People tend to live life as they know it. Living with their friends, hating their enemies, and generally just going along with the flow. So what is the big question? What if they lost all their memories? What if they forgot their previous lives, forgot their names, forgot all the experiences that made them who they are? What if they were dropped into a strange land, lost and alone with only a warning told to survive? Would they remain true to themselves or would new experiences make them unrecognizable to their past selves?
-~- TNY12-~-
William sighed as he leaned his head lazily against the car window. It was just another day on the way to school, just another day to get through before heading back home. If he was forced to admit it he wouldn’t mind saying that life was getting pretty boring. Just the short process of wash, rinse and repeat. Over and over again, day after day. Idly he wondered what he was going to do today at school besides the lessons that were practically a given. Sometimes it was like the breaks in between the lessons were all that he lived for.
The black haired boy pushed his glasses back up onto his face as a force of habit before brushing his dark hair back onto his head and off his face. Getting poked in the eyes by straight hair was never pleasant, if only he could manage to keep it on his head for more than a few hours. Unfortunately his hair tended to be incredibly stubborn and refused to listen no matter what he used, but he didn’t much fancy the only other alternative which was going bald. He would probably be the laughing stock of the school.
William took out his phone and visited the story he had been reading the night before. It had been a splendid story that he couldn’t quite bring himself to put down and had ended up almost forgetting to sleep. As it turned out he had fallen asleep onto his table. He considered himself lucky that he hadn’t crushed his glasses. As it was he already broke or smashed an average of four a year, and he had already broken three so far. Playing football did have its consequences. His parents had banged on his door a mere ten minutes before they had to leave and William had been forced to rush through his morning routine, barely managing to stuff the unfinished homework back into his bag as he ran around with a toothbrush in his mouth. In his haste he had forgotten breakfast as well as coffee. He grimaced as he felt the beginnings of the massive headache that occurred every time he forgot his morning coffee. Taking it every morning like a religion only to suddenly miss it one morning coupled with his lack of sleep were already ruining his entire day.
He tuned out his parents discussing grown up things in the front seat as well as the noise of two of his sisters bickering over something useless next to him. The wailing baby on his sister’s lap wasn’t helping the oncoming headache either. But within a minute he had fully immersed himself back into the story, blind to his surroundings.
-~- TNY12 -~-
“William, will you separate yourself from reading or writing for a few hours at least.” His father snapped suddenly. “We’re already here at school.”
The dark haired boy was shocked out of the world he had been in, feeling exceedingly dizzy. The backlash from switching worlds so fast was painful and his head protested violently, the headache suddenly making a harsh return. William seriously hoped his dad mistook his wince for his surprise because he was shouted at. His father was a friendly but very strict man indeed and William had no wish for his father to find out how he really spent the night.
“Sorry dad, I’ll try.” He answered dutifully.
His dad scoffed. “Why do you bother bringing football shoes and table tennis rackets? You go to school to study, not play.”
“I don’t know dad.” There really wasn’t a right answer to that question, especially since he also had a football hidden in his schoolbag.
“You’re getting lazy in your studies. I don’t want your grades to drop.” The unsaid threat was clear enough between the two of them. “And you have training later, don’t forget.”
William nodded and exited the car, slinging his bag over his shoulders as he walked to the school gates. He forced a smile onto his face as he made his way towards the gates. He never actually studied hard, retaining information came easy to him and he was very creative with what he knew. So far he had mostly just winged through examinations and somehow achieved high grades, much to the annoyance of some of his friends. But his dad didn’t know that, and he hoped that the frustrated teachers never managed to tell him. Apparently he was ‘wasting potential’, but the dark haired boy didn’t care. He was still near the top of class anyway and his dad seemed satisfied enough. This was one reason he had trouble imagining a life where he would be all grown up after all, a life where he would have to work. Yes, he did chores and already had a ton of responsibilities heaped upon him and lots of neat general knowledge that allowed him to be a sort of Jack-of-all-Trades, but that didn’t mean he wanted to actually work for a living, to this day he deluded himself into thinking it was still far off.
