Fron, looking uneasy as usual whenever he met new people, walked up to the table. However, no one noticed him because of just how silent he was. Which was pretty standard for him.

  Hell, I remember when he first met me, he was so nervous and queasy that he nearly passed out.

  It was a cool spring and we were about to get into our first year of middle school when I met him in a different class. He's still more or less a kind soul who didn't exactly give me the introduction that Veronica gave me...

  But I'd rather talk about that later.

  As I was beginning to feel bad for him since Jack, Emily, and Angel were enwrapped in their conversation and Fron wasn't able to join in. I decided to attempt to nudge him to say something.

  That's when Robert shouted right into my ears which were still aching from that robotic teacher,

  "HELLO FELLOW AND FUTURE FRIENDS!"

  "Would you shut up!?" Me and Steve exclaimed at the same time. He was at Robert's right and his left ear probably took the blast from his shout.

  "Ah, hey Robert," Emily said.

  She wasn't enthusiastic about meeting Robert, truth be told, who would? But she was still respectful enough to offer him a seat right next to his loud mouth. Which I found quite admirable of her to do.

  "Ah, thanks!" He exclaimed, sitting beside Emily while Jack extended his hand.

  "Hello, I'm Jack. I'm from the city of Jorin in Frolin!"

  "I heard that this place is nice at this time of the year! Unfortunately, I also heard about what happened to that city. Sorry for that."

  "Why should you apologize? You weren't a part of those damn factories." Jack stated, disdain in his voice displayed in full force. Robert nodded and turned towards Angel.

  "Ah, and this must be Angel. Nice to meet you!" He exclaimed loudly.

  "What's up?" She whispered, fist-bumping Robert as they both chuckled. Steve sat down next to Jack and set down his backpack.

  "Oh shoot, we're about to go to the auditorium soon. How fast time flies when you're having fun." Emily said, putting her Scruplot away as Fron and I stood.

  But Angel, thank goodness for her good eyesight, looked up and noticed Fron. He was nervous; shaking in his shoes as his mouth quivered. She stood up and walked up face-to-face with Fron. If I hadn't known any better I would say she was about to do something a pinch too young for our age. But, of course, she didn't do that thankfully.

  As Fron squinted in a panic, Angel took out her hand and whispered,

  "Hey, my name is Angel, what's your name?"

  "F-F-Fron," Fron responded, also in a whisper.

  It was a start.

  "That's a very cool name, Fron," Angel replied.

  "Back at you, Angel,"

  Meanwhile, Jack and Emily noticed Fron and began greeting him as well. Or well, trying to greet him.

  "Hey! Come over here!" Emily said in probably the worst tone to use in this situation. Fron wandered over to Emily and nodded nervously.

  "What's your name?" She asked him.

  "Fron." He said back, this time not in a whisper which I found incredible to say the very least.

  "I'm Emily. Nice to meet you." She said, placing her hand out for him. He shook it and she looked down at her hand calmly. She said with a sigh,

  "Your hand is sweaty."

  "S-sorry!" He exclaimed, putting away his hand and wiping it on his sweatpants.

  Meanwhile, Jack walked over to him and I didn't exactly realize this before, but Fron was roughly the same height as Jack. This was rather shocking since Jack was the tallest guy I'd ever known.

  Still, though, they shook hands nervously and Fron smiled shyly. Robert then said to me,

  "Y'know, I think this is the first time I've seen Fron make friends by himself. He seems truly happy with another person. It just warms my heart!"

  "Yeah, mine too bud," I replied, patting his shoulder as he wiped a tear away.

  What an emotional idiot.

  We all hung out with each other, discussing whether or not the cameras in the cafeteria were real. Steve chucked a milk carton straight up at one of the cameras, causing one of the robotic teachers to wheel toward us once again. It screamed at the top of its lungs:

  "NO THROWING!" Steve covered his ears and nodded slightly. He groaned after the yelling while Emily smacked him on the head.

  "Ow! What was that for?!"

  "For being an utter dumbass." She stated.

  "My bad." He raised both of his hands in the air while Robert played with his newly found pen.

  "What's that?" Jack asked him.

