Keeping Fantasia: The Third Book of the Fantasia Series

Chapter 57: Everyone Knows Jak

Chapter 57: Everyone Knows Jak

"Master Sergeant Jak Triton..." Ping watched a group of military officers. His gaze settled on one officer in particular. "He's so hot."

Gwen made a tut sound with her tongue. Adjusting on her back, she reached for her foot (which was propped against Ping's shoulder), and continued to stretch without further comment.

That was her way of ending the conversation.

But Ping just couldn't let it go.

"Gwen, look."

Ping pointed her foot at the officers. "Do you see that man-child on Admiral Triton's right? The one with the shaved head and dreamy eyes? That's Jak Triton."

Gwen sighed. Irritably, she sat up and resumed the stretch in sitting.

"Nothing? Nothing?" Ping tugged her pigtail braids. "Gwen you're seriously not going to look? What's the point of having a gay best friend if you're not going to stalk babes with me?"

Gwen stared at her toes, "That's what facebook is for Ping."

"Come on Gwen!" Ping smushed her cheeks. "Just look!"

"Ping!" Gwen scooted away, nearly tripping several classmates that had assembled at the starting line. "Please, not now! I have a race to win."

"You have a race to run." Ping corrected. "Jak Triton set the record for this CFT three years ago when he was fifteen. Odds are, you won't beat it."

Gwen rolled her eyes. Ping was baiting her, but she still refused to look at the dreamy Jak Triton.

Quite honestly, Gwen was too jealous to look. She was well aware of Jak's reputation and like it or not, Ping was right: Jak Triton held the record for this CFT.

CFT was an acronym for Combat Fitness Test. Combat fitness tests ensured that all student military prospects maintained a constant state of physical readiness in the event of war –

Whoa wait! Student military prospects? Combat Fitness? War?

Perhaps an explanation would help.

Long ago, Fantasia fought two battles: The Battle to Take Fantasia and the Battle to Give Fantasia.

Unfortunately, both of these battles occurred out of blue. No one was expecting them, therefore many people died.

 King Arthur decided that would never happen again.

Thusly, he decided to revamp everything. Technology, diplomacy, infrastructure, magic, education, and military training were all upgraded in order to improve Fantasia's emergency preparedness.

Basically Fantasia got the makeover that Edna Mode knew it deserved.

 Now, not every item had been equally addressed. Magic, for instance, remained largely unchanged. Magical people (including Merlin) always seemed to get a little testy when King Arthur pried too deeply.

"Leave it alone Wart!" Merlin had warned. "If magic was meant to be controlled then someone would have invented a remote long ago!"

"I'm not trying to control magic." Arthur had insisted. "I'm just trying to make it more transparent. Magic is too secretive and I think that is dangerous."

Merlin had wanted to smile. But he didn't.

"Well why would you think a stupid thing like that?" he had asked.