"Up and at 'em crew!" Zoe yelled from the door. "Get your lazy butts out of bed! "

"No! What time is it?" I heard Chad moan from the next bunk.

"Come on man, it's only four. " Lukkas sat at the table playing cards with Gib.

I rolled out of bed. I didn't really want to, but I figured It was better than being yelled at.

"Look who finally got up." Lukkas said rolling his eyes.

"Look who finally learned how to make proper insults! Not you!" I murmered throwing my pillow at him. He karate-chopped it out of the air with a " hi-ya'.

I ducked into one of our bathrooms and pulled on the gray shorts and orange tee. Looking in the mirror I noticed it had a large gray 'E' on it.

I brushed my teeth and quickly ran a brush through my hair. I

I walked back out to find Lukkas and Chad on the floor, rolling around almost as much as Holly's eyes were.

"What are you doing?" I asked exasperated .

"C-Chad though he w-was a better w-wrestler." Holly shrugged.

"Looks like he is." I smirked as Lukkas glared at me, standing up. Chad laughed, doing the same and brushing himself off.

Sky appeared behind me. I guess she went to the bathroom and I didnt notice.

"Morning Rain." Sky muttered.

"Sleep well?" I asked politely .

"Nope." she responded sitting at the table.

"Alright everyone, we are going to get a morning workout in!" Zoe announced.

Everyone groaned.

"No groaning! It'll be fun." she said, ushering everyone out.

We filed out, feet padding on the metal floor towards the Training Room. We passed a few people on the way before stopping at the weight room.

"Alright! I want to see everyone working!"

We all scattered to find the easiest equipment. I got stuck with a press-thingy. I sighed and layed down on the bench. I gripped the handle and pushed with all my might. I smiled as it started lifting a few inches.

Lukkas suddenly stuck his face directly into my sight, sticking out his tongue and crossing his eyes. My arms collapsed as I laughed.

"What?" he asked sincerely as I continued laughing. "Did I distract you? "

Just like that my laughter cut off like a plug had been pulled. Chad and Holly looked up to see what was wrong.

"Rain? Everything okay?" Lukkas asked, concerned above me.

" Yeah. " I lied. "I'm good."

I wasn't good at all. Hudson used to say that. Hudson, the guy who was heartbroken
he couldn't be with me. Hudson, the guy who snuck out for me. Hudson, the guy who broke the law everyday for me. Hudson, the guy who wasn't like Lukkas.

"Are you sure Rain?" Lukkas pulled me into a sitting position.

" I'm fine. Just... you shocked me a little. " Lukkas furrowed his brow but didn't say anything. We pretended like nothing happened the rest of the free period.
.                                          .                                      .
"I told you, you can figure it out." Zoe said with a laugh.

"Three.. Two... One... push!" Sky shouted as we all struggled .

We were outside in a circle. Our backs were together and our elbows interlocked. Sitting on the ground we were supposed to be standing up as a group. Instead, we were flopping around on the ground like dead fish.

We collapsed onto the ground again. The first attempts ended in laughter, but now we were all sweaty and frustrated.

"This is impossible." Chad complained.

"It wasn't impossible for them," Sky nodded towards the other groups outside with us.

"Nothing is impossible if you out your mind to it!" Zoe cheered us on.

"Okay, okay." I said. " Let's get closer to see if that helps. " We all made the circle a little tighter, this time I could touch backs with Gib and Sky who were opposite of me.

"Ready... lift!" Sky yelled again.

This time we made it farther, but still fell back to the ground.

"Sorry guys. I think I'm a little too short." J frowned. Gib was taller than Chad and Holly, and almost the same height as Sky.

"Let's give it one more go." Lukkas suggested.

" One... Two... Three! "

We all heaved our backs straight, digging our shoes into the ground. After a little struggling, me made it up and undid our arms.

"Yeah! Go team Echo!" Zoe shouted as we all hi fived.

"Phew! Guess its time for a break!" Chad said, turning to head back to the cafeteria.

"Not so fast!" Zoe said, grabbing his shirt and pulling him back as be all laughed. "Free time just ended! You have class to get to!"

"Really? Which class?" asked Sky curiosly. "Physical fitness? Combat 101?"

"History!" Zoe cheered as I inwardly groaned.

"W-we already know our c-community's h-history." Holly murmered.

"Well now you get to learn about it's history!" Zoe pumped a fist.

"It's history? What it?" Lilukkas scrunched his nose.

"Yeah? Are there other people out there?" Chad asked, glancing at the Gate.

"You bet! And Professor Reed shall tell you all about it!" Zoe said happily.

We filed in quietly and set in the huge lecture hall.

