Starlight High.

It’s a school with a long past, many students have walked through these halls before, and many more will in the future. Despite how often it's changed, one thing that’s stayed the same are students flooding the halls trying to make it to their next class on the first day of school.

Though, it’s in these halls where we find two people standing by their lockers, chatting with one another. One of them was Ronnie Everst; a black kid with a slightly muscular build, brown eyes, and a duke hairstyle. He’s wearing a blue ripped jean jacket over a red shirt, brown sweatpants, and red converse shoes.

The other is Marcus Veridan; a white kid with messy brown hair, a very skinny body, and brown eyes. He’s wearing a long-sleeved white t-shirt underneath a black vest jacket, blue jeans, and white sneakers.

“So lemme get this straight,” Ronnie asks curiously, “You, Marcus Veridan, want to start a club?”

“Yeah,” Marcus says as he rummages through his locker, “Is there an issue with that?”

“No no,” Ronnie says, “I just didn’t expect this from you.”

“Yeah, I just wanted to start off high school right,” Marcus says as he is still searching through his locker, “Though it’ll be nice if we had a president for the club.”

“Yeah, I’ve gotta find some way of keeping myself busy,” Ronnie reflects.

Marcus side-eyes him before Ronnie admits, “I was kidding! I was kidding! I was already going to join when you brought it up.”

“Glad to hear that,” Marcus remarks.

“By the way what even is the club about?” Ronnie asks.

“Oh! I was thinking we can call it The Paranormal Investigations Club,” Marcus suggests.

“We’ll have to workshop that name a bit but I’m certain we’ll have people begging to join the club in no time flat!” Ronnie declares as he gives a thumbs-up to Marcus.

THE MIRACLE CLINIC

A week has gone by, and yet the two friends sit all by themselves at their ‘club’ meeting. They’re in a classroom both feeling deflated since nobody else showed up. The only other people in the classroom are a teacher, a kid still working on a test, and another student working diligently on some homework.

"Nobody’s even shown up," Marcus Veridan murmured as he rested his head on his arms, “What was I thinking, this was a stupid idea.”

"Hey don't worry about it too much man. Who needs other people anyways, it’s just gonna be us against the world" Ronnie began as he looked over toward the teacher, "has anyone seen our flyers Mr. Amnestor?"

The man Ronnie was looking towards was Aken Amnestor, one of the school’s history teachers. Amnestor has a bit of a stubble on his face, white skin, a chiseled chin, glasses over his tired eyes, is in his mid-40s, and has black hair with some gray patches showing. The teacher is also wearing a white button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up, black dress pants, and black dress shoes. Mister Amnestor looks up from the papers he was grading and looks toward Ronnie.

“I’ve handed a few out, but to be frank I don’t think these are really helping your cause,” Amnestor states matter-of-factly.

“What do you mean?” Ronnie asks.

Instead of responding, Mister Amnestor sighs before opening up a drawer in his desk. He reaches into the drawer and grabs a stack of defiled flyers for the club. Ronnie grabs a few at them and starts to read them out loud.

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“‘Dumbasses named their club The Normal Investigations’?” Ronnie reads before looking at the flyer to see they forgot to add ‘para’, “Why would I want to join this club when I can get the same thing from Blue’s Clues’! ‘I don’t like how this is all in Comic Sans, choose a better font’?!”

“I have more of those if you want to see,” Amnestor says.

“No no I’m fine,” Ronnie says, “Right Marcus?”

Marcus gives a defeated grin.

“See we’re fine,” Ronnie affirms.

“I mean, I don’t blame anyone for not wanting to be a part of your lil ghost hunt club,” the student taking the test says.

Ronnie & Marcus glance over to the student to see he has white skin, some facial hair starting to grow, and really messy blonde hair that’s covering his eyes. The upperclassman is also wearing a brown button-up jacket over a white t-shirt, blue jeans, a pair of Air Jordans, and a necklace with the word ‘X’ on it.

“And who are you?” Ronnie groans.

“The name’s X Locke, but everyone just calls me X,” The upperclassman exclaims.

“That’s your actual name?”

“You got a problem with my name, freshman?

“Wait, how did you know we were freshmen?” Marcus asks.

“Because you just told me dumbass,” X retorts, “that and you two just have that kind of energy.”

