Stellar Tomorrow

Vale went to school right after returning from Tuphere, and he hated it. First hour, he had Algebra II. He sat next to Ezzy, which was a plus, but it was a big pain since Vale hated math, and he was the only guy in a room full of very flirty popular girls. Second hour was his advanced pottery hour, which he liked, and third hour was his AP English, decent enough. Fourth hour was Publications, which dealt with the newspaper and yearbook. Fifth hour was his study hall, but he, Alicia, and Ezzy spent it in the band room. Usually, they’d eat lunch after, but they ate in the band room because the teacher was chill. Sixth hour was the dreaded American History I, and Vale hated history with a passion.. Finally, seventh hour was band. He was a percussionist, Ezzy was a saxophone player, and Alicia played the french horn. There were a lot of things he didn’t mind, but Vale didn’t really care for school in general, so he defaulted to hating it.

Ezzy, Alicia, and Vale began walking home after school. Living next to each other - and the school - had its perks. They didn’t have to go far to hang out with each other, and they walked to school together. 

“Looks like we’ve got a new neighbor.” Alicia commented. ‘That house next to Vale’s been vacant for a while, ever since we chased out Mr. Roseburg. Poor guy, I hope he’s doing well.”

Alicia’s 5th grade teacher was so appalled by the behavior of her class that he quit teaching and moved right away. Nobody had moved in since, until today.

“Maybe they’ll go to our school. We can add a fourth member to our group. Or would it be fifth now?” Ezzy grinned, and Vale rolled his eyes. 

The next day, Vale fell asleep in Algebra II, before class started. When Ezzy shoved him awake, he heard something about a new student. He blinked the sleep out of his eyes.

“This is Ciaran Delmorse. He’ll be your classmate from now on.” Mrs. Fairburn smiled at the black haired male who waltzed into the room.

“Nice to meet you.” He grinned, and Vale heard all the girls whispering. He rolled his eyes .

“Y’know if you keep rolling those pretty eyes of yours, they’re gonna get stuck that way, leader.” Ciaran teased, sticking his tongue out.

“Ah, you know Vale then? You can sit next to him,” the teacher said, before turning to the board and beginning the lesson.

Vale groaned in defeat as he accepted that Ciaran was just a part of his life now.

- - - - - - - -

Vale had realized that Ciaran was not in any of his English classes. He was in second hour because the teacher could teach both regular and advanced pottery at the same time. He had fifth hour as a study hall, and he showed up in the band room, meaning that he was probably in band. Vale had snatched his schedule when he offered it and found out he had regular English II fourth hour and PE third hour. Vale, Ezzy, and Alicia were out of PE due to marching band, and Ezzy and Vale had the exact same schedule. Alicia, however, was not as lucky as Ciaran, and only had two classes with them, both in the band room.

“I thought you were home schooled,” Ezzy said as she ate her pizza. Vale’s mom and Ezzy and Alicia’s aunt Katie made them lunch every day, so they didn’t have to wait in lines.

“I was. My mom loves travelling, and after fourth grade we decided to go all over the world. Being Mortis’s family is a big deal, and Tuphere’s money can easily be converted to Earth money.”

“Specifically Mortis?” Alicia asked, “He’s the God of love and family too, right?”

“That’s right. The other Gods and Goddesses are like the ones in Percy Jackson, but Mortis devotes his time to one partner and their children together.” Ciaran hummed, “Eventually, my mom told me that we should settle down, and we’d do it wherever a majority of my guild mates were. You guys weren’t crowding me, so I figured it couldn’t be that bad. Oh, and by the way, I’m your new neighbor.”

“Feels like you’re stalking me,” Vale grumbled, as he grabbed a piece of Ezzy’s pizza and replaced it with a part of his sandwich. “How'd you move in so fast, anyway?”

“Magic,” Ciaran chuckled. “I’ll leave it up to you to figure out if it’s the truth or not.”

The band teacher came in and joined their conversation. Ciaran revealed he was a trombone player., to which Mr. Rossdale was excited, since the last trombone player, Luken Lichtenburg, graduated a few years ago.

The four chatted with him for a while, before Vale heard a beeping noise from his pocket. He pulled out his Amphone, and so did Ezzy.

“Looks like we’ve got missions to choose from. Let’s do it after school so we don't have to miss anything early on.” Ezzy commented, looking over a mission. “They’re not very cool, though. Probably because we just started.”

Vale looked over the missions that were sent. ‘They say there’s a tiny pack of small wolf-like monsters attacking people who leave Tupherian Square to go to Glassrose City, in the desert to the east. Our mission is to defeat them. It’s not the Nether Brigade or whatever, but we just started so we’ve probably gotta climb up the ranks. Let’s do this one.”

‘You’re the boss!” Alicia giggled, and Vale raised an eyebrow at her before snickering.

“Heck yes I am,” he replied, quoting one of Pearl’s lines from Steven Universe: The Movie. He touched the mission and hit reserve, and then put in a time that was after school.

“Stellar Tomorrow’s first official mission will be to defeat some wolf things! Hooray!” Alicia cheered, as Ezzy’s, Ciaran’s, and her own Amphone began to beep, notifying the acceptance of a mission. There was a button to opt out in case you couldn’t go because of something more important, but none of them seemed to really have anything to do.

“All that is left is to wait, huh?” Ciaran grinned, before putting a hand on Vale’s shoulder. “I trust you to lead us to greatness!”

Vale rolled his eyes again, though he couldn’t help but feel excited about this. It was different, something new, and something that had an impact on more than just him. He’d already met two new friends through this, which meant he was improving his social circle. Yes, this wasn’t even really bad at all. He flashed a small smile to his companions, along with a thumbs up.

‘Let’s do this, Stellar Tomorrow!”