Despite the killer headache, William managed to make it across the school grounds opened the door to his classroom. It was a whole new world with his friends and his outlook changed to a more positive one, something away from his monotonous pondering. Losing yourself into story worlds was only good enough to get by life after all, not help in actually living it.
“Hey. Morning geiboi.”
William grinned at the one who greeted him. Knowing a guy for twelve years required a lot of tolerance but it was worth it. They were the worst of childhood enemies throughout elementary only to be forced together one day by teachers oblivious to their hatred of the other. To their immense surprise, they actually got along fairly well. Six years later at the end of high school and William trusted this guy to have his back, although he could do without being called that hideous nickname. Faris was either the only one brave enough to do so, or the only one stupid enough. He was the only one William would tolerate that from.
“Same to you, softy hands.” He replied as he took his seat.
William took solace in the fact that Faris was probably even more uncomfortable with his nickname than William was. Faris named him due to his slightly feminine looks, William named his friend due to how his hands were softer than a girls’. William’s hands were on the other end of the spectrum due to weapon’s trainings, he was used to blisters. People often commented on the odd pair, almost entirely polar opposites in everything they did. Even their parents wondered how the friendship worked. Where William loved sports, Faris loved sitting and watching. Where William loved reading, Faris preferred movies. It was a miracle they got along at all. Even in height Faris had a good five inches over William’s five seven. Originating from a South East Asian country, William was tanned compared to the extreme paleness of his British friend.
They then proceeded to try and trade as many lame jokes as possible before the rest of their group of friends arrived. Luckily for the others in the class, they didn’t have to wait long. The jokes were so bad that they were funny.
A few minutes later William practically leapt out of his chair from a poke in the ribs and swung his fist at the person who dared do such a thing to him. Even while laughing Araby managed to dodge the punch as he backed up with his hands raised in surrender.
“Calm down man! You get angry so easily!” Araby teased.
William took a deep, calming breath before he ended up hurting his friend. “How many times have I told you not to do that?”
Araby shrugged before laughing at William’s face again. “I can’t help it. You’re so cute when you’re mad.” He said as he made to pinch William’s cheek. The dark haired boy slapped the hand away with a disbelieving snort.
“Angry much?” Faris asked with a teasing smirk. William stomped on his foot.
Araby then held out his hand for the signature handshake he had with William and William ignored the groaning Faris to initiate around ten seconds of a carefully crafted sequence of hand movements almost impossible to copy. Girls didn’t understand the art and necessity of doing so, but they didn’t care. Boys abided by such a greeting.
Araby was of similar height to Faris and also wore glasses. Araby’s signature feature however, was the massive mane of untamable hair that he sported. William had known him ever since the fifth grade and the two would usually compete in something or other. Sometimes it was in something as important as an exam or physical ability, other times it was about who was capable of the most bottle flips.
“Hey, what about me?” Hamza asked, pouting as he walked towards them.
Among his male friends, Hamza was the only one of similar height to William, although while William had an athlete’s build, Hamza was much leaner. The two had only known each other for the last two years, but they were practically partners in most things, even the absurdly stupid stuff that Araby and Faris wouldn’t dare try. Faris was more of a cameraman type of person. The duo was practically invincible when they worked together on table tennis. But when together with Araby, the three of them were a trio of troublemakers that generally made life interesting. The teachers usually either knew or suspected the three for any acts of mischievousness, but they were almost never caught in the act. The few times that they were caught, William managed to spin the story just enough to get them out of trouble. He was good with words and there was a reason his parents expected him to become a decent lawyer. They would have preferred he become a doctor of some sort but realized early on that William didn’t have any sort of passion for that occupation. There was that and some of the teachers had already fostered strong relationships with the trio who went by the name Trible Trable. It was a little stupid and actually led to more suspicion but they liked to think that they were clever and that their letter play on ‘Triple Trouble’ was unique. In a way it was, but they didn’t care.
They trio’s main strength however was their teamwork. Most of the time they were able to read each other’s minds making them a formidable team on the football pitch.
