Episode 40 – A New Year after Winter Break
After two long weeks of Winter Break, December decided to leave and January took its place. It was not apparent that students were used to going back to school since they had had a break for two weeks. Perhaps many of the students who knew Erica as Eidothea had to brush off the thought within that many weeks…
~~~
Matt was heading out of the lockers. He tried to fix the fold on his Freshman PE shirt that continued to stay folded even when Matt kept bending it. “Ugh… damn it.” He took a step out to the blacktop where there were many basketball courts. He examined the area at the opposite end of the area where the girls’ lockers are. “My class is over there, but it feels different that there’s one less person in this school now.” He said to himself, “She’s been gone for weeks before Winter Break, but it at least felt like she was still here. Now she’s gone, possibly forever…”
A girl slapped Matt’s right shoulder. She screamed, “Hello Matt!”
Surprised, Matt turned around and his heart skipped a beat. “W-Whoa, Jen, don’t do that again.”
Jen giggled, “Heehee, I have to! It’s who I am. Why are you sad?”
“I’m not sad.” Matt said bluntly.
“Well you looked sad so I thought you were.” Jen guessed.
Matt began to take a few steps away from her, “Nah, not at all. I gotta go to my class now. See ya, Jen!” Jen waved goodbye with a concerned expression on her face. Matt had to do his best on keeping Erica’s secret of being frozen in Olympia forever. As Matt ran towards his class, he saw a crowded circle of about twelve students. “When one girl is missing in my life, it feels so obvious that many others are isolating me away from them…” No one noticed him at all because they were surprised to see what was being crowded. Matt questioned them in silence, “Geez, what are they so surprised about? I wonder what’s there to see.” He tried to see but he did not want to get near the circle. It seemed pointless to him to try and check anyway. Matt was about to walk away until he felt a strange presence. He turned around again to the circle of students, “H-Huh?” The wind seemed to be blowing slowly. Matt rubbed his eyes as he decided to continue walking away.
~~~
As Matt was sitting down alone on the ground, he still pondered as to why Earth is back to normal and is in perfect shape. After all, Erica did turn into stone, as did the rest of Olympia. The world of Earth should have been turned into stone as well. Matt closed his eyes, thinking if everything was all a dream. He thought of everything being a dream ever since the beginning of his high school career. “This is all unreal! This all has to be a dream, I can’t stand it. It just brings me more pain than what I already have.”
Santi noticed that Matt was frustrated without mentioning much out loud. “What are you doing sitting there with a concerned look on your face?”
“Santi, I just don’t get it! Why are we like this? I hate it. I don’t want to be weird and different.”
“Is that what you think we are?” Santi questioned him. “I cannot stop you from thinking that way since you are making some sense but you should learn to accept it until we find a way on how to take these powers away from us.”
Matt stood up and he pointed at Santi, “I’ve been thinking that since September. It’s already a new year and I’m still stuck with these powers. They only get in my way, Santi. I still have a hard time finding out how it is useful in my life. Didn’t you see what Jon just did? He tried to kill his own power giver or whatever Hades was-…”
“Hades is the God that granted Jon power. It is really risky and dangerous for us to attack the God or Goddess that corresponds to us, Matt. Jon was only lucky because Hades was able to reflect Jon’s dark aura. I am very sure that he is one of the very few Gods that can reflect such power. If you try to kill Hephaestus, then you will most likely die.”
“Olympia pretty much died anyway. Everyone is turned into stone!”
Santi sighed. “Matt, I understand how you feel. Everyone did turn into stone, but that does not mean they died. Maybe that was how Earth was created. Maybe Olympia was destined to be turned into stone and maybe we all succeeded on the eight stages. Remember when Jon was the eighth person who fulfilled the task? Eidothea was destined to be the sacrificial chosen nymph of Olympia.”
Matt became angry. He did not like the fact that he could not save Erica especially when she was one of Jen’s closest friends. “Why do you people keep calling her ‘Eidothea’? Her heart was Erica’s! That nymph stole her heart and… used her as a sacrifice. Why couldn’t Eidothea use some random girl that we don’t know at all? It would have hurt less for all of us!”
Santi scratched his head, “Don’t you think that is a bit selfish to say, Matt? I understand how you feel about losing a friend but there was nothing we could do. The only thing we can do now is to thank your friend Erica for helping keep Earth stable.”
“I don’t think you understand how I feel. Have you lost a friend who died in a fantasy world? She died in a world that wasn’t even real!”
Matt was angry enough to yell. His tone was getting louder to the point where Jon could hear him at a distance. Jon seemed perfectly fine. After all, two weeks through Winter Break had caused him to completely refresh all of the pain from Olympia. He still did not smile as often, but he was more passive and calmer than he used to be since September. Matt turned to notice that Jon was watching them. Jon decided to walk up to them and he said, “Are you two still talking about Olympia? It’s long gone now…”
Matt was about to get angry at Jon but he realized that Jon was not the same person as he used to be. “But… Erica…”
Jon shrugged. “Eh, maybe there’s still a way to get Erica back but who knows? To me, I sort of agree with Santi that Olympia was destined to be turned into stone in order to create this world.”
“But what if it wasn’t turned into stone? Earth could be a lot more interesting, right?”
Santi shook his head, “That logic is not really true in this case. Sometimes within a span of billions of years, a good ending for Olympia can lead to a bad present time or vice versa. You just would never know. If Olympia still existed, then Earth would be completely different. We could still be wearing togas and we would talk to the Gods like normal people instead of cherishing them like most religious people would. What would you prefer?”
Jon added, “You wouldn’t want to risk a changed world, do you? You might not even see the same people anymore.”
