We make it into the school, which is bustling with energy. "See you later, sis," Kaliq says to me. I send a peace sign his way and walk to my class.

My first class is Logic. My teacher Mr. Escalante is kinda weird and is the only teacher who shares my perspective on giants. He believes the whole silence rule is a made-up story by the government as really no one has proof that the giants ever talked to us. He even emphasizes the fact that only our parents have told us themselves to keep quiet out of fear of something beyond them. That either being the government or really giants.

He told us this on the very first day. He had created this "get to know me" game where we all got to ask him questions that could be personal, but not too personal, or academic related. 

"Ok," Mr. Escalante had said after answering a question from a girl named Ashley. He looked down the list and turned his gaze to Ronin. "Hello, Ronin! That's how you pronounce it, correct?"

"Yup! My question is..." Ronin had started, pausing to brush his hands through his hair, "...do you think giants are real?"

Suddenly, the class went into an uproar. There was a mixture of 'you can't ask him that' and 'of course he does.' One kid admitted that he was wondering the same thing.

"Ok class, quiet down now," Mr. Escalante warned. "To answer your question, no, I don't believe in giants. That doesn't mean, however, that I make noise outside. The law is still the law and even when you don't believe in something, it doesn't mean you must break the law to showcase such."

After Mr. Escalante said this, the entire room got even louder than before. To our surprise, he didn't give the response we thought he would; ignoring the question or confirming that he believed in them. I thought he wouldn't be allowed to answer that question since it was so similar to asking a teacher their political standing. Or maybe it isn't allowed and he just didn't know or something.

Either way he's the one getting my brain thinking; what if the giants are the government? It's because of his influence, not Ronin and his little gang, that I'm all curious. I mean I've always had suspicions, but logic class just confirmed them. Logic class really gets my brain moving.