After another bout of handshakes the group settled down a little, waiting for their last two frequent members. Football was a pretty much predominant topic in their lives, especially with their conflicting views on pretty much every player and team.
A few minutes later were all it took for their morning chat to be interrupted and William groaned as his headache spiked momentarily. He didn’t particularly hate the guy, quite the contrary in fact. He would defend the tall, lanky kid if it ever came to it. But there were times where William doubted if even Declan knew what Declan himself was saying. It got a tad annoying after the first hour or so, and three years of it was very trying on anyone. But it was definitely not what William needed right now, especially since he was already putting in a serious effort not to snap at his friends.
“Hey, how’s it going?” Declan greeted as he moved towards them, hands in pockets and sticking his head forwards in that way of his that he thought made him look ‘cool’. Slouching forwards with a look on his face that seemed torn between smiling and scowling. It would have been amusing if William couldn’t feel his brain pounding against his temples from the inside.
“What’s with gangster look Declan?” Faris asked with a raised eyebrow.
Declan shrugged.
“Think you look cool Declan? This makes you feel better?” Araby asked sarcastically, moving towards the other boy. “Aww look at me I’m Declan! I’m big and strong! I can beat up anyone!” Araby mimicked in a pathetic impression of Declan. Based on the laughter that ensued, it was safe to assume that Declan wasn’t really anyone’s favourite. The one time any of them had felt sincerely sorry for him, they had all regretted it.
“Just leave him Araby. Anyway, who was challenging us today?” That effectively ended what would have been a terrible morning for Declan, but William hadn’t done it for him.
Araby was distracted enough to completely forget his tirade against Declan. “Same guys again. They never learn.”
“Let’s crush them like the bugs that they are!” Faris yelled enthusiastically as the others turned to face him with disbelieving looks. “What?”
“Faris you don’t even play.” Hamza pointed out chuckling. “You play goalie but you never join us in everyday matches, only in tournaments.”
Faris puffed out his chest in pride. “What can I say? I’m special!” he exclaimed with a smirk.
William shared a look with Araby before they burst out laughing. Faris knew almost no shame. Then again that was one thing that added humour to their group and if there was one thing they thrived on it was spending as much time as possible laughing. No matter how lame the joke was or how bored they seemed, all it took was a single – mostly stupid- reason to start laughing like demented clowns.
William vaguely noticed Declan slipping out of class now that the attention was off him again. The dark haired boy wondered if Declan craved attention so much that it didn’t matter whether it was negative or positive but decided not to ponder on it.
The door opened a few minutes later to admit a group of girls all talking excitedly about the things William supposed girls talked about. William smirked at Hamza as they watched Araby slowly drift towards the girl who had tamed him. It was unavoidable and initially both Hamza and William had been jealous that their guy time had been encroached upon by a girl. It had started early on in the year when they noticed Araby slowly drifting away every now and again. At first the duo had thought nothing of it until the day that Araby hadn’t even bothered to join them out on the field anymore, preferring to spend the majority of his time with Nurhan.
At that stage in life Hamza and William had been left to their own devices and to cause mayhem on their own. They had thought the trio was doomed and that their adventures were over, the heartbreak was painful. To think it happened all because of a girl. It didn’t help that at the time they still thought girls were an entirely different species altogether. To make things worse Nurhan hadn’t seemed to like either of them much either. William couldn’t really blame her, in his quest for fun he could on occasion come across as incredibly rude without realizing, Hamza was just guilty by association.
Things had been tense for a while as William and Hamza treated it as a competition, vying for Araby’s attention and losing badly. That was going about it the wrong way and probably strained the friendship a little.
Then Nurhan had decided to open up and had started greeting them every morning. It was a small gesture but it didn’t go unnoticed. Since it wasn’t in their nature to hold powerful grudges for very long the two had started lightening up towards the girl. But she finally had their trust and respect when she started to send Araby out to play with them. Araby had looked like he genuinely wanted to stay near her but she had insisted that he join his friends. Hamza and William had heard every word and had seen that exchange. After that incident the boys finally accepted that Araby wasn’t meant to be theirs alone forever and that Nurhan was just as much a part of his life as they were. They were willing to sacrifice for their friend and share him with Nurhan. That they became friendly with Nurhan also seemed to lift Araby’s spirits even higher as he returned to their games and mishap with a vengeance.
