To form an unofficial League with these twelve unorthodox students, they’ll need to get along. In order for that to happen, they’ll need a common enemy and a common ally. Those two people will be the same person: me.

  -Roger Hill’s Notes

  On the morning of Jeremiah’s first class in heroing, hours before Roger’s big reveal, he sat timidly at the common room table as his roommates argued.

  “This isn’t whatever pigsty you were raised in, Isaac,” Thomas growled. “We need to set standards, boundaries, and common ground rules!”

  “It’s just a chore list, man!” Isaac whined. “Can’t we do this after school?”

  Jeremiah gave a tentative glance to one of his new roommates. In the darkness of the alleyway months ago, Jeremiah didn’t get a good look at Thomas. The boy was like a cleaner version of his father, Detective Clark. The same dark skin without the scarring, the same military high-and-tight cut but way sharper, and the same animalistic scowl except way less menacing. Within moments of conversation, Jeremiah quickly realized that despite his height and musculature, Thomas was a terribly insecure boy.

  After all, Jeremiah was the most insecure person in a three thousand mile radius, so he would know when he saw it.

  Jeremiah sighed. He almost missed the Holding Dorms. He had to get used to the lavishness there, but the Misc. Dorms were a brand new level of posh. From the huge bedrooms, the porcelain bathrooms, and the common room that pretty much dwarfed his house back home, Jeremiah felt like an absolute trespasser. The very table he sat in was crowded with just about every breakfast food you could think of. Supposedly, they were prepared by some five star chef team and delivered through a “Meal Tram.” From what Jeremiah saw, the surface of the table is a cover for the Meal Tram, which opened to a lift that would raise up food at the start of designated meal times.

  You think this is high-tier? Isaac said when they moved in. This is nothing compared to what I saw when I snooped through the Main Hall dorms!

  Jeremiah questioned why they were even arguing over chores. He wouldn’t be surprised if there were invisible servants waiting for them to head to school so they can start cleaning at any moment.

  “Isaac has a point,” Jeremiah said. “Also, we’re missing someone. Shouldn’t we all be here to decide this?”

  Thomas’ face went blank. With an over-dramatic gasp, he barreled through the fourth dorm room connected to the common room.

  “Alex! I told you to wake up thirty minutes ago, you miserable brat!”

  Jeremiah could hear a small groan serving as a reply from their fourth roommate. There was a lengthy struggle as Thomas honorably assumed the duties similar to a nurse for the elderly, practically forcing their roommate to get ready for class. Impressively enough, in less than ten minutes, their last roommate arrived.

  “Mmm. . .” Alex groaned. “Morning ladies. What’s for breakfast?”

  He looked at the buffet on the table.

  “Forget I asked.”

  Jeremiah snorted. ‘Morning ladies,’ he says.

  It was funny, coming from an absolute pretty boy. The tiny kid had the delicate features of a doll, save for the slight shadowing and eye bags of someone who just can’t get enough sleep. Alex’s platinum-blonde hair nearly reached his hips. However, his hair currently touched the ground, as Thomas had denied him the dignity of standing and instead carried him, tucked underneath one arm. Jeremiah couldn’t help but notice that Alex wore bedroom slippers, even with their new uniforms.

  “You, uh, comfortable like that, man?” Isaac asked.

  “Definitely,” Alex said, his voice like a gentle whistling breeze. “Most kids don’t get to show up to school with their own private taxi.”

  Thomas either didn’t hear or didn’t care.

  “We are roommates for the foreseeable future, which means we all have roles to play when taking care of our common spaces.” Thomas slammed his free hand at a whiteboard he hung up on the wall. It was neatly charted with their names and every conceivable chore you could think of.

  “Ah, right, right.” Alex said, gently dangling. “So you want to split the chores evenly and fairly.”

  “That’s right.”

  “Whoa. Now that I look at it, you put a lot of work into this chart. You’re really responsible, Thomas.” Alex mused, a predatory glint appearing in his eyes. Uh oh, Jeremiah thought.

  “W-well, of course!” Thomas fought a grin from wiping away his uniform scowl. “This is expected of a model roommate.”

  “Yeah, I agree. You were raised right.” Alex flashed a smile, a mix between a real life angel and a fiendish imp.

  “Hey, how about you lead by example on the chores and show us how it's done? Then we’ll pick up the slack when we reach your level.”

  Thomas’ eyes lit up. He began writing his name on the majority of the chart.

  “Your sleeping habits are sloppy, but at least you’re willing to learn.”

  Alex shot a smug glance towards Isaac and Jeremiah as he slyly pilfered from Thomas’ plate.

