My time abilities now seemed very scary. I decided to go take a walk while the others had lunch. Having a double meal wasn't something I was looking forward to. I walked out onto the football pitch and moved around. My coach was going to make my life hell today. From there I continued to another sports section. This one housed a basketball court and a tennis court. They were open at lunch time. Some students preferred to blow some steam rather than eat food with everyone else. I heard the sound of a bouncing basketball and walked to the basketball court.
My life had been filled with sports from the moment I left rehab at the age of eight. I had no memories of anything that had happened to me except for the occasional nightmare of my cousin Charles' death. Kendall had helped me out immediately I made it to school.
Flashback.....
"You don't have to start today, honey," my mom said from the passenger seat.
"No, mom, I want to. I can't spend another day in that place," I complained.
"Okay," she said before opening the door for me. The doctors had only given us two options. I could continue my studies from the rehab centre till I was ready or from school while being closely monitored. I hated the rehab centre. Everyone there treated me like some an orphan who had been in a war or something. I was sick of their sorry expressions and how their voices always softened when they talked to me. None of them was even allowed to get angry at me. It was like living with mind controlled freaks. I hated every bit of it which is why I was determined to return to school. The teachers at the rehab centre had confirmed that I had finally caught up with the other children of my grade.
"Do you want me to escort…."
"KEVIN," mom's voice was stopped by the shouting of a boy calling my name. I looked towards the black haired boy who came running towards me with excited. He crushed me into a huge bear hug. The boy seemed to be happy but I couldn't the use of the tears on his face. "How long were you planning to make us wait for you?" he said excited before dragging me off towards the school building.
When we were away from my mom's view I stopped him. I could feel the familiarity of this boy. The way he dragged me around like I was able to keep up. His boundless energy, his excitement, I remembered all of it, but not him. I cried. "Hey what's wrong?"
"I can't remember," I said whilst weeping, "I can't remember anything."
He only smiled, "So what?" he said, "You're still Kevin, aren't you?" he asked and I nodded. "Then it doesn't matter," he extended his hand to me, "We'll start all over. Nice to meet you. My name is Kendall, Kendall Michaels." He was the first one to treat me normally since that day, my best friend, Kendall Michaels. He later introduced me to the others and that is how I got my friends back. My friend Kendall would throw a football at me whenever I got sad. He always had one on him back then. He was the one who introduced me to sports. When on the court, my past did not matter. Through sports I was able to get rid of all my stress.
End of Flashback
"Hey Kevin," I heard someone call causing me to look towards the basketball court only to realise that it was Ryan and a few Purgers. They were the ones that had been on court, "Get over here and join these losers. They are need one more player," he said acting completely familiar with me which I simply brushed off as something the most popular kid in school would do. I walked into the basketball enclosure and got on the team opposing Ryan.
"Okay now we are even," Ryan concluded before the game began. The team I was put on was nothing compared to Ryan's team which was mainly made of Purgers while mine was completely full of newbies. I badly wanted to help these guys win, but I couldn't shake how tired I was from Bergstrom's training. In the end I was just another lump of dead weight added to their team.
Ring, ring, ring…. the bell went signalling for us to stop playing and start preparing for afternoon classes. "Guys I'm sorry for the way I have played," I tried apologising.
"Don't sweat it. These guys play basketball everyday so weren't exactly hoping to play them that well anyway. To be honest I think we did better than I thought we would do. Thanks to your team spirit," one of them said. I had come to learn that his name was Josh from a class above us. He wasn't completely wrong with what he said. When I sensed that I was weak, I had resorted to my team for help and in the end the whole team had ended up being quite well coordinated. "You look tired though," he said.
"Yeah, I am exhausted," I said as my muscles screamed even louder for me to take a break. Bergstrom had explained it clearly that while in Armensia, being that it is a magically activated world. Its magic flow can be utilised by the Siege to revitalize. But if I pushed too hard, I would feel the consequences on Earth when I returned. Now I understood what he meant. My body was begging to stop pushing myself and do something more relaxing like go to sleep.
I was brought out of my thoughts by the sound of jogging footsteps coming towards me. I looked up and saw that it was Ryan who was approaching me with two Purgers flanking him on both sides. "So Kevin, that was disappointing," he said to me after catching up.
"What was disappointing?" I asked.
"The way you played. You didn't even put up a fight compared to what I saw on the football pitch," he said. Just how closely was this guy watching me.
"I am tired today, that's all," I said before branching off to my locker. I had to be more careful not to cross Ryan and his goons again. There was still news of what they did to students in the school especially the first few weeks when freshmen have just reported to school.
….......….
I met up with Kendall after the last lesson to get ready for football practice. "Did you hear?" he began while dressing up.
"Hear what?" I asked tying my shoelaces.
"Coach wasn't so happy about your disappearing act the past few days do he is out to get you today," he said as if he was telling me that the president had spilled his cup of coffee and no one cleaned it up. He made the information seem so useless yet my life was on the line here. But leave it to Kendall to find a way of making the scariest of situations seem like a walk in the park. "Oh and plus Thomas is extremely pissed about Ryan making a move on you."
"Huh, why?"
"Apparently the prince of High school and the king of football don't see eye to eye. So you being recruited, as he called it, by Ryan makes it seem like he is starting something. More high school drama and stuff like that, blah blah blah….." he finished as he finally finished his last shoe lace
"I had almost forgotten about Ryan's proposal. With everything going on in our other lives, it is almost impossible to keep up with High school squabbles."
"True that," he said chuckling, "I wonder how the Johnsons ever became legacies. Could have been your grandpa or something? Those Purgers are weird like that. There is a small rumour that they do not just invite you among them for any reason. Every one of them has a reason to be in that group," he said.
"Where are you getting your info Kendall?" I asked.
He simply shrugged, "Word gets around." we had started jogging onto the field when a loud voice was heard booming across the field. I'm quite sure astronauts heard him all the way in space where even sound was not permitted to move.
"Johnson," my beloved coach yelled at the top of his voice.