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What nobody would ever fail to notice was Nurhan’s obsession with cleanliness. William wasn’t sure if she had a germ phobia or if she just adopted that weird habit. Either way she diligently sanitized everything she used, from her pencils to her water bottle to her desk and even the floor. Every time she touched something she would either grab a bottle of hand sanitizer or head to the toilets with a bar of soap. She also had an impressive set of lungs on her, as William had been unfortunate enough to find out when she caught him standing on her freshly polished desk. The dark haired boy believed he had gone temporarily deaf at one point from the resulting lecture.
The girl Nurhan was arguing with as they entered, which in William’s opinion wasn’t very surprising, had a sharp mind and a passion or habit for arguing about every little thing. The girl thirsted for knowledge. When she was curious she would search relentlessly until she was satisfied. If her parents hadn’t been pressing for her to either pursue a career in engineering or as a doctor William would expect her to become a lawyer as well. With her keen mind, attention to detail and attraction to the argumentative arts she would be a terror indeed. But he would never tell her that, they never agreed on anything and William wasn’t about to compliment someone he consistently argued with for fun.
Even if he and Rana usually argued for hours on end about giant spiders, ghosts or some other nonsense, they both enjoyed trying to prove the other wrong. She was the only one William knew who could put up a decent argument and counter him effectively. There was also once an argument started when William had felt in the mood to argue and had gone straight to Rana demanding an argument. Ironically they argued about how she couldn’t just argue on demand. William however, had a one up on Rana despite their stalemate. She got startled far too easily. He slowly slid out of her line of sight and blew up the croissant wrapper. William grinned savagely. Nodding to the rest of the guys, who were wearing matching grins, William watched Hamza’s fingers countdown to one and brought his hands together to slam the packet. The air burst out in an explosion of sound and Rana almost lifted clean off the ground. She turned to glare dangerously at him as the guys began to laugh uproariously. She couldn’t stop the smile from coming onto her face either meaning she wasn’t mad at him. Hopefully. He had been doing this routine for the entire school year after all.
“Still not used to it Rana?” William asked innocently. It probably would have been much more effective if he wasn’t grinning like a lunatic.
She rolled her eyes as she moved to her seat. “Shut up William.”
William’s eyes briefly glanced over to Rana’s friend who seemed to be struggling to control her mirth at her friend’s misfortune. Rahaf was one of the few who William felt could understand his connection to writing stories and getting lost in them since she was admittedly the same. Their discussions usually revolved around similar anime or books that happened to gather the other’s attention. It was either that or the relatively… dark… humour they shared. Talking about murder and some other gruesome practices as a casual thing wasn’t a topic for everyone after all. Anyone who heard them would wonder if they were perfectly sane. They often spoke about perfect murders and trading body organs in front of others just to see if it made any of them uncomfortable. It never failed to do so, especially since the others weren’t entirely sure if William and Rahaf were joking. They had once discussed a trade with each other based on a transfer of five beating human hearts for a book the other wrote. Everyone in class had heard that discussion, and when Rahaf had handed William a small book the next day before class, the guys had looked at William in abject horror. Hamza had avoided William for a week after that incident.
It didn’t help that Rahaf was usually silent and lost in a book either. This way they couldn’t really dispute the fact that she was probably planning their demise.
“Ignore him Rana.” Solaf ordered, even as she smiled back at William.
