Cameroon was suspicious, no way that this man is not after him—he was making up reasons to get closer to Royce.

The whole friend group could even be after him too. Royce is cornered at this point. He forced himself to make a plan on how to escape from them.

Cameroon looked at him confused with Royce's reactions. "Hey man, can I talk to ya? Alone?" Cameroon requested.

Was Royce acting too suspicious also? Cameroon would've noticed him the whole time. Royce looked around and it seemed that Cameroon would have no way to abduct him in an open area with a lot of witnesses.

Royce would have to follow him, he had no choice, plus he's curious about what Cameroon has to say.

"Oh, okay then. I'll wait for you two in our next class," Johannes said as Richard nodded.

"In that case, we'll go to our class too," Richard replied.

~~~

Cameroon looked around the area and spotted a CCTV camera. The whole school is being watched by cameras, and Cameroon could only groan in annoyance because of it.

Cameroon pulled Royce to the guys' bathroom, surely there are no cameras there, only a madman would do that.

Cameroon kneeled over to see if anybody was in the stalls, and then closed the door and locked it after.

Royce is getting weirded out. He can't blame Cameroon though, he must have something really personal to say to him.

"I know your last name is not Lee," Cameroon mumbled while Royce looked at him wide-eyed.

Cameroon looked at Royce, his eyes were completely different. He looked like he was pleading for help.

"I'm on your side, and I can tell you're already suspicious of me a while ago. But please, trust me," Cameroon pleaded, "I'm doing this for my uncle, the police won't listen to me." He looked down.

Royce could feel that Cameroon was really in need of help, but what can Royce help him? He's just some person that's being chased after.

"Your mother is Scarlett Rose Agnello, she died in a fire by people who were after her inventions. You're hiding because of your mother—people are after you." Cameroon knew Royce's true self the whole time, that just made his "creepy" trait even creepier.

"My mother is also after your mother's inventions. She was paid by suspicious people to get you inside this school to come and get you. She also got interested in what you know about your mother's inventions after learning that you're Scarlett's eldest son and accepted the deal unless she can use the inventions too," Cameroon shared, however, Royce was still wondering how he can help.

"How can I help though? I'm just someone that everyone is after," Royce sighed.

Cameroon shook his head. "My uncle is supposedly the owner of this school since he's the older brother of my mother. He was manipulated by my mother to get the school for herself. I love my uncle a lot, and that's why I'm seeking justice for him."

"And, my role is?" Royce prompted while raising a brow.

"I'm going to use you as bait to get my uncle out of prison. The day you get kidnapped, I'll call the police to get my mother caught in the act and I can finally use my evidence that the police ignored," he answered simply, making Royce choke at the weird idea.

"Out of all the ideas, that's what you picked?" Royce said as he facepalmed.

"Oh come on—I'm just someone that knows a lot of information. Johannes is good with problem-solving; everyone has their own specialty, right? I'm not dragging Johannes into this mess, though," Cameroon answered, "Plus, Johannes would just be disappointed at me for dragging myself into this type of situation."

"I can already just hear him and Richard lecturing, "Cameroon, stop dragging yourself to this type of situation. Why do you have to be the reckless one of the group?'" Cameroon mocked in a high-pitched voice.

Royce had to think this through—what if Cameroon was just lying? But, Cameroon looked hopeless, could he actually be serious this time? Cameroon seems like a person that sucks at lying, from what Royce's observed.

"...Do you trust me?" Cameroon asked as he looked at Royce with hope in his eyes.

Cameroon's plan seriously needs some revision. It's too risky. Cameroon sucks at planning; a child could do better.

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Speaking of a child, Cameroon mentioned that Johannes was good with planning. Johannes could help a lot, he didn't look all that suspicious, only Cameroon was the one who seemed like a suspicious creep the whole time.

"How about we ask Johannes? I mean he wouldn't mind the real me, right? He looks like someone you can trust," Royce suggested, "I'm not going to team up with you if we're going to use your original plan," he added.

Cameroon hesitated at first."I guess that could work, he really doesn't mind when it comes to helping his friends. We could even tell the others too, they could help too."

Cameroon looked at Royce. "Wouldn't that endanger me?" Royce asked.

Cameroon chuckled. "Don't worry man, Richard is a literal saint. He can't even harm insects; he can't be our enemy. And Jonathan? He's pretty quiet all the time, he also can't betray any of us because it'll count Richard as his enemy. Jonathan would never betray anyone if it can hurt his relationship with his brother and Richard."

"Plus, I already thoroughly researched all people in our friend group including you, so no one can be our enemy!" Cameroon said with pride, however, Royce got quite a bit creeped out from Cameroon's sentence—was he just naturally creepy?

Suddenly, the bell rang. It was time for class, once again. "We need to get to our classes, Johannes is waiting for us," Cameroon stated as he opened the restroom's door, Royce following behind him.

