Late at night, Izzy had returned to the academy, but unlike she had expected, it was on her own. In the middle of the conversation with her parents, Gary had wandered off. She had done as he asked and spent time with her family.
They didn't do a lot of exploring though, since it wasn't exactly a safe town nor was it one where they had much influence. Instead, they talked about what had happened and they had a lot of questions regarding Gary, including some personal questions as well.
When she eventually left her family, she wrote a message to Gary asking if he was still in the town, or if he had left yet, but there was no reply. In the end, she decided that the best thing for her to do was just to return to the academy.
It was hard for her to sleep that night, because she kept thinking about one of the questions her parents asked her.
"Izzy, it seems you might be more interested in this person than just as a friend." Her mother asked. "If it's him… I guess he would be acceptable."
Izzy tried opening her mouth and tried to reply back at the time, but her lack of an answer made her parents see right through her.
She was so embarrassed by the thought that she grabbed her pillow and shoved her face into it as she let out a large scream. Soon she took the pillow off and started to think.
'I mean, it's not like I don't like Gary, but I can tell he doesn't see me that way.' Izzy thought, and images of others started to appear in her head. Xin for one, and as for the other, there was the person that was already part of the Howlers, Marie.
'There are so many around him, and the way they look at him… I can tell they feel a certain way. Honestly, I'm not sure I want to throw myself in the middle of all of that. For now, I just want to be a part of what he creates.'
———
The next day had arrived, with Izzy eventually falling asleep, she quickly went to look at her phone, but there was still no message from Gary. It was now starting to worry her a little. What if he got lost, maybe his parents actually didn't agree and attempted to kidnap him.
Her thoughts were going wild, but she soon remembered what type of person Gary was. It was highly unlikely that he had been kidnapped. Either way, she would have to focus on herself and continue going to her AFA lessons as she had been doing.
Her family said they would update her on the status of the relationship between them and the Howlers. When getting to class, she had made her way over to Ian and Numba, who both couldn't help but notice that the two of them weren't at the academy yesterday.
"So what did you do, did you finally confess to him!" Ian asked.
"Not you too." Izzy sulked. "No, I just needed to discuss with him and my parents about the relationship between our two families. Numba is already a big part of the Howlers and due to your family working in a similar field it was quite easy to convince them but mine… they were worried about me."
Just as they sat down in their seats for the lesson, they soon saw that Gary had entered as well. He walked up to sit with the others as if nothing had happened.
"Gary… you're here, when did you get here, when did you arrive, why didn't you reply to my message?" Izzy asked.
"Look at this." Ian nuged Numba's arm. "They're having a lovers' quarrel the first thing in the morning."
Izzy and Gary both decided to ignore the comments, even though they could hear them loud and clear.
"I saw your messages this morning, but I already arrived at the academy so I thought it would be nicer to see you in the morning." Gary answered.
It was a good enough answer, but Izzy was still worried.
"What… what did you do, after the conversation with my parents, I mean. You just left, did you stay in the city?"
"Nothing much." Gary answered, opening up his notebook. "I just explored the place a little."
——
Izzy's parents along with her cousins had also arrived back at the city. In the morning they had decided to get to work, and were ready to contact the Howlers and try to form a stronger relationship with them.
According to Izzy, through Gary they had already expressed their interest to help them out, but they weren't so sure they could trust the words of Gary so much. After all, he was just a teenager, even if he was an Altered. He could simply just be trying to say he had a lot of influence in the gang to impress her.
"Maz if you could please set up a meeting with the Howlers when you can, that would be great, if they are too busy we can simply set up a call as well." She ordered.
Maz nodded in agreement.
"Yes ma'am, about the Howlers group… We have been keeping an eye on them since we might soon go into business with them, and it seems an interesting development has occurred.
"You see, remember the town, the town of Mikton Green that we were in yesterday?"
Izzy's mother was interested and took off her glasses as she was paying attention to Maz's words.
"Well you see, it seems that as of today, Mikton Green is under control of the Howlers as well. The gang members that were there have agreed to comply."
Mrs. Shamone blinked a few times while she digested what she had just heard.
"The Howlers, why would they bother with a town that isn't even close to their current territories? There is nothing special there, and there is no advantage for them to control such a town."
"I agree." Maz said.
There was only one thing that they both could think of. The fact was that Gary, who was part of the Howlers, was in the same town and they knew what had occurred there, but even so…
Just because a member of the Howlers was there, why would they do such a thing, and even more so, how did the whole town get taken in a single day. It seemed impossible that this would be related to Gary Dem, but at the same time, they had no inkling of another reason.
———
Sitting at his desk, Kai was looking through several pieces of paper.
"Gary, do you just love to give me more paperwork?" Kai complained, but he soon leaned back in his chair and smiled. "Still, I can't believe it. All on his own, he took down a tier-3 town gang and their leader.
"That guy, day by day, he's acting more like a gang leader. It's good for us, especially with where we want to head, all the way to the top."
———
Back in class, the lesson had finally ended, and Gary remembered something as he approached Izzy, he soon took out his wallet, and handed her over a bunch of notes. Both Numba and Ian's eyeballs nearly popped out of their heads.
"Gary… what is this for, why are you giving me money?" Izzy asked.
"I almost forgot." Gary replied. "Your parents, it seems like they paid that stupid fee to get into the city as well. I met up with them and spoke to them. They decided to give the money back in the end, so, that belongs to them, you don't have to worry about it so much."
The money was already in Izzy's hand, but she was finding Gary's explanation hard to believe.
'He just spoke to them? I don't think they were the type of people just to give money back just from speaking to them.'
It seemed like a kind gesture, so Izzy couldn't really say much and the rest of the day just continued like normal. The week at the academy went by relatively fast, with Gary focusing on lessons and enjoying his time with the others, while the Howlers continued doing what they were doing.
Innu and Marie hadn't been seen around the Wolf's pool club a lot, but at the same time Kai wasn't there much either. He was paying a visit to each of the families that wished to make an alliance.
There was more to the alliance than just helping watch each other's backs, as Kai wanted to do something with the money to help them, and help their own cities by investing in them. He was spending money that would help them out in the future and in ways he was doing it with people who he could trust.
Then it finally came for Gary, his last special lesson at the academy, before he would take his assessment to become a debut student. It was the last chance for him to fight a beast, and gain stat points, and he wondered what NIRV had in store for him this time.
******
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