7:00

"Students are not allowed to practise any courses outside of class."

The Principal looked down at the hundreds of students assembled before him in The Hall in crimson suits. Beside him stood the vice-principal along with several other professors. This special assembly was called after The Principal blew a fuse from finding out about the recent group study. A couple of students were caught practising courses outside of school premises without a teacher supervising.

It wasn't actually that big of a deal— just a bit of tutoring. Not something that would warrant a three-hour long lecture.

Because of said lecture, Knox had to stand on stage for the entirety of the assembly with the rest of the Disciplinary Committee.

In addition, he was bored out of his mind from listening to The Principal's lecture.

The worst part about listening to a lecture? It's trying not to yawn.

There's just something so inherently dull about a highly aggrieved and disappointed stream of words.

"You may leave now. Let this be the last time."

Which is what he said before. But it's not like it actually worked. Well to be fair -

"You can get of the stage now, you know", he heard someone say.

"Huh? Oh yeah. Sorry, I'll get off now— " His internal musings seemed to have blocked the way. While Knox was getting off the stage, a girl (No, she's not our heroine. We don't have one.) was waiting for him with a stack of papers.

Ah. The start of all clichés.

"Selena, do you need something?" Of course she does; she wouldn't be here otherwise.

"Professor Eugene wanted you to meet him in the staff room. While you're going there, could you please deliver these permission slips to our class in-charge?"

"Sure"

This is definitely going somewhere, it always does.

7:14

Professor Eugene probably wants to know all the 'details' which led to The Principal's three-hour long ultimatum. And Knox, as head of the disciplinary committee, had been given the honour of filling him in.

"Knox, are you aware of what led to this sudden assembly? It seems us teachers will be informed later, but I would prefer to know now so as to be prepared for when The Principal fills us in. It's always better to be prepared, you know."

Yes Professor Eugene, you're always prepared.

"I'm sorry Professor. Even the disciplinary committee isn't aware of the details."

Which wasn't true; Knox just didn't want to tell him; it wasn't worth it.

"Oh, that's too bad - are those the permission slips? You can leave them here; I've been left in charge this time."

"Thank you, Professor."

And now he has to go back to class, where a more annoying Eugene waits for him.

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7:20

"Knox! You know something, don't you? Tell me." This idiot didn't even greet him.

"I just entered the class, Stephen. Let me sit first" Knox sighed, looking at his only friend (god that sounds so melodramatic). It wasn't that he was unpopular; quite the opposite actually.

It's just that not many people seemed to have a presence here....

He took his seat in the front, by the window. Knox decided he would ignore his friend's brazen request. The whole situation didn't warrant such interest. It was The Principal's obsession with keeping everything under wraps that piqued their interest.

The only ones who knew what happened that day were the members of the disciplinary committee, The Principal, and the ones involved. Everyone else only knew that some people were taking after-school revisions a bit too seriously.

"The sheer number of times this has happened in the past few months is kind of strange you know." Stephen remarked from behind Knox. Knox thought so too, but the same thing had happened a few years ago, so he didn't care.

"It'll stop after a while, don't worry."

"It will? I was kinda hoping it doesn't…it keeps the mornings interesting."

For him, perhaps. Knox, on the other hand, had to stand for hours on stage whenever the mornings were interesting.

"It's going to be Professor Morgan's class now. Instead of chit-chatting, you should probably start your homework before he gets here."

"Well, how do you know I haven't done it already?"

"Is that so? What was the homework then?"

"….."

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On the other side of the class were a group of boys…one with much more presence that the others...

But he'll come into picture a little later. For now, Selena, the brunette sitting by the door, will be the one pushing the plot forward.

That and the fact that Knox is on cleaning duty today.

16:30

After school was over, Knox had to stay behind and clean up the class (like every other teen protagonist that ever existed). There wasn't much to do though. He just had to sweep the floor and wipe the chalk board.

Of course, if that was all he had to do, he wouldn't be the main character.

As he was sweeping the floor, Knox noticed a very pink and very sparkly piece of paper flutter to the floor. Knox picked it up and turned it over (just to know where he needed to put it back, honest).

'Dear Selena,'

So it was for the tiny brunette that gave him the permission slips.

'My heart, my soul and the very bodice that encases them trembles-'

Whoever wrote this was very.... passionate.

Knox skimmed through the letter and glanced at the bottom to see who this fiery soul was.

With love,

-K

K? How cute. He was too shy to write his name. Knox smirked (Oh, his name also starts with a K. How convenient.). Knox kept the letter back at, what he hoped was, Selena's desk. He had to admit, the letter was pretty well made. Knox personally might not appreciate the jewel hearts everywhere, but it gets the message across.

