Episode 41 – Excuses from a Fiery Mistake
Day after day, Matt and his certain friends have been conditioning for badminton. There were many students that Matt did not recognize, yet he recognized many others. He stood in a small group with Jen, Stan, Kalpesh, and Danny. From afar, he could see Yessenia, Mariel, Alex, ShirleyC, and some of their own friends conditioning near each other. Matt watched them having fun. They acted as if they were family but as for Matt, he was quiet among his own group. All the sudden, Stan yeled, “Matt, hurry up! Run faster!”
Matt was last to run. He quickly regained sanity as he stopped spacing out, “W-Wah? Oh, right!”
He began to run and Jen cheered for him, “Good job, Matt! Keep running!”
Kalpesh scratched his head, “I wonder why Matt never sweats…”
From afar, Shirley said to Mariel, “Don’t you think Matt looks like he’s not having that much fun with them?”
Mariel turned around so no one could see her face as she sprayed her hair with hairspray. She yawned, “Ah, I love water spray! Anyways, it doesn’t matter if he’s having fun or not. Conditioning is not fun anyway. It’s just to prepare us for the actual badminton practice. Besides, if Matt was really bored, then he would come here with us.”
Alex said, “And he’s anti-social. What a loner.”
“Shush Alex, your opinions don’t matter.” Mariel joked.
Yessenia crossed her arms, “Hm, we should ask him to hang out with us. For the past few days, we’ve all been hanging out with each other along with Peter and Danny. Santi does too, but that is just sometimes.”
Matt thought in his mind, “Focus on controlling your fire, Matt. Once you keep focusing, being tired is never a problem.” At an angle, no one could see Matt use his powers to help him condition. However, he could not see that there was a man in front of him from afar, taking pictures. Matt began to look forward and then his eyes gaped wide open. With surprise, he yelped, “H-Huh?!”
Matt stopped and fell to the floor when his fire powers stopped him from moving forward. Joey smiled, “Keep going! Don’t stop, Matt!” He gave Matt a thumbs-up.
Matt was confused at whether Joey was trying to catch Matt using his fire powers or if he was taking pictures for Journalism. Peter patted Joey on the shoulder, “Come on, I think we’ve got enough pictures. Shouldn’t we go back into Maher’s class now? I don’t really want to go with you but you’re lucky Maher is making me help supervise you.”
Joey sighed, “Oh fine. I still don’t get why you need to supervise me. No one trusts that I’m taking pictures for a class and not because I’m violating privacy or what?”
“Just calm down. Let’s go back.” Peter commanded. Joey gave an angry stomp as he agreed to go with Peter.
Matt watched them leave, “Huh…”
“Go, go, go!” Danny yelled. “Why are you just sitting there in the middle of the basketball court? You got half a mile to run before I’m next and the other teams are winning!”
Matt said with anger, “I know, I know! Sheesh!” He stood up as he began running again.
~~~
Sammy came out of the small school library. She turned to see that the cafeteria was closed, “Oh damn it. Detention is closed for tomorrow.” She decided to take the short cut out of the school by turning right, before the history building. She stopped to see Matt putting on his sweater. The sweater had a slight flame pop out from the sides. Sammy gasped, “Wh-What the? Wait a minute!” She said quietly to herself.
From behind, Peter was watching Sammy. At an angle, he could see the fire expand around Sammy right at the moment when Matt put on his sweater in front of Sammy. “What was that?”
Sammy turned around and she smiled, “Peter! I just saw something amazing!”
Peter rolled his eyes, “Heck yeah, you produced fire somewhere! Where is the lighter?”
Sammy became confused, “Lighter? What are you talking about?”
Peter pointed at her, “I’ve known you for two years and you’re known to do some weird stuff. You probably have some lighter on your.”
Sammy became angry, “Shut the hell up, Peter. I have no lighter. If you meant you saw a fire, then it was Matt. I clearly saw him put on a sweater and flames came out of it for just a second.”
Peter joked, “Are you sure it wasn’t you?”
Sammy exclaimed, “Let’s just follow him!!”
