Fantastopia: The New Life (Part 1)

Haters gonna hate

As I watched Professor Orhan write down the math question on the chalkboard, I could feel everyone’s eyes on me, some appeared excited to watch me try out this impossible math question, others appeared nervous, even I was nervous. But hey, it’s not like this math question is going to kill me unless that could actually happen in this fantasy world.

“Jesse,” Aria whispered to me “Are you sure you want to do this?”

“Of course not,” I whispered back, “But I’m not backing out of this.”

She sighed, “Suit yourself.”

As soon as Professor Orhan finished writing, I noticed that this question was actually a math equation, and boy did it look complicated. But thankfully this appeared to be an equation that could be shown in the real world, so all I needed to do was think hard and logically.

“Flint was able to solve this in 60 seconds,” the wizard told me while handing me the chalk “Think you can try to top that?”

“Only one way to find out,” I replied while taking the chalk.

60 seconds to solve a math problem to me was pretty simple, but for this complicated one and under 60 seconds, my brain might hurt after this.

“You ready?” Professor Orhan asked while holding up a pocket watch.

“Ready.”

“Begin.”

Okay, first thing first, I gotta observe it. Then once I know what kind of equation it was, I began writing down the first step to solving this. Hold on a second, I think I got this. Just do this, then do that, now I gotta count my fingers. You’ve got this Jesse. I had to do a lot of writing and solving numbers, but I finally managed to solve it as I circled my answer while hearing the sound of Orhan stopping the time on his watch.

“The answer is -3” I revealed as I heard everyone gasped, assuming that I was right.

And by the look on Orhan’s face, I knew I was right.

“That’s correct,” he gasped.

“Whoa hold on,” Flint spoke up while jumping out of his seat “He could’ve have solved that in 60 seconds, how long did it take for him?”

Orhan looked down at his pocket as I saw his eyes widen.

“55 seconds,” he announced.

Once again, everyone gasped with astonishment, I even heard Aria gasp as I felt myself grinning proudly.

“WHAT?!” Flint suddenly shouted in anger “There is no way!”

He stormed up to the professor and snatched the watch from him to check the time while taking glances at the solved equation. Boy did he look pissed as he shoved the watch back at Orhan as he turned to me with a raging glare. I’ve gotten used to people getting jealous of me and I’ve been able to handle bullies before, and even as my heart was pounding, I kept on a confident look and stood tall as I stared at the mad elf.

“You cheated,” he growled at me.

“How?” I challenged, “You wanna check my body to make sure?”

I showed him my bare arms with the sleeves rolled up.

“See any markings?” I questioned mockingly “No. You see any earpieces, no. So how could I have cheated? Easy, I didn’t.”

Some of the students giggled as I watched him clench his fists and his face turning red.

“You still doubt that I’m an A+ student?” I smirked while setting down the chalk and turning to the class “You all have a nice day.”

And with that, I walked out of the class, now that’s a way to make an exit in an academy.

“Jesse!” Aria called out as she joined me by my side “That was awesome!”

“Wasn’t it?” I chuckled as she let out a laugh.

“I don’t think anyone’s ever stood up against Flint like that.”

“I’m guessing he’s always like that?”

“Yeah,” she sighed, “He thinks he’s the smartest elf out of everyone, but I know he’s not. Not only that, but he also thinks he’s the best fighter, he actually used to hurt everyone on purpose during training.”

“Damn,” I breathed.

“He may have stopped doing that, but he’s still the asshole narcissist that he is. Always putting others down, only thinking of himself, flirting with every girl especially me no matter how many times I tell him to piss off.”

“Jeez,” I shook my head, “Sounds like a typical jerk.”

“Yep,” she breathed “And look, he may hate a lot of people, but there’s always that one person that drives him mad, and I’m pretty sure that’s you now.”

“I’m not surprised,” I muttered “It’s one of those cliche moments where the so-called ‘hero’ of a story always has that one bully on his back. And as bad as that sounds, I know how to handle bullies.”

“Oh, um, that’s good I guess. But, promise me you won’t get into fights with Flint or anyone to be exact. I’m trying to prevent injuries and deaths here, so please don’t get into any fights unless it’s really necessary.”

“Don’t worry,” I assured “I’ve always been avoiding fights no matter how much someone wants to fight me. If anything, I use sarcasm and other forms on insults instead of punching people in the face, although they shouldn’t push it.”

She snickered, “Just don’t go too far okay?”

I nodded. From past experience, I’ve always been able to get back at bullies with my witty comebacks, I try to avoid getting into physical fights as much as I can. And even though the bullying has stopped for a while, I’m always prepared, especially since there’s an angry elf who hates my guts now.

“Come on,” Aria motioned me with her head “Let’s go to the arena.”

I made sure to pay attention to the direction on how to get to the arena as we entered the training field. But instead of it being empty like last time, I spotted the two elves I met last time, creepy Hazel and not so bright Dale. Dale appeared to be sleeping while leaning against the wall and Hazel was sharpening her knives with some kind of stone while sitting on a barrel, why, why did she have to be here?

“Uh-” I froze at the entrance while taking a step back “Hazel’s here.”

