Chapter 16
"Come on guys, we are going to miss it!" I exclaimed, running towards the destination that my friends and I were going to.
"Slow down, Lizzy!" William yelled, trying to catch up to me. "It is not going to happen for another ten minutes!"
"We have to get there early so that we can have a spot to see the meteor shower! I want all of us to have a good view of it." I suddenly stopped and turned around, seeing only William behind me. "Where is everyone else?"
"How can anyone keep up with you at the speed that you were going?" my friend asked, panting heavily from all the running that he did. "Last time I saw them, they were back at the bridge."
"All the way back there?! They are not going to make it at this rate!"
"Well, they still will get there, but you are just way too fast for them." I stuck my tongue out at him and started to run again, not caring about that. There was no way I was going to miss this, not tonight! It is so rare to see meteor showers around here in Yuina. I waited for this event for weeks, and now it was finally here! My friends, classmates, and family are going to a lookout where we can see the meteor shower up close. But some of my buddies have an idea of going up to the rooftops to see the shower because we know that a lot of people would want to get close to the meteor shower. The point is to see it take place, and there was no way that most of us would get near to it, thanks to the people living in the sector has the privilege and the other people from Sector One or Two would have opportunities too to get close to the meteor shower. So, we thought of the great idea of climbing rooftops to see it without anyone distracting us or getting in our way. It was a perfect idea! I ran towards one of the many piers, but there were tons of people there already.
"There are already people here," I said to myself, pouting. "I knew we should have gotten here earlier." William got to my side and exclaimed,
"Wow, look at all the people! They really want to get a good view of this meteor shower."
"That is why I kept telling you guys that we needed to get here early!"
"Relax, Liz. That is why we are going up on the rooftops to watch the phenomenon."
"But what about our friends that do not know how to climb up on roofs easily? They will not be able to see it too well!"
"It is up in the sky! I am sure that they will still see it." When William said that, I saw some of our friends making their way towards us. I think one of them heard what he had said because Melody asked,
"If everyone is going to see it in Yuina, they why are we all the way out here?"
"We got tall buildings that block our view, Mel," I explained, taking a glance at one of those buildings. "By being in the Sector that closest to the meteor shower, we can avoid most of that havoc of trying to see it in our home sector."
"Okay, but there are tons of people here!" Aaliyah noted. "It is going to feel way too crowded for my tastes."
"That is why we have a plan!" I proclaimed with a grin. "We just need to figure out where we could go to implement that plan!"
"Where? Wait, you do not mean..." I gave Aaliyah a cheeky grin, which would indicate that she knew what I had in mind. "You better not get caught by the police!"
"We'll try not to," William said with a smile.
"Wait, how many of you are going to do this?!" Aaliyah demanded.
"W-Well," I stuttered. "There's me, Will, Mel, Keiza might do it, Summer and Jewel said that they would give it a try, my brothers would too, and I invited my protégé to join us too. You can come along too if you want." My friend crossed her arms and said,
"There is no way that I am joining you in something that bizarre and crazy, no offense Lizzy."
"Do not worry about it, I just wanted to offer it to you. Anyway, as soon as our friends are all here, we should figure out which roof that we should invade so that we can see the meteor shower."
"I cannot wait!" Melody grinned. "It is going to be so much fun!" Aaliyah just smiled, rolling her eyes lightly. I knew that she would not try this, but it did not hurt to invite her along. My friends and I waited for only a few minutes before everyone that wanted to hit the rooftops was there. Then we went out to search for a suitable roof that would be perfect for all of us.
"Are you sure that this is safe?" Reneeka asked me searching with the rest of us. "I mean, these are other people's rooftops that we are going on. Why don't we just ask them if we can go on their roofs for the meteor shower?" I thought about that for a moment and then said,
"There is a good chance that they will say no, so just sneaking up there for an hour or so would not hurt them. We are not going in the buildings either, just on the roof! So, I think that is safe to do this without many people knowing it!" My protégé furrowed her eyebrows in confusion while I just laughed at her expression. "Do not worry about it. If anything goes wrong, we will blame Will for it!"
