Recently
on Fires of the sky, the El Monte students returned to Earth only to find it
still frozen. As they return to Arkon’s Magic, the six main students, Matt,
Yessenia, Jaime, Alex, Venus, and Winny all enter a bridge that leads them to
the Elemental Challenges! Without further delay, they were forced to attend as
the six members for the challenges. After the challenge had finished, the final
match had made a wrong turn. Dragon appears along with Sammy, Benny, and Venus
and they begin to explain the truth about their appearance. Van, Maggie, and Jenny
are thrown into the Eternal Nothingness while Matt’s group follows along in
search for them. Likewise, Alex and the other remaining students of the
challenges are dropped into the same fate in the Eternal Nothingness. Will
these students be stuck in there forever? However, before moving on, we will go
through a side-story on the El Monte students left in Arkon’s Magic!
Episode 237 – Madrid, the Successor Who Vanished
“Panda… Transformation!” Peter
pushed his arms in front of him but nothing happened. “Ergh… Can’t seem to turn
into my panda form when I’m in a calm mood…”
Omar sat on a brown crate nearby,
laughing while kicking his feet into the air and holding onto his stomach from
the enraged laughter. “Gyahahahaha! You look like such an idiot trying to
transform but nothing’s happening!”
“Oh you be quiet! At least I’m
making time to practice!”
“I don’t need practice. When you got
two swords in hand, nothing can stop you- GHEH!” Peter’s bamboo stick was
swiftly thrown past Omar’s head and it stabbed into Omar’s Arkonic home.
“H-Hey, you asshole!”
Peter began laughing obnoxiously on
purpose. “Gya~hahaha!~ What was that about nothing being able to stop you just
now?”
“You want to fight?”
“Sure! Maybe then I can turn into a
panda and crush you and make sushi out of you!”
“That doesn’t even make sense!”
“Your existence doesn’t make sense!”
“Grrrr!”
“GRRR!!!”
Christine and Joey stood at a
distance, watching them in disappointment. Christine said to him, “Joey… Do
they always fight like this?”
“Ever since they became closer
‘friends’, I think so.”
Christine began to giggle. “They’re
so cute, fighting each other all the time though. They’re just like brothers.
It reminds me of the time when you and Nathaniel used to fight all the time.”
“Nathaniel? Oh, you mean Nate!!”
Joey telled. Christine tried to cover her ears.
“Yeah… Nate…” She rolled her eyes
from Joey’s shouting. “Speaking of Nathaniel though, I wonder where he went?”
Joey tried to remember when
Nathaniel disappeared. “True. We used to have a group two times larger than we
do now but some of them moved to other schools. As for Nate, he just
mysteriously disappeared and his parents are still looking for him. Since then,
no one really talked about him because that would bring back nostalgic, yet sad
memories…!!!” His voice became higher as he continued talking.
Christine covered her ears again.
“Enough! I’ll go make some cake or something. I need to ask Amy if she has some
flour.” She walked away, still wondering where Nathaniel disappeared to…
~~~
It was back in the year of 2005 when
the El Monte students from Madrid were starting their seventh grade classes.
They each had a homeroom class, basically a main class to go to whenever the
students got into trouble or earned a reward. It was also their morning class in
case they needed to take attendance in a more convenient way. The homeroom
teacher slammed his hands onto the table. “Listen up, kids! I know some of you
may be new here, but this isn’t some kind of game! Our average mile time is
only 6:52 and the fastest runner is at 5:50. That is hella slow!”
Shirley whispered to Joey, “Are the
teachers even able to curse at this age?”
Joey whispered back, “If he’s
cursing, then it’s fine for me too. Hell yes!”
Shirley covered his mouth, “SHH!!
The teacher will hear you! And it’s so weird. I’ve known you since 4th
grade and I’ve never heard you curse. Don’t start now.”
Joey pouted. “Hmph. In rrr frw yrsss
frm n-…”
Shirley unveiled her hands from his
mouth. “Okay what are you saying?”
“In a few years from now, you’ll
start cussing too. I’m sure of it.”
Shirley slapped him, “Oh be quiet,
you idiot!”
“You’re almost there already, see!”
“SH!”
The teacher punched the marker board
behind him and it broke into pieces. “If I hear any more talking, then you’ll
be sent into the principal’s office!”
Danny panicked from the rear end of
the class. “Geeeh!”
~~~
Outside at Madrid’s track field,
Alex and Mariel were running along. Mariel’s beads hit her face while she was
running while Alex was several meters ahead of her. Shirley, Joey, Emmy, and
their other friend, Jeff were running along ahead of the two students. Mariel
knelt down as she balanced her hands on her knees.
