After our fight with those freshmen, we went to the nurses' office where the robotic nurse was. Yes, they had a robotic nurse too. Anyway though she patched Fron up and he looked like he went through a cheese grater. Meanwhile, Robert and Steve were talking and laughing about those two freshmen that they beat up previously while Angel was all alone near the entrance. She didn't take any injuries so she was waiting for us to get out of the nurses' office. I went out first and saw her.

"Hey, Angel. How are you feeling?" I asked her.

"I really should be asking you that question." I chuckled a little while looking behind me. I realized I didn't ask her to come to Jack's house, and since this seemed like the perfect time...

"Angel uh.. would you like to go out?"

I... I seriously just don't know how my words came out like that from my previous thought. Angel turned red as soon as I said that and I had to back up what I said.

"I-I mean uh, do you want to go to Jack's house? Steve wants us to uhm, show us something. Isn't that right Steve!?! STEVE?!" I yelled his name and he made a thumbs up. Angel nodded and carefully picked her words out unlike myself,

"I would like to go... with you. To Jack's house. My parents would probably allow me anyway." She whispered. I knew what she meant when she said her parents would allow her.

"Alright, then it's settled! Now let's go to the B building before it burns down because of Emily." Robert joked, getting up from his seat Steve followed him as Fron came in crutches. We all looked at him and Fron said in a sudden clear voice,

"I'm fine. I have these crutches only temporarily to keep myself up. Thank you all, I mean it." Robert hugged him after he said this and Fron hugged him back. Man, I'm not one for revenge but I would seriously go for some 'punching that one freshman' with a side of 'getting him expelled'. He deserved that and not those stupid pens.

Speaking of those pens...

I opened the box to see the water gun, two pens, the CD, the book, and the knife from that freshman were still in there. I sighed in relief as we then carefully got out of the nurses' office, we realized something. How were we going to get to the B building if it was two miles away and we had a person in crutches that we had to be careful with?!

"Hm... how am I going to travel with you guys?" He asked us all the same question that was in my mind.

"Good question. Maybe two people can use a hoverboard at a time? So he could get on behind me while I move the hoverboard around?" Robert asked.

"You guys would probably move slower than us accounting for the added mass but that could work." Steve—the genius in physics but not in common sense—stated.

"It doesn't hurt to try," Angel said. We all nodded as Robert went to his hoverboard and hovered over us. Fron carefully pushed a button on his crutches which contracted it into a small cube. He put it in his pocket and got on behind Robert. The hoverboard lowered itself an inconsequential bit but other than that it looked normal!

"Phew," I said, getting on my hoverboard. Angel and Steve got onto theirs and we flew through the pathway back to the B building.

**————————————————————————————**

Once we got to the B building. We hurried into the entrance and up the stairs where we noticed that, well. None of us knew exactly where Jack, Maurice, and Emily were.

"God damn it. I wish Emily would cause some sort of destruction by now. It would help us find them more easily." Robert said. I don't know how but that reminded me that I didn't tell Fron about Jack's house. As Steve and Robert looked through his Scruplot to find out if he was supposed to have any classes with them right now. I went to Fron and asked him,

"Hey, would you like to come over to Jack's house? Steve is going to show us something and you can meet some cool people there." Fron looked at me and smiled.

"I would love to." He said, again in a clear voice.

"You sound better when you're not stuttering like a maniac." I joked. He laughed and I looked through my Scruplot. That's when I saw that it was supposed to be the third period out of four periods. I looked at my classes and saw that it was my elective and I did have Emily and Jack in that same elective!

"I know where Jack and Emily are supposed to be," I said.

"I know where Maurice is supposed to be too!" Steve exclaimed. We went to each other and compared our Scruplots. It seemed like Maurice, Jack, and Emily's classrooms were nearly next to each other. Just a couple of feet between each classroom.

"Alright then, let's go!" Robert stated after seeing our Scruplots. He went over to Fron and helped him with his crutches while we walked closely and slowly with him. Even though the cameras in the hallway were online I would bet that the security didn't exactly care that a bunch of pre-teens were roaming the hallway.

