Steven Scriptum woke up in his dorm, seeming excited. But what is he excited about? Well, he turned on his dorm tv and awaited the morning announcements. The television screen changed from the school informational video to what Steven had been waiting for. “Hello everybody, this is Clara Clark, your school news girl,” The blonde haired girl said on the screen, “Three days ago, Friday, this school was met with a person who wanted to do harm to us students in this school with his signature. However, no one was hurt because four brave students stopped him. Here’s what they have to say.” The screen then switched to Marty Morpho. The screen had Marty’s name at the bottom of the screen. “Out of everyone there, I’m gonna be honest and say I didn’t do much. But man, I had my fists up like this and I was about to go ham! Like I mean I was about to do the one two huwahh!” Then the screen switched to Iris, whose name as well was at the bottom of the screen. “I didn’t really know anything was going on until my friend Seven came into the room...but you probably already know that. Hey, what do you even want me to tell you anyway?” Then Clara went up to her and whispered in her ear. “Oh, I felt scared. Obviously.” Then it was Seven’s turn. “I just went to use the bathroom and I heard someone talk about their notebook being lost. So I thought about giving it back until I read it and saw he wanted to shoot up the school. I screamed and ran back to my friends. At the time, I thought we were gonna die and it’d all be my fault for bringing the shooter over to us. But I guess it was a good thing since it attracted the shooter to us instead of other people. I imagine we were the only ones who’d be able to do anything...at least as effectively as we did.” Then it was what Steven had been waiting for; his moment. “I had a gun, and I didn’t want to use it, but if someone was trying to hurt people then I had no choice. Of course I’m sure most people would’ve done what I did in my scenario. Anyway, as soon as he came over to our room I shot him. The police say that about 35 bullets were in his body. I mean I feel bad but it was either him or many other people.” The screen switched back to Clara. “And now, a word from our principal here James Licktis.” The principal then came on screen. “Hello students. As your principal, it is my job to keep you all safe. However, with the development of these signatures that makes my job hard. And for that, I’m sorry.” The screen panned back to Clara, and she said, “Well there you have it students. Have a great week!” And the screen went back to the school information video. Steven looked confused. “That’s all he had to say? Jeez, how lousy.” He got ready for school, and went into the courtyard to meet his friends. “Hey Steven,” Seven greeted him. He was the last one to arrive. "Iris said they're still working on rebuilding where Peterson blew up. So I decided that I'd help the process." Steven asked him, "How?" Seven kissed his teeth and wagged his finger, "A secret my friend. We've got to leave school for a bit though. Everyone got their bikes right?" Iris and Marty both said "mhm." The three began heading to the gates, while Steven stopped them. "Wait wait, bikes? I don't have a bike. I didn't really expect to leave school." Seven shrugged, "You can just ride with me on mine. It has enough space for two people." Steven sighed. They exited the school, and rode their bikes to the local gas station 'Gas For Gary!' Iris sniffed the air, "This place stinks, what exactly is your plan here Seven?" Seven got off his bike and told his friends, "Alright alright, just wait here till I get back." He started walking up to different adults, and seemed to ask them questions, but the friends watching from the sidelines couldn't make it out. Then he went inside with one of the adults, and came out with a paper. He then went back to his friends. "This," he said holding up the paper, "is a lottery ticket. I can't legally buy one since I'm not 18, so I got an adult to buy one for me for $10 and 10% of the profits if I win it. I figured since the school needs repairing, I'll give them enough money to hire more repairmen." "Sheesh," Marty said, looking off into the distance, "your signature is kinda overpowered…" They all made their way back to school.

