//------------------------------// // Fourteenth Chapter // Story: "Boia Dè!" or "Never Trust the Title of the Course." // by Daxn //------------------------------// The next day, after her usual morning routine and after reaching her classroom, Sunset sat down at her usual position, the third desk from the window of the first row in the middle column, put the rucksack hanging on the seat's back of her chair. Looking around her, she noticed that she had been the first inside the classroom, at which she shrugged and said to herself "No teacher around here, the lessons have yet to start in all school, so guess I could chat with the others in the meanwhile," and she went on the door's threshold on lookout for new arrivals. The first one, this time, was Appiano. Today he wasn't wearing his usual outfit, but he kept the color scheme of white with red, and the symbol of the checkered oblique stripe. As for the clothing in itself, he was wearing poofed-up tights in white and bright red rib stitching. He had a codpiece which had been obviously filled with a couple of round objects, probably oranges judging from the scent Appiano was emanating. His torso was covered in a coat made in rib stitching, which was open and allowed the sight of the red shirt with white oblique checkered stripe, which was cat off in half for show off a rampant golden lion standing on a shell on green background. "Quite the fancy dress you have here," Sunset said, letting out a little giggle "you look a tiny bit silly in it, thought." Appiano curled up his nose and caressed his short and unkempt beard with his right hand. "Dè, you should have told it to my ancestors armed with halberds and arquebois, and see what they would've answered to you!" He said. Sunset looked down and frowned a little. "Oh, okay, sorry Appiano. by the way, why are you wearing it?" Appiano inflated his chest a little, as he pretended to rest against a pike and chew on something at the same time. "Dè, Blueblood has challenged me to duel against him in a horseback shooting competition. I took the appropriate clothes, dressed as a horseback shooter under my forefathers' command." "Oh no, don't tell me you and Blueblood are gonna shoot yourselves!" She said, an higher pitch in her voice, as she brought her hands to her mouth and looked with wide eyes at Appiano. He chuckled. "Dè, we just shoot a target and sees who is the sharpest shooter. We won't actually have a fight on horseback." Sunset breathed a sigh of relief, at Appiano's statement about the objective of the duel in itself, before actually sitting down at her desk. She was tempted to ask what was the reason for the duel between the two, but Sunset decided to not ask, sure that she didn't want to know why they were fighting, either because it was something she wasn't going to understand or because it was something petty amped up to eleven. Soon the rest of Sunset's class entered, commenting and asking questions to Appiano, nodding unsurely or widening their eyes whenever he was done answering them. The bell rang again, and everybody took their seats at their desks, while the teacher, Vice Principal Luna, entered in the classroom. Judging from how she had dropped the books onto the teacher's desk and by her accentuated frown, Sunset could tell the Vice Principal was still bitter about yesterday's happenings. "Is everybody here?" She asked with a hint of annoyed grunt in her voice that made the least brave in the class to huddle to themselves or hug between each other. "Yes," was the unanimous response of the ones not doing the above "We are all present." "Good, a communication to some of you, before we start our lesson." Vice Principal Luna said, still somewhat grunting "my afternoon course has been canceled on the orders of the Principal." "Cuuuooossaaa?!" Appiano shouted, as he got up "It's canceled?" Vice Principal Luna sighed, facepalmed and nodded, in this order, bringing Appiano to clench his first. "Blueblood!" He shouted to the ceiling "You backstabbing asshole! You said that we were going to settle that with a sharpshooting duel!" "Appiano, sit down immediately!" Vice Principal Luna ordered, frowning even more and pointing with her left index towards his chair. Appiano slammed his first against his desk, creating a crack on it. "Not! Portatememi quel figlio di troia, cosicchè possa castrate quel viscido insetto con i miei stivali!" Sunset and most of the classroom looked sideways at Blueblood's statement, only getting that he was angry, but Vice Principal Luna seemingly understood all of it. "Appiano, go to the Principal right now!" Appiano nodded, and rushed out, saying "Gladly!" Wow. So eager to get there? I think that he's gonna do something really big soon! Sunset thought, as she looked at the now-deserted door, then back at Vice Principal Luna who, after taking a deep breath, sat down and said. "Anyways, let's start out our lesson. Open up at page 401..." The hours passed slow, and Sunset had taken notes with very little stops, and, by now, her hand started to feel a bit sore. Ugh, when he's going to be done with this? She thought, as she looked at her right side. Appiano was there, sitting and writing, a big smirk on his face, one who he had been wearing since he had come back from the Principal's office. I don't know what he did, she thought, as she distractedly doodled on the paper but, if he looks so satisfied with himself, there gotta be a good reason. The bell rang, and everybody left their desks, extracting cash or their own food from their rucksack. Appiano took out a greasy chicken leg wrapped inside a green piece of cloth and started to slowly eat it, some of the dark brown sauce falling onto the floor. Well... guess that's as good as any other snack, Sunset thought, as she got up and walked next to him, taking a slightly bowing posture out of instinct. He turned around, still chewing a bite of the chicken leg. "Dè, what do you want Sunset? Want a piece of this?" He asked, moving the hand