On March 10th, I woke up to a strange sensation. It was like something warm and fuzzy was on my leg. I pulled away my blanket to see Hachiko peacefully sleeping against my leg. “Aww.” I carefully got out of bed making sure not to disturb Hachiko. I replaced my leg with my pillow, so I didn't wake him up. I went to take a shower since I had been out in the sun and running around all day yesterday. When I got back to my room Hachiko had woken up and was eagerly sitting on my bed ready for the day. 

“Sorry bud, but I don't think it’s a good idea to bring you to school. Others may see your aura even if you are in my pocket. It could tip them off that I can use magic and then I would be in serious danger. I'm gonna need you t–” I stopped talking as Hachiko jumped off the bed and onto the floor and turned back into a statue.  “Wait is he a real guy or just a thing I made? Wait, would that make Hachiko my child?” I shook my head trying to get these questions out of my head. “I don't need to think of the philosophical ramifications of things like Hachiko. What I need to do is stop Tyrone and the others.” 

I went downstairs and was greeted by my mother who had a strange expression on her face. Mom looked like she had been crying but even still she had this strange smile on her face. Her look wasn't one of bravery but pure joy, something I had only seen once or twice since we moved to Canada. “Hey mom.” I said as I walked into the kitchen about to take a seat before she cleared her throat wordlessly reprimanding me for not getting something to eat, I filled up a kettle and turning on the element, heating it up. 

“Hey Ink" she said with a tone of joy I was not used to hearing. Not to say my mom is never happy, but just that I don't think there has been a moment since we moved to Canada when she was completely happy. “There's something important I need to tell you.” 

“Ok?” I questioned grabbing a bowl and a packet of noodles before sitting down. 

“I have some good, great news. I just heard about this last night, your father is coming to Canada and will be living with us!” 

“WHAT!” I said with complete and utter shock. “Like permanently or just for a couple days?” 

“Permanently, we'll finally be a family again," she said with tears in her eyes. “He is flying over on the twenty fourth and I want to have the house and shop ready when he does.” 

“Of course,” I completely agreement. “Wait, but I thought dad was never able to get his visa approved because of his criminal record?” It was a big issue when we first came to Canada. The original plan was for the three of us to go together, but when we tried to get our visas approved, they declined dad’s. Apparently, he had committed some major crimes in the past, he still encouraged us to go and have a better life. He promised he would find a way to join us soon. It was heartbreaking, especially for mom, who I could tell was only staying strong for my sake.

“I'm not sure how he got his visa approved but it doesn't matter. All that matters is he's coming home.” She explained smiling brighter than I had seen in a long time. “Now, I know you might have plans for this week and the next, but I want you to help me clean this place up. I can handle the workshop, if you could handle the rest of the place. Nothing crazy, just putting things away, cleaning the windows and dusting, the basic stuff like that.” 

“Sure, I would be more than happy to.” 

“Thank you Ink. I need to run a couple errands today so can you lock down the shop before you go to school?” She asked as she got up. 

“Sure!” I agreed.

Mom went down the stairs and I got up to go check how hot the kettle was. As I approached, I couldn't help myself but think about what my mom had just told me. It's been six years since I last saw my dad face to face. We have a video call every couple of weeks but it's not the same, as seeing him in the flesh. There was always this silent tension whenever he spoke. There was always this air of uncomfortableness whenever we looked at me. 

I think it was just the want or need to be able to speak in person. I miss him a lot. I can't remember a lot of my earlier years with him, only some of the later stuff. But I do remember him teaching me how to draw, as well as, how to shoot a bow and arrow, a practice that I had not kept up with throughout my years in Canada. According to my mom I take after him in a lot of ways from what she has told me. Apparently, I had his crystal blue eyes, his kind smile and his caring nature and witty mind. 

I wonder if he's changed a lot in the last six years ago. He probably has, we all have. It would be weird if six years had passed, and no one has changed at all. Last week it would've been unheard of for me not to spend every waking minute working on my masterpiece. Now I haven't thought about it in days and am more focused on trying to stop robberies than getting into university. 

