A/N: I hope you enjoy…! R&R!
Disclaimer:
I do not own Imadoki! Nowadays… the
plot..OR THE CHARACTERS I mean, I wouldn't be writing here I'd be making more anime if I were! But all the characters that you don't know? Those are ALL MINE! MWahahah!
A/N: Well actually, all of the characters here are mine! Bwahahaha! Okay I'll stop wasting your time you should go read and then REVIEW! WOOT!
When Fire Meets Ice
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"Sterling! Stephan! Hurry and help me with the couch!"
Swiping short black hair back into a spiky stance, I glanced up from my medium sized box of belongings. Uncle Mark was calling us. I sighed and heaved myself off the pavement, away from my possessions, and towards the new house.
"Stephan! Wait," Sterling cried out. His wavy black hair shook as he struggled with a heavy cardboard box saying, "Man, what's in here?"
"I don't know, but be careful; it might be the television," I replied.
Sterling is my identical twin brother. I'm younger than him by only a few minutes, but by far, I believe I'm much stronger than he.
Suddenly, Sterling yelped in pain as his finger was caught between the heavy box and the floor.
"I wish Alan was here. We really need a super strong person," he whined.
Alan was one of our three best friends; the other two were Jeremy and Blake. As neighbors, we always hung out together in Hawkstone, where we used to live, and played around with footballs, tackling and testing our strength.
But the day we left our hometown was the most heart-wrenching day of my life in the past few years.
Jeremy, Alan, Blake, Sterling, and I were the best band of all in Hawkstone. We named ourselves the Hawkstone Warriors years ago when we merged as a group in fifth grade. Jeremy, Alan, and Blake waved us goodbye on moving day.
"Please stay. Don't leave Hawkstone!" Jeremy had said to me, "It's going to kill us for the band to split up. We're also going to lose our title as the champions of music and of math!"
"Don't worry," I replied, trying to sooth the now to-be-delirious Jeremy, "We'll come back for the band, and as for math…you're smart. You can handle it."
"NOO-" Jeremy cried out. He was cut off by Alan and Blake coming up, with books in their arms.
"Sterling, Stephan," Alan told us, "Here are some books with the best sheet music around. We all have copies. Maybe we can play these in the next Hawkstone Band Championships. Remember fifth grade?"
Blake cut him off.
"Our 'The Boxer' song really got them good! The judges were so impressed! We should play one of the Eagle's songs this year."
"Why don't we play one last song before we leave?" Sterling asked, "Maybe 'Desperado' to match the mood?"
Sterling and I took our guitars and started to warm up as Jeremy, Alan, and Blake ran home to get their guitars.
A few minutes later, they came back, arms full with instruments.
As a full band, we warmed up and started to play the Eagle's song.
"Desperado," I started to sing as our guitars were played in a fluid motion, "why don't you come to your senses?"
Sterling and Jeremy started to hum their parts, as Alan and Blake started to sing the background music.
"You've been out riding fences, for so long now. Ohh, you're a hard one, but I know that you've got your reasons. These things that are pleasing you can hurt you somehow!"
The music became more and more intense, and then-
"STEPHAN!"
I broke out of my trance and cringed as Amy and Benjamin, my 15 and 18 year old cousins, screamed at me for listlessly doing nothing while they slaved exhaustingly to unpack the furniture and our belongings.
"Coming..."
After a whole day of settling down, Auntie Lydia addressed us: the four teenagers.
"Benjamin, you know the college drill now right? I've gotten you a room in the dorm. Amy, Stephan, Sterling, I have your school supplies and instructions for the week prior to school starting and for the first day of school," she said, handing Amy, my brother, and me identical white packets.
In unison, we quickly ripped open the packets and took out fliers, course descriptions, and school information.
"Whoa," breathed Amy, "They have high tech stuff here."
"Yeah..." Sterling agreed, "Hey, look at the courses they're offering!"
