Nine minutes felt like nine hours. Amelia saw the clock hands ticking by at an excruciatingly slow pace. Every ounce of willpower she poured into moving them any faster was utterly failing. Eyes glazing over, she struggled to stay attentive as her teacher droned on about yet another physics equation. She found her thoughts drifting towards images of warm, melting, seductive chocolate — and the crimes she’d willingly commit to have some right now.
Scanning the class, she spotted several stifled yawns, two girls furtively texting to each other and one courageous soul was shamelessly asleep at his desk.
She felt a twinge of envy.
Meanwhile, on her left, Jai was taking down notes as if atomic secrets were being spilled.
Shifting uncomfortably in her seat, she winced at the throbbing pain in her hips after sitting in the same position for an hour. Why couldn’t they have newer desks? Within the last three decades would suffice. The problem being, they would just never break. They were like old cars refusing to die even as they spewed toxins into the atmosphere causing death and mayhem. She once mentioned this to her teacher who responded by tapping his knuckles on the desktop, and saying a single word: vintage.
Right. Well so is a guillotine. But at least the French finally realised that’s it’s inhumane.
His blasé response wouldn’t have bothered her so much if she were housed in a normal body. But nope, she currently resided in a body that delighted in kicking and screaming at her in the form of random bouts of inflammation and pain. Over five years of dealing with a litany of problems that despite numerous visits to medical professionals, had yet to return any meaningful results. Some days were… harder than others. Today was somewhere in the middle.
Amelia reached into her bag for her sketchbook and flicked through the pages to her most recent drawing. She ran her fingers slowly across the coarse paper, smiling lightly at the creatures that she’d drawn the day prior — they were some of her favourites. This one had two cute little fairies that seemed enamoured by an antique vase; which, according to her vast imagination, housed a magical plant that would fully heal her body when consumed. She’d be whole again, able to move around with no pain, and even gather up all the school desks and throw them away. Endless options.
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She relished the feeling of bringing her stories to life. Often she’d relax her mind and allow her creativity to roam free, in those moments her artwork would take on lifelike qualities. They would seem to slightly move of their own volition. Smiling at her design, she felt like she saw one of the fairies turn and wink at her.
Melissa, seeing what she doing, gave her a nasty look and turned back to her phone. Fantasy drawings were ‘beneath’ her. This from the girl who wore enough makeup to make a clown feel inadequate, yet somehow still managed to crawl her way to the top of the social hierarchy. She seemed to take every opportunity to remind Amelia how much more mature and refined she was than all the other girls their age. She once heard her lament how ‘she felt like a peacock surrounded by a bunch of chickens.’ To which Amelia loudly informed that peacocks, just like chickens, wander around aimlessly pooping every two minutes — and that she should take her excrement elsewhere. The resulting laughter had ended with her being branded with a scarlet letter among St. Augustine’s popular elite.
Pausing upon hearing her name, Amelia glanced up from her work.
Mr. Middleton, her teacher, was looking at her with his typical mischievous smile. He always spoke as if imparting some long-lost knowledge that only he was privy to.
“Yes?” she asked.
“As I’m sure you were listening, I asked what velocity divided by frequency helps you solve,” he repeated with a twinkle in his eye.
While she liked Mr. Middleton, who was both quirky and somewhat amusing at times, she was convinced that this subject was result of past karma coming back to haunt her. She put on her thinking face to buy time, hoping the bell would ring allowing her to escape.
Wavelength. She heard a high pitched voice whispered in her mind.
Startled, she glanced around her trying to discern the origin of the voice.
“Wavelength…?” she mumbled softly.
“Exactamundo! It seems like you and I are vibing on the same…,” he paused melodramatically, “...frequency!”
The class collectively groaned.
Jai looked at her with a surprised look on his face. Amelia, well… she wasn’t known for taking the sciences too seriously. She did have passing scores, but lacked any real interest in subjects outside of art and design. Often, this resulted in her cramming last minute for exams while badgering Jai to help tutor her. Afterwards, she’d dump the accumulated information into a section of her brain labelled “Do not disturb — no, really don’t.”
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Whereas Jai, he would rant on and on about black holes, quantum physics, alternate dimensions, and of course… aliens. Yes, he was quite vocal about their existence. She had few illusions as to why they were both social pariahs.
Jai gave her a thumbs up.
When Mr. Middleton turned back around to write something on the board, she closed her eyes for a few moments and rubbed them tiredly.
