September 21st, 2037 7:50 A.M. [Western Europe]

"Oh dear, hurry up! You have ten minutes until school starts!" A frantic man was rushing across the kitchen and dining rooms. He was in his late 40s and his steel blue eyes were always alert.

"That's enough time, relax." Ceylan said, as he took a bite from a slice of toast.

"You are literally wearing no pants at the table."

"I'll put them on later." Ceylan shrugged. Suddenly, a pair of uniform khakis were thrown in his face.

"Don't leave your clothes on my bed." Gen's eye slightly twitched at him. But the glare didn't last too long and he sat down on the table.

A few days ago, the knight had been picked up by Madeline's friend, who was an absolute worry-wort. Drake was a very young-looking man for his age and yet... Just somehow, he acted as a middle-aged mother and was nagging everyone constantly.

Filling out the school paperwork was a terrible experience for them because he was looking over everyone's shoulder and denying that he was double-checking. Despite how annoying he was, every teenager was glad that he took them into a new school and provided them disguising materials. Also, he was a good cook and that's top priority.

"Should we actually work hard in this school? I feel like it won't fill our credits." Chooki questioned, as he reached across the table for the orange juice.

"It does, but we have to use fake IDs." Beni answered him. "After we get our names cleared, then it should count as credits. If anyone asks what level you're in, then say you're a third-year."

"That means we're juniors, right?" The bluenette asked and received a nod from Beni.

"It's true anyways." She began to explain. "You boy had taken 9th grade in Benham. And we just finished our sophomore year in the west coast."

"School goes by really fast, then." Guren commented as he nibbled on toast. "What are we going to do after high school?"

"Excuse me, you should be worrying about the fact that we're wanted internationally!" Toxsa said with his mouth full.

"I think we should save the future for later," Gen looked at the redhead.

"No college would ever accept a wanted criminal either." The teenager with long hair huffed. "Unless it has courses on how to get away with murder."

"It's just better to daydream, than to plan everything out." Ceylan kicked his feet back on the table and stretched out his arms. Suddenly, his eyes widen at the grandfather clock. "Oh shit, would you look at the time!"

Ceylan then got up and started heading out the door. Until, Beni shouted that he didn't have any pants on and he quickly returned to the dining room table. Everyone was rushing out of the house before Drake could get the chance to nag them about the time. Then they bolted outside to the school.

O~O

"Tests will be tomorrow, use your time to study tonight." The teacher was writing information on the board. Most of the class looked as if they were paying attention, but some students weren't. But only a few students obvious showed no interest in the classroom.

One of those students being Ceylan Jones in grey eye contacts. Behind Guren's seat, he was messing around with pencils and stacking up highlighters. Just hearing the mention of tests bothered him because everyone got into the school at last minute.

"You've got to be kidding me." He thought as he stared at the whiteboard. It was scribbled in an unknown language that was full of economical information. Because class was almost over, the teacher allowed some students to study and ask questions for the test. Instead of getting ready for the test, Ceylan was twirling a pencil in his hands and accidentally 'dropped' it. But it had actually been flicked and skidded across the floor. Just as he was about to ask Guren to get it for him, the redhead's attention was taken away.

"Excuse me, but could you get my pencil down there? I'm so sorry that I dropped it." A brunette with long hair asked, pointing at the pencil Ceylan had dropped.

"What the hell." The teenager with blue hair thought. "That is not your pencil, and Guren didn't even see you drop it."

"Oh, sure." He looked underneath his seat and grabbed Ceylan's pencil. Handing it to the girl, she gave a sweet smile as she took it from him. Seeing all of this happening, the bluenette was twisting the corner of his notebook paper. What made matters worse was when Ceylan wanted to talk with his friend at the end of class. But somehow, she was the one who got to talk with him.

"EXCUSE ME, but could you not talk to my friend." He had his elbow on the desk and rested his chin on his hand. He was growing extremely tired of this because all he wanted was to get through the first school day. As soon as the bell was ringing, Ceylan pulled Guren out of his seat and they were out of the classroom.

