"Hmph. I'm surprised you still remember my name. And yeah, I can read lips pretty easily." She said with a wink. I raised my eyebrow and asked her back,

  "Why didn't you talk to me on the first day?"

  "Because truth be told, after seeing a fire on the first day, I was utterly speechless. You hang out with some buck-nutty people. Speaking of which, do you still hang out with..? Ah, what's his name? Steve?" She asked me.

  "That's his name. And yes, I still hang out with him." I replied.

  "Man, it's been a while since me and you two idiots hung out. I remember when Steve's mom tried to playdate all of us at the same time. That was a mess."

  "Oh yeah, it was. I remember specifically that Steve almost fell into a pothole and you almost got electrocuted."

  "Don't act like you didn't do anything bad that day. You almost burned down Steve's basement and don't forget that you—"

  She stuttered, her mouth quivering in place like a glitch that could never be hotwired. She had the face of a ghost, one that resembled a mix of fear and anticipation for the worst. Her jaw clenched in concentrated hesitancy for words.

  "That I what?" I asked her. No words escaped from her jail cell of a mouth. I suddenly felt a warm, vicious breath across the back of my neck. I sighed, closing my eyes in a silent prayer for whatever was about to happen to me.

  "She's right behind me, isn't she?" I whispered to her.

  She nodded in pitiful embarrassment for daring to conversate during a lesson. I gulped down my anxiety and turned my head around slowly, only to face Mrs. Foyager’s face filled with moles that dug into her fraudish baby skin and nose that extended down to mine like a bridge that was hardly passable.

  "Please, pay attention, George Cameron. And you, Aquafene Yür! I expected better from you. Don't burn yourself by sitting next to him now."

  Rich coming from a person who burned people.

  "I’m sorry, Mrs. Foyager. I won't do it again, I swear!" Aquafene exclaimed, placing her hands tightly behind her back to demonstrate how sorry she truly was. Mrs. Foyager nodded at her and then, all in a swift second, turned to me.

  "You know, we know what we are, but know not what we may be. I may know I'm irritating, but I don't know if I'm stubbornly irritating. You know who you are and what you've done. Do you know who you might be?" I said, pointing towards my book which showed a picture of William Shakespeare; a man I had quoted for my sake and her vexation.

  Mrs. Foyager looked like her head was about to explode in frustration. She stormed off to the front of the class, the clicks and clacks of her heels were apparent across the classroom. She attempted to teach us the man I had aforementioned with a cool head. In the meantime, I muttered to myself,

  "Okay, today is Friday. All I have to do is survive this day and I’ll be home free, away from this bastard of a teacher that is." Aquafene took notice of my mutter and added in,

  "Same here."

  I got to work on the back of the Shakespearean page where three questions stood in their twisting words that tied my brain into a knot. For example, one of them asked what the main idea of William Shakespeare's famous piece Romeo and Juliet was. I answered it and the question disappeared, meaning it was right.

  I looked towards Aquafene, noticing her pen constantly tapping on the table with her face in a confused daze. She bit her lower lip in a hidden nerve that, in retrospect, wasn’t so hidden.

  Now, Aquafene was an honest soul, one that continuously tried her best for the best to be the best. I remember one specific time in elementary school when she gave half of her bread to one of the students there, even though in reality she didn't have to do.

  But she was very controlling over her work, almost too controlling. Whenever she finished her assignments, she wouldn't give anyone her answers and annoyingly decide to keep them away from others. This was the same case over and over again, even up to today because whenever I tried to help her, she hissed at me to piss off. I would usually roll my eyes back at her in response.

  I focused on the second question which was asking about an interesting fact about Shakespeare's life. I answered it quickly and it disappeared, again meaning it was correct.

  However—as if a light switch had been hit—Aquafene suddenly shifted into a completely different person at around the fifth time I asked her if she needed help. She seemed so uncaring for her work and shockingly shared her answer with the person to her right who had asked.

  I began wondering if there was anything suddenly wrong with her. If she had suddenly received news that would change her life for the worse. She had never handed out any answers to anyone, especially strangers.

