"Alright children, breakfast is ready!"

 Sunlight shone in through the window and illuminated the kitchen. Aunt Kole watched as the four teenagers entered the room: Tomus was the first, coming for his plate at almost running speed ("Please don't run in the house, Tomus!"). Lucas came in next, almost tripping at the door in his haste. Karen skipped in after him, and Glesto was the last one to enter at his own pace. The same order was observed as they ate: Tomus finished first, followed by Lucas (the two of them appeared to be racing), then Karen and finally Glesto who was still chewing on a relatively large portion of scrambled eggs.

 "Looks like you beat me this time, Tomus."

 "There's always a next time, Lukey. And another after that if you're gonna keep screwing up!"

 "Sure. Don't you get a bigger kick out of challenging your brother though?"

 "Glesto here's more brawn than anythin’. He's nowhere near my level of sexiness."

 Glesto paused to process what he just heard, then tilted his head up at the clock.

 "If you two are done, can you just go change and get your school bags?" he said. "We'll be late again if you make me wait for you like last time."

 "Hm, looks like he might have a brain after all. I'm still sexier though," Tomus declared sheepishly, leaning back in his chair.

 "Can you make some sense, please?"

 "Understand dem jokes, yo!"

 And with that, Tomus bolted out the room with Lucas following closely behind, almost toppling over his own chair in the process.

 Their absence left peace to linger in the kitchen, filled with the sound of Aunt Kole washing the dishes. Glesto finally swallowed his last bit of egg.

 "Hey, Karen."

 "Yeah?" She was trying to pick up baked beans with her fork.

 "I'm just, uh... a little worried."

 “About what?"

 "Would you be alright without us around? I mean, my brother and I are going off for about a month."

 Karen smiled without looking at him.

 "I will! You'll write postcards twice every week, right?” she said, giving a small laugh.

 Glesto noted that her smile seemed a little weak.

 "Of course I will, don't worry," he said as he got up and dusted his shirt. "Well, I'll be going now. Thanks for the breakfast, ma'am."

 "Glesto, you can always feel free to address me as Aunt Kole instead of plain old "ma'am"."

 Karen stiffled a snicker behind his back.

 As he left the kitchen, Glesto found Tomus tying his shoes outside the closet.

 "Um, why are you wearing your shoes inside the house?"

 "I was halfway puttin' my shoes on, see, then I remembered I had to grab this bag!" Tomus gestured at one of the clothes pegs next to the closet door, from which hung a plastic bag filled to the brim with multiple round objects.

 "You could've just worn your shoes outside and asked me to bring this bag out for you, not to mention..." Glesto took the bag and stared down into its contents. "...why are you bringing all these oranges to school anyway? And where'd you even get all these?"

 "Aunt Kole was nice enough to, eh, 'lend' me some."

 "Why, though?"

 "Imma throw these at Kent!"

 Glesto rolled his eyes.

 "Kent's your senior by two years. If you don't get in trouble, he’s going to pummel you."

 "But he ain't your senior."

 "It's not like I’m gonna do it, no way in hell."

 "Aw, pwetty pwease?"

 "Hell no, hearing you make that voice gives me the chills," said Glesto as he made to walk outside with the bag of oranges. "I'll help you bring these to school anyway, hope you don't mind me using some of them to perform electrolysis or something.” He looked into the bag again. “And probably explains why Aunt Kole has so many cartons of homemade orange juice."

 "Meh."

 Tomus continued tying his shoes quietly, the only sounds being made by Glesto opening the door and Karen helping with the dishes in the kitchen. Then he stopped and suddenly started undoing his shoelaces.

 "Aw, dammit. Lucas, a li'l help!"

 He had forgotten to wear his socks.

- - - - - - - - - -

 "Can. You. Stop."

 "Why?"

 "Please!"

 "Aw, don't be like that."

 "Then get those stupid fruits away from me!"

 Glesto shoved away Tomus's hand that was repeatedly nudging him an orange.

