A/N: A note, remember this is only based on my classmates, and not actually you guys, but I apologize if I got your speech patterns wrong anyway. Also, layout is like that of this year, but everyone is still in eighth grade because there is no way I'm asking students from other sections what their room is now. I know one of the characters wasn't in school yet, but like I've stated before, I'm incorporating elements of this school year with the last.
Dark themes: (ridiculous) violence, (pessimism? Make of it what you will.)

As I lean back on the large stone bench in the school garden, I watch spiders to pass the time.

I have no idea how they manage to spin webs spanning the whole length of the pond, but it's interesting to watch them creep along it. The center of the web is right over the water, and littered with several flies. Most of them are dead, but one or two struggle, sending faint tremors along the fine threads. The leaves of ferns surrounding the pond bob slightly as spiders crawl along it, or maybe it's just the wind shaking them. Once all the little things are at the center of the web, a breeze blows by. Something drops into the water, but I can't tell what it is. I don't have time to check either - the fish are curious and hungry as ever. The small skirmish of tails and bodies colliding as they slip over each other is short, and I notice a little black fish eat the little dot that fell. It slips away, but it takes a little longer for the others to realize the food's gone.

The whole time thing is almost funny. Did the fly escape being spider food just to become fish food? Or did the spider change from being the predator to prey? The fish fighting over something already taken is amusing too. From all my reading and unfortunate addiction to a website known as TV Tropes(I warn you now, never enter that site unless you have extremely strong willpower or are prepared to lose all your free time), my mind is used to linking things and seeing them as metaphors.

The spiders could be Sins and the humans are flies. They catch us and suck us dry. Or maybe they're both humans, one causing trouble to others while the other ends the trouble. But that doesn't necessarily mean that the spider is better, it just proves its stronger. A fly managed to escape by the wind, only to die a different way. I wonder what the wind was then. Maybe God's sense of justice? The fly was being punished for being so foolish as to get caught in the web. If it was a spider that fell rather than a fly, then it's death was an ironic punishment of the eater becoming the eaten. Huh, the fly did fly into the web, didn't it? Maybe the wind was God proving that the He has control of death, and that no one can cause his own unless it's in His will. The fish could be humans as well. Regardless of what caused it, even when the problem was over with, they still fought. They fought and never realized that their prize was taken by someone else, the little black fish.

I smile as my mind carries on with the thought. Who would save a fly? If it had been a butterfly or ladybug, I might have bothered to do something. But it wasn't a pretty butterfly, it was a grubby little pest. Humans are the worst flies in the world then, prideful and rebellious and ungrateful, never seeing the true problem unless we're about to suffer. Nobody cares if Sins are about to get to them unless they'll be affected, and maybe it isn't even the Sins but humans tearing each other apart. Yet God doesn't just watch and think something like That's what you deserve, He actually tries to help. But then of course most humans deny help, and - "EEEEEEEEP!"

I jump up and spin around to face a grinning Yani. Her hand is still still outstretched from when she tapped me as she breaks into a fit of giggles.
"Yani. . ." I glare. "I told you not to scare me like that!"
"Not my fault that you're so jumpy!"
"You're fault for scaring me when you know I'm jumpy!"
She laughs some more. "So what were you doing?"
"Thinking of random stuff."
"Like?"
"How spiders are Sins or maybe humans and flies and fish are metaphors for humans."
She raises an eyebrow. "Wha. . .?"
"Break the fourth wall and scroll back a page or something."
"Now you're speaking nonsense."
"Let's just ignore everything I said and move on."
"Fine."

"So, anyone else here yet?" I ask as I stand and stretch.
"Nope, just me."
"Want to stare at the fish?"
"Sure."

We walk over to the wall adjacent to the koi pond. The whole wall is a great big tank filled with tropical fish, anemones, and corals. A blue tarp covers the glass on the other end, creating an illusion of the tank being blue as well. It's a pretty arrangement, and for some reason I can never walk past it without staring for at least five seconds, which Rika tells me is ridiculous.

