Chapter Text
Eden Academy: 10 am (Monday)
It has been 2 months since the start of the new school year. Today was Monday and Eden students were given the whole week to prepare for their sports festival, it is a week because the school is huge, plus they wanted to go all out this year. Imperial Scholars were exceptions in participating (Although many students complained about this since it was very unfair for them, some of the Imperial Scholars thought the same too) but the group said otherwise and volunteered to help, even helping with the other halls and cleaning the campus. But of course, hearing that this was their free time, they only volunteered in the morning so they could go out in the afternoon.
"Does anyone need water?" Anya asked, she was at Ward Hall's spot as they were still making the class booths for the festival, she was holding two water bottles.
"Me!" Mari yelled as she ran towards her. Mari was one of her close friends from Ward Hall along with Andrei and Gloria, she was cousins with Damian and Becky and shockingly made both DamianandBecky's cousins too, which was a huge lore bomb to them.
"Thanks!" She took the water "What brings you here Anya, did you guys finish your class booth?" She asked as she was trying to open the cold water bottle.
"Almost! Our class is just finishing up the sign." She smiled. "Oh, and if you didn't see the messages in the group chat, me and the others were planning on going to this one restaurant Damian booked for lunch apparently, they were wondering if you, Gloria, and Andrei would like to go." She asked, Mari raised her eyebrows, she was getting hungry at the mention of a restaurant.
"Sure! We'd love to! I'll tell the others when they're back." Anya giggles.
"Alright! We'll meet at the garden around 11, see you and the others later!" Anya waved goodbye as she dashed back to her hall passing a few booths away.
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11:07 am
"we're here!" Mari yelled and waved at the group, behind her were Gloria and Andrei holding their bags and water.
"Hah, I am starving! that basketball practice made mereallyhungry." Andrei cried as he placed his belongings on the ground along with the others.
"Oh, hey guys..." Becky looked over, the three wondered why she sounded different and her facial expression showed a 'here we go again' sign, but as they looked further.
"They're fighting again." Gloria sighed. Everyone laughed as they watched Anya and Ewen going on a rant on what zodiac sign is more fierce and cool.
"We're still waiting for Emile, he said he has volleyball practice until 11:10" Becky added.
"Oh by the way" Damian appeared behind the tree holding his phone. "I didn't tell you guys where we're going, so I booked a reservation at Elysian Gourmet for lunch and-"
"WE'RE GOING WHERE!?" Ewen screamed pausing the intense heated battle between him and Anya. Like Ewen, everyone showed a shocked expression on their face too.
"Elysian Gourmet? isn't that place really busy? especially during summer because of the many reservations coming in? How did you manage to make a reservation? I thought it was fully booked for this year." Becky questions, Damian just sat down on the grass and shrugged.
"I booked a reservation months ago, it was supposed to be lunch after the sports festival just in case we all killed the sports and won but the schedules changed so." He said in a calm yet funny voice and everyone was more confused.
"That's..." Mari paused. "A normal lunch at a 5-star restaurant? that's crazy to believe, and are we just going to wear our PE uniforms?" She made hand movements showing her with the uniform.
"Hey what can I say, I'm a Desmond, hell I can even buy a restaurant right now just for us." He boasted and snickered. Everyone sighed at his comment.
"Sometimes I keep forgetting that you're Damian Desmond." Becky laughed.
"Yeah, same." Gloria agrees.
"And I keep on forgetting that I, Andrei Santiago am close friends with THE Damian Desmond, I'm like an ant compared to you"
"You guys are making it sound like I'm a celebrity or something." Damian sweat.
"You technically are." -Gloria
"As much as I don't care about social statuses, being friends with Sy-on boy is such a flex." Anya laughed and sat next to him.
"Right? huge flex." Ewen agrees.
"Huge flex." Mari nods. Damian chuckled at the amount of compliments he was getting.
"Anyway, don't worry about the uniforms, they offer discounts for Eden students, especially Imperial Scholars, plus, we will be in an upper private ro-"
"WHAT!?" everyone screamed together, their face were all dumbfounded, again.
"How did you-"
"I'm aDesmond!" Damian cuts off Andrei.
"Right..." everyone said at the same time.
"Hey guys what did I miss?" They all turned their heads and saw Emile walking up to them with his bag.
"We're going to Elysian Gourmet-"
"WHAT!?"
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11:29 am
The ride to Elysian Gourmet was an hour away, it was located in another city in Ostania. All 8 friends were loading their belongings at the back of Damian's car, it was the latest 8-seat SUV that Demetrius bought (he knew about his close friends so he bought an 8-seat car) for Damian's 17th birthday (fully paid with cash LOL) and right away he got his license (he took lessons and practiced 2 years prior his birthday without getting caught driving without a license lol, sanaol rich) and you could say he is already experienced.
