Joshua shifts into his seat in the bright, white-brick room. He adjusts his thin wire-framed gsses and pces the sign-up forms on the desk before him. He and his childhood friends, Alyssa and Max, would sign up for the defense force dedicated to protecting their school.

  He begins to read the forms. “Name… got that. Date… November 12th, 2035. He then moves on to the more personalized questions. “Age… css… Capacity...” he fills out each listing box one after another, breezing through them with utmost haste due to his palpable excitement. He notices that there is an option to list yourself as “Capacity-less.” Having such an option is quite odd because it’s nigh impossible to protect against rogue Capacity users or other major threats without having a decent one yourself, not to mention not having one at all.

  “I wonder if their Capacities will be strong enough for them to get in. I’ll think about that ter. Right now, I need to finish filling this out.” He proceeds to fill out the “Capacity Description” box. “My Capacity, ‘Cheaters Never Win,’ allows me to make a rule for any given setting. If someone attempts to break the rule, then their means of breaking it will be ‘punished,’ so to speak. The severity of the punishment depends on the extremity and weight of the rule itself. However, the rule only applies to those aware of its presence.”

  Just then, a girl with long brown hair tied back in a neat ponytail walks through the door. She shoots Joshua a friendly wave and then sits down in the seat directly next to him. She tucks her pid brown skirt underneath herself and then carelessly tosses her forms onto the table before pulling a solid bck pen out of her bag.

  “Late as always, Alyssa.” Joshua mumbles, not breaking his pen stroke.

  “I took too long getting ready again.” She reasons, and then also begins to fill out her forms.

  “Y’think you’ll get in?” He follows up, knowing that she tends to have very optimistic anticipations but, at the same time, is often riddled with anxiety. Due to her seemingly contradicting mindsets, it’s hard for him to tell exactly what she’s thinking.

  “Who knows? My Capacity isn’t exactly fit for fighting. I suppose it can be used defensively, but I’ll have to word my description properly if I want to convey that to the reviewers. Even then, it isn’t exactly easy to get in, even if you have a very combat-oriented Capacity.” She expins. It certainly is true that it’s difficult to get into the FMH Defense Force. Out of all the applicants, which could be in the dozens or even hundreds, only five are selected.

  The two continue to answer the questions and fill in squares until a comfortably dressed boy with short, straight, blondish-brown hair stumbles into the room.

  “Max! You’re finally here.” Alyssa cheers, leaning back in her desk.

  “Yeah. I locked myself out of my dorm after leaving my ID inside, so I had to break into my own room.” He describes he has a half-amused, half-embarrassed grin on his face. He sits down at the desk behind Alyssa.

  “Do you have your papers?” Joshua asks, noticing that Max doesn’t have any forms on his desk, nor even a backpack with him.

  “Nah. I filled them out a while ago. I just came in here to wait on you guys since I know we all pnned to fill them out together.” Max responds.

  “Why didn’t you wait to fill them out today then?” Alyssa questions, twirling her pen between her fingers.

  “I forgot we made that pn. So I filled them out, then I remembered it.” Max ughs while answering.

  “Yeah, that’s par for the course with you.” Alyssa looks back down at her papers, her bangs covering her eyes from Max’s perspective.

  “I can’t believe that they make us fill these out during our lunch, can’t it be before or after school?” Joshua compins.

  “I know, right? Shit’s so annoying. I just wanna go eat. At least they give us like an hour-long lunch while the sign-up windows are open, though.” Alyssa concurs but also points out the bright side of their minor inconvenience.

  Joshua and Alyssa finish filling out their forms and walk out of the exam room with Max, dropping their papers in the submission box outside the room. The three of them accurately traverse the seemingly ceaseless halls that compose the Foundation for Making History using their mental maps of the campus. Eventually, they make it to the cafeteria. Alyssa and Max go to get sushi while Joshua opens his homemade peanut butter sandwich. A few minutes ter, they congregate at their selected booth. They all sit down and begin to eat at a slightly above-average pace, though they still have enough time to make conversation.

  “So… *chewing*... I know they probably have a reason… *chewing*... to make this whole defense thing. But, like, why have a group of teenagers do it and not professionals?” Alyssa inquires.