"Ceylan don't we have to study for the economics test?" Guren asked as they were walking through the hallway.

"I lost my pencil, there's no time to study. Plus, wehavetokeepalowcoverlikeBenisaid." The boy with 'grey' eyes was pushing the redhead to their next class. "Let's get the school day over with."

"Since when have you started listening to Beni!?" Guren gave the bluenette a very, very concerned look.


"Shakespeare is just so stupid." Toxsa sighed, as he flopped onto the auditorium seats. The older boy sat next to him and was trying hard to read the script.

"Same here, looks like we have something in common." Chooki laughed, putting the script down. "But we have to read this and that one other book."

"And then we have to perform either 'A Midsummers' Night Dream' or 'Pride and Prejudice.' And I'm not looking forward to that." He groaned and tossed the book aside. "I hate having drama for a class."

"You could always be a tree, then." A voice came from the balcony and both teenagers looked up to see Gen. "And you're in an english class."

"Shut up!" Toxsa shouted back at the taller teenager. You see, english class was the only class all six friends had together. So this would be their only time to check in on each other and stay safe.

"At least, we aren't performing 'Romeo and Juliet.' They both end up dying." Ceylan shrugged and his best friend agreed with him. "Plus, that play just brings back freshmen flashbacks."

"I think that Chooki would make a good Romeo, though. He knows how to flirt and stuff." Guren commented and leaned his head on the red seat.

"Then, does that make Beni, Juliet?" Ceylan laughed out loud. Suddenly, a rolled-up script smacked his head.

"No, that doesn't make me 'Juliet.' Why does the girl have to be 'Juliet?' Why not a boy?" Beni crossed her arms and 'yellow' eyes glared at the bluenette.

"Because Juliet was a princess in the story, you see—" Chooki began to explain, but he was cut off.

"But a man would be acting the role of Juliet, back then. So, it's okay to make a boy be Juliet." She said and continued. By then, the teenager from the balcony went to join the conversation. "Also, I'm just reminding everyone that Shakespeare was a gay man."

"But what if he never truly existed?" Toxsa asked and narrow his almond his eyes at her.

"If he didn't exist, then we wouldn't be having this conversation." Gen answered and he received nods from Beni and the dirty blonde.

"Guys, can we just get back to reading our scripts?" Guren flapped a script openly.

"C'mon, Shakespeare rarely has any proof of his own birthday." 'Grey' eyes rolled at the auburn haired teenager.

"You're just only saying that because you can't get good grades in English." Gen argued back at him.

"Plus, aren't we all just a little bit gay inside?" The girl in the blue cap threw the script out of her hands. "Toxsa would obviously make a good Juliet."

"What the hell, Beni!?" Both Gen and Chooki said. But they may have said that a bit too loudly. Soon enough, the group of six found themselves in an argument of roles they found would best fit them. Soon enough, the commotion caught the english teacher's attention and the woman was walking up to the arguing group of teenagers.

"What is the meaning of this arguing?" Her arms were folded and holding a large paperback. All at the same time, everyone was just pointing out about roles and the rules of characters in plays. This was actually freaking out the English teacher, until she found a pattern amongst them. "Stop."

"...I just really hate reading Shakespeare!" That seemed to have silenced everyone when the teacher gave them a look from that sentence.

"It seems to me that I won't need any auditions this year. All six of you students will be casting the main roles for either plays." She said, and everyone could only blink at her. "Oh yes, and I will be the one picking out your roles too."

"We. Are. So. Screwed." Ceylan choked on his words. Everyone agreed with him for once because all of them had just been assigned major character roles in the performance. That's not a good sign.

After a long and tiring (first) day of school, the knights had retreated back to their house to do homework and more assignments. Working on school assignments in the living room, they were really careful when Drake would appear. Mostly because of the fact that they were "wanted criminals."

"Doing all of this homework won't get us anywhere." Gen said and he put his pencil aside to rest his hand.

"I know that this isn't clearing our names, but we have to wait before we can do anything else." Guren was focusing on his math homework. "I mean, what can we do now?"

