The following day at school, Zoey was walking with Frieda and Daisy to their first hour class, as usual. However, today was different. It was clear that the events of the previous day had affected Frieda more than she thought it would. On the other hand, almost getting attacked by a bang-baby wasn't to be taken lightly, she supposed. Not only that, but Frieda kept talking about Virgil and Richie, and how she was going to chew them out for not being more careful while doing, well, whatever they had done to make Hotstreak come after them.

"They could've been killed! They should've known not to get involved with him!" Frieda kept saying over and over again, not really to anyone.

Ironically enough, Virgil and Richie seemed to sense that Frieda was upset with them, because the two had been avoiding her since yesterday. Frieda had explained to Daisy and Zoey that neither of them had answered her calls, her texts, or anything. Still, Frieda vowed that she would get them to talk to her, one way or another.

"Oh, there they are!" she exclaimed as she saw them walking into their first hour class, which just so happened to be physics with McGill. Zoey had grown used to Mr. McGill's dull and boring ways since she had attended DUHS, however, that wasn't to say she enjoyed being in his class all that much.

Virgil and Richie spotted Frieda pointing at them in an accusatory manner, causing them to quickly enter the classroom, hoping that she would just give up and there wouldn't be any risky confrontation.

"I think that's the fastest we've ever gotten to class, Rich," Virgil said as they sat down at their desks, glancing at the doorway as they did so.

Richie chuckled. "Yeah, fast enough to escape the clutches of Frieda. Man, that girl makes everything her business."

As if on cue for the millionth time that year, Frieda appeared at the mention of her name.

"There you two are!" she exclaimed rather irritably as she stormed into the room, with Zoey and Daisy close behind her.

The two boys practically jumped out of their seats hearing her enter so loudly and so suddenly. Frieda didn't hesitate to march up to Virgil's desk and slam her hands down on his desk, creating a loud thud as she did so.

"Virgil, we need to talk."

"Talk about what?" Virgil asked, trying to sound as innocent as possible. Frieda didn't buy it.

"Oh, you know what I'm talking about."

Suddenly, the warning bell rang, and students began filing into the classroom. Frieda knew she couldn't be late to class if she wanted to maintain her perfect attendance record, not to mention her reputation as an excellent student.

"We're not done talking about this," she said as she turned and started heading to her own class, with Daisy following her.

Zoey watched them leave before taking her seat in front of Virgil, and call it her imagination, but she swore she felt the guys' eyes on the back of her head, watching her, like she was part of the conspiracy. And to be honest, she felt kind of weird about it.

At last, the tardy bell rang, and Mr. McGill entered the room, prepared to give another boring lecture on some topic related to physics. Easing into the class by saying hello and making conversation with the students wasn't exactly Mr. McGill's style. He just dove into the lesson, which was another thing Zoey couldn't stand about him.

"Okay class, today's lesson is going to be part of a new chapter in the book," he announced in his usual draggy, monotone voice.

Before the lesson had even started, Virgil already had his head resting in his right hand, staring off into space, wishing he could be out there fighting as Static. Anywhere but here. Virgil glanced over at Richie, who was furiously scribbling ideas down in his notebook for a new invention he had thought of. Richie was so beyond high-school math—he didn't even need to pay attention to understand what was going on, which made Virgil envious at times. While the blond tried his best to stay humble about it, Virgil could tell he was proud of his gift and would even tease him once in awhile about his so-called ego, but Richie didn't mind. It wasn't everyday you became a genius and could run circles around the Department of Defense if you wanted to.

Virgil's attention then turned towards the girl in front of him. It had been a while since any new kid that had transferred to Dakota Union did not turn out to be insane or emotionally distraught, or even secretly a bang baby. Zoey seemed pretty ordinary, not crazy at all.

At least until she's spent enough time with Frieda, Virgil silently chuckled to himself.

Mr. McGill must've noticed that Virgil wasn't paying attention.

"Mr. Hawkins, please look up front, please," he commanded.

As instructed, Virgil hesitantly shifted his gaze back to the board, wondering how he would be able to stay awake for the entire hour. Mr. McGill continued his speech.

"Today we are skipping to section three, and then going back to section one tomorrow. But first, I'd like to make a very important announcement," McGill declared. "Sources have informed me and the rest of the staff about the incident that happened yesterday."

The usual side-conversations and whispering amongst the students quickly ceased, and the class grew silent. Nobody had to ask what he was referring to. Mr. McGill noticed this but continued to speak without pause.

"Sources have confirmed that the bang-baby who attacked us yesterday were looking for two specific students..." McGill's eyes casually rested on Virgil and Richie. Virgil slightly slumped into his chair, not wanting to meet his teacher's gaze. "If any of you have any kind of information of any sort about this incident, please report it to the office immediately."

Somewhere during that time, Richie had looked up from his diagrams and blueprints, not able to believe what he was hearing. Teachers were informing all of their students on what had happened yesterday, and it would only be a matter of time before the entire student body was talking about them. And even worse, the teachers knew about the incident, and knew that Virgil and him were targeted specifically. Not that Richie minded the publicity, but this kind of publicity was bad. They had worked hard to blend into the background and avoid associations with other bang babies. But now their commoner selves were going to become mini-celebrities because a bang baby had been after them, specifically, with an unknown reason. This would lead to speculation, a little investigation, then BAM—it would be discovered that he and Virgil were, indeed, Gear and Static.

Richie glanced nervously back at Virgil, who returned the look of uncertainty back. The whole thing was getting way out of hand.

"Now turn your textbooks to page 207, and read the introductory to section three," McGill's voice echoed throughout the room.

Virgil opened his textbook—he stared at the words but he wasn't comprehending any of it; he was too distracted to focus on anything else, especially physics.