THE MOMENT
"Can I have a visitor?" Keys broke the silence with a question. He hadn't even bothered to raise his hand, the teacher wasn't paying attention. Victoria looked up from under her white cowboy hat and nodded at the teen. Class started recently and she hadn't fallen asleep quite yet. She sat at the front of the class, reclined in her seat with her arms crossed and white leather boots resting on the wooden desk.
"Keep it quiet," she answered. Then, she settled in her seat and hung her head again.
"Hey, Crystal, what's up?" Keys asked as a teenage girl with golden, double-plaited braids walked out of a portal into the classroom. She looked around at the classroom full of empty desks. Keys and a woman with light violet hair were the only other people there. Crystal guessed the napping woman was the teacher and it immediately left a bad impression of the school. She'd been invited to the school several times by friends. They explained it was a school for Unique Souls only. The students came from different universes and all of them had some sort of ability.
But, when Crystal discovered the multiverse her boundless curiosity took over. There was so much she wanted to see that the idea of spending an extended amount of time in one place wasn't appealing. Despite not wanting to attend, she imagined it to be an amazing school. It would almost have to be. At least, that was her assumption until she saw Keys was the only student of a sleeping teacher. It was honestly such a surprise; and, she was distracted easily enough, that she needed to comment.
"This is Toku-high?" she asked as she gestured at the white room around them. Her normal voice was still too loud for some people.
"Quieter," the teacher said without looking up.
"Yeah, you haven't been here?" he asked.
"No," Crystal shook her head. "I can travel the multiverse," she said. In her mind, it was a complete answer, but Keys still seemed to be waiting for her to finish. "I don't need to be worrying about grades and homework. And, it looks like there's not much to learn here anyway," she said.
"Wow," Keys chuckled. "Is that a habit of yours, to be wrong about everything?" he asked.
"What?" Crystal tilted her head at him curiously.
"Let's take it point by point. First, this is just a nitpick...," Keys straightened his back and crossed his arms on the desk to mimic Crystal's posture. Then, he pitched his voice up to sound more feminine. "I can travel the multiverse," he mocked her. Then, he relaxed again with a smirk.
"So can literally everyone else at this school. The only thing in this universe is this school, so it's kind of a requirement."
"You mean you and the teacher?" Crystal asked.
"Yeah," he nodded. His coppery-red bangs slid forward with the motion. He reached up and brushed it back to the side. "I'll get to that. First, I want to explain why you don't need to worry about homework or your grades."
"Not much of a school, is it?" Crystal asked. She wasn't normally that combative; but, he seemed to bring it out in her. She almost felt like she didn't want him to have any negative impressions of her. So, anything he commented on needed a rebuttal.
"Yeah, it's actually more of a club, I guess? Or maybe like a convention," he shrugged. "So, it works like this. Everything is optional. You can get homework assignments and grades if you want to go that route and pursue a real education. But, like you said, we can travel the multiverse. You can come and go freely. The teachers have set schedules and lesson plans posted and the students go to the classes they want to learn from.
"Oh," Crystal nodded. It made sense enough for now and she remembered why she was there. But, Keys wasn't done.
"And, as far as 'nothing to learn here'," Keys chuckled as he nodded at Victoria. "This whole server, i.e., the entire Earth is the school," he said. "You saw one classroom and decided the whole school was useless? You landed in the least popular class," he said. "There are plenty of students."
"Why is it so unpopular?" Crystal asked.
"This class is here for students that don't want to play roller derby," he said. "I think you can understand why it's so empty." Crystal nodded. Derby was another thing that was on Crystal's list of things to look into after she saw every corner of the multiverse. As popular as the sport was it was hard to ignore its existence. She'd learned most of the basics through osmosis; roller derby was everywhere.
"But, then why are you here? I know you're a fan," she said.
"It's my day," he chuckled. "All classes must have at least one student in order to be conducted. I rotate with the rest of my team so Victoria gets her nap time."
"Oh...," Crystal nodded.
"So, why are YOU here," Keys asked her. She had asked if she could meet with him in person and he had no idea why.
"Oh yeah!" Crystal blurted.
"Quieter," Victoria interjected.
"Sorry," Crystal shrank and leaned closer to Keys. "My friends are still missing!" she hissed. Part of that anger was directed at herself for getting distracted.
"Yeah," Keys nodded. "We're doing all we can."
"Clearly, we're not!" Crystal angrily thrust her hand out to show him the empty classroom.
"You can keep searching every single alternate Earth if you want to try and find them the hard way," Keys shrugged. "Or, unless you find someone else that's willing to fight Spider; we can't get anywhere without Flutter's help."
"SO WHERE IS SHE!?" Crystal couldn't contain the outburst. It had been a couple of days since Keys promised to help her find Flutter. He also promised that she was so popular that she would be easy to find. But, no one had seen her since a few days before Crystal and Keys started looking.
"Alright, class is canceled," Victoria spoke up suddenly. "I'm not gonna get any sleep like this anyway." She stood from her seat but Crystal was quick to apologize.
"No! I'm sorry! I'm not even a student here, I'll leave...," she sighed and her shoulders slumped. "...I'll keep looking for Flutter somewhere else."
"You're looking for Flutter?" Victoria asked.
"Keys said she was easy to find, but she hasn't been!" Crystal answered with a nod.
"Yeah, she takes breaks from the AlterNet every now and then," Victoria smirked as she sat back down in her seat. She leaned back and put her boots up again. "If you leave right now I can have her meet you somewhere."
"YES!" Crystal hopped in place. Then, she quickly threw a black card on the floor. "Let's go, Keys!" she said.
"Uh, no," Victoria answered as she crossed her arms. "Go alone. Keys stays."
"What? Why?" Crystal asked. Victoria answered as she pulled her hat down over her eyes.
"I can actually sleep with you gone."