Upon opening them, Amelia was shocked by what she saw.
Everyone in the room was… glowing.
Light radiated outwards from every person in the room around her. The colours and hues surrounding them varied from person to person. Some people had splotchy areas where light only reached out a few centimetres from their body, while others, like her teacher, had a giant uniform aura that extended almost a meter.
Her gaze honed in on Jai. He was emitting a strong light tan colour from his body. and it made it look like he had bright highlights complimenting to his already brown skin tone. The walls and objects in room were undulating with a soft pulsating wave. The colours she was seeing were more than just a visual overload, it became emotional too. She found her attention drifting to one person in particular and she started to get an uneasy feeling.
Melissa had a sickly pale yellow aura intermingled with spots of brownish-black. She gave off an eerie feeling that made Amelias stomach clench when she stared at it too long. It was like drinking a glass of water diluted with a thin layer of oil. Amelia started to feel physically drained and it made turning away from her difficult. She snapped out of her daze when she heard the bell, signalling the end of classes for the day.
Looking around at the faces of her classmates, she realised that they were just as oblivious to their surroundings as before. It was only her experiencing these things.
Quickly packing up her stuff, she rushed out of the classroom, only to be greeted by a mass of glowing students crowding the halls. She was immediately overwhelmed by a cacophony of conflicting sounds and movements all around her. The bouts of laughter and excitement from the students around her was frightening. Her mind was struggling to filter through all the differing noises, like a radio channel changing back and forth from station to station. Wherever she focused her attention, the sounds would amplify as if her internal volume setting were set to max.
Her heart was racing and nervous sweat beaded her forehead. Squinting her eyes, she tried to limit her range of vision as she stumbled through the hallway towards her locker to drop off her books. Navigating through groups of students had always been a challenge, but today it felt like utter chaos.
It was disorienting and causing extreme feelings of anxiety and vertigo. Reaching her locker, it took several attempts to open the combination. When she finally succeeded with an audible click, the door swung open and she paused for a moment. She felt trapped, unsure of what to do next. Amelia was desperate to escape the intense sensory overload.
“Amelia!” Jai called out from behind. Turning, she saw him wading through a group of girls towards her. Relief flooded throughout her body. His presence was a temporary reprieve from all the craziness that she’d be experiencing. She was sure that he’d help her get home.
When he approached she whispered intently, “Help me get away from all these people.”
“What’s going on? You rushed out of there like a madwoman.” he asked.
“I just need to get outside right now, it’s too much going on around me,” she replied.
The scintillating colours were giving her a headache, and the walls seemed like they were tilting and closing in all around her.
“I can call my dad to pick us up?” he offered.
“No, I just need to get some air.” she said closing the locker.
Giving her a lingering look of concern, he took her arm so she could rest her weight on him and guided her towards the exit. She’d blush if she weren’t about to collapse.
“Is the pain that bad right now?” he asked.
“I—,” she stopped herself.
What could she say? That she’s currently seeing him lit up like a Christmas ornament? He’d think she’s losing her mind.
Which she was.
“It’s… been a long day,” she said instead.
Finally stepping outside, Amelia pulled her jacket closer to her body as the winter winds bit into her skin. The fresh breeze was a godsend compared to the stale air and hectic environment she’d just emerged from. Everything felt so quiet and calm after what she’d been through. Moving over to the wall, she leaned on it and took several deep breaths.
“You feeling better?”
“A bit, but bloody hell it’s freezing out here… ”
“Well, the weather’s not all that bad. Research has proven that the cold helps to burn extra calories,” Jai offered.
“Did you just infer that I need to lose weight…?” She said narrowing her eyes.
He replied grinning, “Of course not my lady. Although… one does wonder if all the chocolate you eat is being stored for hibernation purposes.”
Dammit, that was smooth. “Touché.”
There are a few reasons why they’re such good friends.
Hard packed snow crunched loudly under their boots as they made their way across the school grounds. The loud winds whipping around them acted as a deterrent for any further conversation.
She was trying very hard to avoid staring at him. For one, it would be weird. Two, he was still projecting a colour that could easily act as camouflage in a desert environment.
Hoping that everything she’d been experiencing today was triggered from exhaustion, she couldn’t wait to cozy up next to her cat and take a long nap after today’s insanity.
Cinching the strap tighter on her backpack, Amelia moved as quickly as her pained joints would allow and headed home.