 "Come ooon, let me at it.”

 "I said stop!"

 Lucas laughed as he came out from the house. The brothers were waiting for him under the tree that grew outside Aunt Kole’s house, the pavement littered with several yellowed leaves. All three of them were in their green school uniforms.

 "Oh man, watching you two going at it never gets old."

 "About time you came out. Now help me get my bothersome brother off- Stop it!"

 Lucas kept laughing as he watched Tomus push an orange into the back of Glesto's head.

 "Ugh, I give up..."

 "Hey hey, this ain’t as bad as what imma do to Kent later! Just you wait, it’ll be awesome!" Tomus said as he dropped the orange back into the bag.

 "Not exactly comforting information, but I'll take your word for it."

 Glesto fished a scrambled Rubik's cube out from his pocket.

 "Lucas."

 "Wha- oh, alright."

 Lucas grabbed the cube from him and turned it over and around in his hand.

 "Gee, this combination here's an annoying one."

 "When you say 'annoying', you mean you'll solve it a few seconds short of your best time, right?"

 Lucas opened his mouth to object, then realised Glesto was right.

 "Anyway, we should hurry. You can solve it later."

 "Yeah." Lucas was already sizing up the patterns on the cube.

 "Hey! Don't forget about me, y'all!"

 Glesto turned back to look at Tomus and glimpsed someone in the kitchen window. Karen was looking at them.

 Their eyes met. Today, for some reason, she seemed tired in comparison to her usual cheery self; Glesto stared back for perhaps a moment too long. He waved at Karen and she returned the gesture with a smile.

 “Hm... Gles, d’you like Karen?”

 “Eh? What do you mean, do I like her?” asked Glesto as he turned away from the window.

 “There’s obviously somethin’ between you two. I ship!”

 “Shut up.” Glesto glanced down to check that his shoelaces were properly tied, just in case. "Alright, are we ready to go?"

 “Hold up," Lucas began, "we aren't gonna be running again, are we-”

 “Yes we are, you better keep up.”

 Lucas suddenly looked crestfallen.

 Their school wasn't too far from Aunt Kole's house. The walk was at most eight or ten minutes, but to Glesto, that was time gone to waste; in his opinion, a quick jog to school was the simple solution. Not that the others readily agree with the idea.

 "Ey! Ey!! Stop runnin', Gles!"

 "And be late? Suit yourself."

 “We’re half an hour ahead of time, yo!”

 Lucas, being the slowest of the three, was panting behind them as he struggled to keep up with their pace, and the searing February sun wasn’t helping.

 "Tomus's right, ugh, slow down a bit would you...?" Lucas barely managed to utter between gasps.

 "Are you actually serious right now?" Glesto muttered in disbelief. He didn't stop but somewhat decelerated such that Tomus threatened to overtake him.

 "I wonder, are you running away from a relationship with Karen? Hmmmm?" Tomus said as he caught up.

 "Shut up, Tomus!" Glesto went back to his normal fast pace.

 They were nearing the gate now, along with several other students on their way into the school compound. A sign at the side of the school gate bore, in large letters: Yulgard Secondary School.

 "Bruh, I don't see anyone else in a hurry!"

 "What do you care?!"

 Heads turned as they dashed past the bewildered students around the gate, juniors, seniors and teachers alike. Some of them were shaking their heads.

 "Don't judge, ya nerds!" Tomus pulled an orange from his plastic bag and pretended to aim it at one of the seniors.

 "TOMUS! Is now the best time!?"

 "Pfft, you're so boring." He pocketed the orange and resorted to blowing raspberries instead.

 Lucas brought up the rear after he hastily apologised to some of the students they ran past.

 "Glesto, c-can you remind me what we're rushing for?" He was gasping for breath; sweat was pouring down his forehead.

 "No reason."

 "Really?!"

 Glesto and Tomus raced up the stairwell, leaving Lucas behind to the echoes of their footsteps.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

 "Argh, can you two at least wait up!?"