"Good evening students!" boomed who I assumed was Professor Reed. "Today we will be going over the start of the first World War! Please get out a device to take notes." he instructed as Zoe handed us Takers.

I took the thin strip from her and stuck it to the table, flipping it on.
The holographid screen popped up and I used my finger to label the top "World War One Notes" watching the software automatically fix my handwriting.

"The first World War was started because of people called the Disruptors. They were a group who wanted to make our world more dangerous by keeping awful weapons around. You will learn about these in Weaponry Basics." he said as I jotted down a few quick sentences.

"To help our community stay safe and establish peace, we created the System and established the Senator. At this time the Senator was a very smart man named Jacknis Wanware, I'm sure many of you have heard of him." Reed sais, paving back and forth.

"Out of the four World Wars that we have had, this one was extremely destructive, and killed half our followers. People fought very bravely, just like you might some day if the Disruptors are able to gather resources again."

I felt movement best to me and glanced over at Lukkas who was raising his hand.

"Yes Mr...?"

"Umm, Gridson sir." Lukkas said, probably embarrassed of his famous name.

"Yes! Another Gridson. Your grandfather was a great hero."

I looked over at him questioning my to which he shrugged.

"Yes and well, I was wondering who are the Disruptors, where are they, how are they different from us, and what do we have to do with them?" Lukkas asked, his questions spilling out at once.

"To start, the Distruptors are a group of people who live outside the community. They think differently than we do and are dangerous, vile people. Right now we have patrols who keep them at bay." he answered, smiling.

Lukkas nodded silently, scribbling everything down on his Taker. I looked over his shoulder, as I had missed some of what Professor Reed had said. At the bottom of his notes, I noticed Lukkas had written the question, "Are the really that different?".

The question made me wonder all day. What if Disruptors weren't allall that different? I was still thinking about it as I opened a Cann. (Zoe told us the name of the little can pop things).

"Hey, watch it!" Sky said as the lid flew off diagonally, almost giving her a hair cut.

"Sorry Sky." I mumed. "Guess I'm just tired from that run."

"Just wait for tomorrow." Zoe said with a laugh.

"Why is that funny?" Chad demanded. "I'm not laughing."

"Tomorrow we'll be taking your physical, mental, and logical stats. We do it every month to test you." Zoe said with an evil laugh.

"I knew it wasn't funny." Chad groaned, biting into his grapefruit.

"Calm down! The physical part is the hardest. It just tests your limits, not goal to achieve. Like a pre-test." Zoe shrugged. "Keep in mind, I do want I higher score in the rankings than last year."

"Rankings?" Sky asked, competitive nature shining.

"I forgot to tell you all!" Zoe said, dropping her baguette. "We have rankings to show which group is highest. Last year my group was stuck at twenty one." Zoe said, scrunching her nose. In pretty sure that was the first negative reaction she ever had to something.

"That is so cool!" Sky exclaimed. "Do we have fights to the death?"

"Absolutely not!" Zoe laughed. Haha death is so funny.

"But we do have sparring where we fight other groups as a team, trying to knock out your opponents. The first mock-fight is in a couple weeks."

"That is so cool!" Lukkas said. I glanced at him, uneasy. "Do we get weapons?" he asked, excited.

"Each team has two archers, and two people to use fist to fist combat. The other two get to choose."

We all immediately started asking Zoe and each other questions.

"Woah, slow your rolls!" Zoe put her hands up in surrender. " Tell you what, I'll grab the rule books and we can go read and study after a round or two of poker in our dorm."

We all collectively agreed and got up.

"Straight in diamonds." Gin said, laying down his cards.

"That's a pair of fours Gib." Sky told him as he furrowed his brow.

"Full h-house!" Holly said with a laugh, pulling the chips towards her.

We cleaned up and shuffled into bed, tired from asking Zoe questions about rankings, stats, and mock-fights.

I bounced into bed, pullng the linen sheets over me.

"Nighty night Chad." I heard. Sky mutter.

"Sleep well Lukkas."

"Sweet dreams Holly." I heard above me.

"N-night Gib."

"Goodnight Rain." Gin murmered.

"Good night Sky." I finished, falling asleep.

Aha! Go forshadowing!

Hope no one (ahem ahem) is figuring out everyone's secrets (ahem ahem you know who you are) but I assumed it was obvious anyways.

I hope you love my characters and don't worry I'll describe them next chapter.

Also, I realize that the chapter title may not make sense, but there is a reason for it. I forget what it is, but I know there is a reason for it.

It seemed obvious to me at the beggining, and thinking about it now I actually planned this chapter to be the stat taking day. I am pretty sure it still fits, but I dunno. Maybe about Rain and Lukkas not be sure whether the Disruptors were so different. I know it's close, and maybe I'll remember it later.

One could say it's on the tip of my brain.