Yani suddenly points at the tank. "Hey look, it's Goldia!"
I follow her line of sight to see a Nemo- I mean clownfish with yellower scales than the others. My friends and I have christened it Goldia after a character from a game I do not know called Pocket Mirror. The little fish swims around near the front of the tank, prompting me to smile. "It's like it's trying to show off."
Yani's voice turns high pitched. "Look at me and my fabulous color! Notice me! Notice meeeeeeeeee!"
I chuckle and joins her in her shenanigans. "I'm Goldia, the yellow clownfish! Notice me instead of my boring orange brethren! My scales are yellower! Look at them! Look at them, I tell you! LOOK AT THEM!"

"Shhhhh!" We both turn and see a teacher passing by the entrance to the garden.
"Sorry, Ma'am!" we whisper-yell.
As soon as she leaves, we break into a fit of laughter.
"Hey guys, what's so funny?"

Hazali joins us the garden, and we proceed to tell her our horrible joke. She grins and joins us in our ridiculous fascination with the tank. Eventually, Juvanine comes along, and we're still staring at the fish swimming around. She makes a couple fish puns, making us groan and grin because our sense of humor was ruined a long time ago and we all know it. We might have been staring at it for a whole hour before Rika arrives and face palms.

"Are you kidding me? How long have you guys been staring at the fish?"
"We have a problem," I reply, eyes glued on an anemone and thinking about how weird it is that the thing's an animal.
"They're just fish!"
"And anemones. And corals. And we live such sheltered lives that this can bring us entertainment. What's your point?"
She groans and begins forcibly pulling me away. I hang on to Yani to use her as an anchor, then she hangs on to Juvanine, then she hangs on to Hazali. "Unfair! You're making a human chain!"
"Meh."

"Let me help you with that."
We all turn and see a tall tenth-grader with a dog-ear hoodie begin helping Rika pull us away.
"Hi Arcia-senpai," Hazali and Juvanine say nonchalantly, both still staring at the tank. (Ark-ia is how I'd like it to be pronounced.)
"Hey Arcia," I say and return my focus on the fish. "I'm guessing Yani invited you. Can you let us go so we can stare at the tank?"
"No! You four are getting a life whether you want it or not!"
She pulls even harder, but we stay rooted on the spot. "That's it!"

Rika lets go of my arm. I hear a sound of a weapon being summoned and Rika and Arcia's evil laughter, but my mind doesn't really register it. Only when I notice that my hand has a rope tied around it do I start thinking that something is wrong. Then I hear the sound of a motor. I glance behind me and pale. "Oh shoot."
From the driver seat and shotgun seat of a monster truck(compressed to the size of a small jeep), Rika and Arcia grin. "MWAHAHAHAHA!"
They make it go in full reverse. I grit my teeth and summon my chakram a little too late to cut the rope. I'm immediately pulled backward and like the fool I am, forget to let go of Yani.

"AAARGHHHH!"

We're pulled out of the garden, through the lobby, and end up being dragged halfway up the stone path leading to the flagpole in our school before they stop. Through blurry vision, I see Arcia and Rika get out and high-five each other. I turn on my back and catch my breath. Under most circumstances, depending on which side was facing the ground, being dragged that short bumpy distance at that speed would've resulted in your face, limbs, or torso being shredded into bloody pulp. But because we were wearing clothing made of Ephesium and because the school ground itself was enhanced with light, we can escape such an ordeal with a few already-healing scrapes.The marks on the ground from Arcia's vehicle are already slowly piecing themselves back together and the grass surrounding me is springing up again, but a fallen segment of the waist-high white metal-wire fence separating the path and green lawn from the pavement in front of the school remains knocked over from the monster truck's collision with it.

The teacher from the desk at the lobby walks out and wags her finger at us. "Fix that fence when you're done!"
"Yes, Ma'am! Sorry!" we call out.
She shakes her head -likely too used to such crazy antics from students- before returning inside.

I glare at Rika and Arcia as I push myself up and brush bits of soil off my clothes. "Really? We just looking at fish!"
"Well now you're not," she says smugly.
I roll my eyes and we make our way to the others. "Yani? Still breathing?"
"I'm alive! The fluff of my jacket protected me!"
"Juvanine?"
"My determination still stands! And so does my jacket fluff!"
"Hazali?"
"Still breathing and I landed on Juvie!"
I ignore Juvanine complaining about her nickname to turn and see Arcia panting behind us. Her truck has dispersed back into light, but the tenth-grader still grins. "What's wrong with you?"
"Summoning that thing. . .uses most. . .of my energy."
"Then how are you still standing?"
"Rika used her Blessing."
I spin around and glare at said girl. "Really? Just to stop us from looking at fish?"
She shrugs. "How else was I supposed to get you guys out of there?"

