Akira's POV

Respect is very hard to earn. People do a lot to earn it. Great things, unthinkable things.

So does throwing up on my bonsai after too much drinking count among them?

What about snoring off on my couch after getting kicked out of home?

Flirting with my aunt?

Giving high blood pressure to my grandfather?

because if so, then I hold great respect for the man sitting in the front of the room reading, what I'm assuming, is a very cheap romance novel given by the half-naked woman on its cover.

Inayat Baig, my father's most prized protégé, was on detention duty today. And I'm truly astounded at his ability to look like he's having the time of his life when we were slaving away.

He was making us label urine samples of magical creatures for pharmacy class.

They smelled awful!

Eboni looked ready to throw up any moment.

Naeem was trying to throw an open bottle at Louis.

"What are you doing, you snake?" Louis's shout did little to disturb Inayat out of his diligent reading.

"That was for ruining my hair this morning." As usual Naeem's reasons were stupid.

"I saved you from getting nicknamed "Sir Oilington" again!"

Oh god, that nickname again. Slicked back hair suites a lot of people but definitely not Naeem. He looked like a wet weasel.

"You still messed up two hours of my hard work. So you deserve some kelpie pee"

"You're so petty."

"Damn right I'm pretty"

"I said petty, slimy snake."

Great, now they were arguing again.

Lord give me patience or a sharp dagger, whichever you prefer.

I'm never getting detention again.

"Stop fighting you two! If those two substance mix, there will be sleeping vapour in this room, You two know that, right?" Kishar tried to stop the fighting.

"Of course, we knew that. Any idiot would know that," Louis said trying to get the jars away from each other.

"I knew that," Naeem added.

"My point exactly."

"Hey, what's going on over there?" Inayat's loud voice broke their argument.

"Nothing, sir," Eboni answered before Naeem can make the situation any worse with a stupid remark.

Eboni looked close to crying now.

Her perfectly carved plan for the next five years was going down the drains. With the stain of detention on her first day, how was she gonna become the dorm representative?

So before leaving detention, I went up to Inayat with some personal agenda.

"Hey, Captain Characterless, may I have a word with you?"

"Is this how you speak to your teacher, Mister Ryuuzaki?" he replied with a fake gasp.

So dramatic.

"So what will you take to not inform father and erase this from Eboni's records? Don't even lie, I know for a fact you report everything back to him."

He was father's ears and eyes here in the academy.

Inayat faked a shocked look. This time with the added after-effect of fake tears.

But his face soon morphed into a playful one. "Are you trying to bribe me, my little light? You know I don't lie to Master."

"Yes, I know but It's not lying. Just omitting some information. I'll tell you who is it that the female dorm head fancies."

His face looked dumbstruck for a moment but he schooled it pretty quickly.

"Why do you think I would care for that information, little light?" he was gritting his teeth now.

Got you.

"Hmm, remember when you used to come to my house while drunk? let's just say drunk you is so much more interesting than sober you " I added a cheeky smile just in case.

He didn't say anything actually. Anyone with half a brain can just deduced this from his behavior around Miss Dayuu.

He glared at me for a moment and "Fine but after you hand me the information"

Yess!

"Guess what? Guess what? Guess what?" Eboni's loud screeching reached my ears before she did.

"Um, the girl from this morning decided to get Naeem arrested for harassment?" Louis looked a bit too hopeful.

"Hey, Circus freak, watch it," Naeem refuted, in the middle of taking a large bite from his lunch.

"It's called being a Trapeze Artist, Oilington," Gunhild spoke out, looking over her newest toy design.

"Ladies and gentlemen and Naeem, focus. What is it, Eboni?" Kishar looked over at Eboni for an answer.

"I managed to convince the council to open an election. That too next week," she said with excitement dripping from her voice.

What? A dorm representative election? At this time of the year?

My eyes met Amadeus's.

"Are you sure, Ebi? At this time of the year? I thought they are held at the end of the school year." he asked carefully, any wrong words can rile up Ebi.

"Of course, I'm sure. I showed them my folders for all the new ideas and improvements. They believe I can win."

Do they now?

Hmm, then why do I feel like there's more to it than just them being blown away by Eboni's world-class folder-making skill? 

I had some suspicions. 

As I was thinking about Eboni's situation, I saw Sol's might fading on the horizon. Afternoon light cast a soft shade on the path to the library where I'm supposed to be meeting the gremlin clad in yellow abomination.

I still can't believe she chose to wear that ugly yellow sweater again. Does she not have any other clothes?

Why does she always seem to be rotating between those seven or six ugly sweaters?

 My walk  was slowing down in the lazy trance after lunch while I was thinking about the midget's questionable clothing choices..

That's when I heard the sound. Of someone talking.

My heart skipped an unconscious beat at the familiarity of it.

I was right! It was the mustard midget!

Afternoon glow shimmered her face as brightly as the smile she wore while twirling in front of one of the mirrors. Her Artemis laugh, in a moment, turned me into a stag hunted by own amusement. I didn't realize just when I had absorbed the glorious sound and mimicked it with my own as if I was Echo and she was my Narcissus.

For a second, I felt quite foolish for ever associating her with death. She looked as alive as the Sun.

In the midst of the twinkling mirrors, she looked like snow white.

Clad in rags but still the fairest of them all. 

GLOSSARY

*Kelpie: A kelpie, or water kelpie, is a shape-shifting horse spirit from Scottish myths that is said to be inhabiting lakes in Scotland.

*Artemis: She is the goddess of the hunt, maidenhood, wild animals, the wilderness, the moon and Chastity . The goddess Diana is her Roman  equivalent. She once turned the hunter Actaeon into a stag when he saw her bathing and his own hunting dogs killed him.

*Narcissus: In Greek mythology , Narcissus (; : Νάρκισσος Nárkissos) was a hunter who was known for his beauty. He rejected all romantic advances, eventually falling in love with his own reflection in a pool of water, staring at it for the remainder of his life. After he died, in his place sprouted a flower. The word Narcissism comes from his name.

*Echo: In Greek mythology , Echo (, Ēkhō ) (ēchos), ("sound") was a nymph who resided on Mount Cithaeron. Zeus loved consorting with beautiful and often visited them on Earth. Eventually, Zeus's wife, , became suspicious, and came from in an attempt to catch Zeus with the nymphs. Echo, by trying to protect Zeus (as he had ordered her to do), endured Hera's wrath, and Hera made her only able to speak the last words spoken to her. So when Echo met and fell in love with Narcissus, she was unable to tell him how she felt and was forced to watch him as he fell in love with himself.

*Snow White: "Snow White" is a 19th-century German fairytale that is today known widely across the Western world. She was said to be the fairest of them all in the step-mother's magic mirror.

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