The ticking of the clock echoed throughout the almost empty room. The sound of pencils scribbling across paper, erasers removing doubtful responses, and the clattering of teeth against pencils stems of the indecisive mixed. Five students, equally spaced out, sitting in a medium-sized classroom with one teacher to supervise. Just looking inside the classroom at the expressions on the five's faces was enough to tell anyone the level of importance they placed on what seemed to be a test. Professor Earl D. Simons, the supervisor of said test, was a middle-aged man whose bald head could never be mistaken even from a distance. He looked like he'd never miss the donut wagon in the staff room to some people's amusement. Yet, he held an air of mystique of wisdom surrounding him. His green eyes gazed across the room, surveying each student as they toiled at the make-up test before them. His eyes shifted between each of them before landing on the clock once more, subtly nodding his head.

"You're now in the final minute." was all he said before going silent once more.

Hearing the final minute mark announcing, the five students felt the air around them stop as a sense of tension filled the room. One student, in particular, a blond girl whose incredibly long hair swayed back and forth against her waist as her head moved from side to side, her piercing blue eyes darting around the paper before her as she looked to be in a dire struggle with a math problem.

"C'mon... C'mon... brain think..." she muttered to herself, earning the teacher's gaze sitting in front of her since she was in the second seat.

"If I minus the three, then carry the two...then... Ah! That's it!" she said slightly louder than her previous mutter, her pencil scribbling furiously.

"Alexandria Winchester, no speaking... This is your final warning..." the man said in a solemn tone, causing the girl to flinch before smiling and scratching the back of her head, nodding at him, though his gaze stayed glued to her.

As she tried desperately to complete the paper's final question, her heart almost sank when she suddenly heard the teacher speak up once more.

"Alright. Pencils down, the test is over. Please fold over your sheets.” He, in turn, rising from his chair, preparing to collect the sheets, "I said, Pencils Down. Miss Winchester." he declared, his voice sounding a bit louder in the empty room when he saw that the blonde was still writing, though thankfully for her that was more than enough time to complete her answer.

Signs of frustration, relief and regret all began to sound out throughout the room. Mr. Simons made his way slowly through the three isles removing the sheets from all five desks before returning to his own; he let out a sigh as he looked at all five of them.

"Alright. That marks the end of this make-up test. You’re all free to leave and will be contacted when your scores have been properly evaluated." he said as he raised a hand to wipe a bead of sweat that was now running down his bald head and along his face, his other hand in a fanning motion.

"It's scorching today...." he complained as he watched each of the students get up, one directly grabbing their things and leaving. The other three seemed to be waiting on each other, grouping up and chatting as they left. As the blonde stepped towards the door, a voice echoed from behind her

"Miss Winchester, might I have a moment?" the voice said, Alexia's face revealing how disappointed in herself she was that she had tarried with her departure as she slowly turned around. Changing her mood not to show her disappointment.

"Yes, Mr. Simons?" she asked as she moved closer, "Is something wrong, teach...?" her voice sounded somewhat silvery, complimenting her cute appearance.

"Nothing of the sort. This is on your upcoming graduation. We've had this discussion before, I'm sure you've recalled," he said to her, his hands coming together in front of him as he placed both on the table.

"The end of the school year is fast approaching. Yet, you seemed to have become even more sluggish in your attempts in classes. Have you already decided what your future plans will be after the graduation ceremony?" he asked her, his eyes locked onto her steely blue gaze. His statement ran through the girl like a shot to the heart, visible displaying that it hit the mark though she tried to play it off, scratching the back of her head, her eyes shut as she forced out a smile.

"W-well teach.....you see...."

Truth be told, Alexandria was clueless about her future endeavors; she'd always found little interest in some areas. Still, it was never enough to have her fully commit to them, even more so on a professional level.

"Umm..alright... I'll be honest, sir. I don't know what I wanna do or even where I wanna go after graduation. If I even manage to graduate, that is..." she said in a slightly embarrassed voice, knowing full well this was the truth of the matter but still feeling embarrassed about explaining it.

Professor Earl shook his head, leaning back in his chair as he closed his eyes for a moment, showing how much the heat was truly affecting him, going quiet for a moment as he thought to himself before speaking up once more.

