Kevin's POV
"Okay, so you're telling me that my friends and I are some sort of magical team of heroes destined to protect this world called Armensia," I asked, just to be clear, secretly hoping he would come to his senses when he heard how ridiculous this all sounded.
"Yes, that's what I'm saying."
I stand corrected...
"Okay, that's a lot to take in or even believe for that matter. So now what? It's not like my friends are acting particularly friendly right now. There's nothing I can do about it."
"You're taking this too well, but I'll tell you why that is. It's because you are the Siege. Why do you think all your friends are following her all of a sudden?"
'Okay hold up. First of all, there's no way I'm taking this lightly and second, what the hell. What kind of bedtime story was this? Maybe I'm dreaming and in a moment I'm going to wake up from this.'
I pinched myself hard and it hurt badly but I still didn't wake up. Mr Bergstrom saw my action and sighed in relief. "For a moment there I thought you had taken this lightly."
"So you are lying." I stared at him expectantly, "please tell me you're lying."
"No Kevin, I'm not lying. And lunchtime is almost done. We'll begin our magic lessons tomorrow. And Kevin, if you ever need help with just about anything. Don't be afraid to ask. You're not alone." It was good to know that someone was on my side here.
"Thank you," I said and walked out of the math class and went to go use the bathroom. I began my making my quick journey paying little heed to my surroundings. Just as I was rounding the corner that led me there I bumped shoulders with someone. Now since I play football, getting me to bounce back from bumping shoulders shouldn't be that easy, but this was different.
Snapping my head up to see my assailant, I realised my mistake. I should have paid more attention. I had just been surrounded by four of this year's Purgers. 'Damn it. Not good.'
"Hey guys, look what we have here," the biggest one of them said. I recognised him as Darius. He was technically the queen bee, Sutton's private bodyguard. These guys were bad news. They carried out the dirty work for the popular kids in school and unfortunately they did it with a passion since they got paid for it.
"Hey Dar, think we should ruffle this one up a bit. Teach him a bit about watching where he is going," his right-hand goon who I recognised as Ryan said as he came closer to shove me further back. That's when the weirdest thing happened. Darius put his hand on Ryan's shoulder to stop him.
"Not yet. Don't you recognise this brat? He's Thomas's new wide receiver," Darius told him. 'What did my football captain have to do with this?'
"Oh yeah. Don said the kid may be useful," Ryan said, realisation finally hitting home.
Darius then came up to me until he was in my personal space. "What's your name, brat?"
"Kevin Johnson," I answered doing my best to look calm even though this guy was practically sniffing me like he was looking for drugs. He looked me up and down before a look of disgust crossed his face.
"I don't know what Don sees in you," Don was Sutton's boyfriend. You could say he was the king of the popular kids. "Don't cross paths with me again Johnson," he scowled before shoving past me and making an effort to bump into my shoulder enough for me to bounce to the wall. Much to his dismay, I had seen this coming and managed to barely move from the impact. An audience had started gathering at this point so I didn't wait for the egomaniac to retaliate as I made my way to the bathroom quickly.
....
I reached my next class in time to find all my friends huddled together with Ciara talking to them.
Weird, but now that I knew it was not so weird. I approached them and they went silent then turned to me. All my friends are right here. They seemed so different like I had never met them.
"Hey," I addressed with some bit of nervousness in my voice. They just looked at me until finally, Ciara told them to go to their classes. 'I guess I have to get to the boss then.'
As she turned around to enter the classroom, I grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her back. "Ciara, what's going on?" I asked her casually.
"Nothing that concerns you, don't worry," she said before turning and entering the classroom. I entered after a while and lessons proceeded as normal until it got to football practice.
We got ready and went out to the field for the training. The coach had told us that we had a match on Saturday that week. So we had to put all our efforts into the training that week too.
As usual, I was playing wide receiver. Thomas, the captain as the quarterback, hurled the ball high in the air towards my predetermined position which for some reason I still hadn't got to. 'Wait I didn't even eat a thing for lunch. This is gonna hurt.'
Just when I thought I couldn't get there everything began to slow down, everything except me. The ball was falling slower and the defensive players were coming in slower.
A feeling of new energy filled me as I begin to speed up. I had no clue what is going on, but I liked it. My body was aching from the strain of an empty stomach, but regardless I still felt that I push faster. I grab the when I reached it and ran for the touchdown. This was going well. I got there and everything went back to normal.