I opened my courses pamphlet and started to read the course descriptions aloud. After I finished, I looked around for everyone's reaction. Amy and Sterling were in pure shock, and Benjamin was storming around the room saying, "They never let US do this kind of cool stuff when I was in high school!" Auntie Lydia smiled mysteriously. I looked at her suspiciously, which made her grin even wider.
"Stephan, Sterling, Amy, I've signed you up for the placement tests!"
The room emitted with squeals and shrieks of happiness. In Hawkstone High School, I had taken AP Calculus BC, AP Chemistry B, AP Japanese C, AP History B, AP English B, and Astronomy 11. Sterling had also taken the same courses except of Astronomy 11. He had taken Advanced Debate. Amy was a year younger, and she had taken Pre Calculus, AP Biology, AP Spanish, World History, AP English, and Jazz Band.
Her next words almost startled us.
"The placement tests will be in a few days."
We quickly went to work to prepare for the tests triple time.
When the testing day finally came, Amy, Sterling, and I were very accustomed to the area around our house and the school. Anxious to take the test, we biked to the school, hair whipping into our eyes as we sped through the streets.
My bike was dark blue and black with a few scratches on the side. I had gotten it from a second hand bike store in Hawkstone years ago. In that same shop, Sterling had gotten his purple and blue bike, which he treasures. Amy just bought a red and blue bike a month ago, and it's still perfect; having no scratches at all.
As we rode our bikes, the wind blew some leaves and debris around us.
"New Firepoint is kind of nice," Sterling commented.
"Yeah…" answered Amy with a huge grin on her face.
I kept quiet. I missed Hawkstone so much! If I said I liked New Firepoint, would that mean that I had betrayed my beloved Hawkstone and the people within? I pondered on this thought for a few minutes.
Then we got close to the school grounds.
The school towered above us, a five story building with high-tech security systems. I looked around at the wonder, comparing it to Hawkstone. New Firepoint High School had many things Hawkstone lacked, including an electronic attendance system, which enabled students to swipe their ID card instead of having teachers take the time and call roll. According to the flyer, only the homeroom teacher has to take roll for undefined reasons.
Upon reaching the bike rack, I broke the silence.
"This school must really be ahead in technology to have these security things."
Things. I had no name for their security system. Just a thing.
"Yeah," replied Amy, "Aren't we supposed to get laptops or something?"
"This is going to take a lot of money."
"Sterling," I chided, "That's why I saved up money for a laptop for each of us!"
Amy looked surprised.
"Wait, for me too?"
"Yep. I have approximately five thousand saved up, so we can get the models that we want. Remember the telescope website I set up? We made a lot of money off that."
Sterling suddenly cut into our laptop conversation.
"Testing room is over here. The flyer said room 421. This must be it."
I cautiously opened the door marked 'TESTING' and peeked in. About a dozen or so other loud chatting teenagers glanced up and stared at me in unison, eyes asking silently and curiously for my explanation of the interruption.
"Is this the testing room?" I asked.
"You've got it," was the reply.
We briskly walked in and waited for the test to be handed out.
We got home a few hours after taking the test. None of the other students had tried to talk to us. Not even a "Hi. Are you new here?" or "What test are you taking?" They shunned us out and talked to their own friends.
Early on, Sterling and I had taken this as a sign to stay quiet and not talk to them, but Amy had spoken up.
"Why aren't you talking to us?" she asked.
"You mind your own business," replied a husky and football player built teenager.
Amy's eyes had begun to water as she turned towards Sterling and me and stared at us to hide her tears from the other teenagers.
A moment later, the proctor came in with a stack of tests.
"Hi," he said, "I'm Sam and…"
I zoned out.
A few minutes later, he finally handed out the tests. He then instructed us to do it as fast as we could, and we had three hours to finish the multiple tests. Personally, I thought he told us to race through it so that he could go home earlier.
"Don't cheat!" he had reminded us, and then the test begun.
