“Hey, hey, how do I look in this uniform?” The girl walking behind Ms. Jaimess asked the boy walking next to her.

Earlier that morning, Ms. Jaimess had been called into the principal’s office at the high school where she taught. She had been entirely paranoid that she was in trouble, and spent the walk to the office running every recent event through her head to see if she had committed any fireable offenses. However, when she walked through the door into the office, it was the principal who seemed uneasy.

He was normally quite composed, but sweat was currently glistening off of his balding head, and he seemed to be fidgeting a little in his chair. “Ah, there you are Ms. Jaimess, we’ve been waiting for you,” he addressed her as she walked in. We? she wondered while looking around the room, not seeing anyone. After a couple of seconds the principal pointed behind her.

She crooked her head back and was startled when she saw the boy and girl lurking in the corner. Wow, I have never labeled students as ‘problem children’ faster than these two, she thought to herself as the girl gave a slight wave. Ms. Jaimess gave them a little nod in return, then turned back to the principal.

“These two will be joining your homeroom class today. Why don’t the two of you step outside for a moment while I have a quick word with your teacher,” he said to the two who then walked out of the room. After the door closed, he hurriedly stood up from his desk and sped over next to Ms. Jaimess.

He gripped her arm tightly and pulled her close, to a degree that it was almost hurting a little, and whispered quietly, right in her ear. “Now listen, Ms. Jaimess. It is very important that these two are here. Now, I’m not going to tell you how to do your job, but my advice is to do your best to not upset them. With any luck, they won’t be here for too long.”

He let her go, handed her a sheet with their information on it, and returned to his desk without saying anything else. She just stared at him blankly until he waved her away. She got out of the room, instructed the two to follow her, and couldn’t help from muttering, Why Me! in her head over and over. I know my class recently went down a number, but I’ve got my hands full. The student who just came back looks like he’ll need some additional monitoring as well.

Ms. Jaimess’ thoughts were drowned out by the conversation between the two students following her. “It looks pretty good on you, Though I think you’re trying too hard to go with the innocent look. More than anything, it’s just weird to see you without your hat,” the boy said.

“Pssh, you’re one to talk, mister only wears black. Maybe if you wore some other colors it’d make you look less intense,” the girl spouted back at him. Ms. Jaimess couldn’t help but agree with what both had said, barring the hat comment. Their school had a required uniform, but there were various color options to allow the students some variety.

The girl had gone with all white. She had white shoes, white knee high socks, a plain white pleated skirt, and had forgone the jacket and just went with the white dress shirt. The only thing off color was a purple bow tie that matched her eyes. With the white hair thrown in, she gave off a radiance like she was a maiden of extreme purity. I wonder just how black your soul is, though, Ms. Jaimess thought to herself, since her instincts had screamed ‘diabolical’ after just one good look at her.

Despite the boy’s appearance, she felt that he was actually kind and studious, or that was her intuition anyways. People likely wouldn’t think that though with just a quick glance. Opposite of the girl, he had gone with pure black shoes, pants, jacket, and dress shirt. He had a single strap green backpack which wasn’t the usual school regulation one, but there were no specific rules preventing students from using another bag. He was also wearing a green tie and she wondered if it matched his eyes like the girl’s. She couldn’t see them very well due to the hood he was wearing.

Wait… a hood? Ms. Jaimess thought to herself as she spun around to face the two of them. She thought back to the principal's warning, but decided it was her obligation to set a student straight when they were breaking a rule, regardless of who they were. “Excuse me sir,” she said, addressing the boy. “I’m not sure how you managed to get a uniform with a hood attached, but any form of headwear is against our school rules. I’m going to have to ask that you remove it at once.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got special permission for it,” the boy said while pulling a small sheet of paper out of his pocket, and holding it up for her to read. It was a note with the principal's signature at the bottom that stated ‘They are allowed to alter and wear their uniforms however they want.’

What the hell? The principal is usually pretty strict about school rules. What makes these two so special? Ms. Jaimess pondered. She wasn’t going to defy his decisions though, so she decided to drop it, but just then the boy lifted up the note up to his hood. A small furry hand leapt out from inside and grabbed the note. After it pulled it back in, she heard a slight munching sound. “Is that an animal?!” she yelled, doing her best to keep the volume down so people in the classrooms wouldn’t hear. The boy pulled out another note that said ‘Ignore any animals’ and then put that up to his hood, which was then taken as well.