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While Knox was cleaning up, little did he know that he was gaining first-hand experience in what it means to be a 'protagonist'. From outside the class, Selena saw him keep the letter on his desk.

The one signed K.

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18:00

After Knox reached home, he packed up his clothes and other necessities for their trip to The City. The trip was in four days. They would be staying there for three days and Knox, as class rep, had the responsibility of.... responsibilities. The point was, he was busy.

The trip to the city happened only once in two months and it was the only time they could go and see—

"Knox, dinner is ready."

"Alright."

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7:00

The next day, when Knox entered the classroom, he saw a group of girls standing by the classroom door. One of them seemed incredibly nervous while the others looked excited and expectant. It took a moment but Knox realized that the nervous girl was Selena, the recipient of the sparkly pink letter. Judging from her and her friends' reactions, it seemed that Mr.K would have a very positive response.

Good for him.

Knox smiled in amusement and was about to walk to his seat; that is until a gust of giggles and whispers almost blew him off his feet.

'Mr. K, have you finally come?'

Knox tried to look around for the one who had created such a frenzy among the girls, but he didn't find anyone who could be Mr.K. Then again, he didn't really notice anyone in general.

While Knox was trying to find the sender of the letter,

Selena took a hesitant step forward. Which was noticed by Knox's hypersensitive gossip radar.

'Mr. K your high school romance is about to bloom! Your love is coming towards y— me?'

??

Knox sensed something was wrong. She wasn't supposed to be walking towards him, she was supposed to go to Mr.K. If she didn't, he might never be able to witness a high school romance blossom in front of his very eyes.

Wait. The letter was only signed with 'K'. His name starts with a 'K' too. Maybe she — (sudden mc IQ reduction commence!)

I. Don't. Understand. What. Is. Happening.

"Hey Knox…"

"??"

Selena had stopped in front of him, blushing, looking at the floor. And Knox stood in front of her with question marks instead of his face. She took in a deep breath.

"I accept."

Then she scurried out of the class with her friends (who were still whispering) in tow. "She accepts? What does she accept?" Stephen who was just entering the class, had witnessed the entire thing and seemed amused.

"I don't know," Knox was still staring after Selena, confused. He didn't understand what was going on here.

Mr.K, I think something is wrong with your girl.

"Whatever it may be, did you do something to piss off Kyle?"

"What?"

"That guy surrounded by his groupies; the one that looks like he wants to kill you."

Sure enough, Knox spotted a boy in the midst of mob characters trying to commit murder with his eyes. "Do you think I did anything to make him angry?"

"That's what I just asked," Stephen paused "I think I know what's wrong."

"And?"

"Maybe it's because of Selena, he might like— (sudden side character IQ reduction commence!) I don't know."

"...."

Knox sighed, he already had a lot on his plate and didn't need to deal with this too.

"Don't worry about it; it's just one guy and his lackies, we could take them."

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that." Knox decided it would be better to just forget about it until something actually happened. "Let's go to our seats."

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12:30

It was lunch and Knox was waiting in line for the cafeteria's food. Much of the food there, like most cafeterias, was absolutely disgusting. But Knox preferred it to bringing his own lunch from home. It took too long to cook and deciding what to make the next day was a headache.

"Knox, are you standing in line to get lunch?"

No, it's for dinner.

Knox turned towards the voice and found Selena standing there with a big lunch box in her hand. "Yeah, what about you? Are you going to join the line too?" Of course not, but she started asking dumb questions first and he felt it was only right if he returned the favour.

She smiled and glanced at him once before looking down, Knox looked down too— trying to figure out why the floor seemed to be so interesting. "No, I bring my lunch from home. I actually made some for you too."

"Uhm, thanks…?" How was he supposed to handle this? What about Mr.K? Wait—

"Did you see the letter?" What if she never saw the letter and therefore never knew about Mr.K's existence? Knox was worried that his front row seat in viewing a high school romance would be removed before it was even created.

Selena looked embarrassed, "I left some of my things in my desk yesterday so I came back to get them. That's when I saw the letter....and you." And him? Ah, she saw him keep the letter on the desk. Now it made sense. She was grateful to him for saving Mr.K's letter and wanted to treat him to lunch as repayment! Of course! What else could it possibly be? (god bless sudden bouts of stupidity)

"Oh, I see. Now, you said something about lunch?"

Selena smiled and led him to a table.

12:35

Selena handed him a bright purple box and waited for him to open it. Inside was....

.... he didn't know what it was.

"This looks nice...what is it?" Knox looked down at the brown glob. He felt cheated. Wasn't it the universe's law that girls like her were supposed to bring colourful dishes in cute little boxes and millions of different varieties because they didn't know what the other liked?

