I blinked. Twice.
Quintiel looked at me, puzzled. The surprise on his face surpassed mine.
"Is it just me. Or do you look familiar?"
I slipped my hand off his grip and looked away.
"Woah! This sounds like LoudeRealm."
I turned to see my novel on his hands.
"Hey! Learn to ask for permission first."
Wait.
LoudeRealm?!.
The guest speaker mentioned that in my dream.
"'Beautiful Beams until Dark Storm?!' That's what you named your novel?!" Quintiel laughed hard at me. I was flustered that he acknowledged my work. I mean..No one else does.
"That draft has been rejected for like five times now." I sighed.
"I didn't mean to spell it out like that. It's great. Only a little tweak to the title and it's fine."
We both laughed. He kept giving nasty complements and pointing areas that needed fixing.
But behind the smiles I let out, a strange theory kept cycling in my mind.
~My dream wasn't a dream.
~Quintiel has something else going up there and..
~Possibly, if not positive, I really attended that Magical Academy's entrance exam.
I wasn't really listening to everything Quintiel was saying but when he said,
"You should improve the pacing a bit; Londrealm attacked our Kingdom immediately after the truce was signed Not before years after it--
;-;I want to ask though, you're a Chibit.. right?"
"What's a Chibit?"
This time I asked him for sure.
"That's the only explanation. Tell me." His voice grew darker. "You're a Chibit aren't you?!"
"Answer me... O -sam!"
I gasped and raised my head up. Breathing heavily. My face was covered in sweat and my heart was beating.. Fast.
"Nirit Zarin!" My teacher called out and all my classmates' attention was drawn towards me.
"You seem to be enjoying your sleep more than my class."
-"Yuck! She's drooling again.
- "Am I the only one or was she snoring So loudly?"
-"Such a weirdo."
"Principal's office, Zarin." Ms Anne said to me.
I packed my books into my bag. Looking over to my side, no one was there.
Maybe Quintiel was just a pigment of my imagination
My Theory died off instantly.
I was about to leave when..
BAM!
The Classroom door flung open. Ms Anne turned around and rolled her eyes in detest, like She was so was fed-up with this whole teaching Job. I wouldn't blame her though, after all, it isn't worth the pay.
"And What excuse do you have for showing up to school 45 minutes after recess.."
".. Quintiel Evern?"
My head flung up at the mention of that name.
'Quintiel?'
I scanned the class with my eyes. And there he was, at the door. His usual smirk, gold eyes and silver hair. No wings unlike my dream from last night.
For a second, I couldn't move.
This isn't another dream.. is it?
"Whatever story you have, tell it to the Principal."
I walked past my row, trying to recover from the whole situation.
"And Nirit,"
"MS Anne?"
"I can't have him getting lost in school, Escort him to the Principal's office.. You're heading there too."
So much for taking a little nap during boring lessons.
***
We walked down the hallway in silence, our footsteps echoed down the empty halls.
Just as Quintiel and I got closer to the Principal's office, Quintiel suddenly stopped. I turned around to understand what was wrong.
His head was bowed down in dejection.
"Listen, Nirit.." he looked up at me, eyes lacking their usual spark.
"About last time, I'm sorry."
'Last Time?! Excuse me? have we even met??' My mind screamed at him.
But instead, I played along. If this was all real, then I had to act like I was part of it all. I couldn't be caught lagging.
"That Day, I might've sounded a bit.. off. I thought you were someone else..."
"And?.." I made it sound like I was pissed off.
"1 guess I was wrong."
He moved closer, towards me and I stepped backwards.
Whatever this was.. count me out!
But he kept stepping forward.
"Quintiel?" I panicked, noticing I was two inches away from the wall.
Quintiel leaned closer, his gaze piercing onto mine.
My breath stiffened,
Then he smirked.
"The Principal's office is two classrooms back."
He turned around, walking ahead of me.
"You don't seem to remember your way around here. Perhaps that fall from last week took half of your memory." He said over his shoulder.
'What fall?' I wanted to ask him.
But Quintiel was already swinging open the door to the Principal's office.
***