"Hm, if I had to pick... Yellow! What's yours?"

"Orange. It's always there no matter what! In fall times with the trees, the fruits, even the sunset!" I looked directly at Steve and whispered,

"For a guy who talks like that, I don't see much of a threat."

"And oh! Allow me to introduce you to my friends." Emily suddenly stated. I turned around and was shocked that Jack was extending his hand towards me.

"For the record, if stealing homework is called friendship then I just might have the wrong definition," I said, shaking Jack's hand. It was pretty big for a freshman.

"Hey don't worry, I won't steal your homework like Emily over here! Hahahahaha!" His laugh legitimately boomed through the entire cafeteria as I chuckled lightly.

"Hey! I only stole his homework a handful of times." She stated.

"Uh-huh, sure." I thought of a joke that would combine the handful she said with Jack's hands but I got way too lazy to think of any.

"And I'm uh... Steve." He whispered this in such a low voice that not even a microphone or even a miniphone would be able to pick up what he said. However, Jack must've had super hearing along with his massive hands because he stated,

"Hey Steve, I'm Jack! That's a mighty backpack you have there!" Just a massive reminder that Steve is still shaking violently from being scared straight so badly.

"T-Thanks." He said in a quivering voice, going back to playing with his wooden box.

"Hey, do you mind sitting with us for a little while?" Emily asked him. Me and Steve both exchanged shocked glances as Emily would usually never allow anyone within three feet of her, no other than a stranger.

"Sure I would love to! Those guys over there I was hanging out with were getting pretty rough anyway." As he sat down, I felt like the marbled seat and table had shaken like an earthquake, which caused me to nearly drop my notebook. Luckily I was able to keep my hands on it.

"Where are you guys from?" Jack asked us all.

"All three of us are from the city of Lovingstead in Shtar," Emily stated.

"Aw that's nice, it's not far from here if I'm not mistaken?" Jack asked her.

"No not at all!" She said in a weirdly cheerful voice, I was wondering if she was trying to go for a more approachable tone. Because if she was, then it was not working.

"Where are you from Jack?" I asked him.

"Ah, I'm from Jorin!" He exclaimed, the three of us were confused though, as we had no idea where that was.

"I'm gonna guess you don't know where that's from based on your facial expressions." He stated, we shook our heads as Jack sighed.

"Honestly not surprised, the county I come from just got liberated into the Redwood Federation a month ago." I clenched my fist.

"Wait I think I heard about it... Frolin?" Steve asked him.

"Yeah! How do you know about it?" I was genuinely curious as Jack said this too.

"I do my research on current events once in a while and I saw that a couple of weeks ago. Didn't they purchase Frolin's land until there was nearly nothing left?"

"Yeah, they kept spending and spending and everyone bought into their delusion. Even I did for a while until I realized what they were using our land for. Luckily I escaped that industrialized hellhole and came here on a sports scholarship." He stated, looking down at the marble table, and Emily looked sympathetic. Which isn't a look that's all too common for her.

"Don't worry Jack! One day people will view the Redwoods exactly as you do. Just plain old assholes." She whispered the last word out since there was a camera not too far from her.

"Yeah, back where I came from. You wouldn't ever find a school like this. Mainly because the schools there were just little buildings and an overworked teacher. That's why I don't exactly know a lot of things nerds know." He pointed towards Steve which made Emily laugh while Steve just smiled. He knew he was a nerd.

While they were talking and laughing about just how much Steve knew, I took out my notebook and started to write in my journal about Jack,

"This jockey dude that nearly broke the marble table and seating that were sitting on us named Jack, he plays football as far as I know and was pretty popular based on the group he was with before he came here at our table. And from what I can tell, he looks like a cool guy. He even shares some ideas about the Federation like hating them rather than just ignoring the hard and cold facts. Hopefully, I can get to know him more thoroughly throughout the school season."

"Alright, how's football then?" I zoned out so I completely forgot what they were talking about. And as Emily asked this I looked up from my notebook.

"As far as I know in this school, it's gonna be a hassle. This high school has one of the most elite football athletes in the whole world! Hell, they even beat Watreford 17-3!" Since I didn't know anything about sports I just assumed that that was a good score. Meanwhile, Steve looked astonished and Emily decided to not continue the conversation about sports, probably because she was just as confused with the subject as I was, but Steve persisted on!

"17-3!? Wow! And here I thought this school's Longcaster team was the best!" But before he could explain what the hell Longcaster was, another intercom rang and boomed through the cafeteria,

"All students now must report to the Cafeteria as an announcement is to be made soon!"

Of course, since the four of us were still technically in the Cafeteria, we ignored the announcement as Jack excused himself to the breakfast line.

"So what do you guys think of him?" Emily asked as soon as he went towards the line.

"He's nice." I just said, focusing on what I was going to write in my journal next.

