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Chapter 3: Meeting the Foundation Members

"Michelle, slow down for once!" Alphonse and I screamed in unison, but she was already inside the cafeteria. We just chuckled to ourselves and walked inside. The scrumptious smell of melted cheese and the indistinct chatter of different groups talking filled me with joy, reminding me of when I was in middle school. I wonder where my friends are now, and how they are doing. We kinda fell apart after high school, going our separate ways and all. I continued to look around, noticing the cafeteria didn't have the same blue stripe as the hallways but it did have the same floor and walls. The seating in the cafeteria was rectangular tables with benches attached to them, and a few bar tables with stools. The room had hanging lights with different posters on the walls. There was an assortment of individuals behind a metal serving desk with some cheese and pepperoni pizza, still hot and steamy, must've just come out of the oven.

Michelle slugged my arm, making me jump and produce a strange sound. "Cmon, John. We aren't gonna wait on you to get our pizza!" she said, dragging me along with her, all the while Alphonse was laughing at me. We finally stopped at the serving desk, where the pizza smell was the strongest.

"This sure does smell good. I didn't expect y'all to have good food, being in seclusion and all." I said, grabbing myself a pepperoni pizza slice.

"Living in seclusion doesn't mean we don't have good supplies, John," Alphonse replied, grabbing some cheese pizza.

"So... is there a place y'all usually sit...?" I asked in confusion, seeing most of the tables filled with people I didn't know.

"We can go sit at that table!" Michelle said, pointing at a table in the middle of the room.

"Alright..." I replied. I didn't really enjoy being in the middle of all the action, so I was a little uncomfortable.

"I'll grab us some sodas!" an unfamiliar voice shouted at us. I turned around to see who was speaking. I was met with a lady, wearing a black vest, with a black shirt and pants, with red hair, brown eyes, and a smile.

"Nice to meet you..." I looked at her name tag, which read 'Amanda' "...Amanda." I finished, looking up at her.

"Nice to meet you too, John." I held out my hand for a handshake, and she held out hers. She had quite the grip when it came to handshakes. "So, any soda preferences?"

"I'll take a Sprilla," I said, sitting down at the table.

"Alright, I'll be back with y'all's drinks!" Amanda said, heading over to the vending machine.

"She didn't ask you guys, don't you want something to drink...?" I asked them.

"She knows what we want, don't worry," Alphonse said, taking a bite out of his pizza.

"Here are the drinks!" Amanda declared, setting down the variety of drinks.

"You're the best, Amanda. I'm gonna go sit with the other guards, see ya." Kaia then got up and jogged over to a group of people wearing black vests.

"Thanks, Amanda," I said before gulping down some of the Sprilla. The Sprilla had a taste of lime and cinnamon, and reminded me of an ocean and yet also a fire. I used to drink it all the time when I was a kid, but as I got older I grew away from it. "I haven't had Sprilla in so long, thanks for grabbing some for me."

" 'Course," Amanda responded, opening up her soda.

"So, who are all these people...? I had no idea there were other departments. They all chuckled and mumbled to each other, but then Alphonse spoke up.

"Well, this is the staff lunchroom, so pretty much all the staff comes here. There are different departments, like Engineering &Technical, Medical, Scientific, Guards, Public Relations, Ethics Committee, and so on."

"Could you tell me who's who? I don't want to be awkward and get up and ask."

"Sure I can," responded Alphonse. "Over there are the Engineering and Technical units." He pointed over to a table full of people wearing orange reflective vests. "You have Jacques 'Chef'. We call him Chef because he always cooks amazing food. I'll take you over whenever he's cooking for us." I looked at Jacques, he seemed pretty nice and like an overall good person. I wondered what he enjoyed cooking.

Alphonse continued, "Next to him you have Aron Ronan. He's worked here for around a year I'd say, he's more or less passive. But he does love technology." I looked at Aron, he had blond spiky hair and seemed more 'proper' than the others. Might be a good person to be friends with, but could definitely be uptight.

"Next to him you have Antonio, he's rather new but he is pretty hard-working. He does stray from the task a lot, but he is pretty hilarious." I looked at Antonio next, he had black hair and was slouching. Seemed like he was deep in thought. I'm not sure what to make of him quite yet.

"Interesting." I scanned the room. "Who's that group that Kaia went with?" I asked, pointing at the same people with black vests.

"Those are some of the guards that work here. That's Kaia, but you knew that already, and the girl sitting next to her is Irene Liberty, she hasn't been here too long, but she's established herself as hard-working for sure. She's pretty much about the job and strict, but only while on duty. When she's on break, she occupies herself by drawing." I looked over to Irene, who was gulping down a soda while the others were cheering her on. She seems super fun to hang out with.

The other groups were pretty scattered, but there were some foundation personnel, which are different ranking individuals with different jobs. Alphonse pointed out one of them to me. Her name is 'Jordie.' She's been with the foundation for around the same amount of time Alphonse has. Jordie wears the regular white shirt with a red tie and some khakis that are issued out by the foundation. Alphonse also mentioned she likes helping him with some medical tasks. Jordie is rather quiet, though. More reserved than most of the others. But, that doesn't mean she isn't friendly. That's May, they are either overworking themselves or not working at all. There isn't an in-between with them. May and Jordie were trying to regain composure after laughing at the guards.

I turned back to my pizza and continued eating while we all talked about what had been happening, and some gossip that's been going around. "I heard that the founder of all of this isn't even human!" Michelle said to the conversation

"Where'd you hear that? From those dumb guards that think they're 'oh-so-cool?" Amanda replied in a disgusted fashion, pointing at the group of people in the corner playing with their guns.

"No, just cooler talk. But, like, imagine if we are being employed by the thing we are supposed to contain?!" Michelle responded eagerly.

"I dunno, I guess it could be true. Nobody really knows who it is, right?" I chimed in.

"Yeah, nobody knows," Alphonse responded, finishing up his pizza.

"Believe what you want to, I don't think it's true," Amanda replied, taking a sip of her soda.

"You don't believe anything is true, Amanda." Michelle teasingly responded.

"Whatever, I'm gonna throw away my soda." Amanda then got up and walked away.

"Is this pizza like, fresh?" I asked, enjoying another slice.

"Yeah, the Foundation Personnel make it from scratch, it's pretty good!" Michelle said, getting up and discarding her empty plate. I followed suit.