AN: I was so excited about my three reviews that I decided to publish another chapter… But, in a week from now, there will be chapter three.

Sess18: Thanks for the review, and I'll try

Unico Luna Angelo: Thanks for the review~~~ Hope you enjoy this chapter too!

Hespera Nova: You again! (I hope I'm not confusing you with someone else) Thanks for reviewing. Thanks for saying it's a nice start. c:

Rezoning

A Month Before Iason Mink's Junior Year, Still Summer Vacation

"I can't believe they are rezoning the school- why our school? Why not the interplanetary one in north Midas?" Raoul Am roared, in his most famous of moods: irate. He bit into his ten credit burger.

The infamous Omaki Ghan answered, "Maybe because the school is already big enough? How many kids go there, like, four thousand?" He sipped his strawberry-banana smoothie priced at seven point seven credits.

Iason cut into his twelve credit salad, correcting Omaki, "Five thousand, two hundred."

Another friend, Xian Sami whistled, sipping a cold frappachino, made special- a whopping fifteen credits.

Heiku Quiahtenon didn't have anything, too busy doing summer work for an advanced chemistry class he had taken up. He didn't want any drinks or foods messing up his work, though he did take the time out from being a shut-in to hang out with his closest Blondie friends at the huge Eos mall. They were on the fifth floor, eating at food court.

As Blondies, they were allotted a hefty sum of money for allowance, and did their best to get the best that money could buy, though whether or not their purchases were worth the price could be debated. It wasn't as if they had tried anything cheaper than what they bought currently.

"Who are we taking in?" Heiku asked distractedly, counting the significant figures of all the practice problems, an ordeal that he hated and often got wrong.

"Part of North and East Ceres High Schools and the Interplanetary School of North Midas." Midas had five interplanetary schools, North Midas being the biggest.

"Ugh!" Raoul exclaimed. "No other Blondie school has mongrels in them."

"Amoi Academy isn't a Blondie school anymore," Xian said. "It's public now."

Amoi Acadmey started out as a prestigious all-Blondie school, but the population proved to grow naive of the outside world, completely full of themselves, and unused to the stresses of real life. The Academy then changed to an Elite school, but the results were the same. As the trade between Amoi and other planets began to grow, the school became a private interplanetary school. When humanoids began to enter higher-classes and proved worthy of the Academy, the school changed to public to accommodate them.

Now, there was nothing stopping mongrels from entering the large, though rather empty school, and the other schools needed the relief from overcrowding with students. Amoi Academy was the perfect choice.

"Still, we can't let just anyone in," Raoul complained.

"What do you have against the poor people, Raoul? They haven't done anything to you." Omaki smiled at his friend, already predicting what he was about to say.

"They're dirty."

"What about that Riki Iason met a while back?"

"That was just one of them; that doesn't represent the whole lot of them accurately."

"But you haven't met any of them, so what are you basing your assumptions on?"

"Would you just shut up, Omaki?"

Omaki only grinned. Teasing Raoul was almost second nature to the Blondie, and he enjoyed thinking of ways to get to Raoul on the fly. He leaned back in his floating chair and asked generally, "Do you think we might get more girls?"

"I hope so," Xian said, "Those foreign girls at our school are too pushy, and the Elite girls are stuck-up as hell."

"And how do you think the Ceres girls will act?"

Xian grinned. "Hard to get."

"I thought you liked males?" Heiku questioned absentmindedly, quite able to multitask through the conversation.

"I do. But I wouldn't mind trying out a girl for awhile, before I pass my Blondie exam and see if I have to go celibate for the rest of my life."

Among many restrictions, celibacy was amongst the most trying of them for Blondies. Though not strictly enforced, those that went without physical intimacy were held in higher esteem, and the pursuit of such actions was met with extreme disappointment and detrimental to the reputation. However, Blondies led full lives. They were the focus of any event and, the biggest draw to the teenagers at the moment, were rich. After schooling, they had four more years of training to become true Blondies, and then they will take the exam. If they pass, they can choose whether or not to take the oath to adhere to Blondie standards. Few took the oath.

If synthetically made citizens chose not to take the oath, they were downgraded from Blondie to Platina Elites. Still quite a spiffy title, but marked with the stigma of a failed Blondie.

"I'm glad we don't have to hide it anymore like in the old days," Heiku admitted, looking up from his work to look at his friends. "You know when they required you to be virgin before and after you became a Blondie? That would suck."

"Aren't you a virgin anyways?" Raoul muttered.

"Yes, but it is good to have a choice."

Raoul made a face. At his age, he had few loves. Three of them were money, his friends, and art. It was evident in the fact of how much his food costs, the way he spent his time, and the way he held his burger in one hand and an artsy pencil in another, poised over a sheet of sketch paper.

"You still haven't chosen something to do your Abstract Realistic Illustrations on?" Iason asked. He was finished with his salad and was wiping his perfectly clean lips with a cloth handkerchief.

Raoul slammed his pencil down on the table. "I can't even think of what to draw! I hate being told what to do!"

"Why did you take the class? You had it last year."

"I don't know... I thought it would be sort of different. I was terribly, terribly wrong." Raoul took up his pencil again and chewed at the end, which was absent the eraser. He bought those separate, expensive little things that didn't leave smudges and could scrub off everything from pen to crayon. "Teacher said to take what we learned last year about Abstract art and Realistic art and combine them in an 'unique' way."

