Dear Diary, it's been a while since I've written in here. Well, I've joined this academy, and I love it so far. I've met so many new people and talked to people I'd never thought I'd talked to. I recognise so many people from social media here; it's crazy. To be honest, I wasn't sure how things were going to turn out. I thought enrolling here was a mistake, but it might have been the best choice I've made in my life. It's weird it's like high school but it's so much better. We've only done one challenge so far, and it was exams, but I can't wait to see the next challenge. In my first challenge, I got 470 points, I didn't make the top ten, but I didn't think I would anyways. There are some incredible people here. I still can't believe I'm here with them. This whole experience has been surreal. No drama has happened yet except for the first day. I do want to see more drama, but I think that'll come later for sure. For now, I'm happy with everything. The friends I've made, what I've done and how I'm living. I forgot how good it felt to write out about my life. I'll definitely write more here; I'm sure I'll have a lot to write about. Even now, I can't believe how happy I am when I'm writing.

Eric was sitting on the couch alone in his dorm, waiting for someone to come through the door. He'd been sitting there for nearly two hours, empty-minded. He didn't have the energy to do anything else; he didn't want to do anything else. He did want one thing, though. He wanted one last conversation. One last conversation, not a lecture or a one-sided interrogation, one last genuine conversation.

Click!

That noise broke the silence. The door handle turned, and the door swung forward. Eric's head turned like a hawk. He quickly stood up and proceeded to the door. Holding three different coloured bags, a dark girl with smooth skin and long, shiny, coiled black hair walked through.

"Sasha, can we talk?" Eric asked, not even looking at her.

Sasha sighed; she just got through the door,

"You've been doing this every day; I'm tired, Eric", she said, trying to walk past.

Eric stepped in front of her, blocking her path.

"Excuse me, you're in the way", Sasha said with a tint of attitude.

Eric gave her the silent treatment; he stood firmly before her, still not looking at her face.

"Eric, please, can you move? I need to put these bags away", Sasha said irritatedly.

"Please. Let's have ONE more conversation, just one. The last one. I want to clear some things up, clear things for my mind. After that, I promise I won't speak to you again", Eric said desperately, still not making eye contact. He then raised his head and looked into her eyes for the first time in a week,

"Please. Just one more conversation. I need some answers. Then we can be strangers".

Eric's eyes looked dead, but he still faintly smiled.

"Fine, let me put my bags in my room first".

Knock, knock, knock.

"Adam?"

I turned my body around to look at the door.

"Are you busy right now?" Kyle asked, popping his around the door.

"Not really, I'm just looking over my notes".

"Cool, some people are meeting up from our class to hang out. Do you wanna join?" Kyla asked, now standing in the doorway.

"Yeah, I'll join; let me change my clothes".

"Okay, I'll wait out here", Kyle replied, closing the door.

I closed my notebook and stood up from my desk.

"I do need to get to know my classmates better", I thought.

I quickly put on a black sweater and met Kyle outside. Kyle is my roommate. He's a regular guy; I don't have much to say about him. I met him on the first day and asked him to be my roommate. He accepted pretty quickly, so he might've been desperate like me. He's nothing special; well, I'm not either. Kyle is a regular white guy with blonde hair and a long nose. It makes sense both of us are roommates; if you looked at us, you wouldn't think that much of us. I don't consider him a friend, but he's an okay guy. We switch who buys the groceries and essentials each time. He's someone I can reason with, which is good; I could've got someone incompetent or stubborn. So, I guess I picked the good straw. We have yet to get to know each other that well; we have only shared a few details about each other. We're like office friends, someone you'd see at work because you have to. I wonder if Kyle wants to get closer to me. It'll probably be a good idea to build a stronger relationship with him; it will help me later on, I'm sure.

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Outside on campus.

"I noticed there's a lot of people here that don't attend the academy", Kyle said, looking around at unfamiliar faces roaming the campus.

"Look, there's an old couple over there", he whispered to me while pointing at them.

"Yeah, the campus is open to anyone. They can go to the shops and restaurants, but they can't go into the academy. That's why we have IDs".

"How do they pay for the stuff in the shops?" Kyle asked.

"With actual money".

As you can see, Kyle isn't the sharpest tool in the shed.

"What does the academy do with the money?" Kyle continued to question.

"They use the money to help the academy or buy more products for the stores".

"That makes sense", he said, looking around.

"Did you think the campus was this big and had all these shops just for us students?"

"Yeah", he replied, looking at me innocently.

"I'm surprised he hasn't questioned why I know so much", I thought. To be fair, it is common sense. It doesn't take a genius to look around and see people over the age of thirty walking around. Anything can happen on this campus; someone could live in one of the parks and sleep on the benches if they wanted to. This academy does have a good name, I guess; even now, I'm still impressed by the campus. Kyle and I were the first people to arrive at the meeting spot. We've been sitting on a bench for about 15 minutes.

"Did they say when we would meet up?"

"Yeah, they said let's meet outside the bakery", Kyle answered.

"When did they say we should meet up?".

Kyle looked at me like he had already told me, but he didn't answer my question.

"Let me check again." he pulled out his phone to look at the message again.

"Yeah, they said we should meet outside the bakery. But when did they say we should meet?" He rhetorically asked, trying to find where the time was stated in the message.

I looked at my roommate, who was typing hastily, then looked up to see a group of people walking towards us.

"Is that them?" I pointed.

Kyle looked up,

"Yeah, it is." he stood up and walked towards them.

I also stood up and analysed what was going on. There were seven people. Four guys and three girls. I recognise about three of the guys, and that's it. All of them are in my class, I think.

"Adam, how have you been?" One of them greeted.

I know him, he's Justin. Everyone likes this guy because he's open and friendly. A good spokesperson for the class. He also looks good, which makes girls support him without a second thought.

"I'm fine".

Justin came to shake my hand.

"I heard you got 423 points, the highest in our class", Justin said.

"Yeah, me and my partner did well".

"I wonder how much your partner contributed, though?" He said in a lower tone so only I would hear.

I doubt he knows who I actually am, but he's caught on that I'm not like everyone in our class. It's my fault; I should've acted more naturally and blended in with the class. The first few days were a blur; I can barely remember them. What can you do? You live, and you learn.

"We'll never know. How much did you get?"

"I got 377 points". Justin replied with a smile.

I don't get it. How can someone who is academically inferior be sharp and notice me? Being academically bright doesn't perfectly correlate with total intelligence, but there is an association. Everyone's abnormal in this academy. I need to watch out for everyone, not just people in the higher classes.

"That's good." I gave a fake compliment.

"I could do better", he smugly replied.

"Hey guys, how about we split up and do our own thing, then meet again to have some food together?" Justin suggested to the group.

Everyone agreed, and the groups formed seamlessly. The three girls were together, Kyle with two of the guys, and I was stuck with Justin and this other guy. I think his name was Marcus. How did this happen? I should've stayed at home. I regret coming.

"Sooo what should we do?" one of the girls asked, skipping ahead and looking around.

"Let's go shopping, I need to buy some more clothes".

"Didn't you buy some new clothes a week ago?" The girl next to her responded, looking at her outfit.

"I did, but I saw something really cute the other day and wanted to buy it".

the girl that was skipping ahead looked back and responded,

"Okay, let's go", while she walked backwards.

"Yeah. Wait, WATCH OUT!" One of the girls warned.

The little girl fell over after bumping into a guy. The girl quickly stood up on her own to avoid embarrassment.

"I'm sorry I should've loo-" she looked up at the boy she bumped into. Once she saw who he was, she lunged in for a hug and wrapped her arms around him.

"MALAKAIII!!!!