The DT Journals

Chapter 8(Sam): A Not So Welcoming Greeting

The car ride for the most part was silent, it was really off-putting, the only people talking were me, Lee, and Matt

"Hey, Lee? You seem off today...you doing alright?" Kenneth cut our conversation short

"What do you mean?" Lee looked in the rear view mirror to look at Ken.

"You paused for some reason back there, and you seem different now, like you've changed" Lee tapped the steering wheel for a little bit

"I'm just paranoid, after all, that message I sent you represents that right?" Kenneth leaned on Lee's seat after he said that

"You have a point, but where'd you get the ring? It looks expensive!" Kenneth was looking down at Lee's right hand, it had a white-ish rose color with a few engravings, it looked cool, but kinda unfitting for him. Lee was never the type to wear jewelry, unless you count his headband.

"I got it for myself, there are shops in Eaxura you know" In a way, he dodged the question, not only that, but the timing doesn't match up, for the most part, we were all together so there was no time to buy it

"Huh, well, I guess there's no sense in pushing it any longer" Kenneth sat back down, I could tell he was still skeptical, and to be fair I was as well.

"Hey, Lee, how's the eye?" I wanted to make sure of something

"Hmm?" He turned over to me, while still looking at the road

"Back during the trials, you got hurt by one of those corruptors, Kai said it was contagious and extremely harmful, but I haven't seen it do anything to you" I looked at the eye that was infected, its purple glow was just barely brighter than it was before, it was doing something, just incredibly slowly. Even though Matt was in the turret hole at the type, he could tell something was wrong as well.

"What about when you blacked out? Anything happen?" Matt peeked down. Lee only continued tapping the steering wheel as he started to only focus on the road.

"Nothing really, just had a thought, and it wasn't a happy one either." His mood dropped, I didn't know whether to believe him or not, it was clear he was hiding something, and so I decided, if it's serious enough to warrant not telling us, then I couldn't push any further.

"Huh, alright then" Matt went back up in his turret hole, he also started tapping on the top of the car causing a rhythm with the wheel tapping. Soon I heard Kenneth tapping a part of his uniform, which caused a quieter drum-like noise. Eventually, Lee also began to hum, it was like a little improv band, it sounded a bit off sure, but it felt great knowing none of us forgot our roots. I started to play along as well, closing and opening the glove box while slamming my hand against the car door, soon everyone found some unique noise to make.

After a few minutes, we arrived at New Min and everyone stopped making noise

"Heha" Kenneth both, sounded, and looked like he was about to laugh, and soon he did, along with everyone else laughing, even Kayla and Kyle laughed with us.

"Alright, let's get going, we don't wanna look like weird villains laughing outside New Min do we?" Lee got out of the car while trying his best to stop laughing.

"It was fun!" I got out of the car "Next time we need to do a festival in New Min and sing to everyone!" Lee jumped at that idea, not in agreement, more in fear

"In front of millions? Sam, we've never even finished a song at school"

"Exactly! Our band still needs a name, it still needs improvements and what better way to improve than to show everyone how we've grown! We'll be underdogs in music at first, then! We'll push our way to the top!" Some would call my dream childish, but hey, it's just who I am.