  “Of course. I appreciate your generosity, Thomas.”

  The poor busybody was too focused on divvying up the chart to even realize he was being cheated in more ways than one.

  Isaac raised a fist bump to Alex, who regarded it like a disinterested cat.

  “I think we’ll get along just fine. I’m Isaac.”

  Alex returned the fist bump.

  “Alex.”

  His empty, yet calculating gaze turned to Jeremiah. Here comes the look, Jeremiah thought. He’d come to slightly enjoy the looks people gave him when they first met. They all varied in an entertaining way. Like a TV show with no reruns, it was different every time.

  Alex didn’t react at all. He just stared at Jeremiah, waiting for him to introduce himself. Luckily, Isaac went ahead and did Jeremiah’s work for him. If he didn’t, there would have been an unbearable silence.

  “And this is my main man, Jerry.”

  Alex nodded.

  Jeremiah nodded back as awkwardly as possible.

  “And done.” Thomas said with no shortage of pride. The chart had his name on every single section.

  “Make sure to watch carefully how I execute these tasks! I won’t be doing it more than. . .” Thomas trailed off as he realized what he had just done.

  “Did I just—”

  “Oh would you look at that!” Alex interjected. “We only have 20 minutes until the next Misc. Tram ride, we should probably get on that.

  Jeremiah glanced at his watch. They had more than 30 minutes until the next ride, and the Tram stations were a 5 minute walk away.

  “Uh, but I thought—”

  Isaac used both hands to clamp Jeremiah’s wide mouth shut. Thomas’ jaw dropped. He looked at Alex with a newfound respect.

  “Maybe I was wrong about you.”

  Alex shrugged.

  “First impressions, am I right?”

  With his free hand, Thomas cleared the dishes and made a gesture to the open door. He began marching through the entrance to the Misc. Dormitory. “A good first impression is essential! Let’s go! To be early is to be on time and to be on time is to be late!”

  As Jeremiah went to catch up, he looked to Isaac.

  “I didn’t know Thomas was so. . .”

  “Dumb? Yeah, that’s a shock to me too.”

  Though it was a short walk to the Misc. Tram, there was a view that could take hours to digest. Myriad High’s aboveground was mostly for visitors and administrative faculty members, but the true Principality rests deep beneath the ground. Pale steel beams and fixtures the size of highways spread from cavern wall to cavern wall like the web of a colossal spider. Even now, the four boys walk upon one of these very beams, referred to as Lanes. The railings on the sides may as well be gates, but Jeremiah’s fear of heights could not be quelled so easily. So instead, he kept his eyes up, just below the artificial sun.

  The cavern ceiling was so high up, it may as well have been the sky. The engineers would agree, since they erected gigantic screens between the ceiling beams to project a perfect imitation of the sky aboveground. The only imperfections were the narrow lines of empty space that divided the ceiling screens. It reminded Jeremiah of the mosaic glass windows of the Myriadic Church.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  And though the Misc. Dorm Lanes were bereft of people besides themselves, it was still busy. Automated sweeper-bots and mobile vending machines moved down the Lane in separate single-file lines like fridge-shaped marching bands. Holographic mini screens projected reporters breaking news from the outside world as well as announcements from the Principality itself. If Mom and Dad saw me now. . .

  “So noisy. . .” Alex yawned.

  “It is.” Jeremiah curtly agreed. “Imagine if we were in the other Halls, with hundreds of other students?”

  Thomas maintained his scowl.

  “I’m sure the faculty maintains order.”

  Isaac just kept scanning the Lane itself.

  “Myriad High could make bank hosting races here!”

  They arrived at the Misc. Tram, terribly early. There were big differences between the L-Train in Seraph and the Trams in Myriad High. Size was the biggest factor. The L-Train was a near-constantly moving collection of over one hundred train cars. Meanwhile, the Trams were practically luxury vehicles on rails. They were cozier but more cramped as well. Not a problem for a class of 12. Jeremiah thought.

  He wondered what the other classmates would be like. Would this be the first time he doesn’t get bullied in school? An unbelievable thought.

  “It sucks that these things don’t go as fast as the L-Train. It was pretty crazy when we ran with that—”

  Isaac’s face went blank as Thomas raised an eyebrow. Jeremiah couldn’t help but croak a little.

  “It was uhh, p-pretty crazy when we ran straight there with only a couple minutes left, right?” Jeremiah said, desperately attempting to recover from Isaac’s mistake. Isaac nodded like the idiot he was.

  “Yup!”

