Wings of Fire as Humans: Jade Preparatory Academy

Chapter Thirty-Two: Tsunami Hurricane

A/N: NaNoWriMo started on Wednesday! Yay! (NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, which is November. They have this challenge where you write fifty thousand words in a month.) I'm doing it, so I'll be off Wattpad for the month to focus on that. My books will still update, though. 

So I have a question. Do Winter's parents (in the real books, not fanfictions) count as having emotionally abused him? They definitely affected his self-esteem. It could be kind of iffy, but I don't know what emotional abuse looks like. Do you guys think that counts?

"Hurry up, you turtles," Tsunami snapped.

"Since when do you care about being late?" Deathbringer asked.

"I don't. But I care about not having to listen to Starflight's lecture when he finds out we were late." Tsunami stomped off toward their third class, science with Mangrove Bandicoot. 

"That's fair," Peril admitted. "Starflight's lectures are annoying."

"We're in F, what does he expect?" Swordtail grumbled.

"We're already late," Tsunami called over her shoulder. Moons, her friends were so slow. 

"We are?" Peril asked. "Who here has a watch?" 

"No one," Swordtail replied. "Tsunami's making things up." 

"No I'm not!" Tsunami hollered, even though she had indeed lied in order to get her friends to hurry up. 

"Everyone else in our class went ahead," Peril noted. "Maybe we are actually late." 

"She's right," Tsunami called. "We are!" 

Deathbringer snorted. "That's just because Fierceteeth and Strongwings wanted to get away from us. Rattlesnake went with them." 

"We have Liana, Jambu, and Coconut in our class too though, right?" Swordtail asked. "Like last year? Where'd they go?" 

"Ahead of us," Peril replied. "They practically dashed out the door. Probably because science is their favorite class. It's all the Uas' favorite class." 

"As long as Mangrove is teaching it," Deathbringer reminded her. "Glory hates science, but I bet she'd like it better if Mangrove were teaching it instead of Mastermind." 

"Are you guys coming or not?" Tsunami demanded. She was still a few classrooms ahead of them. It wasn't that she really cared about the subject, but she really didn't want to be late to the first science class of the year. Or late to any of her classes that day. After the first day, she could be late as much as her friends wanted. 

"We're coming," Peril grumbled. "But if you don't want to be late that badly, you can go ahead. We'll probably take a while." 

"We will," Deathbringer added. "There's no probably. I want to miss as much of this class as I can."

Tsunami rolled her eyes. That was such a Deathbringer thing to say. She really didn't get what Glory saw in him. Her friend was far more school-oriented than Tsunami, so if he annoyed Tsunami, he must drive Glory absolutely nuts. "Fine, then. See you in . . . hopefully a really long time from now." She dashed off down the hall, hurrying around the next corner and stopping in front of her classroom.

Tsunami pulled open the door and immediately glanced at the clock. She wasn't late. Good. But she was almost late, so her friends would be in trouble if they didn't start running. She sat at her desk, then pulled out her phone and texted their group chat. It took her a bit to find it. She had the phone numbers of everyone in her friend group, plus all of her siblings, and multiple group chats with various combinations of her friends. The one she was looking for was labeled 10F Group Chat. Usually, they only used it when they needed to tell something to only their class. Otherwise, they used the main group chats. 

You've got one minute, guys, she typed. You'd better hurry. 

A minute later, she got a response from Peril. We're coming, we're coming. 

When the clock turned to 10:30, Peril, Swordtail, and Deathbringer still had not arrived. 

"All right," Mangrove said. "I assume Miss Cinder, Mr. Dusk, and Mr. Moonslayer are on their way, so let's get started." He paced the front of the room. Tsunami noticed with amusement how Liana's eyes tracked him from one end of the room to the other. "I believe you all had me last year for this subject, correct?" No one corrected him, and so he continued. "Welcome to science." He rattled off a few beginning-of-the-year instructions that Tsunami had heard before. They were basically the same as in all her other classes and from last year. 

"This year we are studying the universe in science," Mangrove said, and at that moment the door opened. Tsunami groaned inwardly. Her friends were nearly fifteen minutes late. It wasn't like they'd missed anything important, but still. 

Mangrove raised an eyebrow when the three of them walked in. "Well, finally."

"Sorry," Deathbringer said in his I'm-a-cocky-jerk voice. "We had to go to the bathroom before class." 

"And it took you fifteen minutes?" 

"What can I say? I'm constipated." 

"Shut up, Deathbringer," Peril ordered. She stalked to her seat next to Tsunami. 

"Really," Swordtail agreed. "TMI." 

Deathbringer smirked. "Whatever." 

Mangrove sighed loudly. "I suppose I'll cut you some slack because it's the first day of school. But next time you're late, and certainly next time you use that kind of cheek, it's detention." 

"So, pick one class to be late to," Peril told him. "Otherwise, you'll end up with seven separate detentions." 

Deathbringer smirked. "I'll do my best." 

"Could I have your attention, Mr. Moonslayer?" Mangrove asked pointedly. 

Deathbringer nodded. "Of course." 

Mangrove took a deep, calming breath and continued his speech. 

By the end of the class, they hadn't done any actual science. Mangrove assured them that that would start immediately the next day, but he didn't give them any homework, which Tsunami was very happy about. She already had a huge workload for that night, and she'd only been to three classes so far.

"You're dismissed to lunch," Mangrove announced. All around her, Tsunami's classmates - especially Fierceteeth and Strongwings - were rushing around packing up their things, looking incredibly relieved. Tsunami moved more slowly. Even though lunch, aside from after school, was her favorite part of the day, she felt no need to rush. There would be plenty of time.