Wings of Fire as Humans: Jade Preparatory Academy

Chapter Thirty-Three: Clay Landslide

Lunch was Clay's favorite part of the day. 

There was for a very simple reason for this: Clay liked to eat. A lot. 

He wasn't a glutton for food or anything like that, but he did get hungry often. And by the time lunch rolled around, he was usually starving. 

That was definitely the case today. Clay raced out of his last class, Language Arts with his aunt, Asha Landslide, and hurried through the halls of Jade Preparatory Academy at top speed. Riptide and Fatespeaker had to run to keep up. 

Clay burst into his dorm room, panting. He'd speedwalked the whole way, and he wasn't in the best shape.

"Someone was hungry," Glory remarked dryly from the couch. She had a piece of pizza on her lap and was eating it lazily. Two boxes of the same pizza lay on the table. 

"We were lazy today," Tsunami told Clay. "Tomorrow we might get something fancier." 

"Pizza's fine!" Clay said enthusiastically. He grabbed a plate and piled three pieces of pizza on it. 

"You're not allowed to eat it all," Peril said grumpily, stomping out from the girls' room, Sunny and Luna trailing her. 

"This isn't all of it," Clay protested. "You still have, like, two whole boxes." 

"More like one whole box," Starflight pointed out. He was doing homework at the table. "There are - "

"Okay, okay, we don't need the whole mathematical breakdown," Clay grumbled. He took his plate of pizza and joined Glory, Tsunami, Sunny, Deathbringer, Luna, Swordtail and Riptide on the couch. Peril grabbed her own pizza and sat next to him, and Fatespeaker joined Starflight at the table. 

Starflight sighed exasperatedly. "You all should really be studying right now," he told them. "We've already gotten so much homework." 

"We'll have plenty of time later," Glory said breezily. "Lunch is supposed to be a break." 

Starflight rolled his eyes and went back to his work. 

The group traded stories about annoying teachers and annoying classmates while they ate. "Oh, my moons," Luna said. "We have Snowfall in our class." 

"Snowfall Frostcurrent?" Sunny asked, surprised. "Winter's cousin." 

Glory nodded. "We had her last year too. I shouldn't be surprised, but argh. I'd hoped she'd get B this year or something. I should've known better, based on what I know about her." 

"You've got fifteen minutes before class starts," Starflight warned. He finished his pizza and threw his plate away. "I'm going to class." He gathered up his things. 

"Did you finish your homework?" Tsunami asked snidely. 

"I finished all the math," he answered, not looking the least bit slighted. "I'm going to stop by and turn it in before class." 

Tsunami and Glory exchanged their signature, "Is Starflight going insane?" glance. He caught them looking at each other and rolled his eyes. Sunny laughed. Clay continued to eat. 

"Good-bye," Starflight said, exiting the room. "You'd better not be late." 

"We won't be," Tsunami assured him, probably untruthfully. Clay was certain she would at least try not to be late, but succeeding was a whole other story. 

The group trickled out of the dorm in groups of one, two, or three. Clay finished eating first, but he stayed and talked until they were really pushing it on time. Now it was only Tsunami, Peril, Deathbringer, and Swordtail left. 

"See you guys later," Clay said, getting up from the couch. 

"I'll come with you," Peril said quickly. Clay saw Tsunami, Deathbringer, and Swordtail exchange a look that confused him. 

Clay and Peril headed down the stairs to the classroom level. Peril seemed nervous and jittery, and Clay didn't know why. "Are all your classes going well so far?" he asked. 

She jumped. "Oh, um, yeah," she replied. "They're fine." A brief flash of annoyance passed across their face, confusing Clay even more. 

"Well, bye," Clay said a few minutes later when she reached her next class. He still had a few doors to go. 

"Bye," Peril said grumpily, stomping into the room. Clay headed to his next class, math. He sighed. His least favorite subject. 

But the math didn't worry him nearly as much as whatever was bothering Peril.