  And cue the awkward silence. While Alex dozed off, the other three sat inside, waiting for the Tram to activate. As Isaac grabbed a drink from the service robot, he sighed.

  “The bots are nice, but why can’t we get some hot train attendant girls instead?”

  Jeremiah could only smile. What would he do without Isaac?

  “High school or not, this is training to become elite government operatives.” Thomas growled. “Have some military bearing, Isaac.”

  Isaac slowly panned his head towards Alex, hopelessly asleep on the slide-out table.

  “Yeah, okay man.”

  At those words, the Tram door slid open and in stepped two more.

  And what a sight it was.

  A boy around Thomas’ size and the same level of muscle appeared. Jeremiah’s blood ran cold as he beheld an absolute delinquent of a student. What caught his eye instantly was what looked to be a claw scar that traveled from across his lips to underneath his stubbled chin. His wavy brown hair wasn’t as long as Alex’s, but reached his shoulders. It looked like a shadow was cast over his eyes at all times as he stood with the stiffness of a lifeless statue.

  What the heck is going on here? Jeremiah thought. Who let an Adversary this far into the Principality? Jeremiah wondered if this was some sort of unorthodox test from Mr. Hill.

  Instinctually, he looked back at the others. Thomas’ lips trembled a bit as he attempted to keep his ‘military bearing.’ Alex was awake and a small amount of recognition was in his unfocused eyes. As for Isaac. . .

  “Yo, what’s up, man! I’m Isaac.”

  Isaac shot up and threw out a fist bump.

  Then things got weirder.

  A high pitched yelp came from the taller boy. He threw up his hands to shield himself from Isaac’s close fist. And then he turned into rock. In an instant, Jeremiah watched as from his shoes to each strand on his head, the menacing boy turned to stone.

  Petrified.

  No really, Jeremiah thought, rubbing the lenses of his thick-rimmed glasses. What the heck is happening?

  “Oh dear,” said a voice from behind the petrified statue. “Brother Lloyd here is rather skittish.”

  Squeezing past the one referred to as Lloyd, came an equally frightening looking boy. It seemed as if he sucked the life and color out of the Tram with his mere existence. Piercing eyes stared at Jeremiah through thin strands of long, jet black hair. Just below that, a grim smile was painted over the pale skin of this newcomer. His wiry body slouched as well, lowering his height by quite a bit. His nails were painted black, he wore black rings, black mascara. . . black everything. The only hint of color on this boy was a golden necklace with a dangling spiral, a symbol of the Myriadic Church.

  “The uniform code of this school, I swear. . .” Thomas mumbled.

  Isaac knocked on the side of Lloyd’s petrified head.

  “What happened to him?”

  “That would be his Blessing,” The all-black student said. “The act of Self-petrification.”

  Isaac mulled over this for a millisecond, then swiveled his fist over to the newer student.

  “‘Sup. I’m Isaac. This one’s Jerry, that one’s Thomas, and that one over there is Alex.”

  “I am Claudius Grimold, and it is a pleasure to meet you, brothers.”

  He laughed with the creep factor of a thousand serial killers.

  “Brother Lloyd, release yourself from your stone tomb. Your fellow students are kind, see?”

  Jeremiah heard a muffled, “Ok. . .” before the statue quickly turned back into a flesh and blood person. Lloyd was now timidly bowing his head, his trembling fingers now interlocked.

  “S-sorry for, um, reacting like that.”

  Jeremiah couldn’t believe that he found Lloyd terrifying just a minute ago.

  “It’s fine?” Jeremiah said, unsure.

  “Take it easy, big guy.” Alex said, slowly powering back down to sleep mode.

  Lloyd looked at his classmates, and almost assumed a genuine smile.

  It was ruined pretty quickly, though.

  “Hey, hey boys!?” Ashley cheered from the Tram opening.

  This elicited a yelp from Lloyd and an instant regression to statue.

  “Huhhh? What’s with him~”

  Thomas sighed. “You just threw away a small bit of progress.”

  “But what did I do?”

  Ashley started to analyze Lloyd with those piercing eyes. Jeremiah realized the colors of her irises were different again. Colored contacts, or is that part of her Blessing? His line of thinking was quickly interrupted as the Tram became busier and busier.

  “Damn, girl! Stop standing in the fuckin’ doorway and let me through!”

  This was a familiar voice. A high-pitched voice with the mouth of a sailor. . .

  “Oh man,” Isaac grimaced. “Hey, June.”

