A bored sigh quietly breezed past Automne's lips as he stared at his Professor with disinterest from the back of the room. On any other day- well not any other day, but today just happened to be particularly dreadful- Automne would've attentively sat through his Field Biology class like a good student or a literate sheep. He would jot down notes and pretend to not hate Petunia for constantly jabbing her elbow into his ribs; asking what Professor Lazuli had just said for the third time in ten minutes.

This was not a good day though so he made no effort to hold back an ounce of his disdain. He even let his eyes aimlessly wander away from his tall, bosomy, blue haired Professor. His eyes carelessly passed over the heads of his fellow students until they habitually jolted to a stop in their sockets.

Automne took a heavy breath, taking in the dry, sweat scented classroom air so he could muster a pitiful sigh. His eyes lingered on the head of some random student for a moment before he allowed his gaze to shift to the green haired Chartreuse.

Woe overcame him as he creepily absorbed her enticing essence from afar. Her smooth, flawless skin and her sweet pink lips made his heart sink like lead, or concrete, or perhaps something else that sinks quickly into the ocean of self-absorbed misery. He rested his face in his hand as he stared at her from afar, unaware that Petunia was in turn staring at him, amusement spread across her face like Nut-holla.

"Dude," She whispered, breaking Automne's mopey, fantasizing. "Are you gonna shoot up the school because of her?"

Automne turned to her in surprise. "What?"

"I'm just sayin', you look like the kind of guy who shoots up the school just 'cause he can't get laid."

The offense sank into Automne like water into asphalt. "No… I'm not going to shoot up the school."

"Are you sure? 'Cause you really have that angsty, mopieness look that all school shooters have." Petunia added observantly as she gestured to Automne's face. "And y'know since Ty's banging Chartreuse you really have all the triggers. The only thing that'd make you a shoe in is if Eve stopped talking to you."

Automne glared at her for a moment. "You're a bitch, you know that?"

"How could I not?"

Automne opened his mouth to retort, but a sudden chill running up his back made him stop and slam his face down against his desk. Moments later a loud crash roared through the class as a piece of stone smashed into the wall behind Automne.

"Mr. Noire," The stern and more than slightly annoyed voice of Professor Lazuli rang out as she folded her arms and sat on the corner of her desk. "Would you care to share your conversation with the rest of the class?"

Automne gave a nervous shiver as he lifted his head off his desk. He glanced around, all eyes were boring into him, draining him of his confidence and saliva. "Um-uh N-n-n-no, P-Professor." Automne stammered, his mouth dry and his voice small.

The Professor watched him emotionlessly for a few moments before shifting her attention to Petunia. "How about you, Ms. Kapelle?"

"No, Professor." Petunia said quickly while trying to avoid direct eye-contact.

The Professor glanced between the two of them for a tad longer, letting the public embarrassment really sink in before she popped off her desk and turned back to the board, her braided hair whipping through the air as she spun around.

Automne's cheeks burned as frustration simmered inside him. "I wasn't even the one who started it… stupid Professor" He muttered under his breath as his confidence began to come back to him. Unfortunately for Automne the Professor must have had the hearing of a hound because she swiftly pivoted back around the very second the words left his lips.

She held out her arm and sent a small stone soaring out of her baggy sleeve towards him. Automne gave a choking gasp as the stone smacked straight into his throat, sending him to the floor reeling and sputtering.

"Mr. Noire, see me after class." The Professor said impatiently before turning back to the board.

Automne gave loud pained coughs as he tried to pull himself back into his seat, tears rolling from his eyes.

"Dude," Petunia whispered as Automne tried to ignore the dozens of eyes watching him as he coughed violently. "I think she heard you."

Automne gave a heavy sigh as he trudged out of Professor Lazuli's classroom; his throat bruised and his feelings bashed. He wasn't walking out alone though, he was accompanied by a hefty assignment to read a whole one-hundred and fifty pages from the textbook and accompany it with a ten page essay about the uses of roots and herbs in the field while detailing their natural geographic locations.

"So," Petunia said lackadaisically leaning against a nearby wall. "How'd it go?"

"Oh, it didn't go too badly," Automne started off calmly. "It's not like I was assigned some insanely long, tedious, Dust forsaken assignment which doesn't even go towards my final grade in the class." Fury bubbling in his voice as sarcasm flowed from him like toxic sludge.

"Sweet, let's get outta here." Petunia said with all the sympathy of a rock.

Automne glared at Petunia for a moment before turning and walking down the hallway. "You suck."

