To the Unplanner: For the standard story missions, and with my current metal setup, I stop one-shotting enemies around Mission 800. Which makes sense, since that's when Union X's unique story starts to kick in. (The other missions are rehashes [for lack of a better word] of the original Kingdom Hearts X (chi) story, and its enemy difficulty at the time. That Keyblade War scenario in the Events section? It was the original ending of chi, but now scaled to Union X's meta.)

Any way, I really wanted to focus on Strelitzia's view for this chapter and it turned out to be a lot longer than I anticipated; it's a little over 1,600 words! I think that this is a good time to mention that while my minimum word count is about 1,200 words, I will never go over 2,000 words for any given chapter, barring the author's note.

Please don't call me out for how many times the word 'chalk' is used in the chapter. I'm aware of it- it no longer looks like a normal word to me. If you were going stir crazy from self isolation, you could almost play a drinking game out of it, but you'd probably get alcohol poisoning. Times are weird enough, you don't need to get drunk off a dumb high school AU.

But I won't judge, thank you for reading!

Anora had not seen Professor Ava at first when she asked for someone to hold the door. When she did, she immediately went into fight or flight mode. Bumping into the boy that had been holding the door for her had been an accident. She had been in such a rush to avoid Professor Ava seeing her in-line skates, that she wasn't even sure if she had apologized to the boy that held the door for her. It was the most mortifying experience she'd had in this place so far, and she really hoped it was going to be the last.

When Anora had reached the patch of concrete she'd used for the last day to skate on, she felt too guilty to even bother. Instead, Anora sat at the edge of the concrete slab with her skates next to her and tried to calm her still shot nerves. Did Ava even notice her? Anora couldn't remember. The girl took a deep breath in and looked behind her at the concrete slab.

It was a pretty large slab of concrete, that's for sure. She didn't have much experience on the matter, but Anora assumed it was the cover for the outside electrical equipment, or even the cover to the water pipes. In the grand scheme of skating, it was cramped but it worked. Anora gave a small, thoughtful hum to herself as she stood up and started to measure the slab's length and width with her own two feet.

The slab was about 25 of Anora feet length wise, and 18 of Anora feet in width.

"Hmm..."

Anora looked around the slab and started to imagine a large figure 8 on it- something she could use to help make sure her balance was still decent when she skated.

"I need chalk." Anora said out loud to herself. She then began to walk an invisible line for this figure 8 in a partially absent manner.

Meanwhile, from a place Anora could not see, Strelitzia raised an eyebrow in curiosity. "Chalk?" she repeated, so soft she could barely hear herself. "Why would she need chalk?"

Strelitzia didn't expect an answer, and she certainly wasn't going to get one if she didn't just go up and ask the new girl about it. But… she was hesitant. And the new girl seemed so focused about walking the concrete slab- it would have been rude to interrupt, after all.

What put a hold on both of their thoughts was the sound of the school's hourly bell going off. Anora frowned, checked the time and pulled her schedule out of her pocket, then shrugged the bell's warning off. Strelitzia, on the other hand, knew that it was time to leave for her next class. She didn't want to. She really, really didn't want to.

But she couldn't afford to skip out on class either.

Could she?

Giving a small whine to herself, Strelitzia quickly got her things together and started to head back. "Don't worry," she mumbled to herself, "I'll find some chalk for you, no matter why you need it." And with that, Strelitzia quickly darted to her next class.

She wasn't able to return before dinner time. It didn't quite matter anyway- she was too busy trying to figure out where she could find chalk for the new girl.

"Strelitzia, hello…? Earth to Strelitzia!"

"Huh?" the girl mumbled to herself as she gave an absent blink. She looked to her brother Lauriam and his friend, Elrena. "I'm sorry, what were you talking about?"

"Well," Elrena immediately jumped in, "We were talking about how unfair it was that we're getting tests just days after coming back from winter break. Like, who on earth memorized anything during break?"

"Those of us who wish to succeed, of course." Lauriam mused with a smile. But the smile soon softened into a light frown as he turned his attention to his sister. "You've been pretty absent recently. Are you having a hard time adjusting to schoolwork again?"

