Episode 49 – Mirror Versus the Newborn Chick – Part 2
It has been days after since Matt had his baby chick learned to excess fire. As he was about to leave his house in order to go to school, he noticed that his baby chick was still in his room. He could not leave it at home because it would be dangerous for him and he needed his fire stone in case of emergencies that required fire to fix certain problems. He had to take the chicken with him by having it vanish into the stone.
Once he arrived at school, he conversed with Stan and Kalpesh. Stan asked him, “Hey Matt, how come you don’t hang out with us that much anymore?”
“What are you talking about?” Matt felt guilty but he did not realize what he had been doing these past few months.
Kalpesh also added, “Ever since Badminton practice began, you have been going to the other group more often then you stopped showing up in our group for group projects in science and stuff.”
Matt felt nervous. He tried to back up his facts, “Well, I don’t know. I didn’t mean.” He then sparked up an excuse. “And, you guys go home right after the coach says we can leave which is like around 4:30 PM. The thing is that we can choose to stay longer if we want more practice. This program thing ends at seven or eight PM. Sometimes I stay until six and I get closer to my other friends. (Actually, I use that time to look around Arkon’s Magic and to go home, heh…)”
Kalpesh became amazed. He tapped Stan on the arm and said happily, “Hey Stan, we should do that!”
“But I hate staying late.” Stan said with annoyance.
“Well I do too but if we want to stay in the Badminton team. It’s almost the end of February and we need to practice more before they decide if we’re in the team or not.” Kalpesh was concerned more about his entry to the team than Stan was.
Stan closed his eyes and he crossed his arms. “I’m sure we’ll get in. We’re not so bad, are we?”
“Well you aren’t.” Kalpesh said.
Matt stood up and he pretended to cough uncontrollably, “Ack, hey, I have to go to the restroom for a second.” Matt ran towards the men’s restroom in the large gym. “Why are they worrying so much about me? It’s not like I’m leaving them or anything. I just like making more friends.”
Alone outside the men’s restroom, he took a look around the small area. He made sure no one saw him close the door towards the large gym and now he was in the small area with locked doors from the outside. He summoned his baby chick and he pointed at it, “Hey you, let’s see what you can do with fire! I would bring you to Arkon’s Magic to practice right now but Danny is not here so I can’t steal a cellphone.” He commanded it to spew out a small amount of fire. As it did so, Matt clenched his fists with pride, “Yes! That’s awesome!”
As Matt continued to make the fire chick spew out flames, he heard a pipe fall and roll out of the stack. Matt was quickly alert and he put his fire chick back into his stone, “W-Who’s there?” Matt became frightened.
Matt slowly walked closely to the stack of pipes and all the sudden, a girl appeared and screamed, “Get away! Ahh!” Matt flinched and the girl pointed at herself, “It’s me, Venus. Don’t hurt me!”
Matt took a step back, “U-Uh…! You didn’t see anything, did you?! Tell me you didn’t!”
Venus shook her head, “I did…” She pointed at Matt and her finger was shaking, “You… have a chicken that can blow out fire and you used some stone thing to make it disappear! Just what are you?”
The door from outside the large gym opened and Matt was surprised. The third person that came into the room was Santi. Matt tried to change the subject, “Santi! What are you doing here?”
Santi stopped and he noticed that Matt was standing still and Venus was still pointing at Matt, shaking constantly from what she just saw. “Hey Matt. Oh hey, Venus. What are you doing?” He wondered why Venus was shaking uncontrollably.
Venus ran to Santi and she clenched onto his right arm, “That kid has some flaming bird thing!”
Matt could see Santi’s eyes widen but Venus did not notice. Santi said casually, “Oh really? Maybe you misinterpreted what he was doing. Did you clearly see him with a… flaming bird?”
Venus paused for a moment. “Huh? I’m sure I did.”
