Keith ticked line after line on his page, checking over his work and making sure he'd gotten it correct. Finishing his corrections, he put the sheet of paper onto the growing pile on his desk. [i]Maths for next week is finished.[/i] He thought. He wasn't really supposed to be doing maths. But, he'd finished all the work for all of his classes this week already, and now he was hoping to finish next week's work before the end of the day.

His teachers had grown accustomed to him doing this, as he handed in all the work for his classes in advance and they just left him to do whatever he needed to. He wasn't even sure what class this was, not that it was relevant. Sitting up a little in his chair, he decided to take a little break, to rest his eyes a little. Then he noted the message sent out onto the school network.

[i]An assembly?[/i] He thought. There hadn't been one scheduled for today, so that meant this assembly was fairly important. [i]Regarding the recent developments?[/i] Perhaps the assembly was to be about the recent destruction of the Green sector of the Faded City. He wasn't aware of anything else that could have merited a school-wide assembly for it. Quickly browsing through the public forums, he found no other major events.

[i]Maybe there's something in my messages.[/i] He though. [i]On second thought, I doubt it.[/i]

If there was some kind of major event that warranted a message to every single player in Deep Ground, he doubted that there wouldn't be at least one forum post about it. Besides that, Keith never really checked his Deep Ground messages. He had no friends, no one would really message him unless they were someone he'd fought. When he had first joined, he'd sometimes gotten messages asking him to join some guild or another, but he'd rejected them all. Eventually, he'd distanced himself some more and formed his own guild so people would stop asking.

Ever since the accident, he'd been doing that. He'd always been distancing himself from everyone around him really. Sometimes, it wasn't exactly on purpose. But the more he thought about it, the more he realized he really was pushing people away. He couldn't bring himself to relate to people ever since the accident, and he'd really stopped trying to socialize. Eventually, the people around him stopped trying as well. There was no one even remotely close to him now, really.

[i]Well, I suppose Lucy counts.[/i] He thought. The recently discovered Green King he'd met just the last night, was probably the closest person to him at that moment. Even though she was just an acquaintance, there was no one else even remotely close to her. [i]That means she's the only person alive in my social circle.[/i] He thought wearily. He found himself thinking about her now. She clearly cared a lot for people, judging by her dedication to her guild. She also had a very strong character, he could clearly see her determination when they exchanged names the night before. [i]She would make a good friend for anyone. But probably not someone like me.[/i] He thought to himself. He felt slightly melancholy, after that thought.

He found himself thinking about her more now. [i]I wonder what she's doing.[/i] He wondered silently. Now that he thought about it, this was the first time in four years that he'd ever thought that about anyone. [i]I wonder what she's thinking right now, I wonder what she's feeling.[/i] He thought. He was surprised that he was thinking this much about her. She was only an acquaintance...

[i]Maybe it's just because she's the only other person to think about than myself.[/i] He reasoned. [i]Or maybe it's something else...[/i]