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Chapter One - Part One

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Jack

"Believe me, it'll be fine!" A woman dressed all in white says, her blue eyes trying to seem reassuring, but they only seem artificial to me. She asked us to call her Eva, giving no last name, making me suspicious. Shouldn't these schools be formal? It is an academy, after all. Or maybe it's one of those schools, where the teachers go by their first name. Nonetheless, I chose not to say anything.

The only other kids with me can't be a day older than eleven, and I wonder what kind of school it is. How big is it? If it can support kids from Grade 6 to 12, it has to be large.

I had done research on the school, but found very little on it. I'm surprised Grandpa managed to get a phone number. I have no idea where it is, what it looks like, or even who the principal is.

Eva didn't say much throughout the ride, putting on an optimistic face and occasionally looking towards the younger kids – Norman and… Caroline? - who look bored out of their minds. I admit, I'm bored too.

Finally, Eva starts slowing down, and I sit up straight in anticipation. Only to discover that they were passing a chain link fence with barbed wire. This school just keeps on getting weirder and weirder.

After a few more minutes, a tall wall becomes visible. I suddenly feel a sharp pain jolt through my chest, and I gasp, luckily only drawing the attention of Norman, who only gives me a curious look before turning away.

The car slowly passes the wall, and in that moment, I feel… grounded, almost. I can tell something is wrong, but can't pinpoint what. The feeling fades away as the car gradually moves forward, leaving me to ponder over what happened. Does it have anything to do with the wall? But the others don't seem affected by it…

I try to inconspicuously look at Norman, who seems the slightest bit worried for a second, before relief floods his face. I'd ask him about it, but I think it's something to be done in private, though I'm not sure we'll see each other often with the age difference.

"Okay, kids! We're almost there!" Eva says with excitement. The car speeds up, and soon I can see a… castle?

I look out the window in amazement, my face pressing against it as the car pulls to a stop in front of the doors. I look over at the other kids, and Caroline doesn't look pleased.

"Hey, brighten up Caroli-" I start, before he's cut off by the girl.

"It's Coraline," She exclaims, crossing her arms as she gets out of the car without another word. Oops.

Eva pops the trunk, with an overly cheerful remark that they should love the school.

"Wait, aren't you coming with us?" I ask. You would think she would introduce them to someone at least. Not that I mind going in by myself, I doesn't particularly like the woman.

"I'm afraid not," She says with a warm smile. "I have many more things to do today. If I go inside, then we'll all get to talking, and I'll never get out of there." She picks up three envelopes from the passenger seat and hands them to me. Our first names, Jack, Norman, and Coraline are typed on the front in tiny letters. "Give this to whoever does your orientation. It's should be Elsa, if I'm right."

I take the envelopes and step out of the car, Norman right behind me. My legs are sore from the long drive, and I stretch. I walk towards the trunk and grab my bag, Norman following suit. Coraline is already by the front door, waiting impatiently.

The castle looks majestic and promising, and I wonder what will wait inside. I look up, and I see that, through the second floor windows, there are students looking through. Some were staring, but others are pointing or gesturing, even shouting silently behind the glass. In the middle of them all, there is a boy with sandy hair. He's holding a notebook, and, covering the whole page, he's drawn a large V and the word GOOD. When he sees that I've noticed him, he smiles, points at the V, and gives a thumbs-up.

A moment later, there is a loud buzz and click, and the front doors open. A girl appears, but she is roughly pushed away as two girls emerge, both wearing the uniform I managed to find on the school's website, a steel blue sweater over a white shirt, and it seems they've both opted to wear the knee-length charcoal skirts. One girl has frizzy, untamed red hair, while the other has her ginger hair in two braids. The former of the two darts down the stairs, sprinting after Eva's car. The other girl pauses and tightly grabs my arm. I almost wince; this girl has a strong grip.

"Don't listen to Bunny or Flynn," She says firmly. "We can't get out of here." Before Jack can even open his mouth, she's gone, charging after the other girl.

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A/N: Hello there! Thanks for getting this far! Now, I'm kinda unhappy with what I have for the real chapter one, but I wanted to give you an update, and so there's this. I kind of went too far with making this the same as the beginning of Variant and it's pretty much an exact copy (Which is why I'm not happy with it). However, everything but those last few paragraphs are completely mine. Which reminds me, I didn't do a disclaimer in the other two chapters, so:

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN VARIANT, RISE OF THE GUARDIANS, FROZEN, TANGLED, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, BRAVE, PARANORMAN, CORALINE, THE INCREDIBLES, WALL-E, THE CROODS, EPIC, KUNG FU PANDA, THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG, MULAN, AND BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. ANYTHING YOU RECOGNIZE IS NOT MINE. THIS IS FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY. ALL RIGHTS GO TO THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS.

And, yes, I will be including characters from all of those, and maybe more if you suggest them. When I include more characters, I will add on to the list. For now, it applies to the rest of the story unless stated otherwise.

Now, announcement time! I have made a Tumblr blog for this. I only have access to it through the mobile app though, so it has not been customized. I'm fairly new to the fanfiction side of Tumblr, so I don't know if there's any specific format or anything. If any of you know anything about it, the help is appreciated. There will be some pictures, maybe fanart if I build up enough motivation and confidence to do it, and other info/trivia about the story. There will also some commentary by me as I make my way through this journey, so to speak.

I go by the same name there, avatarfreak17 . tumblr . com

I also have a link to it at the very bottom of my profile.

I've been thinking about posting chapters early there, but I've decided to just do whatever until I have a schedule set up. Speaking of which, I have a poll set up on my profile just for that.

Hiccstrid VS Merricup, so far:

Hiccstrid and Merricup are tied with two votes each!

Review Replies:

Shameless Girl: I've sent a PM to you, but haven't gotten a response. I have a few questions about your OC that will need to be answered if you want her included.

Guest: I suppose I wasn't clear enough, oops. Jack is a newcomer - like I said before, after the school's one year anniversary, three new students will arrive monthly. Elsa is one of the 'Originals', while Jack, Norman, and Coraline are the first newcomers. The prologue was showing the Orginals' arrival to the school. The actual story starts off with Jack's arrival. As you can see, this part of the chapter doesn't have any interactions between Jack and Elsa, but the next two parts of the chapter will.

And to everyone else, thank you so much for reviewing, I'm so glad I'm getting a good response to this!