I thought that the test was very simple; it asked for the easiest formulas and the more simple concepts of math and science. I decided not to ask Amy or Sterling about their tests; they seemed to be tired and I thought they wanted to be alone.
On photo and schedule pick up day, Auntie Lydia made us dress up very formally. I wore a gray suit that made me stand out against the crowd of casually dressed high school students. Several people eyed me cautiously, as if I were an alien from Mars with a suit on. I weaved through the crowd and found my brother, who was wearing a black suit, near a water fountain.
"Where were you?" I asked him.
"I was getting my schedule. Where were you?" he replied.
"I just got my picture taken. Where is the schedule booth?"
"Over there," he pointed, "I'm going to go get my picture taken, and then we can meet up with Amy and compare schedules."
I quickly walked over to the place where they handed out schedules. A young man, maybe around Benjamin's age, asked, "Last name?"
"Li Dixon."
He scratched his almost-bald head and looked confused. I wasn't surprised by his next words. "There was another Li Dixon...same hair...same eyes...are you two twins or clones…?" he trailed off.
"Twins. The other guy's my brother."
I wondered how he thought we were clones. Maybe this area is so advanced that there was cloning 16 years ago.
Leafing through his stack of schedules, he asked, "Is your name Stephan?"
"Yes."
"Here's your schedule, and good job on making those classes. Have a great time this year."
I took the schedule, said my thanks for his congratulation, and quickly left the station, looking for my brother and cousin. I spotted Amy as she finished taking her picture. With a pale gray outfit, she stood out against the other girls who were wearing the latest and more 'fashionable' clothing.
"Amy. Hey! AMY! Wait!"
She turned and flashed a huge grin at me.
"I got in!"
"Got into what...?"
"Calculus AB, AP Biology B, AP Spanish B, AP History, and AP English B!" she shrieked loudly into my ear.
"Oww, don't yell in my ear, and this is my schedule," I replied, "I haven't looked at it yet, so I don't know what classes I have."
I read my schedule silently while Amy peered over my shoulder.
PeriodRoomTeacherCourse Description
0135YowanHomeroom
1215YangAP Statistics
2533SimonsAP Chemistry C
3312YuT. A. AP Calculus BC
4144RaderAP History C
5361WilliamsonAP English C
6622CastroAstronomy 12
7424ShiAP Japanese D
8125AnnanStudents Branches
"Whoa..." I breathed, "Talk about a cool schedule!"
"You can say that again!" Amy stared at me in wonder, "You're such a genius! Oh goodie! Now you can help me on homework!"
I blushed and thanked Amy. "You're so flattering."
Suddenly, a voice broke into our joyous conversation.
"AH-HAH! I've been looking for you two!"
"Hey Sterling," Amy and I turned and greeted him in unison.
"Got your schedule?" asked my twin.
"Yeah, can I see yours?"
We exchanged schedules and I read my brother's copy:
PeriodRoomTeacherCourse Description
0145CapablancaHomeroom
1215YangAP Statistics
2533SimonsAP Chemistry C
3122MoroczyOrchestra
4144RaderAP History C
5361WilliamsonAP English C
6523KoldesmanSenior Debate
7424ShiAP Japanese D
8253De FerminStudents Branches
"We have five classes together!" I shouted joyously.
I was so excited that I didn't notice a girl behind me. Suddenly, she yelped in pain as I accidentally stepped onto her foot and turned to me.
"Watch where you're stepping!" she snapped at me.
"Sorry," I muttered and turned to leave with Amy and Sterling.
"You'd think people these days are more civilized to see where they're stepping. Look out, you never know what'll happen to you," she said menacingly.
The words clung with me as my brother and cousin walked next to me on the way home but they soon vanished and my mind was reverted to preparing for the first day of school.
The alarm clock woke me up bright and early on the first day of school. I groaned and turned over, slamming my hand onto the sleep button.
"Stephan! Wake up!"
I moaned and tried to block out the voice, but it kept at me, shrieking for me to wake up.
