Happy New Year!
This chapter has four POVs, so I hope you will appreciate that. Also, with this chapter, Wing And A Scare edges over the 200-page mark (55,000 words). This story will probably be around 90,000 or so, but that might change based on how I feel.
As for the question, we have got another one from Singlewave: What is the sickest you have ever been?
My answer: When I was a few months old, I had viral meningitis and a temperature of 103. I have told this story before on my Mario Party 7 playthrough of Pyramid Park, but I'll say it again. They were giving me IV antibiotics until they realized it was viral, which is far less serious. I was in the hospital for a few days. Since then, I have never had a serious health issue.
After that unhappy story, it is time for one that is less happy still. Or at least, the next chapter will be depressing.
Enjoy reading SnowLucario's first chapter of 2017!
LUCAS'S POV
It had been three days since I had been released from the hospital wing. Three long days of nothing but going from class to class, wishing desperately that I could have actually done something in one of those classes. If only Dr. Howler hadn't been so strict!
I mean, I guess that it is necessary to have a certain amount of strictness when dealing with patients, but the fact remained that this was a little bit excessive, don't you think? After the first day, the sluggish feeling was gone, replaced by a vigor for normal lessons that I was unable to satisfy.
But finally, on the morning of January 16, 201Y, I finally got out of bed with something to look forward to. My first day of classes since I'd woken up in the hospital wing. In fact, if you only count the normal classes, it was my first day since New Year's.
It was during breakfast on this morning that the unexpected happened.
I was sitting with Cole and Will (Mike was still avoiding us) when a bell rang. I recognized this as the bell that rang to announce that a new student was entering the school. This was going to be interesting.
Ever since Seventy-Four, we hadn't had any new recruits. I guess that the Cornerian Army was having a hard time finding innocent civilians from the human universe to kidnap and send to this school. I didn't know how things were doing on the warfront, but given that our mission here had been a failure, it couldn't be good.
Based on that, you would've thought that they would be recruiting like crazy, but for whatever reason there were not too many new students. That was, not until today.
There was soon a young man standing in front of us. He was wearing glasses and he had brown hair. His dark gray overcoat was over all of this, so he looked like some businessman you might see in a play set during the Victorian era.
In other words, he looked like a stereotypical nerd.
"Konstantin", Katt said, "will you please take off your coat?"
The new guy- Konstantin?- looked very reluctant to take off his jacket. However, when Katt gave him her death stare, he relented, and we all saw more of him.
He appeared to be slightly overweight, which made it no surprise that he didn't like to take off his coat. He wore an expression on his face that did not do anything to hide the fact that he very clearly did not want to be here.
This was something that I completely related to. Just last month, I had been new here. I understood how Konstantin must be feeling right now.
"Konstantin Brockenbough is from Houston, Texas, and he is our newest student. Is there anything you would like to say to our existing student body at the Grey Clouds Flight Academy?" Katt asked.
Konstantin backed down, but he was looking very angry still. I could tell that there was about to be a verbal onslaught coming out of his mouth, and we would be powerless to stop it.
"I fucking hate you guys! You were the ones who dragged me here against my will, and aren't tranquilizer darts illegal here? Because I'm only loyal to one country, the good old U.S. of A, and you guys had to steal that from me! I was going to college before you sent me here, and do you know what I have to say about that?"
"Konstantin, calm down" Katt said. "I know you're not happy to be here, but you're needed. The situation on the warfront is very bad, and I know that you like war video games?"
Konstantin nodded, but he still looked like he was ready to punch Katt where it hurt.
"Then you will be a great asset to this school. But you need to go to your table. It's right next to the guy with fluffy brown hair, with Lucas Enfield, Cole McCallen, Michael Kirk, and William Wexford. You got that?"
Konstantin nodded once again, and then he walked over in our direction. I waved at him in order to make sure he knew where to sit.
Once the new boy had sat down, our breakfast rose up. Today, it was French toast with berries.
Konstantin seemed to be resisting my attempts to converse with him, and I noticed that Mike was still conspicuously absent. What did all of these things mean? I knew that Konstantin's tirade was still a mystery as to his motivation for that, but I could assume that it was because he must have been angry at this situation.
