One of the things Quinn feared was Erin. Namely, he feared how she would react upon seeing Peter. Quinn knew Erin, and the threat she made towards the system AI earlier that day did NOT help towards his fears.
Erin had noticed Peter enter the room, and she quickly stood up from her seat. Immediately, Quinn began hurrying Peter towards their usual spot in the back.
Before Erin could do anything drastic, Del came into class.
"Good morning everyone!" He cheered, "I want us all in our seats because I have great news!"
Erin slowly sat back down in her chair, quietly brewing in her anger. Quinn was glad to have been saved by Del arriving.
"I'm sure some of you might be aware, but know that everything is back to normal again! I am proud to announce that your first portal outing date has been confirmed, and will be moved to a few days from now. So please prepare yourself as best as you can. Oh! And now's the best time to buy some beast gear, and practice with your teammates. The same teams that were registered before will be be used for this outing."
"What?!" Erin blurted out, gripping her desk tightly.
Everyone turned to look at her, as she was not quiet at all.
"Oh, do you think one of her teammates pushed her in?"
"No way, I heard it was a second year who did it."
"Really? Then why did she—?"
"Silence!" Dell yelled out before clearing his throat, "That's enough about the rumors. We still have today's lessons to go through."
The rest of the morning class went as usual, however, the entire time Erin wasn't pleased by the fact that she was stuck with a traitor on her team.
—
After the morning classes were done, the students began to disperse to prepare for the green portal expedition.
Erin pretended to have grabbed something from under her desk, but instead used her shadow storage skill to take out a level 3 earth ability book. She then went to the back of the class where Quinn, Peter, and Fex were sitting at.
"Quinn, I got you this book from the red portal planet. This is something just for you, so don't go sharing it with anyone," Erin said, loud enough for Peter to hear.
Quinn was about to grab it when he glanced over to Peter on his side. He looked away in shame, his longish black hair covering his eyes.
"Just take it," Peter whispered.
Quinn hesitantly grabbed the book, and awkwardly thanked Erin.
—
After their morning classes, the students headed over to their respective combat lessons. Peter went to the elemental classes, Quinn, Erin, Fex, and Layla to the beast weapons classes.
The four of them had paired up, and trained in a corner of the dojo. This was to be expected with their lessons so far as it was what they had been doing for a while now.
"I can't believe you're still defending him," Layla said as she began stringing her bow, "I wish we could just switch him with someone else."
Quinn glared at her, "If we switched him with someone else, then he's going to get bullied again."
"I'd say he would deserve it," Erin muttered.
"Well— That's not what I meant!" Layla quickly explained, "I'm just trying to look at it from a practical standpoint. I hate to say it, but even if he did have his reasons, he was manipulated into it. He would just be a liability to this team."
"She has a point, Quinn," Erin butted in, "I would've shoved something sharp and painful right up his body by now. He would've been stuck here, hospitalized, and we went without him."
"Er… maybe we shouldn't go that far. I just wanted to move him to a different team so we didn't have to deal with him," Layla muttered, "But still, what reason was there for him to try to kill you?"
Erin gave Quinn an intense look, "He was about to shove you in, Quinn, to kill you. That portal was a death trap, and if it weren't for me moving you out of the way, you would've died. There was no way you could've survived that planet. He doesn't deserve sympathy."
Quinn glanced over to Fex, who was leaning against the wall, arms crossed. When he noticed the curly haired boy staring at him, Fex got up and walked over to grab some daggers on a bench he had picked out earlier.
"Why would do we even care about what someone like him thinks?" Fex shrugged, "Let's just train, and get on with our day."
Quinn winced. He couldn't help but feel that they had a point. It would've been hard to forgive anyone who tried to push you into a death trap, and even though he knew that Peter was tortured into doing it, would Quinn even allow himself to get pushed to that point?
He would almost say no. Quinn wouldn't forgive himself if he prioritized his own life over someone else's, but there was something nagging at him, and it was something Peter had said.
That something being the name of Emily.
—
Peter meanwhile, was in his elemental class, alone.
Just when he had made some friends, he had to go and ruin it by betraying them. Even though Erin wasn't his friend, Fex was, and he was the one to get his hands dirty fixing his mistake. Despite Peter almost pushing Quinn in, he was the most understanding of his circumstance.
But Peter thought he didn't deserve it.
Last night, when Fex returned from the red portal planet, covered in dirt, grime, and exhausted. He had given him a dirty look, and told him, "You're lucky we came back alive."
It made Peter realize that he didn't deserve to be forgiven. What right did Peter have to give in to his torturer's commands, and execute them?
He wasn't paying much attention in the class, just barely going through the motions. The teacher was talking something to do with manipulating your ability into defensive form, but as Peter was moving over to where the mud was stored, he had accidentally bumped into a student there.
The boy who he bumped into had longish curly blonde hair. He was a level 4, and Peter immediately regretted it.
"Watch it, idiot," The boy said as he shoved Peter aside, making him stumble. That was when he noticed Peter's ability number on his watch.
"Say, how about you spar with me today, and consider that payment towards your carelessness," the boy nodded towards Peter's watch. He had seen this gesture before to know he wasn't going to keep his 10 credit allowance that day.
Peter didn't fight back. It was what he deserved for hurting his friend, and Quinn didn't understand that. How could he have just slept in the same room with someone who had to fix his mistakes? With someone he tried to kill?
He nodded, and he was yanked off of the ground. Peter didn't have any mud, and was stuck trying to defend himself with just his arms.
The boy knelt down, and placed his hands on the ground, causing two pillars to form next to Peter. Immediately, those pillars shot out repeatedly hitting his body. Peter was barely blocking them, only for the pillars to crash into him, breaking apart into rubble.
Petter didn't have enough time to climb out of the rubble as they started flying in the air, and were thrown at him. He was pelted by the rocks, and had one hit him in the nose, causing him to stumble back as his glasses fell off his face.
"Jonas! Stop this instant!" The elemental teacher yelled out, preparing a water whip around her arm.
Jonas, the boy who was sparing with Peter, groaned since he was caught training a little too hard with his partner.
Jonas groaned before whispering to Peter, "Great, couldn't you have fought back a little? Now she's going to get on my case for your sorry ass. Looks like you'll need to pay me another way after all."
Peter felt something wet drip from his nose, and he touched it only to see that the liquid was red.
"Peter, head to the nurse's. As for you Jonas, I'll need to explain to you again why you can't hurt fellow students like that."
Jonas scoffed, putting his hands in his pockets, "As if, do you think if I was fighting a dalki, I'd want to hold back?"
"Does he look like a da—?!" The teacher grew frustrated, and a visible vein bulged on her forehead, but she took in a deep breath and whispered to herself, "Get it together, Merah, yelling at them is only going to make things worse…"
Peter choked back a sob, before getting off of the floor, holding his arm. The pain all over his body burned, and he theorized that he might've fractured his bones. Either way, he limped out of the classroom, and to the nurse's office.