What's this?! A Sunday chapter in a story that's supposed to update on Sundays?! What's this witchcraft?!

And now, a new arc I guess. Don't worry, we're not gonna introduce any new characters this arc, but Lincoln and co. will meet some familiar faces soon.

Also, Archetypal, the story that was the inspiration for this story, has resumed writing with a new co-writer! Hooray!

No review answers this time, because this is way long overdue.

And now, to the chapter!


"Lincoln!"

The guy stopped walking and turned around to see Clyde running towards him, catching his breath once he arrived.

"Clyde? What's wrong?" Lincoln asked.

"Did you hear about the news?!" the bespectacled cricket orchestra manager asked. "There's gonna be a set of new students transferring today!"

"Huh?!" the boy shook his head. "Are you sure those aren't just rumors or something?!"

"No, I verified them with Mrs. Johnson and everything!" Clyde frowned. "Turns out there was a last minute decision to let a few students transfer from elsewhere, and they're gonna arrive today!"

Lincoln's eyes widened before he lowered his head and scratched his chin.

"Tell who?" Clyde asked.

But his question fell in deaf ears, for Lincoln ran into the school shortly after.

"Lincoln!"


Once at the Ynovation classroom, Lincoln informed the girls about the news.

"Transfer students?" Tabby repeated. "This early into the school year?"

"Hey, it could be worse," Giggles argued. "We could be getting transfer students in the middle or even near the end of the year."

"I don't think that's the problem, Giggles," Haiku said. "Given what's happened lately, I think the problem's that if we're getting transfer students, then there's a high chance they might be Lincoln's fangirls."

"Or that something more's going on here," Polly added. "We can't just automatically assume every suspicious thing is gonna be related to Lincoln."

"Who will be getting the students?" Darcy inquired, tilting her head.

"I… don't know, I kinda forgot to ask about that," Lincoln sheepishly admitted. "Regardless, we should be careful. Who knows what these students might have in mind."

"If they turn out to be nice, can we be friends?" Darcy asked. "I want more friends!"

Giggles smiled and patted Darcy's head. "We'll consider it, Darcy."

"Yay!"

"For now, though, we should get going to our classrooms," Polly remarked as she stood up. "The bell's about to ring, and who knows what punishment we'll get if we arrive late."

"Probably something that's been done to death, like wearing a "DUNCE" cap or standing outside while holding buckets of water," Lincoln guessed. "Anyway, I'll be going first. I gotta check up on Cristina…"


Meanwhile, at Lincoln's classroom, Cristina sat on her desk, looking at the Trophy Coin she got from Lola with concern as her classmates began to arrive.

"Good grief, you really rushed into trouble, didn't you?"

The redhead returned to reality just in time to see Clyde and Ronnie Anne take their seats, the latter smiling as she quipped:

"First you attack Lincoln and his friends, and then you face off against an Antagonist. You're turning into a bad girl, Cristina!"

"That's not a good thing, by the way," Clyde spoke, adjusting his glasses. "You know how it works: if you get demoted to an Antagonist, you'll be transferred from here to a school exclusive for Antagonists!"

"Wait, is that the reason why there are few Antagonists here?" Cristina tilted her head. "I just thought most were kicked out of school."

"They are, by way of being transferred elsewhere," Ronnie Anne sighed, putting her arms behind her head and her legs on her desk. "It wouldn't be a true dystopian society if there was any sort of equality among the castes."

"We don't live in a dystopia, though."

"Not a blatant one… yet," Ronnie Anne turned serious. "Now, onto other matters, have you heard about the transfer students coming today?"

"Yeah…" it took Cristina a few seconds to connect the dots. "Wait, do you think these students are transferring from an Antagonist school?"

"It's a possibility, at the very least," Clyde sighed. "We need to be ready for it if it turns out to be true."

"Sorry, I'm late!"

The group turned around, and saw Lincoln slam the door open before dashing across the classroom… and crash on the wall next to his desk.

"Ow!"

"Still can't handle the dashing, huh, Lame-O?"

"Don't mention it; sometimes I overshoot, sometimes I don't dash far enough, and that's without even mentioning the new layers it might get," Lincoln sighed as he got on his desk. "And now we gotta deal with transfer students, to boot."

"Hey, look at the bright side," Ronnie Anne put a hand on his shoulder. "Maybe they won't be who you think they are?"

As if on cue, a portal to cyberspace opened just as the rest of the students and Mrs. Johnson entered the classroom, with a familiar quartet walking out of the portal as everybody gasped.

The quartet consisted of Stella, Girl Jordan, and the brunettes: the lighter-haired being Mollie, and the darker-haired being Cookie.

"They're exactly who I thought they'd be," Lincoln said sadly before looking elsewhere. "Hopefully they won't recognize me…"

One of the girls, Cookie, began scanning the classroom until she spotted Lincoln looking through the window, a sight that brought a smile to her face.

"Lincoln!"

The girl giggled as she strolled over to the boy, only to be stopped by Ronnie Anne and Clyde.

"Stop right there, Cookie!"

"Ronnie Anne! Clyde! You're here too!" Cookie tilted her head. "Wait, is Cristina here too?"

"I sit right next to him!" the redhead chided. "How could you not see me!?"

Cookie turned around and gasped. "Cristina! It's been forever!"

The brunette hugged the redhead, giggling as Cristina desperately tried to free herself, to no avail.

"Well, it's good to see Cookie's as affectionate as ever," Clyde dryly remarked before facing the other three girls. "But what about the rest?"

The girls looked at the group before Girl Jordan whistled, getting Cookie's attention.

"Class is about to start! We'll talk with them later!"

"Okay!"

Cookie casually released Cristina, who immediately clung to Lincoln while glaring at the newcomers.

And as the bell rang, Lincoln wasn't looking forward to whatever this meant.


Once lunch break came, Lincoln walked across the hallways to the Ynovation classroom… and encountered Stella's group next to the door; Stella leaning against the wall while the rest tried to look through the window.

"Hey!"

The girls flinched, except Stella, who smirked. "Told you he'd spot you."

"You were supposed to warn us, Stella!"

"And why would I do that?"

"You wanted to talk to me?"

The girls turned back to see the boy approaching them, Girl Jordan catching her breath before saying:

"It's been a long time… Lincoln."

"What are you doing here?!"

"Well, we were recently prompted to Neutrals after a year or two of good, obedient behavior," Girl Jordan clasped her hands. "And we did make a promise to you that we'd go to Cliche High once we got promoted, so we could all learn together!"

"B-But this is so sudden!" Lincoln replied. "Why didn't you inform me about this?! Talk with me before diving right into it?!"

"Protagonists have a lot of liberties Antagonists do not, Lincoln," Stella responded. "Or what, you think nobody would find an Antagonist calling or talking with a Protagonist suspicious?"

Lincoln snapped his fingers. "You make a good point."

"Besides, we're not here to do anything bad or anything," Girl Jordan stated. "We just want to see how much different a school for Protagonists is compared to an Antagonist one."

The young woman wrapped her arm around Lincoln's shoulder and rubbed cheeks with him.

"And if we get to catch up with an old friend of ours, that's also good!"

"You'll end up summoning Cristina if you keep doing that, stop it," Stella chided. "If you said everything you wanted to say, then let's go."

"Wait, before you do so, why were you spying on that classroom?!" Lincoln asked sternly.

The girls exchanged looks, and Mollie eventually confessed: "We were looking for somebody."

"Would that be us?"

Everybody turned around, Lincoln feeling his heart skip a beat as they saw the Ynovation girls standing nearby, Darcy waving hello with a wide smile while the rest sported stern glares.

As if things couldn't get worse...