As soon as everything was all loaded everyone took their seats (Anya gets to drive LMAO and Damian gets to be in the front's passenger side wow passenger princess yarn? Let's say everyone got their license already.)
"I'm probably gonna sleep, or I might barf," Emile mentioned as he sat at the back of the car on the left side window seat, next to him were Mari and Andrei.
"I have a bag just in case." Becky gave Emile a small brown bag that she reluctantly carries around since the group often drives around whenever they aren't busy with classes and work and after almost barfing at that time they drove to another city 3 hours away she decided to bring bags. She was sitting on the right side window seat in the middle of the car along with Gloria in the middle and Ewen on her left.
"Thanks." He grabbed the back and placed it in between his thighs.
By 11:35 am they were already on the road as Anya was prioritizing not killing herself and her friends, Emile already dozed off while the others were talking about school and random topics that came into their mind, they were also vibing to the songs that were played by Mari's phone connecting to the car's radio.
"That reminds me, I have something to tell," Gloria said, "A girl from Cline Hall somehow got pregnant." everyone gasped at Gloria's statement, the atmosphere in the car suddenly became tense, and because of this Mari switched the song into one of those suspense movie scenes background (LOL).
"Her name was Percy, rumors said that she got pregnant by a teacher from another school!" Gloria added and everyone was now at the edge of their seats.
"Percy? As in Percy Perez?" Ewen asked.
"Yeah, apparently her parents still don't know about her pregnancy, and what I heard, the teacher was her dad's close apprenticeship, Chloe told me that she was one month pregnant." She looked back at Mari which had her mouth wide open, jaw dropped.
"Percy Perez? Wasn't she the student council's treasurer last year?" Anya asked looking in the rearview mirror. Gloria nodded.
"No way... out of all people getting into that kind of scandal- her? I can't believe it...she doesn't even look like the type of girl who does something likethat." Becky commented and everyone agreed. "She gives off an innocent aura kind of vibe, to be honest," she added.
"Now that you mention Percy, I did see her with her dad and some old-looking dude wandering around the night market a week ago," Damian commented as he was fixing his hair. "that dude was probably the teacher."
"You know what's even crazier is that she currently has a boyfriend, his name is James and he's from class 6 Hamilton Hall." -Mari
"James Paxley!? he's part of the NOVA basketball team." Andrei spoke up, he was just there listening to everything with his mouth wide open.
"I heard he's a great guy too, I feel so bad for James," Becky said and everyone felt pity.
"Does he know about it?" asked Ewen. Gloria shook her head.
"Her best friend of 8 years from Malcolm Hall said that it was her own choice, she's still 15 too, and her birthday is coming up soon, I just hope It goes well for her." everyone nodded.
"8 years huh." Becky smiled, everyone somehow knew where she was going with this. "Sorry, that was kind of out of topic."
"Hard to believe that we've been friends for almost 6 years now," Anya said, their anniversary was also coming up too, at the end of the month.
"It's as if it was just yesterday you punched Damian." Everyone laughed at Ewen's comment following Damian groaning.
"He was a jerk before with areallyhuge ego. I'm glad it gave him some sense that he wasn't above anyone else, it was stupid." Anya snickered and looked over at Damian rolling his eyes.
"Whatever, I was a kid!" He said, Anya chuckled.
The group came together a year after Operation Strix ended, the journey after that was rough, it contained heartbreaks, trauma, and secrets spilling out, it was the most challenging and depressing experience everyone endured, but they managed to pull through and make things right.
It was also the time when the trio: Damian, Emile, and Ewen and the duo: Becky and Anya slowly became friends, and turns out they have a lot of things in common, 'they weren't so bad after all' They all thought. But even now, they still tease each other a lot, especially Anya and Damian (Becky finds it cute and as always, she would try to compare it to some scenes in Berlint in Love)
Months after that Mari Walton joined Eden Academy, she was a student from another prestigious school in Ostania and had to move due to her mother's business making a hit in the fashion industry and thankfully she got into Eden. She was assigned to Ward Hall and met Andrei and Gloria along with some other friends.
"I still remember the moment Mari walked into the school, almost everyone knew who she was." -Anya.
"Was it because our fashion brand went off or was it because I'm related to these two?"She looked over at Damian and Becky.
"The first one, but you grew more popular after they found out that you're cousins with bossman and pigtails." Ewen chuckled.
"Stop calling me that!" Both Damian and Becky yelled out at the same time glaring at Ewen.
