George Hum
Monday, May 10th—
I'm looking through my closet to see what I should wear today. I have extra time this morning so I didn't pick out my clothes the day before. My motto will always be that if I have time to do something later, I will do it later and use my current time for my convenience. That is, I used it to sleep.
I only have long sleeve clothes in my closet. I don't wear short sleeves in the summer or ever actually. I just don't like showing off my arms.
When I go out to make myself some cereal, Matthew's in his room and Roy's by the balcony. He always takes the balcony. I wonder why.
"What do you think will happen today?" I ask Roy as I walk over to him with my bowl of cereal. I'll be eating my breakfast here today.
"Probably something dumb," Roy says.
"Did you forget that Mr. A told us to come to school in the second period?" I ask.
"He said that?" Roy asks indifferently. Well, I guess it wasn't important enough for Roy to remember any of Mr. A's words.
"I'm excited. It feels like a surprise," I say. Or we could be in trouble or something, but that usually calls for a detention.
"What is so exciting about that? If they say no school for life, it'll be exciting," Roy says sarcastically.
"Your mom would love that," I say. I wonder how she's going to react to Roy's grades. If my predictions are right, his participation during class should be somewhere around the zeros, which isn't good if you ask me.
"I can always burn up those letters," Roy says. "Throw them into someone else's locker."
"Bruh," I say. Roy takes school way too loosely.
"Morning," Matthew says, joining us. It looks like he has already eaten in his bedroom because he's empty handed right now.
"I want to go back to bed," he says. "I should've finished my work yesterday night instead."
"You have homework left to do?" I ask. "We barely get homework nowadays."
"Oh, yeah, I have separate work," Matthew says. "Boring as hell."
"But you always do them with this sour face,"Roy says. "It's like you have to do it and you don't want to do it."
True. Matthew always complains about his work, but still does it. I've never met anyone like that.usually, it's if you do the work or you don't, not you do the work and complain at the same time.
"Well, someone has to do it," Matthew says, yawning. "It doesn't make a difference who does."
In half an hour's time, the three of us are out the door, ready to head to school. When we enter the hall, the dozens of people there let off party poppers and color strimmers fall on our heads. They all start clapping and smiling at us like we're some sort of celebrity.
"Are these people all sick today?" Roy asks. "Like stung by a new type of bees or something?"
"Maybe they've gone mad," Matthew says.
"Or they're all under mind control or something?" I say, thinking of the worse. Also, where's Emma and Selena?
"Morning kiddos," a voice says from behind me. I turn around to see Emma and Selena at the door, watching us with confused expressions.
"Did you guys fall into the dumpster or something?" Emma asks. "And forgot to clean yourselves up?"
"This way, please!" Aaron's voice says before we can answer. He leads up to the auditorium where we get shooed up on stage. This place is also packed with students and some of them look just as puzzled as we do.
The five of us stand on stage awkwardly. I am blushing so much. Why are we standing here for?
I squint my eyes and notice teachers standing throughout the auditorium as well.
"Thank you for coming here today, students and staff of Dawns High," a familiar voice says behind us.
I turn around to see Mr. A coming out from one of the side curtains. He looks happy today, kind of weird.
"Today we are celebrating five brave souls who stopped a near world catastrophe." Mr. A says. Oooohhh! So we're being rewarded for stopping the mass production of the bees? Phew! I thought we were in danger for a second. They could have informed us earlier.
"Are we supposed to smile?" I ask Selena who is closest to me. She doesn't respond. She seems to be in too much shock to say anything. I think she's frozen.
I decide to smile nevertheless because there are cameras everywhere and I want a good shot.
"Please settle down everyone," Mr. A says. "For I will explain the situation." So we don't have to talk right?
"Throughout the last few months, there have been frequent accidents with a bunch of bees new to Dawns. Any people were hospitalized and these five students here today did something exceptional. They got rid of the bees, not just in Dawns, but they prevented the spread of the bees to other major cities as well, allowing humanity to escape a narrow war."
People start to cheer and I realize there are reporters here. Well, I suppose it's normal for reporters to show up to these events.
