Chapter Text
The first day of school...
This special day could be interpreted in so many ways. It could be a new start on a path to shape one’s ideal future, an opportunity to make wonderful connections, or a gateway to misery and hell, which nobody would want, understandably. Whatever the case, it all depends on how impactful the student’s impressions are in this setting.
Currently in New Yoyle City, the prestigious Dream Island Academy has opened its doors once more for another year of providing knowledge and guidance. Okay, the prestigious part might be an exaggeration, but it’s a decently great school nonetheless.
Multiple objects arrive in diverse fashion and make their way to the building with various reactions—some excited, others despondent, and those who are indifferent. Either way, they weren't expecting anything grand from the same school they attended last year. But no matter what, DIA will always welcome its students with open arms.
However, one certain student doesn’t know how exactly he should feel about this. His appearance can be described as tall and dark, literally. He wore a thick, grey hoodie and dark-colored jeans—a mediocre outfit, to say the least.
Looking up at the front building sign—adorned with the name of the school—and back down at its doors, he tries to prepare for whatever’s going to head his way, which apparently, he is very unaware of. This is quite a new experience, after all.
“Hey! Classes are about to start soon!” a voice called out, making the student turn and see someone in a guard uniform. “You’re not planning on being late on the first day of school, are you?”
“Uh- no, sorry,” he replied, beginning to make his way inside as well by slightly floating. This really is happening, is it?
Once he entered, the first thing he decided to do was to find his assigned locker. As the student passed through the halls, he noticed the lacking number of people around, so classes might actually be starting soon.
His attention is then caught by two figures on the other side of the hall; one thin-looking, wearing a simple T-shirt and shorts with a piece of wood for a head, getting shoved into a locker by the other person, with somewhat more bulk and a red cube head, donning a maroon jacket with “Blocky’s Funny Doings International” labeled on the back. The latter seemed to enjoy having the wood-headed guy scared out of his wits, which greatly concerned the dark student.
He approached the red block and tapped him on the shoulder. “Excuse me, what do you think you’re doing?”
“It’s none of your business!” the block replied, as slightly high-pitched and scared noises continued to play out from the locker he closed. It was clear that the wood wanted out.
“I think it is now,” the dark student declared as he pushed the other out of the way and knelt to open the locker the poor guy was trapped in.
“Are you okay?” he asks him after pulling him out. But as he’s seemingly looked right in the face, the wood screamed in fear and ran away, much to the student’s confusion.
The block starts to exclaim in annoyance, “Ugh, look what you did! A perfectly good prank ruined!”
“A prank?” the student asked in disbelief as he quickly turned to the block. “Do you know how much trouble you would’ve caused for that guy if you made him stay in that cramped space for any longer?”
The guy then grabs him by the hood. “Well, maybe you’d like to know!-”
“Hey!”
The two boys turn their heads in the direction of the female voice, belonging to someone with a periwinkle blue-colored light switch head; she wore the assigned school uniform with a skirt along with a pair of knee-high socks and black Mary Jane shoes.
“Picking on the new student already, Blocky?” she asked, unamused, “And on the first day, too? Can’t keep those troublesome hands to yourself before classes even start, can you?”
Blocky, supposedly his name, lets go of the student and steps towards the switch. “Oh yeah? What are you gonna do about it?” he taunted.
“I’ll report your behavior to Principal Announcer. I know for a fact that he wouldn’t be pleased to know that there’s already trouble going on at the very start of the school year,” she stated, “And considering your previous records, you wouldn’t like that at all.”
The girl stared him down with a smug look on her face, though Blocky didn’t even bat an eye at her and stormed off in another direction.
“You’re not getting away next time,” the dark student swore he heard Blocky claim at him. To be honest, he wasn’t really afraid of that guy.
He notices the light switch turn to face him. “I am so sorry you had to deal with that on your first day here. Blocky’s one of the most unruly students in this school, but I don’t know if I should even be surprised that he’s already causing trouble this early.”
