It's A Punishment

ISH MOTRANGA's POV

"You can eat afterwards. If you brought food, you can eat here or if not you probably know where the canteen is?"

"Okay."

"Grade 11, haven't you heard the gossip? Do you know Commander First really hates people who are late? I hope you can be on time next time."

"Sorry."

"Okay. I'm leaving now."

"Wait! Gary!"

"Yes?"

"Why do we need to pull grass?"

"Because you're late, right?"

"Uh.. Yes..?"

"Well then... you've seen the hashtag on the screen earlier?"

"W-Why?"

"It's a punishment."

It's a punishment... it echoed in our ears.

That's what Gary, a C.A.T Officer, told us. He brought us here behind the school to an old, abandoned building. This building looks like something from a drama where kidnapped characters are brought, and it's kind of haunted. It's creepy here.

"Why's the wind so cold?" I suddenly felt a chill. What the heck? Is this a horror genre?

"Lol! You saw it earlier, right? We passed by students practicing their ice exskills, so the cold probably came here 'cause of the wind's direction!" Dy smirked. I glared back at her. She's really something.

It's disappointing. First day of school, and we're already being punished? What kind of impression was that, Ish? Our faces, especially mine, were displayed on the projection that the girl made earlier! I don't even know her name but I'm sure they'll make memes out of it.

Thankfully, the punishment is just to pull grass because if the school calls my Aunt, I'm certain she'd lecture me until next year.

Who should I blame?

If I hadn't bumped into her maybe I wouldn't be punished.

"My fingers hurt so much! My nails are new and they're going to get ruined! I should've never come with you guys! You guys are really bad luck!"

"And who said you should come with us, Azure?" - Dy, the lightbulb girl the witch of my life in case you forgot, said.

"Azure, this isn't that hard. Just pull the grass," the kind girl with brown hair and brown eyes said.

"Don't compare me to you, Maye! We're not on the same level." - Azure

"I'm hungry! Don't you have snacks?"

"Seth, why didn't you buy something when you had money?" - Dy

"Gary said we need to finish all the carabao grass here before we can eat. Be thankful we're not pulling grass over there where the weeds are waist-high." - Dy's lookalike.

"Sol, unlike you, I didn't have breakfast. I only had tea and... there's no way we can finish all the carabao grass here! Don't they have a gardener or at least rabbits or goats? And we weren't even given any tools for this!"

Hmmm... So? Sol is Dy's twin brother. The guy who had tea earlier is Seth. Azure is the snobby and sassy while Maye is the one who seems typical and harmless.

"We can't do anything about it. We're late so we face consequences," Maye said, her voice is gentle. She doesn't just look harmless she sounds nice too.

"This could have ended early if some of you weren't being lazy!" Dy said, glancing at me.

Wait—was that at me?

I stopped pulling the small grass. I looked at what I had pulled. There wasn't much and they weren't even carabao grass, just regular grass.

"Are you talking about me?"

"Oh? Did it hit you?"

We locked eyes.

Dark Brown vs. Blue.

DY GRIMONY's POV

I had a staring contest with Ish. Neither of us was willing to give up. Whoever blinked loses.

"Why're you moving so slow? Are you even humans or just snails?"

My heart skipped a beat when Commander First suddenly appeared. He had a long sword with him. I swallowed, I'm sure the others did too.

"You have time to chat, but no time to wake up early? Ha?!" He threw his sword somewhere, and miraculously, it came back to his palm.

We quickly hurried to finish our task. No one had the guts to complain or make excuses because of the fear. Commander First's presence is intense. He's scary! His presence made Ish work faster, Seth forgot his hunger, Azure stopped being so dramatic, and Maye and Sol worked twice as fast. Of course, I did the same.

"This is the punishment from C.A.T for people like you! Lazy ones who can't wake up early and no effort to avoid being late. A disgrace!"

He swung his weapon in the air. Is it even allowed to bring something like that on campus?!

"I'm not sure what punishment the SSG has in store for you, but whatever it is... I hope you learn something from it. Be thankful it's the first day of school, if Stella hadn't asked me to be considerate, your punishment would've been much worse. Disgraceful!" He slammed his sword into the ground, making our hearts jump. "Hurry up! You're all moving like snails."

Is he always this bossy?

"After you finish pulling, I'll treat you all to lunch."

Yes, sir~ I'm easy to talk to. I thought to myself as I hurried.

"You PG snails..." he muttered.

Pure gluttons.

I heard a sound of turning pages, I looked at Commander First and saw him holding files. I remembered those were our files. Why's he holding them? Every time he turns the pages he raises his eyebrows with a look that says, 'I don't believe this.'

But wait, where did the chair come from? Right now, he's sitting on a chair and it looks... silver with a strange artistic design? Weird... There was no chair earlier!

"Pssst. Why he have those?" Sol whispered softly.

I shrugged. I turned my attention back to Commander First—

"And what's that?! Where did it come from? He didn't have that earlier!" I whispered.

He has a new item! A black folder! I wonder where he got it. If it's in his pocket, we'd know and the chair too—how did it just appear out of nowhere?

What's in that folder? I'm so curious. It's a nice folder, sleek and black.

"Class Tala...?" I heard Commander First say before he noticed that we were all staring at him. He seemed surprised. "Snails aren't allowed to stare."

—to be continued...