I cannot express how nice it feels to step into the hotel lobby and be greeted with a nice wave of air conditioning. The hotel building overlooks the coast through tinted windows that keep the sun from blinding me... again. There's a nice lounge area with both a foosball and pool table. Which is nice to know, but seeing some of the others here, I don't know if I'd stand a chance in either one. As a matter of fact, out of the two people standing in the lobby, one has a f*cking sword strapped to his back. Is that allowed? Are there school rules against that?

The second figure, a dirty-blonde with brown streaks in her hair, notices me almost immediately. She's pretty, too. Why are all the girls here pretty so far? It's not fair.

"Hi!" she says. "You're the sixteenth student, right? Oh, I'm Ryn, by the way."

"Sophie," I introduce myself. "And sorry, you said you're the Ultimate...?"

"Veterinarian!" Ryn responds. "I know, sometimes people think I say other stuff. People've misheard things like 'Veteran' or 'Vegetarian'. Maybe I need to enunciate better."

She's funny. I like her. A lot.

Oh yeah, the guy with the sword. Right. His amber eyes pierce into me, and I shudder involuntarily. Finally, he gives me a curt nod.

"A pleasure to meet you, Sophie," he says, his gaze never leaving my face. "Stolas Urusa, at your service."

"That explains the sword," I say after he tells me he's the Ultimate Combat Pro.

"My preferred weapon of choice," Stolas points out. "...And Hope's Peak has a strict weapons policy. No firearms or concealable blades."

"Yet a sword's totally fine?" Guess I really should've double-checked the Student Handbook.

Stolas just gives a small shrug in response.

"Well, we gotta get going! Sophie still hasn't met, like, half the group," Caim tells them, grabbing my arm and beginning to pull me away.

At first, I'm a bit bummed that I can't talk longer with Mr. Cool Sword and Hot Woman Number Two, but I'm not mad for long. On the left side of the main hotel building is a dining room and kitchen. Emerging from the kitchen, each holding a steaming cup, are not one...

Dear god.

...Two hot women.

The first woman squints from behind her glasses for a moment before flashing me a smile. "Hey! You look like you could use a grande vanilla iced coffee with light cream."

It takes me a minute to process. "Wait, that's basically my normal coffee order... how-"

The woman laughs. "I'm the Ultimate Barista. Name's Dana Reynolds."

"Well, that makes sense," I laugh. God was that a stupid laugh. I think all the hot women are getting to me.

Straight thoughts, Sophie, you're bisexual.

...

F*ck it, maybe you're a lesbian-

Speaking of women, the second woman gives me a warm, gentle smile before she speaks.

"I'm honored to meet you. I'm Evangeline Levoux."

I take a minute to process what I'm hearing.

"Wait, you're British!" I realize.

Evangeline stifles a giggle. "That's the first thing everyone said to me when I arrived."

"So, herbology? Isn't that a Harry Potter thing?" Oh my god, I'm embarrassing myself more and more by the second.

Thankfully, Evangeline doesn't seem offended. In fact, she seems even more amused. "I suppose it is. However, it's not nearly as magical as it sounds. It's simply the study of herbs and plants, and their medical properties."

That sounds pretty magical.

...Oh my god I'm a lesbian.

"So, uh, I don't think we got your name," Dana says to me.

"Right! I'm Sophie," I reply.

"The Ultimate Digital Artist!" Caim adds. I think he's just my wingman by now or something.

"That's very cool," Evangeline comments.

"T-thanks!" I stammer. Dear god, I need to get out of here before I just melt and die.

Caim seems to hear my thoughts and says to Evangeline and Dana, "We'll be back, I just want to make sure Sophie has a chance to meet everyone else first!"

"Sure thing," Dana agrees. She winks at me and says, "If you ever need a drink, I'm your gal."

There is no way she isn't doing this on purpose. I just force a smile and hurry away with Caim.

"Are you okay?" he asks me. "Social anxiety? I totally get it. It's a lot to take in all at once. Suddenly being on an island after walking into a school. We're all just trying to get to know each other and figure out where we are."

I think he knows that I'm a simp and is just trying to be nice about it. Thank you, Caim, for not humiliating me off the face of the earth.

I finally break the brief period of silence with, "Where to next? There's a hotel and cottages, a corral... what else?"

"A market."

"A what?"

Caim chuckles. "Rocketpunch Market, I think. I walked around earlier before deciding to come back and see if anyone else was here. It's not that big of an island, thankfully. ...Well, there's at least another island attached, but nobody's gone over there, yet. We wanted to make sure everyone's here first."

