Chapter Text
Pencil leaned back in her seat. Liy sat next to her, scribbling down notes. Pencil slid a note over to Liy. Liy shot her a look and tucked it into her desk. She waited until the teacher went back to writing on the chalkboard, then checked the note.
“Math sucks, meet me under the bleachers during the assembly.”
Liy looked to Pencil, who nodded happily with two thumbs ups.
Liy leaned closer, dropping her voice to a whisper. “If they find out you're not doing work, he'll be rightfully ticked!”
“Pfft. He doesn't care if one student isn't taking notes. Who says I'm not paying attention?”
She sat back properly when the teacher faced the class again, and Liy quickly pocketed the note. They tapped his blue ruler to the newly-written problem.
“Now, who knows the answer? You would, if you were paying attention, PENCIL!”
“I was paying attention!” Pencil lied.
“Then get up here and solve the problem!” He pointed his ruler at her, then to the problem on the board.
Pencil got from her seat and walked over to the teacher's desk. She accidentally bumped the name on the desk, and he made angry eye contact with her as they fixed it.
“Mx Four Integer.”
Despite being an adult, Four's voice constantly cracked. It was most obvious when upset or stressed. Pencil disliked their voice, and thought his short temper wasn't helpful in the slightest. She'd already hated math, why did the teacher have to make it even worse? She swore Four hated her. She grabbed the chalk and looked up at the problem.
“If y equals 45 and the slope is 3, what's the y intercept?”
Slopes were the worst.
Four watched, arms crossed, as she solved the problem slowly, going over each piece step by step. She finished the final mark and backed from the board, dusting the chalk from her hands. She looked to Four, who's sharp gaze was fixed intensely on the problem. They huffed and leaned against his desk.
“It's right. Go sit down.”
Pencil winked to Match, who sat a few seats from her, as she walked back to her desk. She leaned over to Liy again, whispering. “If you're not going to come, can you at least pass it to Match?”
Liy scribbled “to Match” on the folded letter and slid it to the desk next to her. “I'm not coming because I don't want to get in trouble by the teacher. Mx Four's scary when they're angry and my parents would kill me if I got in trouble.”
Pencil motioned towards her hidden FreeSmart sweater. “Alliance, remember?”
“This isn't a game, so stop treating it like it is. You're going to get in trouble if you keep this up. I'll also like to note that I never agreed to join your little clique.”
Four put his ruler on his desk. “Is that a note being passed around, I see?”
Pencil froze. Despite Four's constant zoning out, they had a surprisingly keen sense for troublemakers.
“Match, can you bring that here?”
Match stood and approached Four's desk. “Here...”
Four looked over the note. “Hmm...Hm!” They pointed to Pencil. “I'll see you after class.”
Pencil sighed. “Okay.”
****
Four crossed his arms. “This isn't the first time, Pencil. You're always acting up in class! You're wearing a sweater under your school uniform right now! I've had enough of this behavior of yours! You're being sent to the principal's office!” They pointed towards the classroom door. “Go! Just go!”
Pencil walked out, hands in her pockets. “Ugh, they're the worst!”
It was a long, silent, walk to the principal's office. However strange Four was, the principal was worse. Nobody knew what their deal was. They were odd, that was for sure. Pencil wished she could avoid seeing them, but now that was unavoidable.
When she arrived, two others sat outside the office. Snowball, whom Pencil knew from Elementary School, and another student she never caught the name of, both sat there with angry expressions glued to their faces. Pencil sat next to Snowball.
“Hey.”
“Hey,” he grumbled.
“What's with you? It looks like that girl killed your dog.”
The girl grumbled to herself. “I hate people who start fights during gym class!”
Snowball ignored the other girl and spoke to Pencil instead. “Why are you here?”
“Passing notes in class and breaking dress code. During math.”
“Woof, Four's the WORST! I heard the principal was related to them somehow. I hope they're not as crazy as that guy!”
The other girl looked up from the ground. “Somebody's coming over!” Despite her angry tone vanishing, her voice was naturally aggressive.
Gelatin and Puffball came over. Puffball stole the last seat, sticking her tongue out at Gelatin.
“Aw, man!” Gelatin sat on the floor next to her seat. “Hey,” he waved.
Pencil waved back. “Hey.”
Blocky came over next. Pencil also knew him from Elementary School, although wasn't a big fan of the way he acted. “Heh, for a prank, cause a massive discourse in the library and get sent to the principal's office!” He winked to his phone. “I'm gonna record the principal's reaction, it'll be gold!”
