Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwn!~

Having just let out the biggest yawn in his entire life, Alex Smith sits squished in the back of a crowded black sedan. On the other passenger side is Ronnie Everst with Marcus Veridan being squished in between the two. Elizabeth Moore managed to luck out in the front passenger seat while Aken Amnestor is in the driver's seat.

Their destination? The East Side.

Their estimated time of arrival?

HONK! HONK! HONNNNK!

BEEP BEEP! BEEP! BEEEEEP!

VROOM!

A fucking while.

Elizabeth, bored out of her mind, twirls the strings on her green hoodie as the sedan they’re all in is stuck in a giant traffic jam. Cars of all shapes and sizes are not even moving at all.

Alex is drifting to sleep, only being pulled back to consciousness whenever his hand lands on Marcus’ shoulder, and Ronnie is looking out the window trying to pass the time.

With the honking of car horns and screams of road ragers filling the open winter air, Amnestor decides to roll up the windows and play some songs on the radio.

“Oh hey, I think this is the song Miss Champion & Mister Ramirez were chatting about,” Amnestor remarks as he tries to relate to his students, “Y’know the one where you kids all ‘Harlem Shake’ about?”

A look of disdain fills the air as Amnestor awkwardly coughs before apologizing.

Trying to switch topics, Elizabeth mentions, “I bet Alex’s kiddy bike could’ve gotten there by now.”

“Y’know what, I actually agree with Elizabeth,” Ronnie affirms.

Alex, still dazed and half asleep, just grumbles, “Huh?”

“Let’s just try to think positively guys, at least we aren’t out in the cold,” Marcus suggests.

“Dude, you’re in the middle seat,” Alex responds having finally become fully awoken, “Anything is better than that.”

"I don't know why you guys are complaining, my seat is pretty comfortable," Elizabeth smirks.

"Yeah just so you know bub, I call dibs shotgun on the way back!" Alex yells.

"Uh huh," Elizabeth says, "though to be honest, what Hunter said is reminding me about something."

"You too?" Ronnie asks.

"That he's a jerk?" Alex questions.

"No not that," Elizabeth begins to say, “Remember that dude Ronnie & I had a run-in with at the cafeteria? Y’know the dude who was selling those muffins? Well, one thing we saw him trying to do was dig something up. But he stopped.”

“I thought he was just a lunatic,” Ronnie begins to say, “But after this, I don’t know, Maybe he’s related to whatever those new folks are a part of.”

“Are you talking about that fire at the school?” Amnestor questions.

“Oh uh-,” Elizabeth begins to say realizing she should’ve chatted about it more discreetly.

“It’s fine, not much is really known about the fire besides it was started in the kitchen,” Amnestor remarks, “Wouldn’t be the first time something like that happened there.”

"Hm? What do you mean?" Marcus asks.

"It’s not something I should really be discussing with you,” Amnestor remarks, “But if you must know; around two years ago the school almost shut down due to an incident in the school’s kitchen. Some got expelled, three dropped out, but besides that, nothing else happened.”

"Do you know anything else?" Ronnie inquires.

"Sorry, but I’m afraid that’s all I know. I was out on my honeymoon with my wife during that time,” Amnestor explains, “Most of the faculty back then don’t work here anymore, and those that do pretend that nothing happened.”

“I see,” Ronnie says before he feels his phone vibrate.

When he goes to check it, he sees a text in a group chat featuring him, Elizabeth, & Alex. Marcus, who doesn’t have a cell phone yet looks over at the texts.

Elizabeth - Let’s text instead of talk.

Elizabeth - Amnestor still thinks this is something for school.

Elizabeth - if we let him know we’re trying to face people who burned down the school & hijacked a gala, he’d turn the car around.

Alex - I’m with Elizabeth on this one.

Ronnie - Okay works for me. Just to make sure we all know the plan right?

Elizabeth - Yeah, Amnestor takes us to The East Side, we tell him to go shopping or something and ditch him, then we go to The East Side Express without him!

Ronnie - Marcus typing, I was thinking about what Hunter said about them digging up something from the high school and I remembered something. The couch that I helped them move in had a storage compartment. They could’ve hid their digging equipment in there which is why it was so heavy.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Alex - I guess, but at what point why hide it? And why go through the trouble of renting a house? Why not a hotel or something

Elizabeth - There’s too many eyes I think. If they were trying to hide the fact they were going to the school, they wouldn’t want a bunch of hotel staff watching them hog a ton of digging equipment around.