That... is a lot to take in. I mean, all of this is, and this is just the cherry on top. Unless there's, like, decoration on the cherry too. If there is, then this is the most complex ice cream sundae I've ever had. Anyways.

The market literally looks like a 7/11 or something. As we walk in, it's just like any other convenience store, except for the massive jugs of cola and racks of surfboards. Y'know, island stuff. Otherwise it's just a normal convenience store.

"We've got a lot of supplies for just the sixteen of us," Caim says. "We're good here for a while."

So maybe we're going to have school on a tropical island. Honestly, that's kind of a dream come true. Who wouldn't want to have a whole private island with a small class of some of the most talented people in the world? Including women? God, this just can't get any better-

Slam. I round the corner to enter another isle and collide with someone immediately. I jump back in alarm. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry, are you okay?"

The figure, slightly puzzled from the collision, takes a minute before he brushes it off and smiles. "No worries! Hang on, I don't think we've met."

He holds out a hand. "Iris Pineborough. Ultimate Flautist."

I shake it. "Sophie O'Reilly. Ultimate Digital Artist."

"An artist?" Iris smiles. "I'm an artist, too."

Flautist? Flaut? Oh, flute. Makes sense, now that I see the small bag he's wearing on his back.

"I wish I'd stuck with an instrument. I tried piano once," I say in an attempt to make conversation. He seems to appreciate it.

"Yeah, me too. But the flute just ended up being a better fit. It's funny, a lot of people assume flute is more of a girl's instrument. My parents thought I was crazy." Iris smiles sadly before continuing, "Of course, after they saw how well I can play, they were proud of me."

"That's nice," I say awkwardly.

We stand there in silence for a moment before I hear Caim call, "Sophie! There's someone- stop- else who- hey, stop it- wants to meet you!"

Judging by the fact that he sounds like he's trying to keep someone in place, I think it's fair to assume that the person does not want to meet me.

Iris seems amused. "Oh, that's just Azz. He didn't want to talk that much on the walk over, either. It's not you, I promise."

I give him a thumbs up and make my way towards where I heard Caim's voice echo from. Once I round the bend, I see Caim firmly clamped onto the arm of this alleged 'Azz', who blocks his face with a notebook. But I can still see how red the tips of his ears are.

"Caim, it's fine," I say, and my small bodyguard- I swear he's trying to be my bodyguard at this point- loosens his grip.

After a second, Azz peeks out from behind his notebook, still obviously embarrassed.

"It's okay." I pause before admitting, "I had the same reaction at every single god damn woman on this island."

I hear him laugh. "That's fair."

He has a nice voice. Maybe he's a songwriter? He gives those vibes.

"Sorry," he apologizes as he finally removes his notebook from in front of his face. "I... I have a hard time meeting people. Especially a lot of new people."

"You're good," I respond. "So, um, you're Azz, right?"

Azz raises an eyebrow. "Hm? Why are people calling me that?"

I glance over my shoulder just in time to see Iris duck back behind a shelf. I point at where he just was and say, "You should ask him."

Not-Azz follows my gaze and shrugs. "I don't really care. But my real name is Azrael...if that matters."

"And you're Sophie, right?" he prepended.

I nod. "That's me."

Well, good to know that I wasn't entirely wrong when I thought that he was a songwriter.

"So, have you met everyone else by now?" Damn, for someone who was just refusing to socialize, he's pretty good at leading a conversation.

"Uh..." I trail off, using my fingers to count. "I've met... twelve, including you."

Azrael thinks for a moment. "Where haven't you gone yet?"

"We're about to go to the airport," Caim interrupts, giving Azrael an apologetic smile. "But I'm sure Sophie will be more than glad to chat with you later!"

"It was nice to meet you, though," I add. I raise my voice to add, "You too, Iris!"

"Hm?" I hear from a few isles down. Eh, good enough.

Azrael smiles shyly as Caim and I walk away.

"It's neat to see Azrael talking some more," Caim says. "He didn't do a whole lot when he first got here. Thanks for helping him out of his shell."

"Honestly? I've got no idea what I did," I confess. Was it the thing about the women?

"So, like I said, there's an airport," Caim informs me as we proceed down the road.

Dusty road~, take me home~, to the place-

"Sorry, you said there's an airport?" I realize. How the hell didn't I hear that earlier? Our island has a f*cking airport?