 Suddenly, Tomus jumped back down the stairs and almost straight into Lucas.

 "You asked, and so I shall deliver. Let's be lazy together and take the lift."

 "...Sure."

 Glesto had always been extraordinarily quick with the stairs; he bumped into Tomus and Lucas just as they were exiting the lift on the fifth storey.

 "You got lazy again, didn't you?"

 "Meh, this was easier." Tomus was looking down at his phone.

 "Well at least we're all up here now, there's no need to rush anymore."

 "Tell that to Lukey over here, lol."

 Lucas was still panting with a hand to his chest. His other hand was busy solving the Rubik's cube with distracting clicks.

 "I'm doin' the timing for him," Tomus said to Glesto, eyes on his phone.

 "I'm a-almost done here, g-give me a moment..."

 He flicked the last few pieces into place and finally solved the last layer, Tomus stopping the timer as he did so.

 "Here, good enough for you?" huffed Lucas, handing the cube back to Glesto.

 "Time taken?"

 "23.6 seconds," said Tomus.

 "There's room for improvement," said Glesto. He almost smirked at Lucas.

 "Yeah yeah, big surprise.” Lucas nudged Glesto in the shoulder.

 Tomus, meanwhile, was getting restless again.

 "Eh, Gles!"

 "What?"

 "You wanna help me out with the prank? The one involvin' the tape."

 "I want to say no."

 Lucas remained silent. When it came to Tomus's pranks, he preferred to keep his distance.

 There wasn't actually much of a reason for Glesto wanting to rush to school. He simply felt at ease being early, even if it meant waiting for an hour or so for lessons to begin. Tomus, on the other hand, usually spent that excess time enlisting the help of his brother and Lucas in setting up pranks. To be fair, he really didn’t have anything else better to do.

 In particular, one of his favourite practical jokes was putting transparent tape across a door frame. 

 "Oooh, I wonder who's gonna walk into this one today," chuckled Tomus as he stretched the tape out across the length of the door.

 "Don't get your hopes up, it's not like people can't see this. And if it's Kent again, you might really need those oranges," said Glesto as he helped cut the strip of tape. He tore and stuck it across the door frame at eye level.

 "That's the plan though."

 "Shut up."

 They were at Lucas and Tomus’s classroom of 1C, just one floor below Glesto’s classroom of 3B. Against his better (and most definitely more reliable) judgement, he had eventually agreed to detour from his classroom to help Tomus set the prank up. Lucas was sitting alone in 1C while scrambling and solving the Rubik's cube repeatedly, filling the room with distracting clicks.

 “Today's a bit odd, isn't it?" he said as his eyes darted between the different colours on the cube.

 "How so?" Glesto was stretching out another layer of tape over the existing one.

 "This is usually the time when my classmates start turning up."

 "But nobody's here."

 "Case in point." Lucas tried to rotate the cube with a finger trick but it spun too quickly and it fell from his grip onto the floor. A corner piece popped out as it landed with a clack.

 "Oh, crud. Not again."

 "Relax, it won't be the first time the cube's fallen apart."

 "You should get a new one, Glesto." Lucas bent down to pick up the cube. The moment it left the ground, the rest of its pieces suddenly gave way and fell apart into a pile of 26 cubic pieces.

 "...Well, looks like Murphy’s Law is deciding to be a total dick today."

 "Don't worry about it, I'll put it back together."

 "Ugh, take your time."

 Juniors could be heard shouting from the first floor as they ran about the parade square (“Tch, they’re so noisy," groaned Glesto). Several students that passed by the classroom gave awkward stares at the sight of the brothers taping the door; Tomus stuck his tongue out at some of them. Glesto and Tomus took another minute to add more tape, then spent another two minutes looking for a spare tape roll from the teacher's table after Tomus's personal supply was exhausted, then yet another minute adding even more to the already overwhelmingly thick layer across the door frame. After all was said and done, it was ten minutes to assembly.