~~~

Royce and Cameroon entered music class, and boy, it was huge. Royce was shocked, rows and rows of chairs filled with noisy students sat. He couldn't believe this was going to be one of his classrooms. It was an auditorium specially made for this class.

Cameroon led Royce where they're going to sit, over to the opposite side of the door and to the third row of chairs. Was this even a classroom? It was way bigger than classrooms Royce had before—how could this possibly be a music classroom? It was practically the size of an elementary-school cafeteria, perhaps larger.

They found Johannes in the crowd.

"And where were you two?" Johannes said, already seated in his seat, two vacant seats next to him on his right.

Royce and Cameroon sat down on the empty red chairs beside his left side, and since the teacher hadn't arrived yet, the three chatted together. "Nothing, oh also, Royce agreed we could hang out at his workplace," Cameroon responded. "We can have lunch there together!" he added, his big grin returning.

Royce didn't particularly remember saying that part though, but what harm could it do? He didn't mind if a few friends came to his workplace.

"Huh, the bell already rang, where's the teacher?" Royce asked the two.

"Oh, you don't know? We have music class today, the music teacher is always late for some reason. That's why students here love music class; you don't do much too," Johannes responded. "Since it's music class, do you know how to play an instrument?"

Royce didn't even have a talent for playing instruments, he hasn't touched even one for years, the last one he touched was his mother's violin she barely played, but it was like a decoration on the wall instead.

"Not at all, I haven't played one," Royce replied.

"Well, we're going to learn to play different instruments in this class, maybe you'll find one to your liking!" Johannes exclaimed happily.

"Says the musician. Johannes is the only one excited for the class to start because he'll be in the spotlight once again—the music teacher gives him endless praises because Johannes is the best at playing instruments," Cameroon barged into their conversation.

Johannes rolled his eyes. "Oh shut up," he laughed.

Johannes smacked him on the head playfully. Royce watched, wanting to smile but feeling... a bit of jealousy rising. Could it be? He couldn't be jealous of the two best friends. He shook his head to clear the storming thoughts away.

Just that moment, the door opened and in came a tall man carrying a big book. The man cleared his throat and stepped to the centre of the room, where a little podium with a microphone lay. He waited for everyone to hush down before he spoke into it. "Good afternoon, students!" he said brightly with a smile under his brown moustache. He had a slight bit of a French accent.

The teacher looked at Royce from the front. "Today we have a new student, Royce Lee! May you come up here, Mr. Lee?"

Royce turned a shade of pink as he rose and walked up to him. He could see Cameroon smirking jokingly out of the corner of his eye. Man, you're unlucky, Cameroon mouthed while chuckling.

Keep a low profile, that's legit the only thing that Royce is always aiming for. Not stand out—it's obvious that fate hates him.

But it seemed that Royce had no choice but to do whatever the teacher said. He stood up and walked closer to the teacher.

"Er—hi," Royce greeted the teacher.

"Hello, Royce," the teacher said, not speaking into the microphone. "A pleasure to meet you. I'm Mr Lambert."

"A—a pleasure to meet you too," Royce responded, getting nervous once again.

"Would you like to introduce yourself to the class?" he asked. Royce looked at all the waiting faces and occupied seats. And even if he didn't exactly want to do it, he said, "Sure."

They both shifted so that Royce was speaking into the microphone, and the teacher—Mr. Lambert—next to his side. Royce had only now noticed that he was wearing formal clothes; a colourful tie with instruments, and a belt suited around his dark black pants.

"My name is Royce, some of you may already know me from my previous introduction yesterday," he started off, his eyes glistening to Johannes and Cameroon and some of the few classmates from yesterday, "Uh... I don't play instruments—haven't even touched one—but hopefully, I could learn how to play one in this class."

He really needs to stop messing up his introductions.

"Wonderful, I will be looking at the end of the school year for what instrument you've picked!" The music teacher said with a delighted tone.

The teacher eyed Cameroon and Johannes. "You can get back to your seat now, it seems that you have already made friends. That's a good start, Mr Lee." Royce walked off back to them, a blush forming on his face once again.

"Now that we have finished that, I guess it's about time you all start playing your instruments—or if you are just beginning, pair up with someone that you know! I will prepare the song that we will be learning for today!" he bellowed into the microphone. In agreement, everyone began walking off the steps on the sides of the rooms to get backstage. There were tons of people, which probably was the reason why Johannes said, "Royce, stay near me, okay? This room is, like, very big. You don't wanna get lost."

"Yeah, like how Johannes did last year!" Cameroon added.

"Shushhhh," Johannes grumbled and then hit Cameroon's head from the back.