Chapter 0 - Prelude

Melanisville, US. December 22, 2022

- "That'll be 3 bucks", said the taxi driver.

Andrew nervously pulled a bill out of his wallet, acidentally spilling some coins on the car seat.

- The taxi driver took the bill. "Thanks!", he answered.

Picking up the coins, Andrew thanked the driver for the ride. He then abruptly unfastened his seatbelt, and got out of the car, pushing the car door with one hand and putting on his backpack with the other.

As his feet touched the ground, he felt the crust of snow crumble beneath him with a crunchy, crackly sound.

No matter where you drive up, the school is surrounded by a sort-of square, consisting of small gardens and benches, excluding the dull, ever continuing concrete paths surrounded by trees, leading to the four school buildings.

There was a tradition supported by the mayor himself where every year flowers would be planted by the citizens in those gardens. Everyone got a spot of the soil to deal with, and a lot of people would attend. However, Evelin, Andrew's soul mate, always had the best plantation.

And Andrew, by the way, happened to be passing by Evelin on his way to school today. For a second, they synced their walking pace, but did not say anything.

-"Hullo there", Evelin said in a welcoming voice,

She stroked her black long hair with her palm.

-"What's up, gal?", asked Andrew, stuttering through the first word because of the sudden greeting.

-"Not too much, eh. Been working on my IT assignment. If only had the teacher done a better job explaining all that gibberish about RAM... Random-Something-Memory, right?", she smiled, turning her head towards Andrew.

-"Random Access Memory.", said Andrew, shrugging his shoulders with the sound of his coat rubbing against his skin. They both paused for a second, and then laughed, tilting their heads back and forth.

-"I knew it. Andrew Hughes, Best IT expert in the school, right?", exclaimed Evelin rhetorically, opening her mouth in a childish smile.

-"Heh, I wish. Where are you goin', by the way?"

-"Not too far, Art class"

-"Well, good luck with art! And catch you later in the canteen, you better not take the last portion of fries, like yesterday!"

-"We'll see!"

She touched Andrew on the shoulder with one finger, brushing it across, and ran off, galloping on every step, until she disapeared into a turn.

Andrew and Evelin were friends since grade 5 until today, grade 9. Andrew always looked for someone who would accept his skinny-fat physique and moderate lack of social skills. And Evelin was just the right person. She never acknowledged his flaws, in the first place, and was always happy to see him. She supported him in times of hardship, and always helped him.

But not that they were a cliche teen romantic pair. It just appeared that they were good friends, and never were afraid of such prejudice.

Continuing to the building, Andrew decided to spend the time well, so he isolated himself inside his over-ear bulky headphones, and blasted Hardwired on full volume, spending the rest of the walk feeling like a federal agent on his way to investigate at the school, no matter how silly it might sound to himself and anyone else.

Just as the song came to an end, he was at the school's entrance. He entered, took his headphones off and went straight to Math class, but passed by the lockers to take his contraband sweets out of there and have an unplanned calorie compensation, and take off his big and thick fur coat, which made him look even bigger than he was.

"Alright, class. Sit down everyone", said Mr. Johansson, the grade 9 maths teacher. "Today, we are continuing..-"

Someone tapped Andrew's shoulder. "Hey!", whispered a male voice from the desk behind.

Andrew turned around to see who it was. And it was Jake, the class jerk. No, not a class bully, but a class jerk. He didn't bully people, he just was annoying and a perv. The handsomness of his undercut hairstyle and pattern T-shirt didn't match his behavior too well.

-"How's it going? Like, with that girl?". He winked

Andrew made a cold hard face for a split second, thinking of something to say back.

-"Unlike you, I am actually capable of admitting that I am just friends with a girl."

Andrew turned back to his desk, and heard specififc giggles from behind.

"Jake!", screamed Mr. Johansson in a bassy loud voice, facing towards the guy.

"Yes, sir!", responded Jake comically, putting his palm to his head like a soldier.

"Don't 'Yes sir' me. Shall I drop a letter to your parents? Come see me after class."

The whole class laughed, except for Jake, who was smiling in pride, trying to hide his embarrasment.