Blessings were well. . .blessings. While the demons inside us are the remains of human nature focused into a voice of spiritual darkness in our head, the light that separated them manifests itself as a special gift. Everyone who accepts the light of Gospel receives a Blessing, but most Christians don't use it it simply because they don't even know they have it. GCA teaches us that we have Blessings, but only in high school do they start arranging us by it to train. I assume that they wait that long so they are sure that every student already accepted Jesus and has a Blessing. Conveniently enough, only a certain amount of Blessings appear for every few years, so the school decided to arrange us by it.

My batch has six Blessings like the last few batches before us. What the blessing of those sections are I don't know. I don't even know my brothers' Blessings because GCA believes that the Blessings of your batch the most important thing you should know. Something about teams being more likely to be made within your grade level than with other batches. That's why despite all my years at school, I only know my batch's Blessings.

Our first section is the Premiums. Their Blessing is called -I kid you not- the Blessing of Blessings. Their Blessing wasn't necessarily better than anyone else's, but the ones who categorized and named the Blessings couldn't think of a name like the Blessing of Abundance or Provision then, and they ended up sticking with the placeholder name. The class made their symbol a vial overflowing with Holy Water, aptly chosen due to their Blessing allowing them to make great amounts of it with little effort. They also had what others would call the best luck in the world but what I call God's blessings raining down on them until they could swim in it. Students and teachers alike have gotten the habit of asking them whenever something is lost because they probably find it about ten seconds later. Also, they can apparently guess the correct answer of a test four out of five times.

The next section is the Spartans. Hazali's one of them, and her class's emblem is a spear and helmet with a long flowing plume. Through the Blessing of Discipline, they have the ability to make their weapons cause more damage and to link themselves into complicated formations through what my friend described as a subconscious mind link that tells you the plan for something. Ironically enough, they only apply this in battle, so teachers get frustrated at them as often as they do the other sections. Their Blessing also extends to them becoming the best pranksters if they want to be, which means the teachers and students bring in umbrellas and any other form of protection we can think of on April 1 since the school calendar was extended into summer time. Fortunately, Hazali warns us of most of their attacks so my little groups of friends usually survive the day feather, tar, cream pie, glitter, glue, glitter-glue, soda, syrup, eraser shaving, pencil shaving and ink-free. . .yeah, they don't really have many things in their prank arsenal that doesn't involve something sticky falling down on you followed by something else since a student twisted his ankle by slipping on a banana peel a few years back. Regardless of what you become drenched in, everyone considers it good fun and most teachers don't give us any lessons because they say it builds teamwork and because many prefer staying in the students-banned sanctuary of the teacher's rooms.

The Runners for Christ, or Runners, as we just called them, are able to temporarily reach superhuman speeds with the obvious Blessing of Agility. It is for this reason that Juvie's class is banned from racing in any form whatsoever because for some reason their Blessing affects vehicles as much as their running. Their Blessing also enhances their reaction time, so in most intra-class activities like war practice, they're sent out as scouts because it is near impossible to ambush them. On the other hand, this makes them almost as dangerous as the Spartans during prank wars because you can't exact revenge if you don't know who attacked you. Their symbol is a sandal with little wings on the edges like the kind those ancient depictions of Hermes wear, except theirs have crosses on the straps and sole.

The Erudites have the Blessing of Foresight. Their symbol is an eye, which I try to avoid staring at due to how realistic it is. Their Blessing gives them the ability to see weak spots in an enemy and to never forget things like homework. In the days of elementary when students with different Blessings were still mingled, students would often assign the bringing of important materials to those who would one day become Erudites to prevent scolding so from teachers and groaning from a next-day deadline. There's also a rumor going around that they can see glimpses of the future, but I doubt its truth for two reasons. One, only God should be able to see the future, and two, one of friends is an Erudite and has a nuke as her weapon, and she told me that she did not have any clue that it was going to explode in her face when she was showing it to her classmates.