Ronnie - Makes sense, plus they had parking for that car they drove.

Ronnie - Marcus typing again, Alex if you don’t mind me asking, how do you know Vanessa?

Alex - well it’s kinda long.

Ronnie - dude we’re gonna be in this car for a while, just type away my dude.

Alex - Okay fine. When I was really young my parents & I lived in The East Side at this place called Lakeview. It was some public housing place, not the best place to live at but it got the job done. Besides me the only other kid there was Vanessa. Eventually, the place had to get shut down, the city said it was due to unstable infrastructure or something. My parents had us move into where the rest of my family stayed up in The North Side, once that happened I lost contact with Vanessa. That night was the first I saw of her in years.

Elizabeth - That must have been rough.

Alex - Nah don’t worry about it, that was years ago. You’ve guys seen my family right? We’re doing pretty well. I’m mostly just worried about what happened with Vanessa.

Ronnie - Yeah, what I still don’t get is how that has anything to do with the MSA. They’re just a fashion company, how would they have anything to do with Lakeview?

Alex - I don’t know, but I guess we’re bound to find out soon.

As Ronnie glances up from his phone, he notices Amnestor has his phone mapped to a place.

“Hey, where are we stopping anyway?” Ronnie asks.

“Oh? Well, you guys said you were trying to track down a student from The East Side, right? Well what better way to do that than going to Seastar High,” Amnestor explains.

As those words escape Amnestor's mouth, a sense of rivalry fills Ronnie & Elizabeth. While Starlight High is located in the northern borough of Starlight City, Seastar High is located in the east close to the water. While the north & east boroughs never really get along, that's almost tenfold when it comes to the two rival high schools. From competing sports teams to competing for funding to even competing in basket weaving tournaments, each school takes almost any and every chance they can get to compete against the other.

"Do we have to?" Elizabeth complains, “They probably have mold or something in their vents.”

"I know you guys aren't the biggest fans of Seastar High but it’s still just a school. No different from yours," Amnestor replies, "I’ve been to that school plenty of times and I can tell you it is completely safe."

"If you say so," Elizabeth grumbles.

“Honestly I don’t get the hate everyone has for the East,” Alex admits, “What’s so bad about Seastar High anyways?”

“What’s so bad?!” Ronnie remarks in shock, “Alex their mascot is BLOBBY THE BLOBFISH! That alone should be reason enough to why they suck!”

“Yeah well, at least it’s creative,” Alex defends.

“Of course you’d say that,” Elizabeth teases.

"WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!" Alex retorts.

As another playful banter occurs in the car amongst the miracle clinic, the group gets closer to their destination.

However, they aren't the only ones.

Standing in the middle of a crowded train cart is Starlight High’s rebel, Hunter Huntingson, and burrito boy Mesto-Presto. Except Mesto-Presto is wearing an obviously fake beard and thick sunglasses that still have the tag on them.

“Uh Burrito Boy, what are you wearing?” Hunter asks.

“A disguise,” Mesto replies.

“Okay but why?” Hunter asks.

“Let’s just say I don’t exactly have the best of relationships with some people here, and I don’t want to take any chances,” Mesto remarks.

“All that stuff is doing is drawing more attention to yourself,” Hunter replies, “Besides I’ve faced countless of thugs in the north, the east should be a piece of cake!”

As those words escape out from Hunter’s lips, he can feel the heavy stares of several passengers turn to face him. Mesto slowly backs away from Hunter as several beefy dudes all approach the rebel and circle around him.

“Hey, what did you say?” One of the muscular men questions.

“That the east should be a piece of-,” Hunter begins to say.

“No the other part, about how you’re the kid beating folks up in the North,” Another remarks.

"Yeah, and what about it?" Hunter asks as he goes to grab his metal bat out of his backpack, only to remember that he no longer has it.

"So it really is you huh," Another man says.

Hunter looks around to see them all reach into their pockets to pull something out. As Hunter is about to throw hands all of the men take out the item from their pockets.

It's a bunch of notepads.

"Can you sign this? We're your biggest fans!" They all squeal.

Hunter is taken aback not knowing how to react as some of them begin to shake him in excitement.

"You're doing god's work out there beating those Northern scum!" One of them shouts.