"Kevin that was brilliant. Save it for the match on Saturday. I got myself a star," the crazy coach Carter yelled from the other side of the field. A feeling of coldness came over me and I looked up towards the benches to see Ciara and my friends looking at me.
I shook it off as Kendall jogged over to me panting. "Man....that was.....fast," he said between gasps. "How did you do that?" He asked after catching his breath.
Since I have to keep my cover, "I don't know. Weren't you doing your runs during the holiday," I joked, "Everything else just seemed to slow down, I wonder if it has to do with the craziness going on this term," I told him trying to squeeze out information.
"Well, run like that in the match on Saturday and we will surely win." He said. So much for trying to pry information out of him. Training proceeded and towards the end, I got a hang of the slowing down thing. It was really cool much as I had a really strong feeling it had something to do with me being an artra. But my friends kept looking at me funny. Towards the end of the training, some old guy showed up seated at the benches.
Casually I asked one of the players whose name I recalled as Luke, "Who's that old guy?"
"What old guy he asked?" I pointed to the guy and realised Luke was still expecting to see something so I decided to let it go.
"You know what? Never mind. Missed lunch today," I told him.
"You missed lunch and you're running that fast. You're a beast, man," he said patting me on the back. "Just make sure you're well-fed on Saturday. Wouldn't want our star player to bail on us on his first match?" He said as he turned and jogged towards the showers.
When training ended I walked towards the old guy. I needed to know his deal. I had finally remembered him from the first day during tryouts. Kendall and I had decided to talk to him the next day. 'Wait. We were supposed to talk to him. Kendall said the guy couldn't be seen by anybody else.'
Looking towards Ciara at the far side of the benches, I realised she was staring at him. Curiosity now gripped every fibre of my being and I began to make my way to the guy.
I reached the guy and he looked at me. "What happened yesterday?" I asked him without even greeting."
"Good to see you too Kevin," he smiled. "Amazing things happened yesterday, but in the end, I was asked to erase your memory and when...."
"That's enough. He was stopped by Ciara, "I thought I told you to keep quiet about it."
"You asked him to erase my memory?" I asked Ciara.
She turned to me. "You don't have to believe a word this old crone says."
"Ciara really, what happened yesterday that made you want to erase my memory?" I asked her. I just hoped I get the truth.
"Nothing happened. I asked for your memory to be erased for my own personal reasons. I'm sorry." She looked me in the eye with not a shred of emotion.
I thought I saw a flicker of sorrow and immediately knew she was hiding something. "Something bad happened, didn't it?" I asked her quietly.
Tears began welling up in her eyes when she realised she couldn't hide it much longer. "I didn't know what else to do. I'm really sorry."
'What could be so bad to make Ciara make such a call? What could the great alpha of artras be afraid of?' I thought.
"What did you just call me?" Ciara asked all of a sudden in a serious tone.
"Ciara, he didn't say..." Kendall cut in but was stopped short.
"He didn't say it out loud. I meant what did you call me in your thoughts?" 'What. She is reading my mind now. This is crazy. No wonder she hates me. My thoughts aren't the kindest being that I don't trust easily. Come to think of it. She could talk to me during the math test through my mind. I never asked her about that.'
"You don't trust easily," she added on. "That makes sense, I think." I couldn't believe it. She was reading my thoughts. That was supposed to be private. I wonder if I can talk to her by her reading my mind. 'Hey Ciara get out of my mind, it's private,' She giggled at the thought and I smiled.
"Fine, I'll stop," she said and turned to the guy.
"So why did you do it again?" I asked.
"I wish we could tell. We'll find a safe way to tell you." Ciara replied.
"A way to tell him without sparking memories of yesterday," Jacob said thoughtfully. The old guy started stroking his beard. 'Does he have to do that?'
"There is a way," he finally said, "You must meet at midnight by the lookout post near the park then you tell him all that he needs to know for you five to begin your tasks. It must be at the moon's peak. This is a time when ties to the past and future are severed from the present so anything you tell him will not affect him in any way unless you seek to remind him exactly of what happened. You'll also have to be careful with your words. The boy is very perceptive."
So they wanted to tell me. But if they had to be so careful that they had to do it at midnight doesn't that mean that Bergstrom telling me during lunchtime allows me to regain my memory of what happened.
"So then it's settled. Kevin, think you can make it there at midnight." Isaac concluded and I agreed.
...