning first. Next time, Naomi would make sure he would regret trying to flirt with her.

Thinking about it, maybe that’s why she wasn’t close to a lot of boys. At least, not to the ones trying to flirt with her.

Upon arriving at Naomi’s house, Naomi realized that Neo’s home was right next to Lisa’s, who in turn was directly next to Naomi’s. Neo explained that he was the owner’s nephew that had moved here because of some family issues. Naomi swore she had never seen him there before. But then again, she and Lisa were not close to Neo’s aunt. So it was possible they just didn’t see him.

“See you tomorrow!” Naomi shouted before entering her home.

Naomi was greeted by silence and darkness. Her parents were out of town, leaving her all alone for a couple of days. She considered inviting Lisa to sleep at her house but decided to first ask both Lisa and her parents. She put her bag in her room and immediately took a shower.

After drying her hair and putting on new clothes, she took out her homework from her bag and went to the small balcony located in front of her room. She had hoped to quickly finish the assignment and sleep earlier than before, lest she fall asleep again in class tomorrow.

She sat down and started doing her homework. With the gentle wind caressing her hair and the silence of her neighborhood,  she started writing. It started out smoothly, but some feeling kept bugging her. Something was just off to her, so she peeked out from her balcony and found someone wearing a black cloak standing directly across her home. The person was not there when she arrived home, so he probably came when she took a shower.

The cloaked figure didn’t seem to notice her. Instead, they stood like a statue, their gaze fixed on her house’s door. Occasionally, they would look left and right for a second before focusing again on her home.

Fearing the person was up to no good, Naomi decided to call the police. It was not like she couldn’t protect herself; she just didn’t want to take any risk. There had been news about a killer stalker lurking around in her neighborhood, and this person could just be it.

Naomi grabbed her phone and started to dial the number. But when she peeked again, the person had already disappeared.

Weird… Did that guy leave?

Naomi wondered whether the person noticed her peeking from the balcony and left. If he did, then her gut was correct, and he was the killer. Naomi put her phone away, took her stuff back inside, and made sure all of the windows and doors were locked.

It was a long and restless night for her.