As we got closer to the elective classroom on the first floor of the B building, we saw Emily and Jack arguing over something. Both of them were covered in soot and it looked like a piece of each of their hair was burnt off.

"I told you to not increase the heat you jackass!" Emily exclaimed.

"Who are you calling jackass!? For all I know I was following the instructions very clearly." He stated.

"UGH! We're so lucky that when we burned our kitchen we also burned the robotic teacher! Or else we would BOTH be in trouble right now!"

"Isn't that your whole thing?"

"Don't test me Jack Broker!"

"Two can play the full names Emily BARLOW!" He yelled out. Emily looked furious and I just about had enough of their argument.

"Can you two shut up?! Where's Maurice?" I asked them suddenly. Both of them looked at me like they were about to punch me but they then realized that, well, it was me.

"Oh, hey guys," Jack said.

"Woah, what happened to Fron? And your fists?!" Emily asked us, looking from Fron's crutches to our bruised and bandaged-up fists.

"I'll explain it all after we get the hell out of this school and to Jack's house. And you didn't answer my question either, where's Maurice?" I asked her. Robert butted in.

"What's a Maurice?"

"A person you mother... idiot," I said, shaking my head and pinching my glabella. I think that's the only thing I remember from middle school.

"Oh, my bad." He stated.

"She's uh.. kind of busy making sure every student in the classroom doesn't snitch on us," Jack said. I peeked inside and saw Maurice trying to persuade a girl who looked traumatized to keep calm and not snitch on Jack and Emily.

"Just what in the hell did you guys do in there?!" Steve asked them.

"I think I'll let Jack explain," Emily said. Jack looked around as if he expected someone else to answer for him. Finally, he sighed and explained,

"You guys know this is a cooking class right?" We nodded.

"Okay. Well, we were planning on cooking something simple and easy. Eggs. Just eggs! Welp, before we even got the egg into the pan. Emily over here didn't know how to crack one! I tried to explain it to her multiple times and after about eight or so eggs were wasted she finally got it right and cracked two eggs into the pan. Somehow, still with the eggshells. I added salt and pepper while Emily tried to tell me to turn the heat down. That didn't make any sense whatsoever since we needed to cook it faster. So naturally, I turned the heat up, and that's when Emily distracted me about how much heat the eggs should have. That's when the eggs burned the whole kitchen. And while the robotic teacher tried to help, she also got cooked by the fire." He pointed towards the robotic teacher that was being repaired by mechanics.

"Holy shit," Fron said. Robert and I laughed our asses off. Angel watched in horror as three separate kids were bawling their eyes out because of the fire. And Steve went over to Maurice.

"Hey, do you need help?" Steve asked her.

"Yeah, that would be great! Take those two students out of the classroom and into the next one over. I'll take care of this girl here." She said. Steve nodded and directed the two students to the classroom next door. Still, me and Robert couldn't stop laughing.

"AHAHAHAAHAHAHAA!!" I was leaning on the locker trying not to fall on the ground dying laughing while Robert was already doing that.

"Shut up," Emily said, embarrassed over us and herself.

"AHHAHAAA, MAN! That's hilarious!" Robert said through gasps while the bell rang for the next class to begin. Steve and Maurice got out of the classroom with the girl in question. I swore I remembered that girl was in one of my classrooms. Anyway, as they walked over to us, Angel looked at her Scruplot.

"We better head to our classes." Even though there was no point in going to our classes by this point. We all agreed and I told Emily and Jack,

"Clean yourselves up in the bathroom over there. Then head to your classes, you idiots." I stated. They both groaned at me and went to the bathroom while Maurice went over to me.

"Jack already told Emily about Steve and Jack's house. She'll be coming over too."

"Good. Let's just hope they don't cook any food." I said. We walked over to our next and last class.

