Episode 13: The Dilemma of Time
The world… one continent… one city, one district, one school… It all finally leads to the perfect year. The sun and the moon are shining… why does no one ever hide in their homes? “Finally, the time has come… where everything begins.”…
~~~
The morning had arrived and Matt was just getting out of his car. His hair was a mess since he woke up super late. He wore what he had on in his sleep. Not much was functioning for him for the time being. “I’m so tired! Bleh…” Matt said to himself.
“Hey! There you are.” Jen waved as she ran up to him.
“Great… the last thing I needed to see was you.”
Jen giggled, “Oh whatever. Hey come with me. Danny’s being a freak in P.E. and I have to suffer with him.”
“Aw. But-…”
“No buts! I bet you just want to talk to your new~ friends. But whatever, I see how it is.” She gave Matt a hair flip as she went on walking. Eyes from behind an object began to open. Jen stopped and she felt traumatized with a gasp.
Matt shook his head as he began to feel serious, “Jen? What’s wrong?”
Jen suddenly smiled, “Oh, hehe. It was probably just me. See ya!” She continued walking as she said to herself, “What was that…? It felt as if someone was watching me…”
~~~
During P.E. Shirley was screaming at her friends, “See? This is how Asians do it! Do the peace sign. Here, do it with me, Santiago.”
“No!” Santi gave a sigh as they took a picture together.
Matt watched them from the stone seats, “Bleh… how can they be so energetic in the morning?”
Kalpesh and Stan arrived at the basketball courts. Kalpesh placed his hand on Stan’s shoulder, “Look, Stan! There’s Matt!”
Matt turned his head, “Huh? Kalpesh? I thought you have P.E. for fourth period or something.”
“I do. I was excused because Stan needed me to open his locker. Somehow his locker combination didn’t work. He had to ask the administration about it. I mean, the administration is professional about the whereabouts so he didn’t even have to see the numbers.”
Stan crossed his arms as he looked away, “It was very stupid. It’s a prank, I tell you.”
Kalpesh said with certainty, “No, it was probably just some mistake. Maybe you went to the wrong one.”
Stan scratched his head, “That’s impossible. I know there was a prank going on.”
Matt gave himself a sigh, “Hrm… they came here to argue in front of my face…” Matt began to hear a ticking noise ringing from his ear, “Huh…?”
Kalpesh saw Matt in confusion, “Is there something wrong?”
An explosion was suddenly heard from afar. All the students began to scream and panic. As expected, all the Freshmen began to run all over the place. Matt stood up and said angrily, “What’s going on?! Damn it. Why doesn’t anybody ever see how it started?!” He saw the flames from behind the building. He ran around the building as she saw flames at the baseball field. It was all over the area where there was sand. Luckily, the sand was able to not make the flames expand.
Shirley and Santi appeared near Matt. Shirley was shaking, “Oh my gosh, what’s going on?!”
“Flames. For something like this, I’m forced to reverse time.” Santi raised his hands high up in the air.
Shirley held onto Matt in fear, “What’s happening to the school?”
Matt watched Santi still pausing his hands in the air, “What are you doing?! Hurry up!”
Santi knelt down as he punched the ground, “Damn it! What the heck?!”
Shirley knelt down after him, “Oh come on. Why did you stop?”
Santi shook his head, “I can’t… I can’t use my powers.”
Matt and Shirley’s hearts skipped a beat. Shirley was shaking, “No… how can this be? But the flames in the school…! What are we going to do?!”
“The sun is shining.” Said a familiar voice.
Matt, Santi, and Shirley turned to the voice. It was rather faint since other students were screaming and running. Matt yelled, “Who’s there?!”
Jon appeared before them, “The sun is shining. Do you not see?” The three students watched the sun but it was too bright. “I’m afraid you cannot. I’m using sunglasses so I can clearly see.”
Matt was confused, “What? But the sun is always shining!”
“But look. Isn’t it odd? The moon is right next to sun. The sun and the moon are shining… right next to each other. Do you know what this means?”
“NO!! Stop it!” another voice appeared. Jon jumped away when a girl appeared, “Don’t exploit it! You’ll never know if… if…!”
