¹Arcene spent the majority of the rest of the day in silent observation. Unsurprisingly, her classmates had already forgotten she existed. She couldn’t blame them to be honest, she didn’t have a defining trait or characteristic to make them remember her. However, that didn’t mean Arcene didn’t find any enjoyment from her day. While she was nothing worth remembering, her classmates and teacher were quite the interesting bunch.

As Babe-Sensei went through what they were going to learn for each subject, she got incredibly excited whenever one of the students raised their hand to ask a question. She seemed to really get a kick out of teaching the students.

She gushed about decorating their homeroom and even showed them some of the posters she planned to put up, one of them including a picture of the grinning yellow octopus² that Arcene saw earlier on her teacher’s book.

Arcene looked at her class schedule. Just as Babe-Sensei said, she would be teaching all of their core classes as well as sex ed. Currently, they were in their English class. Personally, Arcene was a bit fond of English classes. To her, it was just an extension of the things she did by herself on a daily basis.

She pulled out the booklist for the class and scanned its contents. There were five books on the list: The Giver, The Crucible, Frankenstein, The Book Thief, and Fight For You.³

‘Fight For You…?’ Arcene looked up at her teacher, who was still talking about the English curriculum. ‘I’ve never heard of this one.’

Arcene raised her hand to get her teacher’s attention.

She sat with her hand up but Babe-Sensei continued teaching. Ten minutes passed before Arcene finally gave up.

‘Oh right, teachers don’t always notice me…’ she thought, with a twinge of frustration.

Bored, she looked out the window and daydreamed for the rest of the period.

…………………

Arcene looked at the scrap of paper in her hand as she sat crouched on the ground. She twisted the combination lock and pulled. The door opened with ease. She tucked the paper into her I.D. and pulled her school laptop, a pencil bag, and a notebook out of her bag. As she was doing this, she saw a shadow cast itself over her. Arcene looked up to see a Hispanic girl with short, jet black hair.

“Excuse me,” she said.

Arcene shifted a bit to her left to give the girl some space. As the girl worked to open her locker, Arcene wracked her brain, trying to remember the girl’s name.

‘It was something that started with an M…..Mercy? Michella? Marceline? No…Marcella!’

Arcene looked up again at the girl who was putting her stuff in her locker above her. The girl paid her no mind and continued her business

‘Should is say something?’ Arcene wondered. She sat there for a few moments, trying to make up her mind. After a bout of indecision, she finally geared herself up to talk to the girl.

“So, what classes-“

The rest of her words caught in her throat. The girl standing above her, Marcella Gervasio held a large knife in her hand. Arcene’s eyes widened and her jaw dropped as Marcella polished her knife, paying no attention to Arcene.

Arcene looked around wildly at the crowded hallway. Marcella was in full view of everyone yet nobody seemed to react to her pulling out a weapon. Arcene didn’t let out a sound, glad that the other girl didn’t seem to notice her staring. She watched as Marcella tucked the knife into a holder strapped to her thigh, close her locker door, and disappear down the crowded hallway.

Arcene finally let herself breath. The mixed feelings towards her classmates once more returned. Marcella wasn’t the only one of her classmates that carried a weapon by far. How they had brought swords, knives, and guns into the school in full view without anyone reacting was beyond her.⁴

She grabbed her stuff and headed down the stairwell and then towards the gym. She pushed open the door and stepped into the state of the art gym, one of the two the academy owned. Arcene walked across the freshly waxed floor.

“Sit on the bleachers!” called out a male gym teacher to the entering students. “We’re doing weights and measurements!”

Arcene climbed up the bleachers and sat on the highest row.

‘Weights and measurements….’

Arcene placed one hand on her chest and the other on her stomach. She squeezed the fat on her stomach before exhaling in dissatisfaction. Ah, the classic inner turmoil of the American teenage girl: wanting bigger boobs while also wanting to be thinner.

“We’ll be calling you guys in alphabetical order” called out a female gym teacher.

Arcene pushed her thoughts out of her mind and payed attention to the names being called.

“Jia-Li Ah-Kum, Nile Amity, Pakeezah Answari, Christopher Arlen…”

And so the names went on. Looking at how many people were in the gym, Arcene figured that despite her last name starting with a G, she would still have to wait awhile before it was her turn for measurements. She slowly began to zone out until she heard a familiar name called out by one of the gym teachers.

“Mesi Bahr!”

