My heart begins racing the second I see it in front of me. I desperately try recollecting what I learned, any knowledge that could provide me with a fighting chance.
My hand lets go of the pen, realising the truth before my mind does.
1. f (x) = 6x^3 - 9x + 4
I probably should've studied.
. . .
I'm Eugene, a fifteen-year-old kid in the middle of his finals, who's almost definitely getting a failing grade.
I don't want to say it's my fault but I probably shouldn't have spent the whole month grinding for the video game tournament with my friends, instead of preparing for my finals. But alas, procrastination strikes yet again.
'Is everything alright?' asks Mr. Shekhar.
'Oh no,' I reply, not wanting draw any attention, 'No, everything's fine sir.'
Yeah, I'm definitely flunking. Aunt Jane's going to kill me.
I glance at the clock. It's a quarter past 11— half an hour until the bell. And then a week for the results to come in, along with my impending doom.
I honestly wish I was exaggerating. I've been living with my two aunts for a year now and they value academics over literally anything else.
Someone coughs across the room. The boy sitting next to me stretches out his arms and yawns. Mr. Shekhar raises his gaze towards them, looks around, and then the distant expression on his face returns. I look around to see a girl stretching at the other end, half the fingers on her right hand folded down. It's pretty obvious what's happening.
I skip the first couple of questions and move on. The next page is relatively easy, but the page total's—
'five,' I curse under my breath.
The whole class stares at me. I shrivel up and disappear from existence.
If only.
I clear my throat, adjust myself in my seat and stare at my paper intensely; next one's a case study. I look up at the clock again: 11:20. I could swear more time had passed.
I redirect my attention back towards the paper: In 51 seconds, an athlete covers a distance of 153 m along a circula-
'May I use the restroom?' I ask, raising my hand; my head felt like it was about to overheat.
Mr. Shekhar doesn't reply, his gaze fixated onto a certain point on the floor.
'Excuse me,' I hesitate for a second before asking again, 'sir?'
I look around; no one notices me, they're probably busy with their papers. I turn to my right, the boy next to me is staring at his slightly opened pouch, his intense expression glued to his face. The girl behind him has her bottle raised, pointing towards her mouth.
Something's happened.
I stand up slowly, and wave my hand through Mr. Shekhar's line of sight, still no response. I look around the class, most of them have focused expressions on their faces— but their pens aren't moving?
I get up from my seat slowly, still observing them. Something's definitely happened.
The corridor is empty. I notice the invigilator for the class across the hall from us standing at the front, speaking to them.
No. She's yawning.
Ten seconds pass, is she in shock? Her mouth is just hanging open, with a bored expression plastered on her face.
What is going on?
I reluctantly walk back into the classroom, not wanting to risk getting called out. But the boy's still staring at his pouch, the girl has her bottle raised, and Mr. Shekhar looks like he's transcended this realm as a whole.
11:20. And there's no ticking. Great, the clock isn't working either?
No, it's not just the clock, everyone is paused.
I head over to the window and look outside, there's a teacher walking on the pavement, but she's frozen mid-stride.
'What,' my heart starts to pound faster, as realisation creeps in. I start feeling cold, extremely cold.
I try turning around, but my body doesn't move. My eyes stay transfixed onto the clouds.
Something crackles behind me, like a spark of electricity. My vision blurs, while my body gravitates towards the source of the noise.
Everything's fading away.
Darkness. And I feel myself falling.
. . .
My eyes take a minute to readjust to the light. I notice four hazy silhouettes above me, the sky looks like a mash of grey, and everything else extremely out of focus.
One of the silhouettes look like they're offering me a hand, but I reach for my glasses on the ground next to me, and wear it and process my surroundings before slowly getting up.
There's pitch black grass stretching out on all four sides around me, not too long but not too short, and eerily level in size. Trees with dark black trunks and glowing pink leaves are spaced almost evenly apart from each other.
The sky is cloudy, a moon shines faintly in the distance. I feel a light breeze and notice the dark blades of grass swaying. I look around me and notice a faint pink glow from the leaves directly overhead- reflecting down and off of the figures in front of me.
I'm probably dreaming.
I direct my attention back at the figures. The one in the center, who offered me their hand, was a girl. She looks about the same height as me, with her dark pink hair tied in a loose ponytail.
'Hey,' she pauses for a second, looking at me with dark green eyes, 'I'm AJ'
I'm dreaming, right?
'And you are apparently the chosen one.'
I hold up my finger, closing my eyes.
'Well, ONE of the chosen ones,' she continues.
'It's so cheesy when you put it like that,' I hear one of the other figures say.
But I barely register what they're saying. I try remembering the course of events that just took place.
So basically: math exam, Mr. Shekhar frozen, everyone frozen, except me, look at clock, look at clouds, sound behind me, and I'm here. I wait for a second, then slap myself. It doesn't hurt.
No wait, it does. IT DOES.
'Ahh, why didn't I just go with a pinch or something,' I speak out loud, rubbing my cheek.
