16 A new look

Since it was the first official day most of the classes had been introductions about what they would learn during their time at military school.

Peter and Quinn had done their best to avoid most other students after everything they had been through. Fortunately, luck finally had smiled upon them and nobody had troubled them.

Once classes had finished it was time to go for dinner. Quinn noticed he still had this pang of hunger in his stomach, so he was looking forward to dinner with enthusiasm.

This time, Quinn and Peter both sat on their own at a table in the low-level area. Peter started to look around the room as if he was trying to spot someone.

"I don't see Vorden anywhere. Do you think he's okay?" Peter asked, some worry in his voice.

Quinn's eyes, which had been focused on his meal so far, roamed around the room as well, yet he too was unable to find Vorden at the canteen.

"I wouldn't worry about it too much. I think we both know that he is a lot safer than us at this school," Quinn reminded Peter.

The two continued to eat and once they finished dinner, they decided to head back to their dorm room. To their surprise, Vorden was already in the dorm room, lying on his own bed.

When the two of them closed the door behind them, Vorden lifted his head and smiled at Peter and Quinn like usual, as if the whole episode with him leaving them in the hallway in anger had never happened.

"Hey, I've been waiting for you two for a while now," Vorden said as he got off the bed. "I wanted to apologise for earlier. I wasn't angry at you guys but just at this whole situation."

When Vorden got up from the bed, Quinn noticed a bruise on the side of their friend's face. It was slightly red and a little swollen.

"What happened to your face?" Peter asked.

"Oh, this?" Vorden touched the marking. "I got into a little scuffle of my own, but don't worry I didn't lose. You don't have to worry about me, I'm strong," he flexed his muscles as if to stress his point.

A loud growling noise escaped from Quinn's stomach, shifting the topic. Peter and Vorden immediately looked at Quinn whose face had gone red with embarrassment, before all three boys broke out in laughter.

"Sorry, I guess I'm still hungry after dinner," Quinn explained, his head behind his arms, trying to hide behind them.

"Why don't you grab something from the convenience store, it's not too far away?" Vorden suggested.

Quinn looked at his watch and disappointment replaced embarrassment. Although he would have liked to buy himself a snack, he had no credits after their earlier encounter. Before he could even say anything, Vorden had come over and had tapped his watch against Quinn's.

"Transfer of ten credits successful!" the notification sounded.

"Don't refuse, man. Just take it as my apology and go grab something," Vorden insisted with a smile.

"Thanks."

Quinn left Peter and Vorden on their own and rushed off to the convenience store. It wasn't too far away from military school, just 20 minutes by foot at a normal tempo.

At the front of the school was a huge gate that had two guards standing at the entrance at all times. Only students, teachers, and certain military personnel were allowed on the school grounds.

Anytime a student wanted to leave, they had to show their wristwatch to the guard and the same procedure was followed upon entering.

Once past the gates, Quinn decided to test out how much 10 Stamina points really were. It had already turned dark and the sun was nowhere to be seen. He started to jog at a relatively fast pace to the convenience store.

After running for about five minutes he happily noted that he wasn't out of breath like he usually would be. He decided to run even faster eventually reaching the convenience store in seven minutes.

'Impressive,' Quinn thought. He had run over one kilometer in just under five minutes and he was not out of breath. He realized that his body had changed. He no longer had the weak body he used to have, but the body of an athlete.

Another thing he noticed while running at night, he could see everything very clearly. Even when there were no street lights, it was as if the moon had lightened everything up. A type of night vision of sorts.

[Your hunger grows slightly]

'I know, I know,' annoyed Quinn waved it away. 'I will deal with that in a moment.'

Once Quinn entered the convenience store, he grabbed a few of his favourite snacks. Some late-night ice cream and potato chips. That was when he suddenly spotted Rylee and his friends in the same store just down another aisle. He ducked down quietly and waited for them to finish shopping before deciding on his next course of action.

'Here, I thought I would have to track him down, but it seems like he's come right to me!'

As he waited, he looked around him, only to notice that next to him were a lot of masks. There was one in particular that stood out to him. It was a fully black mask that covered the top half of the face, only leaving the mouth open. Across the mask was a very realistic blood-splatter design.

Quinn waited until he heard Rylee and the others leave the store, then he grabbed the mask and snacks and placed them on the counter.

Ironically, while Quinn had been busy stalking Rylee and his friends, he completely ignored the only other person in the store, Layla.

'What the? We're months away from Halloween, so what is he doing buying a mask like that?" she thought to herself. She decided to continue to follow Quinn and see what he was up to.

"Hey, we're going to shoot some hoops in the park, you want to join?" One of the boys asked Rylee.

"Nah, you know my ability is useless for playing games like that," Rylee replied, "I think I'll just head back and wait by the school gate, see if there are any more suckers I can leach some credits from."

The other two boys looked at each other. They felt guilty, aware that what they were doing was morally wrong. Still, they told themselves that they were merely doing it because they themselves didn't want to get beaten up by a higher power level.

While this might have been true for the two of them, Rylee had started to gain pleasure from bullying those weaker than him.

Rylee started to head back to school and passed through a small park on the way back. The area was completely void of people at this time and had very little lighting. There were also plenty of trees for Quinn to hide behind.

"It's showtime," Quinn hyped himself up as he put on the mask.