This is crazy! How many special privileges did the principal give them? To think I was worried about being fired earlier, but now he’s going to be the one getting yelled at later! Ms. Jaimess thought as she turned back around to continue walking. When they reached the classroom door, she turned back towards the two and said, “I’m going to go in and address the class. When I call your names, please come inside and introduce yourselves.”

The two of them just gave a slight nod before she stepped inside. The class was rowdier than usual since it was already past the time homeroom was supposed to start. She got to the podium at the front of the class and cleared her throat, which caused them to settle down and stare at her. Once Ms. Jaimess had their full attention, she addressed the students. “I know this is unusual for this time of the year, but we have two transfer students joining our class today.”

She looked at the sheet that the principal had given her as she kept talking, having not read it yet due to the weirdness from before. “It is likely that they won’t be here for very long, but please do your best to make them feel welcome and get along. So, I would like to introduce Drim and Phon Dra… Zah…?” The words shocked her as they left her lips even though she was the one saying them.

The two students walked in and the class immediately erupted in chattering. Drim just nodded at the class and Phon said “Hello!” cheerfully. There’s no way that’s actually them right? Ms. Jaimess thought to herself. I mean, they match the descriptions pretty solidly, but what reason would they have for coming here?! Are they just impersonating them maybe? The students in the room seemed to be sharing similar thoughts with her, as the mumblings that she could hear matched closely.

During the commotion, one of the students knocked a pencil off their desk. Suddenly, a vine shot out from Drim which caught the pencil in mid-air. The vine carefully placed the pencil back on the desk and retreated back into him. This instantly erased any doubts about their identity and the room went silent; except for the distinct sound of approximately thirty people gulping at the same time.

Well, it’s definitely them, but that doesn’t answer the question as to what the hell they’re doing here! Ms. Jaimess thought to herself as she looked back down at the sheet. Underneath the part about them not being there long and their names was just ‘Goodluck (^.^)’. That damned old man! She shouted in her head as she crumpled the paper in anger.

Well, assuming we don’t get murdered by them, maybe I can use this to weasel a raise out of that bastard. If he doesn’t comply, I can threaten to take this to the school board! What should I do now, though… she thought as she noticed the eyes of the students wandering from the two Drazahs over to her with expectant gazes. Should I say something? I mean, they haven’t done anything wrong yet, could it be that they’re actually here to learn…? Ha! As if… Wow, I really don’t know what to do right now…

Just as Ms. Jaimess was on the brink of going into a full blown panic attack, one of the students stood up from their desk. The boy with short, extremely tidy black hair and glasses pointed at the two Drazahs and demanded, “I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to leave!”

“And you are…?” Phon asked with an annoyed look.

The boy pushed up his glasses and introduced himself. “I’m Kleff Brand, class representative. It is my duty to make sure that these students receive a safe and upstanding education. I don’t know how you two managed to get into our school, but it is no place for criminals such as yourself! If you don’t leave in the next ten seconds, I’m going to call the police,” he said as he faced the screen of his phone towards them, showing that he had already input the number, and just had to press call.

Yes, good work Kleff! I knew I made your nerdy little ass class rep for some reason, Ms. Jaimess thought as she looked hopefully at the situation. She was starting to feel that things may work out, but then Phon started laughing.

“Heh, you’re free to do whatever you like,” Phon scoffed as she shrugged at Kleff.

“So be it. Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” Kleff responded as he pressed the call button on his phone. He set it to speaker mode so that everyone could hear the ringing.

After it rang a couple of times there was a click and a voice said, “Constead Police, what is your emergency?”

“Yes, hello, this is Kleff Brand, a student of Constead South High School. Drim and Phon Drazah have infiltrated our school, and are currently posing as students. Please send someone to arrest them immediately!” Kleff shouted into the phone as he stared at the two of them, beaming with pride.

Ms. Jaimess and the other students looked strangely at the phone when an unexpected sigh came from the receiver. “Listen kid,” the man on the phone said, “We get calls like this all the time from people claiming to have seen the Drazahs. I can’t think of any reason why they would be at a high school, so unless you can give me some proof then…”

“Oh, I know that voice…!” Phon spoke up suddenly. “That’s officer Tusmon isn’t it? Hi Tussy!” Phon shouted in a greeting tone and waved as if he was right in front of them.