  "It's a..."

  "Pen." He glanced towards me as if to ask if he could trust Jack. I nodded warmly at him and he exhaled through his nose.

  "A pen that gives automatic answers to any question." He stated.

  "Any question?" Jack asked in complete amazement.

  "Yup. It completed a puzzle Steve had in a matter of seconds!" He said.

  "Well, really milliseconds, but you get the idea," I added in.

  "That's amazing!"

  "What is?" Angel asked from out of nowhere. Robert looked at me again as if to ask if he could trust her now. I nodded once again and he showed her his pen.

  "This pen supposedly gives answers to any question!" Jack exclaimed.

  "Shhh! Quiet down! I do not want many people to find out." Robert said, glancing around in complete paranoia.

  "Pfft, why not? It's an amazing tool to have! I think you should share it with everybody. Just think of the amount of people that would buy this from you!"

  "And not to mention, a lot of people here are rich. Stinking rich. They'll grab this thing even if it's for thousands of dollars." Jack stated. I was a little stunned that he knew this much about how badly demand goes with profit.

  But I mean, he did grow up in a literal industrial city.

  "That does sound appealing. Yet I'd much rather for it to be later than right now."

  "Alright, that makes sense. But still, though, this is a killer invention!" He exclaimed. Angel nodded agreeably and Robert smiled widely.

  His invention would indefinitely become popular and create something for himself! I was just a little worried that it would create too much popularity. Fron did too since he warned in stutters,

  "I-I really d-do think we s-should k-keep this to ourselves." He said. Jack and Angel nodded in their sympathetic ways. Robert was simply happy that he was now talking in full sentences, not responding with a nod or agreement.

  "Ooooh! What's that?" Emily asked Robert as he was about to put away his pen. He, once again, looked at me and I, once again, nodded back in approval. He stated,

  "It's a pen that gives you answers to any problem on paper."

  "Cool. Anyways though, when are we going to the auditorium?! I'm getting bored!"

  I wasn't surprised this time by someone's reaction, especially Emily's. Robert, on the other hand, was shocked that she didn't bother to ask more about the pen. Steve said,

  "In two minutes, we better start heading there."

  Just as he said this, a boisterous intercom speaker blared out the following message:

  "Students are to be instructed to go to the auditorium. Any student who doesn't follow these directions will be punished as this meeting will discuss where you can and CANNOT go."

  While we walked to the auditorium, I noticed Angel separate from our group. Presumably, because she was going to the back of the group of freshmen that we marched with.

  So, all of us followed her and we wound up at the back of the auditorium. Jack pulled out a pack of gummies and passed it around to all of us. I sat right next to a random student to my left and Angel to my right.

  The seats were rather uncomfortable. A tad on the itchy side rather than the cozy side. Our view from here was also unpleasant, but I honestly didn't care about what was happening on center stage. Steve stated,

  "I have a joke. What's long, sticky, and has cu-"

  "Cucumber, you immature dumbass," Emily said.

  Me and Angel laughed silently as we ate our gummies. Fron and Robert were so focused on not getting their pens stolen that they didn't pay attention to the joke.

  Jack, however, laughed out loud and slapped his knees in an absolute holler.

  "OH MAN! That's hilarious!"

  This prompted a very, very, VERY, long conversation mainly consisting of jokes about Emily between Jack and Steve. The only reason I was barely hearing them was because I was beginning to pay attention up front.

  The principal was beginning to prepare her likely prolonged speech. Her previous slender, intimidating figure was still present. Yet, she wore a smile that fits perfectly between her cheekbones to the rest of the students.

  The principal, who was named Mrs. Longten based on a banner that displayed her name, then said,

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  "Hello, Altandor High School, and good morning!" She waited for a response from the students. But all of us were so busy talking with other students that we didn't even bat an eye or ear at the stand.

  The principal cleared her voice loudly. In a booming voice, she shouted,

  "GOOD MORNING!"

  "Good morning!" Everybody stated back in sync. Some kids stared nervously at the principal. As if they had missed their one big chance to impress.