I walk into the class and take a seat at the desk next to my best friend, Aliyah. I don't have many friends because they're "a bad influence" according to my dad. One incident in the 8th grade convinced my dad that preteens and teens could not be trusted, and he'd have to approve of each friend I ever made thereafter.

~~~

Joshua Allen had thrown a party and everyone in the grade was invited. His parents are pretty rich, and were away that weekend, so everyone wanted to go to his "grand fiesta." All of our parents, though, were told that his parents were there.

The party itself was amazing. The music was amazing, the games were engaging, and the food catering was on point. There was a variety of fancy fish and expensive meats, a whole pasta section, a salad bar, and a dessert table lined with chocolate covered strawberries, mini cupcakes, and an array of cookies with different designs and flavors. Did I mention the private chef who made custom meals? Ok, yes I'm a foodie. That doesn't mean I'm overweight or need exercise, Kaliq. Anyway, the party was top-notch. Bougie as hell. And I was so glad I wasn't missing out on it.

At around like eight or nine, the party kind of went sour, though. This one kid who was a part of Ronin's radical group suggested that we play this new game he made up. The game was honestly so stupid that I can't believe people actually joined in on it. His idea was that someone would get randomly chosen or voted on by the crowd and then go outside and scream at the top of their lungs.

You see, Joshua's house is soundproof, like most houses in town are, so making a noise inside is no problem. Noise outside, however, is forbidden because of the giant myth or what some of us preteens believed was a myth. I personally didn't believe that the noise would anger the giants, but it would definitely anger the authorities. People really get bent out of shape when it comes to noise outside.

Nevertheless, people started thinking about who to vote to go outside. One girl named Mikayla, with the most luscious chestnut brown hair I've ever seen, was chosen. She was hesitant at first, but due to peer pressure from the crowd, she sprinted out the door. We all heard her millisecond scream that wasn't too loud, which was followed by her sprinting back inside all out of breath. Next, this really uncool kid named Fitzwilliam was picked. He walked outside with purpose and let out the most ear-splitting scream I've ever heard in my life. Once he let it out everyone at the party started cheering and clapping. No one ever had the balls to scream outside like that before.

We were all so distracted giving kudos to Fitzwilliam that we didn't hear Joshua's house phone ring. When we finally started calming down, we suddenly heard a woman's voice on the other end, since their phone isn't set up straight to voicemail. Her voice seemed forced and was so quiet that we had missed the beginning of her message due to all the commotion in the room.

We heard, "...believe my ears. Mrs. Allen, I heard a scream coming from your direction, I was wondering if everything is okay. I also wanted to remind you that due to the new law in place I'm forced to call the police about the matter. You know the precautions: they wouldn't want it to happen again, if it goes unreported, we could all be fined or face even worse consequences. If it wasn't from your house, you can obviously let the police know and you guys can work it out. I hope you have a wonderful evening, though. Good night!"

Once the lady hung up, I felt a shiver run down my spine. There was no way in hell that I was getting arrested at that party. No way in hell. In fact, my dad would probably kill me before I even made it to jail.

I guess the other kids were thinking the same thing because they were all panicking and frantically scrambling around. People started murmuring about what this could mean. The police could be here any minute and we would all get in trouble. Some people, including me, were blaming the whole thing on Fitzwilliam as it was him who screamed too loud in the first place.

Others were saying he was pressured by "the mob." I still don't understand why some people were defending him though. Like I said he was uncool. Bullied, even. Before this, no one really liked him.

One kid said we should all run home, but then Joshua and his friends complained that Joshua would be the one to get in trouble with the police and his parents. Another kid said we could let them knock on the door and be super quiet so they wouldn't hear anything and they'd think no one was home.

The whole thing was such a mess though, everyone was freaking out as they didn't want to be thrown in jail. I was busy responding to the text Kaliq sent me:

How's your first party going?

Not good, I said, internally. Of course Kaliq texts me at the worst time possible. The fact that I had to beg in order to even be allowed to go to the party in the first place makes this whole situation so much worse. I spent hours convincing my parents that nothing bad will happen and I'll be safe just for some idiot to let out the most ear-splitting scream in public?

it's fun I replied back.

You aren't getting into any trouble are you?

It's as if Kaliq knew what was going on at the moment.

of course not, just chilling, of course. I send, without rereading the text.

See, that was the mistake I made that night. I never repeat the same words in a sentence more than once. I'm a stickler about that; I don't like being repetitive or when others are. However, when I lie, I get all nervous and I start to disregard my pet-peeves. Like saying "of course" two times in a sentence. My family knows that about me and in no time my dad drove up to the house and knocked on the door.

I didn't know he was out there or that Kaliq knew I lied. I was busy listening to everyone's solutions of how we'd get out of this mess. When we heard the knock on the door, everyone froze because they thought it was the police. Joshua looked especially pale when he made his way to the door to answer it.

"I'm here to pick up Kiko," my dad said in his booming voice. In front of others, he hides his accent very well.

If I was white, I would have been red as a tomato back then. I quickly grabbed my stuff and rushed out the door. It was so embarrassing that my father came and called me out in front of everyone so I could go home.

Later on people were whispering about me having a bedtime, being a loser or party-pooper, and condescending stuff like that. Little did they know, my parents thought I was unsafe or rather doing something dangerous. My parents soon found out what went on during the party and were all concerned that the giants were going to harm me. Honestly, if I think about it, pretending that I had a bedtime was a far better excuse.

Also, Kaliq didn't snitch on me, like you might think. We're not like that. It's just that Mom and Dad kept asking him to ask me how it was going, so he was forced to text me. According to Kaliq, he simply showed our parents my messages, so they could stop pestering him. In no time, though, my parents knew what was up and came looking for me. Since I lied to Kaliq, my parents also caught me in that lie. Now, I no longer go to parties.

In the end, the police never came because it was all a prank. I lost my party going privileges all because Joshua and Ronin's gang thought it'd be cool to prank everyone. The whole game idea and the call was all contrived. The screams were obviously real, but no one on the block heard anything because they were all out of town. And surprise, surprise, no giants came in to pluck anyone out of the house. When I told my dad about the proof I had witnessed of giants not being real, he just ignored me.

