Hey, readers! I am back, and I apologize for not uploading sooner. Go ahead and read this chapter real quick and the swing by the outro if you care to hear my excuse.

Chapter 2

I arrived at school and parked by the curb. As I got out, I noticed Mr. Lancer, Casper High's English teacher, 's car pull into the faculty parking lot. I walked up to meet him and took account of the paper bag he was holding.

"Good morning, Mr. Lancer."

"What? Oh, good morning, Ms. Fenton! Nice to see you here early." He held up the bag. "I overslept a little this morning, so I stopped to pick up something for breakfast on my way."

"I see," I replied politely.

"Speaking of oversleeping, where is your younger brother?" he asked, beginning to walk towards the school's entrance.

"He is walking to school with his friends." I followed him and thanked him for opening the door for me.

"Well, as long as he gets here. On time," Mr. Lancer added, a tad too strongly.

We walked down the empty halls, the building a husk without the familiar noise and bustle of the students rushing between classes or lounging around lockers, and made our way to the auditorium. It was there that we found it empty as well, except for a few students who wished to get the pick of the seats or decided to come early for other reasons. I followed Mr. Lancer up the steps onto the stage, and took my seat in the chair to his right.

A loud snoring filled the air, turning everyone's attention to the other seat beside the podium. It was occupied by another student: Irving Burns. The manager of the local hangout spot, the Nasty Burger, he had earned himself the nickname "Third Degree" Burns, and apparently had not gotten enough sleep the night before. Mr. Lancer cleared his throat loudly, rousing Irving so he jumped up and fell out of the chair. The laughter that followed was joined by a slight chuckle from the English teacher.

"Perhaps you would rather the floor over that chair, Mr. Burns. Even you can't fall off of that."

"Ha, ha," the young man replied dryly. As he pulled himself to his feet and once again took a seat, his eyes had already begun to droop. I waved to him from the other side of the podium and gave an apologetic smile, but he scowled and looked away.

Within the half-hour, most of the students and faculty had arrived and taken their place in the auditorium. I noticed Danny, Tucker, and Sam enter and find seats close to the front. I waved, but they didn't seem to notice me. I could tell they were still whispering, but I was too far away to guess what they were saying.

At 9:15 sharp, Mr. Lancer stood behind the podium and cleared his throat before beginning.

". . . Your future is not carved in stone, people, but it may be carved with a number two pencil," Mr. Lancer said, holding up a pencil for emphasis.

I looked back at the crowd and saw that Sam and Tucker were clearly bored, but Danny, to my surprise and delight, was hanging on to every word.

"As most of you have probably forgotten," Mr. Lancer continued, "you will be taking the Career Aptitude Test on Saturday." The words appeared on the projection screen behind him as he spoke. "Do well, like Ms. Fenton here," he gestured to me and I watched as Danny followed along as he continued and said, 'who got the highest score in the history of the CAT.' "And a successful future will be assured." Mr. Lancer smiled as he said the words, but his expression quickly became one of disappointment. "Fail, like Irving 'Third Degree' Burns, here," he spat, waving a hand towards the once-again slumbering teen, "who got the lowest score in the history of the CAT," Irving suddenly awoke and scowled, crossing his arms as he did so. "And you will be doomed to a career at the Nasty Burger."

Irving appeared to have had enough. "Hey, working at Nasty Burger takes brains, ya know." He stood up and held up a finger to emphasis his point. "If those forty-two nasty secret herbs and spices in our Nasty Sauce are overheated, it could cause an explosion so big that could take out a whole city block!"

The crowd seemed utterly underwhelmed and unconvinced by Irving's words, and if it were a movie, you probably would have heard crickets chirping.

"Oh, whoamIkidding, my life is over," Irving said sadly, dipping his head to he chest as he walked off the stage.

Mr. Lancer wasted little time watching him with the rest of the people in the room before getting back on track. "These aren't just the answers to the test," he continued, holding up a large, gray envelope with a label indicating that it did, indeed, hold the test answers, "THEY'RE the answers to your future." With that, he opened a briefcase on top of the podium and placed the envelope inside. "So study," he closed the briefcase and proceeded to handcuff it to his left arm. "Remember," he said, "it's your future. Do you want fries with it?" He then turned and walked off the stage.

Okay, so I MEANT to get this uploaded almost two weeks ago, but I had moved the file to my phone so I could work on it at work during my break. Then, I got to the point where Lancer gave the speech(?) and I needed to rewatch that part of TUE, and I didn't get to that til tonight partly because of a research paper due for my College Composition class that I hadn't even started the first draft until last Friday. *catches breath real quick* Anyways, I got it up and I hope to get the third one up soon (if I pick a time, I will mostly likely get too busy again), but I hope this will satisfy you guys for now. Sorry the chapters are so short, but this isn't a very long and detailed kind of story (at least the way I am writing it), and I am not very enthusiastic because it is the middle of the semester. Thankfully, it ends December 16th!

All that aside, thanks for reading all this if you made it this far. You will be the lucky few whom I will not send assassins after tonight. (Totally kidding, please don't SWAT me or anything!) As always, please fav and follow to keep up to date on if this gets updated (see what I did there?) and please leave me a review to let me know what you think so far and if you have a challenge of your own you wanna bring to my attention. Even just a quick 'cool!' is always appreciated. For now, I'll see ya in the next chapter!