Chapter 39: Chapter Thirty Nine

The next day found me well rested and eager to check out the Academy. I'd stayed up pretty later actually, watching all the footage I could find from the various competitions. Luckily Vitality helped offset the tiredness from lack of sleep and I had plenty. I'd caught maybe three hours but I felt rested and ready to start my day. I probably could have just gone without at this point, but I LIKED sleeping, so I wasn't going to get into that habit. I was going to live a long time most likely, I had the hours to spare to enjoy a nice soft bed.

I headed out into the general quarters of the VIP residence to get something to eat, or barring that possibly cook something given my cooking skill. I couldn't do much with Ascendant food at my level, but I could make a tasty breakfast, and I still had another hour or so before we needed to leave. I'd set my alarm early just in case. I threw on some sweats and a t-shirt from the one small bag I'd brought with me, leaving my costume laid out on my bed and ready to change into once I finished eating.

The common area was...kind of empty. I'd been expecting it to be busy. I saw a few people I didn't know, a tall blonde man with a crew cut and a tattoo of an anchor on one bicep, a tiny redhead with hazel eyes and an infectious smile teasing a dark skinned woman with dreadlocks, and a short man with Asian features and kind brown eyes talking animatedly to a pair of blonde blue eyed twins, one male and one female but still strikingly similar. It was homey, everyone seemed relaxed and at ease around each other and I enjoyed the atmosphere.

I noted one ring of couches next to a table with a small child at it, and made my way over to find Jessie fussing over a little boy as a gorgeous dark haired woman with a ponytail smiled happily at them. From context it was easy to tell this was Shadowthorn, or rather, Annie. Her tiny, athletic form was identical to the masked heroine. Despite having the same hair and eye color, she and Callie were markedly different in terms of facial features, though both beautiful.

Callie had a long patrician nose, kind of regal, and her eyes were wide with thick lashes. Annie looked less like a supermodel and more like the girl next door. Cute button nose, full lips, kind smile. I could see why Callie would have gravitated to her as a mentor. Aside from obviously being powerful she looked like a friendly outgoing person. There was something in her eyes that made her seem like someone you could trust. She smiled widely when I came over, waving to me in greeting. "Shane! It's so nice to finally meet you face to face, as it were. I'm Annie, by the way."

I was...torn. She seemed so nice, and I was pretty sure that she genuinely wanted to be friends, even if I was also sure it was a way to get to Callie. But I didn't feel comfortable getting close to her when Callie was still so angry, since it would alienate my friend. I just gave a polite smile and tried to keep things neutral. "You too. I was about to make breakfast, do you guys want anything?" It felt shitty to shut someone down when they were trying to be nice, but Callie really needed someone on her side.

Jessie was clearly unconcerned about the tension, knowing her this was her attempt to mediate by bridging the gap between them, but I didn't really have that luxury. Annie, for her part just kind of...wilted a little. She knew why I wasn't willing to be friends and it bummed her out, but she got it. She gave me a small nod, still smiling, but a sadder one than she'd had a moment ago, and I felt even worse. I added a punch in the dick to the mental list of horrible things I was going to do to Callie's dad for causing all of this nonsense when I was strong enough.

Still, she got her cheer back pretty quickly. "That sound great! Eric is pretty hungry, and I'm sure you're a great cook. I hear you have the cooking skill, and even at Minor that's pretty impressive. We're pretty easy about what we eat, so just make whatever and we'll appreciate it!" Her forced enthusiasm was, if anything, even sadder than the smile had been, but I just chose to maintain my polite smile as I turned to Jessie and Eric. The little boy was enthusiastically showing Jessie a small toy truck he had, and the blonde was gleefully asking questions about it.

It was kind of adorable to watch. I clapped my hands together and then rubbed my palms, getting some blood flowing in my extremities. "Ok then, I think I'm in a chocolate chip pancake mood. Maybe with some bacon if they have it." Judging by the very large and well outfitted kitchen I was betting they were pretty stocked up, so I headed over to start digging out ingredients. I wanted to test out my cooking skill a bit, and while I knew it was nowhere near Benny's level it should be plenty delicious.

There was a materializer, but honestly even the lowest level Minor Cooking Mastery made better quality food. I took out some eggs and flour and grabbed my secret ingredient. Cake mix, which when mixed into the pancakes made a sweet and delicious base that complimented the chocolate chips perfectly. I also cooked the bacon first so I could use the grease to prevent sticking when I made the pancakes as opposed to butter or oil, which would tie the meal together better. It smelled pretty fantastic.