Moments later, Sammy and Peter were behind a pillar watching Matt’s every move. Peter yawned, “Eh, he’s just going to the library. Maybe he had some lighter with him too or something.”
Sammy shook her head, “No, that can’t be. His hands weren’t raised up after putting on his sweater.”
Peter face-palmed himself, “Ugh, this reminds me of the time when my friend Joey kept talking about Matt’s fire powers and Shirley’s ice powers.”
Sammy said with pride, “Yes! That’s what it was!! Matt has fire powers!”
Peter closed his eyes and covered his ears, “Why am I always the victim of these stupid stories? I’m tired of it. Blah, blah, blah.”
Sammy shook him, “This is some interesting news, Peter! So it really wasn’t a dream.”
“What wasn’t?”
Sammy explained her dream, “One day I somehow went into a weird world, stuck in a cellar. I even saw Matt there. I don’t think it was even a dream. It felt a bit too real!”
Peter began to walk away, “You’re just trying to mess with me now. That’s kind of evil, Sammy.”
Sammy rose out her hand towards him, “B-But Peter! Wait… Ugh.” She turned around in annoyance, “Damn it…” She noticed that Jen passed by. “Hey, Jen! You’ll believe whatever I say right?”
Jen took a step back, “W-What the? I was peacefully walking passed by and you suddenly show up like this. What is it?”
“I saw Matt with fire on his sweater. Peter though I did it but for real, I clearly saw it!”
Jen was amused by what Sammy said but she remembered what she saw way back in September. She was investigating Matt but she seemed to fail at finding out what he was hiding. That thought was now coming back to her. “As crazy as it sounds, should I believe you?”
Sammy became frustrated. “Yes, yes of course! You’ve got to believe me…”
“Fine. The last time I checked, he was just doing something stupid that anyone else could do. I’ll go check up on him again but I’m sure he’s just doing something fire-related.”
Sammy crossed her arms, “That could be true, b-but still… ugh, I want to ask him but he’s just going to lie to me. That’s why I want to find out about him myself. I need to know before I…”
Sammy suddenly stopped. Jen tilted her head in confusion, “Huh? What is it? Why do you look so sad all the sudden?”
Sammy turned around and said, “O-Oh, it’s nothing. I have to go home right now. Um, see you later, Jen!”
She ran off and Jen said stupidly, “What was she talking about?”
~~~
The next day came and Matt was changing his clothes before Badminton conditioning. Alex appeared before him and he startled Matt. “Hey!~ What are you doing?”
Matt tried not to look at Alex. He disliked eye contact towards anyone in the men’s lockers. “What do you want, jerk?”
Alex laughed, “Aw come on. I know you’re hiding something.”
Matt suddenly became shocked as if an electrical stream went through his mind, “What? What are you talking about?”
Alex pointed at Matt, “Your fire powers!”
Matt took a step back, “N-Now hold on a minute. Where are you hearing this from?”
From behind, Santi opened his palms to reverse the memory of Alex’s thoughts about Matt’s fire powers. Matt was watching in fear. Alex felt his head and said softly, “Oh… oh gosh, what happened…”
Matt was silent. He did not know what to say anymore. Santi said from behind, “You are in my way.”
Alex laughed, “Eheh, sorry!” He began to walk away.
Matt waited until Alex was clearly gone. He suddenly gripped onto Santi’s shoulders, “What the heck was that?! How did he find out about my fire powers?!”
Matt began to vigorously shake Santi but Santi said, “You have to calm down. Mariel told me about how people are finding out. Right now I am just moving around, reversing the memory of any one who thinks you have fire powers. I still have yet to find out who started it. Tell me Matt, what would you do in this kind of situation?”
Matt was startled by the question. “Why would you ask that? I’d go to you for help, of course.”
“You really will?” Santi continued questioning Matt.
“Did that sound bad? I didn’t mean to. It’s just, what else can I do?”
Santi gave Matt a candle, “Here.”
“What? What is this for?”
