Chapter 3: Bright Eyes
There was bad news and good news when they arrived at the gates to their school Hailing Isle Public School. The bad news was that the gates were locked, they had arrived at 9:00 AM and the gates locked at 8:50 AM. It was a mandate policy at H.I.P.S and they were stuck outside the gates. H.I.P.S had many such policies and though it was a public school, it was pretty extravagantly built, with a green grass lawn, mowed every evening and two fountains on each lawn with a way at the center that led from the gates straight to an arch. Past the arch was a large tree on the interior lawn and the building surrounded, around it were benches and past this there were many more blocks. H.I.P.S was a school known for its innovativeness and tough standards and it prided itself on it all. It was as expected though of all students to adhere to these standards or they would be expelled. Ned and Connor came late by ten minutes, the standards of H.I.P.S had not been adhered to. It didn't matter that they could never make it from their houses to the school in ten minutes they were thoroughly screwed. They could get in at early break when the teachers came to open the gates again and then they had to visit the principal and get their punishment. They were looking pretty depressed when the good news suddenly appeared. It was the sound of wheels at first but suddenly around the corner of the road came a group of people that could only be described in one word 'cool'. Their style of even wearing a normal school uniform was astounding and they all road skateboards. They were called the Blastboarders, mainly due to the fact they rode skateboards and due to the fact they were a mini wrecking group, riding around town, spray painting over walls, both public and private property, shop lifting and in some rare instances, destroying or vandalizing both private and public property and by destroying the common definition to them was either taking a crowbar or a baseball bat to it. They called themselves the Blastboarders, a somewhat strange name by all means but it pretty much fit their description.
"Holy hell, I've heard they rode skateboards, but I didn't know every single one of them rode skateboards," said Connor and Ned too turned around to focus their attention.
"They're late like us, wonder what's going to happen," said Ned as he looked at them riding to the gates.
At the gates they stopped and Ned and Connor moved out of the way. One of them, a tall lanky boarder that neither Ned nor Connor recognized despite going to the same school slid of his board and propelled up into the air which caught in an amazing fashion.
"Wow, these guys are amazing," said Connor looking at every single one of them especially the tall lanky dude. "Don't even know him but he's the most amazing."
"Admittedly they are but what are they going to do, if they rode all the way here and then stopped, that'd be a little um…how to put it fruitless maybe," said Ned.
"I think the better word would be anticlimactic here Ned," whispered Connor over as they noticed some of them looking at him.
The tall lanky dude frowned for a second then used the end of his board and smashed the lock and Ned and Connor's eyes widened in surprise.
"Erickson, come over here and push the gates," said the tall lanky dude and a buff and even taller dude with blonde hair came over to help, they both of course realized who it was, Kevin Erickson, a sports buff, and excellent at what he does.
"Ned, he's so on steroids, there's no way anyone can end up even remotely looking like a bloody incredible hulk without steroids," muttered Connor examining Kevin as he pushed forth with hid board tucked under one arm.
Kevin got to the gates and grasped them and then pushed and again the tall lanky dude smashed his board against, this time taut lock and Ned saw it visibly splinter.
"They're so rebel, aren't they," whispered over Connor whilst Ned still watched the show.
"Don't think it's going to be good for them despite their uh 'rebelness'," said Ned and after another smash the lock fell apart.
"This reminds me Ned, we'll bring a saw next time and next time we're locked out we'll saw through the lock, but smashing is admittedly more rebelling," said Connor nodding that he was impressed.
"There's not going to be a next time Connor, cause from now on we're not going to be late," muttered Ned as the Kevin pushed open the gates.
The Blastboarders gang strode on inside and without further ado Ned and Connor decided to follow them though for safety reason after inside the school they decided to take a very, very different route from the Blastboarders gang and as they strode away from the gang, one boy Kevin looked directly at Ned and Ned stared back and he thought for a moment he saw something happening to Kevin's eyes like it turned bright blue for a second and he also saw Kevin's hairs stand on end as if jolted, fairly strange as it was he had seen stranger and explained it off as nothing more than his eyes over perceiving things.