She was usually far easier to scare than Rana. They had only become friends recently, after a bout of carelessness on his part had resulted with a football on Solaf’s face and shattered glasses. To this day he was still thankful she wasn’t blind. Concerned he had checked up on her and eventually conversation just flowed. Although she didn’t agree with the lengths he went to for fun at all. William would end up trying to tone it down a little, but doing stunts and living for short moments of fun were what William was. If he was to meet his end William wanted to end on a high note, not lying on his death bed. She had once warned him that she would kill him if he got himself killed. William wasn’t sure if she was joking. Even if she tried to hide it, Solaf was a generally insecure person which she hid behind a very confident outward persona that allowed her to mingle with the boys. She could utterly terrify them sometimes even when they towered over her.
Which was why it was a surprise, and William wasn’t sure when exactly it happened, but eventually Solaf had managed to nab Hamza from right under his nose. William had suspected but only had it confirmed long after. It didn’t matter though, William had gotten used to it already and he didn’t mind if his friends were happy. It seemed like he was the last of the trio, he would sacrifice time for them. If he felt alone he could always count on Faris, joking with the guy just never did get old. On the plus side it also resulted in bigger group gatherings since everyone knew each other. Solaf was also strangely content to watch Hamza play so William wasn’t sacrificing that much. The adjustment probably went well since all three affected parties were friends already.
The fifth girl of the group however, William knew next to nothing about aside from the fact that she was smart. Consistently near the top if not at the top of the class every year. Yes, they had worked together on group projects before. But with Riham in charge their form of communication was more like a boss and subordinate and that usually wasn’t the best basis for a friendly relationship. It didn’t help that she had tried to tame William’s free spirit to accomplish his task so they didn’t quite get along. William knew he got on her nerves occasionally, he would be surprised if he hadn’t since he was actively trying to do so. She had once tasked him in making props due to his creativity and in show of defiance William had ended up spending over a precious week’s worth of time crafting a realistic man made gun that wasn’t even required. Outside of the school projects they didn’t interact much either.
There was also the fact that Riham tended to spend her time with people outside of the class and were what William and his group jokingly named ‘outsiders’. She was slowly growing on them however, now that Solaf had requested them to try and foster a relationship of any sort aside from enemies. Strangely enough William found out they worked extremely well together on anything regarding interrogation. Declan in a moment of ‘brilliance’ had said something so outrageous that the pair just had to cross examine him. His story was full of fatal flaws but the interrogation itself was incredibly fun and allowed conversation between them to at least start, much to Solaf’s joy.
They suddenly quieted under the entrance of Mr. Sifa and Mr. Zaji, their form tutor and the senior head teacher for registration and phone collection. The two were very strict and both strongly suspected Trible Trable for many things, but they had no proof. Furthermore in class the trio made sure that they incredibly well behaved, if a little cheeky at times. The boys who entered the class next however were not part of their group. Although he was friends with one of them, if you could base that relationship on the killer handshake they did every morning that used as much of their body as possible.
Right after they left the class returned to its normal chatter while they waited for the next teacher to arrive for the morning lesson. All of a sudden a big boned boy burst in through the door. “Am I late?” he asked, panting and out breath.
“Nah Eyad, you’re early!” Faris said happily with so much cheer injected into his voice that even William believed him for a second.
Eyad relaxed. “Woah, that’s new.”
Everyone started laughing as Eyad looked around momentarily confused. “What?”
William decided to take mercy on his confused friend. “You’re early for tomorrow Eyad, but you’re late for today.”
The large boy groaned in frustration before glaring at Faris. “You lying faggot.”
Faris just beamed back at Eyad. “Thank you.”
William just shook his head at the antics of his friends. He liked Eyad and still marveled at the change he had inspired into the other boy. The previous year he had been meek and shy and would probably get killed in a fight. He had also been very self-conscious about his weight. Now however, training with William had paid off quite a bit. Eyad was no longer shy or meek and he could hold his own against most other boys now. Not against William but then again William had been taught since a young age and already had fighting ingrained within him. Together as a group they called themselves ‘Totally Not Year Twelve’.
Only one of them was missing now, and Wasay was always ‘fashionably late’. That hopeless romantic was a recent addition to their group, having only transferred this same year and at first Trible Trable had been concerned with his habit of pointing his phones towards the girls of their class and William’s sister. Later they found out he was and addict of taking selfies and posting them online on social media to show he was at a new school. The phone being pointed at females was just an unfortunate coincidence and Wasay showed he had nothing to hide by willingly giving his gallery to the others. Seeing over a thousand photos all being selfies was something Trible Trable decided to leave alone.