The rest of class was really trivial. The teacher just wrote a list of problems on the whiteboard, and sat at his old squeaky desk, pretending that his presence was crucial for solivng pre-written problems. Very typical of him, but Andrew was happy he didn't have to make effort to listen to all that nonsense about sines and cosines.

After a while, the teacher said, "Alright everyone, turn in your worksheets."

Briefly, the silence ws filled with the sound of everyone standing up and walking towards the teacher's desk. Jake nervously stood up and tried to waddle out of the room, but while Johansson was receiving the work, he kept a close eye on Jake, and as soon as everyone turned in their work, he said "Alright, dismissed, class!".

Suddenly, Jake felt something tug him lightly on his backpack. He turned around to see the cold stare of Johansson. As soon as everyone left class, he went to his desk, barely tearing eye contact with Jake.

"Forty. Nine. Percent. That's your grade. And I am NOT going to let you pass my damn class until you stop expressing your talkativeness and lack of self-discipline in here."

Closer to the end of the last sentence, Johansson formed a fist with his right hand, showing it to Jake and revealing his forearm by lowering his sleeve.

No one really knows what happened next, nor what Johansson's raised voice was saying behind the door. But everyone did their best leaning on the door with their heads to have some insignt on poor Jake's torture.

Suddenly, the screaming stopped, and everyone took their heads off the door, preparing for what happens next.

The door pushed open, and both Jake and "the inferno", as everyone liked to call the strict teacher, went out, directing themselves towards the staircase at one end of the hallway. Everyone realised that, indeed, the two were going to the principal, or one of his phony assistants, to scold poor Jake for his unfunny and irrelevant jokes.

For the next few class periods, Jake was not seen or heard of. Until it was lunchtime. Then, when, everyone, satisfied with the food selection for today, was peacefully sitting and eating their food, the large PA speakers announced:

"Due to a problem with the administration, the middle school building cannot function for today. The building is dismissed until further notice, and all asignments for the upcoming days remain due. Further information will be distributed to your parents per email, if necessary. Please take your time exiting, this is not an emergency."

The place filled with shrill noise as people started speculating on what could have happened with Jake. Did he throw a fit, and wreck all the carefully stacked papers? Did they find some inconsistency, or are they heatedly discussing Jake's hypothetical punishment?

Andrew slowly squeezed himself through the crowd, as he made his way to the exit. When he got there, the doors were wide open and people swarmed out, slowly dissipating towards the numerous bus stops, parking lots, where cars picked them up, or towards the streets surrounding the so-called "Gathering place", but Andrew didn't want to go home yet.

He sat down on one of the benches, and finished his food from the canteen, which he carefully wrapped in a paper napkin when they dismissed the school.

Once his sandwich and OJ came to a tragic end, he had nothing more to eat. He stood up, and deicded that he'd phone Max, one of his few friends. He was around his age, but had a rounder face with a less pronounced chin and jawline. He had brown hair, but a shade lighter than Andrew's.

Andrew pulled out his phone, and scrolled in the contacts righ to the letter "M", found "Max" and pressed call.

After a few dialtones, he heard Max's voice.

-"Hello?"

-"Hi Max! I was wondering if you wanna do homework together at the coffee shop."

-"For real? Havent been to the place for ages!"

-"You missing out. They literally have the best coffee I have ever tried!"

-"By the way, do you know what went down with Jake?"

-"Nobody does. Although I am pretty sure, after all the stuff he did, and judging by what just happened to the whole damned school, he isn't in for anything too great.", speculated Andrew

He stood up from the bench and started to walk towards the coffee shop.

-"Well, yeah. Anyways, see ya there".

Max hung up abruptly, and Andrew shoved the phone into his pocket. He really did start worrying about Jake, after all, however annoying he was. Deep down, he understood that he is better off in the same boat as a jerk, than a bunch of his non-trivial classmates, except for the ones who he was friends with.

Jake was after all, outside of his being-a-jerk routine, quite a good acquaitance of Andrew. He would play video games with him, until his parents smashed his expensive computer for some reason, and now he is being taken to the principal. Kind of sad to see someone's life screwed up like that.

Andrew's phone beeped, and he took it out. It was a Twitter notification.

"{Jake} so now they are discussing expelling me from the school. Great."

He decided to screenshot this and send it over to Max. In the same message, he asked where Max was, since the coffee shop was just a hundred meters away, but Max was nowhere to be seen.

