At The Front Gates Leading To Our Tomorrow

The bus dropped them off an easy block away from Ponderidge Academy, the place where Felicia is going to start her new and normal school lifestyle. In walking distance, they'll make it with just moments to spare if they hurry. Felicia wasn't about to miss out on a single second of this most essential day of her life.

"Hey, hey, come on! Let's get moving!" she chimed, taking Brett by the hand once more.

They exited the bus and back into the city streets, resuming their fast-paced scurry towards their destination. There were fewer pedestrians at this time, which meant fewer potential victims of their clumsy, hastily hurrying with no regard for any other person around.

At last, they reached it. The school was even grander than when Felicia first visited it with her father for her initiation entrance meeting. The pristine pearly white bricks layered to make up the walls and the elegant first impression the building itself puts out. Tall golden pillars at the main entrance along with a gray stone staircase that seemed to ascend into the heavens. The structure, six floors high and as wide as three football stadiums, was newly built for a sole purpose: give its students a reasonable sense of the real world upon their graduation. A fence lining the perimeter was equipped with state-of-the-art security systems and cameras. There were two front gates each one located near the front corners of the fence, allowing students from different sides of the city to enter the premises.

At this point, a small handful of students was still entering through the open gates before they will be automatically closed in the next several minutes. Felicia and Brett somehow made it amongst the last bits of the crowd who pouring into the school. Once they were passed the gate, they both stopped to catch their breath, huffing and leaning over with their hands on their knees, and thus receiving some discerning stares from those who dared to look back at them. Thinking they were so weird, let alone different, the other students chose not to approach them, but they still began whispering behind their hands to each other about the duo's strikingly odd appearances and looks.

"Woo-hoo! Alright, we made it!" Felicia enthusiastically shouted at the top of her lungs, "This is going to be great!"

She started making her way towards the front doors when Brett's hand abruptly grabbed onto her wrist and made her stop before she went too far. She looked at him as his head was still looking downward and his hair covered his eyes.

"Huh? Something wrong? You know, at this rate, I'll be late!" then she got a good look into his eyes once he lifted his head, "Hey, what's with the weird face?"

"You sure you'll be alright without me?" Brett asked.

"Oh please, I'm not a little kid anymore," she tried to assure him, "I don't need you to babysit me like one. Besides, it's only for several hours, so don't worry about it."

"That's exactly why I'm worried. Everyone, including you, ought to know by now you are the master at getting into trouble in just about everything you do in record breaking times."

"Is that what this is all about?"

"I'm just saying you're the one who wanted to come here, but that means you need to behave better. Even one slip-up can jeopardize all of this, and I don't want to see you get sad over it."

Felicia then harshly pulled back her hand out of Brett's grip, "Jeez, it's like you don't even believe in me! Have a little faith, will you?"

"Look, I just—"

"No! No more negativity! How about this instead? You stop worrying, nothing will go wrong, and you'll make a big fancy feast for dinner tonight as a celebration?!"

Brett opened his mouth about to say something that would contradict her every natural move, but Felicia immediately cut him off before he could get a single word out.

"Look, it's my first day of school here, so even if I screw up something, it's not like they're going to resort to major punishment," she made it sound like she was going to get in trouble upon entering the building.

"Okay, but—"

"No buts! Nothing bad will happen, I promise!" then Felicia gazed into Brett's bright orange eyes, leaning her face into his while standing on her tippy-toes, "And now I'll also need you to promise me that you'll stop worrying so much!"

It was an effortless win on her end of the battle. Once she ever made him promise her anything, he always became powerless to refuse upon her flirty yet comforting gestures towards him. Never in all his years of serving the Limoxberg family has Brett been able to deny one of Felicia's promises.

He sighed, shifting his eyes away from her big blue-eyed glare with a slight blush across his cheeks, "Alright, fine. You better make good on this, you know."

"Oh, I will! See you!"

Felicia then turned back to the school and happily skipped quickly towards the main entrance. She gave him a final wave of the hand and then a thumbs up shortly afterward, a gesture to assure she will be just fine, before disappearing behind the large four doors.

Brett watched her enter the building to ensure himself she would be safe inside. He was not permitted to attend school with her, but it always clawed at his gut as to when she'll get in trouble next and to what sort of predicament it'll be. Not that he could do very much about it now, though, and as much as he hates to admit it, she made a fair point. He shouldn't have to worry.

Suddenly, his cellphone in his pocket began buzzing, indicating he was getting a call. Without bothering to check the caller ID, deducing it must be either Latham or Patricia Limoxberg calling him from the main estate, Brett quickly pressed the answer key and gave a brief, "Yeah, hello?"

There was a slight pause before the person on the other end, who was indeed not a member of the Limoxberg family and should not have access to his phone number, spoke loudly and with a sinister cackling between his words, "Hahaha! It's been, ha, quite a while, hasn't it, haha! Am I right, haha, Sol?!"