6

[Art] F [Drawing] F+ [Shading] F+ [Construction] F+ [Pose] F+ [Perspective] F+

Reed walked with headphones in ears and phone in pocket, listening to 'Hard Knock Days' and bobbing his head. He ignored the curious looks people gave him, smiling slightly at his progress. Everyone of his Art related skills seemed to be progressing as steadily as a flowing river.  He no longer doubted that he was talented in the subject. Even more so, realizing just how much he enjoyed drawing and learning the various aspects it involved, he sighed and wished he had started earlier.

The past never changes, however.

'Hey, Maria, what would happen if I got someone to challenge me?' He asked.

He had been curious since the end of the emergency mission at the race track, although he thought it unlikely, he wondered if it could be used in his favor. As in, if he could abuse it.

[The System isn't stupid.] The voice was a bit colder than usual, [Only a true, genuine, challenge coming from the person's heart and desires will activate an emergency mission. Any other type of challenges could be disregarded.]

'What a miser of a System.' Reed joked, turning his attention back to the path before him.

It was currently 7:50 AM and the garden path towards the school building was crowded.

The sun bled down and students littered the place like ants, some in groups and some not. There were even a few that had the pride to ride 'hoverboards', skateboards or one wheelers. Reed shook his head, the thing was barely a ten minute walk if someone decided to walk as slowly as possible, did these people have too much money on their hands to squander?

They were dressed in a simple uniform. The boys had long pants of black and the girls had decent length skirts of the same color. Then there was the jacket of peach brown they all wore over a white shirt, showing black ties. The uniform, although simple, was of high quality—but, like some, Reed wasn't fond of the ties and chose to not wear one. His shirt's collar was unbuttoned and unminded.

His black school bag was strapped over his chest, dangling to his left hip.

A hand slapped his shoulder.

"You didn't forget right? You're really gonna do it right?"

Reed turned around and the first thing he saw was a cheeky smile that quite matched the cheeky voice.

He slowly took off his headphones, "I didn't forget, Allen."

Allen was a tall boy, not quite as tall as Reed, but only about three inches shorter. He had a head of dirty blonde hair and light green eyes, the very definition of an American. His youthful face was a bit puffed, there were slight bags under his eyes, and, much like Reed, there was no tie around his neck. To get this boy to dress formal? That was impossible, even his own parents would be exasperated.

He always held a light smile on his face, as if the world could do him no wrong—although he gets into trouble quite too much for that to be true. He wasn't truly 'fat', only a bit chubbier than most. With a life spent gaming most of the time, moving around wasn't a strong suit of his.

There was some air of constant innocence.

He certainly wouldn't forget the job request from this boy, in fact, he had already received three more requests this morning.

"Oh thank god," Allen breathed a sigh of relief, "Hurry up, let's get going, we don't want to be late or Ms. Strict might have us do push-ups again."

The boy shuddered silently.

Reed laughed, "You wanna race?"

Allen opened his eyes wide and rolled it, "Since when do you race?"

He shrugged.

"I met an interesting person."

Allen scoffed at that statement. The two continued their walk, chatting.

***

"How could you two be late again? On a Monday no less?" That strict voice rang.

The two gulped, smiling awkwardly, as they looked at the figure in front of them.

She wore a shirt of white, it was a long sleeve, but it had been folded all the way to her elbows—revealing her white, slender, arms. Below her waist was a thigh length business skirt and black stockings that receded down into her black heels. Her long, black, hair was shaped into a bun through a dark, purple ribbon. Her face was small and youthful, but sharp, matching the slanted black eyes. There was an ample hidden valley in their view as she folded her arms.

Ms. William, Layla William, the school's Literature and main English teacher.

She glanced at them, looking at the two up and down, "Hurry up and find your seats, I'll let this one pass, but if you're late the next time—it'll be a lap around the school, and I don't mean this building."

With that, she turned back to enter the classroom.

"Close the door on your way in."

Reed and Allen looked at each other, nodding, and entering with quick steps.

The classroom was shaped much like those found in colleges. It was like the inclines of stadium sits with long tools of circular wooden desks leading and focusing towards the black board in front.

Allen and Reed quickly found themselves in the back, all the way at the top, glancing around the room to look at the people of multi colors and shapes, they nodded and prepared for a three hour lecture.

"For the next two weeks," Layla said, turning toward the class as she held a book in her hand.

"We will be studying 'Brave New World' by Aldous Huxley, there will be a written essay at the end and multiple short response questions with two long response questions in between, I hope you've all bought the book and have it in hand like I asked you to do over the weekend."

Reed looked around and saw everyone gingerly taking a book. He looked over to Allen, even the lazy boy had the orange book in hand and was giving him a puzzled look.

At that moment….Reed realized he hadn't bought the book yet.

"Oh shit...don't tell me you don't have it?" Allen whispered with widened eyes.

He shook his head with a bitter smile, there was a mutter of 'Dude, she's gonna grill you', as he stared back to the front of the classroom.

Layla's sharp eyes had already drilled towards his direction. She folded her arms and tapped her foot. There was an audible clacking.

"Mr. Fraught, is there something you would like to tell me?"