William then stuck his head out of the window to call Declan back before the boy got into any trouble loitering around outside. That kid was as much danger to himself as he was to property around him. If left alone for too long the consequences could be catastrophic. He tended to fake injuries for attention which was why hardly anyone believed him once he had a real wound.
“Declan! Get back in here!” William yelled out once he caught sight of the lanky boy across the field.
“No! Sod off!”
William sighed again even as his headache made a vicious return from raising his voice at the stubborn boy. Declan just never made things easy. It was like he had conflicting personalities in there.
Luckily Hamza seemed to notice and forced William back down into the chair. “I’ll handle this bro, just sit.”
Hamza then reached over and grabbed Declan’s water bottle and began juggling it in front of the window.
“Oi! What ye’ think yer’ doin’ with ‘hat!” Declan shouted as he stormed across the field to head back into class.
Hamza grinned at William. “See, it’s that easy.”
William shook his head with a small smile. As a group they always found a solution. Part of it was need, part curiosity but mostly just because of laziness. Unfortunately not all plans worked as well as they were intended. A minute later Declan burst into the class and charged straight towards Hamza. William sighed in frustration as he moved to intercept. Despite the fact that Declan was a good six or seven inches taller than William, the black haired boy was still far heavier and built for combat. Lifting Declan was a simple matter. Or, it should have been. William started seeing black spots in front of his eyes from the exertion. That was new. What was happening to him? Declan was a featherweight in comparison to Faris whom William could easily carry.
William threw Declan to the ground and clutched his head in pain, he started to shake it vigourously to try and ease the pain as his vision started flashing with streaks of white. He barely registered the door opening and the last of their group entering the class as he stumbled backwards and almost collapsed onto the floor. Wasay was a hopeless optimist, but even he stopped and stared.
All noise in the room ceased with the scene unfolding before their eyes. William’s friends all moved towards him in concern.
“Hey, are you alright?” Araby asked stepping cautiously towards the dark haired boy. Everyone was wary due to William’s habit of lashing out when angry and approaching him while he seemed to be in pain didn’t seem like the best idea. Despite what William usually said otherwise, he did pack a punch.
“Leave me alone!” William growled out with his eyes firmly shut and both hands gripping the side of his head. “Just go!”
Everyone in the class who didn’t know William much immediately cleared the vicinity, none eager enough to be anywhere near the hostile boy. His friends however, held their ground and surrounded him, slowly shepherding him into a corner of the room. Hamza and Araby gestured for the girls to stay back as Eyad and Faris moved closer to the danger. They were after all the sturdiest built among the twelve who remained in class.
“William, calm down for a minute and listen. You need to sit.” Eyad said awkwardly, trying his best to balance ordering harshly and being gentle.
William didn’t quite hear what had been said, but the angry tone he managed to pick up on was enough. He wasn’t in the mood for this at all. They were choosing now to annoy him? Didn’t they have any consideration? And why were they all crowding around him? One thing William hated was the feeling of being confined, when that happened his excess energy had nowhere to go and he would usually burst. They knew this. The final straw was when he felt the wall press against his back with hardly any space to move. His friends wouldn’t stop moving forward either. He couldn’t see straight and the jarring pain was killing him. William’s temper exploded and his body was already moving before his aching mind could think it through.
Eyad was thankful for the training in close quarters combat that he had been given by William. If he was made to admit it he would say that it did wonders for his self-confidence ever since the smaller boy had started to encourage him. Right now it paid off and was all that saved his face from a vicious punch as his arm blocked the assaulting limb on reflex. He was still much too slow however to block the follow up punch that connected with his gut and Eyad doubled over in pain as he tried desperately to step back and distance himself from the boy. William was still far too fast for him.