  “Well, like. Okay, so our school puts all of its money into the academic stuff, which is why we have so many good programs and opportunities. So the school can’t pay for it. And no government here, nearby, or anywhere really is rge enough to fund such a niche program. Everything is city-based, so they’re working with small budgets and small covering grounds. There’s no, like, massive coalition of cities to take care of stuff like that.” Joshua details, taking periodic bites out of his sandwich. He has to take sips of his Sprite after each bite.

  “Even then. Are rogue Capacity-users that much of an issue that you have to have a whole extracurricur based around them?” Alyssa furthers her question.

  “I mean, kinda. Think of it this way: there are no ws in between cities. If you leave the city walls, there’s no legal protection. Even a lot of small towns don’t have ws, and if they do, they’re not regurly or efficiently enforced. So, everything outside of poputed cities is free game for anyone who wants to do bad stuff. Those people gather, communicate, pn, and attack. Echo chambers are also a factor at py. You never know who might decide they want to hurt us, especially for somewhere as prestigious as FMH.” Joshua finishes eating his sandwich.

  “How do you know all of this stuff? Do you manage FMH or something?” Max ponders.

  “I wish. There’s probably good money in doing something like that.” Joshua responds, letting out a light chuckle and looking down at his tray to smear one of his seemingly damp fries into a glob of ketchup.

  “Aren’t you filthy rich already?!” A satirical critique comes from Alyssa.

  “Yeah, but that’s only because of my dead, quote-unquote, ‘father.’” Joshua holds up finger quotes as he says, “Father.”

  “And besides, Wilbur is in control of most of the money. However, my mother used to work for a different school that had a simir situation. She expined this stuff to me back then before she got shipped off to God knows where because of some heinous stuff she did. Honestly, I’m gd she’s gone. She never did anything for me or my dad and was essentially just pure evil. I didn’t have to deal with her for long, though, since she split up with my dad a while ago.” He continues. The lunch bell rings.

  “Is it over already?” Max asks, looking up at the ceiling where the intercom is bsting the monotone, pulsing sound.

  “I guess so, remember we spent like at least forty-five minutes filling out those papers.” Alyssa reminds him of their previous activities.

  The three of them wander back to css, their separations from each other staggered. As Joshua arrives to css, he adjusts his curly bck hair in the slight reflection given off by one of the hallway windows. Once he sees that it meets his standards, he enters the css and sits down. He begins to ponder their chances once more.

  “Alyssa’s Capacity would be good for defense, so she has a decent chance. I’m not sure about Max, though. I’ve seen what he can do, but it’s hard to portray his Capacity to be as powerful as it is just by providing a brief description. I guess we’ll find out next week who did and didn’t make it. And even if we don’t get in, it’ll still be interesting to see who did.”

  Next week, just as Joshua is leaving his dorm room to make the tedious walk to his csses, the intercom bres.

  “Anyone who signed up for the FMH Defense Force, please report to the exam room as fast as you can. More information will be provided there in ten minutes.” The familiar voice of a school administrator echoed through the halls. Joshua nearly breaks into a sprint in his attempt to get to the room as fast as he can. He knows he has ample time, but his actions are being dictated by his excitement and not the logic within his mind.

  As he arrived at the exam room, he noticed that everyone in it was packed like sardines. He doesn’t know anyone there personally, but he recognizes many of the faces present. Out of the corner of his eye, he notices Max and Alyssa squirming their way toward him.

  “God, Jesus,” Alyssa whispers as she squeezes through the crowd. She appears to be dragging Max behind her by his forearm.

  “You guys finally made it.” Joshua acknowledges, shooting them a gnce before directing his attention to a pair of admins going through their efforts to get to their makeshift podium at the back center of the room.

  “Alright everyone, let’s keep this brief.” The admin says in a familiar monotone voice.

  “This must be the guy who’s always on the intercoms,” Joshua concludes. The administrator continues.

  “Okay, so, uh, I’m gonna keep things brief. So I want to thank everybody here for attempting to serve our school, but as you know, only a few of you made it in.” He summarizes.

  “The big reveal is coming up now.” Alyssa braces herself.

  “So everyone except, let’s see here… Connors, Aranae, Kira, Cornelius, and Mussel. You’re all free to go.”

  A wave of relief washed over Joshua and his friends as all of their st names were on the list. The rest of the room filled with sighs and low-held heads.

  “Again, thank you all for putting yourselves out there. As expected, those of you not named should report to your first-period css. You’ve all been excused for your tardies, however.” The admin finishes. The three of them try to shimmy their way to one of the walls of the room as the tsunami of students floods out both of the exam room doors.