 "Huhu, this is gonna be great!" Tomus snickered, carefully removing the huge layer of tape and bringing it to his table for use later.

 "...This is when I start regretting life decisions," Glesto said as he returned the roll of tape to the teacher’s table.

 “It’s alright, Glesto. I know what that feels like," assured Lucas, who was still moping over the broken Rubik’s cube.

 On the way to the assembly hall, Glesto managed to put the cube back together while he was walking, which was no big surprise since he happened to be a better speedcuber than Lucas was.

 "You wanna hold onto it?" asked Glesto, holding it to Lucas.

 "I might break it again."

 "I don't really mind, it'd be your loss either way."

 "Wow, way to be blunt."

 As usual, Tomus couldn't stand keeping to himself for minutes at a time.

 "Hey, Gles!!"

 "What's is it?"

 "Nothin'."

 "Huh?"

 That seemed to satisfy Tomus.

 The hall was starting to get congested with students pouring in from all sides and the air was filled with the buzzing of countless conversations. Glesto separated from Lucas and Tomus, heading for where his class should be in the middle of the hall. But when he got to the line-up position where his class should be, he was the only one there.

 The other third year classes on either side of him were already queued with students while he was by himself.

 “Psst, hey," he whispered to a girl on his right from 3A. “Did you see my class on the way here?”

 “Nope, I don't think so. You're the only one here from 3B?”

 “Sure seems like it. I guess I’ll just stay here.” Glesto shook his head and just stood there, awkwardly looking around for any signs of his classmates. “Where the hell are they...”

 “Sup, G.” This voice was deep, loud and very familiar.

 “Oh, hi Kent.”

 Kent Cugner was Glesto’s classmate in 3B. He had black hair in a buzz cut, a large physique and, like Glesto, had a darker skin tone than most. In size, he dwarfed the rest of his class, Glesto included. In smarts, however, not so much; while Glesto concerned himself with scoring full marks, Kent was content with a borderline pass. The two were still good friends though, since they had common interests and were equally dense for the most part. They also shared assignment answers, Glesto providing pretty much all of them.

 “You’re the only one here, dude? Maaan, where’s the rest of our class?” said Kent, coming cover to stand behind Glesto.

 “No idea, I don’t see them anywhere. They can’t possibly still be in class, can they?”

 “It happens, man. You never know.”

 “Sure.” Glesto continued scanning around the hall. “Come to think of it, 1C was quite empty today as well…”

 “1C? What, the class that Lucas and your bro are in?”

 “The one and only.”

 The only real problem with Kent was that he wasn’t exactly on good terms with Tomus. Kent was an acquaintance of Lucas who regularly visited 1C to chat, but Tomus would always be there to pull some kind of prank. It also didn't help that Kent wasn't too bright.

 “You see them anywhere, man?”

 “Nope, where the heck are they? Assembly’s about to begi-”

 The bell rang. Glesto jumped slightly at the sudden, shrill ring that reverberated throughout the hall, warranting a stunned look from Kent.

 “...Dude, did you fake that reaction?”

 “They need to change that fu- effing bell sound, it's ridiculous.”

 “It's not that bad, man.”

 “It’s literally just a stock sound effect...”

 As the bell’s echoes faded away, a large and rather intimidating figure stepped up to the stage with hard footsteps. When the man put his voice to the microphone, the words he spoke were more booming than Kent’s tenfold.

 The Discipline Master's appearance caused the chatter that previously filled the hall to evaporate.

 Glesto has had his fair share of ‘discipline’ when he and Tomus were caught setting up pranks for the previous year’s April Fool’s, easily Tomus’s most favourite day of the year. Even though it was now only February, he already had plans for the upcoming April Fool’s in two months.

 Speaking of which…

 “Hey, Kent.”

 “Sup?”

 “Um, don’t go to class 1C today. Whatever you do, just don’t.”

 “Why?”

 “Don’t ask. Oh look, there’s the rest of our class. And there’s 1C as well.” Two big groups of students were quickly piling in from either sides of the hall. “That's weird, why did our classes turn up this late?”