"It's rice and curry."

"Is it brown rice?" Please let that be the reason it's brown.

"No."

Of course it wasn't. The universe already threw her on him, it wasn't going to be nice now.

"Oh... Where's the curry?"

"It's mixed in."

Oh dear God.

Knox was not going to eat this. Sure, he was nice. But not enough to subject himself to this. It was Mr. K's job to suffer for her sake. Not his. Now how was he supposed to get out of this? He figured he could 'accidentally' push the glob off the table. But then he would have to clean it up. Which seemed almost as bad as eating it.

Allergies. He could feign allergies.

"I'm very sor—" The glob soared across the sky and gracefully plopped itself onto the floor.

Huh. That works too.

Someone in a crimson suit with the school's insignia was standing by the table. He was glaring at the glob with a passion (Knox could have sworn it moved) after pushing it onto the floor.

Kyle. His name was Kyle, Knox recalled.

"Tha—" He probably shouldn't thank him in front of Selena. He'd thank him in private later.

"What happened Kyle?" Knox inquired. He thought it would be a good idea to help Kyle build a cover story. After all, he did take pity on him and knocked down that horrid excuse for food. He didn't want Mr. K to get offended on behalf of his beloved.

Kyle looked at him and stayed silent. Knox might dumb down every now and then, but that didn't mean he was stupid. He could tell Kyle's gaze on him wasn't one filled with kindness. It seemed that he did not throw down the glob out of the goodness of his heart.

How was Knox supposed to handle this situation now? Kyle did end up helping him. But it wasn't intentional. Kyle had just wanted to mess with him. It wasn't the first time someone had picked a fight with him. He was the head of the disciplinary committee and the class president; it would be strange if he didn't offend someone. But he couldn't understand what he did to annoy this guy.

Knox couldn't remember if he was involved in the recent incident. Eh, he couldn't even be bothered to remember his name properly, much less pick a fight with him.

"It's okay, it was an acc—" Selena interrupted his attempt to smooth things over and move on with his life by taking a step forward and placing herself between the two of them.

Knox could tell she was going to make things harder for him. How annoying.

"You did that on purpose, didn't you?" Of course he did it on purpose. Anyone with an eye could tell he did it on purpose. One only points it out if they're planning on taking on the not-so-muscled-barely-6-feet-bully themselves. Or have someone else to do it for them. Selena didn't seem to want to take him on and Mr. K was currently MIA. So that only left him. Knox did not plan on taking any punches on her behalf and turned to walk away.

Just as he turned to walk away, he realised he was on the disciplinary committee and needed to take punches on everyone's behalf (Not really. But it felt like it).

God dammit.

Knox sighed and waited for Kyle's response. He would see how to proceed from there. He waited....

...and waited. All he got was a pained looking Kyle staring at a very confused, and slightly creeped out, Selena.

It was because of things like this he only talked to one person and forgot everyone else. People were too complicated to deal with.

Knox turned around and finally managed to walk away from whatever was going on there. He didn't even bother to look at Selena before he walked out.

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13:30

The biology lab was filled with students in lab coats and safety glasses listening to the professor go over instructions and other things.

" Do not skewer your classmates with your scalpels." Professor Eugene deadpanned. "I've had to deal with that way too many times for my own liking. At least don't spill too much blood if you do decide to stab someone."

"Yes Professor."

"When you finish dissecting your specimens, do not kill them." He looked at each student while saying this as if he wanted to drill his instructions into their minds.

"Also, one more thing. While examining the specimens' organs, don't cut anything off. It's a real pain trying to heal them later when they're missing an organ."

"Yes Professor" the class chorused impatiently; they were all itching to get started.

"You may begin."

The students started the dissection. One girl looked down at her specimen and complained to the teacher.

"Professor, why do I have a different specimen today? I don't think I'll be comfortable working with an unfamiliar specimen. What if I end up killing it?"

Said specimen was a human strapped to a marble countertop. All the specimens were humans.

"You know what? I would like to know that too. One day a specimen disappears and when I report it to The Principal, all I get is a 'don't worry about it'. Then an assembly is called and I'm still out of the loop. I'm sure that disciplinary committee head knows something. He just won't tell me!" Professor Eugene complained bitterly.

"Why wouldn't they tell you Professor? You're great at keeping secrets" someone in the back remarked. Professor Eugene glared at him.

"Just go back to work."

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Knox was walking through the corridors as a part of his so-called 'patrols'. He heard the sound of blood curdling screams and some accompanying laughter echoing through the hall as he passed the labs.

"I guess they have practicals today."