Snippet #1261920

His eyes were closed, but Ray was somewhere quite else. He sat in a chair right in front of his classmate - mind battling was the subject right now -, concentrating heavily.
His opponent was panting and sweating. Even though Ray was not using his earphones, he was stronger now, he was slowly overpowering him.
While occasionally other people around them snapped out of their slumber-like state, Ray and his classmate were still battling like about half the rest of the class. The teacher was watching them attentively, ready to step in if anything went out of control.
Eventually Ray opened his eyes. He was exhausted from the mind battle, but not as much as his classmate, which was lying on the ground with some foam coming out of his mouth. The teacher walked over without a word, and put her hand on the boy's head.
"He'll be okay, but you should still watch out, Ray. You almost damaged his mind irreversably!"
"It was not my fault. He was refusing to surrender even though I was obviously winning."
The teacher sighed. "Fine then. But don't forget that you're slightly stronger than an average second-class trainee. And I know that you cheated, you have listened to the trees outside to focus."
"Everyone can do that."
"But not everyone can do what you can." She made a short hand movement to show him that he should go.
Without any bad conscience Ray sat down on his chair again after carryng it over to his table. The people that had seen what had happened to their comrade were watching him scared, or in disgust, but he ignored them. Again: it had not been his fault.