“Oh Cosmos, it’s really them!” Tusmon shouted from the phone. “Hey kid, have they killed anyone?!”

“Uhh, well no I don’t think so,” Kleff responded confused. “I don’t really see how that matters though…”

“Sorry, the Constead Police force has reached a decision to not get involved with them unless there is a serious incident. Unless they do something that endangers lives, you’re on your own. Good luck kid, try not to piss them off.” There was another click after Tusmon finished speaking, and then silence flooded the room again.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Kleff sat down at his desk and just stared at his phone in disbelief while a good portion of the rest of the students looked like they wanted to scream or cry. Phon walked over to Ms. Jaimess’ podium, slapped down a signed note that read, ‘They are allowed to take any items they deem necessary from anyone,’ then headed over to Kleff’s desk. She held out her hand and insisted, “Gimme the phone.”

Kleff looked shocked and appeared to be struggling to get words out. So Phon just grabbed the phone from him and said, “If you’re a good boy, I’ll give it back to you at the end of the day.”

That Draz… That’s my line! Ms Jaimess wanted to shout out at her. Taking students' things and holding them hostage was one of the small joys she got out of being a teacher, and she felt annoyed by the fact that someone else was doing it. I guess that doesn’t matter right now. Kleff looks like he’s about to pop. If I don’t do something this could be bad. She cleared her throat again and prepared to speak but had no idea what was going to come out of her mouth. However, before she could say anything the bell signaling the end of homeroom rang.

Every student rushed out in a hurry, leaving just the two Drazahs and Ms. Jaimess standing there. Phon turned to her, gave her a wave and said, “Welp, guess we’ll see you around Teach,” and the two Fiends headed towards the door to go to their first class.

“Ahh, umm, yes. Have a good day,” was all Ms. Jaimess could get out before the two of them left the classroom, leaving her standing there alone, wondering if everything that had just happened had been a fever dream.

◆◆◆

Xard had done his best to mimic the rest of the students during the incident in homeroom so as to not stand out. He was just as surprised as the rest but for different reasons. When everyone else rushed out of the classroom, he figured it would be best to escape with the crowd. Up until that point, he had done his best to avoid eye contact with the two Drazahs, but as he walked by he couldn’t help but glance in their direction.

Drim seemed to be staring off at nothing, but Phon was glaring directly at him with a smirk on her face, sending a chill down his spine. For whatever reason, the two of them were in all of his classes during the morning. He began to wonder if they had purposefully conspired it that way or if it was just a coincidence.

Surprisingly, during the lessons Drim appeared to be paying attention; listening to the teacher and taking notes. Phon had her eyes closed the entire time during each class. From an outsider's perspective it would look like she wasn’t paying attention or nodding off, but to Xard it felt like she was just as attentive as anyone. He also couldn’t get rid of a feeling like he was being watched the entire time. Even when he knew Phon couldn’t possibly be looking at him, he felt a burning stare.

He was surprised how calmly the classes passed. At first, everyone was very stiff due to their new classmates, but the other students had begun to relax seeing as the two Fiends didn’t seem inclined to stir up trouble. This didn’t stop them all from jumping and cowering in fear when Drim suddenly shouted, “That’s wrong!” in history class.

The teacher had been giving a lesson on a specific battle during the Drazah war. After he made a statement that there had been no survivors on the losing side, Drim voiced his opposition. The teacher began to noticeably panic a bit and squeaked out, “Uhh, umm, I’m sorry. That’s what is reported in the history books”

“There were survivors, fourteen of them to be exact,” Drim explained in a calmer tone than before. “They were taken to a secret area and tortured for weeks both mentally and physically. After they had been adequately broken and revealed all useful information, they were sent to a neighboring country’s capital. They claimed to be refugees, but once they were let into the capitol building, explosives that had been implanted into their stomachs were detonated, killing everyone in the nearby vicinity and destabilizing that country’s government.”