**————————————————————————————**
My next class was.. really boring to say the very least. It was mathematics and since I was already at the B building it was easy to get to. There was a robotic teacher there of course but I didn't pay attention to the robot because... it's a robot. However, there was one interesting thing about the class. And it was that, remember that girl that came out of the classroom with Steve and Maurice? She was there. I didn't know she was a freshman but I didn't look at her badge so I shouldn't have assumed. The girl had on glasses, light blue shorts, red and black shoes, and a gray shirt. I don't know why she piqued my curiosity so much but she seemed so familiar. How did I know this girl and where did I know her from?

Before I could answer those two questions, the bell rang which signaled everyone to get the heck out of school. And thank god! I ran down the steps to the main entrance where the phone booths were. I dialed my mom's home phone number which is the only device we had and she answered,

"Hey, sweetie. Is something wrong?" She asked me.

"Nothing's wrong Mom! I'm just visiting a friend's house." I said. She hummed accusingly and asked me,

"Do I know this friend by chance?"

"It's Steve's house." I know I lied but if I told the truth she would ask a thousand questions I wasn't in the mood for.

"Ah alright. Just be back before dinner okay? Love you!"

"I love you too Mom," I muttered, hanging up the phone. I went over to my bike and powered through the sidewalk towards Jack's house.

Now you may ask, "How do you know where Jack's address is? He didn't even tell you!"

Well, built into my bike was a digital GPS on the bar of the bike. When I turned it on it could tell me where anyone's houses were, which might sound extremely unrealistic. But at the same time, everyone's address was public information, mainly because the Redwoods would need those addresses for observation checks. My father gave me this bike and installed it himself before I was even born.

I sped up my bike toward an avenue called 'Marks' and I eventually got onto the street where Jack's house was. However, I don't even think I needed the GPS since once I got to the street, there were only three houses throughout the entire street. One of the houses had Jack sitting on his porch.

"I should've expected these massive houses here," I muttered to myself, parking my bike on Jack's big driveway.

"Hey, you made it!" Jack exclaimed.

"Yeah, I'm surprised that your house is this big!" I looked to my right where the driveway continued and I saw that the house extended so far down the driveway that it looked like a street. Where and what the hell did his dad and mom work?

"Yeah, my mom won the lottery and got this whole property as a steal! A kid died here once." He said. Now that makes sense on how they could afford this.

"What was the lottery's worth?"

"Oh, it was two trillion dollars."

Are you kidding me!? He said it so nonchalantly like anyone could throw two trillion dollars around! Though to be fair.. most people in this neighborhood could probably do that.

"Plus my dad works for a company that specializes in construction in the capital. So we've been doing just fine!"

"I'd say more than fine," I said. I looked behind me and saw that there were eight to nine cars in the driveway.

"Is someone here already?" I asked him, pointing to the cars.

"Hm? Oh, no one is here. That's our car collection." Again, are you kidding me?!!?

"Oh. Alright." I said in disbelief. I mean with this literal mansion and the cars... he's living in literal luxury!

"Oh look, there's someone else coming!" He exclaimed. I looked behind me where I saw a minivan drive into the driveway. The passenger door opened and it was Angel. She said thank you to the driver, probably her mom considering she thanked her, and her mom drove off. Angel was wearing a simple white shirt and black pants with a bun for her hair.

"Where's—AHEM!" She stopped talking and suddenly slowed her breathing and asked, not in a whisper now,

"Where's everybody else?" Me and Jack were stunned but we kept our composure. Her voice was soothing and beautiful to the ear.

"Uh.. I don't know. You Jack?"

"Nope. Oh shoot another one's coming now!" He exclaimed. Me and Angel spun around and we saw Robert riding a hoverboard with Fron at the back of the hoverboard. He parked the hoverboard and I immediately recognized the sticker on the board.

"Did you steal that from the school?!" I asked them.

"Maybe.." Robert said slyly. I sighed and took out the box from my backpack, handing them their pens which they then stashed in their pockets. I set the box back down in my backpack.

"Thanks," Fron said silently.

"Anytime Fron," I said back.

"And another one's coming," Jack said.

"You know you don't have to keep announcing that," I said. Jack just shrugged as a buggy drove up to the driveway. I knew this buggy all too well from visiting Steve at his house.

"Heya!" He yelled from the car. Everyone else greeted him normally while I just said,

"What's up loser?"