  June, the girl from the candy store, Lucky Takakura, was somehow wearing the same uniform as them. Ashley wasn’t very tall, but standing next to June made anyone tall. The delinquent girl stomped in, head held high. With a combination of her ponytail topknot and combat boots, she was close to finally making it past 5 feet of height. As usual, a lollipop was being loudly chewed on in her mouth. Despite her baby-face, she had the threatening aura that Jeremiah had mistakenly seen in Lloyd.

  “I don’t like that tone, Ballsaac.”

  “And I don’t like that nickname,” Isaac groaned. “So you really made it into Myriad. I thought you were messing with me.”

  “Huhhh?” June snarled. “You thought I was too dumb to make it in?”

  Isaac nonchalantly wiped away a few beads of sweat from the birthmark on his forehead.

  “Hey man, you said it, not me.”

  June shut her eyes as she cracked her knuckles, and blindly lunged for Isaac. In almost serene clarity, Jeremiah realized this chaos may just be his new everyday for the next four years. If Mom and Dad saw me now. . . he thought once more.

  “Woah, now!”

  Leaping in the middle of the two, was someone Jeremiah had never seen before. A lanky, tomboyish girl with a strong sun tan held her arms up to shield Isaac from June. She was peppered with bandaids on her legs and a patch on her face, likely from some sort of sport. June’s eyes opened at the last second in shock, and she pulled her fist back.

  “Shit, Robin! I almost sent you flying back home!”

  The tomboy named Robin chuckled nervously as she rubbed at the back of her head, her brown hair cut short.

  “I’d hate it if you did that. Already got a bad injury right now.”

  She turned over to Isaac and shrugged.

  “June’s a bit cranky at the moment. Actually, she’s cranky all the time. Maybe don’t tease her too much?”

  Isaac mirrored her shrug.

  “Yeah, I know.”

  They simultaneously offered a fist bump, which threw both of them off.

  “Is your name really Ballsaac?”

  “Hell no.”

  Jeremiah relaxed his breathing once the fight had ended. Thomas was angrily chewing on his fingernails, muttering something about how unsanctioned sparring is a severe infraction. Alex was still blissfully asleep.

  He thought his worries were over, until June turned her attention to him. So did Robin. They marched up to him, sizing him up. Here comes my newest audience to the ‘Jeremiah’s Frog-face Freakshow.’ He thought, bitterness flooding his mind.

  “Ash, this the guy you were talking about?” June said. “Looks puny to me.”

  Jeremiah chose to ignore the irony.

  Wait, don’t you remember me?

  “He fits the bill, don’t he?” Robin asked.

  Ashley bounded over to Jeremiah, throwing an arm around his shoulder and pulling him in. She smelled of honey and fruit. Nope, not this time. Jeremiah shook himself out of being distracted.

  “That’s right! This is Froggy! He tooootally saved us from a Cherub! Knocked him out cold~”

  Robin’s eyes lit up. June pursed her lips, looking at Jeremiah with subdued respect.

  “Nice, nice! Hey, show me your stomach!”

  “Yeah, let us see it, frogboy.”

  Suddenly, Isaac was on the other side of Jeremiah, an arm around his shoulder as well.

  “Ladies ladies, there’s more than enough of Jeremiah to go around, but if you want an interview with him you’ll need to talk to his manager first.” Isaac jabbed a thumb at himself.

  Jeremiah wasn’t sure what to do. What’s with all of this. . . attention? It’s not the bad kind of attention either. He remembered how Ashley and Isaac hadn’t reacted how he feared. But even then, he figured they were outliers. But this was the Miscellaneous Class. We’re all outliers, Jeremiah thought. All of a sudden, he felt like he could cry.

  The Tram began its humming tune, signaling that the Tram was ready to embark. It didn’t move as fast as the L-Train, but not securing yourself will lead to the same outcome nonetheless. Thomas barked at them to sit down and strap in, and the students begrudgingly listened. As usual, the trio sat together. Isaac looked at him, smirking.

  “Check out our man Jerry. Celebrity superhero.”

  Isaac wouldn’t call himself smart, and most would agree. But he knew more about people than he let on. Jeremiah knew for a fact that Isaac was pushing him to be more ‘out there.’

  “Celebrity, huh?” Ashley said. “Maaaybe~?”

  Jeremiah’s eyes met Ashley’s. Now this was something Jeremiah didn’t understand.

  That smile on her face.

  What meaning is it supposed to convey?

  O.P.H.A.N.I.M!

  The Afterschool Waiting List. With the previous chapter's end, we are now entering the schedule posted in our fiction page description, being Wednesdays and Fridays from here on out. Thank you for those reading and continuing to read from our launch date, and a grand welcome to all who read this note!