Evan's POV:

"Evan! Wake up!" I slowly blink my eyes open to see Addison and RJ over me.

"What time is it?" I yawn and get up.

"It's 5 in the morning. Time for training." RJ said as the two started rolling me off of the couch. I just stood up to save them the trouble of it.

Still sleepy, Addison and RJ had to drag me over to where our new training area was. I looked around, but it didn't look like there was much. It's was just an empty hallway with a drinking fountain on the far wall.

Addison knocked on a specific part on the side wall and placed her hand on a scanner that popped out. The scanner blinked green before scanning the rest of the hallway and blinking green once again. The drinking fountain then subsided and a gate opened to a separate gym.

"Access accepted, welcome Green Spirit, Red Spirit and Black Spirit."

"What's with the names?" I asked.

"RJ's idea. We're known as Team Spirit now." Addison shrugged.

"Hey! I wasn't the one who decided to make it our official names." RJ defended.

"Well, maybe if you didn't convince the others before we discussed the matter, we could have had a better name." Addison shot back.

I got in between the two and pushed them aside to prevent the possibility of a fight.

"Ok guys, just break it up. We're a team now, we can't just be arguing about the most irrelevant things." I tried talking some sense into them. The two looked surprised and then immediately looked sorry.

"Sorry, Evan...." The two apologized. Whoa that was a lot easier than expected.

The two dragged me into the gateway, it closing behind us, the first thing we saw were Luciel and Fabian doing combat in the center over some mattresses.

"You three are late." Silvester stopped us, making us jump.

"Sorry Silv, we had a dispute. Actually if it weren't for Evan we would have-" Addison started.

"Evan has a lot to catch up on. Explaining yourselves is only wasting valuable time." Silvester interrupted. I knew that he was targeting me. But I had a feeling that it was more because of Addison.

"RJ, help him catch up with what's going on. Addison, I need to speak with you for a second." Silvester pulled Addison aside. I glared at him, knowing he was going to cause trouble for me the longer I stayed here.

"Um okay? Well Evan, you didn't miss much. We did have our second battle though. Addison's uncle has a mech that tracks our attacks and we got an interview, don't worry bro, we mentioned you. Plus, we got closer to Luciel now that we know about his.......condition." RJ smiled brightly.

"Condition? Oh! You mean the anxiety thing he has? I figured that out ages ago." Evan proclaimed.

"What?! Why didn't you tell me?!" RJ grabbed Evan by the collar of his turtle neck. Evan just gently pushed them away.

"RJ, it was obvious that he wanted to keep it to himself. This stuff's in the past, you know about it now. Anyway, we better get to training." Evan sat down to start stretching. RJ watched him in silence for a moment before finally speaking.

"Alright."

_____

"I'm too tired now to go to class." Evan yawned big.

"You'll pull through, be glad we have morning classes." Luciel encouraged Evan.

"What do you mean by that exactly?" Addison asked.

"Well, our school actually has a class schedule where there are morning students and afternoon students. After we have lunch, afternoon students show up." Luciel explained, with Addison nodding understanding.

____

"My muscles are sore! Why does Silvester have to push us so hard?" RJ whined after their training session, putting an ice pack on his right shoulder blade.

"That's what you get for volunteering for target practice! We all warned you." Addison said.

"You could have just gone easy on me." RJ sighed.

"And you could have just used your powers." Addison smirked, walking backwards. Just as soon as she turned around, she bumped into someone. She backed up, quite flustered.

"Oh my goodness! I'm so sorry-Cory?!" She was now even more flustered and quite red. Fabian and RJ chuckled in the background, seeing just how defenseless Addison was in front of Cory.

"Hey Addison! Sorry for startling you." Cory said, unaffected by Addison's expression in the moment.

"It's n-nothing."

"Oh, I've been meaning to ask you something, are you done with the essay yet?"

"Yes. I just finished it up, it's inside my locker right now. Though I have to warn you, I'm not really good at writing essays." Addison admitted.

"That's okay, I'll just take a look at it." Cory said, before walking by the group. The guys and Addison walked ahead, with RJ and Fabian teasing the Vlork for her crush.

Evan didn't follow though and glanced at Cory, who glanced back.

"Cory."

"Evan."

The two stood there in silence until Evan yawned again.

"You look like a zombie right now." Cory stated, noticing the bags under his eyes.

"Obviously," was all Evan said,"What about you? Can't you do your own work?" Evan spoke.

"It's a group project. We're just splitting up the work." Cory spoke in a cold voice, "I'm actually surprised you would even let me get this close to her." He mumbled so only Evan heard.

"......What?"

"I'm going to be honest, I really thought that you had something for her. It wouldn't be surprising, she really is an amazing girl. She's got a perfect smile, cute laugh, twinkling eyes. Plus, she's very strong for her size."

"Yeah...." Evan was caught off guard and found himself looking beyond at Addison, along with Cory, and noticed these things, almost blocking everything else out of view. He shook his head to regain his composure after realizing that he had been staring.

"So, what? Do you have something for her?" Evan challenged.

"You know what? I'm not sure that I see something between us. I mean, we do spark something but it's not in a relationship type of way. But maybe we do? I am just really not sure with her. Right now, she's just a friend. How about you? Do you have something for her?"

"Same as you, she's just a friend."

"Then the guy who gets her will sure be a lucky guy. Well, I got to go, can't be late." Cory walked away to his class.

Evan knew that he could probably never tell Addison about Cory's feelings towards her. The mixed feelings wouldn't blend together well. Plus, she would be heartbroken.

"You can be so dense sometimes." Evan hissed out loud.