“It’s alright, I would’ve told him off,” the student assured her.
“Right, okay. Oh- uh, it’d be rude of me not to introduce myself,” the switch said before reaching her hand out. “My name is Liy! What’s yours?”
Black Hole.
Is what he would’ve told her if it were that easy. He didn’t come to school—or Earth in general—without hiding his identity for no reason. If he were to tell her his actual name, one of a being well-known for its deadly nature, things would get real ugly.
“...Vortex. That’s- that’s my name,” he decided to tell her. Not the best, but it works, seeing as Liy wasn’t fazed.
“Nice to meet you, Vortex! Well, as much as I would like to talk to you more, we only have a few minutes before the first period, so we'd better get going.”
Oh, right. They have a schedule.
Black Hole reached out for his bag and took out a sheet of paper, revealing it to be his assigned schedule for the school year. He takes a look and finds that his first period is Language Arts. Along with it is the name of the classroom it’s held at.
“Do you happen to know where classroom… B-11 is?” he asked Liy.
“I do. Would you like me to lead the way there for you?”
“Sure, I’d appreciate it.”
For a moment, they were able to walk down the hallway together in peace. The light switch then strikes up a conversation, “I saw how you stood up to Blocky and helped Woody back there. It was very nice of you to do.”
“Uh, I just think those kinds of conflicts are unnecessary,” Black Hole responded, a little flustered by the compliment.
“You and me, Vortex,” Liy remarked, sharing the same sentiment. “Say, if you’re against violence, then maybe you’d consider joining our club?”
“Your club?”
“Yep! It’s called Death P.A.C.T., which stands for Death Prevention and Creating Trust,” she explains. “Its members, myself included, strive to keep the school safe from all kinds of violence and to make it a safer and more positive environment for everyone to learn and trust one another.”
This... actually sounded quite nice, but would he be able to help do any of those? Someone who causes destruction, preventing violence— death, even?
Liy must have noticed his unsureness, seeing that he hasn’t responded. “You don’t have to decide right away, though. It’s just a suggestion. But if you do become interested, feel free to come and talk to me, alright?”
RIIINGGGG!
“Uh, oh. Well, I’m gonna head off now! Just go in that direction until you find the door with the sign labeled B-11, alright?! See ya!”
Black Hole watches her run off before he decides to do the same for his first period. It doesn’t sound good when you’re late, apparently.
Finally reaching his classroom, he opens the door and sees a black-colored alien resembling a number doing a headcount of the students who have already settled down.
“Sorry, I came in late,” he announced as he entered. “I’m still kind of new to this place.”
The number didn’t seem to mind as they replied, “No worries! How about you go ahead and introduce yourself?”
Black Hole then turns to face the others—some of them having judgmental stares, for some reason. “M-My name is Vortex. I’m not exactly from around here, so if I don’t understand something, I’m very sorry.”
Yep, he’ll have to start getting used to that fake name. As he immediately went to his seat, the rest of the class started muttering about him—claims about him possibly being foreign or other things that are best not to know about can be heard.
The noise slowly dies down as they are interrupted by the number, “Quiet now, everyone! Ongoing class, remember? Since it’s just the first day of school, I want to spare everyone from the pressure of doing assigned work. So instead, we’ll be spending our period doing an icebreaker regarding basic lessons about our subject and refresh right after, understood? Now—”
Language Arts class wasn't too bad. Despite Professor Seven—the name of the number alien—having higher authority as a teacher, they had quite a friendly approach. The same can’t be said for some of the students, though. After the period, gossip about “Vortex” resumed as they exited the classroom.
“Isn't Vortex, like, weird, Match?” a girl with a pencil for a head asked.
“OMG, like, yeah,” another girl, presumably Match, replied, “He doesn't even have a face! He's, like, totally creepy.”
“Right? Totally a freak!” her friend agreed, laughing. “Makes you wonder what was going on with the school board’s heads that, like, made them decide to let someone like him attend here.”
