1

Could this be any worse?

I sighed heavily as my physics teacher, Mr. Owlson, droned on about Newton's Laws, kinematics, inertia, and gravity, which, naturally, didn't spark my interest at all. I would much rather be taking a biology class like Anatomy or Animal Behavior. I had always loved the natural world and all of the interesting creatures that lived on this planet significantly more than the reason behind why objects fall when she drop them. So, of course, physics was always torture for me. I glanced up at the clock and groaned to myself when I noticed that only five minutes had passed since I last peeked at the time. And to make matters worse, the class still had forty-five minutes left.

Yeah, nothing could be worse than this.

It felt like an eternity, but the bell that signaled the end of class finally rang, and I shot up like a rocket at the sound of it. I grabbed My books off of my desk, slung my red backpack onto my back, and quickly exited the torturous classroom. I wasn't surprised that I was the first person out of the room. Mr. Owlson shot me a brief look of disproval, but I ignored it. It's not like I did poorly in his class; I just never participated or paid any attention to his lectures, which clearly annoyed him but didn't bother me in the slightest.

...As I made my way to the cafeteria, I stopped by my locker to gather my books for my afternoon classes. I bent down to place my textbooks into my bag when suddenly I felt someone grab my shoulders roughly and holler in my ear. I nearly had a heart attack as I fell over onto the floor while my saboteur kneeled over with laughter....

"You--you should have seen--your face--priceless!" the person shouted while I stood up, brushing myself off. Normally I would have been furious and given the person who scared me a few choice words, but since it was my best friend Alice, I decided to let it slide. This wasn't the first time she had scared the living daylights out of me, so I had gotten somewhat used to her stupid pranks. Besides, this was probably payback for when I poured soy sauce into her coffee at lunch last week. That had been pretty hilarious.

"Ok, ok, you got me good, I'll admit it," I said, putting my hands up in mock surrender.

As if on cue, Alice fired back, "I was only getting back at you for the whole soy sauce incident last week!"

I smirked mischievously. "One of my better pranks, if I do say so myself."

Alice smiled back. "Well, now we're even. You wanna head to the cafeteria? It's pizza day!"

I instantly felt my spirits soar. Pizza just happened to be my favorite food, so my mood always increased whenever the cafeteria served it. "Hell yeah! Let's go."

After I finished packing, the two of us began walking towards the cafeteria, discussing who had started dating who and what new movies I wanted to see. As I entered the cafeteria, I saw Ken, Alice's boyfriend of two years, waving the two of us over to sit with him. After picking up my food, we happily took our seats at the circular table with Ken and a couple of our other friends. Lunch passed by quickly as I gobbled down my pizza and listened to my friends fight over whether Marvel or DC had better movies. The sound of the bell echoed throughout the large cafeteria, and I sighed deeply. Time to go to Calculus. Ugh...kill me.

"Hey, Luna, are you coming?"

I looked up to see Alice and the rest of my friends heading in the opposite direction of my classroom. "Sorry, Alice, but my next class is the other way. I'll be late if I walk with the rest of you."

my friends all have a funny look that indicated that I must have been forgetting something. "What?" I questioned.

"Don't you remember? We have a school assembly today, right after lunch. They announced it his morning...or were you dozing off again during English class?"

My face began to burn with embarrassment as I recalled my English teacher furiously bellowing in my ear after I fell asleep in her class this morning. "I wasn't dozing off, I just shut my eyes for a little bit..."

"For an hour?" Alice teased.

I rolled my eyes. "Ok, I fell asleep. Let's just go to this stupid assembly." I got up from the table and started walking with my friends towards the auditorium. "What's this assembly even about?"

"No idea. They didn't say," Ken answered. "I'm sure it's something about how great the school is. They're always testing new self-promotion tactics on us before they debut it to the public."

"Huh, you're probably right," I grumbled miserably. Just when I thought your day was turning around with pizza lunch, it went right back down the drain.

"Cheer up, Luna, maybe something exciting will happen!" Alice's eyes sparkled with hope, but I simply rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, and I'm going to rule a kingdom tomorrow," I countered sarcastically.

Alice began to pout. "I'm just trying to lighten the mood," she whined, battling her eyelashes at me and returning my previous sarcasm. I laughed at her performance.

I , Alice, Ken, and my other friends arrived at the auditorium just in time to see my school's principal, Mr. Greenwich, ascend the stairs to the stage. As I took my seat, Mr. Greenwich tapped the microphone lightly to test it, coughed to clear his throat, then began delivering a speech about plans to improve our school's science labs. Ken had guessed correctly; I would have to endure over an hour and a half of nonstop lectures from staff members. I felt my consciousness begin to slip the more Mr. Greenwich talked, and after a few minutes my eyes shut ,, and I drifted off.

I couldn't have been asleep for more than five minutes when a deafening boom resounded throughout the auditorium. Mr. Greenwich paused his speech momentarily, a confused look spread across his features. Students and teachers alike began whispering, and a few staff members stood up to exit the auditorium and investigate the cause of the noise. However, before they could leave, an even bigger explosion rang through the building, directly where the auditorium doors were...or, used to be. In their place now stood a gaping hole. Flames licked around the debris of charred wood, shattered bricks, and stray, fluttering papers. I stood up, fear coursing through my body. What just happened?!

My question was answered when a slew of soldiers emerged from the ruins of the doors. Upon further examination, I realized they weren't exactly soldiers; they were actually knights, each one wearing a full suit of armor. About fifteen of them flooded into the auditorium, followed by a final knight. He was wearing the same suit of armor as his peers, but his was adorned with a bright blue sash that must have indicated some superior rank. He had short chopped, light gray hair, appearing to be in his early forties. A large scar ran from the bridge of his nose all the way down to his neck, and his crystal-like blue eyes scanned the crowd of students as if he were looking for someone in particular. He silently passed by the stunned teachers who tried to leave the auditorium, making his way over to the stage. All eyes were on him. Every single student and teacher wore a mixed look of fear, surprise, and confusion. We were all too shocked to do anything except stare as the man ascended the stairs to the stage and began to speak.

"I apologize for the sudden intrusion. My name is Byron Davenport, but you may call me Sir Byron. I am here on behalf of the Kingdom of Westalia, ruled by the Howard family. The young prince, Eren, is in need of new females to fulfill his...needs. Thus, my fellow knights and I have travelled to your world to retrieve some of your women. Do not fear; we are only here for a few girls. You'll still have plenty left." He continued to observe the occupants of the auditorium, his gaze lingering on each of our female classmates.

By this time, Mr. Greenwich had regained his senses. He shook his head and stormed over to the mysterious knight. Grabbing him by his sash, Mr. Greenwich yelled, "What kind of sick joke is this? You can't just barge in here and expect us to hand our students over to you! That's kidnapping!"

Sir Byron didn't seem fazed by the principal screaming in his face. The knight sighed as if he was bored, then whacked Mr. Greenwich in the face, sending him flying to the ground in pain. As Mr. Greenwich tried to pull himself up, he was met with a sword pointed at his face. The principal gulped and looked up at the knight wielding the sword. The entire auditorium was deathly silent.

"Well, it doesn't appear that you have much of a choice, does it?"

To be continued...

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