Riptide Academy

Confusion

“Why are you even awake? It's like three in the mornin’!” I replied.

“It’s four thirty actually and everyone’s awake from a scary dream. We all woke up about a few seconds ago.” she told me.

I got up and shuffled my way to the dining area which was the middle of the house “What did you guys all dream about so badly it woke you up?” I questioned.

Taking a seat on the table next to Jaimie; in a chair, Charli was the first to respond, “An asteroid- the very one said to pass by.......” she leaned forward to look at the time on the microwave “Now”.

I balked “Wait? All yous dreamed about the asteroid crashing into MT Lysdren?”.

“How'd you know it crashed into the Lys-” Jaime gave a huge yawn “-dren?” she asked.

“Because she woke up from the same dream as well, didn’t you. Mount Lysdren is how your supposed to pronounce it, Jaime; how come did we all dream of this asteroid that’s passing by right now hit Lysdren?” Charli sighed, her deductions correct.

I nodded.

She stood up form leaning on the kitchen bench and grabbed a cup out of the cupboard and started making coffee, the others asked for one as well as we sat down on the lounge.

Soon Charli was slowly shuffling into the lounge room with four cups of coffee looped in her fingers. We sat in silence as we drunk and allowed our body to wake up while we pondered. The steamy warmth from my drink helped warm my hands and face from the chill of the early morning.

I took a sip of my hot chocolate and spoke, “Who’s phone just" yawn "went off?".

Charli got up to check and take her phone of charge, it was getting notifications like it was having a heart attack.

"Sorry. It's probably YouTube and other apps, you know. People, other side of the world-NO! No! It's not! You know how we all dreamed of that asteroid? Well, the fucking things coming and coming in hot! It's entering the atmosphere on fire!" she said.

We all looked at each other trying not to laugh at Charli. She wasn’t laughing this time. She was serious, something outside caught my eye.

It looked like a jet had done a streak through the night sky, but an ablaze orange glowing fireball was at the head of it and coming closer rapidly.

"Holy shit!" I breathed, rushing off the couch and to the backyard doors "That's it, that's the frickin’ Asteroid!".

With a roar gradually increasing loudly to the point it screamingly roared overhead; we all had to run inside with our ears covered. We watched it through the lounge room windows as it sped towards the mountain. And with a big explosion of rock and fire it buried itself into the mountain just before the deafening boom came; the shock wave from the collision passed over the academy and through us.

That was enough to wake people up; I think wasn't going back to sleep after that.

Lights came on like staccato melody, and the fire alarm sounded.

We all rushed to get dressed in clothes more appropriate than pyjamas; kids were already taking seats in the wet grass outside on the first part of the many ovals the complex had. We stood around with the University/ TAFE kids in a somewhat organised circle, while most chatted having no clue what happened we barely talked at all and if we did it was mostly in a tight inner-circle and very hushed.

"Okay it might have been a fluke that we all dreamt about this but there's no way that this one in a million chance of it actually hitting the mountain and us dreaming about it was a fluke!" Charli whispered.

"They'll be quick to establish rules around the mountain. From my time spent in and around the town, I've seen people hiking the mountain." I whispered.

"Yeah. It's a big hike. The public and students love taking the hard trails up, I've heard some crazy stories while I was in high school. The main path doesn't go anywhere near where it landed so they'll keep that open hopefully, but they will be quick to shut down other trails." Charli replied.

"What if-" a student walked past who had been talking with all the other groups "-if we go-"

"Teacher" Jaime hissed, cutting me off in the nick of time just as he passed by.

I recognised him as Thalindor Swiftblade the art Uni teacher.

“OKAY! OKAY! LISTEN UP EVERYONE! The police have informed me that they don’t want anyone hiking the trails tomorrow. So sorry if I ruined any planed dates! Not sorry!” after Principal Howard’s finished, she dismissed us all.

In the throngs of people, I was stopped by Howdy, “Principal Howdy? Did we do something wrong?” I asked.

“No, no. You guys are fine, but I was talking to one of the Ancient History teachers at your high school because they wanted to take some students to the crash site; they also mentioned you did Ancient History as a subject for your last two years. Meet me in my office at 10am?” Howdy said before disappearing into the crowd.

Light was slowly seeping into the horizon as we arrived back at the house.

My eyelids grew heavy, but I never slept a wink; light streamed through cracks in the shutters on my windows.
Chucking my blanket off my body I got up and changed into some clothes before heading out for breakfast.

My bun had become messy while I slept so I redid it and started making some vegemite toast before assessing everyone, they too were tired, but you could tell they’d had a good rest. As a sleepless zombie I wondered over to the table and sat down next to Jaimie; the others were out in the lounge playing the Nintendo switch on the tv or eating at the table like me.

Noticing the light outside was not as bright as I thought it was and was merely beginning to brighten, I checked the time on the microwave.
6:30am!