"You're going to be late for school!"
With a gasp, I sprang out of the bed a fell on the hard wood floor. I heard laughter above me, and I turned to glare at Amy.
"Oh! You little sleepy-head!" she shrieked with laughter.
I pulled myself up from the floor and told her to get out of my room so that I could get dressed.
"Alright," she answered. "Just hurry up. You have 15 minutes to dress, wash up, and eat breakfast."
I sighed and turned to my closet. 'What should I wear?' I pondered. After minutes of heaving through my messy closet, I chose a pair of blue jeans, my Hawkstone Warriors band shirt, and my favorite blue jacket.
I heaved my heavy backpack, which was loaded with AP books, and stomped down the stairs to find cereal, grapes, and milk ready on the table.
"Stephan, Sterling was here 20 minutes ago!" Auntie Lydia cried out. "What took you so long?"
"Sorry," I mumbled.
The first day of school wasn't starting up that well.
Sterling leered at me from behind his huge breakfast of cereal, milk, and a plateful of grapes. "You know," he said between huge mouthfuls, "you should wake up earlier. I thought you were the early bird!"
"I said I was sorry."
"What do you need to be sorry about?" he asked wickedly.
I said nothing. Instead, I scooped a few spoonfuls of cereal into my bowl and went to work munching on them. As I finished my serving, Amy stood up and told my brother and me that we should start biking to school if we wanted to get there on time. We actually listened to her.
When we got to the high school, we quickly chained our bikes to the rack. Clambering up the school steps, Sterling and I raced to the 100-wing while Amy sped off towards the 300-wing for homeroom.
"Have fun in homeroom," I whispered to Sterling, "See you second period!"
If he answered, I didn't hear him. I had already slid into my homeroom classroom.
A tall man in his late 30s occupied the desk, which I assumed was for the teacher. According to my schedule, his name is Yowan. I guess this means that Mr. Yowan will be my homeroom teacher for my junior year.
I observed the seating chart, which was sitting in the front of the room, and found that I sat in the back of the room by a few boys. As I approached my desk, they edged away from me as if I had an extremely contagious disease circulating in my system. Disgusted by their intriguing behavior, I decided not to talk to them.
Even though I was over ten minutes early, the rest of the class was already there. Some of them had laptops out, typing away in their own world.
The rest of the class seemed to cluster near a desk in the front of the room. A dark haired girl sat in the desk, chatting happily with the people around her. Suddenly, she turned and stared straight at me. She looked like she was about to tell me something, but thought better of it.
Bowing my head, I proceeded to ignore her and take out my laptop, which I quickly booted up. I had gotten a Dell model, installed Windows XP, Microsoft Office, and other applications, and programmed a full security system.
After a few minutes of setting up my computer folders and checking my email, Mr. Yowan interrupted my happiness within the computer.
"It seems like we have a new student to New Firepoint High School! I've never seen you around," he told me in a surprisingly loud voice.
Looking up from my laptop, I glanced around. The teacher was staring straight at me, and everyone's eyes had left their own laptops and followed his piercing gaze. I decided it was best to answer him.
"Yes sir."
"Very good; that's the best manners I've seen in a few years."
"Thank you, sir."
"I will take roll. It will be necessary for you students to show up on time stay for the required 15 minutes of homeroom, and then I and only I will dismiss you. You will only leave your seat if and only if I say so."
Groans emitted from various parts of the room. After Mr. Yowan took roll, he readdressed the group.
"I would like everyone to make sure they get everyone else's instant messaging screen names. Remember, we had voted on this as a school last year."
I must have looked confused, because he elaborated a little bit.
"This year, student will be talking to student during classes via instant messaging. Teachers will be teaching the students for a designated time in either messaging way or the old fashioned way, and then the students can do whatever they want for the rest of the period, whether it is homework, email, chatting, or anything else."