So what was going on? That was a question I had been asking myself a lot over the last month.
After Konstantin apologized for his rant against Corneria (which I strongly suspected was not a genuine one), he, as well as the rest of us, were released to go to our first class. For me, it was very significant. I would finally get to do something!
Our first class today was Field Medicine. I had received a certain level of training in that field during our period of preparation for the mountain mission, but other than that I was well behind our class. There was no telling what might come up that everyone else would be veterans in, and yet I would still be learning the ropes.
Thankfully, the instructor was very kind today. Noting that it was my first time here in a while, she asked me to show off my blood type tattoo, which I did. Then, we began to learn how to identify edible plants, which was really more of a survival skill than a medical one, but I guess that you'll need medical care if you eat something poisonous on accident, assuming you survive long enough to get it.
Konstantin seemed to be very good at this, though, which was a little bit of a surprise. You wouldn't think that this slightly fat guy would be so skilled in field medical skills, but somehow he was able to hold his own despite being new here.
"Class, Konstantin is very skilled with identifying edible plants. That is impressive, considering you are from...Houston, is it?"
"Yeah" Konstantin said. "That's a big city".
"Oh" the instructor said, blushing. "No offense, but I imagined that you wouldn't have learned this too much if you live in a big city like that. But you seem like a natural to me. How did you learn all of that?"
"Well, I play, or rather played, a lot of survival video games that taught me these skills. Right now, I am very grateful for them".
This I could tell was genuine, even with my social skills leaving much to be desired. The instructor nodded, although she reminded us that playing video games was, in general, not the most reliable way to learn about edible plants. Sometimes, you couldn't be sure of the information it was providing you with.
The teacher seemed determined, for the rest of the lesson, to take a greater and greater liking to Konstantin. I didn't know if this was a good thing or a bad thing, but I decided that, from here on out, I would have to constantly be on my toes.
After our next class, Aquatics (which I was forced to sit out of), we moved on to lunch period, during which I tried to make some more small talk with Konstantin.
He revealed that, prior to getting abducted and sent here, he had been planning to go to college in Austin, Texas. It was during a traffic jam the previous day that he had gotten out to try to get his vehicle moving that he had come across a Cornerian tank. An owl shooting arrows had been the one to administer the tranquilizer dart.
"That'd be Mrs. Hooter, the archery teacher here" I said.
I vaguely remembered her being absent yesterday, but it honestly had not concerned me too much due to being banned from archery.
"Yes, that was the one" Konstantin said. He banged his fist on the table, saying "I hate this place" over and over again. Thankfully, he wasn't saying it too loudly, or else he would have drawn a not insignificant amount of attention to himself.
After lunch, we showed Konstantin up to his new dorm room, which was going to be the same as ours, number 37405.
"I feel like a prisoner here" Konstantin said. "This room number really is appropriate. It's like that song by Tim McGraw, Number 37405".
I remembered that song. It's about a guy who drives drunk after a party, hitting and killing an innocent man. He gets fifteen years in prison. It's a very sad song.
"I get it" I said. "But you get used to it".
"I just really love America, and now they have taken it away from me. With that one shot of the tranquilizer dart, my life was stolen".
I didn't know how I could respond to that. So I just showed him around the room before we headed to our afternoon classes.
WILLOW'S POV
It was a relatively uneventful day for me. Lucas had now been cleared to start attending some of his classes again, so I frankly had become a little less worried about the state of his health. He seemed to be healing well.
On the other hand, I had now been outed as his girlfriend. I had been receiving a lot of attention for that, some good and some bad. Really, though, it wasn't anything that I was too unfamiliar with. Lots of couples were at high school back in Swanville, which wasn't a pleasant thought given that I was unlikely to ever see Swanville again.
This had started to become normal for me, but I once again met up with Lucas during shower hour in the dining hall. He was looking as good as usual in his purple and turquoise uniform, but there was a small stain of spaghetti sauce on the part above his left breast. I decided not to mention that.
"Hey, Lucas" I said.
Lucas noticed me almost immediately, and his face lit up. I could tell that he was happy to see me once again.
"Is there anything in particular you want to talk about, Willow?" he asked me.
