The Beach Ball

Aiden and Alex walked down the halls hand in hand silently, their feet not making a sound.

It was only when they stood before the classroom door that Alex spoke "Aiden, is Gaia mad at us? Will she kick us out of our home like Foxton said she would do?"

Aiden was instantly enraged. That stupid boy, Foxton. How dare he put such thoughts into his innocent little brother's head?! He would make sure to teach him a lesson later…

"No. Don't worry. If anything, she is proud that we stood up for our little sister. Remember, Ava is a bit fragile. We have to take care of her."

Alex nodded quickly, and all traces of tears instantly disappeared. The boy followed every last word his big brother said religiously. He admired Aiden more then anybody in the world. His biggest goal in life is to become as cool as his big brother.

Aiden didn't bother about it anymore and opened the bright red door to their classroom.

When they walked in, everybody in the room except for the teacher looked at them in confusion. The headmaster had probably already informed the young lady of their return, hence her level expression.

"Welcome back Aiden and Alex. Please take your seats. We were just about to start lunch."

Aiden acknowledged her silently and walked to his table where lunch was already waiting for him and Alex followed behind him like a lost puppy.

Taking their seat, they began to eat their lunch. Though the food looked like pizza, it was truly just an expensive type of nutrient pill that did not need to be chewed.

In the year of 2107, most farms, forrest's, ranches and natural landscapes were hard to find. Now everybody lived off of 3-D printed food and could go see forests an sand dunes in VR.

What the children at Celestial Elementary age was considered high quality. Not only was the food healthy, it tasted good and was saturated in lots of mana.

After lunch, the teacher held up a large beach ball.

"Alright kids, today is Friday which means that we start real learning when we come back to school Monday, so we have to make the most of the time we have!

She smiled brightly "on this ball there are lots of questions. Somebody will throw the ball to you and you have to answer whatever question your right hand thumb lands on when you catch it. No cheating, ok! And your have to answer the question. Alright, how about Mathew first?"

The ball flew across the room and words a boy with icy blue hair. Catching it with relative ease, he began reading the question out loud.

"What is your favorite color?"

He confidently replied "blue! Like my hair!" And then threw the ball to another classmate. "Avery!"

"What is your favorite animal?" The boy thought for a moment before replying "I don't know if I should pick a giraffe or a lion."

Avery's mother was a beast-kin with a giraffe bloodline while his father had the bloodline of a lion, hence his indecision. As their child, the boy had a mix of both bloodlines.

He could choose to progress in his giraffe bloodline, his lion lineage, or he could combine them and pursue a hybrid. All there naturally had their advantages and disadvantages, and he was far too young to decide which path to take.

The teacher nodded to the boy, expecting this answer. "That's alright. You are allowed to have two favorite animals. Try throwing the ball to someone else."

"Uhhh.." the boy looked around and then tossed it to an orange haired, red eyed boy at another table. "Foxton, catch!"

When he caught the ball, the little boy smugly began to read the question. "What are you best at?"

He didn't even hesitate. "Everything! I'm the best at everything!"

Now allowing the teacher to say a word, he threw the ball as hard as he could to Aiden, purposely trying to hurt him.

Aiden caught the beach ball and when he did, it made a loud smacking sound.

The power in the throw was significant for a five year old but it made sense. After all, his mother was of the fox line while his father was a pure-blooded bull. His path as a hybrid had been chosen for him long before he was born hence he had already started to circulate his bloodline.

Anywyas, none of this mattered to Aiden. If anything, he found kindergarten to be a waste of his time. He could be doing so many other things right now, but instead he was catching a beach ball and answer stupid questions with a bunch of children!

The only reason why he was here is because he wanted be be able to protect his siblings. Also, Gaia got very angry with him when he mentioned skipping a few grades along with his siblings.

He looked at the question and sighed internally 'Who is your best friend?'

What a stupid question. Why would the teacher put that on the ball? Didn't she know that it could create so many issues between other children?

He looked up at the teacher, and then down at the ball before looking back up at her again. "What is your favorite ice cream flavor?" He paused for a moment. "Mint chocolate chip."

The teacher didn't dare say a word. Getting fired by had recently become a fear of her's after the headmasters call. Arguing over such a thing with this little monster was not worth her job, so she kept quiet.

Aiden threw the ball at a little blonde boy after pointing to him because he didn't know his name.

This continued for a while before the ball was thrown to a certain little girl with pigtail braids and pretty golden eyes.

She caught the ball and stared at it in a daze before turning to her eldest brother with a pleading gaze.

Aiden leaned over and patted her head before announcing "The question said 'what is your favorite food?' Her favorite food is chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting and rainbow sprinkles."

The class nodded, used to it by now. Ava had yet to utter a word in class. Both Aiden and Alex would speak for her whenever she needed it with ease and because she never left her brothers side, there had been no problem this far.

Alex and Aiden were able to convey her thoughts with ought even looking at her or thinking twice.

The connection between the three was so good it almost seemed odd, but the teacher decided to tally it up to the fact that the three were triplets and were always together. They probably understood each other well.