"No, dude, you suck, I lick." Petunia replied cheekily as she joined Automne.

"Why do you have to make life hard for me? I'm just trying to be a good student and you make it hard for me."

"Why do you whine so much? Hey, maybe that's why you're a virgin." Petunia shot with a large grin.

"At least I'm not a bitch."

"I wouldn't go that far." Petunia shrugged.

"I swear, the only reason I talk to you is because you have the Webshowz password and you know all the good porn vids."

"It's not my fault you always lose the password."

"That's because you write it on napkins."

"That's gross, dude." Petunia stated as if she had never dared to indulge in the pass-time of touching herself.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Automne said with a light blush, while the gears in his head urged him to keep the conversation rolling. "So, uhhhh, hey, how's the uh…" Automne stopped for a moment to glance around like a paranoid meerkat. "Hacking-thing going?"

"Eh," Petunia said with a shrug, a sour look on her face.

Automne raised an eyebrow. "What's 'eh' mean?"

"It means it's super boring. I've been trying to work my way into some of the files every now and then, but they're all encrypted and the passwords change every six hours. I don't wanna force my way in cause I'm pretty sure I'll end up setting off some security measures which will destr-"

"So, basically you can't hack it." Automne said quickly with a large grin.

Petunia let out a low growl and gave him a shove. "Basically, if we want to get in I'm gonna have to sit down, grab a can of Power Beast, and go at the thing with everything I got." She tried to stuff her hands into her pockets dramatically, but only ended up forcefully brushing them against the sides of her skirt.

"Oh," Automne said unsurely. "Well, if it's that easy why haven'-"

"One word, dude: midterms." Spite dripping from her mouth as the dreaded topic of academics forced its way into their conversation.

"Ugh," Automne moaned as he fastened his arms around his stomach in fear that the embodiment of the word would jump out from around a corner and punch him in the gut. The very thought of the rigorous tests, essays, and beatings looming in his future made his bladder quiver uneasily.

"Yeah, and if that's not bad enough Ty's been riding my ass all week about formations, and the hacking, and not leaving food under my bed; stupid crap."

"So that's what that smell was. Eve's been complaining about that all we- Holy crap!" Automne shouted.

"Dude, what?"

"I forgot I was supposed to meet Eve in the library for a study session." Automne quickly shoved his hand into his pocket and pulled out his Scroll. "Aww, crap," Automne whimpered as the time 3:14 popped to the screen. "I'm late." Automne swiftly looked around, fear pumping into him as he looked up and down the unfamiliar gray corridors. "Where the hell are we?"

"I don't know? I was following you." Petunia answered calmly, a sly smile working its way across her face as she reveled in Automne's confusion. "Dude, you need to chill out. Here, I know a guy in town who sells pot, lemme give you his number."

"No time for that." Automne blurted as he began to speed walk down the most promising hallway.

Automne's heavy, cereal scented pants filled the air as he tried to quietly shuffle into the library. His eyes skittered around the room in search of Eve as he held his stomach, which was still trying to recover from his impromptu speed-tour of the school. "I need- to work on- my cardio." Automne panted as quietly as he could manage as he shuffled into the center of the library and threw his eyes around the room again.

"Eve!" He whispered loudly, earning him a few glares from some nearby bookworms. "Eeeeve!"

"Hmpff,"

"Eve?" Automne repeated with a question mark this time as the uncanny feeling of angry eyes dug into him. "Where are you?"

'Gee, maybe that girl reading the anatomy textbook at that table over there would know.' Automne's brain hinted.

Automne stopped looking around and turned calmly to examine the girl. "… Oh," Automne said blankly, staring at the anatomy girl he had looked over at least three times. "Not sure how I missed her."

'Because you're an idiot.'

"Shut up brain, I'll kill you." Automne mumbled to himself as he shuffled over to Eve's table and pulled out a chair.

'No, you need me to help get you through this conversation. Now, say hi to Eve.'

Automne's mouth stalled for a moment as he switched from internal rambling to normal conversing. "Oh, uh… Hey, Eve." Automne stammered, snapping back to the real world.

Eve didn't respond, she didn't even lower her textbook.

"Um," Automne hummed nervously. He glanced down towards the floor and found a small tower of medical textbooks standing near the base of Eve's chair. "So, umm, what did you need help with? Did you, uh, want to make flash cards or study up on the… body, or… something?" Automne rambled as the room's temperature mysteriously climbed a few degrees.