  "Thank you. Some of you may be freshmen, while others have heard of this briefing before. So I'll try to be 'brief!'" Mrs. Longten said. She chuckled at her own joke.

  No one laughed at the joke. Well, no one apart from Steve. Who, already dying laughing at his joke about how long Mrs. Longten's nose was, was now laughing hysterically.

  And I have to admit, he wasn't wrong about the size of her nose, it was pretty darn big. But Steve was still laughing away and he could hardly breathe in a single ounce of oxygen. Then, Mrs. Longten said,

  "I'm overjoyed that at least one of my students laughed at my joke! Anyways, this briefing will give you a rundown of the school. So, we shall begin now."

  "In our school, there are four major buildings and two outer buildings. The four buildings will be where you proceed to learn about your subjects and electives. Where you'll meet your classmates and possible companions. And where you'll hopefully become enlightened with the school spirit!"

  Steve was still laughing. But this time, he hid his laughter behind his large backpack, which made him sound like he was silently crying instead of laughing.

  "-and also where the counselors' offices and my office will be. Meanwhile, the two outer buildings are the nurses' office and the Gym. You probably know what those are from your previous schools. Am I correct?"

  Everybody said yes simultaneously, including myself. Apart from Steve, who was dying laughing.

  "Ah, that's good. Now, of course, there are rules on the first day. In that, you will be respectful to every single student, no matter if they're new or not. You will also follow one specific rule, which I will go over now. I'm going to talk about places you should never go as a student,"

  "You shouldn't go anywhere near the forest and the basement of the D building."

  Emily then raised her hand impatiently. Mrs. Longten asked,

  "Yes, blonde at the back over there?"

  "Why can't we go to the basement of the D building?" Emily asked her. Mrs. Longten's eyelids twitched in complicated contemplation. It was like she wasn't expecting anyone to ask a question, or raise an eyebrow to the D building.

  "Ah, well you see. The basement is currently under construction. It's dangerous to go down there because you can get sick! In addition, a forest is lying next to the D building and is a perilous place where it is presumed that wolves are its inhabitants. So please, never go there under any circumstances!" Mrs. Longten responded.

  "So..? Can't you just wear a mask to the basement? And just avoid the wolves in the forest?" Emily replied.

  "Masks don't work there. There is no way you can avoid those wolves in the forest. So again, under no circumstances shall you ever go near there." Mrs. Longten flatly said, staring daggers at Emily now.

  Emily and the rest of us frankly (apart from Steve who couldn't stop laughing) were confused about why a mask wouldn't work to stop inhaling toxic fumes from the basement.

  Because, well, that's the whole point of a mask.

  But we just assumed that they were using unstable chemicals and compounds that would likely go through a mask if that was even possible. So, we stopped asking questions, ceased our confusion, and let Mrs. Longten finish her briefing.

  "As I was saying, you shouldn't ever go to the basement of the D building and the forest. We have also implemented a new teacher program here at our school. But we will let your homeroom teachers let you know more about this program."

  "However now, it is time for you students to head off to your homerooms! The exits are behind your back, to your left, and to your right as you make your way out. Have a wonderful rest of your day!" She said, with a clap which proceeded with the rest of us clapping and moving away from our seats to the exits.

  Angel and I walked together past a separate exit. We were farther away from the exit where the rest of our friends were heading towards.

  "What did you think about the briefing?" I asked her out of interest.

  "I wish I was able to hear it. But unfortunately for me, I sat next to Steve." She sighed in disappointment. I patted her back, saying in part,

  "Aw, don't worry. You didn't miss much anyway!" I waved my hand to signal to the rest of our friends that we were here. They walked over to us, waving past a crowd of sophomores to do so.

  We were soon instructed to our homerooms where our homeroom teachers would watch over us as we explored the campus. I found this a bit odd. When are we finally going to explore the school by ourselves?

  Each of us soon found where our homerooms were by our Scruplots. There was an app on each of our home screens specifically used for each of our classes. Robert then stated,

  "Oh crap, my homeroom is at the C building!"

  "Isn't that the farthest distance from the campus?" Jack replied.

  And he was right as the C building was a full two miles away from the main campus. The D building, the building we were supposedly not supposed to go into, was only half a mile away. The A and B buildings stood next to each other.

