“Let’s get this over with.” Vallin said to himself. Maybe he could try to take a nap after finding the cooking club. The last time he got a proper rest was on his first night in Pandora Hill Academia. He already went one night without rest and had zero plans on going another day without rest.

Tomorrow he had classes and he couldn’t afford sleeping in the middle of class. Before class and after class maybe, but certainly not while the teacher was teaching. That would simply be disrespectful to the teacher, embarrassing to Vallin and give his classmates something to tease him about. Plus he did not want to deal with the consequences of the lack of sleep on his physical and mental abilities. 

Vallin shook his head as he entered the crowded area of the open hall of the main building. He walked between the rows of the club tables, looking around for the cooking club. Music intertwines with the chattering of the other students in the space as music club members start playing guitars. The music didn’t sound bad, so Vallin stopped to listen for a little bit. He left when more students started coming over to the music club table. 

There was another club table he went by that was crowded with students. Vallin couldn’t see the name of the club with all the dark purple uniforms in the way, so he shrugged and kept it moving. 

He noticed the female members of the student council near the chess and book clubs. Well not all of the female members, the clumsy brunette member weren't there with the other two. Katrine and the blonde girl were having a conversation with another girl, who he assumed to be the club leader of either the book or chess club. Vallin was about to leave to continue his search for the cooking club when he remembered the strong resemblance between Katrine and Headmistress Roseburg and the fact the two share a last name. 

“Are you planning on joining the book club to get closer to Katrine too?” A female student appeared beside Vallin with a smile. 

She was the same female student who was standing near Vallin in the crowd and drooling over the student council president. Vallin fought the urge to roll his eyes before replying to the girl.

“No, I have no interest in Katrine or joining the book club.” 

Vallin wasn’t interested in pursuing a romantic relationship especially with a girl he knew nothing about besides her name and position in the student council. He also wasn't interested in joining a club to get closer to a girl who didn’t know he existed. That was just weird and creepy.

“Ha! Less competition for me, but why are you staring over there if you aren’t interested in Katrine’s love or the book club?” The Katrine fangirl asked curiously after fist bumping the air in happiness.

“I was trying to figure out if Katrine was Headmistress Roseburg’s daughter.” Vallin admitted after stepping away to avoid getting hit in the face by the fangirl’s fist. 

“Oh! Well no, Katrine is Headmistress Roseburg’s niece not her daughter!” The fangirl laughed and grinned at Vallin, who couldn’t help but roll his eyes in return. “Katrine is also the oldest sister to Au-” 

“Are you torturing someone with facts about Katrine again?” The fangirl’s friend interrupted with a scowl. 

“Of course not! He asked abou-whaa!” 

“Since you can’t behave yourself, you're gonna come with me to watch the sports club play basketball.” The fangirl’s friend said through clenched teeth as she grabbed her by the ear and started pulling her away.

“Noooooo! I don’t wanna watch the guys! I wanna watch my Katrine!” 

Vallin stood there sweating as he watched the girl drag her friend away. He made a mental note to avoid any members of Katrine’s fanclub unless absolutely necessary and went back to his search of the cooking club. Luckily for him, the cooking club was a few tables down from the chess and book club. 

Unlike some of the club tables Vallin has passed by, the cooking club was not overly crowded. The club leader offered Vallin some food samples that members of the club had cooked or prepared. He wasn’t hungry but he tried two food samples to be polite. The food samples tasted good enough for him to try another two. After Vallin finished eating the samples, he told the club leader he was interested in signing up. The club leader passed him a paper to sign and after signing it, the club leader gave him another paper that held more information about the cooking club. Vallin thanked them, folded the paper, put it in his pocket and left the cooking club table. 

It’s time for a good old nap, he thought, a small smile forming on his lips. Vallin started speeding walking towards the exit while avoiding bumping into the other students when his face met the floor. 

“Ow!” Vallin groaned as he sat up and held his nose.

“Ah my bad kid, looks like my foot slipped there.” A tall yellow haired boy with reddish brown skin, black glasses and dark purple-blueish eyes laughed at him. 

Vallin glared up at the boy, his nose felt like it was on fire. The students nearby had paused in their conversations and activities when he was tripped. Now they returned their attention back to whatever they were doing before. Not wanting to get involved, the other students left Vallin to fend for himself. 

“Jacob, that wasn’t nice.” A shorter pale freckled boy with short brown hair frowned at Jacob.

“Shut up baby face, no one was asking you.” Jacob retorted with a snort and rolled his eyes at the shorter boy.

“Stop calling me baby face!” The freckled boy’s pale face flushed in anger. He took a step towards Jacob with clenched fist and teeth. 

“What are you gonna do about it? You gonna fight me, baby man with your little baby hands?” The blond boy teased the other boy with an amused grin and stood in front of him, towering over the shorter boy.

“That's enough Jacob.” A deep voice interrupted the two boys from behind them causing all three boys to jump. 

Vallin turned his head to find a dark skinned boy with a curly high top fade haircut and light shade of purple eyes standing behind him. The darker boy had black stud earrings in his ears and had both hands in his pant’s pockets. 

“Oh what up Lucas? John and I were just on our wa-” Jacob gave the darker boy a nervous grin and swung an arm around John’s neck,ignoring the glare he received from John.

“Kamari won’t be happy when she finds out that you were busy messing with others and our Johnny boi instead of heading straight to the gym like she asked.” Lucas replied with a deadly smile.“You know your cousin ain’t a fan of waiting.”

Jacob froze for a second in fear before letting go of John and sprinting off in the direction Lucas came from.

“Come on Johnny, we don’t wanna miss Kamari beating his brains in.” Lucas waved over the freckled boy, who quickly joined his side with a happy smile. 

“Oh and sorry about the trouble.” Lucas turned back to Vallin, took out one of his hands from his pockets and offered him a hand.

“Yeah, thanks for the help.” Vallin did not accept the hand, he got up by himself but he still accepted the apology. Even if it wasn’t from his attacker. 

Lucas returned his hand back to his pockets and watched him get up by himself. Once Vallin was standing, Lucas gave a nod in his direction and left with John. Again none of the other students intervened with the situation and pretended to mind their business. 

“There they go again.” A student whispered, glancing over at the retreating back of Lucas and John.

“If it wasn’t for their good grades and families, Kamari and her little gang would have been kicked out by now.” Another student said, also watching the two boys leaving.

“I heard Kamari’s gang has gotten worse since she went missing.”

“Don’t even mention her unless you want to be on their hit list!” The student scolded the other harshly as they both walked away. Vallin had been busy brushing the dust off his uniform but froze after overhearing their conversation. He frowned and thought, since when did Pandora Hill Academia have a missing student?