"Upon the MCC and the Dawns city government, I am proud to award my five freshhmen with the Peace Award," Mr. A says. We're getting the Peace Award? That's like something nobody ever gets! It usually takes something very big and special for you to get this. I guess stopping the bees was a big deal.
"This is is Matthew Lin," Mr. A announces as he passes Matthew a medal. The rest of us scoot over a little to give them space for pictures.
"Next, we have Emma Chen," Mr. A says and they stand next to each other for photos. Matthew and Emma both don't look ready for this. I mean, none of us are.
"Roy McCarthy!" Mr. A says after being done with Emma. The way he said Roy's name sent chills down my spine. I don't know why, but it sounds very uncertain.
"Selena Jal!" Mr. A says before moving on to the last person, which is me.
"George Hum!" My body is rigid as Mr. A comes near me and hands me my medal. I grasp onto it tight so it won't tall down. I try to give my regular professional smile and I hope it wasn't too big.
After Mr. A leaves me, the five of us were asked to come together for a group picture and we do. Mr. A tells us to stand on the stage for a few more moments when someone from the crowd shouts, "That's my girlfriend!"
Since there are only two girls on stage and Emma doesn't have a boyfriend yet, it was probably Brandon who screamed. I try my best not to hate him, but when Selena's under all this pressure, is there a need to make it worse?
The crowd settles down after a while and Mr. A allows time for questions. The reporters and students took turns to ask. Some were good, some were dumb.
"How were you guys able to fight 20 attackers at once?" A man from far away asks.
"We are just strong enough," I say. Roy and Selena don't seem like they're going to talk much.
"How badly injured were you guys?" a student in the seats asks.
"A few bones here and there, nothing too bad," Matthew says. The crowd flinches and I don't see why. Isn't breaking bones normal when you're fighting? I see tons of kids at the nurse everyday to get their bones healed. It hurts, but that's just part of the process of becoming a better fighter. you can't escape injuries.
"Did you guys find out who the attackers are?" another reporter asks.
"The MCC needs further investigation on that, but these people were working for an organization called JEM," Mr. A answer. Looks like we can't give away that information.
"Are these the so-called Royals of the school?" A person shouts. Probably one of the reporters.
"We are not the Royals," Roy surprisingly decides to answer. "They are down there." The points to the only decorative seats at the front of the auditorium and suddenly, all the reporters' attention were on the Royals. So they were just here for them.
Oh well, I couldn't really have expected more. However, I am a little disappointed because first of all, the Royals did nothing, okay, maybe Aaron, but that's about it. Also, the Royals aren't as cool as they sound. Kelsie and Zachary always abuse their powers and that's mean. What's worse is that there are so many people who can't do anything about it because the Royals are powerful. The teachers won't interfere because the Royals is a student run organization and unless something tragic happened, the teachers can't interfere. And yes, I did have to research the Royals to know about this.
"Can we leave now?" Emma says to Mr. A.
"Ahem, everybody, this concludes our celebration today and we will have a feast at dinner to celebrate it. Thank you very much." With a last round of applause, the five of us exit the stage. Instead of walking all the way across the auditorium to get to the door, we use the staircase by the stage to go somewhere else in the school.
"That old man never said anything about this!" Roy says. He seems more mad than nervous. I mean, Roy does like acting so he must not have stage fright. I probably do too and Selena looks like she's just come out of the desert. Matthew and Emma, on the other hand, look completely chillaxed.
"How are you two still fine?" I ask. "Wasn't that scary?"
"This is just like any other award ceremony. What's there to be scared about?" Emma says. She makes it sound like they're in the public spotlight all the time. Are they?
"Well, it would've been a lot nicer if he'd inform us earlier," Selena says. "That was so scary!"
"You get scared too easily," Roy says. "How are you gonna live life like this?"
"But still," Selena says. "I might have—"
"Save this for later. We've got class to head to. We're going to the fields today." The field was repaired last week. People just filled the cracks on the ground with soil. I have to admit, I did not expect Emma and Matthew to be strong enough to put so many holes on the ground.
Lily and Ben are teaching together now since the classes are being combined.
"Today, you guys will be pairing up with students from other classes to get to know them better," Lily says once every student has arrived. "Go!"