“Uhh, wow okay, thank you for that insight. I will contact the textbook publisher and see if that can be amended,” the teacher responded. After that, he was very careful with his words for the rest of the lesson, occasionally glancing at Drim to make sure there were no objections. Wow, even adults are terrified of them, Xard thought to himself. I guess it’s a rational fear. Even if they weren’t the children of dictators, they’re still extremely powerful and could kill anyone they disliked without fail.

The cafeteria was crowded as usual during lunch. Students were allowed to eat elsewhere during their lunch period if they wanted, as long as it wasn’t somewhere currently in use. There was even a nice pavilion outside where a good portion of them would go, but during this time of the year almost no one would go there because of the cold weather, so the cafeteria was packed.

Since he had returned to school, Xard hadn’t sat at his regular table from when Warig was alive. Now, he would just sit wherever there was room, and avoid speaking to anyone. Today there was a small empty table near a window no one was sitting at, so he figured that would be as good a spot as any. A short while after he sat down and started eating, he noticed the crowd around him suddenly and rapidly vacating. Jeez that’s a good way to make a guy feel self conscious about himself, Xard thought before double checking that he didn’t look weird or have a bad smell.

He suddenly understood the reason for the commotion when Drim and Phon sat down at his table across from him. Drim had a standard meal, but noticeably had about a dozen extra spoons. Phon’s tray was significantly more stacked with food. It seemed she had ordered everything possible off the menu. Xard sighed and said, “I should have guessed you two would come sit with me. You’ve been following me around all day.”

“Heh, believe it or not we didn’t actually ask to be in the same classes as you,” Phon retorted.

“Really? How would you be able to keep an eye on me then?” Xard questioned in disbelief.

“How narcissistic you must be to think that we’re here for you,” Phon sneered.

“We’re here on a job,” Drim said as he picked up a spoon and stuffed it into his hood. “And while it’s true that the job doesn’t relate to you, Phon’s just being belligerent. The reason we even looked into this school in the first place is because you were a student here.”

“What’s the job then?” Xard asked intrigued.

“Secret,” both Drim and Phon replied at once. Xard sighed. He actually expected them to be more open. They didn’t really seem like the type of people to hold back. Seeming to sense his displeasure, Drim added, “It’s not like we particularly want to keep it from you, but our client asked that we not tell any of the faculty or students as to why we’re here. It makes sense too, since it could definitely compromise our mission.”

“Fair enough,” Xard responded, surprisingly content with their explanation. However, he didn’t really want to let this opportunity pass, since it had already been mentioned that they wouldn’t be there for long. He also didn’t know if they would be so bold as to sit down with him again. “Is it alright if I ask questions as long as they don’t relate to your job then?” he asked. The two of them shrugged as they began eating their food.

“Okay, I guess the first question would be as to why you’re both in all of my classes if you didn’t request it?” Xard asked.

Phon held up a finger, quickly stuffed the rest of her sandwich in her mouth, chewed for several seconds, swallowed, and then finally responded. “Well, I have two theories on that. The first is that they want to keep all of us of the same species in the same location; in case one of us gets out of hand. The way the principal sees it, you’re probably the only one in the whole school who could stop us, and vice versa... I wonder which of us he’s more worried about.”

“Wait, so he knows I’m a Fiend?!” Xard blurted out. After realizing what he had said, he looked around. Luckily, the cafeteria was noisy enough that no one seemed to notice what he said even though he was louder than normal.

“Yeah, we didn’t even tell him either,” Phon added. “When we first approached him, he asked if it was about you. He seems surprisingly perceptive about what’s going on in his school; enough so that he realized it was likely in his best interest to hire us. Don’t worry, I don’t think he’s told anyone else that you’re a Fiend, but anyone with a couple of functioning brain cells could figure it out.”

“Okay, what’s your second theory then?” Xard asked, a little annoyed by her last comment.

“Well, since you murdered Warig, all of your classes have an empty space in them now. So, it makes them the easiest to fill,” Phon said with a smug grin. Xard practically leapt out of his skin after hearing that. He also broke the spoon he was holding, prompting Drim to hand him over a new one. “Don’t look so surprised,” Phon commented without breaking her grin. “Just because we’re not here for you, it doesn’t mean we didn’t look into you. We didn’t dig too much into your personal life, but we know everything about how you became a Fiend.”