"We always could ditch school and find the assholes who framed us." Toxsa suggested and Chooki shoved a pillow into the younger teenager's face.

"Bad idea." Ceylan muttered and chewed on the end of his pencil. "We don't have any kind of basic survival stuffs."

"I could always hijack a car, you know." Beni stated and everyone bursted out laughing. However, she just shrugged at this and added, "But Ceylan has a good point, we don't have any money or type of transportation. We're lucky enough to have a roof over our heads, now!"

"Your idea has potential, but we can't carry it out." The teenager with dirty blonde hair told his friend.

"That's not what I meant!" Toxsa yelled throguh the pillow, but it had been muffled. He removed the cushion from his face. "I think that hacking will get us somewhere."

"That actually has some success, but where would we get a laptop?" The redhead just looked at Toxsa.

"...I forgot about that part." He said with a nervous chuckle. "But I just say we borrow someone's. That way, no one could track us easily."

"Seems like a decent plan, but it won't be easy." Beni agreed and she slid a stack of papers into her bag. "It requires a long-term distraction. Hacking isn't really that easy, especially when it involves security or lawbreaking."

"Beni has a good point, we need it for way more than an hour." Ceylan exaggerated by raising his arms high up. After stretching out, he shoved most of his homework into his bag. Changing the subject, he said, "Anyways, I'm tired of all this schoolwork! Is it dinner time—"

"It's suppertime!" A Drake had loudly yelled from behind the bluenette. Hearing his high-pitched voice so suddenly, he fell off the cushion with an abrupt squawk. Of course, this resulted in everyone laughing at his reaction to Drake's voice.

"You should have seen the look on your face!" Beni laughed out loud and started punching a throw pillow. Fuming, the teenager got up and brushed off his friends' laughter. Soon the laughing had died down when they went to the dining table and sat down. The lights were lit with warm gold colours across the room. The scent of a rich cream filled the air, smelling like a familiar savory flavour. The window outside had gone to a deep dusk, but the sun's colours were still there. It was just fading to a cool lavender.

Drake was a very good cook, indeed. Which is a really good thing because school was tough work for teenagers. Meaning that the knights had delicious food to look forward to. It was a great bonus to Gen, when he had said he's willing to cook vegetarian for his tastes. Overall, Drake was a great cook. But he can't seem to let go of his protocol-complusive personality.

But having really good food is important.

Tonight he had cooked creamy au gratin potatoes with tenderloin as a side dish. The water was iced and set n the side of the dinner plates. Most of the cheesy dish disappeared easily, some tenderloin had been left over. Potatoes are really that good.

Some decided to stay and clean up, while the rest of them were getting ready for bed or catching up on homework. Despite having to do different tasks, they eventually went to their rooms to get some decent shut-eye after their first school day.

Everyone seemed to have gone to bed easily, but time had been going by in the room that Ceylan aand Gen shared. He looked up at the blank ceiling and constantly adjusted the pillow to get its cool side. The teenager on the other side, was sleeping without any bother or noise. The bluenette just guess that Gen could have slept through a storm because he rarely stirred in his slumber.

He decided that this was a good chance to sneak out of curfew hours. Tossing aside the blankets, he sat up and started to make his way towards the door. However, he had been stopped. Then startled.

"I know that you're not getting a glass of water." He said with a monotone voice, but his volume had remained at a normal loudness and not just a whisper.

"Holy Boreas! You scared the shit out of me!" Ceylan jumped back from the door and he could see Gen sitting up from his bed.

"The only time when I don't sleep heavily is when I'm stressed out." He blinked in a slow motion, his red gaze contrasting to the blueish light. Turing around, the teenager then faced Ceylan with an unamused look. He asked, "What were you going to do, just now?"

"Asking someone about something." The bluenette replied and walked back to his bed.

"If you didn't want to talk about that 'something' wth me, then who would that 'someone' be?" Gen inquired and placed a pillow under his chest. "Beni? Because I know that you would never ask Toxsa for advice."