~~~

"Kiko? Kiki? Cuckoo bird?" Aliyah says, trying to get my attention, which I assume is for like the third or fourth time.

"Stop that," I say, finally recovering from the memory.

"Did you do the homework?" she asks me. We're in homeroom so Mr. Escalante won't collect the homework until after the morning announcements.

"Yeah," I say, passing it over. She gladly takes it and scribbles the answers on her page.

After a couple of seconds she groans, "Ugh, this question is a personal one. I don't even know what to say." She busies herself by grabbing the claw clip on her desk to tie back her long silky auburn hair.

"You seriously don't have a single experience that referenced one of the principles of logic?"

"No, not that I know of." She scans her paper and stops on one of the questions. "Wait. Why did I? Ohhh."

"What?" I ask her.

"I was wondering why I wrote giants under the Fallacy Column and remembered I was copying your work."

"I mean what else was I supposed to put under the column?" I say, sarcastically.

Aliyah also doesn't share my view on the concept of giants, but she accepts it anyway. Like Kaliq, Aliyah is naive and simply believes what she's told, even if it doesn't exactly make sense to her. I don't hold it against her, and it's probably for the best that she believes in giants because she's in my parents' "good book," but sometimes I wish I had friends who viewed things the way I do.

"I bet Mr. Escalante would love your answers," she adds. She finally figures out an answer for the last question right before the morning announcements are over and offers to turn my paper in too.

"Okay class, we'll be going over the homework in a second. I just want to look over the sheets quickly to make sure you actually did the work," Mr. Escalante says after picking up the messy pile sitting on his desk. Mr. Escalante doesn't easily trust people, he even said in the beginning of the year that until we prove to be trustworthy, to him we are all untrustworthy. He's had problems with people cheating or not doing his work in the past, so he believes constantly monitoring us and snatching the homework once the bell rings is the best way to make sure we're doing what is asked of us. However, we're at an advantage since it's school policy to not start class until after the morning announcements, giving people like Aliyah a chance to quickly get the work done.

"Ok, it seems like most of you did the work," he says, quickly circling a name on the attendance sheet. "When I call your name, come up and collect your sheet."

After he finishes calling our names, he decides to randomly call on us to share our answers for each question with the class. At times, he pauses in between asking for our answers to segway into a previously discussed topic or lesson.

Suddenly, he calls my name, "Kiko, what was one item you wrote down under the Fallacy Column?"

I hesitate. If I let the whole class know about my thoughts on giants, they'd all associate me with Ronin's gang. Sure, there are a few people who know that I am skeptical of the giant theory, but if the whole class knew, they'd pair me up with Ronin. Once two people of the opposite sex share a commonality, people at my high school are quick to ship them. And the last person I want to be shipped with is Ronin. I look down my list and choose a safer option. "The tooth fairy," I say.

Mr. Escalante looks at me as if he expected something different. I guess he read my paper more closely than usual. "Aliyah, what did you put?"

"Giants," she says, proudly. I hold back the urge to face palm. Out of all the things she could have said, she says that?!

"You think giants are fallacies?" Mr. Escalante says. At this point, multiple people in the class turn back and look at Aliyah. She gets a puzzled expression on her face as if she wasn't really paying attention to what she had just said.

"Um, I think I might have read the question wrong," she starts, "I thought we were supposed to put down what seems to be a mistaken belief for some people."

"It's okay. What you put down leads into our discussion for today." Mr. Escalante walks up to the board and writes Law of Identity, Principle of Individuality, and Fallacies. "Now, who can define these three terms for me?"

