LIFESPRITES: Origins

Chapter 1: Alpha

It was like any other day except for the sprite crisis circulating across the city and throughout Canada, with sprites rumored to be living within human society.

As our bus was on our way to school, Anaïs and I were staring at a virtual billboard that was advertising a toothpaste commercial, when suddenly it began to glitch. In its place was a strange individual in a silicone worm costume behind a red screen. "My name is Army, and I come with an important message", said the individual. "The time has come to put an end to this discrimination. For far too long, the T.O.U. has oppressed us, tearing apart families, taking away rights, and treating us like animals in public. This has been made worse with the dreaded Sprite test embedded everywhere in our society. It's time for them to know that sprites have rights,".

The T.O.U (Tamers Of the Unknown) are an organization that specialized in tracking down supernatural, paranormal activities and miscellaneous activities out of the ordinary across Canada since the 60s. At first, many people were doubtful about the organization and thought they were wasting their time and money, up until actual sightings started  popping up across the country. Since then, they’ve been a well renowned organization trusted across the nation.

"And to all non-sprite supporters out there, I would like to say thank you for your support. Without you, this would never have been possible,". said Army. There have also been humans that have been placed in prison for supporting sprites since day one, even those forming human-sprite relationships, that resulted in half sprite offsprings. I've seen this with a single mother who was arrested at her home, while her daughter was taken in the T.O.U because she was born a half-sprite. A year ago, the woman's husband fled her and their daughter to a remote area until the chaos ended and was taken in by the T.O.U. Needless to say, the T.O.U were able to find their whereabouts and they were taken in. I keep imagining what happened to the girl and whether this was the reunion that she wanted with her father.

As we reached the school, everyone filed a straight line. Anaïs and I took a deep breath as we looked at the school signs each with different letterings. One sign saying "Eleanor Marseilles Jr. High" on the left and "Charles Dominique Sr. High" on the right. We looked around as people wearing dark suits with various stars surrounded the school yard, giving an uneasy environment. Suddenly, my phone went off. I picked up my phone to hear a familiar voice. "Hey Ray, you and Anaïs excited for the summer?" said he said. "Please Tru, who wouldn't?," I laughed. Aside Rizzie, Anaïs and I have been close friends with Tru since childhood. Though born privileged in Montreal, Quebec, his folks thought it would be best if he started from the bottom like they did in Gatineau. My assumption was the growing sprite population in Montreal.

"Sorry I couldn't join you for the end of the year ceremony," said Tru. "Ah, don't be," I teased. "at least you aced the exams, that's all that matters,". "Hey, can you give the phone to Anaïs," said Tru. "Hey, An," I called out to Anaïs, as I gave the phone to her. "H-Hi, Tru!," said Anaïs, nervously. "Hey, An," said Tru. "So, how are you doing?," asked Anaïs. " Good,"replied Tru. Another thing you need to know is that she had a huge crush on Tru since we were just kids. When we were kids, she always showed her architecture designs to Tru. He would politely compliment that they were cute, which encouraged her to improve with time.
"How are things with you and Quin?," asked Anaïs. "We're currently putting our relationship on hold," said Tru, sadly.

The problem was that Tru was dating the most popular girl in the school, Quinn Sabourin. She had also grew up in Montreal, and was signed to a fashion agency. Her career of being a fashion model and choice of partner was already decided by her folks when growing up. We didn't understand why, but I felt that because the Matteo family was well off, the Sabourin family thought that by marrying Quinn off to Tru after college, it would strengthen connections. Whenever she walks down the halls, she would constantly have Tru around everytime we're at school, like she owned him. But recently, things started to deteriorate as he started getting busy with law school. Anaïs and I felt bad for him.