0: Introduction

The morning sunlight shines through the steel-plated glass. The natural illumination is a relief compared to the fluorescent lighting, for like many other schools, Framingham High School suffers from the bluish glowing light. Mrs. Paine sits at her desk, reading over her students' papers. Everything on her desk is in complete order, not one object out of place. On the right side of her desk, there is a stack of papers yet to be graded and passed back, every sheet perfectly aligned and not a single paper stuck out. Next to the papers are three cups, one orange, one blue, and one white. The orange cup holds only pencils, the blue cup holds only blue pens and the white cup holds only whiteboard markers, upside down such that only the white part is showing. A wooden name tag reading 'Mrs. Isabella Paine' lies next to the three cups, perfectly parallel to and exactly two inches away from the edge of the desk. On the other side of the desk, next to the wooden nametag, are three more cups, a black one, a red one and a gray one. The black cup holds only black pens, the red cup holds only red pens and the grey cup holds only overhead projector pens, upside down such that only the grey part is showing. Next to the three cups is a stack of English textbooks, perfectly stacked such that the edges matched.

A gust of wind blows into the classroom from one of the open windows, the cool breeze sending a few of the perfectly stacked papers onto the floor. Phoebe Cruz (Female Student #12), who has been making sure that every strand of her hair is aligned with the others, gets out of her seat and quickly rushes to help return the papers to their original positions.

"I'm sorry, Phoebe. Let me shut the window." Mrs. Paine rises out of her chair and makes her way over.

"There I go again." Phoebe finishes arranging the papers and retreats back to her seat in the front row. She brings her braided ponytail back around her shoulder so she can keep an eye on those loose strands. Phoebe has to make sure everything is in its place. Her obsessive-compulsive disorder is the reason why Mrs. Paine's desk is so spotless. Being in the front row, Phoebe is unaware of the messes behind her. All she has to do is focus on Mrs. Paine's desk and she is fine. She does this with all her teachers.

Mrs. Paine grabs the latch of the window and tries to pull it down, the dried up paint giving her a hard time. She only manages to get the window halfway down before it gets stuck. Travis Strawson (Male Student #17) reaches over Mrs. Paine's shoulder and helps her close the window completely. Travis is a giant among midgets. Standing at 6' 5", it's weird he ended up so tall considering the fact that his parents are both 5' 7''. "There you go, Mrs. Paine," a low but cheerful voice escapes from his mouth, exhibiting yet another of his many unknown traits. He tips his blue baseball cap and goes back over to Tami Walters to flirt some more.

The glistening light coming off the fountain in the courtyard makes Mrs. Paine's yellow, shoulder-length hair glow even more. She isn't the youngest teacher at the school, but she was hands down the nicest. Everyone will take her Creative Writing Class just to have her as a teacher. Even what she wore is usually nice - not nice as in expensive, but as in simple. Today, it's a white dress with a yellow and orange floral pattern. She has one of those smiles that make everyone in the room happy just being around her. She is one of those people who make everything better.

Ms. Paine continues to stare through the window to watch the water droplets drip off the stone fountain. The fountain was relatively new - it was put in because of the Public School Beautification Act. The authorities thought having a pretty school would make students want to learn more, but Mrs. Paine knew better. It takes teachers who care for their students to get the job done. For some reason, they can purchase an expensive fountain but they can't seem to get decent air conditioning. Even though the fountain is new, it had the initials B.B. scratched on the side, which makes Mrs. Paine laugh because of how much money they put into it.

Its circular shape makes it a perfect place for students to hang out before class started. In fact, it's usually occupied by the members of the football team in the morning. One of best offensive guards at least for their grade is Vincent Chen (Male Student #7), mostly because of his size. He is sitting on the edge of the fountain, pulling an Italian sub from his backpack. Most people will have a hard time not finding food in his hands. He breaks off a piece of his sandwich and hands it to Amanda Hawkins (Female Student #8). At first glance you may think she is a cheerleader because of her beautiful face. Her brown, wavy hair can make any boy's heart melt. Even though she is on the football team, she hardly gets to play. She is mediocre at all aspects of the game except for one - when it comes to punting she is your girl. It is only the freshman football team so she has time to grow. Stretched out across the length of the fountain lies Andrew McCormack (Male Student #10), the fastest wide receiver on the team. Head against Amanda's lap, he gives her one of his smiles, a cue to give him food. Amanda grabs a gummi bear from Vincent's bag and drops it in his mouth. On the far left sits the quarterback, Michelle Taylor (Female Student #21). She is tough - she has to be to become quarterback. No one can beat her, not even the seniors. Michelle pushes Andrew's feet, causing him to fall to the ground. The other three laugh.

Mrs. Paine can't help but chuckle too. Two figures run past the fountain. It is Dylan Richards (Male Student #9) and Alanna Turner (Female Student #20). Mrs. Paine's attention follows the two close friends. She can't make out what they are saying, but it seems that they are pointing at something in one of the trees on the edge of the school. It is a cat. It is just like those two to help as many people or things as they can. Dylan crouches down so Alanna could get on his shoulder and struggles to lift her. She uses the tree as a balancing tool on the way up so that she doesn't fall. She stretches her arms out as far as she can but it was no luck. It seems like she was gesturing to go higher.