  "Ugh, are you kidding me!? I'm gonna have to go if I want to make it two minutes late. Cya guys!" Robert said, sprinting down the hall as he nearly bumped into another freshman.

  "He needs to be more careful," Steve said.

  "Mhm." I agreed. Meanwhile, though, Fron looked at his Scruplot, turned to us, and said in a shaky voice,

  "Bye, everyone!" He walked silently over to where Robert ran. I assumed that he more than likely was going to the same exact building as Robert judging by how defeated he seemed.

  "Bye, have a safe trip!" I called back. He waved back at us while Emily looked down at her Scruplot and her mouth wriggled just a tad bit.

  Alright, that's a lie. Her mouth was squirming so much that I thought she was having a stroke.

  "What's wrong?" Jack asked her.

  "Look." She said in an aggressive tone. He looked at the Scruplot and gulped in horror.

  "Do you have the same homeroom as her?!"

  "Yup. I'm gonna go to the guidance office instead of my homeroom. I have to switch out to a different room right now." She said, Jack hurried over to her and stated,

  "Here, let me come with you." Emily only nodded at him as they walked to the back of the building and assumably ran over to the guidance office at the D building.

  It was now only me, Angel, and Steve left.

  "Okay, let's see where my homeroom is," I muttered to myself, not exactly ecstatic with the possibility of having to travel two miles or only a few feet. Steve also looked down at his Scruplot. Although, I genuinely have no clue how he was able to get it out of his mess of a bag.

  "AH-HAH!" Me and Steve pointed at each other simultaneously. We both knew that we had the same homeroom and we both smirked at one another. Angel looked at her Scruplot and tapped on my arm.

  I turned to her where she accidentally shoved the Scruplot on my face. She backed away as I adjusted my eyesight. While Steve and I were at the A building on the second floor; Angel realized her homeroom was in the same building, just on the third floor.

  She rushed towards the staircases in a hurry, waving us goodbye. We both waved back and headed over to the other set of staircases as our classroom resided right next to it.

  As we were walking, Steve—with his comically large backpack—glared down at his Scruplot carefully. I leaned over his shoulder and noticed that he was going over a list of people who were in our classroom.

  A red dot was also present on his tablet's camera.

  "Thinking of anyone in particular?" I asked him.

  "Well. It's said that we're gonna have to stick with our homeroom for the rest of our high school lives. Why not?" He replied. I shrugged and stated,

  "Maybe because I can live with myself knowing no one in my homeroom."

  "Uh-huh." He said back, punching me in the arm lightly. I chuckled while students around us began to flow into their homerooms in droves. I checked the time. We were still going to be on time for our homeroom. I mean, it's only one floor up!

  Speaking of which, when we got to the staircase, Steve showed me his Scruplot for the location of our classroom.

  As said beforehand, it was right next to the staircase. So, that meant that we at least had enough time to go visit Angel's homeroom. I asked Steve,

  "Hey, can you find out where Angel's homeroom is?"

  "Uh, I don't think I can look up her homeroom particularly. But I can go through all of the homeroom teacher's students and see if she's one of them." He stated.

  I nodded in agreement and as I looked at the time, we had about ten minutes. More than enough to get to the third floor and get back before that annoying automatic bell rang into our underdeveloped eardrums.

  "It looks like we got lucky. I found her on the first try." He stated, pointing at her name in the list of students that were in one of the homerooms.

  "Her last name is Porridge?" I asked him.

  "Yeah. Her family is harsh on her. I think I heard a rumor that her middle name was supposed to be 'Flower'. But because she was born a girl, she has the middle name of Anthony. Don't ask me why her middle name is like that, though. I'm seriously not sure." He said.

  I frowned as I saw that the homeroom was right next to the staircase as well. It was just on the opposite side of the building next to the other staircase.

  "Let's go, then," I stated. We headed off to the third floor and walked down the third floor.

  This took a solid four minutes.

  Yeah, the thing about the A building is that it was the largest building in the entire school. This is likely due to the cafeteria installed within the A building, causing a large gap of space in the second and third floors.