"Fine, you caught me." Ceylan rolled his eyes at him. "But only because she would deal with my crap!"

"Listen, I could deal with your crap too. I already have to deal with your horrible jokes." He stated and Ceylan made a face. However, he had just started laughing at what Gen said.

"You? Really? I bet that you wouldn't understand me! You can't even tell whether a joke is good or not!" He cover his mouth with his hand.

"Try me." Gen looked at him blankly.

"Fine, let's just have a situation where some girl is trying to steal one of my friends." He joked.

"So that means you're jealous." The teenager with auburn hair stated. "I already got punched in the face with it."

"Wait, really?" Ceylan whispered in a hushed voice. He looked around the room a bit, before continuing. "Is it a bad thing to get jealous over this?"

"Was she doing this on purpose or did it happen naturally?" He question.

"She literally took one of my pencils to get his attention. And Guren didn't even notice it was my pencil. She obvious had made up the story of how she lost her pencil!"

"Then that means it's okay for you to be jealous. You really had lucked out on that one."

"How? I wish that I could've thrown a water-balloon at her lying face!"

"Because you don't have to blame yourself for being jealous. I've had this situation before... Only, it was because of a natural event and I forced the blame on myself."

"What happened?"

"I shouldn't really talk about it because I got emotionally damaged." Gen explained and continued on. "But no one notices because I learned to control my emotions for a long time."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Ceylan asked with some concern.

"I would like to, but I don't want to be in an emotional state right now."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Ceylan asked with some concern.

"I would like to, but I don't want to be in a negative emotional state right now." He sighed, going back to rest on the pillow.

"Have you ever talked to Guren about this, you go to him about your personal problems." Ceylan raised an eyebrow at him and pouted.

"This is a personal problem he can't know about. He is a part of it." Gen answered in the most quietest voice he managed to sound.

"Oh." Ceylan said with a soft tone. "I understand... And I also hope you patch things up too."

September 23rd, 2037 5:59 P.M. [Western Europe]

The test results had come in for Guren and Ceylan's economics class. Seeing the amount of points on each paper, they weren't really thrilled about the results. Because of the fact that they came in late, they didn't get the proper amount of time to actually learn the material. The redhead tried his best and passed the test with a C- grade. Meanwhile, Ceylan wasn't too surprised about getting a D.

Instead of stressing over these letter grades, the two of them decided to take a walk into the backwoods.

Distant breezes were still and the sky was clear. In contrast to the blue above, the woods were covered in warm colours. Tall trunks of black wood clustered on the side. Their leaves of amber would have hung or fell down to the russet grounds of more autumn foliage.

The caws from crows were loud and constant. Yet, it felt more natural to hear these birds in the area. Leaves crunched beneath their tennis shoes; the feeling of autumn was complete. Distant sounds and warm colours.

Sometimes there would be cobblestone architecture or mossy rocks. This elaborated on how it felt more fantasy-like. It was an image from fictional books of witches and monsters.

Time was running late, but neither of them cared because they'd rather not pay attention to schoolwork. Or wanting to forget about the test temporarily. Ceylan accidentally tripped over some stone steps and they agreed to sitting there.

"Hey Guren," A nod came from the redhead and Ceylan spoke on, "Do you ever get mad at me about anything?"

"Sometimes," He answered. However, something about this reply had irked the grey-eyed teenager.

"I mean, like, full-on yelled at me for doing something bad." Ceylan clarified and a pair of 'hazel' eyes blinked at him. "I know that you get angry at me, but you just don't really let out your real self. I've seen you get angry about a lot of shit, but you've never yelled at me before."

"Um... Are you angry at me?" Guren asked and Ceylan frantically shook his head.

"No!" He exclaimed. "It's just something I've been thinking about! Mostly because you've gotten angry at Gen and Beni before."

"Well, I guess that I only yell at them because they need to be yelled at. They need more of a kick to actually realize what they're doing is stupid." Guren explained in short detail. "Plus, I don't really have a reason to yell at you. You're one of my close friends, so pointing out mistakes can be tough to say aloud."