One by one, we stood up to receive the list of screen names, emails, and contact information of the people in our class. I quickly scanned the pages and found my brother and my names with our emails on page two.
Stephan Michael Li Andrew Li going through the rest of the class, the teacher suddenly addressed me.
"Please stand and tell the class about you," Mr. Yowan said in the most commanding voice I've heard in the past few years.
Startled, I stood up and glanced around the classroom. Nervously, I cleared my throat.
"As you probably know by now...my name is Stephan."
The class fell silent as I hesitated. Mr. Yowan waved his hand lazily, encouraging me to go on.
"My full name is Stephan Michael Li Dixon. I am Chinese and British, hence the name. Um, I used to live in the city of Hawkstone, which is located just a few miles south of here. I just moved to New Firepoint about week ago. I'm part of a band, and we call ourselves the Hawkstone Warriors. I held the title as lead singer and play first guitar, since I'm more experienced than everyone else in the band, but it's going to be more complicated to practice together now that I'm here. We usually have sessions where I just teach the rest of the band different styles and ways to perform better.
"In Hawkstone High School, I led the math team into first overall for the past 2 years, freshmen and sophomore years. We've held the best record of math scores in the state for those years.
"I'm also what they called their computer technician. I fix the computers for the teachers, my classmates, and anyone who needs help.
"My other hobbies include programming, web design, and graphic designing. I've already started to make money with my band members. I set up a website selling telescopes. We buy parts of telescopes, customize them, and reship them to customers when ready to go. We've learned how to handle finances that way."
I slowed down, but my excitement was building up. Some of my classmates were looking interested, so I went on.
"You might be wondering about this. I also have a twin brother. No, we're not clones, even though he looks exactly like me, and we enjoy the same hobbies. I don't want to go through that whole list again, but anyway, he's part of the band too. His name is Sterling, and we are called the Dixon Duo.
"I hope I'll be good friends with a number of you by the end of the school year. Umm, thank you."
A broken applause sounded in the room. Awkwardly, I took my seat. The girl sitting in the front caught my eye and gave me a slight smile.
Hmm, I thought, Maybe moving to New Firepoint wasn't going to be that bad after all.
After homeroom, I almost immediately became lost in the vast sea of students and halls. In Hawkstone, a high school and middle school combined wouldn't even make this size! I glanced down at my schedule with a sigh.
"Period 1, Yang, AP Statistics, room 215," I read out loud.
I didn't know where that classroom was. Reaching into my backpack, I felt for my map of the school.
"Need help?"
I quickly whipped around, hand still in pack. That girl who had friends gathered at her desk from homeroom. Up close, I could see her tired but kind face and excited brown eyes. I immediately jumped to the conclusion that she had gotten away from her friends for the time being.
"Yeah," I said shyly, showing her my schedule. "Can you help me find room 215?"
"Oohh! AP Statistics! I'm in that class too! Here let me take you there!"
I stared at her, surprised at how she acted on the contrary to the rest of the student body's actions to me so far.
"You're Stephan right?"
"Yeah," I answered in a quiet voice.
I studied the girl while we walked to the 200 wing. She had shoulder length dark brown hair, a small pointed nose, hazel eyes, and a tall and slightly muscular body built. I would draft her into my Hawkstone basketball team for power forward if I were the coach.
I mentally slapped myself. School is for learning, I reminded myself, not for major socialization. Stop fooling around!
My other side started to argue. You need socialization!
Our footsteps echoed in unison while the rest of the people in the hall hurried from class to class, clambering up and down the staircase and talking loudly to each other. My two sides of the brain were still loudly debating to each other as we reached room 215.
"Here we are. Mr. Nelson Yang, AP Statistics."
"Thanks."
As I looked around the cold and gray colored room and spotted Sterling, three of the girl's friends called to her.
"Gabi, come over here!"
"Where've you been?"
"Your name is Gabi?" I asked curiously.
Without speaking, she left my side and went to join her friends.
"Ah, are you Stephan?"