“This is for preparation. It’s times like these when you need a candle or something fire material. Once people start finding out about you, and when I am not there, you have to make sure that you can re-hide your powers so that people won’t think you have fire powers.” Santi handed Matt the candles.
Matt scratched his head, “Oh come on. You’ll always be there. You’ve been there since September when I needed you except some of those times where you decide not to help me because it would mess up their brains.”
Santi began to laugh, “Ahahaha! You’re kidding me, right? Let’s just say I won’t be there to help you forever. Just take the candles.” Santi left the locker room.
Matt sat down, wondering in fear about what Santi meant. “What did he mean by that…?”
~~~
As Matt was leaving Badminton conditioning, he could see Jen waving at him far from the girl’s lockers. Matt ran up to her and gave her a little ‘hello’. Jen, in response, said to him, “How are things going?”
“It’s been good.” Matt turned a little to notice that she had a different expression on. “(Don’t tell me someone told her about my powers…) Why?”
Jen hugged him, “Because, silly! You didn’t show up a lot near me during conditioning today so I missed you. Hahaha.”
Matt pushed her away, “Eeakk! Don’t touch me like that! Why are you talking as if you haven’t seen me in months or years anyway?”
Jen crossed her arms, “Psch. A girl can’t show her love?”
Matt said bluntly, “Well not to me.”
Jen said angrily, “As a man, you’re pretty pathetic. You’re supposed to like tight hugs especially from girls.”
Matt yelled at her, “Hey! Not all guys are perverted.”
“I didn’t even say guys are perverted for liking hugs like that.”
Matt clenched his fists, “Man, you don’t know that much about guys. Let’s just forget about it. Can I go home now?”
Jen stopped him, “No wait.” Matt stopped as Jen pointed at him, “You’re pretty warm. Care to explain what that is all about?”
Matt rolled his eyes but he became nervous, “W-Well, I give off a lot of heat. What else?”
Jen sighed and said to him, “You’re hiding something from me again, haven’t you?”
Matt was surprised at what she just said. “Ergh, no. I’m not hiding anything…”
“Let me be honest with you Matt… Sammy said she saw you give off heat while trying to put on your sweater yesterday after Badminton conditioning. She said she clearly saw you and I didn’t want to believe it so I’m making sure.”
Matt tried to remember when he used his fire powers to make his sweater warm. “OH! That time?” Matt opened his backpack and took out a candle, “I used this on my other hand.”
Jen looked at the candle closely, “Why would you bring a small candle? It won’t even show a huge flame big enough for Sammy to see.”
Matt began to explain to her, “Well, the day has been cold lately and I don’t have some crazy sweater to warm me up. Besides, not all candles give small flames. This is… a special candle that I got from some store down at… some place far from here.”
Jen held the candle and raised it up in the air, “Really? Whoa…”
Matt took a step forward to retrieve the candle, “Ah- Don’t touch the candle too much. I don’t know what will happen if someone holds it tightly. You might break it.”
Jen giggled as she handed the candle back to Matt, “Sorry. Here you go. I guess I was wrong again. But don’t blame me, blame Sammy! Ah…” She tiptoed away from Matt while she was waving goodbye to him.
Matt said to himself, “She’s pretty gullible when it comes to the outside world… But anyway,” Matt watched the candle as he held onto it, “I thank you Santi for helping me get around a situation like this.”
Sammy was hiding behind a pole near the entrance to the large gym. “That’s a lie… that must be a lie. There is no way that the candle can give that many flames. I can’t believe he just lied to her like that. What I saw yesterday was not some stupid illusion. I am a hundred percent sure that you created fire that came out of your sweater or hands or something that no one else could do! I’m going to investigate more on you Matt and you’ll see what I can find out from you. Just you wait…!”
~~~
---- Next chapter preview:Matt: On the next chapter, the trio sisters are back?!
Van: Hello, hello! I see you!
Maggie: You shut up, Van. Leave him alone. Look how weak he is. We don't want to see a Neopets quitter become sad!
Matt: B-But...!
Jenny: Now, now, you guys, please let's calm down heehee.
Matt: What's so funny?! Ugh...! Next time, Three Times the Disaster!!
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