"Okay then... So let's just say I did something really dumb and it's over a something stupid: would you get mad at me for getting angry over a small thing?" The bluenette asked, kicking the leaves underneath his feet.

"Probably not," Guren said, "You have the right to be angry, but you shouldn't ever take it out on someone else. I mean, you could even get angry at me and I would be okay that!"

"Guess so," Ceylan trailed off, then facing downwards. "I guess that I'm just frustrated and confused, right now. We haven't gone back to Benham for a year and— who knows how we'll be here?"

"Yeah... I miss my dad." The redhead looked at the trees above. "And Max."

"I feel so useless having to wait in this school." He pulled his knees up to his chest. "I want to do something soon. Yet, I have to also think of something to after school."

"Well, we kinda get to learn how to experience the world, right now. It feels really weird to not have your parents bossing you around. At the same time, we don't know what to do with ourselves." Guren said, but he gave a small smile. "I think this is what it means to actually grow up. So that means we are getting somewhere."

"Guess so." Ceylan nodded and stood up from the stone steps. Guren did the same and started walking back. Then Ceylan followed him too and they strolled through the deciduous forest. The sun had begun to slowly fade away, but the golden warm casted upon them. Their shadows then became longer and slanted.

With the time set to evening, a draft of chilled air swept into the scene. It started to get darker when they arrived at the door of the house.

There, Guren was fumbling with the keys and Ceylan adverted his gaze to him. He took in a breath of crisp air and sighed,

"Guren, are you, like, interested in more serious friendships?" He asked, while Guren continued to mess with the keys.

"Serious friendships?" The redhead said, with confusion in his voice.

"The ones where you 'like-like' a person for being a friend." The teenager with 'grey' eyes explained.

"Oh, um... Well, I don't really think about it much. I prefer to have a stable relationship with everyone." The key got inserted in the door. Turning it, there was a short click and it was open. 'Hazel' eyes were now facing the bluenette. Guren beamed at his best friend. "I just want to get along with everyone mostly."

"If it makes you happy, then I understand—!" Cceylan smiled back a goofy grin. Suddenly, a random object was thrown out the house and they both stared at each other momentarily. Turning towards the front porch, a pillow had landed on there.

Soon enough, a scream came from inside. Toxsa was running out the door and neither of them could react at this unexpected moment. Before responding to this, Beni came running out the door too and she flung a pillow at the short teenager.

Either way, the silence of that evening was ruined by the two. Guren slipped through the door, pretending as if that never happened. Meanwhile, Ceylan gave a deadpanned stare at Beni and Toxsa. Soon enough, he did the same thing as the redhead and slowly backed away. Very slowly.

When Guren went inside, he got an explanation of what happened a few seconds ago. Apparently, Beni and Toxsa decided to have an "Ultimate Pillow Fight," because they had easily finished their science and math homework. Gen and the dirty blonde decided to just watch in amusement because they grew tired of swinging pillows at each other.

Eventually, they decided to come back inside for dinner; it was a rotisserie chicken dish with leek and potato soup. That evening was rather talkative and fun with everyone joking around and enjoying the food. Dessert served a bunch of red currant crumb bars (which disappeared in the blink of an eye).

That night, the redhead decided to sleep early and threw himself under the sheets. He thought to himself about the events of today. He may have shared classes with Ceylan, but he knew that the bluenette never bothered him. Guren wasn't sure if Ceylan was avoiding him or actually focusing.

Scratch that one last part. He never pays attention in class.

It somewhat bothered the violet-eyed teenager. Ceylan always tried to talk to him during class or make stupid jokes that would have him silently laughing. Yet, he never really talked to Guren that much. To his relief, Ceylan wasn't angry at him.

Having the earlier conversation with Ceylan, the redhead just allowed it to repeat in his mind. Mostly because of how it was the first and actually casual talk they had ever since the framing incident. Knowing this, it felt rather nice to be normal teenagers. It was really fun to talk with Ceylan that evening.

He seriously liked it.


OC-FREE DINO OUTTA HERE!