Automne gave a heavy sigh when he finally realized she was ignoring him. "You're mad at me, aren't you?"

Eve lowered her textbook a few centimeters to glare at him from over the top. "You're late."

"I know," Automne replied glumly. "I got in trouble with my Professor."

Eve raised her textbook again, concealing her spectacled eyes. "You always get in trouble."

"No, I don't."

"Professor Baula had you in detention all last week for fighting in the halls."

"I wasn't fighting in the halls. Someone shoved me so I shoved them back and-" Automne stopped and gave a groan. "Look, I'm here now, so let's just study."

"You are twenty- seven minutes late." Eve chided, lowering her book to give Automne a stern pout. "I don't want to study with you anymore."

Automne's heart sank as silence fell between them. Automne slumped back in his chair as Eve lifted her book and went back to studying on her own.

Automne gave a sniffle as he tiredly yanked his goggles from his forehead. Letting his arm drop down to his side lifelessly, he stared blankly at the scuffed table. His thoughts slithered around in his head like fish trying to make their way through the thick, creamy broth that was his brain. Slowly, he fell forward against the table where he rested his head on its grimy, wooden surface.

Automne gave a heavy sigh, his eyes plastered on the spine of Eve's book. "I'm sorry."

A quiet, somewhat sad sigh could be heard from behind Eve's book.

"I should've been on time." Automne submitted guiltily, the wood of the table scraping against his cheek as he tried to turn away from Eve. "It's my fault that I got in trouble… I've just been… just been having a crappy time ever since Ty started going out with Chartreuse. I've just felt like really, kind of, gross, kind of. Like, right in my stomach area, it's just felt really… bad."

"Why don't you talk to him about it?" Eve's quiet voice chimed curiously from behind her book as Automne wiped his eyes on the sleeve of his jacket.

"You remember how our 'talk' went last time. We don't get anywhere." Automne grumbled pessimistically.

"It wouldn't hurt to try again."

Eve's words swished around in his mind for a few seconds before he spat it back out like mouth wash. "It wouldn't make a difference anyways… He's with her now."

"You mean Chartreuse?"

"Yeah," He replied solemnly as his innards rolled around at the mention of her name.

"Automne, I'm sure you'll find someone else, you're a nice guy."

"You don't believe that, you called me a jerk just the other day."

There was a slight pause. "You're a nice guy most of the time."

Automne rolled his eyes before burying his face in his arms. "Exactly," Automne gave one more pitiful sigh before raising his head off the table with a miserable frown. "Thanks for trying to make me feel better. I'm sorry about being late… I think I'm going to go for a walk."

Automne quietly stumbled out of his seat, his back to Eve as he started to shuffle off. "I should be back to the room by eight." He grumbled loud enough for Eve to hear as he walked away with his head hung over in shame.

Eve gave a small sigh.

Automne gave a loud, heavy sigh. He was sprawled out on his back, acquiring grass stains under a large, secluded oak tree.

"Why does life suck?" Automne asked the branches above him, bits of clouds visible between the bright orange and yellow leaves. He waited for a few minutes and when no response came he answered for himself. "Because people suck, everyone sucks… well, not Eve, but everyo- okay, and there is dad… and I have met some pretty nice people… but that doesn't mean that everyone else doesn't suck." Automne complained, his thoughts sloshing about in his head like buoys caught in a rogue wave of emotions and angst.

Unpleasant chills of self-doubt flowed through him spurring him into giving another heavy sigh. A poorly timed sigh at that because right then a dead leaf, drifting down from the tree above, landed in his mouth.

"Ahck-why tree?!" Automne shouted, rolling onto his side to try and spit out the taste of dirty leaf. "I trusted you!"

"Unfortunately, that is what happens when you place your trust with a plant. You will inevitably end up looking like a fool."

Automne stopped spitting for a moment so he could grimace in disgust. He rolled into a seated position and stared up at the sharp eyed Sienaerde who stood over him like she were some sort of monument. The strangest part, at least to Automne, was that she was dressed in one of the male uniforms; slacks, jacket, and all. "Sienaerde," He remarked, hints of paranoia evident in his voice.

"Noire," She replied austerely, her hands held behind her back like she was lecturing him.

Automne looked her up and down fearfully, his eyes trying to capture every detail of her figure. "What do you want?"

"I will tell you, but first make yourself decent and get off the ground." She ordered as if she were some kind of dictator.

"I'd prefer to stay on the ground." Automne said defiantly, subtly scooting away from the girl.

