In a dark but cozy room, an orange light lamp shined from the sides of the wood-laminated walls. A tired Mangelle pushed the bright pink bed sheets off her body and sat up.
She folded her sheets and laid them across her bed neatly. Mangelle turned around stiffly as the whirring sounds of a motor emanated from her torso.
Her gaze shifted towards the bed across the room. She walked up to the bed where another figure was sleeping under the sheets. Someone like her.
"As usual, she's still asleep." Mangelle thought to herself.
She pulled her phone and sat it next to the ears of the figure. With a press of a button, a deafening ringtone echoed throughout the entire room. The figure jolted from her slumber and fell to the ground with an audible thud.
"What the hell, Mangelle!" Foxiene exclaimed, making sure that the entire room could hear her
"Wakey wakey, it's time for school." Mangelle calmly replied, a slight giggle leaking into her words.
"Ugghhhh…fine." Foxiene groaned as she lethargically dragged herself off her bed, her bedsheets slumping onto the floor as she got up.
Mangelle then headed to the bathroom. Unlike her older sister, she religiously followed a strict habit to brush her teeth and washed up every morning. Something about it kept one's breath from smelling bad or freshening one up before the day starts, at least that's what the humans said.
As Mangelle stepped into the bathroom, she saw herself in the reflection of the mirror. Two large ears sat at the top of her head, twitching and moving ever so slightly, with tufts of orange fur in each ear. A thin layer of soft, fuzzy white fur that covered her entire head, and two orange spots sat on each of her cheeks, like the blush makeup on a crown's face. Just below her ears were two pink bows that sat comfortably on her forehead. Her snout was long and rather thin, akin to that of a dog, with a dull pink colouration running down it. At the end of it sat a shiny black bump, that was her nose. Her eyes were large, almost comically large. Her left eye looked a lot like her sister's: a white eyeball with yellow pupils, while her left eye was vastly different, it was black in colour with a pale white pupil. She never knew why her right eye was like this, or why people liked to stare at it, but according to Foxiene, she was born like that, but why didn't her sister have it too?
She glanced towards the rest of her body in the mirror. Her neck was grey and segmented, with little stains barely visible in the gaps between each segment, but still noticeable enough. Her upper torso was covered with a white animatronic suit with a light pink bowtie and a dull pink belly, along with small black buttons running down the suit. However, the suit was heavily damaged, exposing the dark grey endoskeleton of her lower abdomen all the way down too her feet, one of which, the left one, was covered with the white, fuzzy outer suit of an animatronic foot. Her spine was also segmented, with "ribs" running down them that curved downwards and seemed to have been used to support some other structure that should be her abdomen, maybe a stomach hatch to store cupcakes and small toys? She didn't know. Her arms were no different, with only the top half of them covered by the suit, while the rest of them were bare endoskeleton with cylindrical structures running down each arm from one ball joint to another. She had always wondered why she was so different from everyone, even from her own sister. Foxiene did say that when they were much younger, a group of children were jealous of her and tore her up, but she never remembered that happening.
Mangelle shrugged it off and headed out of the bathroom.
"Hey, are you ready yet?" Foxiene asked, her expression droopy and her eyes only half-open. She slung her bag over her shoulders.
"Y-yeah let's head downstairs." Mangelle replied.
As they headed down the stairs, a staff drone raced up the stairwell, accidentally bumping into Foxiene. It was a large white drone, over a metre across with a 360-degree security camera sat on its front. Just above its "eye" were 4 thin appendages, each ending with little pincers. Below its main "body" were miniature skid landing gear, similar to that of a helicopter. Overall, its design was minimalistic and child-friendly, even having circular rims around its rotors. It retreated back slightly and rotated towards Mangelle and Foxiene. drone of the daycare.
Mangelle and Foxiene live in a daycare. Not your ordinary daycare, a daycare filled with different types of creatures. Animatronics, living cartoon characters, ghosts. These phenomenons were normalised by society ever since the first anomaly appeared. The daycare was built to house these anomalies so they have a place to stay.
The staff drones are safety precautions to guard the anomalies from any danger or attacks.
"Kids, have you had breakfast?" The staff drone asked, it's voice monotonous and robotic.
"Uh well, we're kinda in a rush to school so-" Before Foxiene could say anything, the Staff drone shoved a piece of bread into her mouth, doing the same for Mangelle as well.
"Breakfast is the most important meal of the day! Without it, your lack of energy could affect your day" The staff drone exclaimed.
Both Mangelle and Foxiene sighed.
After eating their bread, they headed out of the daycare and rushed towards school.