Period 2, Biology

The class started with the teacher seeming excited. She announced to the class, “Today, we’re gonna be playing BaSqueek.” The class erupted in applause. BaSqueek was a computer game where the teacher set up questions and the students had to answer. The more correct answers and faster you go, the more points you get. Students loved BaSqueek for its competitiveness and teachers loved it for allowing students to review the lesson. On the smartboard showed the session code, which the students were quick to put in on their personal laptops. One by one, mice representing each player appeared on screen. “ThatGuyTanner” “BigPoppa” and many others. The last to join the game was “HyperAnalyticistStevenScriptum!” They began! The first question “What can you use to keep your hands safe from chemicals?” It was easy enough for Steven, and it seemed so for the rest of the class. However, he was fast in answering it. Faster than 13 of the 14 other students. But there was one who was faster, by seemingly a millisecond. He went by the name of “PurpleCato,” and by that alone Steven knew who it was. He looked across the room to see the purple haired student, who had caught his attention the first day of school. “Let’s see what you’ve got, Cato Pulmonis,” Steven said faintly, as he readied himself for the next question. And it was a good thing he did, the next question was a meaty one. “It is late afterschool. You and a partner are handling sharp objects. Some of the objects fall on your partner. This injures your partner. There is no adult around, and the partner cannot move. What is the best and safest option to help your partner?” This was a question that would weed out a lot of people. Because of its length a lot of people would end up taking a long time to read and answer it. But Steven learned the art of reading between the lines, and answered before anyone else in the class. This time, Cato was in second place. This back and forth went on for a while, and the two students began to form a rivalry. However this rivalry was different than one might expect. The other students were the ones to form this rivalry, and quickly they began to hype up their standoff. “Woohoo Steven! He just can’t miss!” “Cato you’re so fast oh my god!” “I can’t believe I’m in a class with Steven!” “Cato can you do my homework for me? These teachers tryna kill me or something I swear.” But it got to the last question. Steven and Cato had the exact amount of points. Both Steven and Cato hadn’t said a word to each other, as they were too busy readying their hands. Steven was rubbing his hands to heat them up and make them faster, while Cato was cracking them to make them more agile. The whole class was watching in anticipation as the last question showed up on screen. “What is biology?” The simplest answer was last, which was the most stressful thing to happen. They both expected to have to read between the lines, but quickly changed their plan of action. Steven’s finger quickly made contact with the touch-screen laptop, and clicked on the right answer. But the answer being right had no weight now. They had no doubt that they would get all the right answers, the trouble would come by who chose it faster. As the final results showed on screen, everyone was nearly wetting their pants in excitement. Triumphant music started playing on the smartboard. “2nd Place…” a drumroll started playing… “PurpleCato - 1900 points.” Cato slammed his table with his fist. “Well if Cato got second then that means…,” A student mentioned. “1st Place...HyperAnalyticistStevenScriptum! - 1901 points.” The class erupted, and began to pick up Steven. “Woah woah what are you guys doing???” Steven asked. They threw him up in the air as a celebration. “Yipee Yipee,” they cried. The bell rang, and they all ran off as Steven was still in the air. “DUN!’ he fell on the ground. “Ow…” He went. When he looked up, he saw Cato holding his hand out. Steven grabbed it, and Cato helped him up. Steven couldn’t tell the expression on Cato’s face, it seemed as though he was trying his hardest to keep a straight face. “Good job Steven. No one has ever beaten me in BaSqueek,” He congratulated Steven. “Right after school, can you come to room D-104? It’s in this hallway so you should be able to find it. I’d like to talk with you more. Perhaps a person of your intellect can teach me quite a bit.” Steven responded to him, “Yeah I’ll be there for sure.”

Period 3, Advanced English

Steven walked in and greeted Seven, “Hey Seven.” As Steven looked towards the teacher’s desk, he noticed an old senile man sitting. As the bell rang, the old man stood up and said “My name is Mr. Leon, you can call me Mr. L. I’ll be your substitute until they find another teacher to replace your old one. But until then, I’ll play these lesson videos. The assignments are uploaded on your laptops, do them while these videos are playing. The old man sat back down as he started playing the videos, and Steven and the other classmates did their work.

Period 4, Journalism

As Steven walked to his 4th period, he noticed that the classrooms next to it were all destroyed from what happened on Friday. There were construction workers fixing it, but Steven knew it’d take a while. When class started, Mr. Noronake stood up in front of the class. He said, “Steven, Marty, Iris, and Seven. I appreciate you all for not leaving my room a wreck. Thanks!” He sat back down. “Oh yeah, I can’t think of an assignment for today so free day, I don’t care.” The class started debating about random things. “Which is better, dogs or cats?” “Which dog breed is the best?” “Should pitbulls be banned?” Funny enough they all somehow involved dogs.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Lunch