"Yeah, he's a pretty cool guy," Steve said, catching an ultra-crossword puzzle from the sea of papers in his backpack. I watched as he sighed quickly and went to work on the puzzle.

"That's it!? Just nice and cool?" She asked the both of us.

"I just met him. Plus I don't just solely go off of first impressions." I said.

"Yeah! Don't you know the phrase 'don't judge a book by its-"

"Yeah, we know." Me and Emily said simultaneously. We both got tired of Steve talking about quotes from the past all of the damn time.

"Alright, good!" He then dropped his pencil as he was now done with the crossword puzzle.

"How the hell did you finish that so quickly?!" Emily exclaimed.

"Heh. Tough luck!" I knew this was absolute bullsh.. crap. Since he always finished puzzles as if I was washing one knife while washing dishes. Razor quick.

"Alright, I'm back." Jack was carrying a stack that could rival Emily's stack that she had eaten a couple of minutes ago. Me and Emily looked really surprised as Jack put his hands together, rubbed them, and dug into his meal.

"Geez Jack, you look like a dirty pig," Emily said while snickering. Jack looked a bit embarrassed but continued to eat.

"Hey ease off with the cockiness," Steve said to Emily. She just shrugged and stated,

"I'm not being cocky, it's the truth!"

"Mhm, sure.. not like you just ate exactly like him not a couple of minutes ago."

"Yeah, you two are the same," I added to Steve, both of them looked at each other and rubbed their necks as Jack then ate the last of.. whatever slop he was eating.

Just then though, I saw out of the corner of my eye someone slender come up to the center of the cafeteria and mostly the seniors and juniors immediately shut up while freshmen and sophomores still wouldn't, us included.

As I looked at the slender woman I knew exactly what was happening. It was the same thing when I first entered middle school and even though it's been a long time, I still remember it vividly. You see, the schools in the Redwood Federation have this weird tradition of every beginning of the school year, the principal would be standing at the center of the Cafeteria while everyone else became quiet. Supposedly this was to show respect by themselves but I saw this as useless.

"What's up?" Steve asked me, seeing as how I was legitimately staring at this woman, I guess I looked a little bit suspicious.

"Remember in sixth to eighth grade where at the beginning of every year there was the silent test?" I asked him.

"Oh shoot! I forgot about that, hey guys!" Steve stated towards Emily and Jack but they were engaged in a conversation about... the sun.

"It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen," Emily stated, Jack just nodded as I poked at Emily repeatedly. I saw her eye start to twitch so I knew that she was either going to punch me or she was going to say—

"WHAT!?"

"Behind you," I whispered as Jack turned his head towards the principal staring and glooming over us.

"What is this nagging that I'm hearing?" The principal said in a deep tone. I won't even bother describing her outfit because it just looked so.. menacing. Which I guess was the point because once Emily looked directly at her she was stunned.

"And who are you two?" She asked.

"M..m.. m-m-m—" Jack could barely get the words out. However, Emily was calm and said in a bright smile,

"My name is Emily Barlow and the guy I'm talking to is Jack Broker." She stated.

"Councils?"

"Excuse me?"

"Councils. As in what council are you from?" Emily was stunned as she probably forgot which council she was even from. And I don't even blame her, we barely got taught about that.

"Uh.. I'm from Council 7, she's from c-council 3." Thank god Jack saved the both of them, the silence and stares from everyone else was becoming a bit too much to handle.

"Hm. Alright. Thank you." The principal said, going back to the center of the cafeteria by seemingly floating over there, what a cool magic trick.

"Ahem. Hello everyone to the first day of school. For most of you, this will be the second, third, or fourth year here. However, for the lucky few, this is going to be their first-ever year. Now please, give a warm welcome to the freshmen!" As she started clapping everyone else then clapped with her which produced an erupting sound of claps. I couldn't even make out what Steve said and once the clapping stopped, she continued,

"As you know, very soon you will go to the auditorium to process what classes you must go to. If you look through your Scruplots you will see them early. Thank you for your blessed time and have a wonderful breakfast." She left soon after while people started to talk again. But this time, directed at us. Hell, there was one kid who out of nowhere said right next to us,

"The disrespect of them!"

"Can't believe they even went to this school." Another kid said.

"Does she even know the consequences?"

"She'll surely get read like a book here."

"What a stulkor!" That word meant more than stupid.

"Hahaha! The idiot couldn't even pronounce his words!" You get the idea of the comments we were hearing.

"Let's go to the other side of the cafeteria," Jack said, putting his hoodie on and throwing his tray away in bitterness as we followed him to the other side of the cafeteria, which was a whole seven minutes just because of how large the cafeteria was.

We got to an open seating area and sat down. Emily put her head down in mainly disappointment while Steve just got out another crossword puzzle which was three times larger than the last one he had.