Arcene’s mind quickly sharpened at the mention of one of her classmates’ names. Her eyes focussed on the mass of thick, wavy, dark blue hair that got up and clumsily made her way down the bleachers. She was the same scaly skinned girl Arcene had seen in the classroom. Her looks gave Arcene the impression she was middle eastern, but never in her life had Arcene seen a middle eastern girl with gills!

The way the girl walked was as if she weren’t quite used to her legs. She walked slowly with her feet bare and with her arms out to her side to keep her balance. Though her gait was clumsy, when she reached the door to where the measurements were to be taken, she had a large grin on her face, as if proud to have been able to walk the few yards to the line outside the door.

Just like in the hallway, nobody seemed to notice how strange Arcene’s classmate were. Arcene looked around, searching for her classmates. Far to her right, sat the boy in a red hood and cape. On the bottom bleacher sat the rabbit girl and wolf boy. On the other end of that same bleacher another one of Arcene’s classmates who had near floor length blond hair. On either side of her sat two men with dark sunglasses and earpieces on. Near the middle sat the green skinned girl as well as the green haired one⁵. Another, white haired girl sat a few steps below her. Try as she might, Arcene couldn’t find the silver haired boy or the one that had disappeared when she looked at him. As for her other classmates, their appearances were normal enough that she wouldn’t be able to find them amongst the crowded bleachers.

So far, her classmates seemed rather normal, appearances and weapons aside. Nothing crazy had happened during class.

‘Maybe the school year would actually be normal as I thought‘ reasoned Arcene.

Arcene nodded her head in agreement with herself, but as she thought this, she felt a pang of disappointment.

“Arcene Gray!”

Arcene climbed down the bleachers and got in line. When it was finally her turn, she accepted her expected measurements and afterwards climbed back up to her perch at the top of the bleachers

“Köl Jaëger!”

Arcene heard a click from her right. The sound should have been indistinguishable from the noise from the gym, but for some reason, Arcene turned her attention back to the boy in the red hood.

Arcene’s eyes widened as, with his mouth in a grim line he pointed a long gun with a wide tip at Köl, the wolf boy, as he walked across the gym floor. The boy stood up and without hesitation, pulled the trigger.⁶

BAM!

Arcene covered her ears and squeezed her eyes shut as the sound ricocheted around the room. Outside of the noise, there was no sound. After a few seconds, the sound began to fade. Arcene contemplated opening her eyes and seeing the carnage, but fear gripped her.

“Tch.”

Arcene opened her eyes. Her first instinct was to look at the red hooded shooter. On his face was a look of dissatisfaction as the silver haired boy from earlier held the barrel of his gun upwards toward the ceiling. Arcene looked to where Köl had been standing. There, he lay on the floor face down.⁷ Arcene’s heart raced and she heard a scream echo in her mind, but before it could make its way out, Köl’s ears perked up and twitched. The boy lifted his head and looked around, unharmed. Arcene breathed a sigh of relief.

“You made me miss,” growled the boy in the red hood.

“You shouldn’t be trying to kill your classmates,” replied the silver haired boy in a quiet voice.

The removed his hood from his head, revealing brown hair and burgundy eyes. “And you shouldn’t get in my way,” replied the boy as he pulled the gun barrel out of the other’s hand and holstered it behind his back. “You just made my life a lot harder.”⁸

Arcene didn’t know where the silver haired boy had come from but she was glad he had stopped the other boy. As much as Arcene wanted excitement this school year, she wouldn’t have liked to see anyone die on the first day.

“What was that?”

The crowd of kids began looking around for the source of the noise and their silence turned into loud murmuring.

“Calm down everyone, it’s just the boiler. It’s right underneath the gym!” shouted one of the gym teachers.

Satisfied with this answer, the students resumed their talking.

Arcene was dumbfounded. Could nobody see that one of the students had a gun and just fired on another student?!

Apparently, some people did, about fifteen of them, all from Class 9-S. The bunny girl rushed to her friend’s side and hurriedly began checking him for injuries. As she searched his body, Köl locked eyes with the boy who had shot at him. He muttered something to the girl, who cast an anxious glance in the same direction.

“What’s taking so long ,Jaëger?” called one of the gym teachers in a loud voice.

“Nothing!” called back the wolf boy. He gave the white haired girl another look, a tacit conversation going on between them, before joining the line for measurements, eyeing the red hooded boy the whole time.

‘Nothing wrong? He almost got shot!’ thought Arcene.

“CITIZEN, I REQUEST THAT YOU RELINQUISH YOUR FIREARM.”