AJ has a confused expression on her face. The rest of them are behind her, with their own distinctive appearances.
'Mm-hmm, yeah no that sounds awesome,' I say, raising my hands up, 'where exactly am I right now?'
'Answer as much as we can right now AJ, but Salva's patrol will be here soon,' the boy behind her replies, sitting down.
He's a little shorter than AJ and me, with wavy black hair covering his forehead. His brown eyes peer at me with a mildly annoyed expression, but his most distinguishable feature is his bushy eyebrows, slanted downwards and further accentuating his irritability.
'Our planet is Alsia, and this place we're in right now is the Alspher Grove,' AJ continues.
'Your planet' I reply, a little confused, 'Wait, what?'
'Earth and Alsia are two sides of the same coin, in the same place but a separate reality,' she continues, 'does that make sense?'
'Yeah,' I reply, 'I think so.'
'They apparently overlap each other, not meant to interact, in completely different dimensions: but there are three links that join Alsia to Earth— the ruins of Reno, the Alspher grove, and the Gates.'
'Wait,' I reply, after a few seconds, 'Not meant to interact, so you guys haven't been to Earth.'
She pauses, 'No one has, one of the elders went through the Gates about a century ago, and he said Earth had weapons that could destroy the planet, and well, that was enough to make our government cautious.'
'Yeah,' I reply, 'Okay then, why am I here in the first place? Alsia and Earth aren't supposed to interact, and I'm not supposed to be here, right?'
'The Alspher Grove picks candidates,' she replies, 'candidates that started appearing around some years ago.'
'Candidates for?'
'See for yourself,' she replies, 'turn around.'
I listen to her, turning around, and face the pitch-black trunk of the tree that was emitting the pink glow around us.
'Closer.' she says.
I lean forward, but don't see anything. I squint a little, tilt my head, and begin to turn around.
Right there, flowing with the grooves- seemingly inscribed onto the tree. There's something off about the way it's written, but I'm able to make it out.
A road, cracked and splinted,
he will walk but he will fall.
with his fate intertwined with the worlds.
a middle ground ceases to exist,
as he is plunged into a story, which might not be his.
'What are these,' I reply, turning back around again, 'candidates? And is this a prophecy?'
'A prophecy, inscribed onto all of the trees in this Grove; no one knows who inscribed them, but they all look exactly the same and have been around since the Greer found this place centuries ago.'
'The Greer?'
'The people who guard the Gates, I'll explain later.'
'The candidates just started appearing then, what happens to them?'
'If the shogunate received you, they'd keep you under surveillance, probably until the event. The event where they finally storm Earth.'
'Wait, what.' I ask, caught off-guard, 'how powerful are these people?'
'They're our self-established government, since the coup d'etat almost fifty years ago.'
'And so it's a dictatorship.' I reply, stating the obvious.
'Yeah, and then there's the prophecy,' she says, 'their final obstacle.'
'Their final obstacle,' I repeat after her, not completely comprehending what she's saying, 'And how do I know you guys aren't with the shogunate then?'
'You're just,' she says, pausing, 'going to have to trust us, just like we're trusting you. We're kind of desperate here, and know almost nothing about you and your world either.'
'And maybe the fact that they definitely wouldn't send only four people to receive a candidate,' the kid replies, 'they'd have at least twenty people guard the area, even if it's just a kid.'
Okay, I'm beginning to see the threat here, but they look just as old as me— maybe just a couple of years older.
I frown, 'How old are you guys?'
'Quin's seventeen, and Row and Zax are both eighteen.' AJ replies, gesturing at the short kid, the guy on the left and the one on the right behind them, respectively, 'and I'm still sixteen.'
They're teenagers. Teenagers who are going to overthrow the government. I thought I didn't have a choice but they clearly have it worse, since they look ready to fight for their lives.
'I'm Euge-' I continue, but get cut off.
'They're coming' the man wearing the sweater, Zax, says abruptly, staring at something in the distance. I follow his line of sight and notice a blimp in the sky far away.
'Are we going or not?' Quin asks, looking over at AJ after getting up.
AJ looks at me, she's trying to stay calm but her eyes betray a sense of urgency.
'I'm sorry Euge, are you with us?'
I sigh, 'but by your logic, I could be a psychopath.'
'I'm willing to take that chance.' she replies, smiling desperately.
I contemplate for a second, because complaining doesn't look like it's going to help me. I'm pretty sure they would've sent me back already if they could, because let's face it, I know I don't look like a very hopeful candidate.
And if two worlds really "depend" on me like they said, then I'm just going to have to suck it up.
'Well then,' I hesitate, 'it's a pressure to meet you guys.'
I smile nervously.
Row grins, and Zax has his eyes fixed on the blimp getting closer and closer now. AJ exhales in relief, nodding at Quin.
Quin rushes towards me, raising his hand.
'WAI-' I try to dodge, but I feel his hand make contact with the side of my neck.