He took my hand in his, and I realized that, right now, we were as close to each other as we had ever been since the dance. Even though it had only been a month ago, it felt like several lifetimes. So much had changed since then, so little still was the same.
I made sure that nobody else was around before I decided to speak my mind. It was risky, because any student or staff member would be free to come in right now, and then we would be busted, good and proper. There would be no way we could keep it a secret then.
"I want to sneak out at night again" I said. There. I'd said it.
I saw the shocked look on his face. "You want to do that again?" he asked me. Clearly, he must have thought I was absolutely mental for suggesting that.
"I just thought-" I said. I had a sinking feeling that this would evolve into yet another argument, another fight between the two of us.
"You got a detention last time, and you told me yourself that it was the most horrible thing ever".
"It's not just me. You'd go, too".
His face turned from "slightly shocked" to "about to faint". Luckily for both of us, he grabbed a chair. Clearly, he was not about to break the rules like that.
"You are expecting me to go with you? Where would we go, and how would we avoid getting caught?"
"Don't be so loud, Lucas!"
"Sorry, Willow" he said, dropping his arms. Then, in a more relaxed tone, he said, "But seriously, what would we do?"
"Maybe go on the roof" I said. "We could look for shooting stars, relax under the night sky. What sounds more romantic than that?"
"I can just know that this is going to go wrong" Lucas said. Ever the pessimist.
"Well, I can handle another detention. Besides, I've learned from my mistakes. Don't eavesdrop outside the staff room. It's that simple".
"When would we do this, now?" he asked me.
"You seem so obsessed with the 'wh' questions" I said, giggling.
"That's just because they're things that I need to know before we do something so risky" he responded.
"I guess...three nights from now. Does that work for you?"
"Are you serious about this, Willow? We'll be running a lot of risks. Do you really want to take them, given that we have so much to lose?"
"The way I see it, I just really need some time with you. You can accept that, can't you?" I asked.
Lucas still seemed critical of the idea, but he nodded.
And so, it was settled. Three nights from now, we would sneak onto the roof in order to hang out.
COLE'S POV
On Saturday, January 17, I found myself in a class with Lucas and Willow after lunch. In Mathematics, we were supposed to be working on some algebra problems, but the three of us had already finished them. Therefore, the teacher, Mr. Reynolds (a frog) said that we could talk to each other quietly, so as not to distract others from their work.
"I have to tell you guys something" I said, as we sat down at the table.
I had been considering telling this story for a while, but the opportunity had never come up. The three of us were never really alone together, so it wasn't going to be an option during those times.
Now, though, I saw a golden opportunity. It had walked right in the room, and I was determined to capitalize on it. I might be able to get closer with Lucas and his girl if I told them this little slice of my past.
"What is it?" Lucas asked.
I smiled, but it wasn't a happy one.
"It's kind of a funny story at first, but I want to tell you the story about the wasp nest. I find it to be a very interesting one that I thought you would enjoy. Would you care to hear it?"
Willow and Lucas both nodded.
And so, I decided to tell the story very quietly so that the other students in the room would not hear it. This is what I told them.
THE WASP NEST
BY COLE MCCALLEN
A year after the dare that had gotten me into stealing, I was still on a role. I got more detentions and in-school suspensions than I care to remember, and I generally had a reputation as one of the "bad kids" at my middle school. This was only exemplified by the fact that, when I heard rumors of what I had done, that made me angrier, which led to me stealing more stuff, which led me into more trouble,
It was a spider web of spiral causality.
My adoptive parents, while they did have a higher tolerance for my actions than most people, wanted to make sure not to enable me. There was only a certain amount of my bad behavior that they could take. Therefore, in the summer before my seventh grade year, they decided to send me to a summer camp in order to keep me out of trouble.
It was four and a half hours of driving to get there, and the entire time I felt guilty. My parents were sending me here in order to keep me out of trouble. This didn't make me feel good about my actions, to say the very least.
The camp was called Camp Red Lake, but it wasn't like Camp Green Lake. It was located in Leelanau County, on the complete opposite end of the Mitten, the lower peninsula of Michigan. It was a camp for "bad kids" like myself, and the counselors were specially trained to help the kleptomaniacs and the other kids with mental health problems.