After the bell rang, Steven and his friends walked around the courtyard. They were continuing their conversation they had left off of in Journalism. “So to continue what I was saying, we’ve got to start training dogs to be rideable by people. I mean there are some dog breeds that are already super smart, we can train them to carry large weights can’t we,” Marty defended his idea. Iris argued against it, saying, “Well, other than helping us humans, what’s the point of that in the natural ecosystem. And better yet, won’t they become obsolete in the future when we make mechanical more efficient versions of that?” Seven countered that point, “Even if we do make mechanical versions, the organic ones are gonna be renewable and ultimately a better option.” Steven would then counter the counter, “But that still doesn’t answer the question of how that helps the environment and not just us.” The four fell silent. Marty then came up with a response, “Well I mean, they would have stronger backs, yeah? That’s definitely something that could help them survive...yeah?” Iris quickly argued against that, “Stronger backs don’t help dogs at all. If a dog were to evolve with a stronger back then wouldn’t it cause the back to become heavier. Dogs already have enough back problems as they are, it’s basically gonna hurt them if you strain it anymore. The real goal should be trying to train dogs into being smarter. Control a population of dogs to make it so that the smarter ones breed. If you keep that up then eventually dogs will be able to help not only themselves but humans way more, yeah?” Marty started scratching his head, trying to come up with something. He stammered, “Oh...well...let’s see...perhaps...uh…” Seven however backed down, “I think I’ll have to agree with you Iris. That was quite the interesting debate, thanks.” Steven looked through the cafeteria window and saw Cato speaking with the lunch lady. “Hmm,” Steven thought about it, as he turned his attention back to his friends, “Honestly, not a bad idea Iris. I just hope that the dogs won't turn against us.”