  As we passed by the third floor, we noticed that there were railings alongside the gap created by the cafeteria which were, in hindsight, pretty to look at. Whoever built this school knew what they were doing after all.

  "Did the Scruplot say anything about our teacher being a robot or not?" I asked him.

  "I'm not sure. It doesn't say the teacher's name, which is pretty weird. But there might be some unknown reason why."

  "I have an inkling it might have to do with last year and Veronica with that teacher," I stated. Steve snapped his finger and pointed at me.

  "Now that does make sense."

  Across the hallway, however, we spotted Jack walking from the middle staircase on the third floor. We rushed over to him, our feet echoing throughout the empty hallway. He looked at us in complete bafflement. In retrospect, we seemed like we were running away from something rather than toward him.

  "What's wrong? What are you guys running from?!" He asked us. Courageous as ever, he stood tall and looked behind us to see that unless Casper the ghost was chasing us. There was nothing there.

  "Huh? Oh, we're not running away from something. We were running to you. Why are you back so early?" I asked him.

  "Emily couldn't change homerooms because they're supposed to be with you until the end of your high school career. The counselor said maybe by the end of the year they would switch her out. But I personally think that's just an empty promise." He said. He scratched the back of his head so hard that I thought he would rip his scalp open.

  "Crap. Who was she trying to avoid in her homeroom anyway?" Steve asked out of curiosity.

  "Uhm. Veronica." Jack replied.

  Steve and I grimaced at that grim news. We knew exactly what that homeroom was going to be like. Pure, unadulterated chaos.

  "Where's her homeroom at?" Steve asked him. I thought the same thing because in the case of both Emily and Veronica crossing paths. We needed to be prepared for a full-out war.

  "It's in the B building, so we can't exactly go there and come back here in time for homeroom." He stated. We sighed and walked along the third floor once again. This time, with us by his side.

  "Where's your homeroom then?" I asked Jack.

  "Oh, it should be, uhm..."

  "Lemme double check." He pulled out his Scruplot from a pocket in his backpack and checked his screen. He furiously tapped on it for a few seconds, obviously frustrated over the slow internet here.

  Then, he showed it to us, which caused Steve and I to smile. We had the same homeroom as him.

  "We have the same homeroom! Let's go!" Steve exclaimed. Jack smirked thoughtfully, glee substituting his worry. I simply smiled and dove my hands in my pockets.

  As we were arriving at Angel's homeroom, Jack realized he had drunk way too much water on the way there. He had to go to the bathroom. Steve tried to make a potty joke, but I stopped him from saying it just in the nick of time.

  However, as we stood waiting by the restroom's exits. We heard a scream screech from the hallway that sounded as if someone was being cheese-grated. Beside us, on the corner of Angel's homeroom, we heard rapid footsteps suddenly ceasing.

  Me and Steve looked at each other, puzzled beyond belief. We collectively decided to investigate what was going on, and perhaps help some poor soul on the way.

  "DON'T GO ANYWHERE!" We heard a girl shout, followed by whimpering from another student. I peeked around the corner while Steve peered down from behind me.

  Bullying wasn't all that rare in a school building. No matter how academically successful or prestigious a school is, there will always be one common denominator. For whatever reason, the Redwoods hadn't solved the lack of control in hatred.

  If they couldn't, I suppose no one else could.

  We soon discovered that it was Angel who was in a corner surrounded by two girls. She had been the one that had screamed for mercy.

  But they simply ignored her, seizing their hands on her bag. After a slight tug battle, they eventually snatched from her hands and began emptying its cascading contents.

  I was irate to say the least. Steve seemed to share the same emotion. His fist being curled up into a white ball gave a rather clear indication.

  However, I didn't want to pick a fight on the first day. Especially with girls who looked like they were twice our height and size. Plus, based on their physique, I would bet they might've been seniors. I would also bet they would and could beat our asses into a smoothie.

  I decided to tell Steve,

  "Hey, calm down and stay here. I have an idea to save her."

  He nodded and turned his back on the wall as I collected every single thought of this plan going awry, placed it into my brain's recycling bin, and approached the two girls.