"The sky bozo," Emily said from the seat next to him. Steve had with himself a briefcase which I thought was odd. I pointed in confusion towards Emily.

"Ah, she just wanted a ride." Steve's aunt said.

"That makes more sense. I guess." I stated. As soon as Steve and Emily got out of the car, Steve's aunt said her goodbyes. Maurice came by her bike only a couple of seconds later. We waved to her and she waved back. Once she got herself settled and Steve stopped being flustered just by her presence, we were on our way up to Jack's enormous house.

Once we got inside we were directed by a butler to get seated in the living room at the back of the house. The living room consisted of multiple antiques and decorative vases as well as snow globes for some odd reason. Other than that it looked cozy and once we sat down the butler even handed out a charcuterie board. Don't ask me how I knew this was a charcuterie board though.

"Wow, Jack... this place is nice!" Robert stated, smacking his lips on one of the cheeses on the board.

"Thank you. My family bought this place not long ago." He said. I wasn't exactly pissed off that I was in a guy's home that just came easy to him, but I still wasn't happy about it. My mom fought tooth and nail to get a place even close to the high school with how much demand there was for the housing even an hour away from the school.

"Anyway, what were you going to show us, Steve?" Emily asked. As per usual, she wanted to get straight to the point.

"Oh yeah. Everyone gather around real quick. This is gonna be sort of a long explanation." Steve took out his briefcase and opened it, revealing his computer.

"What I'm about to show you. Don't tell anyone else alright?" He asked us all. We nodded as he typed in his password for the computer and logged in. He clicked a tab called 'Gooleg' and opened a tab that was already open with an article about the—

"The war that was hidden?" Angel asked all of a sudden.

"Since when do you not whisper?" Emily asked her.

"Ever since we got out of that school. I feel comfortable enough around you guys." Did I forget to mention her voice was beautiful. But let me not get distracted right now.

"As the article states, the reason they want to limit the access of the internet to every citizen is because of this war. It had proven so costly to the Redwood Federation and had caused so much bloodshed that they felt like it was a must to block anyone from hearing of it. Anyone who fought in the war for the Redwoods was either killed, jailed, or forced into secrecy. Meanwhile, the forces that had won the war, people who call themselves the 'X' that broke away from the Coalition, somehow survived and well, won the war. As a result, the province of Boguy had been ceded to the X." Steve stated.

"Hey, I've heard of that province. Wasn't it the one that had the stupid city name?" Jack asked.

"Stupendium yeah. They named it that because of the exact reason you would think of. But here, take a look at this." Steve said. He showed a gruesome picture which was taken by a bystander showing the Foyagers burning down a home with... a child still inside of it.

"Oh my god," Robert said.

"Now you know why I was so hostile to Mr. Foyager in the first place. They're horrible people that did this for the cause of horrible people." Steve said.

"Crap... we have to let people know about this war right!? Who else knows about this war other than just us?" Maurice asked.

"The X of course. But they can't just share that information with the Redwood citizens if you can even call us that. Because if they do, they'll spark another war with them." Steve said.

"Isn't that a good thing though? Since another war against the Redwoods would surely result in some sort of backlash from their citizens?!" Angel asked.

"Unfortunately not many people know about this secret war. So a war against the X would result in people probably supporting the Redwoods if they threw around propaganda like candy." Steve said, scrolling to the bottom of the article where only one line is shown by a supposed X citizen. Steve read the quote,

"To anyone lucky enough to read this article in the R.F. (Redwood Federation), please heed my words carefully. Don't give in to the illusions. Give into the true spirit of freedom, the X. By Terracotta."

Everyone in the room had goosebumps as the butler brought the empty board out of the living room.

"Are we already in the illusion?" Jack asked us.

"No, we can't be. We actively hate the Redwoods!" Emily exclaimed.

"Yet instead of going into the X territory, we still live here. At a place that values control over lives." Angel stated, cracking her knuckles. I patted her shoulder to calm her down and I got up.

