Getting paid

The train depot was full of dressed-up students, all ready to celebrate their return to the academy. Most of the students were foreign to me, meaning they were probably my seniors. Thanks to this, no one appeared to recognize me either.

Currently waiting for Sarah, I had also changed clothes. From my uniform to another uniform. The uniform and my training wear were all I had, after all. It was by no means a trashy appearance, the uniform was quite stylish with its black base and golden patterns, but it wasn't suited for a night out.

All other male students seemed to wear either a shirt with some khakis or fancy shorts. This, coupled with the fact that most of them had well-built bodies and adequate height, almost made my complex come back.

Watching these older students made me wonder just how strong they were. I knew for a fact that my class was exceptional, but how far would these normal students be able to go?

Were they 3, 4, or maybe even 5-stars? I had no idea, which made me feel quite content that they didn't seem to care about me all that much.

The worst outcome would be if Troy somehow managed to get sophomores, or maybe even seniors, on his crusade against the tiny devil.

Although students of different years couldn't challenge each other, it didn't mean that they couldn't act using other means, like Troy had wanted to do earlier today. Hopefully, my title as the principal's disciple could serve as a shield if the situation arose.

"Hey, what are you thinking about?"

Having been lost in thought, I didn't notice that my friend had already arrived, now leaning forward, our faces but a couple of inches apart. It also made quite a bit of cleavage visible.

"Hey, Lindsey. Not much, just thinking about stupid stuff."

Her approach hadn't been enough to surprise me though. After the sleepover incident, it took a lot more to freak me out. She straightened her back, creating some well-needed distance between us, letting me see her outfit for the night.

A black, tight top and white shorts, with the only accessory being a small, black handbag that didn't seem to be from any prestigious fashion designer. It was just enough. I actually preferred these kinds of outfits that weren't all too glamorous or spruced up.

'Misa would probably look good in those clothes...'

Thinking about it, me and Misa had barely gone out together. Sometimes we would go to a café, on rare occasions a bar or a restaurant, but these times were scarce.

We had spent most of our time under the sheets.

'I need to do more stuff with Misa...'

Unfortunately, there was the issue of money, something I didn't even think about when I accepted Lindsey's proposal to go out. I didn't even know if my teacher had deposited any money after the bet.

'Shit! I have to check my account.'

When I checked the account, I got speechless.

[Current Balance: 501.260 crowns]

"What the fuck?!"

I couldn't stop myself from cursing out loud, making Lindsey flinch, "Miren, what's wrong?"

Trying to play it a bit cool, I just waved my hand, "It's nothing, I just got a surprising text.", to which she just shrugged and let it go.

Checking my balance once more, it truly was an exorbitant amount of money, at least for a poor student like me. This wasn't what I expected when I won the bet against Mike. My expectations had been maybe 20-30 thousand crowns, but I had gotten 500 grand, which was insane in my eyes.

It was hard to keep my excitement down, but somehow I managed to do so, not losing face in front of Lindsey.

'Guess I don't have to worry about money tonight!'

With that last thought, we boarded the train that just arrived and after just a couple of minutes, we arrived in the city center.

Walking at the side of my beautiful friend, I could feel the stares coming from people on the street. If not for the fact that I was wearing a Kirkegaard uniform, they would most likely assume us to be a pair of siblings, with me being the younger brother.

"So where did you want to go?"

We still hadn't cemented our destination, all she had said was that she wanted to out to a club.

Her brows furrowed a bit, pondering which club she wanted to go to, "I want to go to "The Dungeon". That club seems to be one of the most popular ones."

My face hardened a bit. It was the same place I had gone out to with James, Sarah, and Brad. A tinge of anxiety started to well up inside of me, thinking about the fact that this friendship might end the same way.

'It's not the same... I can't judge everyone based on how other people acted in the past...'

Different people made different choices, and Lindsey had chosen to be my friend even with knowing my, what other people would call, sociopathic tendencies.

Forcing myself to smile a bit, now wanting to disappoint her, I just went along with her suggestion, "Sure, let's go there."

It was still mind-boggling to me that Lindsey, the ice queen, would want to go to a club. I couldn't picture her taking to the dance floor, rocking a young man's dreams, but she had already been full of surprises so far.

It didn't take long for us to reach our destination, walking through the neon lights of the city streets, and music could be heard even as we took our place in the long queue.

Even if the time was only about ten to nine, it appeared to already be packed to the brink.

'I should have had a drink before coming here...'

Being sober in the middle of a bunch of mellow, and slightly drunk, youths who were out to party was torture.

Looking up to my side, I could see that Lindsey probably had similar thoughts, but we pushed through.

After half an hour, it was finally our turn.

A man who resembled Mike a lot, due to his large build and suit, was blocking the entrance, waiting for the guests to show their IDs.

When he saw us, his face darkened a lot, "Do you think this is funny? You can't bring a fucking kid to a club!"

Either he didn't see my uniform or maybe he thought it was just an interesting strategy of a minor trying to sneak in, but he appeared to be adamant in his judgment.

"Haaa, here. Look at this."

Showing my ID, his angry face quickly turned pale, "You are Miren Porter?! The principal's disciple?!"

'Seems like the word spread quite fast.'

It didn't take long for him to let us in, not wanting to have been the person to step on the toes of someone that prominent.

As we were walking through the crowd, trying to find a table to sit at, I could feel a headache coming. The walk was enriched by constantly getting bumped into soft and hard chests, with the occasional person being tall enough for me to get hit by a butt.

"There is a table over there", Lindsey said while taking my hand and urging me to follow her.

As we sat down, the loud music ringing in our ears, we both felt like we made a mistake coming here. But it appeared that my friend wanted to at least try to see the charm of it, "I'm getting some drinks, what do you want?"

Not thinking much about it, I just asked her to get what I liked the most; a big old glass of whiskey.

As she walked away, I tried emptying my mind, not thinking about the horrible environment I was in.

Loud music, flashing lights and drunk people getting turned down by other people when they tried their shot at love or at least one nightly adventure.

Then suddenly I saw a crowd open up, creating some sort of makeshift circle right beside the bar.

My heart sank a bit, thinking about Lindsey who had just gone over there to get something to numb the pain.

'No, she is too reasonable for something to happen.'

Contrary to my mind which tried to assure me it was all good, my body had already made its way through the crowd to see what was happening.

In the middle of the circle were two people. One who looked like a typical douchebag. Wearing an opened Hawaiian shirt and sunglasses, accompanied by spiky, beach blonde hair, he was the epitome of my preconception of an asshole.

The other person was, of course, the beautiful Lindsey who now radiated a wave of ice-cold pressure around her, looking extremely pissed off.

Although my head had already constructed a lot of plausible contexts for what was happening, it still only left me with one thought.

'Oh, for fuck's sake...'