In a quiet small library was only one boy and a cranky librarian,everyone else was in the cafeteria.

Sebastian Miller sat at one of the tables he knew he should have joined the other students in the cafeteria. But, that didn't matter. What mattered was his research, his blue eyes searching for answers inside a dusty old book with the smallest handwriting he had ever seen in his life. He squinted as his eyes roamed the page, reading each line as best as he could until his hair fell into his face. His black hair looked as if he never brushed it.  

Sebastian slammed the heavy book down on the table with an annoyed expression on his face. Dust flew everywhere as soon as he slammed the book. Next to him was a small brown notebook with a leather cover. He flipped the notebook open, reading over his feverish scrawl from the past few days. 

The history books don't say anything about how the war ended. 

"This is going nowhere," he groaned to himself as he buried his head into the notebook, hoping that smelling the pages could give him a clue, or any sort of answer that could help him answer one of the many questions in his head.

 He picked up another heavy book with yellowed pages. Its cover stuck to the binding with black duct tape on the cover were faded silver words read: The history of Eriel second edition. The cover was dusty as if it was never picked up before. As he was about to read the book, hoping this would be the time he’d get the answers he so desired, an old, croaky voice spoke from behind him. 

 “What is going nowhere?” 

Sebastian turned around to see the old librarian behind him. She pushed her bright red-rimmed glasses to her face. 

 "Well? Spit it out I haven't got all day,” she said, annoyed. 

Sebastian wondered if he should just ignore her and not risk angering her. Or… he could risk her wrath and ask the question he'd been fixated on all week.

"Well, Miss Acker, I am researching the old war." 

The librarian sat at the chair beside him, causing Sebastian to almost choke on whatever perfume she was wearing. It was an overwhelming, cloying smell of white lilies and anise. Whoever told her that it smelled good must have been insane. 

He backed away slightly, making an effort to not reveal he didn't find the smell pleasant.

 "Oh, Miller, I'm great at that subject! Did you know I lived in that era? Gruesome times it was.”

Sebastian knew that the librarian lived in those days since she often bragged about it and made every student hear her tales of how she met the king. 

She started to tell the old tale once again, explaining how she was sure that the king would have fallen in love with her only if he had not laid eyes on the future queen first. But the old tale wasn’t what he wanted to know. He tapped on the old book quietly, waiting for her to finish until she eventually stopped.

'' What are you trying to learn about the subject hun?" 

Sebastian felt relief as he spoke out his long-awaited question. 

"How did the King stop the monsters? I mean everything is so vague, an incredible child with courage stopped the monster's dark magic… but courage alone can't stop evil! So do you know, Miss Acker? '' 

The librarian's upper lip curled up in disgust.

 "Miller, how dare you question the likes of the king! Shame on you for your act of unappreciative behavior. If the king was weak, we would still be in the dark ages. I should send you to the principal himself!" she scoffed.

 Sebastian hunched his shoulders and stood up. He quickly said to her, “Wait! You don't need to call the principal. It was a mistake you see, I just wanted to -'' 

The librarian interrupted Sebastian's rambling. 

“That's enough. Go to lunch. I'm sure your friends are missing you.”

The way she said friends made Sebastian cringe from the inside. Sebastian nodded and immediately ran out of the library. 

As he made his way down the hallway, he thought to himself how he could find answers to his question. The only possibility he could think of other than asking his teachers was to find a magical creature who was old enough to know what happened in the war. 

He’d beg them to tell him everything, even if it meant risking death. As he passed the lockers, a paper ball hit him in the back of his head. Sebastian turned around to see a blond boy with hunched shoulders and a football jersey. The boy chuckled.

“Well, isn't it the school's freak? Finally got kicked out of the library, did you? It will take weeks to remove your stench.” Sebastian rolled his eyes. 

“What do you want?" He stopped walking and stared at the guy. He couldn’t exactly remember why he seemed familiar, but did it matter? 

“I’m just warning you freak, you don't belong here. Nobody forgot what you did to Rhiannon.”

Sebastian nodded as he thought to himself, Okay? What did I do now?  Suddenly it clicked like a light switch turning on: this was Rhinmon's newest boyfriend. 

Not wanting to be bothered by whatever new stupidity the football guy was told, Sebastian walked off to the cafeteria.

