What would happen if I broke into the vending machine? I could use my textbook...

I blink a few times, trying to drag myself back from the lala land I had lost myself to. Almost immediately, I wish I was back. Important or not, I feel my brain numbing with every word. Stifling something between a yawn and a sigh, I glance up at the clock.

Well, I try try to convince myself, two minutes can't be too bad...right?

Discreetly, I try to start packing up my stuff, partially to shorten the time spent after the bell in this stuffy room, partially to distract myself and preserve my mental soundness. Somehow, though, my papers seem to have been strewn all over. Did a hurricane fly through when I wasn't looking?

Ugh. That wasn't even funny. I mentally flick myself for it as I act as disaster relief, equal parts urgent and too tired to care.

Heh. Now that was a decent joke.

The bell rings just as I drop my last pencil into my bag. I nearly smack five different people in the face with my bag as I swing it on and dash out as quickly as possible. But instead of the river of vaguely familiar faces I expected to swim through, I run righst in to just one.

"Easy there, roadrunner," Gaius says, gently bumping me away.

"Afternoon, Gaius," I reply, hoping the nickname won't stick. "What itbrings you around here? I've never seen you pass by..." I smack my fist into my palm, jumping to a conclusion that seemed actually pretty decent at the time. "You were waiting for a special someone!" I whip back around to face my classmates, scanning their faces for his potential crushes. Gaius interrupts !y investigation by clearing his throat.

"Er, yeah, you went and jumped three steps ahead there. I'm not looking to woo any ladies here, got it? But, uh... Is Zara around?"

I laugh. "You were saying about wooing ladies?" Gaius rolls his eyes.

"I'm not hunting for a date. I'm hunting for my candy. A whole load of it went missing from one of my stashes, and I have a sneaking suspicion of who took it... You're sure Zara isn't here?" He sticks his head up, searching. I raise an eyebrow.

"Yes, I'm quite sure about my schedule. I've only got one class with her."

"Well... She might've popped in to, uh...visit..." My turn to roll my eyes.

"You really have no idea how this whole thing works, do you? And anyway, you're the only one that moves quickly enough after class to just sort of meet people on their way out."

"Well... I wouldn't really know with her. Or you, for that matter," Gaius says, defending lamely.

"Hmm? Why wouldn't you know?" A quick glance at the clock tells me it's time to go, though I want to continue the conversation. "Crap, I'm gonna be late," I mutter.

I've barely taken two steps before Gaius is beside me as is he teleported.

"Ever heard of walking and talking, Cinderella?" he says, shortening his strides to a more leisurely pace-for him, that is. My legs are far from as long as his. "Anyway, before you ran off, you wanted to know what I meant about Zara?" I nod. "Well, pretty much what I said. She hasn't been around for much longer than you."

"Huh. She blended in pretty quickly, eh?" I say, not having the capability of running through the map of the school in my head, listening to Gaius, and coming up with decent things to say at the same time.

"Guess so. Now, my turn for a question," he replied as we turn a corner that I'm only part of the way sure is the right one.

"Sure, shoot."

"Where exactly are we going? Cuz I'm pretty sure I've seen that classroom before, and it isn't because I've gone in it before.

It's a fair enough question, but...

"Really? You don't know? It's the first day of clubs!" I exclaim, eyes wide (not that he could tell, since I probably looked like I was simply making faces at the paper with a room number scrawled on it in foreign blue letters. Chrom had written the address for the club room on it in a hurry, and u can't tell what half of the numbers are.)

"Whelp, never been too interested in the whole club scene," Gaius says, shrugging and slipping a hand into his pocket for a piece of candy.

"Come on, there has to be something you're into!" I say, noting the classroom that we have in fact seen before. "Here, I'll help! Mm... Chess?" He simply raises an orange eyebrow to that. "Okay, umm... Prom committee?" He just laughs at that one. "Environmental club?"

"You're really not getting any hits with this, Becca." He pauses. "I gotta come up with a nickname for you. Calling you by your real name is..."

"Normal?"

"Weird-feeling, y'know?"

I flash him a skeptical look, but can't help but smile. "Well, anyway, there's one more..." Before I have to say anything more, I hear a familiar voice coming from a nearly empty room along the hallway that seems to be hosting the clubs. Actually, multiple familiar voice a, each trying to talk over the others. We follow them to room 323, whose door is cracked open just enough to see a very familiar pair of combat boots.

"Hey, guys!" I say, grinning at everyone. Zara tries to twist around on her chair while keeping her feet on the table (which seems to be driving Frederick to near spontaneous combustion). Upon failing and nearly toppling on the ground, she gives in to the laws of physics and simply waves. Looking around, I see Chrom, of course, Lissa, who seems to be highly amused by Frederick and Zara, Stahl, and a few others. I turn back to Gaius, who's trying to discreetly crane his neck in an effort to scope out Zara's pocket for any stolen candy. Despite myself, I check too. She did say something about stealing from each other's stashes...

Just as I think that, a co!ourful wrapper falls from her lap to the ground, drifting in slo-mo to the ground. Gaius dives forward as if to catch a loved one falling go their doom, his sneakers making a horrible squeaking sound as he did. He fumbles with it silently for a few moments as if the candy was just hiding in one of the folds. Meanwhile, Zara is trying to hideva pile of identical wrappers into her blazer pockets. The telltale crinkling sounds betray her, and Zara's head snaps up.

"I knew you were the thief!" he exclaims.

"Well, consider it payback! You stole mime last week!" she retorts through a mouthful of pilfered candy that she shoved into her mouth like a chipmunk the moment she spotted Gaius.

"Wha-come on, lady, it was hardly a handful! No reason to up and take a man's stash for all it's worth!"

I'm certain their bickering would've gone on forever if Chrom hadn't stepped in. As he tries to calm down the two (marginally harder than expected, since Zara's sugar levels are rising as Gaius' are dropping, and that makes for a verrry bad combination), I take a look around the room, taking it all in. Chrom desperately trying to persuade Gaius to take a reimbursement from him; Frederick already moving to sweep up the fallen wrappers; Stahl talking to Lissa about homework and soft pretzels; Lon'qu studying as far away from both as far as possible.

This is my life, here and now.

I smile at the thought.

~

"So, other than the whole candy robbery drama, what do you think?" I ask Gaius. He's sucking moodily on a lollipop, so he lifts his eyebrows at me before apparently deciding I was worth popping it out for a moment.

"About what?

"The club!"I say, crossing my arms.

"Think you missed a step there, pal. Back up and fill me in a bit, would you?" I roll my eyes and smile.

"I thought it was obvious. Remember that club I was going to suggest back there?"

"Huh? Oh, the one you didn't actually say what it was. Nice filling me in on that one, by the way." The second sentence is dripping with so much sarcasm that I could put a glass under him and catch it.

"Working on it, snarkapus," I retort, jerking my head towards the door, where things have calmed down just a bit. "This is the one. They're called the Shepherds. They-well, I'm not sure exactly what they do. But-"

I'm cut off by Gaius dismissing me with a wave of his hand.

"Like I said, not really too interested." Before I can protest, he sticks his lollipop back in his mouth and sweeps around. "See you around."

I walk back into the clubroom. To the wondering looks of everyone, "Nah, not this Tims." Chrom nods.

"Next time, then. Anyway, let's get this started.

" I call the first meeting of the Shepherds to be started!"