Unbeknownst to them, "Vortex" could hear their conversation. It was pretty unnerving that people were talking about him, with some not trying to hide the fact.
As the two friends trailed off, he went back to recall the part where they said how creepy he was without a face. Was it really that bad? It might also be why that guy from before, Woody, seemed so scared once he looked right at him.
While break time was still occurring, the cosmic entity headed inside the restroom. There, he checked himself in the mirror and thought that, yeah, he had to do something about this. He inactivates his vision and concentrates hard on showing facial expressions—if it's even possible for him to do so. Somehow it was, as a face partly appeared on his supposed head. The eyes were missing, but it can do.
With that, he moves on to the next class in his schedule, expecting things to go smoother from there.
On the way to his locker to grab some things, Black Hole Vortex is stopped by another troublemaker named Eraser as he gets in the way, likely mad that his spitball shooter was taken away earlier by the former. It was reasonable since he kept bothering Goo, another classmate of his, with it.
“So,” the troublemaker began, “I heard you ruined my pal, Blocky’s prank this morning.”
“Yeah, do you have any problem with it?” Vortex calmly asked.
“There’s a toll for getting in my gang’s way. And that toll is your lunch money!”
“I... don't have any money.”
“Quit lying! You better fork over the cash before I decide to beat it out of you instead!” Eraser threatened as he attempted to launch his fist beside Vortex’s head. What he didn't expect was for the other to catch it suddenly.
“You wouldn't want that,” the dark figure warned, still holding the other’s fist.
“Oh really? What are you gonna do, kill me? I can easily be recovered.”
It's upsetting how he implies that death isn't much of a big deal for him. It's like they don't hold any regard for their life in general. And recovering? What?
“No, I won't kill you,” Vortex replied, “It's ju-”
“Wimp!”
“I— uh, I’m actually very strong and capable of dangerous things,” he elaborated. “I’m pretty much sparing you for your own good.”
Eraser rolled his eyes and continued to try and pin him down, “Likely story, buddy—”
“Dude, knock it off!” a voice with a stern tone interrupted. A slender white object with a bright blue cap of some sort appeared and grabbed the troublemaker’s attention. “You clearly can't knock him down, man. Just leave him alone.”
“...Fine, but just because we're pals and you got a point,” Eraser uttered. As he walks away, his supposed pal follows behind, but not before turning around and briefly waving to Vortex with an apologetic look.
Huh...
So it's only been almost half a day since he came here, yet it's clear how unpleasant the school is because of the constant violence happening around him. He even had to stop someone from throwing a fellow student out of the 2nd-floor window.
Wasn't there an organization, or rather, a club, that prevents these kinds of things? Death P.A.C.T. is what it’s called, yeah.
Vortex went in search of Liy to talk to her about it. Wandering through the hallways, he finds her with another female student also wearing the assigned school uniform, with a beige unzipped jacket and deep blue skirt. She was short, kept a neutral face, and shrugged with strangely curled arms.
“Hey, Liy,” Vortex greeted as he approached the two.
“Oh, hey! There you are,” she greeted back before turning to the other girl. “This is the guy I was talking to you about.”
Hopefully, it's not something about his appearance.
“Vortex, meet Pie. She's our club director,” the light switch introduced the other, who gave the guy a small wave.
He waves back at her before turning to Liy. “I’m actually here to talk to you about your offer?”
“Well, I assume you’ve made a decision then?”
Putting some thought into it, not only would he be able to learn how to help others in need, but it would also be a chance to show that he isn't someone to be feared. Not like they should know what he really is.
Vortex nodded in affirmation. “Yep, I’d like to join you guys in helping others.”
Liy’s expression brightened as she clasped her hands. “Great! We’re glad to have you onboard! I’ll be introducing you to our other members later at lunch period at the cafeteria, so don't be late this time.”
“Heh, I won't,” he slightly chuckled.