One of these days I was going to go to the administration and demand for a new football coach. I thought aloud as I lay on one of the benching panting wildly and sweating like I was in a sauna. My dear friends appeared to be on the move as I had suspected. I ignored it, but it appeared like they were giving me some weird form of silent treatment. It had to be, right. I brushed aside the thought for fear that it may cause me to sweat even more than I already was. Kendall had bathed quickly and left before I had even noticed he attended training at all. The whole time on the field he appeared to be in a hurry and preoccupied.
"So is it true you joined the Purgers, Kevin?" one of the only football players who were still around asked from within the shower rooms. I think his name was Danny if I remember correctly. I guess the rumour had decided to advance to what hadn't even happened yet. Everyone now thought I was a full pledged Purger now. I found myself being slightly grateful that no one was spreading a possible rumour that he had rejected me in the basketball court.
"I haven't joined them yet," I replied.
"Really, the whole school is talking about it. Well among the lower classes mainly. I also heard that Ryan is a second year and he took over the Purgers when he was only a freshman which makes him the youngest student to ever take over them," Danny continued gossiping. This was interesting to me though considering I had decided to terminate everything I had ever had from rumours about the Purgers.
"What does it take for one to join the Purgers?" I asked only to be met by a very pronounced silence except for the constant running water.
"I thought you knew since you are the one joining them and all?" he said.
"No," I said sighing, " I don't know a thing."
"To be honest, no one knows. You'll hear the occasional rumour that Ryan picks the people that catch his eye but you never get to understand how to make him realize you want to join. Many have tried walking straight up to him to ask him to let them into the group but he always turns them down. He also doesn't care what other people think of him so even if the whole school is against him his decision still remains final. I heard he has a substantial amount of influence in this school and his word sometimes is law," Danny explained. This was starting to sound more unbelievable the more he went deeper into the story. I decided to put that as one of the many rumours I had heard spreading around about how the Purgers actually operate.
Thomas had kept quiet the whole time. He had probably come to the conclusion that this was finally beyond his power. He had almost approached me on the same matter but he thought better of it. I finally got up to shower and made my way to the shower rooms when I heard the water flow go completely silent all of a sudden. The silence was so similar I instinctively ran to the shower rooms and got their t=in time to see everything frozen. The water was stopped mid-air. It was an attempt to stop time. Had asked Mr Bergstrom during one of our lessons why I had never been frozen in time and he had explained saying that someone with time powers more powerful than the magic the caster is not affected by it. So if I ever wanted to freeze time in Armensia then I would have to use way more magic to make Travas also got frozen.
Someone was casting a time spell though this one did not give me the evil feeling that Texan's spell had done when he appeared in the school a few days ago. I was about to dismiss and continue with what I was doing when the water continued flowing. 'Wait, what the hell was that? A failed attempt at stopping time or was the caster trying to do something that didn't require that much time. I decided I would investigate that later or at least address it to Ciara when the time came.
Once I was dressed and done with everything I was supposed to do in the locker rooms, I got out only to stop at the entrance at the sight of my new found companion. Sonia Everglade seemed to have taken it upon herself to always be by my side whenever she could. It was almost like she wanted to know something about me.
"Good evening," she chirped up as usual.
"Oh hi, seems you're still talking to me," I said bluntly remembering everyone else had chosen to ignore me. No doubt it had been a command from Ciara since she was the only capable of making them do something like that.
"With an attitude like that, I might as well stop talking to you all the same," she whined. I sighed and just kept walking home. I felt a tug on my hand and was instantly pulled backwards. She had pulled me back so suddenly My heart rate had sped up.
"What is it?" I snapped doing almost nothing to hide my irritation.
"You don't live alone you know," she yelled in my face causing me to flinch back at her tone. I could tell she was really angry for the first time, "People want to get to know you. Ever since I got here I have noticed one thing. Everything seems to be revolving around one person, you. But you are pushing everyone away. What are you thinking? What do you think they will do eventually?" she continued yelling.
"Get to the point Everglade," I said crossing my arms in irritation.
"You walked out on your friends at the lunch table without much of an explanation of what was going on between you and Ryan and only ended up pushing Ryan even further when you followed him. And you see nothing wrong with that?," she yelled. She was letting it all out now.
"What do you know? Besides how do you even know I followed Ryan?" I asked.
"How do you think? I followed you when you left the cafeteria," she replied. She was still yelling this whole time and to be honest I was still trying to figure out what she was trying to tell me.
"What are you saying I should be doing then?" I asked. She sighed and covered her face n exasperation. I waited as she allowed herself to cool off.
"You could start by talking to Ryan first," she said when she finally calm.
"What's there to talk about?" I asked turning away from her.
"Did you know that he ordered the Purgers not to touch you or your friends?" she said catching me off guard. I was under the impression was done with anything concerning me. Guess I still had a chance. I found that I still cared to know what Ryan had to tell me about the Purgers and there weird foundation. "All that I'm asking is that you go and talk to him," she continued.
"Where would I even find him?" I asked her when I realized I had lost this one. Besides, I also wanted to reconcile with Ryan if I was ever going to learn what I was supposed to from him.
"You could try finding him the same way you found me during the lunchtime training session with your teacher," she pointed out. I breathed in deep and closed my eyes focusing. Eventually I was able to hear the sound of a basketball, not that it came as a surprise. These guys really loved their basketball. I began my walk to the basketball court and stopped when I noticed there was no one following me. I turned and saw Sonia was not following me, "It's better if you handle this one on your own," she said before she waved and began the walk home. "See you tomorrow."
"You fine going home on your own?" I asked her.
"So now you care," she said smiling.
"Don't get too used to it," I replied before turning to face my destination. "See you tomorrow, Sonia." With that we parted ways and I began making my way to the basketball court. I didn't have anything to say to Ryan yet, but I had to try and meet him. I f there was still a chance could get to him then maybe. To think I began the day when it was I who wanted to make negotiations with him. How I had fallen in such a short amount of time. I soon heard the constant sound of a ball bouncing and aggressive air of fierce competition could be even before the basketball court came into view. Soon after it came into view and from the looks of the people who were sing the court, they were only Purgers. For the first time, I noticed there were even some who were female. The atmosphere that surrounded them all the time prevented one from making an observation as simple as that. They really did command a lot of power.