 It didn't seem like a monstrous place like the football guy was going on about. It was more like everyone was just doing their own thing. Inside, the cafeteria had people talking, moving to their tables, and eating food as if it were just a regular day.

 He walked in line to await the school lunch. He stared at the other lunch line, the one deservingly named the rich kid's lane. 

Sebastian tried some of the rich kid slop a couple of months ago and couldn't tell the difference between them other than it served various junk foods at a higher price. 

 Stupidity at its finest, he thought. Sebastian's thoughts were interrupted by both the vile stench of a teenager who was recently outside doing sports and a gruff voice. 

“ Oi Nerd move.”

 Sebastian rolled his eyes and walked forward in line. He grabbed a blue tray and was served a five-day-old meatloaf. It was a sickly brown and there were smudges of a pale red like the meat had been undercooked.

 The smell that came out of it was not exactly pleasant and the texture made it seem like there were humans, rats, and other remains inside of it. Just thinking of what the meatloaf was made of, caused his stomach to turn. He grimaced at the sight of it until someone praising that piece of meat spoke.

“Heck yeah, meatloaf again! My favorite!” It was the same gruff voice from before. Perhaps monsters did still exist in Eriel. He walked to the mostly empty lunch table with some kids sitting at the ends of the table. Looking over, he sat in the middle where he didn’t have to face anyone possibly talking to him. The last time he sat close to someone, the kid had chosen to eat all his food with his mouth open. He wouldn’t make that mistake again. Sebastian picked at the meatloaf with a fork, trying to find the eyeballs when two people sat next to him, their arms on his shoulders. 

“Sebastian!” 

He turned around to find his childhood friends, Noah and Charlie.  

“Dude we didn’t think you'd come!” said Charlie. His brown hair was curly as ever, and a pair of headphones resting by his neck which likely came from his parent’s tech business that they hoped Charlie would run someday. Of course, his friend had other plans. 

Sebastian always felt a bit jealous of Charlie. It seemed like he had everything going right for him. Both his parents were alive and loved him, he didn’t have an older sibling so there were no expectations for him at school, and everyone loved him and wanted him in all their projects, parties, groups, you name it. Sebastian was lucky they were neighbors before Sebastian's stepfather came along to ruin his life.

 It was like whoever made Charlie gave him everything perfect, the only flaw about him was that he talked too much.

Whoever made Sebastian probably got lazy, he couldn't think of one good feature about himself, he was too small, his hair was so thick that it was impossible to brush, and he couldn't quite figure out the right thing to say to someone new.

He was sure that he was only friends with Noah and Charlie because of how long they knew each other. He often wondered when they would outgrow him.

 “We thought you were going to sleep in the library,” Noah said jokingly. Where Charlie was all about the arts, Noah’s hair was the beginning of how chaotically different they were. He was a goalie for football and wanted to go to college doing football, or soccer if you lived in Ias Tan.

Sebastian shrugged. “Yeah, well I tried to do some research and may have accidentally insulted the king.”

 Noah gasped. “Not in Miss Acker's face?” 

Sebastian nodded. 

 “Oh, no, Sebastian's dead. Miss Acker is going to break into your room and cut your neck!” Charlie said dramatically, raising his hands in the air as if he were an orchestra conductor. 

Sebastian rolled his eyes. “Yeah, right. What will she do next?” 

  “She’ll eat your liver at night!'' Charlie shouted. 

He took his hands out as if he was going to grab him. The boys laughed at the stupid joke. While they laughed, Sebastian wondered if he could convince his friends to go into the deep dark web to look for answers. 

Once again, his thoughts were interrupted when two more boys sat on the opposite end of the lunch table. Sebastian looked curiously to see who the two strangers were. But it was just Dylan, Noah's older brother, and some other person that didn't spark Sebastian's interest.

 “Dylan! Has Coach Wilson made you run twenty laps yet?” Noah asked.

 “Hardy har har. Surprisingly, no.” He said easily, ignoring the other two boys before he faced them as if remembering that now they existed too. “Hey, Charlie and Sebastian, still doing each other's homework?” 

Sebastian shrugged, picking at his meatloaf again. 

“You mean I do Charlie's homework while he plays on the computer? Yeah.”

Charlie practically jumped out of his seat. 

“Who's your new friend?” 

Dylan patted the bigger kid’s back. “ Oh, this is...” 

Sebastian stopped listening to the conversation as he got distracted by a girl with golden blonde hair. 

