Ryan stood in front of me with two girls besides him. I guess it's what you would expect from the popular guys in school. As one would expect the girls had their make up well done and I suspected it was meant to always be like that. Well I had heard enough about all that and had seen enough at the parties that Gary was always sneaking off to. "Come on guys. You don't rough up a legacy," Ryan said to the guys who had brought me in.
"He's tougher than that," the guy to my right said chuckling. What perturbed me most was how Ryan had got these guys to follow him. Was he simply rich and they all just wanted to get in his good graces or was it that he was influential? What was the story behind their loyalty?
"So Kevin, have you made your decision yet?" Ryan asked me. It wasn't like they were holding me so I wouldn't run. They just had me cornered and were all leisurely blocking my only way out.
"I don't know yet," I said keeping my tone sceptical, "I just don't see what I have to gain from any of this."
This did not seem to please him. "Bring the scrapbook," he said to the girl on his right. She beckoned the others and they passed along a huge scrapbook filled with so many pictures. I almost burst into laughter. Of all things they were going to show me a scrapbook.
"Lemme hope you are seeing all the right angles of this," he said. I passively received the scrapbook as he handed it to me, "Start from the back," he said.
I sighed opening the book starting with the last book. As expected, there was a picture of Ryan standing leisurely against a wall dressed in nay blue trousers and wearing a navy blue sweater with the sleeves folded back. I wonder how long he had planned his pose. Besides him were the same girls that stood beside him looking as beautiful as ever and posing back to back with him in the middle with a smirk on his face. It wasn't a bad picture. It honestly had me smiling.
As I turned the pages back I recognised more Purgers but each had been allowed space in the book equal to that which Ryan had. Some had even put bigger pictures. They all had about three pictures in the book. They weren't party pictures either like I had expected. They were all just well-planned like a yearbook of sorts, like they were trying to leave a mark. As I went further back I began to see pictures of people I didn't recognize. Many pictures had been flipped upside down when I was done with current ones. I did see a picture of someone really familiar, but that is the time my brain decided to keep the information to itself. I spent a few moments trying to remember him, but eventually gave up and continued flipping through the pages. I eventually started seeing pictures of people I didn't know at all and based on the picture quality, I could tell that these people were from a very long time ago. Eventually Ryan made me flip through too the first page which held a full portrait of a woman's face smiling. I had seen this person somewhere.
I gasped as realisation hit me like a tidal wave. It was clear picture of Daphne, Jekyll's wife. The first Homage of Armensia. What the hell was going on? I looked at Ryan and couldn't miss his satisfied smirk. "So you know our founder?" he said. It was just as he said it. At the bottom the portrait were the words, 'Founder, Daphne Coalle.'
I was at a loss of words. Some of the Purgers had broken formation and had come over to have a look. "I wonder if she actually could look like that without any make up," one of the girls said slightly to herself causing me to chuckle. I had seen Daphne for myself in Jekyll's memories and to be honest she was a sight to behold. If it wasn't for the magic I was detecting from the portrait, the picture would have got some of the details wrong.
"You'd be surprised," I replied.
"Good eye. You seem to know the founder well," Ryan chirped in.
"That's not right," the girl said suddenly getting annoyed.
"Calm down, Heather. You don't look so good when you're angry," Ryan said stopping her rising anger. She resigned besides her friend. I finally got to see them close to each other and I could see that these girls resembled. Was that odd or was simply Ryan dating twins? I snapped out of my thoughts to listen to what Ryan had to say about this weird scrapbook. I obviously refrained from mentioning that I detected magic coming off the portrait. Taking into account that these could also be among the people that Mr Bergstrom had mentioned that know about magic in this school or in our society altogether.
Thinking back on the pictures I had seen, I could now recognise a few aunties and uncles among the pictures. They looked much younger when the pictures had been taken, but they were definitely the ones in those pictures.
Ring, ring, ring... the bell for the start of class went. I looked around frantically and saw that these guys were perfectly relaxed as if the bell had not just gone. Ryan noticed my expression, "Oh I'm sure the teacher won't worry if you missed a few minutes of his lessons," he said.
I knew I couldn't get away from them so my only option was to get along with this quickly. "So what do you know about her?" I asked pointing to the portrait.
"So full of questions today. Answering that will only bring about more questions. But that is a good thing for me. So I'll answer that question and then if you want any other questions answered, you join us. Daphne Coalle together with her husband Jekyll, founded this empire that you see here," he said as if expecting me to understand what he meant. I didn't understand what he meant by empire. And I knew he had no intention of answering my questions any further. "I know you have question. But like I said, join us, then I'll tell you everything you need to know. Besides we are family," he said the last part with so much sincerity I found it hard to take it as a lie or a way to manipulate me into joining him.
As promised, he wasn't going to entertain any more questions from me. He ordered two of the Purgers, specifically the ones who had brought me here to escort me to my next class. The three of us walked through the empty halls of the school straight to my maths class. We finally reached the entrance and the whole class fell dead silent. Mr. Bergstrom beckoned that it was okay for me to enter and I made my way to my seat. All the while I couldn't shake off the feeling of the students' eyes on me. 'Nice entrance,' I heard Ciara's voice in my head though it sounded she sounded quite disappointed.
'I didn't plan any of this,' I told her.
'Well, you're not fooling anyone,' she replied.
I put my head on the desk in exasperation, 'So much for keeping a low profile,' I said to her causing her to giggle. It took me a while to get my head into the lesson, but I couldn't shake the discomfort of being eyed by my fellow class mates. The bell finally rang and I stayed seated as everyone moved out to get to their next lesson. I noticed Ciara's worried expression and gave her a reassuring smile before she left the room. I eventually got up when everyone had left and walked to Mr Bergstrom's desk. He only continued looking through his work without sparing me a glance.
"You better get to your next class, Mr. Johnson," he said like I was any other ordinary student that went to this school.
"Come on. Don't give me that," I snapped at my mentor.
He finally looked up at me, "So you decided to join Ryan?" he asked.
"Even you know about them?" I asked.
"Of course I do," he said and stopped there without adding any more. He turned his attention back to his work signifying that was all he going to say on the matter.
"Come on. You have to tell me more than that," I said to him.
"This is for you to solve. You will not receive any help in this decision. It is one only you are supposed to make without any help at all," he said which only confused me more. What the hell was the big deal about joining Ryan. Why wouldn't anyone tell me anything. It seemed like all the adults knew about it and were never going to tell me a single thing. It was becoming very annoying.
"So what? No punishment for showing up late to class?" I asked him.
"Nope," he answered simply as if it was a rhetorical question. I walked out of the room angry at the teacher even though I knew there was nothing I could do about it. The only way to get all the answer to the swarming questions in my head was to allow him to allow Ryan to recruit me into to his merry band of delinquents. Although for the first time t=since school started, I simply couldn't see them as simply delinquents. Something fishy was definitely going on. But without having the information I needed, I could only refer them to what every student saw them as. Then there was the scrapbook that dated back ages as if this arrangement came about centuries ago and Ryan was merely a successor.