8:20 am.
Tiffany Chang took a sip of her tea.
Bitter.
But that was exactly how she liked the tea.
Maximillian Hunter.
The boy whose statement had not left her mind.
"I'm the only one in the world like me."
That statement...
What could it possibly mean?
That still bothered her.
And even so, there was more to think about.
After all, they all and they all together would be in school in a couple of minutes.
Well...
... to be more precise, in less than half an hour.
And of that conversation...
... it would be unavoidable.
That much she knew.
With the delicate precision of a rich person eating at a five star restaurant of sorts, she cut her egg with a knife, before eating the eggs and bacon together with a fork.
Maximillian Hunter.
"What would happen?" she wondered...
"What would he say?" she wondered also.
It was troubling...
Troubling enough that this one thought concerned her for the rest of the moments she took partaking of her breakfast.
She chewed her food calmly and delicately.
Thoroughly and gently.
No need to rush.
She, Tiffany Chang, is a leader...
... and what is a leader to do...
... in a situation like this...
... where one of the people she, .
... well, he was still on probation, but still...
... by technicality, one of the people she was leading...
... had such a strange and confusing problem.
Maximillian Hunter.
What could that sentence possibly mean?
After all, to be fair...
... Max did still have his mother...
... and by her own understanding, lest she did not understand that part of biology...
... they were the same.
So...
... at least he had her.
So...
... why?
Why did he say that?
Why was it so...
... him?
8:21 am.
She was about halfway done with breakfast.
Or, more precisely...
... more than halfway done.
The road to her school was a quaint one.
Nothing too far out of the ordinary.
And even so, she still had plenty of time to get there.
No need to rush.
That was just it.
Another sip of tea entered her mouth.
With that, she was also more than halfway done.
The road to her school was a mostly non-busy road, most often at this hour.
All she'd really need to do is get on her bike and get a move on.
It would hardly be a problem.
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And even still, she still had a whole 40 minutes to get there.
Well, slightly less than 40, but still...
... no need to rush.
Meeting Max at school and talking about this was fully and utterly unavoidable.
This...
... she knew.
She knew all too well.
And she knew her team well.
They all...
... well, most especially Rose, may probably bring it back.
That topic.
And that...
... was fine.
After all, that was the girl by the name of Rose Wright.
Tiffany had no qualms with that side of her.
Not that she needed to anyway.
8:22 am
Now she was almost done with her breakfast.
Just a few scrapes of bacon and eggs on the side that she gently but firmly picked with her fork.
Maximillian Hunter.
That guy...
A good question was this.
What would he say?
This she considered for a moment, as she took yet another sip of her tea.
That was a good question.
What on earth would he say?
Say what one would about the girl by the name of Tiffany Chang, but one of those things was that Max was...
... well...
... tough.
She knew that.
She'd seen it.
Nope.
In fact, it would be better to say that she'd witnessed it.
Over and over and over.
In battle with Wolfram.
In battle against the spider bots.
In battle against his own heart.
She knew full well how tough he was.
And knowing people like him, she also knew...
... it was very unlikely that he would ever say a thing about this.
Well, at least not fully.
Of that, she was at least somewhat certain.
Yet another sip of her tea...
The second last one...
Even so, while Maximillian Hunter was who he was, she knew deep down...
... she could not ignore this.
Nope.
That was just her.
With one more look at the thoughts in her mind she considered things.
What would she say to Max herself?
Now that was a very good question.
Because, quite honestly...
... she was not entirely certain.
She took the moment to truly ask herself.
What would she say?
And of it, she decided...
... she would have to say something.
That was that.
It was with that final motion that she partook of more of her own drink.
The final sips... right after finishing the last of the scrapes of bacon and eggs.
There was actually a place to buy food on the way to school, but...
... what could one say...
... she preferred cooking her own food.
That was just the girl by the name of Tiffany Chang.
8:23 am.
And without a moment to lose...
... after all, it was around this time that she was often done with breakfast.
Her eyes fell to the clock once more.
That was it.
That was the time right there.
And of it, approximately 17 minutes before she would probably need to start to consider getting going.