I look around for a partner, butler surrounded by many girls and boys from the other class instead, mostly girls though.
"Can I be your partner, George?"
"No, get away, I want to be his partner"
"Pick me, George!"
My head gets dizzy as I look around the people crowding around me. Thank goodness I'm taller than all of them or else I'll drown in them.
"Um, how about about?" I point to the boy further East away who doesn't look any bit interested.
"Me?" he asks.
"Yeah, want to be partners?" I ask.
"Alright." We move to a larger spot, leaving all the disappointed fans behind. I see all my friends are having the same troubles. hopefully they can solve it soon.
"So you're the famous George Hum who saved the world with his friends?" the guy asks.
"Y-yeah?" I answer. I don't want to sound like I'm bragging, but what we did was pretty awesome if you think about it. "What's your name?"
"Leo Wood," he says. It was a right decision to pick him, right? I hope he's not some mean guy, please.
"Hi, um, Leo, it's nice to meet you," I say. "Let's get started okay?"
"Sure," he says. We both activate our abilities and start attacking each other. I start freezing his legs, but he sends missiles at me. That's his ability? I should've frozen his hand first then.
Instead, I freeze the missiles coming in my direction and destroy them. He's pretty good.
I then get near him and we start closed hand combat. I block his punches with my leg and hit him back. We go on and off like that until Ben tells us to stop.
"You're pretty good," I admit. Why isn't he in class A?
"Thanks," he says. "You're not bad yourself." I think Leo's a bit weaker than me because I'm able to overpower him. I suppose he's around Selena or Grabriella's level.
Someone then growls next to me and I turn around. To my absolute horror, I see Roy standing there, face sulken, looking like a ghost.
"What happened to you man?" I ask.
"I don't understand why we need to collaborate with other people," he says. "They don't even fight. they just stood there admiring your every move." I think I know what Roy is talking about. He's probably grossed out with the people. Oh well, life is life. At least it's not permanent.
"Listen up everyone!" Lily says. "Me and Ben have some important announcements to make." All of us gather and sit down on the ground by the two teachers.
"Since the school year will be coming to an end soon, there will be finals a week prior to the last day," Ben says. Isn't school ending in two months? This is a bit early for finals, don't you think?
"However, this will not be your regular finals," Lily says. "You guys will go through an obstacle course and you will be graded based on that. Normally, for the upper grades, we will have the students go on missions around Dawns or the school, but since you guys are freshmen, you'll have it easy."
An obstacle course? that sounds like fun!
"Are you excited for it?" I ask Roy. "Eh, never mind." His face tells me that he completely hates this idea. I guess that's how you know Roy is still sane.
"What will the obstacle course be like?" Grabriella asks.
"It'll be placed on this field," Ben answers. "It'll have a lot of components on it. Like the one you guys did in the beginning of the year, but harder. There'll be running, escaping traps, avoiding traps, speed test, strength test, basically something to set you guys up for failure."
That sounds, um, very promising, I guess.
"Can we use our abilities?" someone from the other class asks.
"Sure you can," Lily says. "This course will be much harder and you guys will need the most help you can get. The obstacle course will involve everything we've learned throughout the school year and every task we've assigned to you guys."
I start to panic. What if I forgot something? I hope I do well on this test. It's the only grade for this class, which I do not agree with, but if I fail this, I fail a very important class. My class for next year also depends on it.
"Okay, with that being said, to make sure none of you guys fail miserably," Ben says. "We'll be reviewing everything we've taught you guys. I don't agree with having to do a review because you guys should already have everything noted in your tiny brains, but Mr. A says we have to and so we will."
Sometimes I wonder how good Ben was in school. According to all the times he bragged, he must have done very well. But I don't think anyone is that good in school. Emma, Matthew, and Roy are only a few levels apart from Ben and it either means Ben only grew three levels all this time, or he is completely lying. What's there to be ashamed about with being weak during your school years? nobody starts off at level 20.
"Now, give me 20 laps around the field!" Lily shouts as she blows her whistle. All of us get running right away in case Ben decides to hold us back and give us triple the work. I might not be the best, but I never want to be the last!