“Thanks for the insight,” Ronnie groans.

“But hey, lemme help you real quick,” X begins to explain, “The reason nobody wants to join your club is… nobody knows you two or your club. If you want to get some eyes on you, then you gotta do something worthy of getting attention.”

Ronnie & Marcus looked at each other then back at X then back at each other before standing up and walking away.

"Huh, where are you going?!" X frantically shouted.

"I don't want to get advice from a dude who doesn't know what a haircut is, and besides our club meeting is over," Ronnie said coldly.

Ronnie & Marcus leave the classroom, shutting the door as they do so, X looks stunned for a bit before Mr. Amnestor clears his throat.

"You still need to finish your test, Mister Locke," Mr. Amnestor stated.

X looks back at his test as he continues to try and finish it.

__________________________

Later that day, Ronnie & Marcus enter the front room of The Everst Family Home. Stained wood tiles cover the floor and walls of this cozy house. The framed photos, plants, old vinyl record player by the new TV, and furniture all give the place a relaxed vibe to it. The front room the two teens are standing in leads to a living room on the right, a kitchen to the left, and down the hallway is a bedroom, bathroom, and a stairway to upstairs.

"Mom, I'm home!" Ronnie yells as he goes to set his backpack down by the front door.

"You better not be setting your bag right in front of the door!" Ronnie's Mom yells from the kitchen, “I’m tired of tripping over it!”

"I told you I stopped doing that a long time ago!" Ronnie says while picking his backpack up causing Marcus to snicker.

"Oh, and who is it that you brought home today Mister?" Ronnie's mom yells from the kitchen.

Before the two could respond, Ronnie's mom, Sally Everst, steps out of the kitchen to greet the two. She has black skin with some freckles, green eyes, a few tattoos on her arms, and her hair is in a twist-out style. She’s wearing a black tank top, blue jeans, sandals, and an old varsity jacket tied around her waist. Sally Everst was chewing some gum but spits it out into a nearby trash can as she looks at Marcus coldly.

"Misses Everst," Marcus says coldly as he nods at her.

"Marcus Veridan," Sally Everst replies back coldly while nodding at him.

The two glared at each other for a bit before laughing. As Mrs. Everst laughs, she messes with Marcus' hair a little.

"So you're staying for dinner?" Mrs. Everst asked Marcus.

"Yes ma'am," Marcus replied.

"I see, it would have been really nice if someone told me beforehand," Mrs. Everst stated while glaring at Ronnie.

"Yeah, it would have been really nice," Marcus stated while glaring at Ronnie.

"Uh, you two should not get along as well as you do," Ronnie groans, “And Marcus comes over all the time, I didn’t think I needed to tell you.”

“Do you want to make dinner then?” Sally questions.

Ronnie is silent before responding, “No mom, thank you mom.”

“You’re welcome sweetie,” Sally responds as she heads back to the kitchen.

As day turns into night, Ronnie & Marcus focus on their homework while Sally finishes making dinner for the three of them. With dinner done; the three sit down at the large wooden kitchen table and begin to eat the chili that was made. Marcus grabs a bag of shredded cheese and pours a ton of it into his bowl of chili.

“So, how’s school been going for you boys,” Mrs. Everst asks in between bites, “Still doing that club thing?”

“Well yeah, though nobody’s really joined in so it’s just been the two of us,” Ronnie states.

“That’s a shame, but I’m sure you’ll get someone interested soon. And if that doesn’t happen then sucks for them!” Mrs Everst states.

“Thanks mom,” Ronnie replies.

"Don't mention it, sweetie."

As silence fills the room, Marcus looks at his bowl of chili to still see some food left in there. However, as soon as he grabs his spoon his phone begins to ring loudly. Marcus picks up his phone to see that he's getting a call from an unknown number. He decides to answer it.

"Hello? Who is this?" Marcus asks into the phone.

Ronnie & Sally look at Marcus as his face gets more excited as the phone call goes on.

"You wanna meet tonight at Burrito Bistro? You got it! We'll see you there shortly!" Marcus affirms before hanging up.

"Who are you meeting?" Mrs. Everst asked.

"And what do you mean by we?" Ronnie interjected.

Marcus quickly finishes the remains of his food before answering their question, "someone just called saying they needed the club's help. We finally got someone interested!"

See You Next Chapter!~