 “Flag raising’s about to happen, fam. Don't stare at them or the Dick Master’s gonna call us out.”

 After the flag raising ceremony was over, the first morning lessons came.

 Kent didn't seem to understand anything being taught throughout Chemistry. He was apparently so dumbfounded by the concepts of organic chemistry, in fact, he just sat there with his mouth agape when the teacher revised the topic with the class for the third time. Glesto sat to the immediate left of Kent; he was taking down several trivial notes on the daily applications of organic chemistry (“Whoa there, G. Is all o' that material on the test?”).

 Also, as it turns out, Glesto’s advice to Kent went unheeded.

 When recess began where Chemistry ended, Glesto was still preparing to head downstairs when he heard yelling emanating from the floor below him.

 “I’LL KILL YA, TOMUS! YOU PIECE O’ SHIT!!”

 “Aayy lmao! You needs to chill!”

 Tomus had shoved Kent through the tape door. Glesto was met with a rather comical scene of Kent chasing Tomus around the room, knocking over every chair and table in their path and sending the rest of the students running outside. Lucas was already outside the 1C classroom, backed up against a wall and caught in a fit of laughter.

 “Ugh, I guess Kent still came down here huh?” moaned Glesto as he put a palm to his face.

 “You bet he did, that was hilarious! Hahahaha!”

 “Then I guess this means Tomus is gonna-”

 An orange rolled to their feet. Another hit the wall right next to Lucas’ shoulder and bounced away.

 “Yep, here come the oranges. Let's go.”

 Glesto pulled Lucas upstairs to retreat from the bombardment of oranges that was Tomus; they could still hear him laughing over Kent’s angry death threats.

 “We should probably stay up here for a bit, Kent's going to tire himself out if this keeps up.”

 “Haha, ha! Oh yeah, Glesto, I wanted to ask you something.”

 “What is it?”

 “Kent was gonna tell me about this math test you guys had last week. He said your math teacher’s giving them back today.”

 “That’s right, what about it?”

 “So, how well do you think you did?”

 Glesto thought for a few moments.

 “Um, probably above average but I might be wrong. Why?”

 “Kent keeps mentioning how you’re an overachiever.”

 A few stray oranges flew up the stairwell and splattered against the steps, accompanied by Kent’s raging voice.

 “COME BACK HERE YOU-!!” Something crashed downstairs.

 “I guess that’s true," said Glesto, "but as you can see, he’s a bit, um... you know...”

 Tomus suddenly came running up the stairs and whizzed past the two of them, dropping several oranges from the torn plastic bag he was carrying. Kent was in hot pursuit, some of the tape still stuck to his mouth. As if to prove Glesto’s point, he tripped at the very top step and fell on his stomach with a painful thud, leaving Tomus to run off whilst blowing raspberries.

 “ARGH!! Oww... Maaan, this sucks," Kent groaned as he slowly rolled over. He sat up to see a cross armed Glesto and a very amused Lucas watching him from the corridor.

 “My brother did it again, huh?” said Glesto with a smirk across his face.

 “Dude, don’t even get me started. Just how many of these damn tangerines does he have?”

 “Too many for our sake, you should've listened to my advice. And those were oranges, just saying.”

 Glesto helped Kent back up on his feet while Lucas went to gather the oranges lying around on the stairs. The students downstairs were murmuring amongst themselves.

 “Hey Glesto, a little help cleaning up?”

 “I’m not sure that’s a good idea. I mean, we should certainly clean up but someone may have alerted the DM.”

 “Oh shit, you’re right.”

 The three of them went up to 3B to wait out the Discipline Master’s arrival. Tomus was nowhere to be seen, although he did leave an inconspicuous trail of juice-stained footprints (“Yeah well, that’s my brother for you. Acting like the idiot he is.”). Not long after, they heard a distinctively formidable voice booming from the stairwell; it could only have belonged to one person.