"Listen. We're here because our families and our lives are here. If we want to do more damage to the Redwoods as soon as possible. I suggest we stay here, and revolt from the inside. The X territory will surely support us, we just have to get support from within ourselves. I mean, there has to be someone out there who shares our ideas!" I said, whispering the word revolt.

"And if there isn't?" Robert asked in a shaky voice. I went up to him and faced him face to face, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Then we keep trying. Even if we're trapped." I said. He nodded enthusiastically as the rest of us focused on different subjects like... oh, of course.

"What's your favorite genre of music?" Maurice asked us all. And as the rest of us spoke about music, we debated on a lot of philosophical things. Including what goes before what? The cereal or the milk? The plant or the seed? The chicken or the road?

**————————————————————————————**

Soon enough, it was time to go. All of us quickly gathered our things and as Steve closed his briefcase, we all went out and exchanged home phone numbers with each other in case we wanted to call each other. I went towards my bike and just as I was about to go, Angel called my name.

"George!"

"What is it, Angel?" I asked her.

"I uh.. I wanted to say thanks. For everything. For saving me back there from those two girls. For being at least one of the first people to come talk to me, despite my reputation. Everything." She said, I brushed a strand of hair from her face and stated,

"It's seriously no problem. I like you."

I should SERIOUSLY think before I speak. Luckily I caught myself and corrected it by saying,

"I like it when I'm around you!" Angel smiled and heard her minivan start to honk right behind me. I waved towards her mom and she waved back while still honking the horn. Angel went past me but not before whispering,

"I like it when I'm with you too." That got me flustered but I tried to play it off by riding my bike through the sunset to my home.

As soon as I got to my house—which took only a handful of minutes—I opened the door with my keys and saw my mom preparing dinner.

"Hey honey, how was your first day at school?" My mom asked me.

"Pretty eventful! I enjoyed my first day at school, which I'm thankful for." I replied, ignoring the fact that I just had the craziest day of my entire life up to that point. Well maybe apart from when I almost got my arm bit by an alligator, but I'd rather tell that story later when I'm bored.

"That's good.. wait what are those? Are those bruises!??" She said as she noticed the bruises on my knuckles. I forgot that I had removed my bandages at Jack's place because it would look sort of weird to have bandages on your knuckles when you come back from school on your first day, wouldn't it?

"What? Oh, these! Pfft nah Mom don't worry. It's just some marker marks. I was coloring today with Steve since I was bored during the morning." I responded. My mom looked suspiciously at me and I knew I had to prove it. So I touched my bruised knuckles and held in my absolute PAIN.

"Well alright, go make sure you get your brother and sister. They're downstairs." She said. Luckily not noticing me biting my lip from the pain.

"Alright!" I responded without hesitation.

I went downstairs to say hello to my 6-year-old sister and my 18-year-old brother. My sister was named Obsidia after obsidian because she's super strong! My brother was named Carl, though we nicknamed him Coal because of his stupidly dark personality.

"Heyo bro! Sis! I'm home!" I said.

Immediately after I said that my sister came running to me and she said, "George, George! I was able to catch soooo many spiders today! And I cleaned the basement." She looked proud of herself and I smiled.

"Great job Obsidia! Where is Coal by the way?" I asked.

"He's still in the basement if you want to see him. I'm going to go watch TV now! Bye!" She said as she hurried off to the living room. What an energetic child.

I said bye to her and went downstairs where I saw my brother and helped him clean out the last amount of dust in silence. Of course, that was until my brother asked me his daily question,

"Hey George, how was your first day of high school? Because back when I was a 9th grader it was rough and—"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah I don't wanna hear it. School was great." I said. I didn't want to hear another story from him about his high school life. Because even though yeah, it sucked, I don't want to hear more of it today or better yet ever.

"Alright, alright geez! I just wanted to tell you about my experience." Coal said. I sighed.

After we finished, we went to another room in the basement, played video games on a monitored console, ran upstairs, and ate dinner.

After finishing my dinner, I proceeded upstairs for the night as I went to my bathroom, brushed my teeth, and slept soundly. Awaiting for the days and weeks that would follow.