Luckily for the large boy, Eyad’s pain seemed to snap Faris out of shock as he stepped behind William and wrapped his arms around William, pinning the aggressive boy’s arms against his body. He held on as much as he could before William did anything else he might regret.
William however was having none of it and continued to struggle against the hold. This was just making him angrier. The black haired boy put his legs together and jumped backwards, effectively slamming Faris against the wall. William spun and swung his fist at the groggy boy, prepared to take him out of the fight. He was disappointed however when his fist was caught and he was forcefully pulled away from his target. William spun around again to face the new attacker but before he could hit Araby his other arm was caught by Hamza and the next thing he knew Eyad tackled him to the ground, using his considerable size and weight advantage to try and pin William to the ground. Fortunately for them William’s head connected harshly with the floor and dazed the angered boy enough for him to momentarily calm down.
The whole scene had taken mere seconds and yet it had felt like minutes to the shocked group of friends.
“What the hell just happened?” Solaf demanded angrily as she glowered at the other boys in search of an answer.
“Is he dead?” Rahaf asked a little ways away. The girls had instinctively moved away from the group when William exploded but were now moving closer since the danger seemed to have past.
Most of them rolled their eyes. “Typical Rahaf.” Araby muttered.
“Yeah, she’s got her priorities straight.” Faris mumbled in agreement. Rahaf smiled weakly and shrugged in response.
“Is anyone hurt?” Solaf asked, ignoring Rahaf momentarily to help Eyad back up.
Eyad scoffed. “Aside from William, no not much.” He then held a hand to his stomach and winced slightly.
Faris groaned as he sat in a nearby chair. “I can’t feel my back.”
Wasay put a hand on William’s forehead before gasping in surprise and moving his hand to feel William’s throat. “Guys he’s hot!” he exclaimed.
The guys all laughed together at the absurd statement. “Wasay now is not the time for this!” Nurhan scolded finally getting over the shock at the brief but explosive encounter.
“Yeah seriously!” Rana added. “You just knocked a guy out! This isn’t some joke.”
Faris shrugged, “He started it.”
“Better him than us.” Eyad added.
“And he’s still awake.” Hamza pointed out.
“Guys he has a high fever!” Wasay interrupted urgently.
The group sobered up instantly even as Nurhan made her way over to the groggy boy with a hand towel and some ice cold water to try and help him. Araby moved a little closer to Nurhan to ensure that if William struck, he could quickly get Nurhan out of there.
“Riham do you have some painkillers?” Nurhan asked after placing the cold towel on William’s head.
“I think I do. One minute, let me check.” She answered quickly before rummaging through her bag. “Here. Will this do?” Riham asked as she tossed the bottle to Nurhan.
Not being particularly skilled at catching, Nurhan would have dropped the bottle if not for Araby snatching it out of the air and handing it to her. Nurhan smiled in appreciation at the boy with a mane before getting back to work.
“Get… away… from me.” William hissed out slowly as he began to move.
Araby didn’t need being told twice and immediately hauled Nurhan away from his delirious friend.
“William it’s okay. It’s us, your friends.” Hamza tried reassuring the dangerous boy, even as he glared at Declan blaming the taller boy.
William felt like he was floating. He couldn’t feel the rest of his body and he felt like he was in a tranquil state all of a sudden. Images were flashing before his eyes even as sound around him was muted. He could barely identify the blurs in front of him as his friends. He just wanted them to leave him alone for a while, and to forget what happened. Hopefully they would forgive him. Unfortunately the words came out differently, and those words would change everything.
Out of nowhere a glowing white orb of light appeared above William’s head and the group of friends took a collective step back in alarm.
“I wish… you guys would just all leave me alone… and forget everything.” William said slowly.
The group of friends all stared at each other disbelievingly, but their horror grew when a deep, baritone voice spoke loudly from the orb of light.
“If that is your wish.”
The room suddenly lit up in a flash of impossibly bright light, and the next second all the twelve present in the room were nowhere to be seen.
The only witness to this event was a mesmerized classmate of the group who had opened the door just in time to watch twelve people disappear into a flash of light. Nobody would believe Bessee.