I whirled around. A short and young looking Asian man indicated that he talked to me. Hmm, Chinese math teacher? I thought.
"Err…yes," came my reply.
"Very good job in making it to AP Statistics," he said.
"Thank you sir."
"Please take the seat behind Ms. Lenderman," Mr. Yang told me. He then turned towards the blackboard and wrote down a few classroom guidelines.
'Ms. Lenderman,' I wondered, 'who is that?' I looked around with a confused face.
As if sensing my confusion, Mr. Yang told me, "The young lady you walked in with."
"Oh, her?" I asked, pointing
"Ms. Gabriella Lenderman, yes."
"Oh."
So her name was Gabriella, but everyone called her Gabi.
I slowly walked towards my designated desk. Gabi's friends turned when they heard my footsteps, looked at me, and went back to their conversations. I felt disgusted by their actions.
"Why can't you people just talk to me for once?" I asked angrily.
Gabi and her friends turned to me silently. Finally, one of them spoke.
"Do you think that going to a new school can just earn you friends?"
"Yes," I answered, "but now I know what you New Firepoint students are like; nothing I've ever experienced before."
"Then get used to it," was the succinct reply.
"I will make friends here!" I wanted to yell at them, but something held me back.
I remember Dad's words when I was little.
We sat in the large house with a bright fire blazing. It was a cold winter and was snowing, no, the windows were being pounded by…hail.
Dad and I were talking in front of the fire,
"Never give up your dream, Stephan," Dad told me, "No matter how hard it is, never ever give up."
From the door to the room, Mom looked at me, with a happy glitter in her eyes. Coming closer, she brought some snacks for Dad and me to munch on.
Mom and Dad are long gone now, but I still treasure their words and lessons.
Mr. Yang suddenly said, "Everyone please go to your seat and take out your materials."
I took out my laptop, as everyone else had done, and opened up Windows Messenger.
Almost immediately, a notice came up.
I read:
GABI would like to be your friend.
BlockAdd
I quickly clicked 'Add' and immediately another notice came up.
GABI has just signed in.
I smiled to myself and sent a message to Gabi. While waiting for her answer, I added the rest of my classmates from the list Mr. Yowan had given me.
After adding everyone, I finally got the long awaited message and started to talk to her.
GABI says: Hey, this is Stephan, isn't it?
Stephan says: Yeah.
GABI says: you don't talk much do you
Stephan says: nope
GABI says: LOL! I've noticed.
Stephan says: hehh…
At that point, my twin started to chat with me.
Sterling says: Heya steph
Stephan says: busy. Haha. We should actually read what the teacher's telling us.
Sterling says: Yeah. Amy's online you know.
Stephan says: all right. Thanks for telling me.
I opened up the window that Mr. Yang was teaching in and quickly checked myself in with the electronic attendance chart on the left side of the module.
All of the classroom screen names were student names and I checked in as Stephan Li Dixon.
I looked in wonder at the classroom chat board.
Nelson Yang: Class, I believe almost everyone's checked in, and if they aren't, well they already had enough time.
Gabriella Lenderman: What are we going to do today in class?
Larry Stone: Spam! Spam! Spam! hey this is fun!
Nelson Yang: Larry, stop flooding the chat box or I will boot you from the conversation. You will not receive the homework and I will not allow anyone else to help you.
I typed, "So Mr. Yang what are we going to be doing?"
Nelson Yang: As you see here, we only have a few students in this class, AP Statistics; the most gifted of all the others. We will speed through our book, and at the end of the school year have some fun!
We went on with a review of the concepts of previous courses.
After the period ended, we packed up and left for our next classes. In my opinion, the school day went by very slowly; I was ignored by everyone except for Sterling, Amy, and Gabi. Finally, Student Branches arrived; my final period of the day.
My Student Branches classroom had rectangular desks moved into L shaped positions, and on each desk sat two small packets. I weaved through the filled tables and sat next to a boy with thin blond hair about my height. I looked around the classroom. I recognized some of the students as people from my other classes.