 He stared at her while she was walking to her seat. Sebastian had heard her name was something generic like Charlotte, or maybe it was Caroline either way he noticed how pretty she appeared in math class, she was always around other girls and was right in every question. He was sure she was his new crush for the week. 

As he watched her sit down, he heard her shout aloud to the girls around her. 

 “Is that little freak staring at me?” 

Sebastian quickly stared at his meatloaf, wondering if eating it would maybe make him die of food poisoning. this show could be over. Instead, he felt both of his friends punch him in the arms.

“Dude, you got a crush on Cora?” 

''Man, Cora out of all the people!” Noah asked Sebastian, a smirk across his face.

“I heard she gets asked out once a week,” Charlie added. 

Sebastian was pretty sure everyone was staring at him, laughing, or insulting him. So he stared at his disgusting meatloaf instead. Charlie dared to grab him in a headlock and Sebastian, too weak to fight back, just let him do it. He was probably the weakest in the whole school.

  “You should ask her out… like right now.'' 

Sebastian shook his head. 

“She called me a freak, and like you said she gets asked out by every loser in school anyway,”

 Noah pointed at him. 

'' But you're the smartest kid in school, and Rain Miller's brother.” 

Rain Miller, Sebastian's older brother, was considered a bad student by everyone in the school who knew him. Rain used to question the teachers, the etiquette of the school, and the whole government as a whole. Their mother was so worried he was going to get himself arrested. Thankfully that never happened or else Sebastian would have been homeschooled. Probably because he dropped out. 

Sebastian was pushing Charlie away from picking him up and taking him to Cora when the bigger kid spoke. 

“Wait, Sebastian Miller?”

“ I mean there is only one Sebastian Miller in this school, but there is a Toni Miller, a Daniel Miller, and a” 

“Yeah, we get it there are lots of Millers who are unrelated to our best buddy,” Noah interrupted. 

“Isn’t Sebastian that kid who forced his ex-girlfriend to get drunk and tried to strangle her?” 

Sebastian looked at Dylan with disbelief.  

“What the heck man are you telling him?" Dylan just shrugged. 

The bigger kid smiled grimly. “I don't believe it, of course, you think that small-looking twig could even get a girlfriend? I mean look at him, he is a loser.”

Charlie stood up. “What is that supposed to mean?” 

“You know perfectly well what I meant.”

Noah almost leaped across the table. “I’ll turn you into a twig!” he yelled.

The cafeteria turned into a yelling match between the four boys. Sebastian slunk underneath the table and waited for the fighting to end like a coward. The blond kid eventually left the lunch table and Dylan followed. Sebastian got out from under the table when the bell rang. The trio left the cafeteria. 

“So, that happened,” Charlie said. 

   “Yup, meet up at my house tonight?” Noah asked them.

 “Yeah sure."They both said, the trio parting ways to their classes. As Sebastian walked up to the third floor, he kept thinking about how he was a freak. Was it because he was having fun with his friends? Was it because he spent too much time at the library, looking for the answers to what could have happened to his dad and now the war? 

Sebastian made his way into the history classroom, sitting at his desk by the cabinets in the back. His desk was covered in crumpled research papers which made everyone know it was his desk. Reaching in his pockets he pulled out a gear and a screw stuck together, he spun it on his desk as if it was a spinning top. The history teacher spoke to everyone about today's history lesson, the world of coal mining, and how it was the main resource of Eriel. 

Sebastian raised his hand to ask a question. Which was an annoyance to everyone else who just wanted to get the lesson done and over with. The short stocky teacher twitched his gray mustache “Yes, Miller?” Sebastian flipped his notebook reading his notes.

  “Ah… yeah, um I wanted to know if there were any other ores in the mine?”

  The teacher clapped his hands together, happy to hear that at least one student was interested.

  “ Great question, Sebastian and yes, there is.”

  The history teacher started to list other ore mined. As he did so, Sebastian looked up at the door to see bits of smoke coming out from it. He assumed someone was either smoking or strangely cooking something by the door.

 He knew it obviously couldn't be a fire, since the whole school was covered in brick, and had a water system so any fires would be put out. The fire alarm would go off anyway. He flipped his notebook to a blank page and started to write every one down. When the science teacher flew into the room, her eyes watering, she screamed. "FIRE! GET OUT! NOW!"