"How about you take something realistic and draw it in an abstract way?" Xian asked. "Or vice versa."

"You think I haven't thought of that? But nothing I think of is good enough."

Heiku said underneath his breath, "You are your worst critic."

"You've got a month. No need to rush," Omaki pointed out.

Raoul shook his head. "When I finally think of an idea, it'll take forever to do all the correct revisions."

Omaki sighed. "You should take the laidback approach to everything and only do what is necessary to get the grade."

"You're not going to go very far with that attitude."

Omaki shrugged.

Raoul looked at Iason, who, though not an artist, did have a vast knowledge and strong interest in the area of art. Sometimes, Raoul looked at Iason just to receive inspiration. Iason who apparently worried over nothing and still did everything just perfectly. All Raoul needed to do, he thought to himself, was stay calm and think like Iason.

Except when he went to Midas by himself and got caught in a fight that wasn't even his own and met a person that could have been potentially dangerous. That wasn't a smart thing to do, in Raoul's opinion. Iason told him that he had gone by himself because everyone else was busy, and there was a fire circus show that was performing in Midas. Still, there were crazy people out there that could take advantage of even a Blondie.

Yet, from what Iason said, the mongrel had acted almost refined. Perhaps, despite what he had said before, Midas and Ceres couldn't be all that bad, if they were letting the kids there enter an Elite- a public school of Eos.

And then the idea bulb illuminated inside Raoul's curly-haired head.

"Well," he murmured to himself, "the idea behind the art is abstract, yet readily apparent in the realism."

"Uh, oh, he's talking to himself again," Omaki said.

Raoul began to nod. "Abstract realism is in itself a paradox; how about I paint a paradox? Yes, it would be easy, so obvious- a different interpretation! Why hadn't I thought of it before? Iason!"

Without so much as a jump, Iason answered, "Yes, Raoul?"

"You still have that mongrel's number?"

Iason raised his eyebrows and took out his phone. "Yes, I do. Would you like for me to call him?"

"Yes."

So, without quite knowing what Raoul had in mind, Iason dialed Riki's number for the first time. The others, even Heiku, leaned forward with much attentiveness. Iason, seeing their interest, took the phone from his ear and put it on speakerphone, letting them all hear the multiple rings alerting the other line.

Finally, it was answered: "Is this fucking Iason Mink?"

Iason's friends gave him shocked looks. They couldn't believe that he had gotten in touch with a real mongrel- who used a real cell phone- then they remembered that the phone wasn't his.

"I'm glad you remember me."

"Sure you are. Finally figured what you want from me?"

"Actually, I need you to do a... favor for a friend."

"So what is it?"

Raoul explained quickly, "Tell him I want to paint him and any friends he has."

"Tell 'im I heard 'im," Riki said. "What the hell do you want to do that for? Can't you paint some hot models where you at?"

"It's for a class he has." Iason smiled. "So what do you say?"

There was a silence on the other line before Riki asked a friend on his side, "Hey, what do you guys say to getting ya'll's picture taken?"

"It's not photography, it's painting," Raoul said irritably.

"Whatever. How many of us do you need?"

"My largest piece has to hold at least ten," Raoul said. "More will give me extra credit."

"I can get you...thirteen... But where are we going to meet up?"

"Come to Eos."

There was laughter in the background of Riki's phone, indicating that he also had his phone on loudspeaker. "I'mma assume youse a Blondie, because, Blondie, if you haven't heard, I got my ass beat just by stepping into Midas. Can you imagine what will happen when a whole gang of mongrels step into Midas? Now think about what would happen if we all went to Eos," Riki told him between laughter.

The group of Blondie boys snickered at Raoul, and he glared at them, blushing furiously.

"You don't seriously think we would go to Ceres!"

"If you wanna paint us, you gotta sacrifice a little."

"Ugh," Raoul moaned, not at all willing to make the sacrifice, but once he had a thought in his head, an idea for spectacular art especially, he was too stubborn to let it go. And this was a beautiful idea; he was sure his teacher would be captivated by his ingeniousness, very sure.

(He was very wrong.)

"It's dangerous here, Riki," came a soft voice from the phone.

Silence. "Yea, I guess it is, huh?" There was a laugh. "They might get shot."

"Excuse me?" Omaki said.

"Just kidding! Sort of..."

Iason interrupted, coming up with an idea of his own, "You had said that you went to East Ceres?"

"Yea."

"Are you zoned for Amoi Academy?"

"Huh? No, I go to East Ceres, I said."

"Wait, Riki!" was another voice's interception, "You didn't hear about the call from the school board?"

"What are you talking about," said another.

"I didn't tell ya'll about it? Oh, my, gosh, I forgot!"

"What?" said the entire audience on Riki's side.

"We're zoned for Amoi Academy. We're just close enough to be bus riders!"

"You can't be serious," Riki whispered. Others echoed the phrase.

"As a heart attack, guys."

"But what does that mean for you, Iason?"

Iason had slightly displeased look on his face. "I thought you would have been close enough to walk to the school, but if you are only close enough to be bus riders, then..."

"We can catch a ride in the orphanage vans."

"You're an orphan?"

"Yep, all of us."

There was an awkward quiet between the two groups, the top rung and the bottom.

"Now, don't go all mushy on me," Riki said. "When do you wanna meet up?"

"Today," Raoul said quickly.

"Half an hour?"

"Fine."

And without preamble, Riki hung up, muttering, "I can't believe this."