"Of course you'd prefer to sit in the dirt." She replied, rolling her eyes off of him and onto the large oak standing behind him.

"Alright, wha'd'you want?" Automne said impatiently.

"Ask me out."

Automne paused to blink in confusion a good half-dozen times. "Run that by me again."

Sienaerde gave a frustrated sigh and glared down at him. "I want you to ask me out. Now stand up, make yourself presentable, and properly ask me if I'd accompany you on a date."

"Alright, umm, how about no, no and what the hell?" Automne responded as he started to wonder if he'd fallen into some kind of vivid, unpleasant dream. The kind where everything starts reasonably before it devolves into utter insanity.

"You have absolutely nothing to do apart from languish at the thought of your team leader bedding your crush." The last word leaving her mouth with a condescending hiss.

"Okay," Automne started, "First of all, how did… Wait a minute, have you been following me?"

Sienaerde fell silent for a few moments, her eyes shifting around as if she didn't know the correct answer.

"Are you serious?!"

"Oh don't flatter yourself. I have far more important things to attend to on a daily basis rather than stalk a weak, embarrassing, coward like you around the campus." Sienaerde replied as she looked off into the distance. "On a separate note, you improperly tied your left shoelace at breakfast this morning and it has been quite irksome."

Automne's gaze darted to his left shoe, which did happen to be poorly tied, and then back to Sienaerde. "You're insane."

"No, I'm not, now please stand up and ask me if I'd be willing to accompany you out on a date tonight." Sienaerde replied calmly returning her piercing brown eyes to Automne.

Automne took a couple seconds to consider what Sienaerde had just said. Slowly; he got to his feet, dusted himself off, straightened out his jacket and cleared his throat. With shaky hands he adjusted his tie as he took in a deep breath. "Alright," Automne said nervously. "Sienaerde, will you- Oh… umm, you have a leaf on your shoulder."

Sienaerde glared at him intensely. "Do you think I'm an idiot?"

"No, but it was worth a try." Automne replied with a guilty smile, instantly fading from visibility.

Sienaerde gave a low growl and hung her head. "Ignoramus," she grumbled, thrusting her arm out to the side and clenching onto something invisible.

"Ack," Automne squealed, popping back into visibility with Sienaerde's hand around his neck.

"Uggggggh," Automne sighed as he sluggishly sulked into the student dorms, a slightly purple bruise sitting under his eye.

'Screw today,' Automne said internally as he shuffled down the hall. 'I've had enough stupid stuff for today. I just want to crawl into bed and sleep for the rest of my life. Seriously, screw everything else, I'm going to drop out of Beacon, marry my pillow, and fall into a coma so I can sleep for the rest of my life.

'We'll even have a couple of throw pillow children if my pillow can bear children… Come to think of it would a pillow give live birth or would it lay eggs… pillow eggs… Why am I even thinking about this?' Automne pondered as he pulled his Scroll from his pocket and raised it up as his dorm room came into sight.

As Automne's mind began to wash itself clean of the day's events something caught his eye. At first he tried to ignore the flashing red light coming from his Scroll, his stomach trembling with fear, but it was no use. His curiosity got the better of him. He pulled open his Scroll and stretched the muscles on his face into a scowl as the words "1 new message from Ty" beamed at him unsympathetically.

Automne took a deep breath and flicked the message open exasperatedly.

"Hey, Petunia, Eve, and Automne, don't come back to the room for a while. Me and Chartreuse are going to 'study' for a while. I'll send you a text when we've finished 'studying'."

Automne stared at the screen silently. He was less than ten feet away from his room. About seventeen feet from his bed. And just about fifteen feet away from where his crush was getting plowed by his team leader. Automne's lips twitched miserably as he cracked his mouth open to let out a defeated "Ehhhhhh," and with that visceral vocalization he fell onto his back like a rock.

His eyes twitched a bit as he stared at the gray ceiling and let out a sad whisper. "Why do you hate me universe? I try to do nice things. Is this because I accidentally hit that cat while I was riding my bike that one time?" Automne whimpered as he closed his eyes and shook his head gloomily. "I'm sorry random street cat, I didn't mean to hit you."

"Automne?"

"Street cat?!" Automne yelped in fear that the one eyed cat had found him, and at some point learned to speak Valition.

"Who's street cat?" Eve responded quietly, as she leaned over him. Her pale face, surrounded by her long jet black hair, looking down upon him with a timid if not gentle smile.