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"Which class do we have first?" asked Ned stopping at a water fountain and Connor stopped as well, remembering back their time table.
"It can't be chemistry, 'cause we have that last, and maths isn't on today kind of thankful for that, then there's modern history, that'd be around third period, I'd reckon a double period of English maybe, just a guess," said Connor and Ned too nodded, he had done the same process of elimination.
"It's that substitute teacher right, he'll let us in," said Ned. "Let's go."
They ran around the block to the stairs and raced up.
"The lessons shouldn't have started, maybe a roll call though…" murmured Connor as Ned took up a foot above him.
They reached their classroom, a double doored large classroom with ornate door frames, indeed every classroom was similar to this in the Literature Block, the classrooms design itself bended to the theme of the subject it was being used for. The Science Block had a futuristically technical design and the Maths Block, there was no other way to put it, it was just plain boring. There were other blocks of course as well, similarly they adhered to the theme of the subject that the classroom was being used for.
Ned reached the classroom a couple of seconds earlier than Connor and he went to knock, as he did so he felt a strange burning sensation much like how it started when he combusted into hallucinatory flames. He felt something hot around the tip of the spine, just below his neck. It was feeling like it was getting warmer and at first it felt slightly good but it got hotter all of sudden that he winced and the hand he raised to knock the double door stayed paused. Connor caught up to him and sighted his friend being stuck in a motion and he thought back to what had happened at his house and suddenly got anxious.
"Ned…" whispered Connor hoping he would answer or at least have some reaction.
Ned heard the call and he moved around and Connor breathed in a sigh of relief. The heat Ned felt at the connecting point between the spine and the neck made him shudder.
"Is there something wrong?" asked Connor frowning as he clearly caught all of his friend's actions.
"It should be nothing man, I just felt unwell for a moment, can you knock?" asked Ned and he moved back.
Connor moved forth to knock and Ned reached around and felt back of his neck, he felt nothing strange, the heat though still stayed there, it was this time that relaxing heat he felt. Connor knocked twice on the door and waited. He heard footsteps across in the classroom and went to knock again but he didn't need to because the double door budged and with a scraping sound it pulled open to reveal a class inside laid out in what appeared to be a very unique setting, where the tables all connected to form a large table for each row and they sat on benches with back rests, all the tables were made from wood and at the front was the traditional blackboard, of course above it if you noticed clearly you'd see the projector hangings and up on the ceiling was the projector. The front also contained a teacher's desk and the class room was rather large with fancy arch windows that let lots of light in, there was no need to turn on any lights. To the side behind the teacher's desk was three bookshelves stacked to the brim with books.
"Hi, Mr. Trevor, sorry we were a little late, you don't mind letting us into the class do you?" asked Connor putting on a winning smile.
Mr. Trevor seemed to consider it for a second then sighed and moved to side to let Connor through. Ned was still there though he was in a daze of sorts from the heat and when Connor felt Ned wasn't following through with him he turned.
"Ned…get in here, now," he hissed as he moved forth to drag Ned in.
"Mr. Caesar, do please stop daydreaming and come in, I'll mark you off the roll just this once but don't expect me to do this a second time," said Mr. Trevor. "Though I am a substitute teacher I have been made aware of the standards at this school."
Ned snapped out of his daze as he was dragged in by Connor and everyone in the classroom was looking at them.
"Right sir, I'm sorry," said Ned apologizing and he went to the back bench and sat down next to Connor.
Mr. Trevor nodded and went to the front again. Ned placed his bag on the floor next to him and got out his English related books and placed them on the table.
"Wow, look at her, sitting in class without a though in her mind, it's like she's the queen or something," said Connor nodding at a girl near the front center and Ned immediately recognized who it was, Alexia Hailing.