"Yeah, check it out!" Caim points down the road at a building visible through the tropical foliage. ...It's an actual airport. A small one, but still an airport.

The baggage claim is to our right as we enter. To the left is the gate area. Straight ahead is an entirely windowed wall revealing the airplanes lined up on the other side. A palm tree is planted in a marble box near each corner of the room.

"Caim! We've been awaiting your return, you know. You're the only engineer we have. Can you check out the airplanes?" a voice- another British one, but unfortunately male this time- echoes around the airport as a figure approaches.

The figure, the dark red blazer swinging on his shoulder as he walks, fixes his equally dark red gaze on Caim as he continues, "I realized much too late that I don't possess the knowledge to determine whether or not the airplanes are functional. Do you mind trying to find out?"

Caim blinks. "Yeah! Yeah, I can do that. I'll be right back."

As he walks away, the guy finally notices me.

"Oh," he says, surprise evident in his voice. "I apologize, I didn't see you there. Which is rather embarrassing on my part, given the vibrance of your hair."

He clears his throat. "Anyways, my name is Marzy Farlay. The Ultimate Biologist."

"Marzy?" That's a name? Of course, I don't say that out loud, and instead say, "I've never heard that name before."

"My mother... named me after her childhood cat," Marzy mumbles, his gaze dropping to his feet.

I almost laugh. But I don't.

"And you are?" he asks, resuming his composed manner.

"Sophie. Um, Ultimate Digital Artist."

"Ah, so do you have knowledge of anatomy?"

I hesitate. "...Kind of?"

Marzy looks kind of disappointed. I take this as my chance to turn... and my soul nearly leaves my body.

Leaning against the wall near the gate is a dark-haired figure whose eyes are locked into me, unwavering. I can't tell what I'm looking at until they move from their place against the wall to take a step forward.

"Are you challenging me, mortal?" they sneer. The voice is a little deep to be female. Is this a guy? Honestly, I have no clue.

"Um, n-no?" I stutter.

The figure nods. "As I suspected. You understood that you possess no power that shall best me, and so you accepted defeat! You understood that beneath my human appearance, I am in fact a demon from the lowest depths of hell!"

I glance to my side at Marzy.

"I had no say in the matter for who I had to explore with," he says.

The figure scoffs. "You should be grateful that I allowed you to accompany me on my expedition of these lands! And you instead choose to insult me?"

Marzy looks absolutely f*cking done with this. "Just drop the whole demon-thing already. I've tired of this bit quite long ago."

"How dare you!" the figure shouts. "You deny me of my true identity? A demon whose powers are beyond your lack of comprehension? I, Flauros, Duke of Hell, can and shall smite you down if you dare challenge me again!"

"Ultimate Medium?" I whisper back to Marzy.

He gives a small nod. "I don't know where the whole Satanist bit comes from, unless the definition of 'medium' has changed since I last saw it defined."

Flauros still seems hella pissed at Marzy, but then calms down slightly as they shift their attention to me. "I apologize for the outburst, mortal. Your insufferable companion has had my patience dangling by a Fate's thread for quite some time now. He believes me to be a lie, a con. You may refer to me as Flauros, the Overlord of Sin, He Who Scares The Feared."

Well at least I know that Flauros is a guy now. That's... good to know?

"The airplanes don't work! The engines are really screwed up," Caim announces as he returns. He pauses when he sees me stuck in between Marzy and Flauros. "Oh, Sophie, my bad for not warning about about these two! They don't really get along."

"Quite correct there." Marzy glares at Flauros. Flauros does the exact same in return.

"H-how about we... go back to the hotel?" Caim suggests to me, an obvious attempt to help me escape the tension.

I give him a grateful look. "I- yeah, I wanted to see my cottage or whatever."

Before anything else can happen, though, a voice echoes through the air, courtesy of the loudspeakers I didn't know existed until just now. "Attention, students! Please report to Jabberwock Park on the central island as soon as possible for the welcome ceremony!"

We all stand there for a moment after the loudspeakers turn off again.

"Well, only one place to go," Caim says, leading the way towards wherever-the-hell-the-park-is.

A welcome ceremony?

I wonder how neat this place gets.

***

(2470 words)

Sorry, another long one! Intros are longer than I thought ;0;

You can tell which of the drawings were done first (like Marzy and Flauros) compared to the last ones I did (Iris and Azrael)

ANYWHO now that you've got your fifteen students, any favorites?  Thoughts?  Idk lol I'm tired-

Okayyyy off to bed with me, baii-