The World's Start

Jack

Jack's head was pounding. He didn't know how long he could go on working himself sick every night, especially now that he had been made leader of the squad. He'd always given everything to the school, he had to, but he could occasionally slack off, and teasing the Laoch used to be sort of relaxing too.

Now it sort of wasn't. Everybody knew some complicated but important dynamic had changed between the two of them ever since the Professor had made them fight for the title, but nobody could guess exactly what it was. Mister Tenney was aware too, and that day he looked particularly anxious.

Jack had never been well-liked by his classmates. Now they had to listen to him, though, which felt less gratifying than he'd imagined. The fear that had taken hold of him when he'd officially won the last test, that he wasn't good enough, had proved true. He wasn't.

He tried to regain his concentration. The group was studying a layout of a house where a very important meeting would occur. They had to find a way to get in and out without being noticed --- and obviously eavesdrop the conversation while they were there.

"It would be smarter if one of us could go undercover," Norma pointed out. "There would be no need to hide, and I can't find yet a proper place where one of us could fit. I'm still trying to figure out the circumference of the vents..."

"Indeed," Mister Tenney commented. "One of the many setbacks of inviting you misfits to join my school, is that you are all too noticeable. However, because of this, nobody knows better how to blend in."

The Professor was right. The students had always found a way to disappear, when asked to. It was the reason Jack's dressing up as his dad was meant to be provocative --- attracting attention was a bad thing for them, and it was the very first thing they'd learned.

Obviously, Heath couldn't hide. The Professor honed his powers of persuasion, instead. If he couldn't pretend to be something he wasn't, or the pink hair was too easy to spot, he'd have to learn to be another version of himself, one that could prove fruitful.

"Is there no way the Laoch can get an invite to this?" Leo asked. "I can't believe we always have to break in everywhere. I remember reading stories from the past. Why are you not as powerful as Caladium?"

"He could be as powerful and as influential as Caladium is," Jack snapped, without realising he was defending Heath. "You still don't see him get invited anywhere."

"Well, duh," Leo commented. "He is a tree."

"They," Mister Tenney corrected them. "For the latest one has not yet broken into their powers to tell the Island his former identity. However, they're not simply a tree. They are much, more than that. A combination of a powerful human and a sacred tree host which makes the result of the mix of almost divine nature. Heath is not as powerful. However, Leo is right as in they cannot move, so it would be useless to invite them anywhere. One has to go to them, which is how one should do when approaching a being of that caliber."

"Whatever," Norma chewed her pen. "Let's get back to this. I can't wait to crash this stupid thing. It's bound to be another boring meeting about the red sun, and why it is red, and why is it there, and nobody ever comes up with anything new."

"One day maybe they will," Mister Tenney commented. "Or we will. However, it makes me sleep better at night to know what the influential people are talking about. Once, I happened to overheard a plot to murder me. You can never be too careful."

Jack took a look at Norma's calculations for the vents. He gave her the number.

"Oh dear Leader," Heath commented. Jack eyed him warily. His hair was slightly discolored, which meant he was moderately high. "It pains me to say you are wrong." He took a glance at the calculations, and gave Norma another number.