She was quite good looking, graceful and all but the fact that made her interesting was that she was Jason Hailing's sister. The very Hailing that tried to run him over this morning.
"She's got the right you know," said Ned as placed his hands on top of his books and leaned forward. "Her mother owns this island."
"Yeah, what I don't get though is that how that Jason guy and she can be brother and sister, they contrast each other so well that I'd reckon her mother had an affair or something," said Connor kind of venomously.
"Well, it's common to hate people in power, you know that right," said Ned.
"It's common to hate hateful people in power," said Connor nodding towards Alexia as he thought back to Jason.
"Let's not go there alright, she didn't have anything to do with nearly running me over and I seem to recall at one point you having a desperate crush on her," said Ned smiling lightly.
"That one point would be the important word Ned, at one point… seriously though she's so cold towards everyone, I don't get how she can even have any friends."
When Mr. Trevor turned around though they immediately stopped their conversation. The double period of English lessons went without a hitch yet the thing that still worried Ned was the still warm to hot feeling he had in his back. He slept through the latter half of the second period, considering what was going on was pretty monotonous. Mr. Trevor just stood up in front of the class speaking and writing on the board and soon it was time for the small break and they left the classroom. When Ned got up to leave the constant heat he felt on his back suddenly flared up scalding him, it felt like something was drilling into that point there and he stumbled and gasped. Connor turned to look at him and he seemed concerned.
"Ned, seriously are you sure, you're alright, you've been acting strange since you came here," said Connor grabbing a hold of Ned, to stop him from shivering.
"It's burning, I feel like there's something drilling right below my neck, if anything its painful," said Ned as he felt cold sweat run down his forehead.
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"Seriously, maybe we should get it checked out or something," said Connor as he looked at the area to which Ned spoke about.
"No, there's nothing there, I felt it, I'm only feeling it and I don't know what's wrong," said Ned. "I don't know if I'm hallucinating or not but it really hurts."
"Ned, sit down, now, you're sweating bad and you're shivering like really really badly," said Connor forcing Ned down. "Just calm down and we'll go maybe to the nurse's."
"No, no nurse's, I don't want to go there, seriously there's nothing wrong, I think I'm just feeling it," said Ned but the pain flared up again and Ned fell forward on to the desk and he slammed his hands down to support himself.
He looked up at Connor making him gasp aloud.
"That's freaky," said Connor looking straight at Ned leaving him confused but Connor continued. "Stop doing that…"
"What are you talking about?" asked Ned as the pain went down slightly and he raised his head to a level.
"The eyes Ned, it's the eyes, they're turning gold," said Connor.
"What're you talking about, I thought I was going crazy but you seem pretty up there yourself."
"Oh for god's sake Ned," said Connor and he pulled out his phone and switched it onto camera and then pointed it directly at Ned.
What he saw in the camera was exactly as Connor described, his eyes or rather the irises had turned gold, like shiny gold.
"What the hell?" Ned exclaimed in fright. "What's happening?"
"I don't know Ned, seriously," said Connor his disbelief layered with anxiousness and fright. "It's turned back now."
Ned grabbed the camera and pointed it at himself and he saw it, they were now his normal irises but then the pain flared up again and he saw it once more, those shiny gold irises, they were frightening and they looked cold, not at all like his usual ones. Ned shook his head as he looked again and they were still gold.
"What the hell am I going to do?" asked Ned in panic. "Connor, I can't go around with gold irises, that's abnormal to downright crazy."
"You can't so don't get out of the class," said Connor. "Just wait, they turned back once so they should turn back again."
"That's not the point Connor, what if they turn back, they can easily turn again into gold, what in the hell is even happening," said Ned as he placed his head down on the desk.
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By then most people had already left and the only people left were two kids and Mr. Trevor.
"I just need to ask Ned, did you eat something like magic mushrooms or something, 'cause there's no other way other contact lenses to turn a person's eyes gold like yours, it's crazy," whispered Connor as he saw Mr. Trevor looking.