"You're not mad that I'm from the North?" Hunter asks.

"Mad? Dude, you're practically an Easterner yourself the way you've been beating those piece of shit Northerners!" A muscular man shouts.

The group of men and now many of the people in the train cart start tossing Hunter into the air while chanting his name. Mesto sighs as everyone else continues to praise Hunter.

However one person catches Mesto’s eye, and it’s the one man who’s still sitting down and not praising Hunter. The man sitting next to Mesto is a tall somewhat muscular guy with light brown skin, light black dreads, a blue bucket hat with white on the rim covering his eyes, a black tank top, white sweatpants, and black slides.

“One mention about the North and we all turn into this, huh?” The man remarks.

"Tell me about it," Mesto replies.

The man takes out a lighter from his pocket and twirls it before lighting it.

“You smoke?” The man asks.

“No, do you?”

“Nah, I just like to be prepared,” the man responds, “A lighter can be the thing that turns you from some guy about to get mugged to some rando’s best friend.”

“Thanks for the advice, sir,” Mesto remarks.

“Just call me Andy, no need to be so formal,” Andy, the man in the bucket hat, chuckles, “But if you still want to be polite you can call me by my last name; Nibble.”

“Thanks Andy,” Mesto remarks before asking, “Say have you heard about a store called The East Side Express?”

“East Side Express?” Andy contemplates as he puts his hand on his chin, “Is it a thrift store?”

“Yeah, from what I heard it just opened up,” Mesto remarks.

“Oh, yeah I know what you’re talking about! I got some new hats from there yesterday,” Andy remarks.

“You mind showing us where that’s at?” Mesto asks.

“Yeah sure, I was gonna head on over there anyways,” Andy agrees.

As the train comes to a stop, several people get off and Hunter is finally back on the ground, as he walks over to Mesto & Andy he says, "I don't know if I should feel proud or frightened."

Andy laughs and says, "You're lucky people like you, if not then they would've given you the standard Eastern greeting."

"What's that?" Hunter asks.

"They beat you to a pulp," Andy says nonchalantly.

"I see," Hunter says as he wonders if that is actually true or not, “And who are you again?”

“The name’s Andy Nibble, but you can just think of me as a tour guide,” Andy remarks as the train begins to move to its next stop.

With just the three of them now in the train cart, Hunter sits down and begins to let his thoughts wander while the train begins to move once more. Each thought comes into view before passing as quickly as the buildings outside the train.

“So this is how I am,” Mesto sighs.

“Hey kid,” Andy begins to say, “You seem a bit lost so let me give you a bit of advice.”

Hunter glances over to Andy.

“You’re still young, unlike this train you have many paths ahead of you,” Andy advises, “Don’t feel afraid to head down a different one if you think the path you’re on is wrong.”

Hunter stops for a bit before remarking, “For someone who lives here, you don’t really seem like the average guy?”

“What do you mean? Just because I didn’t give you the Eastern Greeting doesn’t mean I’m not from here,” Andy laughs, “Besides most traditions are meant to be left in the past.”

_____________________________________

Unfortunately for some though, tradition is something that can’t be discarded so easily.

And it’s none other than The Miracle Clinic who’ll get to learn that fact as they finally arrive at Seastar High.

“Ugh, I can finally move my arm again,” Ronnie grunts as he exits out of the sedan.

“Any longer and my legs would’ve cramped up,” Alex groans,

Marcus is silent as relief that he isn’t squished anymore fills his soul.

Elizabeth begins to say something but gets cut off by…

“Well well well, if it ain’t a bunch of Northerners up in our turf!”

Ronnie, Alex, Elizabeth, Marcus, & Amnestor all look confused as a student of Seastar High makes their way towards them. Behind him are several other high schoolers who all seem agitated by the new presence at the school.

The man who’s leading the group has a mullet with way too much hair gel and a bomber jacket that has a dragon on its back.

“You must’ve thought you’d be lucky, well you were wrong!” The man in the bomber jacket yells as he gets up in Ronnie’s face, “Prepare to meet your maker since I, Draco Maleby, will strike you down!”

Ronnie can’t help but laugh as he looks toward Alex, “Do all people here talk like that?”

Alex shrugs as the large group of Seastar High students all prepare to give them the ‘Eastern Greeting’.

See You Next Chapter!~