[V2] Chapter 5: Forming a Plan

Hey, what's up y'all, I've been gone on a trip for the last week, but now I'm back, and with a new chapter. Sorry y'all.

After that encounter, I immediately booked up the stairs and went to the class. Now, once I entered, I found myself there earlier than I really had expected.

But that means I could wait for September to arrive, and once she did, I could dart my way up there and sit by her and that way, I would assert my dominance.

I had to just think about what I said.

No—non—nonetheless, it was just a simple plan that could potentially work. No big deal.

Then that’s when I saw her. September, with her hair moving in sync with the walk that made my bones melt, heading towards the fourth row of the class. Being that it was structured just like the Magnifico, that meant she was going higher.

And so was I.

I quickly shot towards the stairs, blasting my way through before I eventually came to correlation with September. But just as I did, suddenly, Malachi’s big colony decided to stampede in.

Multiple of his friends were like blockades. I had to veer and dive through the multitude of his friends, and by the time I even escaped the bloodthirsty horde, I found myself looking at the disgusting sight.

Malachi was by September once again.

Now, luckily, Tisiah had caught a desk below, to which I joined him, being that he saved a seat specifically for me. I was a bit grateful it didn’t work; that way, I wouldn’t have to negotiate whether to sit with Tisiah or September.

But soon after, it was clear that Tisiah would’ve allowed me to sit by September. He’d probably be recording the entire thing too.

Why do I say this? You may be wondering. Because as I sat down, Tisiah immediately said, “I was trying to sit by September. Good tactic.”

I sighed. Once the sigh had finished, Mr. Robbs exited from the brown door, and with that, he turned on the screen with the remote set on the table. It had a list of things to do, to which he then turned to look at us.

He had a blue suit and black shirt, with no tie or bowtie to accompany the collar.

“Alright, kids. Today you’ll be doing your DBQ on the Desert Wars, alright? Make sure you’ve turned in your essay from yesterday, because that is due today. So make that your priority. The test will be next week, so make sure you know your stuff, understand?”

“Yes, Mr. Robbs.”

“Good, once you get your paper, let’s get rolling,” he said. Then he walked up to one of the students, to whom he whispered something. From what I could guess, it was to pass papers out, being that the student got up suddenly with a stack of papers in his hand.

“Wanna work together?” Tisiah asked. I scoffed. “You think I want to do this by myself?”

Tisiah shrugged as he faced ahead, his eyes probably following the paper passer.

But my eyes were less open, as all attention was into the ears. Behind me, Malachi began to start speaking. It was like an alarm in my mind, as the men inside were stationed to gather information.

“So, one question. What’s your type?” he questioned.

“Why would that matter?” she asked, her voice rather intrigued. Malachi shrugged. “You don’t really show like—a liking to anyone—if you know what I mean.”

“I know what you mean, but I’m not a person with many standards. Y’know, you look good. You look good,” she said. Malachi chuckled. “I guess I could say the same for you.”

Then, September went into this soft chuckle that was soothing and poisoning at the same time. That chuckle was mine.

Connor… chill. Chill.

I had to keep repeating that in my mind, as if there were two dogs barking at each other, constantly trying to be louder than the other, but only joined together in an ear-shattering noise. “Well, thanks. I can’t say that I try, though.”

“You know you try. You know you do,” Malachi responded. My hands were sweating as I grabbed the desk firmly. But then I saw the student, a kid with oddly-dyed dark blue hair.

He wore a white t-shirt that was considerably baggy.

He let down the paper, to which I returned with a nod and smile as I looked down at the first page. It was already a mash-up of letters that there was no drive to understand.

Then suddenly, Tisiah said, “Need me to read it?” I turned to look at him, his face matching the attitude with which he uttered that question. He knew exactly the specific words that were spoken in my mind.

“Yeah, yeah,” I responded. “Then you can... you know... explain.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I got you,” Tisiah nodded with a bright, warming smile before his focus had been assigned to the DBQ.

Alright. Back to work. The next thing I heard was September saying, “The thing about men is that I want them to be confident.”

“I thought that was your thing,” Malachi reasoned. September tossed her head side to side. “Yeah, but you know, sometimes you just need a—”

“Break? You just want to be led sometimes? Not carry the burden of decisions?” Malachi added in this disgusting, wrenching, sympathetic tone that made me almost die of cringe.

By the corner of my right eye, I witnessed September nodding slowly as she lifted her head and responded softly, “Yeah. Like that.”

“I see what you mean. Sometimes, it’s difficult to be in that situation. But I’m fine with being that way. It just gives me assurance that you’re willing to trust me,” Malachi explained.

Don’t you dare hit me with that nonsense.

Talking about “Oh, I’m there for you, sweety. All you need to do is trust me.”. I’ve never seen someone butter up someone so much. It makes me look pale in comparison to putting butter on bread. At this point, just throw flowers at her and propose.

But then, Tisiah announced, “Okay, so here’s what this text is saying.”

Then he went on, as I struggled to strike a strike a balance between the conversation and what he was saying.

Once he finished, I nodded, understanding most of the words he explained.

“Yeah, sure, let’s do it,” he said. But then, from the deep thoughts inside my mind, I suddenly blurted out, “Should we do a mission?”

Tisiah froze, to which he turned his head slowly towards me, his face perplexed greatly. “Mission?”

“Yeah, for the MP system,” he explained. “It would make sense.”

Tisiah lowered his eyebrows, contemplating the idea. “How intense are you thinking?” he asked.

“A quick in-and-out mission, maybe an infiltrate mission. You're good with cameras; I got a perk, and whoever the next teammates are, we do.”

“Got any idea who?” Tisiah asked, his eyebrows raised. I stammered, “You, me, and Nikki. Boom.”

Tisiah looked at me, unimpressed. His eyes were so dim that I thought he was going to fall into a painful sleep. That would be scary.

“You know there’s a count of five teammates,” Tisiah mentioned. I looked at him, finding myself in a certain place, which I wasn’t sure if I liked.

“Oh… really?” I asked. There was a sense of tension, something nervous, that began to intensify inside my chest. “Got any other friends we may know?”

“Try getting September and Malachi again.”

This time I gave him the look he gave me first, to which he burst into a hard laugh before he turned his attention back to me, gasping for breath.

He swallowed unsettlingly, then pointed at me. “Priceless,” he described.

“Yeah, go figure. But September is a great idea. Malachi is probably the worst idea.”

“Why not? He's great.” He went into a laugh once more, and I found myself completely devoid of wondering why in the world this was funny.

The only thing to even chuckle at was his laugh, which was like Goofy mixed with a kettle at high temperature. “Okay, great. But we could try and get September, though,” I said.

“Sure… It might improve your chances—oh! Use your perk in this one; it’ll most likely work. If she can see what type of guy you are, mmm, it might work,” Tisiah explained. “It might work.”

“And even if it doesn’t, then it will help me get a bunch of MP for the system!” I added excitedly, to which I—in a rush of words—then said, “Thank you, thank you so much!”

“You’re the one that came up with the idea,” he explained. There was a series of silences that followed afterwards. “Well, at least you got the benefits. Thank you.”

“Sure,” Tisiah responded hesitantly.