I knew that I would be homesick, but I decided to go along with their plan. As I have told you before, I did not particularly like staying at home for too long, because then I would get bored and tempted to get in another hometown jam. I liked committing crimes, but didn't at the same time. I know. I'm complicated like that.
In any case, this camp had a long beach on Lake Michigan, as well as a pool and a ropes course that I never got to go on.
I met my cabinmates, who were pretty cool. We were all twelve or thirteen years old, since we were going into grade 7. Already we had been pegged as juvenile delinquents, so we had a lot in common.
Our counselors were very annoying with the seemingly excessive list of rules they forced upon us. It got to the point that me and my friends decided to pull a prank on the counselors.
On the fifth day there, when I had still not gotten to do Ropes, my friends and I came up with an idea. We managed to get down a wasp nest from a tree just outside our cabin. Since I was very afraid of wasps (and still am, due to another thing in this story), another guy carried it into our cabin.
We placed the nest underneath the counselor's bed. In my 12-year-old mind, I didn't know why this made sense, I don't know how I thought this would work, but it was what we did.
Well, the counselor, whose name was Adam, lay down on his bed when it was time for curfew and eventually went to sleep. Beforehand, however, he had been complaining of a buzzing noise underneath his bed, and was wondering what it was. In my mind, I was absolutely cracking up at how stupid Adam was for not guessing that there were wasps underneath his bed.
The buzzing was a little unnerving, but we all managed to get to sleep. It was only a little after two in the morning that things got real.
At exactly 2:07 AM, the next exploded. I'm not exaggerating. There was the sound of something akin to an egg cracking, and then the noise of wasps flying everywhere. This made me panic a little inside, but I tried to stay levelheaded. After all, we all knew the prank, and all of us would wake up in time.
Adam was woken up by this as well. Maybe his ass might have gotten stabbed a little bit by a shard of the hive, but he sure got up quickly. I heard his gasp of pain as a hornet stung him, and then another. Luckily, only those two had identified him, and the rest were gunning for the eight of us boys.
I panicked once again, but Adam was pissed. "What kind of imbecile did this?" he spat out.
I felt one sting my calf, another my thigh, a couple more on my stomach, and all over my body the stings kept on coming. It was some of the most physical pain I have ever had.
Long story short, we managed to contain all of the wasps, but then I began to feel somewhat dizzy. I also noticed that my body was starting to feel like it was swelling up, and I had a hard time swallowing. I could barely breathe, eventually.
When Adam asked me what was wrong, I described him the symptoms I just explained and he freaked out. He took me over to the nurse's cabin, where she tried to give me some Benadryl.
Well, that didn't work out too well. The pressure in my throat was far too great, and I threw up all over Mrs. Kelley's desk, which I supposed was not the kindest thing for me to do. But I just couldn't keep it down.
And so, I was evacuated from the camp and taken to the nearest emergency room, where I was pumped full of antihistamines in order to save my life. And then, I also got expelled from the camp. The counselors were far less sympathetic than the nurses, to put it lightly.
I was sent back home to Christine and Paul McCallen, my adoptive parents. And they were not happy with me either. They constantly berated me for being so fucking stupid and naughty in order to put a wasp nest underneath my counselor's bed. That was something different.
That all happened in 201U. Now, in 201Y, I had the attention of Lucas and Willow, but I was pleased to discover that none of our other classmates seemed to have been listening in. That was a good thing, because I saw this story as pretty personal.
"Wow, you used to be a really bad kid" Lucas said. He said it in a tone that might imply that he thought that it was cool to be a "bad kid".
"Lucas!" Willow chided her boyfriend.
The math teacher came over to us. "Is there an argument that you need me to mediate in?" she asked us.
"No" I said.
"Good" the teacher said, before leaving. That really had been a close call.
I left math class that day feeling that, if nothing else, I had potentially gained the trust of Willow and Lucas. That was huge, because I wanted the new guy, Konstantin, to realize that it wasn't going to be easy to rebel against this system. It was working well for us thus far, and there was no reason to believe that it would not continue to do so.
