Episode 12: The Jacket That Remains Warm
Another day begins for Matt. A regular, boring day that is. As usual, he takes a walk around the school in the morning, looking for his friends, Jen, Stan, and Kalpesh. At this point, Matt is still very close to Jen, Kalpesh, and Stan during social hours. When things become urgent, he has to reside to discussing powers with his four other friends. He arrives at the large gym only to wonder where all of Shirley’s friends are. Jen tapped Matt on the back, “Hello! Oh my, you need to cut your hair.”
Matt covered his hair, “I don’t need to cut it.”
Jen giggled, “Yeah you do! Try a new hairstyle.”
Matt shook his head and looked away, “I don’t need to. Where did everyone else go?”
Jen took a look around, “Hm, come to think of it… they’re gone this week. That hasn’t happened before. Who were they, Joey and…?”
Matt shrugged, “I don’t know. They were a bunch of random people. But anyway, I guess we’ll have to wait here alone.”
Jen elbowed Matt, “Hehe, you’re waiting for Shirley, aren’t you?”
Matt clenched his teeth, “Hey, it’s just a coincidence!” They began to walk inside the gym.
~~~
Time passes in the gym and a tall student enters nearest from the girl’s locker room with a camera. Shirley runs up to him and asks, “What are you doing here, Joey?!”
Joey watches her in confusion, “Huh? Oh, I have to take pictures for Journalism class. It’s for zero period. Do you know where the teachers are?” He turns to look at all the students on the bleachers. He pauses once he spots Matt sitting there alone.
Shirley answered him, “Well, they’re pretty much doing role call. I was going to go to the restrooms in the girl’s locker room because the restrooms in this gym are closed. Hey, are you listening to me?”
Joey turned back to Shirley, “Huh? Oh, yeah of course. I’ll go to the teachers right now. See ya.” Shirley smiled and walked away.
Matt waited for his name to be called. He had his backpack on his lap as he was covering the chin of his face. Matt raised his head once he noticed that Joey was talking to his teacher. He tried to lip sync Joey’s conversation since he was getting a little curious. Luckily, Matt calmed once he saw that Joey began to take a picture of Matt’s PE teacher.
Joey placed the camera on his neck, “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome!” said Matt's PE teacher. As Joey was about to turn away, he turned to Matt and gave a very quick smirky glance.
“Huh…?” Matt wondered what was going on.
~~~
Lunch period began for students in second lunch. In El Monte High School, lunch period is divided into two lunches. First lunch is for students that are in half of the classes in the whole school while second lunch takes the other half. Matt’s class takes first lunch while Joey and Peter takes second lunch. Matt’s lunch period consists of most of his middle school friends whole second lunch consists of most of his classmates who he does not know yet. Two lunch periods were created in order to maintain the long lines of the lunch stand. Joey and Peter were conversing under the canopy. “I’m telling you, Peter, something is up!”
“What are you talking about? You make it sound like some crazy thing is going on in this school. Nothing strange ever happened.”
Joey took out a photo, “Here is a copy! It’s a picture of a guy named Matt in flames. But you see him around still, don’t you? He survived flames?! I don’t think so.”
Peter took a look at the picture, “You showed me this a few weeks ago. It’s probably just the angle.”
Joey pointed at Matt’s left shoulder, “No, look! It’s slightly in flames. Can’t you see? Matt is like some ghost who can survive from fire.”
Peter gave him a sigh, “Ugh, Joey, have you seen him at least ONCE doing something weird?” Joey became silent as Peter continued, “If you believe in this kind of stuff so much then maybe you should investigate on him yourself. I’m not a believer on this so you can’t rely on me.”
Joey clenched onto his camera, “I’ll show you proof. I’ll show you!”
~~~
Moments later, Jen, Matt, Stan, and Kalpesh are walking home. Matt is walking Jen home before he takes the bus. Joey ran towards them but he constantly hid behind pillars, “Come on, do something weird.”
Stan was eating a bag of hot cheetos, “See, now these bags are cheap. One little bag for fifty cents. I heard that the school will eventually sell snacks for seventy-five cents!”