Santi laughed, “Haha, you must be kidding me! You are probably dreaming. Let’s go. I need to get my stuff from the lockers and then we need to do our group project for English.”
With Santi’s command, Venus disregarded what she saw from Matt as they both left the small area of the large gym together. Matt watched them leave as he said to himself, “She saw me… and Santi acted as if everything was fine… What’s going on?”
~~~
It was getting dark outside and Matt was still at school. Stan and Kalpesh decided to walk home together and Matt wanted to stay to play more games of Badminton with his other friends since they were willing to stay with him. At the time, not many students remained. ShirleyC, Joey, and Yessenia were at the upper floor of the large gym. Joey only appeared to play, not to practice to be in the team. He had nothing else to do. As time went by, Matt became exhausted from playing badminton especially because he had to run around, catching the birdies when they fell onto the ground.
Matt sat down in front of the closed bleachers. He crouched with his knees on his chin and he covered his face. Matt’s friends watched him crouch into a ball and then they continued to play.
“I heard about him too!” a voice was heard. Matt’s heartbeat was running normally.
Another voice told the first voice, “That Matt guy can use some fire chicken and he brought it to school! He could get suspended.”
“I know. I already told the principal. I think he could get expelled, not suspended.” Matt’s heartbeat became stronger.
“He’ll have no future. Just because we found out about his secret, everyone in the world will eventually know and he’ll be expelled and taken to the police. He might be sent to an asylum too.” Both the voices began to laugh evilly and darkness began to fill Matt’s vision more and more.
Matt flinched and he woke up with a yelp, “Ah!-…” He could see Santi’s hands in front of Matt’s face which had caused the darkness in Matt’s dream. Matt grabbed onto Santi’s wrist and asked, “W-What are you doing?!”
Santi shook Matt’s hand away. “I was going to erase your memory of what happened with you and Venus in the bottom floor a few hours ago.”
Matt clenched his teeth, “And you were going to do it without telling me?”
“You wouldn’t remember anyway. What’s the point of telling you if I’m just going to make you forget about it?”
“Why would you want me to lose my memory of that anyway? Venus should be the one losing her memory about us, right?”
“I already made her memory about you disappear. It is necessary for you to lose your memory as well because of the stress. Almost anything occurring in your mind can affect the future.”
“You don’t trust me that I won’t tell anyone?” Matt questioned him.
“That is not the issue, Matt. We are trying to expose the information and knowledge to as little people as possible, even if it is coming from your mind.”
Matt stood up, “Well don’t erase my mind. I’m fine as I am and I won’t get stressed out now that Venus lost her memory about me. That was a close one though. I only started talking to her a few days ago and then she found out about me already, hehe…”
Santi said angrily, “You are exposing yourself too easily, Matt.”
“What are you talking about…?” Matt pretended to sound clueless.
Santi explained the situation, “Exposing yourself is of course, leading to a wrong direction. Imagine if I am not there. What will happen then?”
Matt was silent for a moment. He did not know what to say but he could only ask, “And since when were you leaving me, or us?”
Santi shook his head, “I meant to say that if anything wrong and unexpected happens to me, then you might get exposed without my help of erasing anyone’s mind. We cannot tell the future about our dangers, so I am only protecting us for this moment. Do you understand?”
Matt quickly agreed, “Yeah, yeah. Of course I understand that! But-…”
“Like everyone would say, ‘no but’s’. When she told me about how you were using some flaming chicken in the large gym, that made me quickly believe that you were abusing your fire powers at a very risky moment. How was I able to trust you then?”
Matt sighed, “I’m sorry… I guess I didn’t think it through. Just… please, don’t erase my memory. If next time I am exposed, don’t erase anything. I’ll take the consequences. That’s how confident I am for not making anybody else find out about my fire powers.”
“Are you quite sure about that?”
“Of course I am! Why not?”
“Words are better said than done, no?” Santi questioned him.