"I heard that!" William said from afar. I gave him a silly grin as he was searching for a rooftop that no one else was on. We were not exploring rooftops by going up there ourselves though. What we did was a survey from below the individual buildings to see if anyone was up there already. Every few buildings or so we would quickly have to scale up the building to look for ourselves. But finally, we found a building that no one else was on top of that was near the shoreline of the sea. So, most of us began to climb up the building. However, I did not yet, and neither did Reneeka. She had no idea how to climb up tall buildings like we do, and I could understand that. I pretty much taught my friends how to do it after my Sector Seven buddies showed me how it was done.
"Okay, how am I going to get up that thing?!" Reneeka said aloud, staring at everyone that was already up on the roof.
"Well, there are a few ways that you can," I explained. "One way is that you can get a ride up there through Summer, Jewel, or Keiza."
"I am not a huge fan of heights..."
"Then you could have Ryan or Will teach you how to get up there, but I would suggest not to look down if you are afraid of heights." I glanced at Reneeka, and she had an uncomfortable look on her face. I began to think of another alternative to how she could get up on the rooftop. The ideas that I was coming up with did not meet what Reneeka had in mind. Then she said something abruptly.
"I wish I could just teleport up there," she said with a sigh. When she proclaimed that, an idea struck my head like lightning!
"We can, my little protégé!" I grinned with a wink. "I think I know of a way that can get the both of us up there easily." Reneeka turned to me with a confused look on her face. I was about to say something, but I completely forgot that I did not tell her of my magic powers. How would she think of me after I tell her? I managed to keep my abilities from the lower classmen at my school ever since my junior year started, but my idea would bring that all into the light. I quickly thought of other ways that we could get up the building. I sighed to myself, thinking of no other option.
"Uh, you okay?" my friend asked me. I cleared my throat and replied,
"Yeah, I am fine. However, my idea is a little crazy."
"Well, from hanging out with you, I can expect nothing less of crazy. So, let's do it." Wow, she was all for it! I cracked my knuckles and held my hands out in front of me.
"You should probably stand behind me, Reneeka," I said in a firm voice. "This may be dangerous." She did as I said and then my hands began to glow yellow. "Now, this should be fairly easy to do. It will only take a few seconds to-" Before I finished my sentence, a yellow circle stood in front of me that was about my height. The circle began to swirl around and inside it was the rooftop with everyone in it. "Hi, everyone!" I exclaimed. Everyone in the circle gasped, and I was pretty sure Ryan screamed.
"Do not scare us like that!" Jarod yelled, grabbing a few chips from a bag that James had in his hands. "You could have thrown us off this roof."
"Sorry, I just wanted to try this! When did you, Bryan, and James get here, Big Brother?"
"A few minutes ago, but that is nothing to be concerned about. Your friend is the one that you should be more worried about." I turned to Reneeka, and her mouth dropped in shock.
"How did you do that?!" she gasped. "That should not happen normally."
"Well, I am not a normal person," I said with a nervous chuckle. "I will explain as soon as we get to the rooftop. Now, let's go in!" I took Reneeka's hand and together we went into the portal in which we got to the roof. I then snapped my fingers, and the entrance disappeared from plain sight.
"Another job well done, Liz!" Melody exclaimed, clapping for me. I did a little bow and said,
"Thank you, thank you! I will be here all week!"
"Okay, what is going on?" Reneeka asked everyone. "Why are you all not freaking out because of what Lizzy did?"
"That is because it is a normal occurrence in the daily life of Lizzy," Jarod explained. "We all know that she has magic powers!"
"Magic powers? Like, the real deal magic powers?! But that should not be possible!"
"My violin protégé, I am the embodiment of what can be impossible," I said with a twinkle in my eye. "I have had these powers ever since I can remember. Many of us have powers too." Reneeka gave me a funny look, not believing that my friends have powers too. "I guess you do not believe me. That's okay, I will show you! Jewel, do the thing!" Jewel grinned happily and made fire appear from her hands.
"Fire!" Jewel screamed with enthusiasm. "There is so much fire!"