"I see... Even though normally youth around your age already have at least a solid clue on what they aim to become in the future..." his eyes opened once more as he looked at her.

"Well, I'm sure you'll get there in due time I suppose. For some people, it takes them a while to find their place in the wor-'' he went on before stopping himself, "Oh! But that's only a handful of sai-'' he said once more, stopping himself as he saw the hole he'd dug grow deeper.

"I'll leave it at that for now. Enjoy your summer break, Miss Winchester." With that, he said his farewells to Alexandria, leaning forward once more in his chair and reaching into his drawer to retrieve two bracelets.

Alexandria, who was still standing there, stood silently for a moment as the words he said sunk in, hitting her blow for blow, forcing her to strain out a laugh in the end. Her eyes wandered over to the two bracelets he picked out; the bracelets themselves looked extremely advanced, though one was showing the time and the other the usual daily business schedule. Mr. Simons adjusted one of the bracelets to his wrist. Immediately, a blue hue materialized around him as if he was being coated with a protective layer of shielding, an autonomous voice ringing out from the bracelet.

"Power Suppression. Confirmed. Have a nice day, Mr. Simons".

Professor Earl took a deep breath in before exhaling.

"Accursed thing always gets me..." he muttered in a calm tone, his overall mood seeming to have eased up a bit.

Trying not to be awkward in this situation, Alexia turned around and headed towards the door.

"Ok. Thanks for the chat, teach, have a good summer break~" she said, not even waiting for his response as she walked out into the hall. After walking a few steps from the room, she stopped and exhaled loudly, rolling back her own sleeve and looking down. She, too, had a bracelet on her arm. However, hers seemed to be quite a few generations behind the advance looking tech Professor Simons had.

Checking to see if her power suppression was indeed engaged, she ran her hands through her hair, though stopping around her shoulder's length as she started walking once more. Passing class after empty class on her way towards the stairs, seeing her class was on the second floor of the building, the occasional clubrooms were still surprisingly active. She reached into her pocket, pulling out her phone as she started to scroll through her texts as she walked.

One message caused her to grin as she read it, 'I found a good college for you, there's also a job opening in the same area. And yes, I mean, you can get a part-time job while you're at it.' The grin on her face grew slightly larger, but this grin wasn't joyful. It was pure depression. Her mind went blank as her thoughts stormed through her head. Even with a path being forged for her, Alexandria still didn't know what her fate had in store for her.

"Ugh...I need to think of something...finals are coming..." she sighed out, putting her phone back in her pocket.

"And if I pass. That miracle's really gonna-" she stopped herself as a thought occurred to her at that moment, "Then I'd have to pull another miracle out to graduate too..."

at this point her head was hung down, her hair swaying as she walked carefully, though not for long as the sound of classroom equipment being broken brought her back to reality.

"Wha-" she exclaimed. Curiosity was a fickle thing, and for Alexia, this was an understatement. Following the constant sounds of crashing, the blond found herself face to face with the source; behind the locked door was the object of her curiosity.

Looking above the door, she read the club's name currently occupying this room, 'Singularity Club.'

"Wait... We had a Singularity club!? Since when?!" she said out loud as she moved forward to look inside, seeing three students currently in the clubroom. It was the middle of June, but it wasn't uncommon for students in clubs to hold practices during their summer vacation. As long as a teacher was present in the academy, students could always come in and use their respective clubrooms until the hours of summer school were over.

Realizing that she recognized the three inside the room, Alexia pushed the door open. Walking into the room and genuinely seeing the chaos that had ensued in the room.

"Woah... did I somehow miss the tornado that hit in here...?" she said jokingly as she looked at the mess, broken chair pieces littered the floor. The tables leaned up against the window, blocking most of the sunlight from outside. As she inspected the damage to the room's contents, her eyes landed on a circular platform that rose currently in the center of the room.

The four-foot-high platform took up a sizable portion of the gym-sized room. The unique gray glass panels laid flat in its center caught her attention as the square-shaped glasses seemed to fit perfectly in the circular platform with stairs on both sides of the base leading up to metallic spots also on its surface, presumably where one should stand not to damage or break the actual glass. There was also a small dashboard on one side of the machine, near the set of steps, along with a sizable label marked 'Singularity Arena Model F.'