Just then the two students that were asking him questions too made their way out of the classroom via the side door and Mr. Trevor glanced at them and then stacked his books and slowly he came over. Ned was about to lift his head when Connor slammed it back down onto the table.
"Keep your head down dammit, we don't know whether they've turned back or not," said Connor.
Ned groaned from beneath, "It's not that, it's my eyes they feel like they're burning up as well, it feels like they're about to pop out of their sockets."
"Ned, just keep your head down and grit through it," said Connor smiling awkwardly to Mr. Trevor.
"Boys, everything is fine I gather?" he asked doubtfully as he looked at Ned.
"Oh, yeah everything's fine Mr. Trevor," said Connor. "Just that Ned's feeling a little sick."
"Oh dear, does he need to go to the sick bay?" asked Mr. Trevor concern layering his voice.
"No, no that's not necessary, he should feel fine in a moment, you see he nearly got run over by a car this morning, it should be just after shock or something along those line," said Connor and he muttered under his breath. "If after shock even exists."
"Ned, do you need to go to the sick bay?" asked Mr. Trevor this time to Ned directly.
Ned didn't answer back immediately and it required a light stomp from Connor onto Ned's foot for him to groan again.
"No, it's fine Mr. Trevor, I should be fine in a couple of minutes, just need to stay here, sorry," said Ned and he groaned off again.
"Oh that's quite alright then, please lock the door when you exit," said Mr. Trevor lightly smiling. "I do hope you get better soon, well then I'll see you next lesson."
"See you too Mr. Trevor," replied Connor and left Ned to reply with two short groans.
As soon as Mr. Trevor left Connor got up and turned with Ned looking up at him half-heartedly after which he put his head down. This time when Ned looked up his golden eyes had vanished.
"Take of your shirt," said Connor and startled he looked up again, this time with slightly more vigor.
"Why?" he asked.
"Because, I need to see this, you're eyes are turning gold and you say you're in so much pain, I can't make heads or tails of this situation," said Connor. "Take of your shirt."
"What…no, I'm not going to do that."
"Dude, Ned, just do it, there's no one here, apart from me."
"It's a classroom, and it's not even locked, forget about it," said Ned sitting up straight.
"The classroom's empty, so take of your shirt," said Connor. "I gotta see this."
"No!" said Ned putting his foot down.
"Why…you got something on your body, don't tell me it's an illegal tattoo or someth–"
"It's not an illegal tattoo alright, there's nothing wrong with my body," said Ned sighing.
"Apart from being in constant pain, yeah there's nothing wrong with it," said Connor as he moved forward to force Ned if necessary. "Just do it, it's just us and it's just taking off your damn shirt Ned, now do it."
"Why… I already told you, I felt nothing around there when I touched it," said Ned shaking his head.
"Fine, don't take it off, just loosen it slightly so I can see below your neck," said Connor trying for compromise.
Ned took a deep breath in closing his eyes, the pain had slowly numbed down.
"Fine, I'll do it," said Ned and he stood and loosened his tie then unbuttoned the first two buttons on his shirt and pulled his shirt back.
Connor moved to Ned's back and looked and whatever he had found there had him startled, Ned heard the audible gasp.
"What is, is it like burned?" asked Ned preparing possibly for the worst. "Is it bleeding or something."
"Dude, it's not bleeding but when did you get this tattoo, is it fake?" asked Connor as he touched it. "It feels pretty real."
"What tattoo, are you talking about," said Ned through gritted teeth as his patience ebbed away. "I've got no tattoos on my body."
"Yeah well, either this is a tattoo or I'm hallucinating which is a definite possibility," said Connor as he took out his phone again.
Ned heard Connor switching it into camera and then took a few snaps.
