Down in the school grounds, Callisto was making her way to the cafeteria when she heard someone call her name from behind, a familiar voice.
"Calli!"
"Hm?"
When she turned around, there was Hinata. He looked as though he was brimming with excitement just by seeing Callisto, albeit his labored breathing was undeniable.
Hinata probably ran from the school building he was at earlier just to reach her.
"Hinata," Callisto's feline ears jolted as if they were given life, her expression brightened at his sight. "How's the Brigada Eskwela?"
A soft smile arching the corners of the young man's lips. "We just finished not too long ago. How about you? Is the test going well so far?"
"That," Callisto's sky-blue eyes avoided looking straight at Hinata's as her expression turned gloom, rubbing the back of her head as she continued to speak. "I don't know why, but the principal kinda snapped out of nowhere and stopped me in the middle of the test. He said I should take a breather for the time being, so I'm heading to the cafeteria."
Hinata was perplexed by the young lady's explanation.
The principal snapped out of nowhere? Hinata had not heard of anything like that about Edmond Saranyo before.
Edmond was always known to be a nice and kind person even before he became the principal of Silangan High. Students respected Edmond for his humility.
Knowing Callisto, it was hard for Hinata to believe the girl would do something to make the principal angry and stop the test abruptly.
That was when Hinata remembered the group study sessions he had with Callisto and Elesis, remembered how much of a quick learner she was.
Hinata added some college level materials along the way. While Elesis had a difficult time keeping up, Callisto only took one try to understand the material and immediately grasped it.
It was unprecedented.
"Did you go through a higher level assessment? How long did it take you to finish the first one?"
"Mr. Principal made me go through the tests for grade 11 and 12 after I finished the first one. After that, he made me retake the grade 12 test two more times, but stopped me in the middle of the second retake. Honestly, the retakes felt a little more difficult than when I first took the grade 12 test. As for how long it took me to finish, well, I finished everything under 30 minutes except for the last one."
Hinata's breath hitched in surprise, it was exactly as he was suspecting. Grade 10 alone should take hours, and yet she finished every test given to her under half an hour. And those retakes were definitely not grade 12, they were college level.
That most likely was the reason Edmond snapped. The principal didn't mean to act harshly toward Callisto, he was probably just as shocked as Hinata when he tutored her for the first time.
"That's amazing," said Hinata, maintaining a calm demeanor as Callisto resumed walking and he followed suit. "At this rate, there's a possibility you can even go past me and land on grade 12 this year."
"It would be amazing if it happened," Calli laughed lightheartedly at the thought, the sound making Hinata feel warm in his chest for some reason. "It's like when the student finally surpassed her master after a harsh training and become the best."
Hinata couldn't help but laugh at the young lady's words, asking her if that sentence came from an anime she was watching.
As the two of them approached the cafeteria, enjoying spending time together, Callisto and Hinata were stopped in their tracks by a group of girls. One of them standing out with her blonde dyed hair as she stood in the center like a leader.
"It's been a while, Hina," the blonde lady spoke with a familiarity toward Hinata, her eyes seem to register only his presence. "I've been sending you messages for a while, but you seem busy. How was your vacation?"
Hinata smiled, but it seemed forced more than anything. "Hello, Mina. I had a great vacation. I'm sorry for not responding to your messages, I was busy even during vacation like you said."
One of the girls stepped forward and excitedly offered Hinata to come with them and have dinner together. And like the girl called Mina, she seemed to not acknowledge Callisto's presence at all either.
Callisto realized it and thought it was probably because the girls did not know her in the first place. She was a total stranger to them.
Callisto wanted to believe that was the case.
"More importantly, I wanna go check out the cafeteria right now," Callisto thought to herself, trying to look past the girls blocking her and Hinata's path. "I wonder if they're selling Moo Moo Choco Milk in there?"
Meanwhile, Hinata was digging deep into his mind to find the right way to reject the offer without hurting them.
"A dinner, huh. I guess we can do that at a later date so we can go with the others."
The girls were stunned by the young man's reply just before he turned to Callisto.
"Let's go, Calli."
"Yeah."
Hinata thought his answer was enough. He thought the girls would leave them be after that. But the girl with blonde hair did not want to let go of them just yet.
"Calli," Mina stood in front of them once again, preventing the two from leaving. "Is she your friend, Hina? I've never seen her around before."
For the first time, her gaze shifted from the young man to Callisto. Callisto could feel Mina eyeing her from head to toe, as if she was being appraised by her.
Hinata, having been blocked off his and Callisto's way out of the scene by Mina, felt forced to answer the question.
Although...
"Her name is Callisto Mandjet. She's my friend and co-worker in my part-time job. Until recently, she was bedridden because of an illness. But it's okay now."
Having to introduce Callisto as his friend to someone, the boy could not help but feel proud about it.
"Is that so. You should have introduced me to her sooner."
Mina's gaze never left Callisto ever since she repeated her nickname. But Callisto could feel that something was off with the way Mina was looking at her just now.
"I am Callisto Mandjet," Calli stood beside Hinata, offering Mina a handshake. "Nice to meet you."
Mina gladly accepted the offer, beaming a wide smile at the young lady in response. "I am Mina Minana. Nice to meet you, too."
Perhaps it was intuition or a feline's instinct. Hell, maybe it was both. But despite Mina's friendly demeanor and bright smile, Callisto could not help but be wary of her.