Lincoln grasped for air alongside his group of friends, each sitting at a desk at a corner of the classroom.

"Okay, now that I don't have to worry about me and my friends going late to school," Lincoln told the reader before looking at his group of friends. "Maybe I can tell you more about how my world works without being interrupted."

"It's not our fault, Lincoln!" Zach whined. "We wound up oversleeping because those comics were too damn good!"

Lincoln rolled his eyes and turned back to the reader.

"Everybody has their own close group of friends, and I'm no different. These are the friends I made once I started school."

Lincoln turned to see his friends begin to argue, first looking at a dark-skinned guy without a pen.

"That's Clyde McBride. He's a Reader who I met during a convention and who I really hit it off once we started talking about Ace Savvy."

Then, he turned to look at a guy with Orange hair and an equally Orange pen.

"That's Liam Hunnicutt. He's an Editor who I met on a camping trip last year."

Then he faced a smaller guy with red hair and a blue pen.

"The short guy's Zach Gurdle. He's an Editor, just like Liam, who I met during a trip to Great Lakes City."

It was then that a taller guy with freckles and without a pen blurted… something, Lincoln wasn't paying much attention to what they were saying."

"The guy with the freckles is Rusty Spokes. Like Clyde, he's a Reader, and I met him at a local gathering amusement park known as Dairyland."

Suddenly, Rusty was smacked on the back of the head by the final member, a girl with black hair and a dark red pen.

"And finally, because every group needs at least one girl, we have Stella Zhau. The story of how we met is actually pretty interesting-"

"Lincoln, what do you think?!"

The guy winced, suddenly finding himself as the receiver of his friends' looks.

"Uh… sorry, guys, I got so focused on introducing everybody that I wasn't paying attention."

The group groaned in unison, just in time for the bell to ring and their classmates to enter the classroom.

"Good morning, children!"

Everybody turned around and saw their teacher enter the classroom. She was a redheaded woman with a pink pen.

"Good morning, Mrs. Johnson!" the students greeted back.

"Alright, today's the first day of the school year," Mrs. Johnson clasped her hands together. "You all know what you're doing today, right?"

An unanimous shout came from the students:

"THE FIRST CHAPTER!"

"Wait, the First Chapter?" Lincoln tilted his head. "I thought it was called the Indexing?"

"Wrong alternate universe, dude," Clyde sighed.

"So, before we begin classes, I want all of you to go to the gymnasium in order to get your Soulbook," Mrs. Johnson stated. "Alright everybody, form a straight line and get moving."

…

Once a straight line had been made, the students began making their way towards the gymnasium, with Lincoln raising an eyebrow.

"Hey, am I the only one who gets a feeling of Deja Vu?"

"Again, wrong alternate universe, dude," Clyde replied. "Instead, how about we wonder what types we are gonna get?"

"You mean the ones all but you and Rusty are gonna get, right?" Zach chuckled. "Readers don't really get a First Chapter. Since, you know, no Pens or Soulbooks or anything?"

"That's because they don't really need any of those things," Stella pointed out, wincing before turning to Lincoln. "Oh, sorry Lincoln, do you mind if I take over?"

Lincoln shook his head. "Go right ahead."

Stella smiled, nodded and turned back to the readers.

"The First Chapter is the event at the start of a certain age where Writers or Editors are told what their type of writing or editing will be about."

"Wait, I thought you were gonna explain about the Readers-"

"I was just about to get that: since they can't write or edit like the other types of Storytellers, their main ability is to be able to read anything written or edited by either a Writer and Editor, regardless of typing. So no matter if it's Mecha, Suspense, Action, and so on, a Reader can read it no matter what."

Then, Stella paused and turned back to Lincoln. "Did I do it right? I'm not as well versed on the Fourth Wall as you are, Lincoln."

The guy flashed a thumbs up.

"Like Stella dsid, Writers and Editors are actually divided into several subclasses," then, he winked. "But that's something I'll have to tell you down the line."

"Seriously, Linc?" Stella folded her arms. "You've been talking nonstop about the way the world works, and you're gonna keep the most interesting bits a secret?"

"Nonstop? I only gave a quick summary of the most important stuff."

"Tsk, yeah right."

"Guys, we're here."

Lincoln and Stella stopped what they were doing and saw they were at the gymnasium, sitting on chairs like the rest of their classmates.

"Please tell us we missed the Principal's speech."

"You did."

Lincoln and Stella sighed.

"In fact, they're about to start calling for the First Chapter."

"Stella Zhau."

Stella perked up, and she did a fist bump with Lincoln before she walked up to a machine and took out her pen.

She wrote her signature on a screen, and it vanished before a mechanical voice said:

"Stella Zhau... Mecha Writer."

A silver Soulbook materialized from the screen, and Stella quickly grabbed it, running back to her chair in joy as another voice called.

"Lincoln Loud."

The snow-haired boy stood up, walked to the machine, and after a few seconds and taking a deep breath, he wrote his signature on the screen.

"Lincoln Loud… Harem Writer."

The entire area became eerily quiet as Lincoln took a moment to analyze what was just said, with only one thing he could say at the moment:

"Did… Did anybody else hear it right?"