I decided to make eggs to go with it, specifically scrambled eggs with green peppers, ham, and a bit of goat cheese and fennel. The meal was so sweet and fatty I wanted to add some healthier fare to start the day off since I was feeding a small child. Plus goat cheese tasted fantastic on almost everything. The whole thing took me like thirty minutes, since there was a huge stove where I could cook multiple dishes at the same time, allowing me to make the eggs and the pancakes at the same time. I used canola oil to grease the pan for the eggs, sticking to my healthier theme there.

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I carried the food over to a nearby table, not the one they were sitting at since that was a coffee table next to a couch and not a table for dining. When I got there I saw that the smell had clearly drawn some more diners. Benny had woken up and was sitting at the table waiting to eat, and Callie was off to one side sitting at the counter, obviously close enough to be in position to get food but far enough to avoid Annie. I put down the huge plate of pancakes and the giant bowl of eggs next to a platter of bacon on paper towels and then made Callie a plate after I made my own, bringing it over to eat with her.

She smiled dazzlingly as she took a deep breath of the food. "Sweet Revenant that smells good. I didn't know you could cook." She took a bite of the pancakes and let out a long moan. "And pretty damn well too." She shot me a wink. "You're not allowed to cook for any girls at the academy. I don't want to have to fight for food rights." I flushed at that. I knew Benny's cooking was better, but I didn't want to tell her that. I liked when she looked at me like that. I made a mental note to get as many instances of my cooking Skill as possible to try to get to Lesser.

Callie looked good this morning, though she nearly always did. She was dressed in yoga pants and a sports bra with her hair in a ponytail and had clearly been out jogging or something, though I had no clue where. She wasn't sweaty but she was...glistening was I think the word people used to make someone working up a sweat sound fancy. Except in Callie's case it was completely accurate. I focused on my food, which luckily made two of us because she seemed to love her breakfast.

I cleared my throat, trying to shock myself out of the slight awkwardness I was feeling. We'd had a moment back in the room in the Velan branch before Jessie interrupted us, and we hadn't really been alone since then. I didn't want to bring it up in case I was reading too much into it, but I was feeling a little off balance. So I focused on the obvious subject. "So the big Academy visit is today. Have you ever been? I know you had been here before as a kid but I wasn't sure how much of the city you saw."

She chuckled, talking around a mouthful of food. "Not much, pretty much just here and a few places nearby. I've never seen the Academy before. I'm really looking forward to it though, the place is supposed to be amazing. The facilities house something like a million ascendants at any given time. Only a fraction of the one billion Ascendant population of the city, but still a ton of people."

That really was a ton of people. I tried to imagine what a million Ascendants would even look like. It was hard to picture. I had to ask though. "Are all million of them G rank and under twenty? Because even point one percent of Ascendants in the city meeting that criteria is honestly nuts." Unless it was just way easier to rank up here. Which to be fair it might be given the absurd number of people, though that could just as easily make it harder, since there were so many other Ascendants to pull focus.

She shook her head. "No. Locals have less strict criteria to get in. It's still not exactly easy, under twenty and H rank as well as a sponsor, but it's much easier than getting admitted as an out of towner. There are a pretty decent chunk of the school at G rank at this point though. It gets easier to accrue points once you're in so most of the people there with any real power accrue the needed rep pretty fast. You won't be the only H ranker there though, far from it."

That actually worked out well for me since it provided an excuse for the quick progress I was going to make to G rank after school started. I just had to climb up the rankings early and my insane progress speed would be at least partly explained away. I couldn't help but anticipate the challenge, it seemed like it was going to be fun. Callie finished eating and I did the same and we both stood up. She pulled me into a hug. "Thanks for breakfast, I'm going to go get ready, meet you back here in a bit."

I froze up as she hugged me for a second but then hugged her back before she scampered off to go shower and get her costume on. My room had an attached bathroom so I went ahead and showered myself before slipping into my costume. Once I was done I headed back out to the common area to meet up with the others, who were all in their costumes. Except Benny of course, who apparently wasn't allowed on campus. I tried to argue that one, but he just waved me off, saying he could watch Eric and I could tell him about it when I got back. I was a bit hesitant but he gave me a reassuring smile that put my mind at ease. With that out of the way there was no more reason to stay, so we set off for the Academy.

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