"Yeah and it is going to burn down the building," Bryan said in worry.
"I got this, guys," Keiza sighed. She got out a water bottle, opened it, and made the water flow to her fingertips, gathering all the liquid into her hand. She then put the water on Jewel's hands and said, "That is enough, Jewel."
"Aww, but fire!" Jewel said with a pout.
"Fire is going to make everything burn around us, and then people will get very upset. So, take it easy from the fire hands, ok?"
"Oh okay." Keiza moved her hands away from Jewel's, and there was no more fire on Jewel's fingertips.
"What the heck?!" Reneeka yelled. "Does everyone have powers?!"
"Not all of us," I said with a chuckle. "But some of us do, although I still question one person's powers."
"Jinxing people is not a superpower!" Bryan exclaimed. "It is just something I am good at."
"Yeah, you are good at predicting things. You know how weird it is to tell people that you have this kind of power?"
"It is not my fault that I have this power! I just somehow have it."
"Jinxing things is a power?" Reneeka said.
"We are no idea if it is or not," Jarod admitted. "But we like to say that it is a power."
"I still cannot believe that you guys have powers. I thought it was only the people from Sector Seven that have these crazy powers!"
"Where do you think I am from, protégé?" I proclaimed with a giggle. "I told you that I had these powers for forever, right?" Everyone in Sector Seven knows that they have had powers ever since they were born, but the other sectors have no clue that some people have powers too." I think my protégé gave me the most shocked look of the night. I do not normally tell people that I am originally from Sector Seven because of my fear of others making fun of me, but at that moment, I felt like she deserved to know more about me. After all, I took it upon myself to turn Reneeka into an awesome violinist, hopefully, to do better than I could when the time comes. "It is going to take a while to explain," I began, "but it will make sense when the story is all done."
"Is it a long story?" Renneka asked with crossed arms. I could not tell if she was angry at me or curious as to why I hid it from her. I shrugged off the uneasy feeling I had in my stomach and plainly said,
"Oh, it is a long story, longer than you may think."
"But let us focus on that later!" Jarod announced, looking at his watch. "I think the meteor shower is going to start soon." We all immediately looked up at the sky, to see if we could catch the first glimpses of the event that we have all been waiting for. Then we saw it, the first light that streamed across the sky. It was brighter than any star I have seen in my life, even when I could look at the stars so clearly in Sector Seven. It was breathtaking to see quite a sight.
"Now, that is pretty amazing," James said as we all stared at the night sky. "But I can think of one more thing that can be more amazing than this."
"Really, what?" Keiza asked him curiously. I knew what he was thinking, but I got confirmation when he stared at her. That boy loved her more than the meteor shower, and that is to be expected when it is coming from James.
"Aww!" I yelled with a slight tease. James gave me a small glare, which I reacted with a cheeky smile. This was probably one of the best things about having an older brother, teasing him. Everyone else figured out what James meant and gave him a few teases too, which made me proud. Mission accomplished!
"Wow, you guys are terrible," Reneeka stated after our teasing remarks to James.
"But, of course!" Summer grinned. "We like to tease our friends and have not teased James in a while. Thank you for reminding us to do it, Lizzy."
"You are welcome!" I said proudly, still gazing at the meteors pouring down in the sky. Twinkling in the now bright sky, it was something that I did not want to miss. To think that so many of these meteors fell into our sky and that we can see them twinkle brightly, it was too cool! I sighed in happiness, dreamily thinking of what it could be like to be up in the stars. Jarod broke me out of my daydream by saying,
"Sis, are you okay?" I snapped out of my thoughts and exclaimed,
"I am okay, Big Brother! I was just thinking."
"What are you thinking about?"
"I am thinking about how cool it would be to be up in the stars!"
"The stars?" Reneeka repeated curiously. "You want to be up there in the stars?"
"Yeah!" I replied with a grin. "How cool would it be to be among the stars and shine so brightly? I want to try to do that!"
"Okay I am going, to be honest with you: there is no way that anyone can reach the stars!"
"Then I will be the first!" I ran to the edge of the rooftop and pointed up to the meteors raining down. "I am going to go up there and reach the stars! You guys just see I will get there!"