It was then and there that she got off her feet and started towards the sink.
The reason...
... obviously...
... to wash her plate and cup.
All before leaving them in the rack to dry.
The team would likely meet to talk in between periods.
That was when this meet up would likely happen.
Well, to be more precise, it would likely happen right before classes.
And then and thereafter, more times.
One after the other.
After Maths, after biology, after chemistry...
... and most definitely during sports.
Those times.
They'd have plenty of time to have a conversation about this.
Plenty of time to consider...
... after all...
... who was Max truly?
Who was he?
Who is he?
Is there something...
... something about him...
... beyond her understanding?
This thought troubled her.
Not because she believed herself one who knew everything, but rather...
... it just did...
Her hands were now wet having washed the plate and cup.
She dried them with her kitchen towel before taking off her apron.
This she carefully and methodically placed right where she'd always put it.
There was no stain on it, after all, so there was no need to wash it.
At least not immediately.
8:24 am.
Now, according to her daily schedule, was the time to move.
Well, technically, this was based more on her actions and less on the amount of time left.
After all, she always left right after breakfast.
And of that, with 16 minutes to spare, she could indeed leave.
After all, and also, there was no need to rush.
There was a very small list of things she needed to do to prepare herself to get going.
One!
Her phone.
The very thing was useful to her...
... in more ways than she would have originally thought.
After all, how else would she keep up with the team...
... should they be too far away from her?
2!
Her composite katana.
It was a strange tool, one would say.
It was small enough to fit into the hand of a human.
It had the handle of a katana, sure, but any normal human would have thought little of it...
... imagining it to be some sort of trinket or makeup prop or something.
This thing was small enough to fit into her purse or bag fairly easily.
It was a small inconspicuous item that seemed harmless at first, but was definitely deadly in truth.
It's handle had little notches on it, the kind one would imagine would make holding onto it have an easier time doing so.
But also...
... it had a bit of an oddity to it.
If one held onto the notches with one's fingers, one would soon realize that all the notches could be pressed for a click.
In other words, they were a switch.
What kind of switch?
A code.
What kind of code?
The kind Tiffany Chang would never allow one to figure out.
After all, how much damage could be done...
... if one realized that a teenage girl was carrying a literal murderous weapon to school every day?
The clicks were silent.
The kinds only felt as vibrations upon one's fingers.
But...
... with the right combination...
... one could activate the katana...
... and of the result...
... as the young teenage girl did at that very moment double check...
... a fully fledged katana would come out.
36 inches in length.
It came out as a katana, sure, but also, as a series of "folded over each other blades" that straightened themselves out in a specific order, allowing them to reach this great height.
The only way to shut them off?
To click the button at the bottom of the handle.
One that became clickable only and only when the katana was out.
In truth, the weapon itself wasn't exactly battle worthy.
For that reason, she herself had actual katanas with her in her room.
Hidden, of course, should someone enter her room without her knowledge.
As for the composite katana...
... it was a particularly thin blade.
One good for cutting, but not so good for heavy head on collision.
It required a steady hand and gentle and precise movements to make the most out of it.
And as for why she would use such a weak weapon?
Well...
... it was the best option she had available...
... lest she had Ken make her another form of weapon.
But this one?
It worked.
And, after all, it was better than flat nothing.
3!
Her backpack, of course.
School is important...
... is what they say...
And thereof, text books, class books, ...
... pencils, pens, rubbers, sharpeners...
... the whole shebang, really.
Everything well prepared and ready.
Heck, even her homework was done.
All this.
Each and everything ready and sorted.
8:25 am.
Socks on...
... and shoes.
She'd always chosen to wear sports shoes.
The kinds that don't get worn out too easily.
The kinds that allow her to run long distances, seeing as the day was P.E. day.
And of it, there were three of those per week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
And most of all, she was who she was.
The shoes she had were specially made.
Made for someone who's gonna go through a lot.
Running, jumping, you name it, she was ready for it.
And so were her shoes.
She also, accordingly, had spares.
That was just her.
The girl by the name of Tiffany Chang.