They were about to leave, and Sahara noticed that Lea was lagging as always. She did not even really want to know why Leah was so late, but she was trying to convince the teacher that they should leave, as it was unfair to the middle schoolers to keep them waiting.

"Mrs. Pencil Thorn, we cannot wait for Lea! It's unfair to everyone else." Sahara said.

"Unfortunately, I can't boot her from the trip because her father put in a notice that she would be a little late due to hero reassessment." Mrs. Pencil Thorn said in her raspy voice.

"What do you mean by reassessment? Is that why on the news this morning they said she was a participant, she doesn't have the correct qualifications for that!" Sahara said, flustered.

"I know, I would have never allowed her to do it, but apparently, because the sages are the judges this year, they're allowed to change the rules. Now, people can be sponsored to participate, which makes no sense. I still don't like how four years ago, they reduced the age restrictions. They also changed it to allow anyone to apply if they had the money to apply directly. This is why you are one of my favorite students, despite your privileged background and the fact that you could theoretically just buy a hero license at this point, you decided to go through the effort to do it the legitimate way." Mrs. Pencil Thorn said, exasperated.

Tripping over the stairs of the bus was an out-of-breath Lea. Sahara despised almost everything about her puppy nature and bright, colorful clothing. The fact that instead of having ears on the side of her head, Lea had horse ears on the top. A common trait for unicorns in human form, but it did not make it any less disturbing. The fact that she tried to hide her lack of ears with two braids in the place of where her human ears should be. And what Sahara despised the most was her constant cheerful demeanor and puppy nature. Immediately after gaining her breath, Leah almost jumped up and hugged Sahara.

"Hey, Sahara, do you want to sit next to each other?" Lea said.

"No," Sahara said dryly.

"Unfortunately, it doesn't look like you have a choice unless you want to sit on the bus with the school children because there is only one row left empty." Mrs. Pencil Thorn said.

"If I'm going to sit with children either way, I would rather sit with the real children," Sahara said, walking over to the other bus.

She opened the doors to the Middle School Bus, and she quickly asked the driver which kid she was to be chaperoning, as she decided to sit right next to them. She thought it would be good to get to know the kid that she would be mentoring for the day, as she thought it would take her mind off of Lea's presence. The thing was that deep down, Sahara did not actually despise Lea; she just could not handle how Lea pushed her boundaries.