I sat through the rest of the history lesson trying to process all the stuff the teachers were telling us. It just couldn't be right, could it? But alas, it seemed like the fact that the Olympian gods weren't real was common knowledge to the people of this era. Dani was right in saying tha there was no point trying to convince everyone else that the mythical gods, monsters and heroes were real. I suppose some of my new classmates noticed that something was wrong with me, because I saw a few of them staring in my direction. "What a total space cadet," one boy in a white shirt with some sort of yellow creature on it said to another.
"Give her a break, Buster, she's new," the second boy replied. He was wearing a black jumper and beanie. Why he was wearing it inside, I had no idea. It wasn't cold in the classroom.

Dani and Freda took me to their "usual spot" during the morning break. While I was eating the apple Ma had packed for my recess, the boy in the beanie approached the group. "H-Hey," he said shyly. He kept his head down.
"Hey, Johnny," Dani replied to him.
"Ummm, hello," I said, not wanting to seem rude.
"Hey, you're...um, Alexis, right?" He asked me.
"Er, Alexia, actually," I replied.
"Oh! Alexia, got it. I'm Johnny. I, uh, came to apologise." He fidgeted a bit, playing with the sleeves of his jumper.
"Apologise? What did you break this time?" Freda looked at him. I couldn't tell if it was a serious question or not. Johnny didn't look offended by it. He only looked more nervous and scratched his head.
"That's not it...I wanted to apologise for my bro Buster this morning," he said.
"Ooh, that Buster!" Freda looked like she wanted to punch Buster the instant she saw him. "He was staring at Lexi-is it okay if I call you that?-all lesson! I swear I heard him call her a space cadet, too."
"Yeah, I wanted to apologise for all that. He, uh, doesn't exactly mean everything he says. He sorta just says whatever's on his mind. It causes a ton of trouble-" at this, Freda mumbled, 'I can imagine,'-"but he's really not that bad."
"I see," I replied. I guessed that I must've looked a bit strange during the history lesson; I remembered staring at the ceiling for most of the class. "Thanks."
"It's alright. He was actually gonna come himself, but he kinda...chickened out at the last minute. It happens," Johnny explained while still scratching his head.

That was how Freda, Johnny and I became friends. Strangely, Dani left the group, so it was just the three of us in the "usual spot", under a tree in the yard. I asked Dani about it on Friday morning. I figured it must've been because Johnny had started sitting there (Freda asked him why he had done this; he explained that we gave him an excuse not to sit with his brother and his friends, who could get very annoying). Dani said that he reminded her of her escape from the orphanage, for some reason. Although that was very unusual, if it was the case it was a decent reason not to sit with us, especially as she had then gone on to say that she didn't want it to stop me or Freda from being friends with him. So Freda and I welcomed him; what with the problem of his brother Buster being annoying, it sounded like he needed some other friends. And we were definitely grateful that Johnny was there the next Tuesday.

It was very sudden; an assembly was randomly announced during lunchtime. The entire school trooped to the assembly hall. Students were talking loudly the entire way there. Freda, Johnny and I had walked together, and we were stuck at the back of the crowd. But as the army of students and teachers went on down the hallway, we found ourselves moving through the mass of bodies, until we could actually see into the corridor we were walking through. In the span of about fifteen seconds, we'd gone from the back of the group to the front. Mrs Petra was one of the only people in front of us. I looked at Johnny, who also seemed to have only just realised this. He had a confused look on his face. Freda was also still somehow next to me, and she was just as puzzled as we were.

We continued along the corridor. We only had about fifteen metres to go before we arrived at the large wooden doors that led into the assembly hall. I suddenly got the most ominous feeling in my tummy. I turned my head to look behind me, and was shocked. The rest of the students were about ten metres behind us! We hadn't been walking unusually fast or anything, yet we had somehow left the rest of the group behind. I got the feeling that I should turn back and attempt to lose myself in the group. But my legs would not obey me. I tried to turn around. But still my legs kept trudging onward through the long, dimly lit corridor. Despite the fact that the assembly hall door was only a few metres ahead, the corridor seemed endless. Like no matter how many steps I took, I would never reach the door-which by now, I thought was probably a good thing-and that there was somehow an even more infinite amount of corridor behind me. It would be pointless to turn back, because it would take even longer to escape the endless corridor by going that way. And even if I could, I would have to get through the moving wall of students.

I turned to Freda and Johnny. They both looked just as uneasy as I felt. I wanted to say something to them, like "what's happening?" or "we should go back", but just as my legs refused to let me turn around, my mouth refused to open. All I could do was walk slowly, silently onward towards the assembly hall. Mrs Petra was equally silent as she led us. The other teachers in front of us had fallen behind, leaving her as the only person in front of Freda, Johnny and me. She was equally silent as, upon reaching the large, wooden double doors, she took a shiny silver key from somewhere and turned it in the lock. The doors slowly opened with a loud creak that was painful to hear. The hall was pitch black; metal blinds prevented any light from entering the room through the windows. I felt myself being pushed inside the hall, despite the fact that nobody could've pushed me; Mrs Petra was holding the door open and the rest of the students were still very far behind-so far, in fact, that their talking was little more than a hum somewhere behind us. I hadn't even taken five steps when the door suddenly swung shut with a loud crash.