"I'm sorry. I just get so tense when it comes to principals or any other authorities at all." Jack said, tailing his fingers in a circle.

"It's fine, I don't either. She caught us by surprise!" Emily exclaimed.

"Yeah she does that, I heard from my uncle who went to this school that in her first year, people were set aback because she doesn't even make any noises and she sets off multiple alarms to whoever she talks to," Steve said, continuing to do his puzzle.

"To hell with that! I hate when people do that." Emily said.

"Guys quiet down a bit, there's a camera right there," I stated, pointing indirectly to the camera on the ceiling. Emily just grumbled and looked at Jack.

"Hey, I have a question for you Jack," I stated.

"What is it?" He asked me back.

"Why did you run over here?" I replied.

"Well, I sorta wanted to talk with you guys. Since I couldn't deal with that group I was with." Jack replied.

"Well, what was wrong with them?" Steve asked him.

"They just made me uncomfortable. Always trying to one-up each other and critiquing everyone around them, it sucked! Lucky I was able to get away from them, thank god for that." He said, putting his head down just like what Emily was doing. I smiled widely at her and stated,

"You know... I never knew your last name was Barlow."

"Shut up, I hate using that name." She replied, hiding her mouth with her arms.

"Wait Barlow... as in Barlow Convoys?" He asked her.

"Yeah, how do you know?" Jack had an angry expression on his face and stared directly at Emily's soul.

"That's the company that ruined my Frolin."

Emily didn't say anything after that while Steve finished his puzzle and set it down.

"Jack think about it. Do you think Emily had any part in the destruction and reconstruction of your town?" He said.

"No, but—"

"But what? It's her family that's the problem, not her. You can't just think that someone's family is the same throughout, that's just unethical. And, there's a quote made by the infamous Körl that stated, 'Any person who blames someone as a whole group should be the one blamed.'"

"Why was he infamous again?" I know it was the wrong time to ask this question but I was curious.

"He illegally trafficked around 1000 kids and slaughtered about twice the number of families in the Korskan region."

"Aw man, I hate that county," Emily said.

"Well, it historically has a lot of criminals originally from there, so it makes sense." He stated all the while we were saying this, Jack was looking at Emily and looked back at Steve.

"Maybe you're right, but I still don't trust a Barlow even if my life depended on it." He slid away from where he was away from us while Emily just looked more upset.

"Hopefully we could change your mind," Steve stated in his optimism, putting his finished puzzle away.

"Wait aren't you gonna finish that?" Jack asked him.

"Bahahaha! I already finished stupid." He showed Jack the finished puzzle and his jaw dropped to the floor! Alright, not literally but you know what I mean.

"How do you even do that?!" He asked Steve.

"Well, I'll explain it to you!" As Steve explained it to him as if it was the U.S. Constitution, I opened my notebook and jotted down in my journal,

"Looks like I'm going to be stuck with these three for a while. Hopefully, I have a class with at least one of them. Mainly with Steve because he knows everything that is and has been. Still, having a class with Emily could be dangerously fun. And I would still like to get to know Jack more. And speaking of Emily..." I cut it off there and turned towards Emily.

"You alright?" I asked her. She sniffled a tiny bit which I bet she tried to hide, but she's extremely bad at hiding anything. Especially her emotions.

"Based on that sniffle I'm going to guess you're not okay," I stated.

"It's been a rough day alright!? I could barely wake up again and I skipped breakfast because I just wanted to make a good first impression for once. But of course, I fail that! Then I tried to talk to the principal on one of the most important days! And I fail that too! And I tried to make one, just one, friend today, but of course, you could guess if I failed that too!" She said this in a broken voice, I felt bad and put my hand on her shoulder.

"Usually I'm not an optimist but please, look at the bright side! You made a mark on everyone in this school for talking to the principal like that, which you successfully did! You also remade two friends successfully. You alone ate a whole family meal of breakfast successfully, and you were able to look calm and cool towards the most intimidating principal the world has ever seen! I'd call that a pretty successful day so far, even if it had some flaws." She sniffled and stated,

"You think so?"

"I know so!" I stated, she smiled and wiped her tears from her eyes.

"Wow, I didn't think that pep talk would work," I said.

"No. It didn't. I just hate looking like a sad sack!" She said, punching my arm so hard that I felt like it broke, I groaned in pain while she stood up and walked over to Jack,

"Look, Jack, you might not trust me for now! But I'll put it on my dead great grandfather's grave that by the end of the year, you will trust me! Even if that means I'll have to talk your ear off! I promise!" She promised, extending her arm out for a handshake.

"Hm.." Jack thought for a moment. Steve then whispered in his ear something that I couldn't hear, probably another one of those stupid quotes he had in his massive brain. And after another brief pause, he shook hands with her.