Matt looked away, “I know, I know…! I’m just angry about why it had to be Erica of all people. She was a friendly person and that shouldn’t have happened to her. I still can’t get over the fact. I guess I have to get over it sometime. We should just drop this and forget about it for now. It’s making me have a depressing morning.”
A girl from behind one of the construction pillars was listening very carefully into their conversation. “Olympia…?”
~~~
During lunch, Matt took his tray of food towards the cafeteria seats. Sammy stopped him on the way and whispered, “Psst! I overheard you talking with your friends about Olympia. Isn’t that the place I was in a few weeks ago?”
Matt quickly took alert of who was nearby, “S-Sh! Don’t talk so loud about it, Sammy!”
“But I was whispering!”
Matt covered her mouth, “Sh!! How did you hear about that?”
“Well, I was hiding behind some walls nearby. Some construction workers thought it was obvious but I told them to shut up and let me eavesdrop on you guys. But come on, tell me more about it! I’m interested.”
Matt rolled his eyes. “Oh gee, Sammy… It’s not really your business though.”
“But I was there, wasn’t I?” Sammy tried to corner Matt into the conversation.
“Yeah but… still.” Matt said bluntly. “I can’t exploit information about Olympia and other stuff.”
“What other stuff?”
“There’s no other stuff.”
“But you said ‘and other stuff’. What was that all about?”
“I just meant if there was other stuff, then it shouldn’t be exploited.”
“Come on, Matt. You can’t just leave me hanging here. I want to know what Olympia is meant for! It didn’t feel like any dream.” Sammy begged him.
“Alright, alright! Fine… Well, sometime two months ago, I-…” Matt paused at the moment when he saw Santi walking passed by him. “Santi?! What are you doing here?”
Santi turned around and smiled, “Oh? You did not know? I am sitting with you guys during lunch now.”
Matt exclaimed, “WHAT?! Since when? And why?!”
Santi jokingly frowned, “Aw, you don’t want me here? My uh, friends from the past four months were getting old so I am sitting with you guys now.”
Matt looked away with a bored expression, “Oh, so that’s what he’s going to think of us in four months… Anyways…!” Matt dragged Santi away from Sammy, “She wants to know more about Olympia-…”
“That is a stupid idea. Don’t even think about it, Matt.” Santi interrupted him.
“I know that! But still, she was in Olympia one time-…”
“Since when was this?!” Santi became angry.
Matt shook Santi on the shoulders, “Sh, sh! It was towards the end. She said she borrowed Danny’s phone or something and it said Olympia so she just clicked it. I don’t think she told anyone yet so she could be trusted.”
“Do you talk to her often?”
“Not really…” Matt paused for a moment, thinking about how often they talked. “Come to think of it, not that much. She’s just there in our group during lunch and that’s just about it.”
“Then forget about it.” Santi shook his head, “I don’t think it is a bright idea to just tell people like that, Matt. She cannot be trusted at the moment. Even if she does tell others about Olympia, no one will believe her so we cannot exploit more information about it.”
Matt thought about it for a moment but he decided to agree with Santi, “I guess you’re right. But what do I tell her?”
“I don’t know, just improvise!” Santi pushed Matt towards Sammy.
Matt was tripping and while falling, he yelped, “I don’t know what ‘improvise’ means- Blah!” He fell flat onto the ground, “Oh this is embarrassing…”
~~~
Hours went by and sixth period had already ended. It was several minutes into the day and the school was emptying. Matt pondered around the English building thinking about what he said to Sammy during lunch. He had told her a few excuses saying that Sammy was dreaming. Matt said to himself, “Hum… ‘I don’t even know what you’re talking about’… That was such an obvious lie yet she bought it.” He was about to touch the knob to enter his sixth period class to see if any of his friends were there, “Badminton conditioning is starting today and I don’t want to go alone.”
Matt touched the knob but the door was already opening. Matt let go of the door knob and waited for the door to open. As it was opening, a loud sudden scream came from inside the English room. “WE’RE LATE. YOU IDIOT!”
Matt took a step back watching as Alex fell towards the ground while Mariel jumped over him. Matt was shocked to see Mariel in such a hurry, “Uh- Mariel! What are you doing?”
Mariel turned around and faced Alex who was on the floor, “This idiot here kept asking Miss Boyd a bunch of questions and it was starting to piss me off. He said that Badminton conditioning is not so important but ever little practice is worth a lot. I really want to get in. Come on Matt, you seem more ready than I do.”
Matt was wearing his Freshman PE shirt to indicate that he had the appropriate clothes ready for Badminton conditioning. Matt stopped her, “Wait, Mariel! What is conditioning? I was going to ask you guys first before we get to play Badminton.”
Mariel began to laugh, “Wh-What? Haha! Are you stupid? Conditioning is only just running and stuff. We won’t be playing with a Badminton racket for another few days, Matt. Conditioning is for all sports and it is to prepare you and exercise you for the real deal. And guess what? I got this with me.” She opened her bag and showed Matt a bottle.
Matt pointed at it, “A water bottle? I forgot to bring one…”
Mariel giggled, “You’re not the only one. This is actually hairspray for every run I go through. People might think it’s just a water bottle so they won’t know I’m bringing hairspray with me. Alex, get up already. And Matt, come with us. For the next two months, Badminton conditioning will take over our after school lives!”
Matt watched her run. He said slowly and surprisingly, “For… the next two months…?!”
~~~
---- Next chapter preview:Matt: On the next chapter, I will warm up a great sweater after going through a cold day!
Sammy: What was that?!
Matt: What was what? You saw nothing!
Sammy: I'm going to investigate on this, hehe!
Matt: (What am I going to do?!) Next time, Excuses From a Fiery Mistake!
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