"D-Dammit, Richard! Get back here!"

"No way josé! Haha!'

I leaped upwards off of the stone steps, scaling the stairs 3 at a time. I was a good distance behind Richard though - It seemed like he was taking them 4 at a time. Obviously giving him an advantage.

...An advantage at running.

...

If I remember correctly, Richard didn't remember what his Ultimate talent was...

And yet...    He seems to be good at quite a lot of things.

Then again, I did mention to him that an Ultimate can have multiple side talents that don't have to do with their Ultimate talent.

...In some way.

Oh well, hey-ho, he'll remember eventually, haha! Won't he-

"Hey, George! I win!"

"H-Huh? Oh. Shoot." I scoffed to myself, realising my position still on the stairs, a few steps away from the rabbit's dark green shoes.

"Haha! Slowcoach!"

"Ok ok ok you win Richard. No need to rub it in, I'm a pig, you're a rabbit, yada yada." I nodded to myself, continuing to ramble on (mostly to myself) about the stereotypes about certain animals that had been set in lead since the start of our time. All the while, I had been making my way up to the top of the staircase, eventually alongside Richard down a mysterious new hallway. Think it was the left one. Not sure.

There wasn't much talking taking place between us this time. Seems like my rambling had silenced the rabbit a bit. Either that, or there wasn't much else to talk about after winning the race up here.

Either way, with the bland silence occurring between us, it allowed me to take the surroundings of the new area into account.

...Honestly, I didn't like how the hallways looked.

They appeared to be rundown, painted with a appalling sandy paint that could seemingly peel off anywhere. That was proven by the multiple cracks and holes in the paint job, showcasing the grey, plastered brick wall hidden behind it. Maybe once upon a time, these walls had another colour thrown in to aid the dirty sand colour. Like a reddish maroon of some kind.

...I don't know. I'm probably just giving my opinion on how it could look better.

"Hey George, watch out."

"Wha-" I swiftly turned my head around, only to swing it back facing forward just in time to plant it straight into the crusty layer of paint upon the wall in front of me.

...Dammit.

"I said watch out..." I heard Richard giggle, as I gave him a pretend death glare, walking back to him while brushing dried paint scraps off my t-shirt.

"Yeah, I know. You think I didn't hear?" I joked, earning a fake look of hurt from Richard.

"Hey!"

"Oh please, you know I'm joking." Closing my eyes momentarily, I soon looked around. "Where even are we...?"

"Not sure. Although that's obvious, we're on a new floor, after all." Richard scratched his head a bit, turning around sleekly on the heel of his shoe. Not wanting to fall under the bus of peer pressure, I faced in the same direction as him.

My sight was met with a door.

A wooden door holding a deep, black tone, a weird safety sticker plaster over it. It wasn't possible to make out what it was warning about, considering the extreme pen scribbles all over it, blurring out all possible writing. As for the rest of the door, it was an open and shut case. Pun intended.

Especially since Richard had already opened it.

"Huh? H-Hey- Richard!" I said out of shock, leaping after him through the door.

My steps immediately slowed once I was inside the room.

...The two words I could describe it with were 'electrically vintage'.

The walls retained the same sandy colour as the hallways, only now it only ran along the highest part of the walls. The rest of the walls was painted with a tone-deaf grey colour. What's more, the paint wasn't peeling anywhere, and there was a singular hole in the wall on the right. As for the other holes (i.e. doors), there were two on the opposite side of the room, also being made of wood.

What really surprised me, though, was the equipment in the room.

There were a few shelves and tables around the place, all of them housing various kinds of weird bottles and cartons of some kind. There were even more wires - They were of multiple colours, scattered all around the place, however none of them were unconnected.

Some of them ran into the walls.

Some ran along the miniature-girder ceiling.

The majority of them though ran into the elephant in the room - A large machine on the right with two wheels supported at its front, connected via a weird line of black tape running through a conjoined piece of machinery. That piece held a lens the size of a saucer, aiming itself directly at the hole in the wall.

It took me a while to understand the whole setup, however once I did...

"...Wait a minute?! A MOVIE PROJECTOR???" I squealed out of shock.

"Somehow...     Yeah..." Richard gave a soft reply, his broadened eyes scavenging over the advanced vinyl player. Meanwhile I was too amazed to believe it.

They have a projection room...?

For filming and playing movies?

IN A FUDGING SCHOOL???

I'm really confused now...     Really really confused...

Ok, maybe the bar was a little believable. But a supposed movie theatre? In a place filled with classrooms?

This place is starting to not feel like a school anymore...

More like...      A comfortable prison.

Designed for us.

"Hey, George? You ok buddy?" I heard Richard ask softly, catching my thoughts off guard at the EXACT perfect time.

...Damn thoughts.

"Uhhh- Yep! Yep! Totally!" I nodded frantically.

"Oh. Normally that means you aren't, considering that one time I stole your cookie while you weren't looking...     I'll let it be for now though." The rabbit smirked, forcing a blush to appear on my face.

"Oh come on, don't remind me of that!" I squealed, "I always cringe when I think of that..."

"Exactly! You were so childish! I mean, who calls 999 to catch a cookie thief? But then again, I shouldn't have stolen the cookie in the first place, then the police wouldn't have scolded us both like that..."

Oh god, don't make me blush more...

...How does he always manage to make me feel better about bad scenarios?

I mean, not like this is a bad scenario...     Just saying.

"So...     Wanna keep exploring?" I slowly asked, "And maybe find some cookies to make up for old times sake?"

"Oh, hell yeah." Richard giggled. I smiled, before carefully leaping towards the right of the two back doors, and walking through it with Richard right behind me.

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