School Trials (ST)

As I wake up, I feel as if something very strange just happened. I'm in a bed, in a room I don't remember going into with Maya. The other day I could only remember too well being driven to the school I suspected I was in now. Golden Oak Academy, probably. Me and my sister passed the test for getting into this school, but I don't know what talent I am though. The staff never gave me the chosen talent for me. My sister got driver as her talent though...

The room smelled of ancient wood, the very kind that tells you how prestigious it is to get accepted there. Strangely, the staff don't tell you what subject you have to study on, and some people ace the test by doing almost nothing.

I was also scared as well, because I had an older cousin who went here... And he never came back...

7:47 am

Everyone is required to be in the Announcements Room by 8:00 am, or else detention. If we are just walking, it should take around 20 minutes to get there. Nobody wants detention on their first day at school. I really should have been very awake at 7:30 am, because the Announcements Room is a very long walk from me and my sister's dorm. But I guessed we should be there if we don't take any breaks and arrive just before we would get detention.

"Maya, I think we should get going now," I lazily said while getting out of bed, "We might get detention."

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot to check the time."

After that small talk we went straight to the Announcements Room without taking any breaks and no talks. When we arrived, we had just four seconds to spare until we got detention, even though for most of the trip we were sprinting.

By the time we got there, most of the students were there...

Then there was a loud noise a moment later, followed by a loud, screeching voice from the speaker above the stage.

"HELLO, CAN EVERYONE HEAR ME?!"

It was very obvious everyone heard them, and it was also obvious it was too loud, because most of the people in the room shot some very annoyed looks or were covering their ears.

"Uuhhh, the volume's too loud," a girl with messy pink hair said. I wouldn't have known who they were. They looked a lot like a familiar someone...

"OH, OK. Thanks for telling me it was too loud or else I would probably have never decided to adjust the volume to make it more suitable," the announcer replied, "And where. Is. That. ONE. FORGETFUL. CHILD!!!"

Even though they announcer lowered the volume, the room still kind of shook. Everyone looked at each other in confusion.

"We won't give a detention today, but we only told everyone to come to this damn room by 8:00 am or else detention to make sure nobody will delay the valuable time we need to explain stuff. STILL, THERE IS ALWAYS THAT ONE KID WHO IS LATE TO THE CLASS!!!!!! I THOUGHT FOURTEEN YEAR-OLDS WERE RESPONSIBLE ENOUGH TO REMEMBER STUFF LIKE THIS!!!"

A little later and Alana appeared. Honestly, I was kind of surprised she actually got accepted here. She aced the test by doing almost nothing. I suspected the staff can read your mind when that happened. She was very clumsy anyways.

"Ugh, 8:16 am. SIXTEEN MINUTES WASTED OF VALUEABLE TIME!!! Ok, sorry for shouting and wasting more time then I should have, but let me explain the rules of the school."

8:17 am. That was actually 17 minutes used for talking nonsense.

The rules were:


 * do NOT run away. If you do WE WILL FIND YOU AND BRAINWASH YOU AND PUT YOU BACK HERE
 * you are required to kill or at least be involved in someone's death to graduate.      (in my opinion that's gruesome, but rules are rules...)
 * You are only allowed out of your dorms between 7:00 am and 6:00 pm. Other than that, do NOT go out of your dorms unless it's an emergency... Or if you're out to kill someone... Or else DETENTION!
 * I will add more if I need to

I didn't want to think about the new rules they would have to add...

[PART1LISTEDCOMPLETE_STARTINTRO\FREETIME1]

"Oh, I almost forgot, make sure to do your introductions unless you somehow did it yesterday. Anyways, Its free-time! Do what you have to do until you have to go back into your dorms!"

Right after that and I decided to scurry away from the announcements room. I was already beginning to feel quite sick. Lots of yelling, valuable time wasted, and more annoying stuff. A few minutes later and Maya found me. A few seconds after that and someone else with a backpack bumped into me.

"Oh, uh, sorry, just the habit... ultimate sniffer, what's yours?"

Sniffer? I never even considered that a talent, or a very useful talent. If it was, they could probably sniff out a copy of a dead person's will if it had been destroyed or something.

"Errr, they staff never gave me the talent they selected. Just don't get on my bad side."

"Pilot, eVeN tHoUgH-"

"You might need this bag I brought here. It might help you. Just make sure you're wearing thick gloves while searching it," and they dropped their backpack in front of me and Maya and walked away, even though we haven't fully introduced ourselves.

"Wait, what's your name?" I hollered at them. They seemed quite busy with what they were doing and a moment later they were gone.

"Probably a smuggler," Maya said, "There could be something deadly in that freaking bag."