Arcene sucked in a breath and turned her attention back to the other end of the bleachers. Floating above the bleachers was Allen Noble, yet another member of Arcene’s class. Yes, floating. The boy could fly.

It seemed that the longer Arcene observed her classmates, the more bizarre they became.

Even though so far she had only shared one class with Allen, it hadn’t taken long for her to learn that the guy had no inside voice.

As Arcene watched Allen, arms crossed, floating, and with his carefully groomed black hair, she couldn’t help but imagine a red cape floating behind him. If it weren’t for his eyebrows the size of caterpillars, he’d be the spitting image of Superman in a school uniform.⁹

“WEAPONS SUCH AS THE ONE YOU USE ARE NOT ALLOWED IN A SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT. PLEASE HAND YOUR WEAPON TO THE NEAREST FACULTY MEMBER.”

The boy gave Allen a look of distaste.

“IF YOU ARE HESITANT TO GO TO A TEACHER ALONE, I WILL BE HAPPY TO ASSIST YOU.”

“Nobody can see it, idiot,” he replied.

“TRUE,” Allen stopped and thought for a moment before extending his hand. “IN THAT CASE, I ASK THAT YOU GIVE ME YOUR FIREARM FOR SAFE KEEPING SINCE YOU HAVE PROBLEMS CONTROLLING IT.”

“Tch.”

The boy drew his red hood over his head and began walking down the bleachers.

“WAIT-” called out Allen after him.

“Allen Noble!” called out one of the gym teachers, looking around.

Allen looked between the boy and the gym teacher before flying to his place in the line.

“WE SHALL FINISH THIS LATER” he shouted to boy in the red hood as he passed through the doors and exited the gym.

………………..

“BABE-SENSEI, I MUST DISCUSS SOMETHING OF MUCH IMPORTANCE WITH YOU.”

“Yes, uh…..” Babe-Sensei glanced at the list of names she had on her desk “Allen,” she finished. “Do we need to speak in private or…?”

Babe-sensei glanced at the students that had returned to her room for math class. As Allen was pretty loud, they all had their attention on them.

“NO, THIS CONCERNS EVERYONE IN THE CLASS.”

Allen pulled out a bunch of papers and began to flip through them. “ACCORDING TO SCHOOL HANDBOOK SECTION 3, ARTICLE 1, WEAPONS, SUCH AS KNIVES AND FIREARMS AND MORE ARE NOT ALLOWED ON THE SCHOOL PREMISES.”

“Didn’t they give the handbook to you guys digitally?” asked Babe-Sensei.

“YES, BUT I TOOK THE INITIATIVE OF PRINTING IT OUT SO THAT I MAY ALWAYS HAVE IT ON HAND. BUT THAT’S BESIDES THE POINT” Allen pointed towards his classmates, eyes still locked with his teacher’s. “I MUST BRING IT TO YOUR ATTENTION THAT WEAPONS HAVE BEEN BROUGHT ONTO THE PREMISES BY MY CLASSMATES. FOR THEIR OWN SAFETY AND IN RESPECT TO THE RULES WE’VE BEEN GRACIOUSLY HANDED DOWN TO US BY THE ADMINISTRATION, I REQUEST THAT YOU CONFISCATE ALL WEAPONRY FROM MY FELLOW CLASSMATES.”

Loud murmuring and protests enveloped the classroom as guarded glares were aimed at Allen and Babe-Sensei. Though by now, many items had been put into lockers, upon close inspection, weaponry could still be seen hidden inside the holsters and clothing of the students.

Babe-Sensei let the students have their moment of discontent as she let out her own worried sigh. The fact that a good portion of her students were armed had worried her as well. Dinari had prepped her with information about any dangerous aspects there may be about her students so it’s not like they were any surprise to her. What worried her however, was the advice he had given her regarding it.

Babe-Sensei raised her hand and silenced the class. “Listen, Allen, I appreciate your concern but our class is going to be the exception to the rule….” she said, placing a hand on his shoulder.

“BUT THE HANDBOOK-“

“I know, but our class is a…” she looked at her students,”special case.”

“BUT ONE OF THE STUDENTS FIRED UPON ANOTHER!” Allen exclaimed.

“WHAT?!” Babe-Sensei exclaimed. “WHO?!”

Allen pointed at the boy in the red hood and cape. Babe-Sensei took in a deep breath before glaring at the boy. “I’ll deal with you later. As for all of you, in light of the situation, I will introduce you to this rule.”

