Welcome To The School

24

It was the day after 'The Great Group Hug' and something was bothering Eijeh Ignis.
"Ineedtotalktomyfriendswithoutanyonehearingsocanyouleavethankyougoodbyeyoucangonowseeyouguyslater!" Eijeh shooed his roommates out of the dorm. Blair frowned, but did as he asked and left. Which only left the problem of Ellowyn, who was currently in the class of a sugar rush. Note to self: Do not, under any circumstances, give Ellowyn any sort of food that will cause this, Eijeh thought. He turned to ask Blair for help managing the crazy teen, who was now quite literally bouncing off the walls, but his extremely tall friend had already gone out of earshot. Damn it, Blair. He grimaced and began pondering what to do. He'd almost settled in a plan when a soft voice said, "I can help." He spun to see a dark haired, dark eyed boy hovering a few inches above the floor smiled shyly at him. "If you want." He added. Eijeh stared. "Eijeh?" The boy asked.
Eijeh narrowed his eyes. "How do you know my name?" He questioned.
"I'm in your dorm. My bed is this one." He pointed it the unclaimed bed.
"Haha very funny alright now get lost, liar. I don't need your help." The boy stiffened, and Eijeh could practically hear the flashback music.
Finally, he nodded in defeat. "Yes Chiaki. Sorry nee-san. It won't happen again."
Eijeh looked at him curiously. "What does nee-san mean?" The boy cringed and disappeared. Who's Chiaki? What did nee-san mean? Eijeh 'hmm'ed thoughtfully. Before he could ponder this further, however, a ball flew threw the open door and hit Ellowyn on the head with force, promptly knocking him out. Zia's familiar face ran into the room and carried Ellowyn out of the room with surprising fondness. Something was definitely going on there. Hayden popped xyr head around the doorframe, followed almost immediately by Vesper D'Arque and Pluto Alodia. Eijeh motioned for them to come in, and seven people (eight really, Zia had just returned from dropping Ellowyn wherever) crowded into the room. Vesper grinned. "Hope you don't mind I invited the other three. So, what's bothering you?"

"Don't you think it's kinda weird that not one of us have our memories? Don't you think that something weird is going on? C'mon guys, at least one of you has to feel like something's off." He searched everyone's faces.
Romeo shrugged. "I don't know, man. This isn't really my area of expertise."
Vesper snickered. "Nor is anything involving using a brain."
Romeo glared at her. "Unless you want to be falling over yourself to apologise and telling me how great I am in the next five seconds, I suggest you shut up." Riley signed something which sent Vesper into cackles. "What?!" Romeo shrieked. "She did not damage my 'fragile ego'!!!" Everyone burst out laughing, and Riley smirked. Eijeh rolled his eyes and pointed to the rest of them in turn. Vesper agreed with Eijeh, as did Hayden, Adira and Marco thought that something was out of the ordinary, but that it should be left alone, and Zia wasn't overly sure, but claimed she'd follow Eijeh regardless. Finally, it was Riley's turn. "Anything feel weird with you?" They made angry gestures, and Romeo sighed.
"Stop muttering. But no, they haven't found anything." Riley was still signing. Romeo grinned. "But...We could help you look?"

Riley opened their bag and revealed a small laptop, grey in colour and taped together in places. They opened the lid with the ghost of a smile and nodded at Romeo, who started to explain. "Not only is Riley a great sportsperson, they're also pretty good with technology. We found this old thing a while back, but it was pretty broken. They managed to get it working, but there was still one hell of a lot of programming blocking us from doing literally anything and everything. So they removed the programming, added some of their own, and voila!"
Zia frowned. "Is this allowed?"
Romeo grinned. "Hell nah. Now, everyone, meet Haylie. Haylie, this is Eijeh Ignis, Hayden D'Arque, Vesper D'Arque, Adira Hema, Marco Seldana..." He motioned at Zia and Alodia.
"Zia Adamos!" Zia chirped.
"Pluto Alodia." Alodia huffed.
"Zia Adamos and Pluto Alodia." An avatar popped up on-screen and smiled.
"Hello, everyone." Eijeh noticed she signed as she spoke, like Romeo, Vesper, Adira and Marco did. "I'm Haylie, and I use she/her pronouns. It's a pleasure to meet you all. How may I help you today, Riley?" She said calmly. Riley leaned forward and typed in a command, smiling. It was pretty obvious how proud they were of Haylie. Next to them, Romeo was bouncing up and down.
"Haylie's awesome!" He grinned. "She can do basically anything you want! It's pretty cool, if I'm honest."
Haylie's avatar nodded. "Playing current newsfeeds from: Tarasque, capital city of Ancien." In the history books, that's known as "France". What an odd name, Eijeh thought. An unfamiliar voice jolted him back to the present, and the audio playing from the laptop.

"—Par ailleurs, l'appel à des informations sur le sort des enfants qui ont disparu il y a un peu plus de sept semaines se poursuit. La police a nommé certaines des personnes disparues plus tôt dans la journée dans un communiqué qui promettait d'aider les familles des personnes actuellement portées disparues à retrouver leurs enfants et à les ramener en toute sécurité chez eux dès que possible. Maintenant, ces disparitions ne sont malheureusement pas des nouvelles rares. Ils se produisent toutes les quelques années, et parfois certains des enfants disparus seront rendus quelques jours après avoir été kidnappés, secoués mais apparemment indemnes. Cependant, ces enfants semblent rarement se souvenir de quoi que ce soit de leur vie, de la famille et des amis à l'endroit où ils vivent, ce qu'ils aiment faire et leur passé. Voici quelques-uns de ceux qui ont été nommés aujourd'hui. Pour une liste complète, veuillez visiter notre site Web pour trouver une liste de chaque enfant porté disparu, ainsi que des photos de chaque personne disparue. Si quelqu'un a des informations, veuillez contacter la police immédiatement. Retour à l'atelier." Eijeh scanned the group, having not understood a word they just said. Vesper and Hayden looked shaken.
"What did she say?" Eijeh asked.
Vesper took a deep breath. "She said, 'In other news, the appeal for information on the whereabouts of the children who disappeared just over seven weeks ago continues. Police named some of the missing earlier today in a statement that promised to help the families of those currently missing help find their children and return them safely home as soon as possible. Now, these disappearances are sadly not uncommon news. They occur every few years, and occasionally some of the missing children will be returned within just a few days of being kidnapped, shaken but seemingly unharmed. However, these children rarely seem to remember anything about their lives, from family and friends to where they live, what they enjoy doing, and their pasts. Here are a few of those named today. For a full list, please visit our website to find a list of each child reported missing, along with photos of each missing person. If anyone has any information, please contact the police immediately. Back to the studio.'" She has been signing as she translated, and she and her sibling were both paler than usual. "There's no doubt about it, Eijeh. You were right. Something's definitely not right. Now, why don't we check the other newsfeeds to see what else we can find?" She pulled Hayden into a side hug, taking deep breaths.