Jon continued, “If a student adjusts his eyes long enough to see the sun, you’ll be able to see the moon.”
“I said stop it!” the voice continued.
“Yessenia?” Matt finally saw her again.
Jon went on, “And with seeing both the sun and the moon, the student gets a power. And the way you’re given the powers is a secret.”
Yessenia tried to chase after him, “Why you…! Why would you tell them?! Now you’ll never know if they’re going to exploit it to other students. And what if this goes on? ALL students will get powers and the world will be in chaos!”
Matt stopped, “You don’t trust us?”
Yessenia looked away, “You don’t understand.”
“What are you going to do? Punch me? That’s a threat. You all have no powers.” Jon gave a smirk expression. “Your future is at stake. What’s wrong? Aren’t you going to do something about those flames?” All four students were silent. Jon had a picture in his hands, “By the way, Matt.” Matt listened carefully as Jon began, “I found this on Joey’s desk during sixth period in our English 1 class. Do you want it?”
Matt saw a picture of himself facing the flames, “That’s the picture that…! Give me it!”
Jon laughed, “Hahaha! Why? It’s pretty interesting if you asked me. Just look how close you are to the flames~! Hahaha!”
Matt clenched his fists, “GIVE ME IT!”
Jon shook his head, “Tsk, tsk, your temper’s out of control. Hilarious. It’s too bad the picture has many copies. It’s going to be all over school tomorrow.”
Shirley assisted Matt, “You better not do it! You no life, trying to ruin our lives?!”
Yessenia said slowly, “That’s because…” No one was able to hear her.
Jon turned to the baseball field, “It’s a shame. I can’t stalk you guys forever. This means you’ll be able to use your powers again. Boo… not fun.”
Matt, Shirley, and Santi were amazed. Yessenia remained silent. Santi pointed at Jon, “You HAVE a power!”
Jon chuckled, “Hehe, of course. I can’t believe you guys didn’t realize it the first time.”
“First time?” Shirley questioned.
“When Danny got turned in. You three weren’t able to use your powers. And as you three got home, you were able to use them, nevertheless, improve them too. It seems to me that as you grow a closer bond with your powers, as you start to appreciate it, as you want it to come back to you instead of trashing it, you’ll only improve. I did see Danny around school again. I could always turn him in, but he’s such an idiot. He can cause his own chaos for all I know.”
Jon watched the flames again, “As you can see… I’ll be off pretty soon. Yes, Santi, you can reverse time. But remember that the sun and the moon are up in the sky. You’ll never know if more students gained a designated power. If you reverse time, more of these students will find it a strange déjà vu. Like the first time when you abused your powers, Shirley exploited her déjà vu with the whole school.” Everyone became silent. “Well, time for me to go!”
He ran away and Yessenia was about to chase him again, “Ugh, there’s no use anymore! There’s too many damn people! If he leaves, then you won’t know what he’s going to plan next. We have to pin him next time.”
Matt and Shirley turned to Santi. Santi nodded, “I have decided. I WILL reverse time. Jon doesn’t realize that it’d be safer if only some students knew about the flames rather than all students knowing about it. Even if an announcement is made, we can always distort it like we did with Shirley’s announcement. As of now, let’s reverse time to a few minutes before the explosion to find out where it came from! Everyone ready?”
Matt, Shirley, and Yessenia smiled as they agreed. Santi rose his hands up as everything began to shine… All over again…
~~~
At the basketball courts, Matt was sighing. He suddenly was in shock, “Oh yeah! The explosion!” Shirley stopped with her peace sign and Santi watched as Matt sat on the stone-like seats.
Kalpesh saw Matt as he pointed, “Look Stan, it’s Matt!” He watched as Matt began walking towards Shirley and Santi, “Oh…he’s talking to people we don’t really know… Let’s just wait until he’s done.”
Shirley whispered, “Okay… so what do we do?”
Santi asked, “Anyone have any strange feelings today?”
Matt nodded, “Yeah, actually. Jen suddenly froze and then she kept walking as if nothing happened. And then there was Stan who said his locker combination suddenly didn’t work. Then there was a ticking noise and BAM! The explosion happened.”