Xard took several deep breaths and thought for a moment. There’s definitely a good chance that they actually do know everything, but I don’t think that they’ll tell anyone. They wouldn’t go to the police since they’re wanted criminals themselves, and if their goal was to ruin my reputation at school, they could have easily done so already. I don’t know her too well, but I can guess her personality is to get people riled up for fun… I need to stay calm, ignore her provocations, and keep asking questions!

“Okay, moving on. What were the three of you doing at the train tracks the day we first met? Also speaking of that, is the third one of you here as well?”

Phon had begun eating something else so Drim decided to answer this one. “We were training,” he answered. Xard just looked at him confused so he continued. “The idea was to work on our reflexes, instincts, and grace under pressure. Basically, it was a competition to see who would jump out of the way of the train last.”

Xard dropped his jaw a little in disbelief, then said, “That’s absolutely insane... but it does kind of make sense.”

Phon then chimed in with her mouth full. “As for the other one of us…” she said as she pointed out the cafeteria window. Xard looked out and saw students running around the track as normal, but found himself fixated on something else. The other girl he had seen at the train tracks that day was laying on a beach chair, in just a bikini and sunglasses, and seemed to be yelling stuff at the students between taking sips of a drink.

“She knows it’s winter, right?” Xard asked, thinking that this bunch couldn’t possibly get any weirder.

“Well the cold doesn’t really bother us,” Phon said, having now finished what she was chewing on. “She couldn’t really cut it disguised as a student, so she’s filling in as a substitute gym teacher. The beach motif was my idea. Thought it would be fun to add some stimulation to these teenagers' lives. Oh, and her name’s Kada by the way.”

“Yeah, that does sound more like something you’d come up with. Also, you’re barely pulling off the student look yourself. You may as well be an old hag in comparison to the rest of the students here,” Xard jabbed.

“Oi, I’m only twenty!” Phon rebuked. “Well, I’ll let it slide since you’re one of the few people whose ever dared try to insult me. Most have been too scared to even think of upsetting us. I guess that since you’re a Fiend too, you think you can be less afraid, but I wouldn’t get too comfortable if I were you.” Phon’s eyes began to pulse with excitement, causing Xard to rethink trying to get her riled up in the future.

Doing his best to divert from that subject, he decided to ask something a bit different. “I see you’ve got a lot of food. Do Fiends need extra sustenance to function? And wouldn’t all of that have cost quite a bit?”

“Nah nah,” Phon said waving off the notion. “It’s actually the opposite. Our bodies are so efficient that we can actually go a long time without eating. I just like testing all kinds of different foods for my own cooking. Also, this was all free. It’s one of the special permissions the principal gave us.”

“Special permissions?” Xard asked curiously. Phon reached into her skirt pocket and dug out a large stack of notes and slammed them down on the table. Xard moved his hand over to them and gave a look to Phon as if asking for confirmation that he could touch them; to which she gave a slight nod.

Xard began rifling through and reading the notes, all signed by the principal. Most were pretty standard things for special permissions at a school such as being allowed to skip any classes and go anywhere that was normally off limits. There were definitely a few though that vastly stood out from the rest including ‘Any damage to school property will be covered’ and ‘The murder of exactly one person is allowed. Injuries to others are acceptable as long as they are kept to a minimum’. Just what the hell kind of job are they here for?! Xard bellowed in his mind.

His train of thought was cut off by Phon saying, “Drim, this soup is actually decent. Tell Pox to give me one please.” Drim nodded and tapped the back of his hood. A few seconds later a small creature’s head and arms popped out holding a small white ball. Xard recognized the creature from the time before at the train tracks. Drim took the ball and gave it to Phon. Then he held up a spoon towards Pox who grabbed it and then retreated back into the hood.

Well, I guess that answers my next question of why he’s been putting spoons in there, Xard thought to himself as he watched Phon. She took the white ball and dipped it into the soup, then took a bite. Xard wasn’t prepared when a sudden squeal of elation erupted from Phon as she slammed her hand down on the table.

“Damn that’s good!” Phon exclaimed. She then took a small vial out of her pocket and dipped it into the soup, as if she was taking a sample. “Excuse me for a moment, I’m going to go ‘ask’ the lunch lady for the recipe.” Phon had used air quotes when she spoke the word ask.