The Return Of The Phoenix Healer

Eight

Klein woke up the following day with the harsh reality of being dumped. The events of the previous day were engraved in his mind. He had thought they had a serious relationship but it turned out she had only seen him as a servant and had found someone else a long time ago.

He had woken up late because he was busy half of the night. He had spent a greater part of the night browsing about phoenix healers and gathering information about them. He had a strange medical book that he locked up in his wardrobe years back.

After the fire outbreak in his parent’s house, only one thing was with him when he disappeared mysteriously from the house. It was a book in which its wordings were written in a thermophilic pen. It was a book on medicine and ancient medical techniques.

That night, he took it out of his wardrobe, dusted it and studied it alongside the pamphlet.

A glance at the clock had him increasing his pace to meet time. As he walked through the school hallways, snickers and whispers followed him. Everyone seemed to know about Lara's betrayal. Some even told the story out loud as if they were there.

“Ahh! You needed to see the way Rex punched him when he came to their table. He had the nerves to call her his girlfriend when she was with Rex. Imagine dragging a woman as beautiful as Lara with a rich and handsome guy like Rex.

“Nah! Klein's sick. I still wonder why he believed Lara was his. Damn! Who would have even believed she was dating him? Isn't it obvious that she's way out of his league?”

“Could you believe that he nearly ruined the birthday party? But I'm so glad that Rex put him in his place!”

Klein walked faster and tried to ignore the talks, whispers and gossip coming from all angles.

“Hey, you!”

Klein turned and saw Alice.

“What do you want?” he asked in annoyance. He was already tired of everyone.

“I'm just glad that Lara finally ditched you. Now, you are back to where you belong. That's amazing,” Alice spat with a triumphant look on her face.

Klein looked at her, sighed and walked out. His new identity had given him the courage to walk out on Alice. Something he would not dare to do!

“I don't want to come for the loan myself in four days,” she called out after him with a sneer.

The professor was already in class by the time he came in. Klein’s heart sank on seeing the professor, Professor Grayson. He constantly belittled Klein for being poor and unable to afford learning materials, not minding the fact that it was unprofessional of him.

“Are you part of this class?” he asked, looking at him.

“No Professor. He's just a poor errand boy,” one of his classmates named Elion spoke up.

This comment erupted a loud laughter in the lecture hall. Klein tightened his fists into a ball and bowed his head low. Elion was such a big mouthed fool.

“Why are you late for my class again? Off doing the same dirty work to make ends meet, no doubt?”

“Professor I… ”

“Quiet, you’re a waste of potential, join the class, let’s see if you can keep up.”

The class continued and when he was done with the class, he gave them an assignment saying,

“Hand the textbooks over to the class representative in two days. The university examinations are coming up in a few weeks. Endeavour to make all your payments so that you can partake in the examination. See you in my next class.”

When he left, Elion raised his voice and said,

“Hello Klein, the recent lover boy. Were you late because you cried all night?”

The class erupted into another round of laughter. Elion was a very funny young man and he enjoyed picking on Klein. Klein turned towards him and rolled his eyes at him.

Elion slapped his mouth as if he was sorry for what he said.

“Ohh! Forgive me. Maybe you are yet to come to terms with the fact that she left you for someone better.”

“She left him for someone who isn’t a waste of potential,” another classmate joined in, using the professor’s exact words. His classmates laughed again, each one trying to outdo the other, mimicking the professor and saying hurtful words to Klein.

“You should make money too, you know, right? That's true, how do you intend to buy the textbooks? I've got a few clothes you can wash for some bucks. I'm pretty sure your part time jobs won't pay as much as I will. Isn't that right?”

Klein swallowed and kept mute. He knew that if he engaged in a physical fight with Elion, he would beat the silly boy up but he wasn't ready for that. He was tired and hungry. He was also bothered as to how to come up with the balance for his school fees as well as the textbook.

Challenging Elion was the last thing on his mind. He wondered if he should go back to Alice and beg her to include his name in the list of those qualified for student loans. Then, it hit his head that he had received a massive inheritance the previous day!

“I just need to go to the bank and cash the money! All my problems will be over! How silly I am,” he said to himself.

When Elion saw that Klein wasn't saying anything, he stood up from his seat and walked up to Klein.

“Hey boy! Are you shy to admit that you need a job? If you can't keep up in class, you may keep up in menial jobs, which you are very good at. Isn’t that great, loser?” he winked.

Klein stood up in anger and grabbed him by the collar, he was going to give him a good beating. It was high time he put an end to this nonsense.

“Enough of your madness! Who told you I can't pay my school fees or buy my textbooks? I'll have that textbook before tomorrow!”