One ginger raises his hand, "The law of identity describes that anything is identical to itself and has specific properties. The principle of individuality states that everything has unique abilities and needs. Fallacies are simply things that are not true."

"Ah," Mr. Escalante starts, pacing in front of the room, "What is wrong with one of Robbie's definitions?" Nobody raises their hand. "Does no one notice it?" he asks once again.

Ronin raises his hand and says, "Fallacies are common errors in reasoning that will undermine the logic of your argument."

"Yes," Mr. Escalante says, but then he hesitates. "Did you search that up?"

"Yup," Ronin replies with no shame. He brushes his long dark hair out of his eyes, he really needs a haircut.

"Well, next time refer to your notes." Mr. Escalante goes back into lecture mode. "Now in logic, fallacies have a slightly different meaning. Like Ronin said, fallacies are the inconsistencies in your argument. So, you simply cannot say the tooth fairy or giants."

I pretend that I wasn't the one who gave those answers.

"Can anyone give an argument with a fallacy? Make sure to indicate what the fallacy is in your statement." He waits for someone to raise their hand, but nobody does. "Kiko?"

Oh my gosh, why does he keep calling on me. "Uh-" I start, I'm about to say 'I don't know' when I remember that's not an accepted answer in this class. "Going off of the giants thing that Aliyah brought up, giants are very dangerous because they snatch people from their homes whenever they feel like it. The fallacy in this statement is that giants don't take people unless that person is making noise outside."

"Yeah, that'd be true if giants were actually real," Ronin calls out.

"Ronin, please. Let's keep our opinions to ourselves, shall we." Mr. Escalante says this only because he's a teacher, not because he disagrees with Ronin. We all know Mr. Escalante agrees with him. But, he did say after the introduction game on our first day that we were to never speak about his answers to anyone. Whatever was said that day will simply live rent-free in our minds. He doesn't want the board to think he's poisoning our minds to think such things. Even though he doesn't believe in giants, he does believe that he could lose his job or even get thrown in jail. For a guy who doesn't trust anyone, he really does trust us to not spill his little secret.

"Kiko, thank you for that example. Fallacies can also be completely invalid or untrue points made without sufficient evidence."

"Hey, that's what I said!" says Robbie.

"Hm yes, but you forgot the 'insufficient evidence' part," Mr. Escalante replies. "Also, can we go back to hand raising instead of calling out answers or thoughts?"

Ronin raises his hand and Mr. Escalante gestures for him to speak. "So I could say that anyone who says giants aren't real are speaking fallacies since there is no tangible proof or evidence to support that fact."

"I mean if you believe the accounts of historians, then you'll have ample evidence. I assume you don't, though, as there is some bias in their accounts. All I suggest is that you shouldn't say something like that. Your parents might not like that," Mr. Escalante responds. He knows Ronin doesn't care what his parents think, but he just says that for saying sake.

"Now back to the other phrases on the board. Law of Identity and the Principle of Individuality. They may sound similar, but they are two distinct principles."

I stop listening at this point. This is when class stops being interesting. I pull out my phone from under the desk and start texting Aliyah.

good one.

In seconds, the gray dots appear. I look over to see that Aliyah has taken out her claw clip and let down her hair to make a curtain shield.

A: Don't even. You let me copy your work.

K: whatever, you made the class a little more interesting anyway.

A: Ig so. It's so funny watching Mr. Escalante trying to calm Ronin down.

K: ikr. the kid really wants everyone to know he doesn't believe in them.

A: And Mr. Escalante pretends like we all don't know he doesn't believe in them too.

"Kiko and Aliyah!" Mr. Escalante scolds us. Our heads snap up instantly as the whole class turns to stare at us.

"Hand over the phones," he says with an outstretched palm.