Yani's in the Crusaders, the fifth section in our batch. Her class's emblem is a shield with a cross and several other detailed markings on it. With her class's Blessing being the Blessing of Defense, they take the defense is the best offense thing literally. They can summon huge shields with spikes on it. The shields sort of have a mind of their own since they maneuver themselves to protect their owner or even surround them like a bubble if the need arises. A student has described it as something like the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Doctor Strange's Cloak of Levitation while Yani just likes thinking of it as a sentient hamster ball/ Steven Universe shield. The Crusaders can make their shields invisible if they want, which is why the supervisors of each floor consider them the best scouts. GCA actually doesn't have hall monitors, but some scouts act the way I think hall monitors are supposed to. Some time back, the supervisors found it easy to convince students not to run through the halls if they were at the risk of smacking into an invisible wall.

Last but not least is my section, God's Light Bearers. Most students are nice enough to call us Light Bearers instead of just Bearers, but there is always that small group that likes making fun of us by growling and asking if we want honey. Our section has the Blessing of Light, which allows us to keep our weapons summoned for longer and gives them more power. Our class also has the rare ability to share this Blessing with others. Sure the Runners could drag along fellow students and Crusaders could protect them, but my class could actually share the light itself. This might seem unfair, but it isn't. At least, not for me.

I admit it, Faith - spiritual stamina - is something I often neglect. As long I see my blessings at my fingertips, I'm full of it and fine. Start using my blessings though, and I begin lose it. I run out of time for something and get frustrated, I use up more Faith. I fail at something and wonder why I failed, I use up more Faith. I fight and the battle drags on and on and on, I use up more Faith. The list for things such things that make me lose Faith is very long, and I sometimes wonder if I'm the only one suffering this way. What I do know is that my Faith gets low after actual battles, and that using my Blessing makes it worse. I believe it's because when I use it to enhance myself or others, I begin trusting less in God. That's why it irks me to see my classmates use it and feel that they don't suffer loss of Faith the way I do. It's also why I think that even in my state, the symbol of God's Light Bearers suits me.

A blazing torch is our symbol, and I've found a metaphor for it as well. The flame is my faith, and blessings are its fuel. I'm running with it in hand on a dark path, and the flame gets weaker as the wind of trials blows on it. The more I use blessings, the less fuel I have for it to burn. Using the capital-b Blessing on myself means using a chunk of the fuel, leaving my Faith blazing for a moment before I fully run out. I'll have to be fast and hope for more fuel before the flame sputters out and dies. If I'm using the fuel to help someone else, it means that I'm giving my fuel to that person along with the torch in the belief that he can reach a place and refuel it before it dies. Either way, I lose trust in God, the person who gave me the torch and the fuel and who told me that it would be enough if I bear it.

This mindset is part of the reason why I refuse to look at Rika as we fix the fence. I know that I shouldn't be mad if my friend used her Blessing to help someone, even if the reason for it was to stop us from doing something harmless, but I hate how my classmates seem to be able to use their Blessing with as much ease as the other sections. I try to calm down by focusing on the dirt in front of me. I imagine it as my uselessness at using my Blessing and stab my sickle as deep down as I can. Then I lift it up, then stab it back down. Again. And again. And again.

"Uh, Celia?" Arcia says. "I think you murdered the dirt well enough."
I take a deep breath and stand up. "Yeah. Sure."
I help them lift the fallen fence and right it until the spokes where it's supposed to be driven down are aligned with the holes. As soon as we're sure it's fine, we drop it and press our weight against it. It doesn't budge, so other than killing a few earthworms, we're probably fine.
It is like this - four of us dirty with soil and grass and two of us smugly grinning as we lean against the fence - that we see Liliah, a ninth-grader and friend whom we invited, stroll through the gate of GCA.

She stares at us for a while before frowning. "Oh come on! What did I miss this time?"

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
A/N: Yeah, this is basically what I'm leaving you guys off at for a while. Now, let me say a couple of things. For the friend Juvanine is based on, Juvie is you're nickname in this world, okay? And I know this chapter might be considered sort of depressing, but it will get better. I think it will anyway.

It is on this short, pointless note that I wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Don't forget that Jesus is the reason for the season! Bye!