Babe-Sensei intertwined her fingers in front of her face and smiled pleasantly. “If you want to lay a single finger over on each other, you’ll have to fight me FIRST because no way, in hell am I letting one of you guys die while I am your teacher!”

At first there was total stunned silence before a boy sitting in the back burst out laughing. All eyes turned to him. His black hair was greased back and the collar of his shirt was opened beyond school regulations. He was leaning back in his chair with his feat up on the desk.

“Killing you would be child’s play,” he claimed with a cocky smile. “Just pull a blade on her. She’ll beg for mercy,” he said it to his classmates.

“Raphael, I am a teacher. One skill of a good teacher is being a good disciplinarian. I assure you, I can follow through on my methods of discipline,” replied Babe-Sensei.

Raphael¹¹ pulled out a switchblade and smiled wickedly. He pointed the blade at the teacher. “And I can’t wait to see if you’ll prove it.”

Babe-Sensei met his look of challenge evenly before proceeding to her next words. “Remember this, this will be one of our most important class rules. Try to bypass it, you’ll suffer the consequences.”

………………..

Arcene walked down the empty school hallway. The first day of school was over, the bell had rung and everyone had rushed out. Arcene stepped onto the bridge connecting the two buildings. The afternoon light shined through the large glass windows. A breeze came in from an open window causing Arcene’s curly hair to shift on her head. Arcene slid her hand on the window sill, enjoying the silent pleasantness of the moment.

Even though the day was over, she didn’t feel like going home quite yet. She knew she wouldn’t be alone like she usually was; her sisters were probably already on their way back home, but she also had the extreme thirst to be somewhere unfamiliar and new.

The school campus was just the place. It was large and had plenty of nooks and crannies to look into. Arcene had taken the tour of the school before summer break ended, but the directions had been long forgotten in the following days.

Arcene stepped off the bridge and into the next building. She checked the map key on the wall. Most of the classes in this area of the school contained classes of the creative sort: music, art, drama, dance, and cooking.

As she walked, Arcene peaked into multiple classrooms, occasionally entering to get a better look. A few of the classrooms had teachers in them but luckily they were friendly enough to let her look in their rooms before leaving quietly.

As she strolled deeper into the building, the noise of her footsteps was joined by the sound of music. Arcene’s ears perked up. The music was faint, but the few notes she could hear brought back memories. With little thought to it, her body turned to the direction the music was coming from and she moved towards her source.

As the music became clearer, so did the memory bringing itself to the surface of her mind.

A six year old Arcene stood at the side of the baby grand piano as she watched its player create magic using its keys. On the other side of the piano stood her Oralie, four years old, standing on her tiptoes in order to better see the action. The girls stood, mesmerized by the clear, calm notes filling the room. Arcene leaned her head on the side of the piano, staring up at her elder sister in admiration.

Callista, though only seven at the time, had a strange power over the keys of the piano and expertise beyond her years. Her hands were small but loose; her ears and eyes perfectly in tune with each other; her focus acute.

She hit the final note and leaned back on the bench. However, the notes still hung in the minds of her sisters, leaving them lost in a reverie. She looked at her sisters and smiled. The spell on the two girls broke and they left their posts at the side of the piano, grinning as they climbed onto the piano bench to join their sister.

“Twinkle Twinkle Little Star!” exclaimed Oralie.

Callista smiled wider and replaced her hands on the keys. The memory faded at the sound of piano music and and happy, off-key, childish, singing.¹²

Arcene came closer to the source of the music. She wracked her brain, trying to remember the name of the piece that struck such a strong chord within her. She stopped in front of a music room with its door slightly ajar. She peaked through the door’s window.

At a grand piano in the center of the room sat a girl whose hair was fire in the afternoon sunlight. Even from a distance, Arcene could tell that the girl was beautiful. Arcene was tempted to enter the room, but fearing she’d cause the girl to stop playing.

Arcene stepped away from the door but nearly slammed it open when something in the music room caught her eye. Behind the girl, in a dark corner of the room, floated an ominous glowing form. Arcene’s jaw fell open, but she closed it when the form’s shape became more distinct.

It was the boy that had disappeared when Arcene had looked at him earlier. Looking at him now, Arcene could see a head full of thick, waves that covered the boy’s eyes, large headphones around his neck, and a uniform jacket that’s sleeves were long enough to cover his hands.

The boy floated in silence, listening to the girl play.