Then, Andrew heard footsteps, and turned around to see exhausted Max, holding his backpack.

-"Where have you been all the time?", Andrew asked, exasperatedly.

-"Left my damn backpack in the building, and had to have the guard get it for me. Didn't let me go into the building though, as if there was a bomb there or something. And I saw that tweet. Check it out. There is like 50 retweets there now, just after five minutes. Jake wasn't much the popular guy, but now when people are excluding him from the school, he is suddenly the peak of attention."

-"If I were the principal, I'd just let him off with a warning, nothing more than that."

-"I'm pretty sure none of that would have happened without the teacher. And do remember, we live in some really formal and cynical private school with all that faux modesty and stuff."

-"Yeah, you are right, as if we could do anything, In either case, let's just get to the coffee shop."

After a short walk, they finally were in front of the silent, slickly designed coffee shop. They pulled open the door, and felt the smell of fresh coffee suspended in the air. Sitting down, they hung their coats and bags on the backs of their chairs.

The place felt antique, but at the same time so modern. The roof was held together by crossbeams, which also connected adjacent walls. At the same time, the monotonous beige-pink paint on the walls created a state-of-the-art vibe. The front of the coffee shop was a glass pane, which was covered in snow from the snowfall outside. Behing the pane was a fake teapot with cups next to it, and fake fruits, and the occasional lookalike choco cupcakes among them. All was clear - it was time for a coffee.

They both settled on the same drink choice - a chocolate latte, sprinkled with marshmallows. Because the chilly weather, the blanket of snow covering everything, its smoothness ripped by car tyre traces on the roads, set them in the mood. It is the mood of anticipating christmas, when you are both calm and mildly excited. That type of excitement, where every minute of the day is filled with carefree happiness and that familiar feeling of butterflies in your stomach.

When Max was just about to go and order, the bell at the door rang, alerting that someone had come in. It was a shy-looking, blonde haired girl. But she didn't sit down at the table, nor did she go to the counter for her takeaway order, like a visitor does. She looked around, as if trying to identify someone, until the stranger's confused look fell upon the table where we sat.

She was staring long enough for it to feel awkward, but not long enough to consider her a creep of some kind.

"Hi?", I said in a slightly misunderstanding tone.

"Oh, I'm kinda new at this school. I asked someone from the school where I could meet up with someone, and they told me to go here. You just seem to be the only two who wear the school badge.", she nodded, looking on our badges, which were indeed the only mandatory uniform.

"Yeah, you can sit down if you were intending to.".

"Oh, really? Ok.", she exclaimed, as she tugged her coat off herself and tied it around her waist.

She walked up to our table, and pulled the third chair out.

She carefully sat down on the upholstered wooden chair, and waited for us to say something.

"I should probably introduce us", said Andrew, finishing the sentence as if he was going to say something next, "The name's Andrew, and thats Max beside me."

"Oh, and I am Alexandra, I just moved here after my old school was closed. You can just call me Alex", the now familiar girl recited, and continued - "What you wanna order? Do they do milkshakes?", she wondered.

"Yeah, get the peanut butter one. Time-tested classic"

"Wonderful, you are now part of our unofficial drink-lover clan."

"I'll pay for it, but what do you want?", she asked.

"Both of us are getting chocolate lattes. Make sure to ask them to put marshmallows in there."

"I will, sure thing", she affirmed them.

She stood up, gently walking towards the counter.

She talked to the cashier silently, gave him a bill, and went back to the table, putting her wallet back into her pocket.

Alex sat down, and so the three talked about all kinds of stuff. The boys were surprised that the newcomer actually was fond of videogames, and had her own computer, and she even agreed to play with the already experienced gamers that Max and Andrew were one day.

Surprisingly, not much more happened that day. After the visit to the coffee shop, and the christmas vibes, Andrew did his homework, and talked to Max via Discord. The news about the school were imminent, and his Mom alerted him that the school will be in place tomorrow, and that they had prepared some announcement for the next day. As of Jake, nobody except himself knew what happened, and the email stayed silent about that.

What kind of announcement was that? Not as there is anothing too important, apart from the Christmas party, which was pretty much entirely prepared by now. No one knows, except for the next day itself...