CHAPTER 9

Early morning, 5 a.m., I woke up. I immediately freshened up and put on my school uniform—my blue above-the-knee skirt and a white polo, paired with a blue ribbon. It's Monday, so it's necessary to wear the complete uniform or else you'll get signed in the anecdotal. And me, as someone who wants to go to Mellowdale with a clean record, I can't bear to have even one single anecdotal.

"Hey! cousin, wanna join me for breakfast?" Jad asked me as we met on our way down stairs. I just nod.

But we did not expect to see someone already sitting their eating. Uncle Greg.

"Good morning! My only son and only niece. Come join me here let's have breakfast" Uncle Greg invite. Jad and I look at each other but ended up agreeing. We sit with him Jad is on the right side of his father and I am sitting across it. 

It's been a while since I last sat here. I always have breakfast and lunch at school, and for dinner, I usually ask the maid to bring it to my room. The moment I sat down, the maids brought an extra plate for me and serve me my breakfast.

"For the first time in a while, Mary, you sat here. How was it?" Uncle Greg said in a sarcastic tone.

"Nothing's changed, Uncle," I simply said.

While we were silently eating, Uncle Greg suddenly brought up the issue about me, asking if I'd already figured out what happened and how to control it and if I am ready to face the higher-ups.

"So Mary, how do you control that magior? No ring? That's impressive yes.. But hopefully, you can explain to them how you manage to have that. And please do much better than that in front of the high-ups, because I, myself, will finish you the moment our ruling clan ends," he said firmly, with a strong stance.

"Dad—" Jad tried to stop him.

"Silent Jad. I must let her know what would happen to her if she can't figure out how to do what she did the last time." I just stayed silent then I breathed heavily before I spoke.

"Don't worry, Uncle. I'll do my very best to figure out how to control it. I won't let my parents down," I said firmly, before standing up. "I lost my appetite sorry. I'll be at the car first, Jad," I added.

I instantly leave that room and entered the service car—this car belongs to me. I inherited it from my parents. Actually, most things in this house are owned by my parents and technically mine. Though the house is my uncle's property, he takes things from our residence—let's just say without my father, my uncle would be nothing. Probably a nobody.

When my father became famous and known, and my father took over the director position of the school, they decided to give Uncle a job as a teacher. He was a teacher at first, but when my parents died, he gained many votes—only because he was related to my parents. He gained the trust of everyone and was voted to be the next School Director. And that continues until today. He's ruled the school for almost seven years now.

I saw Jad walking toward the car. He sat in the passenger seat.

"I apologize on behalf of my father, Mary," he started.

"He's always like that, Jad. Nothing new." He just nodded and asked the driver to drive away. We left the house at 5:53 a.m.

Exactly 25 minutes of driving, including traffic. We immediately saw Micah and Harmony—and this is new: Reina's not late. She's usually late, arriving at school 10 minutes before our first subject ends. Among all of us, Reina is my classmate in every subject.

"Reina, you're not late? Amazing!" I said sarcastically. The others just laughed at us, and Reina jokingly snapped her book at me.

I got a message—and it was from RJ.

RJ: I'm in the school garden under the mango tree.

I just reacted with a heart emoji to his message.

"He's at the school garden, at the back."

We arrived at the meeting place and saw him. We walked over. He was wearing his complete uniform, with the buttons closed all the way up to his neck. And again, his hair was messy—in a way that somehow made him more attractive. Overall, in his looks, anyone could easily guess he's an introvert.

"Hi! Remember me?" I started as we approached him.

"Yeah," he simply said. I looked at Micah, and she looked at me. She might've thought the same—he's cold.

"Well… These are my friends. She's Micah, Reina, and my cousin Jad. And his girlfriend, Harmony," I introduced them one by one.

"Hi RJ! Nice to meet you... again" Micah lively said, RJ acknowledges her by just nodding. At least he wasn't snob.

"Hey. Just RJ. Let's get this started," he said. We all just nodded. Gosh, why is he so cold?

"Cold as ice," Jad whispered to me.

"So you're doing research about Queen Emerald?"

"No, about the magior without the ring—in short, the Core," Micah replied.

"Oh, same thing. I guess this is related to what happened during the show that night?"

"Yes. Actually, I don't know how it happened. I remember nothing from that, and now I have to learn how to control it as soon as possible."

He just nodded as if he fully understood the situation. He took out something from his bag—it was a book.

"This is the Book of Solaria. It contains all the information about how to control that magior. Every spell is in here. I'll let you borrow it for a week in exchange for…"

"For what?"

"You guys… are going to pay for my food for a month."

"You're just like Mary. All you care about is food," Jad said—and it irritated me.

"Shut up, Jad!" I said irritably. "Is that all? Sure."

"Then it's a deal." We shook hands, and I took the book. He reminded me about our project, and I just nodded.

This book is my biggest help. As much as I hate magior and science, I love my parents so much that I'll do everything so their effort and hard work won't go to waste even if it means to learn new things.