"Alright, let's see if you can stick to that promise Barlow."

"I will Broker!" She stated, sitting next to Jack and talking about something about aircraft while Steve pulled out yet another crossword puzzle.

"Steve by the time we get to the auditorium you're going to finish all of your crossword puzzles," I stated.

"Pfft nah, I have like four more in my backpack I'll be fine." He stated, working back on the crossword puzzle while I was now alone with my thoughts. So I took out my notebook with my journal stuck inside securely and thought of what to write.

"Well, Emily made amends with Jack, at least for now. Hopefully, they can become friends over time, if not then.. uh, I'd rather not think about that. As Steve pulls out his millionth puzzle I'm also left puzzled about what the hell we're going to do in the auditorium. Maybe they're finally going to assign us our classes? Maybe our after-school programs are necessary for the Redwoods? Maybe I'll meet some of my other middle school friends from.. well middle school."

"That's funny." Steve suddenly said.

"What?" I asked him, looking at his crossword puzzle.

"There's this one blank space that doesn't match. Do you think you know what it means?" He asked me. I snorted and asked him,

"Are you sure you don't know what it means or are you just trying to get me to talk?"

"Both..?" He stated to me.

"But no seriously I don't know what could go here." He passed the puzzle to me and I saw that there was only one, seven-letter word left. I went to the cross-section and saw that you had to decode the definition into another LANGUAGE!?

"Steve, I really can't read this," I stated.

"Oh yeah, sorry I forgot! The definition is 'the future passion of your fruits'."

"What the hell!? Is that a riddle or something?" I asked him.

"Yes, it is. Every definition must be decoded before answering!" He said with his finger pointed towards the air.

"I'm about to decode this paper into your eyeballs.." I stated with a grumble, looking at the seven-letter blank once more. I then went back to the dream I had in the morning, and by closing my eyes the word came clearly in my head.

"The future passion of your fruits huh?" I asked him.

"Yeah, it's okay if you don't know! I'll probably just have to think a tiny bit harder on that question so don't worry about it—"

"Destiny, the word is destiny." And just then, the word appeared on the paper, completing the puzzle.

"What the... how?" He asked me. Sitting up from his chair to inspect the puzzle in my hands.

"I don't exactly know how, but I just knew it. It sorta came to me." I stated.

"No, what I mean is.. how the hell did the word form into the paper like that!?" He exclaimed.

"It's not supposed to do that?" I asked him worriedly.

"No! I usually write it down on my pencil you imbecile!" He smacked me on the head lightly as I was confused about what the hell happened. I set down the paper on the table in which he grabbed it and started to inspect it.

"Did you have a secret pencil in which you inscribed the—"

"Too many big words Steve. No, I didn't have a secret pencil or anything else, it just appeared out of nowhere as soon as I said it."

"That's just so strange." He shook his head, putting the paper in his backpack.

"Ask them, ask them!" I heard Emily shout at Jack.

"I don't really wanna.. but alright." He stated, turning towards us as me and Steve turned towards him.

"What's your uh.. what's your favorite colors?" He asked us.

"Hm... I'd say green honestly. It's just so bright and illuminating in so many ways. Did you know that through the entire world, there is probably as much green as there is blue?" He was probably wrong about that, but ever since the Lhzķos sea dried up, the second largest sea in the world, as of recently, maybe he's not wrong after all.

"Mine is black, I don't have a reason for it, it's just I like how it matches my hair," I stated, it also matches my eyes since I had dark hair and even darker eyes, but I bet they could tell that themselves.

"That's cool!" Emily exclaimed. I knew already that her favorite color was yellow. Not only because she said it, but also because she's a blonde. Every blonde has their favorite color yellow. Or at least as far as I know.

"Yeah, I didn't know that there was more green. Though that still sounds a bit wrong." Jack said, Steve then went on an entire essayed speech about how his statement was true which I couldn't care less about and I just went back to staring at a camera on the ceiling. Man, I hated that camera...

"Well, I guess that makes sense. There's more skin than there is my blond hair but that hair has to grow eventually." Jack stated, pulling his hair to his eyes while Steve just nodded.

Me and Emily were a little confused about what they were debating about but we let them be. After that though, we talked about our future careers. Emily wanted to work in construction, honestly not surprised considering how much destruction she does on anything she touches. Jack wanted to be a future star player for a famous football team, mainly the Florid Elephants which I found cool. Steve simply wanted an office job, even though his intelligence could provide way more than just that job. I wanted to work in politics or become a doctor, mainly because I've seen how detrimental corruption is in those offices and I want to be the first politician that would be completely honest. Plus, I wanted to help people as much as humanly possible, so a doctor would do if politics didn't work.

As we discussed this, and when I mean discuss, I mean just them discussing while I jotted down another note in my journal.

Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted something I didn't expect to see....