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It was at that time though the unfortunate happened. The door to the classroom they were in opened. Both Ned and Connor were shocked and Ned didn't get enough time pull his shirt up because just then with her dark brown hair, turning darker further at the roots, waving behind her Alexia came in and the first sight she saw was Ned with his shirt loose and Connor behind holding a camera and taking a picture. She looked at them strangely and they both looked flustered.
"This is not what it looks like," said Ned as the awkwardness in the room rose.
"What are you doing?" she asked. "Why are you still here?"
"Why did you come back here?" asked Connor who after the initial look of fluster had chosen to take a much more seething look.
"I forgot a book of mine, I just came back to get it," said Alexia. "What about you, what are you doing here?"
"I uh was just feeling a little sick," said Ned.
The numbing pain chose just that moment to flare up again as Ned closed his eyes and fell to one knee.
"Dude…" said Connor moving forward to support him.
Ned opened his eyes and Connor got a sinking feeling in his heart and Alexia breathed in stunned.
"Your eyes, dude, they've turned again," said Connor and Ned too got a sinking feeling in his heart.
"Is that contacts?" asked Alexia moving forward but Ned couldn't answer because he got that familiar feeling of his eyes popping out of his skull again and he covered his eyes while gritting his teeth.
"You should probably get him to the sick bay," said Alexia which forced and seething look from Connor.
"No he's fine," said Connor layering his voice with a tinge of mockery, something which Alexia chose to ignore.
"Connor, this all started with that hallucination thing in the morning, I thought I was just imagining that maybe it was a hallucination but what if it really happened," said Ned groaning again and he didn't see Alexia take a step back biting her lower lip as he said this.
"What, no that can't be 'cause I felt something similar as well, why isn't this happening to me," said Connor still supporting Ned.
This time Alexia took a step forward and said, "I'm sorry, did you say hallucinations, this morning, was it around eight maybe."
At this Ned suddenly looked up shocked, it appeared as though she knew what had happened then. Connor too who had been seething around looked stunned ever so slightly.
"Yeah, yeah it was around eight, don't tell me you know what this is?" said Ned looking surprised but hopeful.
"No, I don't know what it all is," said Alexia shaking his head at which Ned looked down again and Connor smirked. "But I felt something similar, I thought it was hallucination as well."
This time both Ned and Connor looked shocked, absolutely more than the last time.
"What, did you see?" asked Connor
"I saw everything going in slow motion, like time was slowing down or something along those lines but that wasn't all, it also felt like my senses were heightened, I could pick up the sound of individual heart beats from a fair distance away, and I could also pick up individual scents of people, it all seemed strange until I saw like a fair distance away, maybe half a kilometer or more, my eyesight just seemingly out of nowhere improved and then I felt this sharp pain on my forehead and after that I don't remember anything," said Alexia frowning as she tried to think of anything more that had happened.
"Wow, that's pretty detailed," said Ned as the pain in his back seemed to have numbed down again and so had the pain in his eyes.
"Y'know I think this might be the longest sentence you've ever said since the start of this year," said Connor nodding at Alexia and she instantly turned stone faced again. "But this is strange, all three of us had the same hallucination, and I also felt the time slowing down, if that was even what it was."
Alexia looked sharply at the thoughtful Connor.
"Your gold eyes are something new by the way, even for me," said Alexia nodding at Ned.
Ned felt panic climb his throat and he croaked out, "It still hasn't disappeared?"
"No don't worry, it's gone again now but it pops up at the most random times and we all have no idea what's happening," said Connor and he took out his phone. "You wanna see the tattoo on your back."
Ned nodded and Alexia too came forward, three people in the most unlikely of circumstances. Connor slid open the photos and Ned saw it, no they all saw, a photo strange by no means but due to familiarity of it and also due to the face Ned had never remembered it on him they all felt surprised. It was an arrow, thick and bold that started at the base of his neck and went down a fair way. It was the tattoo of a straight up arrow, something that seemed normal by all means but also something he couldn't remember being on his back.