"Ah, right." Mari relaxed in her seat.
30 minutes go by and there were already halfway there, after their small chitchatting, Gloria and Andrei fall asleep too and a few minutes go by Ewen follows. Becky was looking out over the window singing to the songs playing while Mari was complaining about Andrei and Emile sleeping on her shoulder.
The car ride was rather quiet after that and only the songs playing, small talks, and questions made by Anya, Damian, Becky, and Mari were the ones making a sound.
—————
12:30 pm
The group finally reachedElysian Gourmet, the restaurant was located on a busy street that is surrounded by old architectural buildings and stores, the restaurant itself was also built in an old architectural style, and the outside gave it a unique and stylish look that blends in with the rest of the surrounding buildings.
Everyone was slowly waking up from the small nap after Anya had parked the car at a reserved parking spot with a sign saying "Reserved for Damian Desmond".
"I absolutely love buildings styled with old architectural designs," Mari said as she looked around before aggressively shaking Emile off of her because he dozed off again. "Wake up you squirrel!" Everyone laughed.
The rest of the group got out of the car and stretched before grabbing their belongings in the back. The restaurant was indeed busy, many rich people were seen going in and out of the restaurants wearing luxury clothes and shiny jewelry, and then the friend group was just wearing their PE uniforms.
"This is so embarrassing, everyone around us is wearing such nicer clothes and we're here wearing PE uniforms! You could have told us beforehand Desmond!" Becky hissed as she grabbed her small purse.
"It's fine, it's not like these uniforms look bad, plus, wealthy people don't tend to go all out when they go outside, look, that family is just wearing clothes you go sleep with." Damian said as he closed the trunk of the car "Unless you want to go to the mall first and buy something." That wasn't a bad idea.
There was a nearby store and all of them took a quick walk toward it and changed into something more appropriate, comfortable, and presentable. After a few minutes, they all went back, putting their neatly folded uniforms at the back of the car.
The group made their way inside the restaurant, the inside was as stylish as it was from the outside, the place shows high ceilings, vintage chandeliers, and decorative, and detailed wooden walls that give out its unique appearance. The main dining hall was covered with marble floors and antique furniture that looked like it was made in the 80s.
Damian went ahead and walked towards the reception area. A small gasp was heard from the people behind the desk as he showed his card then a bodyguard was called and walked out from a room beside the repetition desk.
"Ah, good afternoon Mr. Desmond." The guard bowed, and the people behind the group and some of the guests inside the restaurant looked at them after the word 'Desmond' was mentioned, they stared with their eyes wide, and excited whispers and chattering were heard right after.
"It is ahugehonor to have you and your guests with us today. Please, allow me to escort you to your private room." The guard smiled and positioned his hands towards the dining hall, signaling the group to follow.
"For once I am intimidated by the atmosphere, there's so many people looking at us," Anya whispered to Becky as she was walking beside her. Thankfully today was a full moon, she couldn't read any minds or that would've been a problem.
"I'm gonna be honest with you, I felt shivers when they stared at us," Emile whispered back.
"Relax, you'll get used to it," Damian assured, he had been on many occasions with similar encounters, from people whispering whenever the Desmond family walked across a room filled with people or journalists flashing their cameras towards them, bodyguards stepping in here and there to block the paparazzi. It was nothing new for Damian.
After all, he is the secondscionof the prestigious Desmond family.
The guard led the group to a two doorway room which was already opened, Inside the room was a huge rectangular table filled with luxurious furniture and decorated well following a certain theme, the table cloth was a plain maroon color, and on top of it were silver utensils along with silver-coated plates, it was well organized.
There was also a huge medical-looking window that spread all over the wall, almost making it fully glass. Outside of the room was a small balcony that overlooks the buildings around and in the distance you could easily spot the ocean.
"I have this chandelier in my room." Gloria was looking up at a golden chandelier, it was rather huge than the ones down in the dining area.
"I'd say, this isn't bad, really decent for a 5-star private room, not bad." Becky was out here giving out critiques circling the room many times.
After a few minutes of admiring the place, the group sat down at the table as the menu was already handed out to each chair.
"Woah, they serve specialties all around the world! No wonder this was a 5-star restaurant." Anya pointed out as she kept on flipping the menu.
"I'll have two Wagyu beef, a side of Abalone, white truffle tiramisu, and the exotic fruit smoothie please." Mari already started pointing out her orders from the menu as the waitress wrote down her orders then the others followed, despite living in a world where technology exists, this restaurant brings out a nostalgic feeling and keeping it preserved with its tradition.
"You're paying for this, right Dami?" Andrei looked over at Damian who wasunsurprisinglysitting in the middle seat. He shook his head.