"By music or by duels?" William asked me. I was about to say something about that, but I decided not to. Ever since that duel I had in New Domino City, I have stepped back from the dueling spotlight and promised myself that I would duel for fun. Luckily, the Duel Monsters craze has died down, and my brother and I have not had any tournaments to go to. Thank goodness for that because I think I needed a break from all the dueling commotion for a bit. Now I focused in on music, whether it would be my violin or vocals. Sooner or later, I will get back into dueling competitively again with my Duel Monster friends after I can look forward again. I still talk to them, and they are still my close buddies. Just because my competitive days are over, does not mean I do not spend time with my card friends. But now that I focused more on my music, does that mean I have given up on dueling? That was the dark question I have been asking myself ever since I recovered. I do not want to say that I have and that I still believed in it. However, could I say that I am not the same person as I was when I dueled? Is it okay to say that now among my friends and the stars?
"I-It is hard to say," I admitted bashfully. "I think that both can reach up to the sky, but I cannot figure out how I did it with dueling without looking back...I mean, it has been forever since I dueled competitively before me being in New Domino City. Now I feel like I am just a violinist. Is that strange to say?"
"That is not a strange thing to admit," James said. "I am sure that you will get back to it again. The stars shine the brightest at night, Lizzy."
"Yeah!" Jewel agreed. "Who cares if you had a setback? All people of legend get back on their feet after a big fall, like in those novels that you read."
"Hmm, I guess that is true," I said, thinking about it for a bit. I still stared up at the stars, being absorbed by the atmosphere of awe and wonder that they were giving me. "Will I be able to reach?" I thought. "I hope that I do."
That was one of the best memory dreams I have received as of now! That meteor shower was absolutely stunning and pretty! Just being there with all of my friends made it even more memorable. At the start of the dream, some of my friends and I were trying to find a right spot to watch the meteor shower since lots of people were at the site where they can see it the clearest. I forgot what sector it was in that was the clearest, but it looked pretty difficult to find a rooftop to climb up. Then, at last, we found one! Most of us climbed up that rooftop quickly, except for Reneeka and I. My poor friend was afraid of heights, so I had to figure out what I could do to get her up to the rooftop. Fortunately, she suggested that we teleport up to the top and I used that idea to make a portal.
From the memory-dream itself, it seemed like that it was her first time seeing my powers. She freaked out, I know it. I could tell by those staring eyes of hers! When we got through the portal, she demanded how I was able to do it. I plainly said that I had powers, and then Jewel and Keiza showed off their elemental powers to Reneeka. I do not think we got too thick in the subject because my brother announced that the meteor shower was going to begin.
Man, the meteor shower was that a sight to see! It looked like a bunch of shooting stars raining down in front of us, telling us to make tons of wishes. I wonder if I did make any requests on that starry night. Anyway, I was also hit with the hard question about me reaching to the stars. It seemed like I was passionate at arriving in the skies. However, I could not tell at the time if dueling would help me do that. I can understand that though because I had the duel with Yusei beforehand. If I did not duel competitively, then I just dueled for fun. But is that actually fun and the safest route for me to go on? Could I have wanted a challenge or two every so often? Could I have wanted a challenge back then? Probably not but now, I kind of want to. It has been two months since my accident that got me this amnesia. Have I grown from this experience?
Lizzy put down her pencil and thought of the question she asked herself. "Have I grown from my amnesia experience?" she pondered. "Have I learned anything about myself?" She began to write again.
I do not know if I have grown from all of this. I still kind of question why this all happened, why me relearning about myself is so important to know? I could have just started from scratch and picked up the pieces as I went on in life. But there has to be a reason, there must be!
"Liz, your protégé is here!" Jarod called out from outside of Lizzy's bedroom. The girl quickly put down her pencil and journal, exclaiming,
"I am coming!" She raced out of her room and zoomed down the staircase, opening the front door after stepping off the last step. There stood Reneeka, a fair-skinned, green-eyed girl with curled up brown hair that was tied into a ponytail. "Hi, buddy!" Lizzy grinned. "Come on in! Have you been to the house before?"