“Come on,” Aria urged while grabbing my arm and dragging me onto the field where Hazel looked up and spotted me.

“Well look who’s back,” she grinned at me that sent chills down my back “You ready to begin your training today?”

“No,” I mumbled nervously.

“Well, you should. Because if you’re unlucky today, you might have to train with me if Farrell doesn’t show up.”

I don’t even know who this Farrell guy and yet I would prefer him over Hazel.

“Seriously Aria-” she turned to the princess while getting off the barrel “Where is Farrell?”

“He should be here soon,” Aria guaranteed, “While we’re waiting, wake up Dale.”

“Sure thing.”

She slid her knives into the scabbards on her belt as she turned to Dale’s sleeping body.

“Yo Dale!” she shouted as she gave the barrel a hard knick as it flew straight into Dale which caused him to wake up with a loud yelp of pain.

“OW!” he screamed while pushing the barrel off him and rubbing his face.

Yikes! Hazel better not wake me up when I’m asleep. I can only imagine the many ways she could wake someone up. And how come Dale’s nose wasn’t bleeding? Probably an advantage of being an elf.

“Really Hazel?!” he shouted angrily.

“How did you expect me to wake you up?” she replied carelessly, “By shaking you?”

He gave her a glare before pushing himself up and shaking off the pain when he spotted me.

“Oh hey!” he waved at me as he walked up to us “You’re back. Don’t tell me your name, I think I got it... Jeffery?”

“Jesse.”

“s**t,” he muttered embarrassedly “I’m sorry, I promise I’ll get it right next time.”

I hope so because if he keeps calling me by a wrong name, I might have to wear a name tag.

“Hey uh-” I turned to Aria “How come there aren’t any other trainers in here, why is it us with Hazel and Dale?”

“Because the hero is always trained when the arena is empty and always with a royal to observe. And Hazel and Dale are my best friends so I invited them to join and help us.”

I raised my eyebrow before taking a glance at Hazel, which was a mistake because Hazel spotted me glancing at her.

“What?” she demanded, “You don’t trust me?”

“Um, normally I’d lie and make up an excuse to deny it, but considering that you woke up Dale by kicking a barrel at him, I’m going to assume you know the answer.”

At that point, she stepped towards me and gazed up into my eyes that caused me to freeze there as she placed her hands on her hips.

“I know what you must think of me Jesse,” she said, her tone sounding somewhat relaxed “And most of the time you should believe it. But I need you to know that I do care about others, I just have funny ways of showing it.”

Uh... I’ll try to believe that, but I still mean it when I said that she reminds me of Kendra, and I really don’t know how I feel about that. Just then, I began to hear footsteps entering the arena as we all turned to see an elf man entering the field. He appeared to be in his late fifties or early sixties due to the gray strands in his light brown hair and beard along with the wrinkles that were shown on his face, and yet he still looked fit.

“Alright,” he spoke out loud “Show me where the chosen one is.”

Everyone pointed to me, I didn’t know what to do as I just awkwardly raised my hand.

“So you’re Jesse huh?” he assumed while walking up to me “The grandson of Richard. How is he by the way?”

“He’s fine. He’s not dead yet but, he’s good.”

“Well, that’s nice to know. I met him when I was young, he was such an interesting man. Name’s Farrell.”

“Nice to meet you, Farrell” I greeted as I shook his rough hand.

“So, you ready to begin?”

“No,” I mumbled like before.

“Relax, you won’t be doing any fighting today. Instead, you’ll be watching and observing, simple. That’s the first step.”

“Oh,” I remarked, “Um, okay.”

“It’s not as easy as it sounds, Jesse” Aria put in “You have to really pay attention. But I’m sure you can do that, after all, you are an A+ student, right?”

“Yes,” I chuckled, “Don’t worry, I know how to pay attention. But even if I do focus, I can’t always understand everything, you know that right?”

“Of course, and if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask.”

I was about to say something else when we suddenly heard a crashing sound that caused us to turn as we spotted a young elf man on the ground surrounded by small forms of rocks along with an empty crate by his side. He appeared to be in his mid-thirties or so with his dark hair tied behind him in a short ponytail. He let out a small grunt as he started to gather the stones into the crate, I couldn’t let him do it alone as I hurried to his side and began to help him gather the stones.

“You alright?” I asked him.

“I’m fine,” he murmured as we finished gathering the stones “Thanks.”

I nodded when I suddenly spotted something that caught my eye. There on the back of his right forearm was some marking, and it looked like it had been burned into his skin or something like that. He must have noticed I was staring at it cause he quickly pulled down his sleeve and stood up.

“Be careful next time, Averyl” Farrell suddenly ordered, “It was a good thing you weren’t carrying explosives.”

The man, Averyl, didn’t say anything as he just set the crate down on a table and walked out of the arena.

“Alright then,” Farrell spoke, “Let’s get started.”

But I didn’t move from my spot, what was that marking on that guy’s arm? I probably shouldn’t think about it, right now, I just need to focus on watching these guys fight, which actually sounds pretty entertaining, so let’s get on it.