Arcene’s hand reached for the door but she drew back. She took a step to leave but couldn’t bring herself to move any further. Her mind said to leave ,but her body, enamored with the music, wanted to stay.

She leaned against the wall beside the door and slid to the ground, pulling her knees up to her chin. She closed her eyes and reminisced. The pleasant memory continued to replay itself in her head. The warmth, the smiles…. Arcene wracked her brain, trying to remember the name of the piece.

How many times had she looked through her sister’s classical pieces and seen hundreds of different songs? Amongst the song library she had formed in her head, at least one of them had to be the one she was listening to.

‘Für Elise. That’s what it is,’ she realized, opening her eyes. It used to be one of her favorite classical pieces when she was younger. Whenever Callista would play it, she’d always creep into the room to listen. It had been so long since she last heard it.

The music continued to drift out the room and Arcene continued to listen.

‘She plays beautifully. She’s almost as good as Callista, maybe even better,’ thought Arcene. ‘I think her name was Lyra. I believe I’ve seen her before…on tv?’

Arcene vaguely remembered a girl with fiery red hair singing on stage on a televised singing competition. Arcene couldn’t really recall the performance as she was just passing by when her sisters were watching the show but the girl was really good if she remembered it correctly.

‘I wonder if I’ll hear her sing again…’

As for the boy who floated behind Lyra as she played, all Arcene could remember was that he had a really weird name.¹³

Arcene opened her eyes as Fur Elise drew to a close. She lifted her head, only to be surprised by a person leaning against the lockers across from her. She instinctively pulled her knees closer to her body and stared at the boy in front of her.

It was the boy with the silver hair again. Thankfully, his eyes were closed as he listened to the music. Arcene didn’t know what she would do if she was caught once more under his piercing eyes. However, she had no idea where he had even come from. He seemed to have been there for awhile yet Arcene didn’t even know he was there.

Arcene carefully got up from her place on the floor. She lowered her head and dusted her skirt off but as she was in the process of doing this, she felt eyes piercing into her. She lifted her head and met the icy blue eyes focused on her.

Arcene couldn’t say he was scary, or even bad looking. In fact, he was handsome, with long eyelashes and a beauty mark under his eye, and even from afar Arcene could tell that the violet scarf wrapped around his neck was high quality, but standing in the deserted hallway with him staring at her was unnerving, especially for someone so unused to attention.

Before Arcene could break eye contact and run awkwardly away, he looked away and pulled his scarf over the lower half of his face, seemingly embarrassed.

“S-sumimasen….” he stammered before hurriedly speed walking down the hallway.

Arcene watched him as he disappeared around a corner.

‘Sumimasen?’ thought Arcene.¹⁴

The door to the music room slowly began to open and a voice echoed out.

“You know Naptali, I don’t mind you listening to me play. You don’t have to disappear like that.”

Arcene, afraid of being seen again turned and ran away. If the Lyra and the other boy approached her, she didn’t know what she’d do.

1. Might change the title.

2. I think I had just finished watching Assassination Classroom when I was writing this.

3. This last one is made up. All the others are ones I actually read in high school. I wanted a book I could make about anything to better suit the story’s plot.

4. Considering the current climate regarding violence (especially guns) in schools, I’d probably change the weapons the students use and when they are shown to have them.

5. There’s got to be a better way to differentiate these two characters.

6. If I rewrote this, I would either eliminate this scene entirely or change the character’s(Chase’s) weapon to a crossbow.

7. If he didn’t get hit or know he was being aimed at, he shouldn’t be on the floor.

8. I didn’t get far enough to explain this, but there was going to be a whole subplot where every “Red Riding Hood” has their own wolf and they’re destined to kill one another. Chase (the kid in the red hood) hates Kol because he thinks he’s his wolf.

9. Allen was inspired by Ishimaru from the first Danganronpa and Superman.

10. This is stupid. I should have had them leave them at home or have her confiscate the weapons at the beginning of each day.

11. Raphael was supposed to be the son of a mafioso from a 1930s Mafia comic. He was going to be the class bad boy.

12. Arcene used to have a good relationship with her sisters, but it was ruined by her parents’ mistreatment of her.

13. I ultimately named him Naptali Stanley Brook because I wanted him to be an expy of Napstablook from Undertale. At the point when I was writing this, I was planning to name him Koobla Tspan for the same reason. Thank God I didn’t.

14. I was obsessed with anime/Japanese culture when I was younger. If I had an Asian character in a story, I guarantee that they were at least part Japanese.