"Yeah, plenty of times," Reneeka replied, taking off her sneakers at the door.
"Oh, really? Sorry, this whole amnesia thing is making it hard to remember the big things in life. Although I slowly remember stuff, which makes me content."
"Just content? Well, okay then."
"Yeah! I mean, I could have started with just a clean state, but here I am having memory dreams!" Lizzy stepped away from Reneeka and began to wander around the area.
"How many memory dreams have you had so far?" Reneeka asked curiously after she took off her shoes. Lizzy pondered for a moment and then started to count on her fingers.
"I think I have had sixteen memory dreams so far," she stated. "I need to check my memory journal to be sure of that."
"Wow, that is a lot of dreams. You must have had a lot of important things happen in your life." Lizzy looked over at Reneeka and was surprised at her comment.
"Important things?" Lizzy repeated. "Well, they do seem important, but the question is what they are all leading me to."
"They are probably leading you to the exact point in time when you lost your memory," Reneeka said with a shrug. "I do not know what else it would be leading you too! It is kind of common sense."
"So, it is leading me to the accident. I wonder when that is concerning the last memory dream I had."
"What was it about?"
"That one time when we all looked at the big meteor shower."
"Oh, I remember that! You were so adamant on reaching out to the sky and bringing people with you." Lizzy furrowed her eyebrows. She did not remember the last part of what Reneeka said.
"I said that?" the amnesiac questioned. "The part about bringing people up there too?"
"Yup! You did not think it was fair that just you should be able to reach the stars. So, you decided to have everyone else get to that point too and help them get there, like me! You have helped me reach higher than I ever could on my own."
"Wow, I was pretty cool if I was able to do that."
"You were, and still are cool." Reneeka patted Lizzy's back with a smile on her face. "It had a lot to do with your musical ability, by the way. With music, you would reach out to your audiences and make a big impact on them."
"But what about my dueling?" Lizzy asked curiously.
"Your dueling? Well right before your accident, you wanted to travel back to New Domino City to face off against your former opponent."
"What, I did?! Why would I do that?"
"I cannot remember exactly why, but I do know that you wanted to reach out to that person too. In that way, we can all reach the sky together, no matter if we were enemies or friends. Besides, you were starting to feel bad about your duel performance that day."
"Huh, I guess I finally got to that realization sooner than I thought. But how was I going to get back to New Domino City?"
"I do not know! I have no idea how you got there in the first place, so do not ask me for any hints."
"Huh...I guess I will have to figure it out when the time comes." Reneeka nodded and then asked,
"By the way, why did you call me to come over again?"
"Oh, that's right!" Lizzy exclaimed, clasping her hands together. "I almost forgot. Come with me, my protégé!" She began to skip along towards the living room and kitchen with Reneeka following along. "I heard that you just got done with the preliminaries for a violin competition, am I right?"
"Uh, yeah," Reneeka replied. "I did pretty well in the preliminaries this time."
"That is what I heard too! So...I decided to treat you to something cool." Lizzy grabbed a little box on top of the island table and placed it in Reneeka's hands. "Surprise! Open it up, my friend!" Lizzy's friend opened the box and inside was a small cake, a white frosted one that said "Congratulations!" on it. "I know that I was not there for the preliminary performance," Lizzy began with a smile, "so this is just a way to make it up to you. Do you like it?" Reneeka stared at the cake, then at Lizzy, and it that a few times. She could not believe that she got a mini cake.
"B-But I did not deserve this!" Lizzy's protégé said. "All I did was try the best that I could. I do not think that it is deserving of a cake."
"Of course, it does! Doing your best is the greatest thing that anyone can ask for. So, I am rewarding you for your efforts!"
"Wow, thank you..."
"You are welcome! A good mentor must reward the apprentice for a job well done, and you have done that!" Lizzy lightly slapped Reneeka's back, grinning happily. Reneeka smiled at Lizzy and hugged her tight.
"Thank you so much," she said again.
"Of course, Reneeka," Lizzy said. "You definitely deserved this."