Chapter 9

A medium-sized patch of vibrant green grass and a couple of stone small patch planted on the ground connected white-painted, recycled rubber tire fences act as the boundary. A large castle erected in the middle of the site has a small staircase on the back which is connected to a long hallway that is attached to a long slide, small slide, and medium slide. On the other side of the castle is a hanging bridge then a monkey bar. At the opposite of the medium slide is a walker climber with different colors of plastic rock. Besides the castle are a three swing, a yellow merry-go-round, and three spring riders.

There are few benches with tables where students can relax and eat their food after playing Ariella sat in one of the benches at the right corner of the playground bringing out her biscuits and juice. Ariella wonders how her brother is doing on his tests as this never happened on the other timeline she can't help but be worried. She is used to knowing the outcome of everything because of the knowledge she has on that timeline and the advanced tech she brought with her. Even though she changes a lot of events since she came back some events are carved in stone.

"Will brother be alright?" – she sighed helplessly still munching on her biscuit until a raven-haired boy with a pair of black eyes interrupted her peaceful recess.

"Hello, is this seat taken?"

"No, you could seat there if you wanted to."

"Thank you, by the way, I'm Simon Alguera, grade two students."

"Ariella Lewis, also a grade two student."

"Do you want to play together later after we finish eating?"

"Sure, I still have at least fifteen minutes before I need to go back to the classroom. By the way, I didn't see you in the classroom, are you in another section of grade two?"

"Yup, there are two sections in each grade with different advisor teachers. Not much of a talker eh."

"Less talk more eating and munching so, we can play much earlier and longer."

Ariella is pretty much more excited as her eyes sparkle in enthusiasm, imagining herself playing at the huge castle with slides and those swings on the left side of the castle. She kept munching on with a fire on her eyes, then gulp one after the other of her juice. Simon looks at the peculiar girl in front of her, some bystander would think that this girl is a country bumpkin who has not seen a playground since her birth. Simon thought that he'll be the first one to finish the exam for this year, but the peculiar girl sitting alone on one of the benches bested him. Simon doesn't like dull-witted and foolish people the same age as him, and yet this girl finishes the test first.

`Hmm… Maybe this girl is a competent rival for rank one. `

Ariella notices the way Simon's eyes look at her, she knows it, the look he gives her at the moment is one of the most hated looks she has ever seen in her best friend's eyes. It's the look of a predator who has seen a predator on equal ground, he saw her as a rival like before when they met on the battleground test.

Both Ariella and Simon have the potential of becoming a strategist but in a team, they only need one, and so, Ariella decided to give up the title and just choose to become a vanguard together with Denise. However, her choice just added oil to the fire making it flare-up, even though they became best friends, Simon will challenge her every time he saw a chance. At first, it was quite amusing seeing him fired up at challenging her in every way, and then he just keeps doing it that Ariella got tired and lost her fighting spirit at winning.

And now, Simon's rival fighting spirit has been awakened by her again. It gives Ariella a sense of tiredness and fear crept at her back making her shiver and back away from Simon slowly.

"H-hey, w-what are you looking at?"

Simon didn't answer as he only looks away escaping her eyes which made Ariella sigh then chuckles at his childish antics that made her remember that he, including her, they're still children. They were expected to act childish, naïve, troublemaker, and innocent in some way, that's the life of children no matter what happened, children will always be children. Ariella stands up after packing her things then she drags Simon towards the castle excitedly as Simon couldn't help but leave his things behind untidy.

"Oh, come on, Ariella! I haven't fixed my things yet."

"You're such a slowpoke, fix it later after we play and besides, we only have at least ten minutes."

"Argh! If only I know from the start you are like this, I wouldn't have tried to befriend you, Amazon girl!"

"What did you call me, slowpoke?!"

"I called you Amazon Girl, Amazon Girl!"

"Grr… you'll regret calling me that, Numpty!"

Simon stopped hearing a word that is so unfamiliar in his ear, he has studied and upgraded his vocabulary words, but this is his first time hearing such words. Simon is lost trying to recall if he heard that word somewhere as he just stared at the fuming girl in front of him with a blank face.

"Are you an idiot and illiterate? What is Numpty!? That's not even a word in the dictionary, illiterate idiot!"

"Numpty means a useless and bumbling idiot, use the internet and google maybe there's still a chance for you to not become a bumbling idiot, Numpty." – Ariella crosses her arms, chin high up and her chest puff out looking arrogantly and proudly at making Simon loss his words, and with a hmphed she turns around making her way towards the huge spiral tube slide going all the way down then climb up through the mountain like an obstacle. Ariella left Simon on his own as she enjoys herself like the way she did in her first childhood days, moments after, Simon didn't say anything insulting towards her. He joined her in playing in the castle laughing and smiling like nothing happened like their insult battle earlier didn't happen.