  “How come Evan made it in and not me? My Capacity is so much better than his! We need to start a Mussel Hate Club.” Some blonde-haired kid heckles as he exits the room.

  After the storm is over, five remain. As stated, Joshua, Alyssa, and Max were all still there. But there were two new faces no one recognized.

  “Congratutions you five, you’re now part of this school's defenses. There isn’t much more for today, so get to know each other and stuff, then feel free to head back to css whenever.” The administrator informs as he exits the room, clutching an overflowing three-ring binder.

  “Hey, I’m Joshua Connors. I haven’t seen any of you guys around here before. Nice to meet you.” Joshua begins the conversation.

  “Generic ass introduction, but okay.” Alyssa jokes. “I’m Alyssa Aranae.”

  “It is I, Max Cornelius! Pleased to meet your acquaintance.” Max announces extravagantly.

  “What’s up with Shakespeare over here?” A boy with medium-long, orangish-brown hair asks. He’s tall, likely about the same height as Joshua. He’s dressed in baggy streetwear but has a more studious vibe to him than you’d expect.

  “He’s just like that sometimes,” Alyssa answers.

  “Okay then. Anyway, I’m Colton Kira. And this guy is Evan Mussel.” The boy follows up, pointing at the guy next to him with his thumb.

  “Hey.” The guy, allegedly Evan Mussel, speaks. “You haven’t seen me around because I’m new.” He continues.

  “I guessed that, yeah. What brings you to FMH? Oh, and who was that kid earlier?” Joshua attempts to make conversation with the new introductions.

  “My parents shipped me off here because they don’t want to deal with me anymore. They’ll say it’s ‘for my future’ or because I ‘never do anything,’ but that’s not the real reason. That kid was Eli, but he asks everyone to call him Coffee Cow. I have no idea why he hates me.” Evan expins, using a mocking voice whenever he quotes his parents.

  “I got a simir reason to that. I’ve been here longer, though.” Colton adds to his story.

  “Damn. I’m here because my dad thought it would ‘fix me.’ I didn’t have any other choice but to go along with it since my mom is not in the picture.” Alyssa retes.

  “Do we all just have super morbid parental problems?” Joshua blurts out. “Like, my dad’s dead, my mom is just pure evil and in prison. And then Max… it’s a long story with him.”

  “Tragic ahh backstories galore,” Evan mumbles.

  “Well, it was interesting to meet you fellow rejects.” Alyssa pardons herself as she leaves to return to css.

  “I guess we should get going, too.” Joshua follows suit. “Max?”

  “Yeah. Bye.” Max agrees. They grab their stuff and slip out the door. The three of them slowly wander the halls. Their typical haste has severely lessened because their tardies have already been excused. “What do you think of them?” Max asks. “I think that Colton guy seems cool.”

  “Eh. Maybe. I try not to judge people until they’ve had a chance to prove themselves.” Alyssa responds.

  “Do you guys know anything about their Capacities?” Joshua inquires.

  “Dude, we just met them like 20 minutes ago. And there was no talk of Capacities, what do you think the answer to that is?” Alyssa returns the question. She’s grown used to Joshua’s consistent stupid questions, but she can’t help but pick on him for them.

  “Did you guys notice how they didn’t make us, like, test or prove anything?” Max realizes, twirling a slice of sami between his fingers.

  “These things are more of a formality. We’re not expected to actually fight or anything. That’s normally left to the teachers who are in a simir program, and they have those tests and stuff. For the students, they just go by which Capacities sound the best and who has the best grades, and then they even those out. For us, it’s just something to add onto a resume as well as a little bit of social notoriety.” Joshua details.

  “Well, that’s kinda boring. I wanted to beat up some bitches.” Alyssa adds, sounding immensely disappointed.

  “Then why didn’t you tell us that st week during lunch, you peckerhead?” Max questions.

  Joshua simply responds with, “I forgot.” The three of them part ways once again and head off to their csses. As Joshua sits down in his chair, he begins to receive a familiar, eerie feeling.

  “Did we just get ourselves into something horrible? No, that can’t happen. We’re not actually responsible for anything because of these positions. I still can’t help but worry, though. Knowing that under the right circumstances, we would need to put ourselves on the line, it’s certainly nerve-racking.”

  If only he knew.