Kalpesh gave him a sigh, “Augh, Stan, it’s just a quarter. Besides, clubs are barely starting. They don’t start fundraising until a month or two. How would you know they’re a quarter more?”
“Because I just know. My brother told me.” Stan said with an annoyed tone.
Matt thought in his mind, “Hey hey… first you say you just knew and then all the sudden you say your brother told you…”
Joey ran behind a tree and he started to jump quietly in anger, “Damn it! Do something, you idiot!”
Jen stopped. Matt turned to her, “Huh? Jen, are you okay?”
Jen blinked twice really quickly as she began to move again, “Oh, never mind. I thought I felt something coming at us.”
Jen felt her forehead and Kalpesh patted her shoulders, “Are you alright?”
Jen shook her head, “O-Of course. It was probably my imagination or something, haha…”
Matt took off his jacket, “It is getting kind of cold. Do you want mine?”
Jen took it and placed it on the pointy fence rack, “Only for a little while. I need to take off my sweater then. It’s not even a sweater really. It’s just a long sleeve that doesn’t help fight the cold.”
Jen was about to pull her sleeve and Stan stopped her, “Why should you be cold anyway? I’m wearing a short sleeve!”
Jen crossed her arms, “Because I’m a girl with no fat meat~. What else?” Jen got angry as she stomped away.
Matt and Kalpesh followed. Matt tried to stop her, “Wait for us, Jen!” Stan eventually walked with them.
From behind, Joey noticed that they forgot Matt’s jacket on the fence rack, “Oh, he left it here. Maybe he has some strange lighter in here. Hehe.” Joey ran up to the jacket as he examined it first before any traps came up, “Hm. Hmm…” Joey slowly reached the jacket with his index finger, “Hrm…?” Nothing happened. He began to grab the jacket with his whole hand, “So nothing’s wrong with it.” He suddenly stopped. The jacket was still warm, “That’s strange. By now this sweater would be cold if it had been left out here for at least a short time out in the cold.” He began to search the jacket, “What is making it warm?! Or wait…” He remembered the photo that he took on the first day of school, “I got it!”
~~~
On the next morning, Peter was writing something in his folder, “Joey, I can’t believe you would go that far. I bet you just wore the jacket.”
Joey shook the jacket, “I swear, I didn’t! It doesn’t even fit me. Look, it’s much smaller because I’m tall.”
Peter placed the folder on the table, “Which is why Shirley calls you a tall freak. But Joey, I told you that you should figure it out yourself.”
Joey constantly fanned the jacket with Peter’s folder, “Look, look! You see how much I’m fanning it?!” Joey stopped and he grabbed Peter’s arm in order to drag it to the jacket.
Peter felt the warmth of the jacket, “H-Huh?”
“You see now?! It’s STILL warm! Something is wrong with this jacket and Matt’s the one who was wearing it!”
Peter placed his hand on his chin, “That really is strange, actually. Hm…”
Shirley Cao opened the door to the Journalism room as she held onto a book, “Hey Peter, you left this in our sixth period class. I had to carry and take care of it for that long!” She noticed that Joey was holding on to Matt’s jacket, “Oh hey, isn’t that Matt’s?”
Joey showed it to Shirley, “Yeah. Try touching it! It’s warm and no matter how cold I make it, it won’t change temperatures.”
Shirley stopped. “H-Huh? You mean… it’s warm? It still is?” She turned away with a fearful expression.
Peter suggested, “Should we call in your Journalism team? I mean, I can’t do anything about it. I’m not in journalism. You are, Joey.”
Shirley scratched her head, “You’re not? I thought you were!”
“Nope. I’m just here for Joey. He’s been making me go with him since he hates being alone in Journalism. But I swear, he has his older brother to keep him company. If his older brother is a Junior, then Joey can easily become well known but Joey doesn’t want that.”
Joey swung the jacket, “That’s not what I care about right now. I just want to figure out what Matt’s hiding!”
“He’s hiding nothing!” Shirley screamed. Joey and Peter became silent. Shirley coughed, “Ah, I mean… of course he’s not hiding anything though. Haven’t you seen him? He’s innocent. You should at least get to know him more before you accuse him of strange things.”