Afterschool

Steven started making his way into the room that Cato told him to meet with him after school. But before he did, he stopped inside the science classroom. In the midst of all the chaos that had occurred after he won, he had lost his phone. “I like to think the best of people, so instead of thinking that someone took that chance to steal my phone, I’d like to think I just dropped it somewhere.” He looked around the room in a haste, taking off his book bag so he could scan his surroundings more efficiently. It took about 5 minutes until he found his phone in the sink, and he was ecstatic. “Yipee!” He went. He then left the room, forgetting his book bag there. He went inside D-104. It was a normal room with no windows and only a few desks. Cato was standing behind one of the desks, and looked up to the sky. “It took a little longer for you to find this room than expected. Should I have picked a more well known location?” He asked Steven. Steven shook his head, “No no no, I just had something I needed to do before I came here.” Cato walked up to the teacher’s desk, which had a drawer. He opened the drawer and pulled out two tea cups. He walked up to Steven, and held out both cups. He looked downwards, and asked Steven, “Would you like one? It doesn’t matter which you choose, they’re both the same tea.” Steven looked at both of the cups, inspecting them closely. “I’ll just take the right one,” He said. Cato gave Steven the right cup, and went back to stand behind the desk. Steven took a sip of the tea, and then quickly began drinking it. Cato just took one sip of tea, before placing it on the teacher’s desk and saying, “You know, you were quite fast in BaSqueek.” Steven finished his cup, put it on the teacher’s desk, and said “Thanks. You made this tea yourself? It was pretty good, so thanks for that as well.” Cato sat on the top of the desk, and asked Steven, “Nikola Tesla. What does he have in common with the two of us? Answer that question for me.” Steven thought about it. “He was a guy?” “Wrong,” Cato denied. “Tesla transcends beyond typical human concepts like male and female. Think again.” Steven really didn’t have an answer this time. “He had hair?” “Wrong,” Cato denied. “I’ll tell you again, Tesla transcends beyond typical human concepts. He transcends beyond the physical. I will tell you. What me, you, and Tesla have in common is that we all went to this school.” Steven was confused, “Umm, but Tesla didn’t even go to school in America did he?” Cato kissed his teeth, still looking away from Steven. “That’s what the books tell you. My great grandfather knew Tesla, and he went to this school with him. At that time, Tesla was still a man.” Cato stood up on the desk. “But now, Tesla is more than a man. He is a figure that cannot be described. A figure with so much influence...one that I attain to be like one day!” Steven was still confused. Cato’s hand went underneath his shirt. “Don’t you understand, Steven? That game of BaSqueek today was more than a demonstration of how much we knew about what Ms. Brianne taught us. It was a test of willpower. A test of who would become the next figure to follow in Tesla’s footsteps.” Cato finally made eye contact with Steven, and Steven saw how he felt just from the feeling he got. Cato’s eyes were not as welcoming as he thought they would be at first. Instead, Cato’s eyes were coated in malice. “You embarrassed me in class today. And you now threaten my chance to become a figure such as Tesla. Well listen here. I’ll be damned if a LOW-LIFE PIECE OF SHIT ASS STAIN LIKE YOU GETS TO STEAL MY CHANCE!” Cato jumped from on the desk, and into the air. His hands that were under his shirt came out holding big knives. “ENVELOPMENT OF 900 KNIVES!” He yelled, as he threw the knives at Steven. It seemed like it really was 900 knives to Steven, but that was probably the adrenaline hyping it up, and it was most likely only about 20. Steven tried dodging the knives, and he did succeed. However, one of the knives cut his cheek. He ran out of the room, and Cato pursued after him. Cato was still throwing his knives, and Steven thought in his head, “This guy is insane! I’ve got to get my gun from my book bag to defend myself…” He opened the science classroom to get to his book bag that was in the middle of the room. From his book bag he picked up a pistol that was in the box he received on Friday, and aimed it towards Cato who stopped throwing knives and stood on the teachers desk in the middle of the room. “Listen Cato,” Steven said, “I don’t want to have to shoot you, but you can’t do things like these. You-” But Cato cut him off, “I CAN’T DO THINGS LIKE THESE? YOU ARE THE ONE WHO’S STEALING MY OPPORTUNITY AT BECOMING A GREAT FIGURE. YOU ARE IN NO POSITION TO TELL ME THINGS LIKE ‘I DON’T WANT TO HAVE TO SHOOT YOU.’ SHUT THE HELL UP, YOU DAMN THIEF.” The air around Cato began to turn into a dark purple. Cato pulled out a knife from under his shirt, and threw it towards Steven. Steven shot his pistol at Cato. The bullet was aimed perfectly, but it disintegrated right before it made contact with Cato. Steven managed to dodge the knife that Cato threw, but it ended up hitting his pistol. “You’ve already lost.” Cato told Steven, “Look around you Steven, tell me what you see. Steven looked around himself, and noticed that the air was purple, and the purple color was even more vibrant around Cato. “This is my signature...Toxic. It allows me to excrete a deadly gas from my skin. If the gas is inhaled, your body will begin to fall apart from the inside out. And the gas particles are so brittle that when they collect in a single spot they can cause even a bullet to break apart.” Steven covered his mouth and nose with his left hand. “I am covered in the gas, it will protect me from any bullet you shoot!” Steven looked around the room, and saw there was an AC vent at the top of the right wall, facing towards above Cato. The gas that was about a foot above him was getting pushed away, and he didn't seem to notice. Steven started hitting his gun on his knee. “Oh? What in the world could you be doing? You must have gone mad from the stress,” Cato berated him. Steven kept hitting his gun on his knee. “You’re gonna run out of breath soon, and as soon as you pass out you’re gonna breathe it in. My signature Toxic is truly terrifying. You should have let yourself get stabbed by the knives, but I suppose shitty trash like you deserve such a gruesome death.” Steven’s face started to turn blue, and he began to sweat, as he still hit his knee with the gun. “YOU’RE AT YOUR BREAKING POINT. NOW DIE, STEVEN SCRIPTUM!” Steven pointed his gun at Cato and shot. Cato then got half a bullet lodged in the left side of his skull. “WHAT THE HELL?????!?!?!?!?” He cried. The gas began to dissipate, and Steven finally took a deep breath. “HUFF,” he went, before explaining what happened to Cato. “Let me start from the beginning. I came into this room and shot at you, and the bullet didn’t hit. Because of the gas’ brittleness, right? Then you threw a knife at me, which hit my gun and caused the bullet to get a crack in the middle, and almost split. I felt that with my hands. When I looked up I saw the air conditioning on, blowing the gas away from above your head. It seems you were too focused on me to realize that. I began to hit the gun on my knee, to cause the bullet’s crack to open a little more, before I couldn’t take it anymore. I aimed my gun at a slight upwards angle, and then fired. The bullet was then split by the gas, and because of this force it did not disintegrate and instead was thrusted away from the center. The left side of the bullet hit the left wall, while the right side hit the vent, ricocheted off of it, and went downwards to your skull. Because you weren’t protected by the gas from above, the bullet made its way straight to your skull!” Cato fell to the ground, and started making unintelligible noises in pain. “Urnnafffgannaaooooo…” Steven made his way to the door, but before walking past Cato, he told him, “By the way, Cato. Next time you meet someone smarter than you, you should try learning from them. They have knowledge you don’t, how do you expect to truly get better if you can’t learn that knowledge.” Then Steven walked out, and decided to go to sleep after that experience instead of meeting up with his friends.