Word Count: 850
Chapter Two: Come Out to Play
"Girls and boys, come out to play,
The moon doth shine as bright as day;
Leave your supper, and leave your sleep,
And come with your playfellows into the street.
Come with a whoop, come with a call,
Come with a good will or not at all.
Up the ladder and down the wall,
A halfpenny roll will serve us all.
You find milk, and I'll find flour,
And we'll have a pudding in half an hour."
Lovino's first thought when he woke up in a deserted classroom was to run away quickly and never look back. But that was when he noticed that the door was closed and the windows were bolted shut. There goes his escape plan.
Nerves of steel never did run in his family. If he knew his brother well, Feliciano was probably—
Wait. Shit. Where was Feli?
Escape plans be damned. He needed to find his little brother.
At least the classroom door wasn't locked. Thank god for small mercies.
"Fratello!"
Lovino nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard his brother's voice.
"Feliciano! Are you alright? What happened?" Lovino asked. Feliciano could be irritating at times, but he's still Lovino's brother.
"I don't know. I just panicked when I woke up in a classroom and you weren't there," Feliciano whined, his hands flying off in all directions the way he does when he's nervous, a trait shared by all members of the Vargas family, though Lovino would be hard-pressed to admit that he himself also does that.
DING-DONG-DING
"Attention. All new students of W Academy are requested to proceed to the gymnasium immediately for the opening ceremony. Slackers will be appropriately punished. Thank you."
The brothers looked at each other after the announcement was finished.
"What do you think, Fratello? Should we go?" Feliciano asked, hands still fidgeting.
Lovino shrugged in response. "Well, do we even have a choice?"
Obviously none.
When the brothers entered the gymnasium, there were already fourteen other students waiting. None of them looked any older than Lovino. And by the looks on their faces, none of them knew what the hell was going on.
One of them was sleeping; a cat perched on his head. Beside the sleeping guy was a grumpy blond with humongous eyebrows.
Two blond boys, obviously the youngest among all those present, were talking to each other in the far side of the room. By their identical looks, Lovino guessed they were twins.
Lovino only had time to sit down before a large robotic animal entered the room and addressed them. The robot looked like some chimera, the left half of it being white and looking like any ordinary stuffed toy, while the right half looked like something straight out of a freak show, being black with a red eye shaped like lightning and its mouth twisted into some sort of terrifying grin.
"Good morning, you bastards, and welcome to W Academy. Now, someone please wake up Mr Karpusi before I begin."
The grumpy blond tapped the shoulder of the sleeping person beside him, and when that person woke up, the amused robot continued.
"As I was saying, welcome to W Academy. My name is Mr Alphachrome, but you could address me as Alpha. I am your headmaster, and today I will be telling you what you should expect on your indefinite stay in this place."
"What animal are you supposed to be, Mr Alphachrome? Are you a llama?" some idiot from the back row who just couldn't keep his mouth shut asked.
The robot shook its head. "No, Mr Fernandez, I am an alpaca. Interrupting me and referring to me as a llama are both punishable offences, but since this is your first day, I'll let it slide. Now, as you might have guessed, there is no way out of this school. You could choose to stay here in relatively mutual peace forever, or you could opt for a graduation."
"How so?" the idiot asked again, probably not understanding the word punishment.
The robot alpaca grinned menacingly. "Strike two, Mr Fernandez! You don't want to know what happens at three. But I'm glad you asked. Graduating from W Academy is simple. You have to kill your classmate, and the others must not find it out."
Then it stood on its hind legs, clapping its forelegs together in bemusement. "Isn't mutual killing fun? Way better than those boring classroom lectures? I thought you'd enjoy it. But before I leave you to party, I'll give you your Electronic Student ID cards. It contains all basic information about you, as well as W Academy's rules. Remember to read through them before you go a-plotting your murders~! Oh, and by the way, students are only allowed to sleep at their dorm rooms."
And with that, the alpaca-shaped robot strutted out of the room.
Lovino mouth hung open, still staring at the quickly disappearing figure of the robotic menace. What the fuck was going on?
A/N: Ahaha. Yes, it's Hima-papa's alpaca. In the words of my wise friend Gill, "Alpacas are neutral. You never know who's behind it. For all we know, it could even be Himaruya."
Also, I asked another friend if the number of students was stretching it, but she shrugged it off, saying that "SDR2 starts with 16 students, it's fine."