Santi ordered them, “Basically, we have to figure this out separately. Matt, I’ll be in the boy’s lockers. You go ask Jen about what was wrong.” He turned to Shirley, “Shirley, since you can’t go into the boy’s lockers, you wait at the baseball field. I will check the lockers.” Shirley agreed.
~~~
The three began their search. Matt had asked Jen what the problem was. Jen responded, “Oh, it just felt as if someone was watching me. I don’t really know what happened but it just struck me.”
Matt scratched his head, “That’s it? Eh, thanks!” He said to himself, “Now, time to tell Santi.”
Shirley waited as she saw a raised area near the field. She said to herself, “Ew, I’m not digging this up. Hm… Danny!” She called Danny in the middle of class.
Danny did not respond until a few seconds after, “What do you want?! The phone rang in class and then I asked to go to the restroom. They thought I was student again. I’m sad.”
Shirley giggled, “Oh well? Anyways, come here to the baseball field!”
“Aw, why? I’m lazy.”
“JUST DO IT!” Shirley screamed.
Danny was frightened, “Aiy, okay, okay! I’ll hurry.” He hung up as he said to himself, “Geez…”
Shirley saw Danny as she asked him to use his powers to dig up the floor. As Danny finished, Shirley was confused “Uh… what the heck?” She checked her cellphone, “Five minutes before the explosion. Hm, I should bring it to the boy’s lockers and tell Santi.” She decided to hide it in her backpack. She ran towards the boy’s locker with Danny.
Danny said to her, “Correct me if I’m wrong, but are those explosives?” Shirley became silent. Shirley looked around, “Um, anyways, no boys are around right? I’m going to sneak in there.”
While Shirley was entering, Santi was at a certain area in the locker room. He nodded while looking at Stan’s locker. He knew it was Stan’s number because it was not in numerical order, “I know what happened now.”
Matt ran in the boy’s restroom as he told Santi about what Jen had told him. Santi gave a sigh, “Oh, that’s great! It was just Jon who was observing our actions, I assume. As for the lockers, I assume Jon replaced the numbers of Stan’s locker. I guess Stan is still not used to seeing that his locker is the second to the left. Santi whispered, “Hey, use your flames to lightly open the lock.” Matt agreed to do so. The lock broke as they opened the locker.
Matt was surprised, “Whoa!” Santi flipped the switch on the timer.
“And that just about does it. This is all Jon’s actions. Unfortunately, we do not have evidence. We can look for some but we can’t prove it is him. I bet Jon is smart enough to use gloves while making this plan so fingerprints won’t work. And uh…”
Shirley tilted her head, “Huh, what?”
I sorta… had mine on it when I pressed the switch… Heh.”
Matt yelled, “WHAT?! If they find this, then you’ll be blamed!”
Santi shook his head, “What, are they going to check all the students in this high school for a matching fingerprint? Besides, we’re going to freeze it and trash it. Right Shirley?”
Danny blinked a few times, “What? What happened? I don’t get it.”
Shirley frowned, “Ugh… more work for me. Fine.”
While Shirley was freezing the explosives and the timer, Matt asked Santi, “Should I… change? The pictures will be exploited.”
Santi nodded, “Yes. Not your clothes though. Perhaps your hair as it is harder to distinguish if they were to compare photos.” Matt agreed to his idea.
From behind the lockers, Jon gave a smile, “Hehe, impressive.” Once they had gone through a devastating conclusion, it was now into Jon’s mind that he should move up a notch. He realized that these type of missions seemed too easy and the group of students were easily determined with their dilemma of when it is important to reverse time or not. Jon said to himself, “Let the games begin.”
~~~
---- Next chapter preview:Matt: On the next chapter, I... I...! A... ACHOO! *sniff* Shoot, I caught a cold. I have a fever, right?
Santi: *touches Matt's forehead* Ouch! What have you been smoking, boy?! It's burning like a microwave.
Matt: Wha? I feel fine. It's just a regular fev... Achoo!
Santi: Agh! Flames!
Matt: Wah! Get it off, get it off! I can't control it!
ShirleyC: *sigh* They're such idiots. Next chapter, Uncontrollable Flames from the Cold!
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