Stop robberies… I tried to stop the robbery by calling the cops and they might have died. Oh god, did I kill them? My heart started to beat with the intensity of a steam engine. The news hasn't made any official statement but if they did am I responsible for the deaths? Every question sent my heart racing faster and faster. If I never yelled at Tyrone would any of this be happening? Am I going to jail? Is Antonio dead? I know he was shot. He might've died and if he's dead, is he dead because of me? Oh no, what have I done? As my vision began to go blurry and my mind started to spiral out of control, I was brought back to reality by the sharp searing hot pain against my left hand and a high-pitched sound. I looked down and saw I had my hand on the kettle this entire time. I quickly yanked my hand off the kettle and ran it under cold water. 

“If I bust up this hand anymore it's gonna fall off." I said as the cold water eased the pain. Pouring the kettle into the bowl I started to contemplate as I waited for my noodles to soften. I can't keep on spiraling out like this or I'm never gonna get anything done. I ate my noodles and my mind once again wandered to thoughts of my father. From what I remembered he was a kind man, always caring but something was always on his mind. He was also very observant than everyone else. He just noticed the little things like a unsanded edge or if a single thread along the hem of some pants were out of place. When I asked my mom about him, she said at times she felt like she could see the entire ocean in his crystal blue eyes. Which I always thought was cheesy. Looking at the time on the microwave I quickly finished my noodles and quickly got ready for school.

Choosing to sit in my normal spot so I wouldn’t have to talk to anyone. I decided to clear my head from my earlier panic attack by putting on some music. Choosing to play an early two thousand’s pop playlist. After maybe seven minutes I noticed something odd. Antonio, Guams, and Tyrone weren't on the bus. Before i could question why I received a notification on my phone from Tulip. I clicked on the notification to see I had been added to a group chat with Brad and an unknown number which I assumed was Alex. The message read. 

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Hey guys, I figured it would be a bit weird if we all started to hangout on the bus for no reason so I made this group chat where we could be able to talk and make plans.” A response was sent by Alex which was a gif of a baby looking at the camera before giving it a thumbs up and a smile. 

“Nice jif.” Brad responded.

“It's gif idiot.” Alex texted. 

“No, it's jif.” Brad texted back.

“It's spelled GIF, back me up here Tulip.” Alex replied almost immediately.

“I mean I swing either way personally.” Tulip answered causing brad to send an emoji of a face with one eyebrow raised. 

“Not like that.” Tulip texted accompanied with a rolling eyes emoji 

“We should post each other's videos so we can catch anything the other missed.” I texted not wanting to have the stupid Gif vs Jif conversation again since I've learned by now that Brad only ever took the side that would start an argument. 

“What are you talking about?” Tulip asked. 

“The videos we all took or am I the only one that took one?” I asked, confused by her question. 

Alex texted, “Ink, what do you see when you watch your video?” 

“What everyone else sees, the fight, why?” 

“I think I speak for everyone when I say I don't see anything when I look at the video. All I see is nothing where there should've been fire or flying rocks. Just nothing as if they weren't there.” Alex texted back.

“Wait, even Hachiko?” 

“Yeah, even Hachiko." Brad responded. 

“Yeah, it was weird, also there was no sound. Whenever there was a moment like the rocks flying or the blast of water, a moment when there should have been a hundred percent sound there was none, it was like watching a movie on mute.” Tulip explained.

“Freaky.” I texted. 

“Wait hold on Ink, do you have a Samsung?” Brad asked, probably half joking, although I couldn't really tell. 

“You know, I don’t Brad.” 

“It might be because you did that blood ritual thingy you mentioned, maybe that's why you can see all the magic stuff.” Alex theorized. 

“I mean I guess what else could it be?” I responded. 

“Ok, we clearly don't have all the answers right now, let's meet up at lunch to talk about this some more, it shouldn't be suspicious since nobody sits in the exact same spot with the exact same people everyday.” Brad said. 

“Ok” Alex sent. 

“Works for me,” I texted. 

“Same here," responded Tulip and as if on cue the bus came to a stop and with the old bus driver yelling. 