`Yup, he is still a child… or maybe he is waiting for a chance to attack me when I'm not prepared for it. This is Simon we are talking about; the Simon I know won't let me get away from insulting him of a bumbling idiot. `

She just shrugged off her worries about Simon's planning of revenge on her. Ariella entered her classroom after saying her "see you later" to Simon, who is also entering his classroom right next door, which he returned. Ariella notices that some of her classmates haven't returned and others are writing either their first test or second test. She sat in her seat obediently waiting for her teacher to gives her a second test wanting to finish it, so she can visit his brother and Denise.

`What should I do, if neither brother nor Denise is done yet? Should I contact them about the mission I've assigned them, or should I start locating my two masters? `

Ms. Martha gives Ariella her Science test, the questions are all about basic information about animals and plants like asking what's the types, names, or kinds and so on, so it was easy for her to finished that she forgets to not correctly answer every question right, especially the hard ones. Ariella felt this eerie pit at her stomach like something is telling her that something bad and unfortunate will either happen to her or to her surroundings that involve her comrades and family. She doesn't like this foreboding feeling she's getting at the moment, and so all she can do is to wait and get ready for such a foreboding thing to happen soon.

Ariella finishes the test first again as Ms. Martha praised her for finishing earlier than everyone as she gently pats Ariella's head ruffling her hair slightly which she just smiles softly. Ms. Martha felt proud of Ariella because of her scores on the Mathematics test, in all her years of teaching in this school, she never had a student like Ariella. Her answers are very accurate even the hardest one to do in her age, Martha even needs to go to the teacher's faculty room to seek help for double-checking her test answers. She thought that she may make a mistake somewhere at checking, but she was proven wrong.

And now, after getting Ariella's test paper Martha immediately checked her answers then called for someone to do a double check to see that she is not dreaming. One of her students broke the record in elementary at getting the highest score in the written exam in both Mathematics and Science.

"What would happen if she also got the highest score in the English test?" – Martha murmured under her breathe as she imagines the shocking expression of their principal looking at Ariella's test scores, it will be quite a feast to her eyes to see such scene.

Meanwhile, Ariella is making her way towards Kim's classroom as seeing his still not done on his exam she makes her way towards Denise. Ariella is just skipping her way towards Denise's location with a bright smile on her face getting giddy imagining having lunch together with Denise and Kim like before made her grin wider than ever. Well, until she realizes a mistake, she'd done a while ago in her particular second test. Her shoulders sagged down as her hands made their way to her face stretching it down and screaming mentally.

`NOOOO… I messed up! I so messed up… my school life of not getting much attention, staying low, is done for. My school life will be even more complicated than before. I don't like that! Waaah! What do I do now? `

After a moment of misery and regret, she slowly walks towards Denise not looking up that she bumped into someone then whispering her apology Ariella heard a familiar voice. She looks up slowly making eye contact at the boy she's going to see later, a gentle smile plastered on her pinkish lips and a pair of glittering eyes met the boy's confuse and worry eyes.

"Arie, what's wrong? Did someone bully you? Did you get into a catfight? Tell me and I'll pulverize them for you."

"Den, I messed up my test, I don't want a school life of being a popular nerdy student. No, I don't want a school life like that!" – she cried while hugging Denise tightly as she sobs on his chest.

Denise felt confused at what she was talking about, messing up a test means you'll feel like you've failed it. `So, what does got to do with being a popular nerdy student with messing her test? ` he wants to ask her but seeing her cry and sob woefully made his heartache. Denise guides Ariella on the bench to seat on it as he tries to calm her down and explain clearly to him. He hugs her waist pulling Ariella closer to him as his other hands gently pet her hair all the way to her back caressing her carefully.

"Everything will be fine, you have me at your side always, I promise. That's what friends do right?" – Denise looks down on her smiling gently as he gives her a soft kiss on her forehead that made her blush madly like a strawberry.

"Pinky promise" – Ariella's lips tremble pitifully as her eyes glisten with tears ready to break down, and her pinkish cheeks made her cuter than ever to Denise's eyes

"P-pinky promise." – they sealed the deal as their pinky finger curled up and their thumbs met up in the middle, a grin appeared on Ariella's blushing face that made Denise's heartthrob and butterflies flutter inside his stomach making him frown in confusion.

"Arie, let's eat our lunch here, or do you want to eat at the cafeteria?"

"I'm still waiting for my brother to finish his test, so you two can meet and be friends too, and also I made a new friend earlier at my recess, his name is Simon. He is also a grade two student like us but in a different section, it's right next door of our classroom at the left side."

"Oh, you made friends pretty easily I see, I want to meet your brother and the new friend you made earlier. But I hope that the next friend you made is a girl, okay?"