"Crap usually I'm not this late!" Mangelle panicked.
"What do you mean? We're only like 30 minutes early!" Foxiene replied.
"Exactly! Usually I would be at school an hour before it starts!" Mangelle yells out frantically.
As they hurried along the pavement towards school, Foxiene collided with a passerby, the impact made her stumble slightly.
"Ah, sorry!" she exclaimed, a hint of urgency in her voice.
Foxiene glanced back to see who she had bumped into. A sailor outfit? Wait, not just any sailor, an…Admiral? she silently questioned, raising an eyebrow. The boy's appearance reminded her of the cartoon characters from the 1920s. Furthermore his face did not look human either, he had a wide snout and large pie-cut eyes. The boy stared at her with a puzzled expression, eyes wide and curious.
Before the boy could say anything else, "Foxiene! Hurry up!" Mangelle shouted across the road.
"What the- How the hell did you get there so quickly! Wait up!" Foxiene shouted back before rushing across the road.
As they finally reached their destination, they passed through an already opened huge metal gate. The top of the sign reading, ForrestVille High.
"Finally! We made it!" Mangelle said as she panted and puffed.
"I can't wait for the first period! What's your first period, Foxiene?" Mangelle turned around and saw Foxiene laid on the ground stunned while trying to catch her breath. "Errr.."
After Foxiene caught her breath, they both entered the school main hallway. Students flooded the entire hallway as each of them tried finding their respective classrooms. Both Foxiene and Mangelle squeezed through the crowd of students, before finally reaching the school courtyard.
Foxiene sighed out loudly before saying, "Gosh, I wonder how long I can keep doing this."
"Well, there's only a month left before summer break" Mangelle happily replied.
"That's still an entire month away..." Foxiene replied as she rolled her eyes.
Before Mangelle could reply, she was pushed down by someone.
"Mangelle! Are you okay!?" Foxiene said as she rushed over and helped Mangelle up.
"Pfft, what a softie." a male voice spoke out.
Foxeine and Mangelle looked up to see a tall boy that loomed over them. Brandon Callahagn. A 17 year old senior boy. He wore a cream coloured leather jacket with maroon red sleeves and collar, along with long black pants. He was tall, very tall, 190cm in height, to be exact. He was the vice-captain for the ForrestVille Basketball team, and was a very popular student.
ForrestVille High isn't exactly your typical school. All grades are combined into one single school. The reason is still unknown but it was implemented by the Mayor of ForrestVille Town. That's why Mangelle, 11, and Foxiene, 12, are in the same school as much older people.
Mangelle had hated Brandon, and she knew Foxiene did too. Brandon had always been picking on both of them due to their robotic and furry-like appearance. Anomalies in this school had always been a common thing but for Brandon, he despised the fact he had to live with these beings, to him, they were simply just inhuman and thus inferior.
Foxiene got up and clenched her fists. Her eyes filled with rage and anger. She had enough of Brandon's bullying, especially towards her own sister.
As Foxiene tried sending a blow towards Brandon's face. Brandon caught her fist and pulled her body down towards the grassy ground with a thud. Before sending a kick straight into her shoulder.
"Foxiene!" Mangelle shouted.
"Wow, so you really want to fight me huh. If that's the case, meet me behind the school at 5pm later. I'll give you a real fight." Brandon smirked before sauntering away with a smile on his face.
Mangelle rushed over to help Foxiene up. A visible worry in her eyes.
"Damn it, I can't stand that arse-hole. Since when could he do freaking martial arts?" Foxiene grunted as she got up.
"And he wants to meet us at the back of the school later." Mangelle added, a hint of worry seeping into her voice.
"Darn it.. We're going to have to figure this out..just what I need on a Monday morning." Foxiene replied as she sighed.
Suddenly the school bell rang. Students started to take their textbooks from their lockers and head toward their classes. Foxiene exhales heavily and trudges toward her locker, and Mangelle follows suit, pushing past groups of students to get to hers.
Before long, Mangelle and Foxiene rush to their own respective classes.
As Foxiene sat in her own seat, listening to her teacher talk endlessly, she already had enough of finding x, and fractions weren't any simpler in her opinion. To boot, a slight sense of dread loomed over her, like a little mental raincloud with just a drizzle of rain, not too severe like a thunderstorm, but not a sunny sky either. Brandon's words echoed repeatedly in her mind. What did he want from them? What were his plans for that meetup? She knew she needed to keep Mangelle safe.
Suddenly, she thought of an idea that might just work. After the first period ended, she sprinted out of her classroom and found Mangelle near her locker.
"Mangelle! I have an idea!"