Basketball came over a few moments later, covered in soot and ash. “Don't do what I did; the stuff in the school is dangerous! I'm not looking forward to the what the principal has to say, Mx One already lectured me for a few minutes about 'being careful in the classroom.'”
Blocky chuckled. “Did you blow something up? Awesome.”
Basketball coughed, smoke coming from her mouth. “Ooh...Oh. That's...that's not good.”
The door opened and the principal spoke from inside the room. “You guys can all come in!”
Pencil entered the room and spotted one of the brand new transfer students was in the room already. They had short red hair and a mask covering their mouth. A white mouth shape was the only pattern on the mask.
“H-hey! Hello! Over here!”
Pencil looked to the principal. It was their first day at the school since the last transferred out. They wore a green sweater vest and a white dress shirt underneath. Their hair was a slight mess. They must've been related to Four in some way, since their skin was a pale green. Pencil looked at the name on the desk.
“Principal Two Integer.”
They stood from the seat, knocking it over. “Oops! Uh, hey! I'm Two, your new principal! Four told me I had a troublemaker coming over, but I wasn't expecting so many! I thought Price Tag was the one he was talking about anyway, heh.” They rubbed the back of their neck.
“You seem nervous,” Basketball said.
“First day is a busy day!” They fixed their hair and straightened their vest. “M-mind telling me your names?”
“I'm Basketball.”
Snowball rolled his eyes. “Snowball.”
Blocky paused the recording on his phone. “Blocky!”
Pencil raised her hand slightly. “I'm Pencil.”
Gelatin did a goofy bow. “Gel-a-teen!”
“I'm Puffball,” Puffball sang.
The grumpy girl in blue spoke last. “Fanny. I hate introductions!”
Pencil told herself to remember Fanny's name from then on, she seemed to be FreeSmart material.
“Great!” Two beamed. “Now that that's out of the way, we need to do something about your troublesome quirks.” Two dug through a filing cabinet before pulling out Blocky's file. They dropped the file on the desk, making a large thud.
Price Tag jumped from their seat. “Whoa! That's one big file!”
Blocky glanced it up and down, resuming the recording and aiming his camera at the file. “Huh, I thought it'd be bigger.”
Two clasped their hands together. “Four tells me you're quite the prankster. Ice Cube, Firey, Gelatin, nobody's safe from your pranks. Although...I wouldn't call taping Teardrop to the roof as a 'prank.'”
“That was a good one.”
They grabbed another file. “Pencil! Four says you're a rule breaker. Defying dress code, passing notes, bullying, 'staring clubs without consulting a higher authority first...' You've got a bit of a streak going here! But you look to be wearing the uniform...”
Pencil removed her shirt, revealing her orange sweater underneath.
“W-wasn't that hot?”
“Yes,” she said proudly.
“Snowball and Fanny! You two have a habit of staring fights. Fanny verbal and Snowball physical. Today, you had a lucky encounter and fought with each other. Ouch. You okay, Fanny?”
“I hate Snowball's short temper!” Fanny yelled. “But I'm fine.”
“Basketball! You like to go off-script! Unfortunately, that caused you to blow up the science room. I hope Three was able to help any injuries?”
“Oh, I wasn't hurt,” Basketball said. “I can't say the same for Robot Flower though...”
“Gelatin and Puffball. Apparently you helped Gelatin shove somebody into the walk-in freezer. W-why?”
Gelatin shrugged. “You know, if somebody annoys you, just freeze 'em!”
Puffball nodded. “Yeah! He and I trapped them in there earlier today.”
“That's bordering onto a crime, you two.” Two rubbed the bridge of their nose. “And Price Tag, you and I already had that discussion about betting during the assembly.”
Price Tag glanced nervously. “I couldn't help it, I was really rooting for our team to win! I had a lot of money riding on that one too.”
Two placed their hands on their hips, puffing out their chest in a confident manner. “I know just the way to help you all! You need discipline, teaching. You're all bright students, and I love that from you! But you can't learn if you don't put in any effort to! So, starting today, I'm creating a new after-school curriculum! After your classes are finished, meet me in the library. I'll see you there!”
Pencil scoffed. “The library? You mean with the world's strictest teacher?”
“Yep! Five's a good friend of mine, so they'll agree with anything if I ask politely enough! Have fun in class, you guys!”