Wings of Fire as Humans: Jade Preparatory Academy

Chapter Thirty-Five: Blue Glimmer

A/N: Sorry if the end is a little rush. I was trying to finish this chapter before I had to go to bed. 

Blue Glimmer was not in a particularly good mood. They'd already gotten so much homework from their first four classes, and they still had two more to go. 

This was in contrast to Cricket's mood, which was simply skyrocketing. As Blue looked over at her, she bounced once, smiled nonstop, and skipped down the hall. 

"What on earth are you so happy about?" he asked finally. 

She grinned back at him. "School! I love it." 

He sighed. It wasn't like that was news to him. But . . . she was excited about fifteen pages of math. And that was only the first day! Fifteen pages of math on the first day did not bode well for the rest of the year. 

And that wasn't even including their homework from the rest of their classes. Blue sighed, just thinking about all the work they would have to do that night. There would be almost no work for anything fun. 

But he supposed he should get used to it. He was a Resham, after all. He'd be working his whole life. 

"Come on, slowpokes," Cricket called back. She was in such a good mood that she'd skipped around the next hallway. 

"Save your energy," Blue advised. "We have PE next, and you know Kestrel will be mean."

Cricket's face soured. "Oh my moons, she's the worst. Whaddya wanna bet she'll make us run the mile?" 

"Nothing, since I agree with you." Blue fell into step beside her, and they walked in silence for a few moments before Blue said, "We should invite Moon to walk with us."  They both glanced behind them at the shy Noctu girl carrying boatloads of books a few paces behind them, just out of earshot. 

"I wonder why she's so shy," Cricket whispered. "She's barely said two words this whole day." 

That was true. She'd spoken a little in homeroom that morning, and though at Kinkajou's insistence she'd answered a few questions at lunch, she hadn't said a word to Blue or Cricket, even though they had all their classes together. 

"I don't know," Blue whispered. "Once we know her better, we can probably ask." 

"Moon," Cricket called. "Do you want to walk with us?" 

She gave a mumbled response and stared at the floor. 

"Sorry, could you repeat that?" Blue asked, exchanging a glance with Cricket. 

"I'm fine on my own." Blue still had to strain to hear, but at least her words were audible. 

"Okay," Cricket said. "But you can walk with us whenever you want." 

Moon nodded, looking as if the simple motion had sucked all her energy. 

Blue and Cricket turned the corner and headed into their PE classroom. 

"Finally," Kestrel grumbled, earning sympathetic glances from everyone in the room aside from Icicle. "Take a seat." 

They sat. A minute later, Moon entered the room. She took a seat in the only empty chair, one next to Blue. As soon as she was seated, Kestel glared at all of them. 

"We will go outside and run the mile. Four laps around the track. You must come in under twelve minutes and run the entire time. I will know if you walk. After you run the mile, you will do the same workout the football players do. You must complete it without stopping to get credit. At this point, class will end." Kestrel glowered at their shocked faces. "Oh, come on. At least be happy that there's no homework." 

Blue was happy there was no homework. However, doing the footballers' workout? No one in the class played football. They were all going to die. 

Blue's prediction came correct: they all very nearly died. 

Running the mile was fine - they'd all done that in Middle School too. But the workout? 

"50 pushups!" Kestrel yelled. "No water breaks!" 

Blue was ninety-nine percent sure that the football players got water when they did their workout. This was supremely unfair. 

But the real problem was when Moon collapsed of exhaustion. 

She'd been the last to come in after the mile and hadn't even passed it. Then she tried to do Kestrel's fifty pushups and literally fell to the ground. 

And Kestrel didn't even do a thing. 

"Get help, you imbecile!" Cricket yelled, her voice an octave higher than usual. "She's unconscious! Call a doctor!" 

The teacher merely shrugged. "Her fault. She should've been exercising before this." 

Cricket and Blue looked at each other. "Fine," Cricket said angrily, speaking for both of them. "We're taking her to the doctor." 

"And fail PE!" Kestrel called after them. 

Cricket and Blue ignored her. They picked up Moon with a lot of shifting positions and almost dropping her, until a Foglia named Hazel came over and helped them. Icicle gave them a rather contemptuous glance, which Blue smirked at. 

They took her to the nurse's and left her there. Blue wanted to stay - and Cricket insisted on staying with him - until the nurse kicked them out. (Though she let them stay long enough to get out of the rest of PE). 

Blue and Cricket left the nurse's, and Cricket seemed to be jumpy on their way to history. He thought it was just because of what had happened to Moon, but then he realized . . . 

History was the class taught by her grandmother, Cadelle Termite. 

And Cadelle hated Cricket.