Mr. Annan, my advisor for this student-get-to-know-each-other program, was a small but energetic man with a thin mustache and a military crew cut. Suddenly speaking, his deep voice startled me; by his body fit, I had presumed his voice was higher and squeaky.
"Welcome to Student Branches," he said warmly with a bright smile on his face.
"…" was the group's reply.
"You must be very tired so far today, right?" Mr. Annan questioned us.
"Yeah…" mumbled some members of the class.
"WELL, WE'VE GOT WORK TO DO!" the advisor barked.
The whole class stared at him, eyes wide open and mouths gaping, startled by his sudden change in friendliness. From a tired looking kind soul, he had turned into a strict military boot camp sergeant.
"We will not be using the computer method; yes, put away your laptops," he said, eyeing the laptops that were up and running, "we are going to be doing this old fashioned way! Pencil and paper!"
The class was still staring at Mr. Annan, this time, with mouths gaping in shock.
"WELL? We have to do a number of things in the next ten minutes! We're going to interview partners," he hollered, "so get to work; your partner is the person sitting next to you. Do the packet on the desks!"
We suddenly shuffled into motion, taking out pencils and pens, turning to the person beside them, and interviewing each other.
I turned to the blond boy beside me. He had a slight smirk on his small face that made me feel uneasy. I picked up my pencil and read the first question to him.
"Question one: what is your name?"
"Charles Stevenson, but my nick name is Charlie," he replied dully, "Don't tell me your name; the world is going to end next year."
"Oh," I answered, "Umm, whatever. Question two: what's the best thing you've done today?"
"Told everyone that the world is going to end next year."
I took mental note to never talk to this kid again if I didn't have to. Unfortunately, I needed to finish the packet about him.
"What are your hobbies, Charlie?"
"Don't call me Charlie; call me Charles and my hobbies include telling everyone that the world will be destroyed in 2012," he snapped.
I groaned with frustration and wrote down his answer. This is going to be such a long period, I thought.
Finally, we finished the packet and turned them in.
Mr. Annan turned to us and gave a slight smile. "Good job for finishing so fast. Are you just speedy, or is everyone really, really slow?"
I quickly walked back to my desk and took out my laptop. Quickly booting it up, I logged onto my admin account and opened up Firefox.
"Firefox?" Charlie, or Charles, looked over my shoulder. "Don't bother. The Mayans are correct."
I didn't bother to answer and proceeded to check the latest news on the Salisbury News, the latest 'hot' site.
Finally, the period ended.
"Stephan!"
I turned around. It was Amy.
"Hey Amy," I greeted her.
"How was your first day? Where's Sterling? What did you do in class?" she asked breathlessly.
Laughing, I told her to make her questions wait.
"Let's find Sterling. I wonder where he is too," I said.
"I bet he's next to his prized bike," Amy replied.
He was.
I raced Amy to Sterling and unlocked our bikes. While I twirled the combination, Sterling spoke.
"Stephan! Amy! How was the first day?" Sterling asked curiously.
I got onto my bike and didn't answer. Sighing, I gestured for us to go home.
"It's been a long day."
Upon reaching the house, Auntie Lydia greeted us with a bright smile on her face.
"Did you have a great day?" she asked excitedly.
"It was ok," said Amy.
"Hello," Sterling muttered to my aunt and declined to comment further,
I glanced down at my shoes. Without speaking, I walked upstairs and started on my homework.
"Did something happen?" I heard Auntie Lydia asked in a concerned voice.
"Just a bad day for him I guess," Amy spoke up, "I'll go talk to him."
I sighed and opened the drapes, closed the door quietly behind me, and started to do my math homework. In the background, I could hear Sterling call out to Amy as she walked up the stairs and towards my room.
"Amy, come over here. I think Stephan wants time alone."
