“Are you sure, the teachers won’t notice?” Alex asked.

“Yeah, even if they do, it won’t matter much since they would assume we were on sick leave or in the infirmary. Anyways I can get the daily attendance sheet from one of the prefects. But it wouldn’t come to that, I have already told Tom to fill in for us, he’ll just copy our signatures.” Grey explained as he and Alex had walked across the soccer field and into the far corner.

“You seem to have done this quite a lot.” Alex commented. Grey simply smirked as if having a feeling of accomplishment.

There was a small alleyway with only a single person to fit at a time. After passing through it they came across an old shack. Beyond which were high campus walls.

“This is a dead end.”

“Just trust me.” Grey said smiling sheepishly as he opened the door to the shack. At first it seemed plain and old. There was nothing unusual about it. But things aren’t always as they seem on the surface. Grey pulled the mat over on the floor and revealed a hidden door on the floor. Using a small gap on the door to pull it back he opened the door revealing a small passageway.

“Welcome to the secret passageway.” Grey announced as he removed a small torchlight and led the way. Roughly 2-3 minutes later the passageway brought them into the forest.

Grey took a deep breath of the fresh air. “Freedom!” He said as if he had just escaped a prison.

Followingly, they walked on a certain path which led them to the outskirts of a village and out of the forest. Uphill City was rather small and was divided into two portions. One was the village area and the other was the metropolitan area. Alex wanted to go to Hangout Valley.

It was some 10 to 15 minutes, walk before the two reached Hangout Valley. Since it was morning time it wasn’t much bustling but according to Grey that wasn’t the case from evening onwards. The two had put on sweaters to hide their upper school uniform while the green pants weren’t much of a problem.

“So, who’s the mystery relative? Is it really a relative or…” Grey began questioning as he put an arm around Alex’s shoulder. The latter shoved it away.

“There’s no girlfriend, I told you already.”

“Well, figures, I wouldn’t expect someone with your looks to get one. No worries, my friend, stay with me for long enough and by the blessings of Great Grey Stormer, you would have one someday.”

“Hmm… then I wonder how many girlfriends does this “Great Grey” have had, well it’s definitely not Sarah, when she threw that banana at you yesterday and rejected you.” Alex said smirkingly.

*Cough* *Cough*

“Well, things like that happen sometimes- but you…”

As they chatted away, they soon reached Rudolph’s café. Alex checked the time and made sure that it was 10:05, he wasn’t much late. There were very few customers at the moment. Alex glanced at one of the corner seats and found a woman seated alone. As soon as they had arrived, Alex had pulled the zip of his sweater slightly down to reveal the school’s crest to obtain a reaction and he was right, the woman was constantly looking at them.

‘She must be Merissa…’

“So, you’re going further towards the market, right?” Alex asked.

“Yeah, you remember the way back, right? If you don’t I—

“It’s alright I remember it. Come on I’ll introduce you both.” Alex said as he moved towards her.

“Hi, Merissa! Um this is my friend Grey from school, Grey this is Merissa, my far-off cousin.” Alex introduced.

Merissa felt slightly confused as to why he didn’t come alone but quickly realized his intentions. “Hello~ Grey Stormer, it’s nice to meet you, Merissa.” Grey said as he shook her hand.

“Nice to meet you.” She replied in a nonchalant manner.

“Alex have told me a lot about you. You live here or are you new in town? Well, whatever it might be you can call and ask for me at school. I know the best restrau- um- umph…” Before he could escalate the situation further and ask her out Alex covered his mouth and pulled him to the side.

“You had some work in the market, right? I’m sure it’s quite important, you should leave then.”

“But I haven’t even properly—

“Off you go then.” Alex shooed him away as he pushed him out of the restaurant. He then took a seat opposite her sighing in relief that he went away. His only goal in bringing Grey along with him till here was so that he could see her face in case something unfortunate happens. Although they were in a public place where it was unlikely to happen anything to him, it was better to be safe than sorry.

“You’ve got some brains to you huh, you purposely brought your friend here, didn’t you?” Merissa asked observing Alex closely as if she was looking at a specimen.

‘Crap she saw through me!’

“Whatever you’re talking about…” Alex said looking away trying to play it cool.

Merissa smirked as she rested her chin on her hand. Alex’s expectations weren’t much off, as she seemed to be in her mid to late 20s. She was 5’9 tall coupled with a beautiful face and elegant body wearing a blue floral dress and smooth brown hair falling against her back.