And we went to our dorm to properly store the backpack. After that, we went out again and met someone with a pretty questionable outfit... tinges of blue, purple and white. A simple, but interesting outfit...

"Hi! I'm Gumball! but you can call me Zachary. Anyways, I'm the Ultimate Never-"

"His jokes suck though. They're mostly dark humor, or even worse, rick-rolls," someone vaguely familiar said.

"Hayden?! How'd pass the test to get here?" I squealed while running towards her.

"I don't know! My parents just told me I was going here, passed the test and-" Hayden was clearly confused at why she was here.

"Did they tell you what your ultimate was?" I interrupted.

"Artist?"

Just then another familiar someone was coming towards me and grabbed me.

"Ayy Kayla, wassup?"

"Ugh, Janet, really? You have to do this?"

"Shannon told me you had a sister here. They said they were Kelly. Is that true?"

"Its. Maya. Not. Kelly." I coughed. Sometimes Janet is just straight up annoying. After a bit of time and Maya managed to get Janet off.

[PART2LISTEDCOMPLETE_START]

A little later and we got back to our dorms. It wasn't exactly fun doing all this stuff, but it is what it is.

A bit after that and I found myself putting on thick gloves and reaching for the bag someone who suspiciously looked like a smuggler gave us. I was confident there were weapons in there, probably valuable daggers or V.I.P. firearms from very foreign places. I have heard about TG's SA and EA, but never been there. Probably weird when I tell you this, but I never seen any images of them or even got a tiny description of what the places look like. I just never been able to, but I had a very high suspicion Maya might know a bit about the place. Something uncanny too, she also never had much time to get this kind of information.

{SWITCHPERSPECTIVE_MAYA}

I just gasped when I saw what was in the bag, but then I also knew why that girl didn't tell us her name.

"Huh, a smuggler. They didn't want us to report these confiscated items to the announcer..." Kayla said, partially in a surprised way while pulling out a spring growth dagger from SA and MP443 from EA.

"Well, we still have to hope nothing bad happens..." I said. Slowly, but surely, I started to understand why our cousin warned to not go to this school in the first place. It has this very high reputation, but it was only to lure students to here, to hopefully have enough students to do this killing game. Someone tried to brainwash him, but somehow failed. Probably gotten interrupted by another person who wanted to make this thing come to a stop. Anyways, the school drugs the food to make sure you don't feel like having to run away otherwise.

-fast track-

A bit later and it was already nighttime. I lay in my bed worried if I should trust anyone. At anytime, someone would be dead, probably me or my sister. Maybe even a very good friend. Someone could betray at anytime, who knows who it could be.

{SWITCHPERSPECTIVE_SUNG-HYUN}

I waited anxiously for something to happen. Nothing happened in that time. I'll try to explain everything as best of my ability as possible, but I'm not good with English. (using lots of autocorrect)

I got my talent as Pianist, even though I am from a place from very far away. I know some English, but the skill is quite broken compared to others who got accepted at the school. I heard going there shapes your future. In reality, it was just this killing game, but I found out there were lots of other student like me. This school was somewhere in very deep countryside England.

Let me tell you about my backstory. for most of my life I grew up in urban South Korea, until my family decided to move to Canada, - and that was like three years ago - which is where I learned French. I stared learning English before my family moved. Grammar was a struggle, I was nearly a failing student in the subject. At least they were straight "C"'s, or else I would have been kicked out of class.

I felt like a boat stranded on water, until my parents told me I was going to Golden Oak Academy, a school where only the best of the best students go. A week later and the website has been posted listing all students willing to attend.

Back to what I'm supposed to be talking about, it was now 7:00. I decided to wait a little more time to make sure I won't get detention. Well, the only time I got detention, or something like detention, was like ages ago, when I still lived in Korea. Even now I am still scared of it.

I wondered if there was some sort of internet connection here. I went on my smartphone, and surprising, yes. I decided to play some Megalovania in front of other users playing Roblox. It was, fun, but I constantly tried to remember who I was. Then I realized I started forgetting really important information, where home was, even the trip from country to another. The food at this school was drugged... To make you forget valuable memories...

By this time it was 12:07 at midnight. I know, sounds weird, that I consider this time safe to go out, but let me tell you I forgot to switch the time to the current time zone I'm in. I decided to remind myself first thing to do is to switch time to this time zone time.

Then I went out, only to be surprised by the amount of student already out of their dorms. Everyone was still doing introductions. A bit later and I decided to go to the Announcements Room. On contrast, there was way less students there then I expected. A few moments later and someone waved to me.

"Ren?" I yelled.

"Sign? YOU'RE HERE!!" Ren yelled back. I met Ren when I just moved from Korea to Canada. We were best friends.

{SWITCHPERSPECTIVE_REN}