Joey snapped his fingers, “That’s it! You’re a genius, Shirley!”
Shirley placed her hands on her hips, “What, is that the first time you called me a genius?”
Joey looked away, “Well… uh…” Peter began to laugh. Joey rushed out of the classroom.
Shirley turned to Peter, who was still laughing, “What the heck do YOU want?!”
Peter became silent as he walked out of the classroom as well, with his math book.
~~~
A few minutes later, Joey finds Matt sitting alone near the front gate. He kneels down to get Matt’s attention as he extends his arms, showing Matt’s jacket. Matt jumped from surprise, “My jacket!!” He quickly took the jacket as he started to cuddle with it.
Joey explained, “Yeah, I kinda noticed that you wear it a lot to school. I saw it up there near the park on the fence and I thought it’d be nice to take it and give it back to you.” Joey came closer to Matt in suspicion, “And it was very warm.”
Matt took a step back, “W-What do you mean? (Oh no, I forgot about that!)”
Joey felt Matt’s jacket, “Well, you know… um… it’s still warm. I woke up today and I took it with my. My room was cold so I thought it would make sense if the jacket was cold too. So uh… I’m just…”
Matt shook his head, “You’re dreaming. It’s just a regular jacket.”
“No, it’s clearly a-…”
“Hey, I got to go!” Matt ran off without any further explanations.
Joey gave himself an evil grin, “So I AM right. He is hiding something.”
~~~
On the next day, Matt had foil wrap in his hands, “This should do.” He began to warm it up as he hid it inside his jacket. He wore his jacket again as he went to school.
At school, Joey and Peter stood at the front gate, waiting for Matt. Joey pointed at Matt, “Take that jacket off!”
Matt gave a startling response, “W-What?! What’s going on?”
Peter gave Matt a smile, “Eheh, I’m sorry. Joey is dragging me into this. Can you take the jacket off? It’s just for a little second.”
Matt quickly agreed without hesitation, “If you say so.” He handed over his jacket.
Joey quickly took it, “It’s still warm! Haha!”
Matt nodded, “Of course, I just wore it. Actually, there’s something I forgot to mention.”
Joey stopped, “Huh? And what is that?”
Matt pointed inside the left sleeve of Matt’s jacket, “This jacket really tightens heat especially if foil is stuck within them. I looked up on the internet on how to keep my warm even if jackets don’t work. I think foil should do the job since it keeps the heat in.”
Joey took a peek into the sleeves, “Foil? You mean it was here all this time?”
Matt shook his head, “Yup! But anyway, I need to get to my P.E. class. See you around!”
Joey was confused and Peter stared at him in anger, “Joey, you’ve got to pay back those times that you’ve wasted on me.”
Joey turned to Peter in embarrassment, “Ehehe… My bad.”
~~~
A few hours later, Shirley began screaming at Matt once he told her the whole situation, “You what?! You almost exposed your powers, Matt!”
Matt laughed, “Ahah… don’t worry! I could just have Santi reset Joey’s memory.”
Shirley rolled her eyes, “You can’t just depend on his time powers. Santi has his own life too. He’s been busy lately. Besides, what if Santi reverses Joey’s whole memory back a few days? His education would be at stake and it will be all your fault.”
“Geez, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. It won’t happen again next time, maybe. I didn’t know you were going to defend him that much though. I shouldn’t have told you about it...” They were silent for a moment. Matt suddenly asked, “Do you like… Joey?”
Shirley opened her eyes wide as she turned around with her fist, “Excuse me?!” She punched Matt to the ground endlessly. “We’re just best friends damn it! Why would you think of such a thing?!” She continued to punch him. Matt was in pain, but as long as his powers are kept secret, things were okay…
~~~
---- Next chapter preview:Matt: On the next chapter, something seems to be going on at the baseball field! Another fire?! Haven't I seen this before?
Jon: Oh my, it seems like it's my turn to freak you out.
Matt: Hey, not you again.
Jon: BAHAHA! got some more fun stuff in my sleeves.
Matt: What fun stuff? Show me your sleeves!
Jon: No, not literally. Ugh, you'll see.
Matt: Aw! Next chapter... The Dilemma of Time!
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