We reluctantly hand them over knowing we'll get them back after school detention. I rest my head in my palm, knowing my parents will be furious for getting detention again. I got detention a little over a week ago when I was on the field during lunch. In our school, the field is covered by a dome, giving an illusion of us being in a bubble.

~~~

"Hey Kiko, mind giving me the n word pass?" Jasper, a slightly chubby white kid with black hair in the grade above me, had said. I was so lost in my book that I didn't realize he came up to me.

"What?" I ask, daring him to repeat his ludicrous request.

"You heard me, hand it over," he snarled, his eyes trying their best to pierce mine. What did this kid think, that it was as tangible as a hall pass?

One would think that after the human race joined together to find a new suitable planet to live on and secured a fresh start for humanity, racism would no longer exist. Alas, there are still a handful or maybe a jar-full of small-minded people.

"No. Leave me alone, I have better things to do than waste my time talking to losers like you," I replied without even looking at him.

"What did you say?" he asked, coming into my inner bubble of personal space.

"Get away from me," I spat.

"What?" he repeated, taunting me. Our noses were practically touching at this point and if this was any other person or any other situation, one would think we were about to lean in for a kiss. Ew, gross, I know!

"You know what," I started, "I'm done with this." I turned to walk away and Jasper suddenly grabbed my arm. "Let go of me!" I yelled.

"Sure," he responds, dropping me on the floor.

I get up, clean myself off, and shout some not so nice things to Jasper that apparently were against the student handbook. Before I knew it, I landed myself into detention and my parents were pissed. This wasn't the first time I got into detention, but it was one of the first good reasons why I did. I explained everything to the teacher and my parents about how racist and aggressive Jasper was toward me. I guess they somewhat believed me as I only received two days of detention and Jasper had a three day suspension. I wish he got a bigger punishment, though.

~~~

Using my phone in class, however, is not a good reason for my parents, so I know they're gonna be furious. I hate that Mr. Escalante has such strict rules. Other teachers just take our phones away for the class and don't say a thing. Mr. Escalante thinks he's so special that if we don't pay attention in his class then we'd have to spend the afternoon with him.

I spend the rest of the twenty minutes of logic class "taking notes" wishing that I could be anywhere but here.

"For homework, I want you guys to pick a so-called fallacy and find a way to contradict it," Mr. Escalante says. He hands out a packet to each student. "I know this seems like a thick packet, which is why I decided to be so gracious and have this serve as a project grade." He is met with a couple of groans. "You guys should be thanking me! This would be a way for some of you to bring up your grade from that last logic pop quiz." He is met with even more groans.

"When is the project due?" Aliyah asks.

"Great question! I'm thinking of having it due in around two weeks, so mid-October. But, if you guys put loads of effort into it, then I might extend the due date," Mr. Escalante says, passing out the last packet. "Any other questions?"

"How are we supposed to do this? You gave us zero instructions!" a kid named Mateo exclaims. He's very grade driven, so of course he's mad about Mr. Escalante being very vague. I actually used to have a crush on Mateo once. I fell in love with his very healthy and bouncy curls of pepper-and-salt hair. The way his hair sparkled in the light. Oh my gosh, it was lustrous. But, he was too boring for me. Too quiet and he had no charm.

"Remember our last lesson about contradictions?" Mr. Escalante asks. He is met with a few nods and some blank stares. "Well, you'll need to remember that for this project. If you can't find a way to disprove the fallacy or you're unable to find evidence stating that the argument is true, then pick a different one. My tip is to pick something that some people believe is false and others believe is true."

I hear Ronin mumble something about how it'd be impossible for him to find proof that giants exist or rather don't exist. The bell suddenly rings and I never wanted to leave a class faster.

"He is so annoying," Aliyah starts, chomping down on her gum. This really annoys me, but I pretend it doesn't bother me.

"Yeah, the guy needs a chill pill. We were on our phones for like five minutes," I say, genuinely upset. What am I supposed to tell my parents? Actually I'd probably won't have to say anything and just let Mr. Escalante do the talking. Besides, my parents would ground me for a week either way.