Space Liva- Liva stands in the doorway, sighing and rolling her eyes. “Sis, I know to get you a new curling iron after school you don’t have to tell me!” Lana, Liva’s older sister, sat at her vanity, applying her makeup. “Oh, and don’t-” “Go anywhere else but the store, then come straight home.” Liva finished for her. “Right, you don’t want to end up like one of those missing kids. Here.” Lana hands Liva a few waded bills. Liva opens her backpack and stuffs the money inside. “Bye, Mom, bye, Lana, see you after school.” Liva zips the backpack closed and heads out the door to school, wondering about those missing children. She turned to look at her backyard, to stare at the cherry tree forest that had mysteriously appeared one day, like with all the other parks and houses. Mathew- Mathew sits right outside the school, ferociously copying his friend’s homework. “You know you should do your homework, like, at home, Mat?” His friend jokes, punching his arm. “I don’t have time to do it at home, my mom-” “Always makes me do errands for her, yeah, yeah, we know.” His friend rolls his eyes. “And she never lets me stay home alone anymore because of those kids’ disappearances!” Matthew was upset. He used to be able to do whatever he wanted, but ever since that girl from his school, Liva, friend Azure’s disappearance, his parents had been more attentive to him, he hated it. “It doesn’t matter, just drop it, man.” Matthew forces a smile. “I’m done, let’s go play some paper basketball before the teachers catch us.” Both boys walk away Charles- Charles is in the car with his mom, his dad in the passenger seat, and his sitter next to him. “Charles, don’t forget to turn in that extra credit assignment, we don’t want your grades to drop.” His mother’s overly cheery voice reminded him. Charles rolled his eyes. “I have 105% in that class, and 95% in all my other classes.” He reminds them. “But you have a 90% in Algebra.” The girl beside him, his babysitter, points out. “Algebra is an advanced class. Like, really advanced.” The babysitter, Una, crosses her arms and gives him a long look. “Fine.” She sighs. “Come right home after school.” Charles’ mother says, keeping her eyes on the road. “But I have that science assignment after school, I have to go to one of my partner’s houses!!” He protests. “Son-” His dad starts. “No, Dad, for once, I want to go to someone’s house like a normal kid and just do a project with a group, I’m tired of working alone!” His dad sighs. “You have to be home by 6 PM.” He finally says after a long pause. Una and Charles’ mom glare at him. “Thanks, Dad! Bye, Mom, bye, Una!” Charles smiles and gets out of the car to walk inside the school. Liva- Liva’s first hour was science with Mrs. Stella. Liva twisted a lock of her brown hair on her finger, studying everyone who came in. Matthew came in, popular, played sports, one of the nicer boys, Liva preferred him to the other boys, but if she could choose her own group, Matthew would not be part of it. Her friend Olivia came in a little later. Long blonde hair, green eyes, and a friendly smile. She took a seat next to Liva. “So, have you seen him yet?” She whispered to Liva. Liva sighed, Olivia had had a hopeless crush on Matthew since 2nd grade. “Yes, I saw Matthew. You know, you should really just tell him you have a crush on him.” Liva suggests casually. “No!” She says loudly, drawing eyes. Olivia blushes. “Why would I do that?” She asks quietly. “Because I’m pretty sure he likes you, too!” Liva hissed. That shut Olivia up for a little bit. LIva back at the door just in time to see Charles walk in. She scowled, Charles beat her at everything, had a higher grade than she did, and somehow was more popular than her, and he wasn’t even that popular! She flashed back to multiple times the teachers had praised Charles. “Your assignment was good, Liva, but it needs to be more like Charles’ project for it to actually be the best.” One teacher had told her. Charles smiles at her, which just made Liva glare at him. He looked confused before taking a seat too close to Liva for comfort.
Matthew- Matthew sat by his friend, wondering why Liva was looking at him. He watched as Olivia, the girl who had a crush on them since the beginning of the year, walked in. “Dude, you should really ask Liv out before another guy does.” His friend tells him. “Nah, not now, maybe after class,” Matthew whispers back. “Alright, but you really need to get a move on.” His friend, Ivan, whispered. Matthew went back to staring at Liva, wondering what was going on inside her head. Olivia yelled, “No!” Which made Matthew snap back to the classroom. A little later, Charles walked in. Matthew frowned slightly, Charles was such a show-off. He noticed Liva glared at him before he took a seat a row ahead of her. Mrs. Stella came in with her star earrings, frizzy red hair, and a long dress with planets on it. “Sorry I’m late!” She apologizes. “Now, let’s get class started.”