"Huh? O-oh no, no! I'm doing fine!" Strelitzia quickly told him. "I'm just… I've just been thinking a lot recently. That's all. You… you wouldn't know where I could find some chalk. Would you?"

"Chalk?" Lauriam and Elrena repeated with their own measure of surprise. But it was Lauriam who then inquired;

"What kind of chalk? You mean like sidewalk chalk, or the pastel chalk we use in art?"

Strelitzia bit her lower lip. She hadn't considered using pastels on concrete before. "Will pastel chalks wash out eventually like sidewalk chalk?"

"It's all chalk." Elrena snorted. "Of course it will."

"Why do you need it?" Lauriam then asked his sister.

"Oh, I don't need it." she insisted with a light shake of her head. "I'm getting it for a… for a friend." In saying this, Strelitzia paused. Did she consider the new girl as a friend? She didn't even know her name…

"I would get pastels then." Lauriam then told her, once more snapping Strelitzia from her thoughts. "The colors would be more vibrant than typical sidewalk chalk."

Strelitzia gave her brother a firm nod and a smile. "I will. Thank you."

Lauriam gave her a smile back, but something was bugging him. He saved his further questions for later on the hope that his sister would eventually tell him what was going on.

. . .

It had only been two days, but Strelitzia was sure that she knew the general gist of the new girl's class schedule. Or, at the very least, she was sure that the new girl had roughly the same study and lunch break Strelitzia did. It was still only a hunch- but it was also a risk she was willing to take.

When her last class of the morning ended, Strelitzia was the first out the door. She needed to be quick if she wanted to do this without being spotted by the new girl or a teacher. The sigh she let out when she reached the concrete slab alone was far too relieved for its own good. Strelitzia then placed the box of chalk pastels at the very spot the new girl sat to put on her skates. Before she went to her hiding place to wait for the new girl, Strelitzia pulled out a small note from her backpack and set it on top of the pastels' box. With a smile, the girl went to her usual place and waited.

Anora almost didn't go to the slab to skate that afternoon; she didn't think she'd have the time. The study group tended to meet after everyone had lunch, and Anora was less than sure that she'd be able to get her skates, skirt around the concrete slab for thirty minutes or so, put her skates back in her room, then head back to the cafeteria. But, by the grace of Mary Blair, Anora had been able to go.

What she did not expect was to see a long, flat box waiting for her with a hastily written note attached. For a moment, Anora blinked before looking around to see who had left the box behind. After deciding that no one else was there, she started to get a closer look at the box and soon realized that it was chalk pastels. Anora's face scrunched into confusion as the then looked over the note.

'I found these for you because you wanted them. They are borrowed, so please leave them here when you are done with them.'

Anora's eyes widened as she looked around the area again. Someone knew she was here. They had also heard her talk to herself too. Now Anora wasn't even sure if she safe here. Well, not completely 'unsafe' but she was definitely not as alone as she thought she was. If this person knew where she was, and what she was doing, would they eventually turn her in to the headmasters? Anora worryingly bit her lip as she thought it out. Stranger's kindness or not, should she still be here?

Despite herself, Anora bent down and opened the lid of the pastels. She tried not to be impressed by the selection of colors in the box. All she wanted to do was draw a large figure 8, nothing too fancy. As Anora looked over the colors, she realized it didn't really matter anyway; the black and the white were all but used up.

But then she had an idea.

The first color she pulled out of the box was a light beige, about the same color as the concrete slab itself. Using this, she made the figure 8 with a quick and dirty grid. Anora then went back to put the beige back, picked up the box itself, then used every color she had to draw small symbols on the main figure 8 line. She tried to recreate some symbols from memory; ornate stars, hearts with curls at the ends, even a three pointed king's crown that was displayed ever so proudly on the school's banners. By the time she finished, Anora had been late to lunch.

Strelitzia was too, but she didn't dare move as the new girl started to put the pastels away. She watched in a mild fear as the new girl dug around her backpack for a pencil, scribbled something on the note Strelitzia had left behind, then set both the new note and the box of pastels back on the ground. Strelitzia waited another ten minutes after the new girl left before rushing over. Her heart nearly skipped a beat when she saw the doodled smiley face and a single message; 'Thank you!'