CURRENT.ly - Mystery Kids AU

5 - Wishing

There was no need to ask Norman the outcome of his ordeal after that day.
His grandma didn't ask. Neil didn't ask. Nor did Mitch, Salma nor Coraline.

There simply was no need to, because they knew. Oh, they knew right away.

Neil knew by the way Norman almost stormed into his front yard's walkway the next morning, skipping steps so fast he pratically skidded on the icy stone and barely avoided plopping down to the ground. Seconds later, the raven haired teen was spilling his own weight in words about what had unraveled at his home the day before. Neil had to force him to shut up in fear of Norman chocking from lack of air.

Mitch obviously would later learn the information from Neil himself, as he proudly talked about his best friend's upcoming winter trip.
As for Salma, she ended up finding out when Norman passed the history test with what he had presumed would be just a miserable B minus, yet he didn't seem too bothered. The reason why was most likely because he got his wish.

Salma had to fix her glasses, pondering. Maybe, he just wasn't bothered because he was content with the grade regardless.
Salma streched her own paper test, imagining a remarkable A looking back at her in the future.
She would never be content with a B minus.

She figured she'd ask Neil later about Norman's recent new life goal to get out of that town.

Meanwhile, Coraline simply congratulated Norman. The boy had no idea how she knew, or if she even knew it and wasn't just guessing.
Not until she passed him something else: a small paper bag, containing something relatively small and heavy inside.

"Well," she went on to explain, after spotting Norman's perplexed face " you're not acting stupid anymore, so I'm guessing you got the green card to go ahead. It's nice to see you raise your eyes out of the ground again."

"What...is this? Exactly?" He questioned her.

"Take it with you. For luck."
She left it at that, and Norman once more vouched for himself that he really shouldn't ask Coraline many questions unless he wanted to be dumbfounded for the rest of the remaining day.

Still, Norman didn't care. He really didn't. He just had to live until Saturday.
Thursday passed quickly. The stress of the test helped, as tests were often over in a blink of an eye, and the time to cram before it just never seemed long enough.

Norman would always tell himself he would study more next time.
What a stupid moron.

Friday was perhaps the worst. The snow was causing power shortages everywhere, which in turn was transforming the students into hooligans. The teachers grew frustrated when their not so neat, pristine powerpoint presentations epically failed to show up on the barely used, expensive boards, and instead opted for a shower of homework that no soul could ever hope to catch up with on time.
Norman found himself bitting his nails once more at the thought of doing homework in a foregein town.

It didn't matter either. It really didn't.

One more day. Just one more day. Tomorrow, I'm gone.

Norman was quick to pack his bag. He knew he could have been more careful with his choices, but he didn't want to bother his parents with the relentless 'will it be hot, will it be cold, will it be wet, will it be dry' questions that any sort of trip demanded.

It was exciting. And to think he could achieve a lot just an airplane and a bus trip away.
He wanted to start looking as soon as possible.

So when all was said and done, it came as a surprised that his mind would change a bit, because once Norman and his parents had stepped out of an airplane to set foot into a time consuming bus, upon entering the town he had been looking forward to so much, they all felt exhausted.