Matt had been outsmarted. Matt turned around and he clenched onto his badminton racket, “Just believe me. I won’t make another stupid mistake again. If I want to use my fire powers, then I’m gonna have to go to Arkon’s Magic. It’s easy as that.” He began to walk away.
Santi chuckled to himself and said, “It is not so easy when you have no cellphone. You would just get lazy and end up using fire powers in the real world again, just like before.”
~~~
As Matt was leaving the large gym, he was in a rush, opening the large doors as fast as he could. He heard a loud thump and then an angry groan “Ow- argh!!”
Matt ran out of the building to see who he had hit. He could see Venus grabbing onto her forehead and with her other hand, holding a mirror. Matt rolled his eyes, “You again with the mirror…”
Venus stared at him, “Eh? Oh, hey! I’ve seen you a few times in my classes, right? I’m Venus Phan!”
Matt scratched his head, “I still don’t get how your last name is ‘Phan’. You’re part Asian and White...?”
Venus giggled, “Yes! Yes I am. What did you mean by ‘still’? I don’t think we’ve talked that much before.”
Matt jumped, “Oh, right. I know. I just talk like that because I’m really open to people. I act as if we are best friends. I’m that friendly.”
Venus poked his nose, “That’s-a-lie. In class, I see you barely talking to people. They’re just… um, Santi and sometimes Peter. Hey, speaking of Santi, have you seen him around? I just called him and he said he’s at the large gym but he didn’t mention specifically where.”
Matt pointed at the doors, “He’s inside there being creepy.”
“Creepy?”
“Yeah, earlier, he went up to me and- (Oh crap, I can’t tell her!) said stuff. Never mind that, just find him somewhere inside.”
Venus raised her right eyebrow in confusion, “Hrm? Well, anyways, I’m going to go inside now. See you next time then, Matt! ‘Matt’, right?”
Matt shook his head and they both walked the opposite directions.
~~~
Once Matt began walking towards his bus stop, he looked up at the sky, “It’s getting dark already. For a February, it’s pretty early.” He then thought about the light from the sky which made him earn his fire powers. This had caused him to converse a lot with new friends. This had made him bond with them, but not close enough. Still, it did feel as if he was betraying Stan and Kalpesh like they were saying. Matt still thought that Stan and Kalpesh were fun people, but he could never get the opportunity to have fun with them after school other than Badminton conditioning and practice. In fact, he never really gave a chance to having fun after school. He only decided to go home early on days without the involvement of Badminton.
Matt told himself, “I really don’t want to leave them like this. They’re my best friends since Elementary school. I should ask them if they want to hang out or something. I might not like it either but… let’s give it a try.”
~~~
Santi took a look at his cellphone. There had been one new place on his list that he was concerned about. “Venus is getting closer to the informational secret of powers. If any more people find out, all power users will be in definite trouble. Matt, I am counting on you to keep this all a secret.” He highlighted the new area, “As for this place… you’re up for a new challenge. This time, you will have to discover the real secret of powers. This is also recent news to me. So, I will learn with you about these powers.” He began to vanish away into the new area.
Venus took a look around in the large gym. All the guys watched her. Venus tried to ignore them, “Uh, it’s because of my hair and shorts, hehe. I know!~ Anyways, where is Santi? He’s not down here, and he’s not even up there. That bastard, always disappearing on me…”
~~~
---- Next chapter preview:Matt: On the next chapter, ...What?! There's a new place to explore from your cellphones?!
Danny: Here, look!
Matt: *checks Danny's cellphone* Give me that! *pushes Danny down* I'm going there NOW!
Danny: B-But you don't know how dangerous it is!
Mariel: Well I know how dangerous it is. You've got to help me clean up what went wrong back there in the new place!
Matt: Mariel... you did something didn't you? Agh...
Mariel: Oh psch, don't blame me just because I know a lot about it. ...Okay fine, please help me fix the problem though!
Matt: Alright already. Let's head for the new world! Next time, The Silent Forest of Emille!
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