"Ub-uh, no one, no one." Automne evaded as he snapped back to social awkwardness. "What're- uh what're you doing here?"

Eve paused for a moment her eyes flickering nervously behind her glasses. "I- uhm, I wanted to apologize for what I said earlier… I was being inconsiderate."

"Eve, you don't need t-"

"Automne," Eve said quickly before falling silent. Her gaze shifted around a bit before it fell back onto Automne fearfully. "Am I a bad friend?"

"What?" Automne sat up quickly and spun around to give her a caring smile. "Eve, you're an awesome friend. I've just been letting my funk get the best of me."

Eve gave a soft sigh, her lips uncertain if she was supposed to smile or not.

Automne's mouth followed suit. "Eve, trust me, we're good."

Eve's eyes danced about the hall a bit more before an authentic smile spread across her lips. "I have an idea." She said cheerfully as she tried to stop herself from bouncing in place. "Let's go out! There's this really amazing diner in town my dad would always take me to and I've always wanted to show it to you. It'll be my treat."

Automne gave a small chuckle at Eve's almost unbridled enthusiasm. "Alright, but I'm going to pay for my own stuff."

"Uh uh, I insist, this is my treat for being a bad friend." Eve said, holding out her hand to Automne.

Automne gave her a small smirk and placed his hand in hers. "We'll talk about it on the way there." He said with a grunt as she pulled him to his feet.

The dim red lights struggled to push their way through the thick clouds of smoke that hung ominously in the dark windowless room. The only part of the room that some could describe as clear was a small circle in the center, illuminated by a single ceiling lamp.

"Bring him in." A gruff, slightly irate voice attached to a man in leather armchair demanded. A few moments passed before a man in a tricorn hat was thrown through the thick smoke, landing in the single illuminated circle.

The man bared a large gash on the left side of his face and his tattered clothes were covered in dirt. He kept his gaze on the large area rug beneath his knees. His blood trickled down the side of his bruised and cut face and fell onto the rug with an inaudible patter.

A heavy sigh mixed with a growl coming from a second leather armchair caused the man to tremble uneasily. "I suppose it wasn't bad enough that you lost us a high priority outpost and a weapons cache that was worth more than two million Lien. No," the words falling from her red lips venomously as she glared at the man on his knees. "You had to crawl back to us and soil my priceless rug with your blood and dirt."

"I'm so sorry," the man pleaded, holding a hand to his face to prevent any more blood from rolling off. "I'll get you a new rug. I sw-"

"Shut up." The man in the chair demanded impatiently as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "We didn't bring you in here to listen to you grovel. We want you to tell us exactly what happened to our outpost."

"The-there were thes-these-"

"Spit it out." The woman hissed, folding her arms and crossing her legs as she glared at the pirate.

"These kids! They- they broke in. They took out the security team somehow and broke into the server room. We tried to stop them, but then the whole place just started exploding. The next thing we knew we were caught in the rubble and-"

"You keep saying we, but all I see is a miserable captain who couldn't manage to defend our outpost." The man snapped causing the pirate to shake his head hopelessly. "And the worst part of all of this is you let them get into our network. You have jeopardized our entire operation." Cold spite dripping from his tired voice.

"No, no, I can fix this! I'll find them an-"

"You have done quite enough." The woman said as she stood and raised a long rifle sporting seven barrels in the shape of a honeycomb, two giant axe heads hanging beneath. "Your services are no longer required." She said simply, squeezing the trigger and unleashing all seven rounds into his chest.

The man in the arm chair gave a heavy sigh as the man fell back lifelessly, his blood and whatever remained of his intestines sloshing out onto the floor. "I hate dealing with the grunts." He grumbled as he stood and stretched.

"Send in whoever was next in line for his position and tell them to clean this mess up." The woman ordered as she rested her gun against her shoulder. "Now, let's talk about the kids who breached our network."

"Some other time perhaps." The man said as he headed for the door. "I don't want to be here when he voids his bowels."

The woman gave a groan and followed him out with a scowl, the pirate's blood dripping off her luxury high-heels as she went.

Thank you for reading, if you enjoyed it perhaps you could follow, favorite, and of course review. I had quite a bit of fun with this one and there is more to come, so stay tuned.

A big thanks to NinjaSlayer4x and Crimson Grave, I wouldn't be where I'm at if it weren't for them. Check out their stories when you get the time because they really deserve that attention.

Thank you for your time and readership. Until next time my good people, peace out.

-CS