Sorry this one is so short! It looked longer as I was writing it... v_v

Warm air, a nearly cloudless sky, and birds singing overhead. It almost felt like summer, which certainly livened up Ato's walk to school.

He found his way to Mr. Affenaffe's room quite easily. He was earlier than usual, there were only a few others there. And when Ato got to his desk, one of those others walked up to him. 'One of those others' being... Tanaka.

"Good morning... Ato, was it?"

"Yeah, that's me... you aren't going to ask me anything weird again, right?"

"No... that was a... one-time thing. Sorry if it came off as strange."

"Okay then... So, what were you going to ask this time?"

"I just wanted to ask if I could sit with you and your other friends during lunchtime."

Ato sighed. "If you wanted to be my friend, you could have just said that instead of... whatever you were doing before. So, yeah, you can." He felt kind of awkward. And luckily for him, Quinn walked in before things could get weirder. Well, she didn't really walk in, since she was too tall to do so. Tanaka quickly went back to his seat.

"Hi, Ato! Sorry I wasn't able to talk to you the past few mornings!" Quinn made her way to her seat on her knees. "I'm usually busy helping in the library in the morning. After all, I'm the only one that can reach the highest shelves without a ladder!" She laughed. "So, how's life been on the island so far?"

"Well, it's... definitely something." That was really the only way he could describe it.

Fast forward to about an hour later. Ato walked into his "music history" class. He was met with a surprise when he stepped through the door. A substitute teacher. He was short, had some sort of green lamp on his head, and he was pitch black. He was also wearing a watch. Huh. Ato sat down, and once everyone was in the room, the mysterious substitute introduced himself. The teacher called himself Mr. Upbeat, but he didn't seem very upbeat at all.

"So." Mr. Upbeat started. "This class is SUPPOSED to be about music from the outside world. But that's BORING. The amount of times I have been a substitute for this class is, well I haven't been keeping track, but it's probably a lot. And every single time I have to introduce yet another boring old composer. Why did you guys even choose this class?"

His question was met with silence.

"Fair enough. Anyways. Today I'm going to be-" And he just rambled on for the rest of the period. Weird guy.

Fast forward again to lunch. Blue and Jordan were at the normal spot. But there were some others there too, talking to them. Pink-dress girl was there, but Ato didn't recognize anyone else. He sat down anyways. "Yo! Good timing!" Jordan greeted him. "This is Claire! She's talkin' to us about the talent show." He pointed to pink-dress girl. Claire. She sighed. "Well, yeah. But it's still pretty far away. There IS a lot of prep though... anyways. I really think you three should perform. You've got a DJ, a guitar player, and uh... Hey. You. Can you play anything?" She looked at Ato. "Well. Uh. No... I can't." He was embarrassed. "Huh. Fair enough, you only just moved here, didn't ya?" One of the other girls, who appeared to be a purple Space Paddler with pink hair, said, "Well, they don't have to play instruments! They could dance!" "Hmm, true..." Blue shook his head. "No. I am not doing that." Ato agreed. "I'm with Blue." "Fair enough!" Claire laughed. "Well, why don't you thi- oh! Since when did you sit here?" Claire looked over at Tanaka, who had just arrived. So they did know each other. "Good question!" Jordan also looked over. Before anyone could answer, Claire said, "Well, you guys have fun! Tell me if you think of anything, 'kay?" And she walked away with her friends.

"YOU KNOW HER?!" Jordan tried not to yell. Tanaka sighed. "It's a long story... also, before you ask again, I asked Ato if I could sit here, and he said yes." Jordan looked at Ato, and Ato shrugged. "He said he wanted to be friends, so..." "Huh, I didn't think that someone like him would wanna be our friend." Blue thought out loud. "That's why I didn't say anything..." Tanaka looked at the ground. "Well I'm here now." "Man, you don't need to be so dramatic!"

And then awkward silence.

"Hey, I have a question." Jordan turned to Ato again. "Do you... know who Claire is? You didn't seem fazed when she was talkin' to you." "Uh... no?" "Well. She's uh, kind of a big deal. She's basically an idol. Like the kind you see in those shows." Jordan explained. Ah. "Oh. Okay then. I wasn't expecting that." Ato wasn't too surprised, he figured she was important thanks to those pictures. Jordan looked at Tanaka. "I can't believe YOU of all people know her. No offense of course, it's just surprising! Y'know?" "I guess so..."

The rest of the day wasn't very eventful. The 4 did make plans to meet up over the weekend, though, at Blue's house. But other than that, the day was kind of boring for once.

Perhaps something exciting was happening somewhere else.