“UGH!! I hate running!” Her voice
was squeaky still.
Alex’s voice was also pre-pubescent.
“Mariel… We only ran a quarter of a mile!”
“I’ve never ran so much in my life.
What does school even teach us? How to exercise or to learn about math?! By the
way, I hate math!”
Alex scratched his head. “That’s a
bad question. They’re supposed to teach us everything.”
“Well then they should teach us
what’s next for lunch.”
Danny ran past them. “I know right!
I want more food!” He was even larger than he was in high school.
Alex pointed at Danny who was now
ahead of them, “Look, Mariel, even Danny is ahead of us. Do you want that to beat you in a race?!”
“This isn’t a race! My clothes will
get dirty!”
“Why didn’t you bring extra clothes?
We clearly made sure that everyone had to bring extra sports clothes!”
“Don’t you sass me! I know what I’m
doing. I’ll catch up to Danny in no time. Here I go.” She sped forward and then
she suddenly stopped. “Oh shit, my shoes just got scraped. This is so not
good!”
Alex slapped his own forehead.
“We’re going nowhere with this…” He said to himself. He checked the other side
of the field. “Hey, someone’s coming into the track entrance. Do you know him?”
Mariel rolled her eyes as she stood
back up, wiping her shoes. “How should I know? I don’t invite people. They
waste my time.”
“Do I waste your time?”
“So anyways, I really think you need
to catch up to Danny. I’m not a running person.”
Alex sat down. “Nah… I’m not a
running person either.”
“You have a good mile time, at least
for a 7th grader.”
“Who cares. I want to play in the
band.”
“Oh? Is it because I like playing in
the band too?”
Alex blushed. “What?! No… I just
have no close friends here in the track compared to our band geeks.”
The boy who entered the track last
went by the students and then the same to Danny in no time. Shirley began slowing
down. “Stop right there, Joey! You bastard!” Emmy stopped for her.
“Cursing already?! I see you’ve
learned well!” Joey joked as he continued. He laughed until he faced forward,
crashing into Jeff who also fell. Nathaniel passed by all of the students in no
time.
Christine and Omar were in the
center of the field, originally about to cheer for them but Christine frowned
and Omar laughed obnoxiously at them. “Why is that guy so fast?” Christine
watched as Nathaniel beat the mile record at 5:25.
Emmy helped Shirley to the benches
and Joey began to yell out loud, “WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT?!”
When Nathaniel made his way back to
the group, Alex began to notice that he was not tired at all. “Mariel… Who is
that guy?”
“Beats me. Don’t really care
either.”
“Who the hell are you? Why are you
running here with us?” Joey said rudely.
Shirley stood in front of Nathaniel.
“Wait. Don’t just yell at him like that.”
“I thought it’d be nice to practice
running. Sadly I couldn’t beat my mile time.”
“What?!” Jeff exclaimed.
“Wow! You must be amazing.” Emmy
giggled. “You can join us. We’re practicing for the marathon this year, hehe!”
“Emmy!! Why?!” Joey questioned.
“He seems like a nice guy.” Emmy
said. And like that, he gained the respect of most of these students quickly.
~~~
“In Omar’s school of Algebra, we’re
going to learn how to find identities!”
“What is that supposed to mean?!”
Mariel yelped.
“Even a true hero knows when to
teach more advanced things in an Algebra class. Omar, I applaud you!” Bunhong
added.
Mariel clenched her fists. “We’re
supposed to learn about Algebra. I never heard of these ‘identities’!”
“Well, if you took Pre-Calculus
already like me, you would know what an identity us.”
“It’s who we are.” Shirley guessed.
Nathaniel interrupted them,
“Mathematically, it is just a bunch of equations that should equal each other
when played with. Sorry, I had to dumb it down a bit so you guys could get it.”
Emmy clapped her hands. “Wow, you’re
so smart!”
Alex shook his head. “I agree!”
Joey barged into their conversation,
“Is there anything that this bastard isn’t good at?!”
Danny pointed at Nathaniel, “I
challenge you to a hot dog eating contest!”
“Damn it… I just ate about twenty
hot dogs earlier. Do I have to eat more?” This made Danny suddenly cry in the
corner.
“Don’t worry. I’m not the best.
There’s a girl in this school who doesn’t like to show herself around in
public, but she keeps beating me.”
Shirley stood up. “Oh my gosh, is it
Lyra? How about Vera? Or Eleanor?”
“Nope. Beat them all in a fashion
contest.”
“Excuse me, what?” Christine glared
at him.
“The point is - she doesn’t want me
to mention her name.”
