"KEVIN, WAKE UP. KEVIN," I was woken abruptly by my brother who looked quite worried. His method of waking people was annoying though I could tell something was off from his expression. He would normally be happy with himself for forcing me out of bed, but he wasn't looking so happy now.
"I'm up, I'm up," I said as I tried to sit up only to fall back into bed, my stomach screaming for relief from the pain caused by strain from merely trying to sit up.
"What's wrong, Kevin?" my brother asked while I tried to find out which muscle in my body wasn't agonising over the training I had been forced to endure the previous day.
"Everything hurts," I told him. I looked to the door and saw my mother standing at the threshold her arms crossed. She looked worried for a second before my brother spoke up.
"I don't get it. Shouldn't you have healed up already by now?" I watched my mum's expression turn into one of suspicion as she now stared at Gary who was still on my bed oblivious to the person behind her. The conversation was entering uncharted territory. Mum knew I was an artra, but she had no idea about my brother. And yet here I was reacting ever so slowly to the revelation he himself was about to make. "Guess Sieges aren't all that powerful after all."
"How do you know that?" mum asked wasting not even a single second. Gary froze instantly on hearing mum's voice behind him. I looked at mum who wore an expression that I couldn't decipher. She brought her hands to her face to cover her mouth. Tears immediately began streaming down face, "No, not both my children."
Gary stayed frozen by my side unwilling to move. How long he had been planning to keep this secret from mum was not known to me. I merely watched as tears also began to stream down his face too. The boy was only thirteen years old and yet he was among those tasked to protect Armensia. I couldn't begin to imagine what my mother must have been going through at the moment knowing that both her children were being sent off to fight in Armensia out of all the possible candidates in the five Houses. "I'll protect him, mum. Besides, he won't be going anywhere until he is ready." I tried assuring her.
She quietly got up and wiped her tears before turning to get out the door leaving us with a few words, "Get ready for school. You have ten minutes." I turned to my bedside clock and saw that it was 7:50am. I had slept the whole morning and had only ten minutes to get to class and the worst part of it was that I couldn't slow down time so that we could get all the time we needed. I hugged my brother to soothe his tears, this boy was still too young to be handling issues this heavy.
"What happens now?" he asked.
"I wish we had all the time in the world, but we don't. My void is closed and I cannot use my magic right now," I said. That said, he quickly rushed out of my room leaving me to prepare to go to school. I walked into the bathroom and tried my fastest to get ready, but it was in vain as all my muscles were aching from the exercise I had gone through the previous day. i was out of my room when it was five minutes past eight. I walked downstairs and found the house empty. There was a note left on the fridge in mum's handwriting.
"Sorry, dear, we had to take Gary and get to work ourselves. You can use your bike to get to school. Make sure you get your void opened since you can clearly see how much you need your magic right now. Ride safely, Love, Mum."
I opened the fridge and took a glass of juice before I went to the garage where I got my bike out. It had been gathering dust since I had never needed it since I got it. I took it out and was soon on the road driving to school at a leisurely pace. I was already late and there was no doubt about that. There was no need for me to rush as that would only strain me more. I finally got to school and casually walked through the empty halls to my locker. "Kevin Johnson, what a surprise?" I heard a familiar voice behind me belonging to one of the teachers. Mrs Brown, the music teacher, was the one on duty this week.
"Good morning, Mrs Brown," I greeted her as I got my books out ready to go to the principal's office.
"Follow me. It's not like you to be tardy, but alas, the school rules are the rules," she said.
"I know, madam. Apologies for causing you trouble," I said.
"No need Johnson," she said as she began leading the way to the principal's office. I passed my class and eyed Bergstrom as he taught the class. I walked passed avoiding eye contact. A few metres away from the class, I heard his voice behind us.
"Mrs Brown, if it's not any trouble, can you pardon my student?" Mr Bergstrom.
Mrs Brown stopped and turned to him. The man was taller than her so she found that she had to look up to meet his gaze. "Oh, so you have a soft spot for the kid?" she asked.
"On the contrary, he hasn't turned in his homework yet and he is a struggling student. I do not believe in abandoning my students though, so I would like to handle this situation myself," he explained.
"Well, I guess it makes my work easier. You can have him this time, but I won't let this slide another time," she said and with that I was saved from having to deal with the principal. This would have turned into a two day suspension at its worst. Bergstrom walked back to his class after that and I followed. When I was finally seated, he said, "I will need my homework after the lesson."
I nodded and turned my attention out the window which looked straight into the football pitch. The grounds that had caused the situation I was in currently. I wondered if the coach was going to do the same thing to me again considering the state I was in. I guess football in high school was way more competitive than it normally was in middle school. The lesson moved on faster than I thought as the bell rang soon enough. I was completely oblivious to the time as my internal clock had shut down and I didn't have a watch on me. One would have thought our classes had clocks, but the one in our class was dead and the class rep had not yet addressed the issue to the administration.
The rest of the students quickly filed out of the class. I looked back from the window and caught Ciara and Kendall's worried expressions, but shrugged them off before standing to go talk to the teacher. We had discussed the way we were to use the excuse of extra math homework to meet at random times. Bergstrom stayed seated as the last of the students finally got out of the classroom.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"I can't access my magic. Plus everything hurts," I summarised.
He thought for a while before he spoke up, "I guess Kalifa pushed you a little too hard," he said, "I will guide you in unlocking your void in our lunch session. We also won't be training today," he said before ushering me out of the classroom. It would be nice to have my magic back, but then it would also be nice to know just how much I depended on it. I proceeded to my next class doing my best to ignore everyone I met on the way. I was in no mood to talk to anyone and I hoped everyone would do well to notice it.