KONSTANTIN'S POV
I was having a hard time adjusting to life at the Grey Clouds Flight Academy, to say the least. It was very difficult to make friends, and when coupled with the fact that I hated the whole system that had sent me here, I began to resent my new life. Yeah, the food was excellent, but it was only a small distraction from everything that was sucking.
This really came to a head on the second evening that I was there. I was supposed to make a speech about how much I was enjoying my new home here. This was a new tradition for the new year of 201Y, so I was expected to contribute to it.
I planned, in my head, that I would sing the oh-so-patriotic song "Born In The U.S.A." by Bruce Springsteen. I was later told that it wasn't actually a patriotic song, but rather an unpatriotic song about returning home from the Vietnam War. When that happened, I was very embarrassed, because this song had been played at the Fourth Of July a lot where I grew up.
When it was my turn to give me speech, I walked up to the podium. The others were probably expecting something big, some open admiration for the Grey Clouds Flight Academy. They'd probably expect me to laud the place for treating me so awesomely.
However, they were in for a rude awakening.
I had selected the song, and so I was committed. When I was asked to stand up, I began belting out the lyrics.
The audience seemed shocked. Really, I would have been pretty surprised if I had been in that group expecting me to talk about how the Cornerian army had rescued me from a boring life of college and work in Texas. Especially since I would later learn that this wasn't the happy song that it sounds like.
As I later learned, during the Vietnam War, for young physically fit men who had been charged with more minor crimes, you could choose to either go to jail or go serve in the military in Vietnam. To be honest, if you know these lyrics it should be impossible to think of this as a patriotic song, but I digressed in this case. It was kind of how I felt right now, anyway.
Now, the people who were in charge could definitely tell that something was not going as planned. Katt and Bill were chatting with each other, as if they were trying to collectively figure out what to do with me. I was a little worried about this, but I decided that the best thing to do would be to keep singing.
Now, Katt was coming for me. I could tell that she was making her way towards me with a purpose, and there was no way now that I wouldn't get in trouble. I took the chance, however, to lift my middle finger and flip off the Cornerian flag.
As soon as I had finished the last line, Katt grabbed my wrist and started leading me towards her office.
I could tell that Katt was pissed with me for hijacking the speech, but it wasn't as though she hadn't earned it in my eyes. In my honest opinion, all of the staff had earned it for making me come here against my will.
Katt sat me down in a chair across from her desk. Her dark blue eyes looked straight into my soul, and I knew that I was in serious trouble.
"Why did you do that? Why would you hijack your acceptance speech with Bruce Springsteen lyrics, and then flip off the Cornerian flag? What's wrong with you?"
"Because I'm pissed that you guys decided that it would be okay to rip my life away from me. I'd gotten into the University Of Texas at Austin, and I was really looking forward to going. And now, you've made that impossible. You fucking earned it".
"Konstantin Brockenbough, please do not swear in front of me!" Katt yelled. She grabbed my arm in order to get my attention again.
"Konstantin, you do realize that 'Born in the U.S.A." is not a patriotic song at all, right?"
I stopped short. I never would have considered that possibility.
"But, really, it doesn't matter how patriotic, or otherwise, the song happens to be. No matter what, you're going to get a detention. You understand the consequences of your actions, don't you?"
"Yes" I said, because it was true.
But, as I was walking out of the office, I had a grin on my face.
I would get these people back.
Cole's allergic reaction to the wasp stings is not too dissimilar to the time I got bear sprayed in Grand Teton National Park. In that case, I didn't need to go to the hospital, I just went on over to the medical cabin where they decided that they didn't have to make me throw up. At first, my eyes and mouth felt like I'd just eaten tons of pollen, or whatever my spring allergies are (I have too many to count), but my mom exploded at that guy whose can went off. This also happened when I was 12.
As to the lyrics, you know that I'm one to insert lyrics into my stories, simply because I love music. All those things about the meaning of the song are true. My mother loves Bruce Springsteen, talking about how his songs are often about the plight of the "working man". I hate New Jersey despite having never been there myself, but I can tell that my parents appreciate it. But that's kind of off-topic.
Finally, I only have three chapters left to write. The whole thing will be 18 chapters, meaning that the last update should be January 28. At the time of writing this, I have pretty much the outline for the last three chapters complete, and all that's left is to write them!