Aken Amnestor sits grading some papers inside the teacher’s lounge of Starlight High. As he flips through them, he hears a fellow colleague enter the room. Amnestor glances over to see that the person who entered is one of the school’s teaching assistants, Ray Ramirez. Ray is a very tall Hispanic man with long black hair tied up into a man bun, amber eyes, and an extremely muscular physique. Currently, he’s wearing a long-sleeved purple button-up, formal black pants tied with a brown belt, and brown dress shoes.

“Mister Ramirez good to see you,” Amnestor exchanges pleasantries before asking, “Did you happen to find the papers I was looking for?”

“Yeah, I had to go to the middle school just to get them,” Ray Ramirez groaned, “they said it was ‘too hard to email them’.”

Ray hands the papers to Amnestor, Amnestor glances at them before setting them down on his desk to look at later. As he does so, Ray Ramirez opens up one of the windows to let in the nice autumn breeze. Though as he does so, he can’t help but spot something odd going on.

“Looks like there’s a fight going on in the park,” Ray remarks casually.

“Is there now?” Amnestor says uninterestedly, however, his tone changes when he actually realizes what Ray said, “Say that again?!”

THE MIRACLE CLINIC

"And that's what happens when you put spaghetti in a washing machine," X tells Marcus & Elizabeth, "Yeah, they fucking hated me for a while."

"That's great, X, but now is not the time!" Marcus yells.

"What why?"

"Because those two are fighting!"

Marcus, Elizabeth, & X are all standing in the park and are watching as Alex throws jab after jab at Ronnie while Ronnie tries to evade them.

"Oh yeah, that's right," X says as he makes sure his phone is still recording the fight.

While the fight between the two continues to play out, Alex can’t help but recall his past, ever since he started getting boxing lessons, there always were people trying to take him down a notch.

In middle school it was the president of the chess club he was in, then it was the older brother of someone who was in the basket weaving club he also was in at the time, and then more folks just kept coming. So who was he to not give them what they were clearly begging for?

And so he fought all the people who challenged him, it didn’t matter where he was.

In the school gym? Easy.

During basketball practice? That was a slam dunk for him.

In the locker room while he was changing? Took a while but he got it done.

Soon enough people began to take notice of his skills that they started to place bets on his fights, so he decided to lean into it more and more, gaining some decent money doing so. Though compared to all of those fights from before, this one was different.

Where everyone would always go for an attack whenever they could, Ronnie’s mostly focused on defense and evading Alex’s punches.

“What, you still not really committed to the fight?” Alex questions before going for a straight punch, “Oh well…”

Instinctively, Ronnie moves backward to avoid the hit, however in doing so he presses his back up against a tree. Seizing the opportunity, Alex gets up in close for an uppercut.

“Your funeral,” Alex remarks as the uppercut lands.

Ronnie’s head recoils backward from the blow, though while taking the hit, his hands grasp onto Alex’s shoulders.

“Thanks, pal,” Ronnie says before he headbutts Alex as hard as he can, “You got me in the right position!”

Alex stumbles back before he raises his arms into a basic boxer’s guard. However, due to the headbutt, the guard is sloppy allowing Ronnie to land a right hook across Alex’s cheek.

As Alex feels his cheek he asks, “Hey what’s your name?”

“Ronnie, Ronnie Everst,” Ronnie remarks, “You shouldn’t have been talking so much shit if you’ve gotten tired after two hits!”

“Tired?” Alex questions, “You haven’t seen nothing yet!”

Alex rushes Ronnie and delivers him a jab, Ronnie counters with a punch to the gut.

“You know you can punch in places besides the face, right?” Ronnie asks.

“Oh shut up,” Alex gasps as he collects himself, “You wanna see me hit you elsewhere? Fine!”

As Alex runs towards Ronnie, Ronnie gets ready to avoid the attack however instead of attacking Ronnie's lower body, Alex throws an overhand punch and manages to get a clean hit in on Ronnie's face sending Ronnie to the ground.

“You dumbass!” Alex begins to say while he punches down on Ronnie, “Why the fuck would I tell you my next move!”

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The punches keep on landing down on Ronnie, and just when Alex is about to celebrate victory…he feels like the world is spinning.

No wait, it is! Ronnie managed to kick in Alex’s legs causing him to be swept off the ground. With both teens now on the ground, they glance at one another before getting back up,

“You still,” Alex gasps as sweat pours down his face, “want a piece of me?”

“Of course,” Ronnie gasps as he sloppily gets into a fighting stance, “I’m far from finished!”

The two continue to let out gasps of air before slowly moving toward one another, ready to continue their fight even further when suddenly they hear a loud-

“STOP!”

Confused, the two look to the source of the voice to find out it was Marcus who said that. The same Marcus who is also currently running at them while X & Elizabeth run in different directions.

"We gotta get going! The teachers are coming!" Marcus yells at the two.

Alex glares at Ronnie.

Ronnie glares at Alex.

“Truce?” Ronnie asks.

“Truce,” Alex agrees.

And with that the two book it through the park as fast as they can, Marcus following close behind. They hear some teachers yell at them to stop but their demands are very far behind them.

“This doesn’t settle things y’know!” Alex says as he’s running with Ronnie & Marcus.

“Dude, just shut up and run,” Ronnie replies as the three get further and further away from the scene.

Eventually after running so much that their legs cave in, the three teens lay down on the ground catching their breath as dusk sets in. Ronnie’s the first to get up and notice that they’re at an empty playground. Wood chips at their feet, Ronnie makes his way through the colorful contraptions as he gets to a vending machine that is right near the brick restrooms.