"What do you mean!? I ordered a lot!" Andrei panicked and Damian let out a snicker. "Relax I was just messing around, of course, I'm paying, I invited everyone out of the blue so."
"Dude, not cool." everyone laughed.
20 minutes went by as the group was still waiting for their meal, because most of them ordered many dishes that needed to be made perfectly it would take around 40 minutes for it to arrive.
While in the meantime the group was just sitting and waiting talking about their day.
"Did I ever tell you guys about Richard Hendrix before?" Emile questioned.
"Rose Hall guy? What about him?" Andrei answered.
"I just had a realization that he's a big creep, like we're talking a huge perverted jerk, looking back in 8th grade when I joined the volleyball team my locker was beside his and I swear in the corner of my eye he had pins and posters of celebrities and actors inside his locker almost naked and in bikinis."
"What do you expect, he was always been a jerk ever since he transferred in 6th grade, probably a bigger jerk than Damian," Becky smirked.
"Bitch you wanna talk?" Damian gritted his teeth, Anya was between them as she let out a sigh.
"Some of those pictures were the girls from Spectre Hall, one was Alice Harrington from Cline Hall and one was Chelsea Lux from Villiers Hall." Emile continued. "I heard from Bill a week ago that he got caught with a girl inside the men's bathroom." Andrei choked on his water.
"He got expelled after that, that alone earned him 7 Tonitrus Bolts and he already had 2! 3 for sneaking in a girl in the men's bathroom, 1 for doing inappropriate stuff on school grounds, and 3 for smuggling the girl on school grounds without permission." Ewen snicked. "His other 2 came from 8th grade where he had a physical fight with one of the guys in Spectre Hall."
"Good, Ialwayshated him from the start," Andrei said as he took a sip from his water.
"Took me a while to realize how scandalous our school is." Anya added "and they still managed to hide all of these in the public eye." Everyone nods.
10 more minutes passed by and their food all arrived soon enough the table was filled and looked very busy. Everyone continued their chatter in between their meal, everyone seemed to have a great time.
—————
1:57 pm
Everyone felt stuffed after eating, and by this time they all agreed to go to their next destination which was the nearby shopping mall. This time Damian gets to drive as Anya is exhausted from eating.
"That ice cream was so good, I feel like I'm gonna explode!" Anya groaned as she held her full belly.
"It's the most expensive one." Damian laughed.
"And you let me order it!?" Anya gasps.
"It's fine I don't mind, as long as you like it." Damian shrugs it off trying to 'fix' his side view mirror but in reality, he was just hiding his blush.
Becky was now in the middle seat in the middle row, both Damian and Anya could feel her teasing smirk at the back. These two idiots' cheeks flushed even more.
"Oh Anya, I hope you know how lucky you are~" Becky teased, Anya misunderstood it and thought she was talking about eating the most expensive ice cream. She nodded at her which made Becky let out a small squeal and a soft giggle.
"Whatever." Damian rolled his eyes, still flushed all over. The car was now driving in a small road that leads to the downtown area of Elyria.
"What are we even going to the mall for?" Asked Andrei.
"I'm picking up a pair of shoes I ordered a week ago, the girls want to go shopping and Ewen wants to buy knee pads," Damian replied.
"What will me and Emile do then?"
"Go with the girls I guess." He shrugged.
A few minutes went by and the group arrived at the mall, as Damian parked the car a group of men surrounded them all wearing sunglasses, slicked-back hairs, and suits, all the men were covered in black.
"Huh...? Who are these peo- ARE WE KIDNAPPED!?" Screamed Emile as he just woke up from a small nap. Which startled a dozed-off Mari at his side.
"No you moron they're guards, more specifically Damian's guards." Ewen reached over and slapped his neck which made a loud noise, Emile groaned.
"Demi sent them," Damian said as he was fixing his hair AGAIN. "You know how as a member of the Desm-"
"-Desmond family, I cannot roam around in public without bodyguards."Anya mocked, looking back at everyone as she placed both her hands on her waist trying to mimic Damian. Everyone laughed.
The group got out of the car and grabbed their belongings that were placed in the trunk of the car again. Damian explained to his guards that most of the group would separate for now as they had different plans, the guards nodded.
"We'll be going first then, see you guys later~" Becky waved at the remaining 3, Damian, Ewen, and Emile as She and the rest along with Andrei set off with 3 guards by their side.
"Don't forget to call us after you're done Sy-on boy!" Anya yelled, Damian nodded as they shared a wave goodbye.
"Should we go as well?" asked Ewen, two of the guys nodded and they headed inside.