Dean Miller (Male Student #3) walks by, watching the two try to reach the cat. He is well built with a short, cropped haircut. It seems like everyday Dean ended up in the principal's office for some reason, whether it be setting the science lab on fire or verbally or even physically abusing students. This is no exception. Dean sees a decent size rock on the ground and without any hesitance he whips it at the cat. The rock ricochets off the tree and hits Alanna, causing her to fall to the ground, bringing Dylan with her. They writhe in pain on the ground as Dean just walks by laughing.

After seeing Alanna and Dylan fall, Mrs. Paine makes her way back to her desk to write down Dean Miller's name for detention. She pulls out her attendance sheet and scribbles down what he did. Since she has the attendance sheet out, Mrs. Paine scans the class to see who else is here. Only Phoebe Cruz, Travis Strawson, and Tami Walters were in homeroom so far. Mrs. Paine looks up at the clock in the far back of the room, 7:39AM. It is unusual that only three classmates were in homeroom six minutes before the bell rings. Mrs. Paine brings her eyes back down to the front row. This is when she notices Phoebe Cruz tapping her foot rapidly. "Phoebe, are you okay?"

"Yep! I'm fine." Phoebe starts to bite her lower lip.

Mrs. Paine stares at Phoebe. "Do you need to go to the bathroom?"

"No!" A moment's pause. "Okay, yes! But I can't because I have to go to the bathroom exactly at 7:55 right between homeroom and first block. If I don't do that, then I'll be early to my Math class and I'll finish counting the ceiling tiles early too, even though I know there are exactly one hundred and twenty seven ceiling tiles - but I have to make sure. If I do that early then I have to do something else which might take too long and then I'll fall behind in the class discussion and then something else until my whole day's out of whack." Phoebe takes three deep breaths.

"Here's what I'll do. If you go to the bathroom now, I'll make sure I leave my door open for you to come back and sit in your desk. That way all your actions are still done, just out of order." Mrs. Paine gets up from her chair and approaches Phoebe.

"Are you sure?"

"It's fine, Phoebe." Mrs. Paine sits on the edge of her desk.

"Thank you!" Phoebe rises from her seat. But before Phoebe walks away she reaches for the pencil Mrs. Paine just used to write down Dean's name down. She picks it up and puts it back into the orange cup. Now that everything is perfect again, Phoebe makes her way to the bathroom. Mrs. Paine just smiles and goes back to looking at her papers.

The sound of Tami Walters's (Female Student #17) laughter is heard in the back of the room. She has a very distinct laugh. It's as if a baby's voice was inserted into her body. Tami Walters and Travis Strawson are a couple that personified 'opposites attract', for they were different in almost every aspect of their lives - he is tall and she is short; he has a really low voice while she has an extremely high pitched one; he is shy and she is outgoing. It is strange to see two complete opposites making such a wonderful couple. They complete each other.

Tami's phone starts to vibrate. She goes through her pocket and flips it open. Someone sent her a text message: Hey I got a little present for u. Look in the hall – Veronica. Tami closes her phone and sees Veronica Solis (Female Student #7) holding a bag full of drugs in the hallway. Tami smiles as she pulls Travis by the arm and pulls him into the hallway.

It isn't the first time Tami scored drugs off of Veronica. Veronica was the go-to girl to obtain any and every drug your heart desires. This is one of the many reasons she is in charge of her gang. It's her stone cold look that strikes fear into all of her classmates. Her gang consists of Kenneth LeBlanc, Tanya Lewis, Jennifer Stevens and Wayne Kennedy. They were all her customers until she decided to become her own power and recruited them.

The bell rings, its sound echoing throughout the hallway. Mrs. Paine looks up to see an empty classroom. She slowly rises from her seat and makes her way to the window. She looks outside to see no one is there.

The sound of squeaking sneakers is heard running down the hallway. Mrs. Paine stares at the door curious to see who it is. Faith Harper (Female Student #6) comes barging in, her brown messenger bag sliding off her shoulder. She pushes her hair out of her face. "Am I late?" She asks, panting from all the running she did. She ran all the way from her house five blocks away. "Where is everybody? Please tell me that I'm early for once."

"That is a good question. You guys didn't decide to have a Freshman Skip Day, did you?"

"Not that I'm aware of. Of course you know me, always the last to know." As Faith starts to take off her jacket, a hand wraps around her mouth, covering it with a cloth soaked in chloroform. Faith falls to the floor. Two soldiers come in and carry her body out of the room.

Mrs. Paine's voice gets very serious. "What is the meaning of this?! What did you do to her?!" She rushes towards the soldiers.

A woman easily in her fifties walks into the room, her shoes clacking against the floor. Her face is rough like a man's, and her gray hair was cut very short and parted to the side. She has a very fitted grey suit on. To sum it up, she has a presence that makes Mrs. Paine uneasy.

"What is the meaning of this?!" Mrs. Paine cries out another question.

"Calm down, Mrs. Paine." The woman pulls out a badge saying she works for the government. "I'm Ms. Dona Carrillo. Your class has been chosen to take part in the first Battle Royale Program in the United States." Ms. Carrillo's voice is very strong but calm.

"Battle Royale Program?" Mrs. Paine doesn't know what she is talking about but she doesn't have a good feeling about it.

Ms. Carrillo smirks, "Mrs. Paine, I suggest you come with us. It will all be explained on the plane ride." A couple of soldiers charge into the room. "I also suggest you come without conflict."

42 Students Remaining