“Why is she so… what’s the word…
‘modest’ or whatever?” Shirley asked.
Nathaniel chuckled, “Eheh… she told
me she purposely lost on basketball against me because she doesn’t like to be
the best. She said if she ever won as rank #1 in school as a valedictorian, she
would hate to do the speech.”
“She sacrificed the first rank just
to avoid doing the speech?!?!” Shirley screamed out loud. “WHY?!?!?!”
“It doesn’t matter. Anyone up for
some more running?”
Mariel whispered to Alex, “Bet he
can’t play the clarinet like we can.”
~~~
In band class, Mariel and Alex stood
in the back, watching Nathaniel play three instruments at once: the clarinet,
violin, and piano. One with each arm and as for the piano, he played with his
toes.
Mariel began pulling her hair.
“ERAGGH! This makes no sense! How can he do that?!”
“I can also try to sing at the same
time, although it makes me sad that I cannot do four things at once.” Nathaniel
said in disappointment. Mariel banged her head against the wall.
“Mariel…” Alex said in worrisome.
~~~
The whole group of students in
Madrid began to grow distant, each growing their own interest whether it was in
athletics, education, or band. Each of them became angry at each other, trying
their best to beat Nathaniel and ignoring one another in order to maximize
their goal to become better than him. All throughout 7th and 8th
grade, their group divided into three. Alex and Mariel were in one group.
Shirley, Joey, Jeff, and Emmy were in another. Omar and Christine were in the
third group. Some students such as Bunhong and Danny were fended off the three
groups into their own isolation. Bunhong became a martial artist and Danny had
nowhere to turn to, at least in middle school.
One day towards the end of the 8th
grade, school rumors began to rise up and were mentioning that Nathaniel was
getting sick. He was unable to run, unable to study to do well in his
education, nor was he able to play any instruments due to exhaustion. Even
through these rumors, none of the students cared. All they were hoping for was
to exceed him because now at this point, they had a chance to surpass him since
his activities have gone hiatus.
“He’s just sick.” People said.
“He’ll be fine.” Others claimed. “He’s just going to come back and beat us all
again so we might as well make the best of it.”
As days went by, the school
announcement was brought to their attention that Nathaniel has suddenly
disappeared. Many of the students, because they were young and still growing as
teenagers, assumed he had died. This was a month before their middle school
graduation.
~~~
Christine watched as Peter and Omar
began fighting each other. Joey was still walking back to the main group. She
thought to herself, “It was still strange just thinking back to it. We all grew
distant because we wanted to focus so much on beating others. But because of
Nathaniel, our group came back together to think about our behavior towards
him. We all regret it so much, but we could not say anything at the same time
because we figured we didn’t deserve to say sorry to him now that it is too
late.”
Thuy called for her, “Christine!
It’s time for dinner. Bunhong is putting up a show for us on heroism and Huy is
making fun of him. Hehe!”
Christine smiled. “Really? I’ll be
there in a second!” She then giggled, “Although Nathaniel’s disappearance is
beyond us, we will always remember him. I just hope he’s not brought up on this
elemental power either – wherever he is.”
~~~
During dinner time, the whole El
Monte group joined together to party onward. Huy and Bunhong were on stage,
yelling at each other. Peter and Omar were trying to fight each other as well.
Jennifer, Lupe, Brandon, and Bunny were in their own group doing their own
thing. Jen looked up at the sunset sky, “I sure hope Matt’s group is okay…”
Thuy sat down next to her, “I’m sure
they will be fine. We’re aware of them being gone for hours by now. We have
high hopes that they’ll come back especially with Yessenia in their group.”
Jen blushed. “Yeah… you’re right,
heehee.”
~~~
-NEXT EPISODE PREVIEW-
Matt:
On the next episode of Fires of the Sky…
Yessenia: I was not always like this.
Brandon:
You were less formal, weren’t you?
Jon: And
the three of us were a trio of friendship!
Brandon:
N-Not all the time…
Lupe:
Really? Would you like to tell us a little bedtime story?
Jennifer: Hurry up before it gets really sappy. I don’t need no corny
story to sleep!
Brandon:
Well, it once started when I-
Jennifer: Zzzzz...
Lupe:
Maybe your story was so soothing it put her to sleep.
Bunny:
Or it was too boring.
Brandon:
I didn’t even start yet!
Matt:
Next up, we go into Rio Hondo for Yessenia, Jon, and Brandon! Next time on
episode 238, An Elementary School with True Acceptance!
Julie:
Who is the main character in this story?
Go to Episode 238 - An Elementary School with True Acceptance ->