Footsteps paused outside my room. I froze, listening for her steps to turn away from the door. Finally, Amy scampered off in the direction of my brother's voice.
Sighing, I looked around my room. My blue walls shone brightly, illuminated by the sunlight coming in through the window. Star charts, math tables, and chemistry posters displayed around my room, giving the sense of a prodigy within the walls. My bed was in the far corner of the room, with an oak structure and dark forest green covers.
With a groan at the load of my homework for the first day, I started to slave with the books and worksheets taunting me.
"Stephan! Dinner time!"
"Coming," I yelled.
Glancing at my clock, I realized that it was already six o'clock. I looked down at my work, reflecting on my work speed and realizing that I have to work faster. I had two more subjects worth of homework left.
I clambered down the stairs, taking in the smell of an exotic dinner.
As I reached the kitchen, the phone suddenly rang.
"Hello?" Amy beat both Sterling and me to the phone.
"CAN I TALK TO EITHER STERLING OR STEPHAN PLEASE?" a voice replied. The volume of the receiver was so loud that I could hear it. At Sterling's surprised look, he could, too.
"HELLO? IS ANYONE THERE?" the voice boomed again.
I froze. My eyes darted from the phone to Amy, then to Sterling and back again.
"Jeremy," I whispered.
Amy looked at me curiously. Jeremy! She mouthed.
I nodded, the first grin in the past day spreading on my tired face.
"Hang on," Amy spoke into the phone. Then she gave it to me.
"Jeremy, is that you?" I asked cautiously.
"Stephan? How are you?" Jeremy's voice came flooding into my ears. I cringed from the volume of his voice.
Puling the device away from my ear, I told him, "Stop talking so loud!"
"Sorry," he apologized, "but tell me, how's your new school?"
"It's ok," I answered, "but it's so different with you, Alan, and Blake! I miss your voices and your humor!"
"Oh," Jeremy said in reply, "come back to Hawkstone then! The school was so stunned that the Dixon Duo left!"
I fell silent. Then Jeremy's next words brought my mouth back to life.
"Want to talk to Blake?"
"Stephan, where is your mind wandering now?"
I jerked my head upward and stared, startled at the sudden voice penetrating into my thoughts and saw Amy seated at the dinner table in front of me, looking smug. Auntie Lydia and Sterling were looking at me, too.
"Uh," I answered, "Umm…in la-la-land? Sorry I was just thinking-"
"Your food is getting cold, especially after talking on the phone for an hour. What did Jeremy have to say to you anyway?" my aunt asked.
"Just a hello. Oh, and I talked to Blake and Alan, too. We decided to practice for out band performances via instant messaging. We're going to do the voice conversations and stuff like that."
"Oh," she said.
Sterling cut in. "You have two speakers and two microphones for us both?" he asked a very curious voice.
"Yes," I answered, with a sly smile on my face. "Bye the way, where is Uncle Mark?" I questioned.
"Working," was my aunt's short reply, "His new job requires a lot of time and effort."
"What is his job anyway?" Sterling asked curiously while reaching for some green beans.
"Oh, it's, well," Auntie Lydia stuttered, "A secret, I guess you can say that."
"Why?" Amy wondered.
I didn't blame her. It's her own dad and she can't know what his job is? This was becoming highly suspicious, but I changed the subject to school.
"New Firepoint has a math team! The first meeting is this Thursday after school in the Yang's classroom. Do you want to go?" I proposed to Sterling and Amy.
"Yang…isn't that your math teacher?" Amy inquired with a confused look.
"Yeah," came Sterling's reply, "and I say we do it!"
"Agreed," I laughed while Amy nodded.
"YES! I get to know your math teacher, and maybe I'll have him as a teacher next year!"
I couldn't wait for Thursday to roll by.
TO BE CONTINUED…
A/N: Dontcha love it? My lil azn faced friends obviously do! Do you? Haha… I love writing! Lets review people! Thanks a lot! Any questions or comments either put it in the review or send me a message! Woohoo!