with the chicken leg inside and letting said leg drip a few millimeters away from him, while with the other hand he pointed to his codpiece "Or do you want a piece of my dick?" Sunset recoiled a little, before shaking her head and glaring a little at him. Ugh, why does he has to mention sex at every turn? "Neither, actually, I just wanted to know..." Sunset said with an hint of sternness in her voice. He shrugged, before taking another bite, speaking with mouth full "What did I do at the Principal's office? Get to the shooting range and find it out!" Sunset widened her eyes and backed off a little, this time in surprise, instead of disgust. "How did you guess that?" She asked, trying to ignore the fact that Appiano was still chewing while he spoke, which resulted in some pieces of chicken to fall on her shoulders "Yes, I wanted to know that. But, where's the shooting range? And when the duel will happen?" He quickly chomped down the last bite, before gulping, casually throwing the bone towards the trash can nearby, only to hit Rarity on the head, which responded with a huff and a glare directed at Appiano. "Dè, it's in Toltecatl Bentivoglio Street number 41. It's easy to find, it's just next to the Yokan de Auilnelistli, one of the best theathers in town. I and Blueblood will meet there around half past four." "Okay, thank you." Sunset grinned and nodded at the last part, immediately understanding perfectly what films that place projected in the evenings, and why Appiano deemed it the best in town. "No problem," Appiano said, and as soo nas he said that, the bell rang again, and he sat down at his desk. Sunset followed suit, and the rest of the class did the same, once they were all back inside. Two hours of school, a quick lunch and two hours and half of homework later, Sunset had taken a bag and set off to walk towards the shooting range where Blueblood and Appiano were going to duel at. Sunset went towards the center of the town, passing in front of her neighbors' houses, which presented a style which mixed the concept of the "fixed yurta" with Spanish and, more broadly, Tarascan architecture. Going forward and deeper inside town, Sunset saw the houses with gardens begin slowly replaced by taller buildings, which had a blocky design, with yellow, red, aqamarine and black tiles with both geometrical and spiraling motifs, which reminded Sunset of a couple of artifacts that Sunset's parents kept hidden in the basement. The apartment complexes also shown signs of Baroque influence, with bent steel parapets bulging out and small statues on the corners. Sunset passed past all of it, looking distractedly around her. Sometimes her attention was caught a billboard with an advertisement for a stylist making elegant saddles or a food brand claiming to make pastries "like the Mexica before the invasion," which made her chuckle a little, at the idea of her ancestors using modern industrial food-making techniques for make sweets. Other times, Sunset's gaze laid upon a resturant that had painted on the main window the map of the easternmost Tlaxcalian-American border, claiming that it was possible to get a taste of the authentic cuisine of the area there, which made Sunset quickly point out to herself that the restaurant was most likely part of a chain, as she lived at fours and half hours of car from said border and thus the local cuisine wasn't all that different. Finally, after walking through the unusually scarcely-populated center of the city and going through some lanes, Sunset foudn herself in a small square with brick and limestone pavimentation, and two half-dead bushes as sign of goodwill in creating spots of green in the concrete. Sunset rose her head and looked at the street sign just next to her "Toltecatl Bentivoglio Street!" She read shounting, before giving herself a fist pump and then in frotn of her. She saw a low smooth stone wall, an hedge and some steel bars surmounted by an horseshoe atop said wall. Beyond this, there was a round, tent-shaped building, with the roof begin dark green and getting grayer and grayer as it reached the ground. Three bullseye targets were hanging by the entrance's big wooden lodge. "Looks like the shooting range," she said, walking towards the widen entrance, stepping insde the building by the door labeled with a yellow sign as "Dismounted only." Entering inside, there was a desk and four orange curved wooden chairs around an octagonal table covered in sports magazines. Seeing that not even the receptionist was there, and seeing that the revolving door that lead to the bleachers and bathrooms was locked by a bike lock, Sunset sighed and sat down on the chairs, waiting for Appiano and Blueblood to come over and duel. "Dè, what are you waiting for, Blueblood?" Appiano said, adjusting the support structure of his cavalry arquebus onto the engraved leather and pine wood saddle, which made his light gray sturdy horse whinny lightly. "Nothing, I'm just studying the bullseye," he said, scrutinizing the target at several meters away from him and at the opposite side of the circuit, while he held the bridles of his dark brown and skinny-looking horse, which stood almost perfectly still. "Dè, didn't know you had to actually study a target to hit it!" Appiano chuckled loudly, as he finished adjusting the wooden structure on his horse, just before giving a gentle pat to the latter's shoulder. Blueblood groaned, as he took the bow from the neaby table and climbed onto his light brown wooden simple saddle. He then extracted an arrow from the quiver, setting it on the bow's string. "Dè, do we start?" Appiano asked, adjusting his feathered hat coordinated with his clothing "Or are we waiting for something?" Blueblood spurred his horse to walk, and so did Appiano. Soon they both spurred their horses to trot and then, they spurred them to gallop. Sunset looked intensely at the ongoing scene, awaiting for the result. Appiano moved his finger on the trigger and Blueblood tensed the bow...