Yellow Sun Academy

Chapter 6: Drop-Off

Hothead:

"Uhhh," I start, looking out the window of the room. As far as I can see, there is nothing but sand, sand, and sand dunes, all under a light-blue full moon and stars-filled night. "Should we be concerned that it's nighttime now?"

"What," Alodia says with crossed arms and legs. "Are you afraid of the dark?"

"It's not the dark I'm afraid of," I reply. "It's the Wild desert and every animal in it that concerns me. Concern me! Not scared me! The only thing that scares me is when people cry."

"What!"

"I'm scared of crying people but only because they make me uncomfortable! I'm not actually scared of them. Also, I'm not big on being cold."

"Could've fooled me," Alodia says. I look at Alodia but she's not even looking at me. Instead, she's checking something on her wrist. I roll my eyes.

Jump:

"Do you have any experience with desert survival," I ask. I look out the window and see the academy's private desert. It's a literal sea of sand and a lot bigger than the forest back in Norwood.

"A little," my roommate answers. I turn away from the window and look at her. "Most of the time, when I go out into the Wild, it's usually a woodland area. Like a forest."

"Hey, same here," I say, laughing and pointing at myself. "Hey, I've just realized something. You and I haven't introduced ourselves yet. My name is Eimear but my two best friends called me Jump."

"Jump?"

"Yeah. It's a nickname given to me by one of my friends. We, well I, called him Hothead. Honestly, I like the nicknames. What's your name?"

"Uhh," the girl mutters while stroking her long black hair. "My name is Clementine."

"Well, hello Clementine," I say. I get up from my seat and walk over to Clementine. I then offer her my hand. "I hope we can become friends."

I nod and smile. Clementine seems a bit hesitant but after a few minutes, she too nods her head and smiles. She then lightly shakes my hand. With that, I return back to my seat.

"So Clementine, you said you have a little experience with desert survival?"

"Yeah."

"Do you have any advice for me?"

Shocker:

As I re-enter the room, I take off my shoulder bag and put it in an empty seat. Taking the empty seat right next to it, I open my bag and pull out some tools. With the tools, I work on my metal gauntlets.

"That's a smart thing you're doing," Alice says. I look up and reply with both a smile and a nod. Alice stares at me as I work on my gauntlets. While looking at me, she reaches into her own bag and pulls out what looks like a sniper rifle. The sniper rifle is purple and has a sight on top of it. Alice lays the gun across her lap and works on it too.

"Hey," she says after a few minutes. "Do you have a plasma cleaner I can borrow?"

I search my bag and find my plasma cleaner. Handing it over to Alice, she takes the cleaner and uses it to clean the inside of her weapon.

"Thanks," she says. Alice tries to return the plasma cleaner but I put up my hand and shake my head. I then point to Alice's rifle.

"What? What is it?"

I get up and walk over to Alice with both of my hands up. Carefully and gently, I slowly take the rifle from Alice. Thankfully, she let me have it. Dropping to a knee, I point to the rifle's trigger and the chamber. I then point to the plasma cleaner in Alice's hand.