“Care for some water?” Ronnie asks as he puts a few singles into the machine.

“Sure,” Marcus sighs.

Alex & Marcus get up and walk their tired bodies over to the vending machine and sit down next to it.

CLUNK!

A single water bottle falls down into the slot at the bottom, Ronnie grabs the bottle before sitting down next to the two. He opens it and takes a quick sip before handing it to Alex. Alex begins to drink a good amount of the water.

“Hey, we're supposed to share that!” Marcus says.

Alex stops drinking and passes the bottle to Marcus before apologizing, “Sorry. And what’s the deal with you bub? First you challenge me to a fight, the next you’re giving me some water?”

“Y’know our whole thing was trying not to fight you,” Ronnie remarks before turning to Marcus, “Marcus you had enough, can I get some?”

“I only had two sips,” Marcus pleads before drinking a bit more.

“Well, that plan sure worked,” Alex sarcastically remarks.

“Yeah well, I wasn’t the one to throw the first fist Mister Hot Head,” Ronnie teases before getting handed the near-empty bottle of water.

Alex grumbles to himself as Ronnie takes a swig of the water, finishing it up.

“Anyways, the two of us are in this club and someone asked us to try and get you to stop fighting,” Marcus says.

“Listen bub, all I’m doing is giving what the people want,” Alex defends himself, “They’re the ones asking me to fight ‘em, besides I’m making good money too.”

“While I can respect the grind, are you sure that’s what all the people want?” Ronnie questions, “Because if you ask me, I’m sure most people in your class don’t want to see you fighting all the time.”

"Besides, if people really want to fight you, can’t they do it somewhere else?” Marcus questions.

“Now that you say that,” Alex begins to ponder, “The gym I go to has been pretty empty recently.”

“No offense but how did you not think of that already?” Ronnie asks.

“Well,” Alex begins to think of an excuse before sighing, “I got nothing.”

“That’s not true,” Marcus says, “We’re here too y’know.”

Hearing that, a soft smile can’t help but escape from Alex’s lips before he lets out a chuckle.

“I didn’t mean it like that bub,” Alex chuckles.

After saying that, Alex’s chuckles turn into a laugh, Ronnie soon joins in on the laughter, and then after a bit, Marcus begins to laugh with them. The exchange they had wasn’t really funny to any of them there, but they still laughed regardless. Maybe it was where they were, or how quickly they went from at each other’s throats to joking around, but they laughed all the same.

As they all calm down, Alex dusts off his pants before standing up.

“Well, I guess I’ll see you folks around,” Alex remarks.

Marcus & Ronnie stand up.

“Yeah, so long Alex,” Ronnie says.

As the three begin to walk away, Ronnie can’t help but feel accomplished with all that happened. Sure things didn’t go exactly as he hoped, but they still helped Alex out in the end. Though he can’t help but think that he may have forgotten somethi-

“AHHH!!!!” Ronnie screams.

Alex & Marcus look at Ronnie.

“The hell is up with you?” Alex asks.

“My jacket, I left it behind!” Ronnie exhales as he starts to run back to where they came from, “My mom is gonna kill me if I don’t get it back!”

Alex scoffs before he too remembers that he left his hoodie behind, so he joins Ronnie in the race back to where they fought. Not wanting to be left behind, Marcus runs after them as dusk turns to night.

____________________________________

The next day in Starlight High, Ronnie & Marcus sit in Mr. Amnestor's room for another club meeting with the only other people in the classroom being Mr. Amnestor himself and X Locke, who was stuck getting yet another assignment done.

"Hey you kids,” Amnestor says to Marcus & Ronnie, “You should be careful out there, there was a fight going on in the park yesterday. I don’t want you two to get wrapped up with that kind of stuff, nothing good comes from it.”

Hearing that Ronnie awkwardly chuckles, “Don’t worry, you have nothing to worry about Amnestor.”

“Does he now?” X questions.

Ronnie hushes X before Amnestor can get curious. Though with the classroom back into silence, Marcus & Ronnie sigh.

“I thought after that others would want to join,” Marcus sighs.

“Hey, at least we did good,” Ronnie remarks, “I’m sure our Paranormal Investigations Club will get traction soon! We just gotta wait it out a-”

The doors to the classroom open.

“Bit,” Ronnie remarks as he turns to see who entered.

To his and Marcus’ surprise, they see none other than Alex Smith at the doorway.

“Uh so,” Alex begins to say as he scratches the back of his head, “Is this the where that Normal Investigations Club is at?”

“Oh yeah forgot about that typo,” Ronnie admits.

“Alex?” Marcus questions.

“What? Surprised to see me?” Alex asks.

“Yes.”

“Well, I decided to take your advice and you were right,” Alex says, “Most people don’t want me doing that in class.”

“Doing what in class?” Amnestor inquires from his desk.

“Uhh,” Alex says trying to think of an excuse.

“He’s talking about playing card games!” Ronnie says covering for Alex.

Amnestor, accepting the answer, goes back to grading papers.

“Anyways, now that I had some free time, I figured why not spend it with some people who are interesting,” Alex affirms.

Hearing that, Ronnie smirks, “Welcome to the club, Alex.”

As the two dap each other up while Marcus goes to find the attendance paper, it finally sets in that they finally have a third member. However, what nobody there realized at the time, was that this seemingly simple club would go on to cause a miracle so impossible, that it would shake the whole city to its very core. Though for now, that’s a story for another time. After all, this is just the start of how The Paranormal Investigations Club would become The Miracle Clinic.

See You Next Chapter!~