 “This is probably that Rheeman boy’s doing again, the nerve of him. We’ll need to have this mess cleared up immediately. I’ll go find the boy, just get some janitors here.”

- - - - - - - - - -

 Tomus had been camping it out in the restrooms.

 After dumping the remaining oranges, it was the only suitable hiding spot he could find. When the bell rang to signify the end of recess, he had tried to creep back to the 1C classroom. Tomus even had his route all planned out: a quick detour upstairs via the lift, a run past the fourth year classrooms and then back down the stairwell to 1C, all the while avoiding 3B where the Discipline Master would be interrogating Glesto.

 He could have very well succeeded in sneaking back were it not for the luckless fact that the DM had been waiting to relieve himself outside the very cubicle Tomus was hiding in.

 Ultimately, Tomus got dragged back outside 3B alongside Glesto and Kent. They were standing side by side outside the classroom; Lucas was peeking at them from the stairwell even though classes should have already started.

 At the moment, Tomus was getting the brunt of the scolding.

 “So, you think you’re funny, huh? Pulling pranks on your seniors and disrupting classes, this all a big joke to you, is it?”

 “Um, excuse me, sir," Glesto blurted. “I don’t think this was Tomus’s doing.”

 “Standing up for you brother again? I must say, you can be rather naive sometimes.”

 “But sir, he-”

 The DM held up a hand to silence Glesto.

 “Kent, what exactly happened just now?”

 Kent pursed his lips; as much as he didn’t like Tomus, he was loyal to Glesto and hated the Discipline Master more than anyone.

 “Uhh, it was all just a big misunderstanding…”

 “Really? Is that so?”

 “Um, yeah man. It was someone else and we couldn't see who it was. That’s all it was, uh, sir.” Kent leaned backward as the DM, who towered over everyone, glared down at him. Tomus was shaking a little; he seemed to be suppressing an urge to laugh and was getting desperate side glances from Glesto.

 “Well, boys. If I find out that either of you are trying to cover up for him-” the DM glanced at Tomus, "-or anyone else who may be involved in this mess, you’ll get it from me. Am I understood?”

 “Yes, sir.” Glesto was the only one who replied, but the DM took it anyway.

 “Good. Head back to your classes.”

 Tomus scurried off in the direction of the stairwell where Lucas was still watching, his head popping back behind the corner. Kent (“That stupid frikkin’ Derp Master," he mumbled) and Glesto lamely shambled into 3B where their math teacher was waiting, the Discipline Master still staring them down from the corridor. Their classmates inside were either chatting or looking at them as they entered.

 The teacher himself was wearing a blue checkered shirt with dark grey jeans. He was young, one of the newer teachers, and at the moment he seemed rather flustered.

 “Oh good, you two are done. Come on now, back to your seats so we can get started.”

 The two quietly sat down next to each other like usual. Kent was still reeling from the Discipline Master’s authoritative aura; Glesto just looked really bored since he had already read through and memorised almost everything in their current math syllabus.

 “Is everyone accounted for? Yes? Good! So uh, today we will be beginning on a new chapter so can everyone please turn to page 43?” The teacher turned to the whiteboard and swiftly wrote a single cursive word in red marker. It was utterly illegible.

 “That’s right! Today, we’re doing Integration!” This was met with groans and sighs from half the classroom while the other half was still trying to process what was going on. Kent was from the latter.

 “Now, now, it’s not that bad. Heads up, Glesto!”

 “Huh? Yes, Mr Harton?” He was still flipping to page 43.

 “Please do, uh, questions 1 and 2 on the board. I know you’ve already read everything.”

 “Alright.”

 “As for the introductory example, let’s see… Kent, you’re up!”

 Kent was just about ready to nod off; he hadn’t even taken out his textbook.

 “...Wha? Wait, me?”

 “Yes you, now get a marker and come up front.”

 Glesto produced two markers from his pencil case.

 “I got a spare if you still haven’t bought yours.”

 “Thanks, man.”