"We're here!” I got out of the bus along with everyone else with an odd feeling of excitement rushed through me. I wasn't sure if it was the thought of going on an adventure, the thrill of a mystery or the prospect of having friends I hung out with again. For the first time in a long time, I actually entered high school with a smile on my face.

Most of my classes were uneventful apart from math. No fires or anything but today Tyrone Guams and Antonio brought the book. I know this because the entire classroom was blanketed in a dark orange light that just like Hachiko's light, only I could see it. It was insanely hard to focus since the book caused the entire class to be covered in an orange light.

At lunch I went to sit at my usual spot at the end of one of the tables near the edge of the cafeteria where there were very few to no other people. I sat down and pulled out my lunch, leftover noodles drenched in soy sauce with some chicken dumplings and green onions. After a few minutes of eating, I was joined by Brad and Tulip. 

“Hey Ink.” Tulip said with a cheerful smile. “How's it going?” 

“Good so far, how about you?”

“Things are good. My chemistry class was trying to figure out what the cause of the textbook fire was, we ended up learning about different forms of combustions and ignitions.” She explained.

“Huh, that must've been pretty interesting. Your teacher is Mr. O Mali, right?” 

“Yeah, he is.” She confirmed.

“I had him last semester with Alex. Is he still super forgetful?” I asked.

“Yeah, it was clear he didn't have a lesson plan. So, he kind of just winged it and made it up on the spot.” 

“He’ll do that alright, it happened all the time last semester.” I chuckled to myself.

“Hey, what are we talking about?” Alex asked as she sat down. 

“Mr. O Mali.” I answered.

“Oh yeah that guy sucked. I wanted to learn about chemistry, yet half the time I ended up falling asleep through his lectures.” 

“Yeah, and he was always so mad because you always aced the tests.” I recalled.

“Wait, I thought that was a joke, when you told me about that.” Brad questioned in disbelief. “Wait does that mean what you told me about how Alex corrected him like twenty times in one class was real too?”

“You know I can't lie, Brad.” The whole group started to laugh until Brad noticed Alex’s eating techniques. 

“Why are you eating your pizza like that?” Brad said looking at Alex who was eating the questionable cafeteria pizza with a knife and fork. 

“Don't look at me like that! Look at Ink. He's using weird knives to eat his giant brown peas?” I stared at her with disbelief, she was clearly confused by the concept of chopsticks and dumplings, I just sat there in stunned silence. 

“He’s using chopsticks and he's eating a dumpling," Tulip said, slightly amused. 

“Oh, and how do you know that?” Alex said with an eyebrow raised and a smirk on her face. 

“I pass him to get to our table, that's all.” Tulip answered somewhat flustered. 

“I didn't know you sat near here" I confessed genuinely unaware. 

“Ok, back to the issue at hand Ink.” Brad said as he started to tap a couple things on his phone. 

“What do you see when you see this?” Showing me a video on his phone of the convenience store brawl. 

“I see Antonio, Tyrone and Guams fighting the cops with their superpowers.” I answered.

“Weird,” Tulip commented. 

“Yeah, we don't see anything when we watch the videos, me and Tulip tried earlier.” Alex explained. 

“So, I guess I'm the only one who can see anything?” 

“Seems that way.” Alex answered, shrugging.

“Hey, speaking of seeing, did anyone see anything strange? They had the book with them, so it was pretty hard for me to make anything out.” 

“No, not really,” Brad said.

“Sorry I sat at the front of the class, so I couldn’t see a lot.” Alex explained.

“They didn’t do anything out of the ordinary, but Antonio kept on squinting and rubbing his eyes or just weirdly looking at you Ink. It happened enough times for me to think he was going to do something or at the very least ask you out.” Tulip explained, last part came with an annoyed tone. i was about to question her tone before the unmistakable sound of the bell ringing.

“Ok so we riding in your car after school?” I asked. 

“Yep, it's the red Mitsubishi Lancer near the front of the parking lot.” 

“Ok see you guys later!” I said as I got up to go to my next class.