  The only way to find out, in my eyes, was to talk with her. Fortunately, because we had sat right next to each other, it would've been a piece of cake.

  Unfortunately for me, Mrs. Foyager was still staring knives at me, likely wanting me to finish my last question even though Aquafene hadn't even finished hers yet. So, my grey gaze stared down at my last question.

  My mouth gaped open in utter disbelief. What the hell was this!?

  "Do you think you're tough? Smart? Or a mixture of both George Cameron?" I whispered. Well, for one, she forgot a comma. Secondly, though…

  I forgot to mention one other feature that I had learned from Robert earlier in the week. That being teachers, robot or not, could change the questions on any textbook or writing material by simply thinking of the question and clicking their pen twice over. This feature would usually be used for finding any cheaters who were copying answers from others.

  Yet, I felt like this situation was a tad different. Why, you may ask? Because Mrs. Foyager, as far as I could remember and count, had clicked her pen 26 times. Meaning she changed my question, or rather maybe another person's question, 13 times.

  See? I could do math!

  But in all seriousness, considering the fact she was legitimately eyeing me down like a hawk, I would bet she had changed mine. And a massive by the way, changing a question on any quiz, test, or assignment could be questioned only once by the student. So, I raised my hand and she stepped over to me; a smug smirk on her face.

  "I have a question. What does this mean exactly?" I asked her, pointing to the third question. Her smile multiplied in width as she stated with a stifled chuckle,

  "Why, it means do you think you're intelligent? Or do you think you're brave enough to tell the whole world your intelligence? Maybe share what you've found?" Some students looked at me in confusion as I stared at her with a blank expression.

  "Thank you for the help, Mrs. Foyager. I can take it from here." I stated, clearing my throat afterwards. She walked back to her stalking post in the front of the class. I scratched my head for a moment in passing time before writing down something along the lines of,

  "I think I'm intelligent enough to know what you've done. I also think I'm tough enough to share it with the whole world. Would you like to make a bet that I can't?"

  Except I had messy handwriting. So, instead of looking like what I had just written, it looked like a dog chewed up the question, spat it out, a cat then scratched it, and a bull proceeded to stomp on it.

  Oh yeah, she definitely wouldn't be able to read my answer.

  I sent it anyway and the question disappeared alongside my scribbled answer. It seems like I had gotten the question correct. I looked to Mrs. Foyager and she stared back at me in deep disgust. Perhaps she could read my horrendous handwriting?

  Meanwhile, there were more pressing matters as Aquafene had just finished her work and sighed out a storm of wavering stress. I asked her,

  "What’s wrong? You seem more down and less like you right now. You know, less protective of your work."

  Aquafene didn't say a word, nor took notice of what I asked. This worried me, perhaps a little more than I could afford. So I had to decide whether or not I would and could get Aquafene to respond to me. I had to do this rather quickly, the class was on the cusp of its sudden end.

  That was when I had a perfect idea,

  I smacked my right elbow on the table, which hurt like hell on Earth, and raised my creaky arm up in the air. Mrs. Foyager walked up to me where I asked her,

  "Hello, Mrs. Foyager. I accidentally bruised my elbow as I was reaching down for my pencil. May I please go down to the nurses' office and get an ice pack for the bruise?!" I bit my lip in absolute misery as she responded,

  "Hmph, let me see."

  I knew she would want proof, so I showed her my messed up elbow. I hadn’t realized how bruised it was until I saw it in all of its purple glory that continued to ache my entire arm.

  Mrs. Foyager inspected it and touched the bruised spot, causing me to wince in pain. She half smiled, likely happy I was in constant agony over a small bruise, and stated,

  "Alright, you may go. But be back here immediately, George Cameron."

  I hated how she used my last name. As if it was a word that she owned.

  I snatched her permission slip from her hand and headed out of the classroom. Once I stepped into the hallway that stretched itself to as far as the eye could see, I walked down the stairs to my immediate left.

  On the first floor, I opened the side door for the A building. I wandered aimlessly towards the nurse's office where I showed them my bruise and asked for an ice pack. The robotic nurse, who had treated my head injury, strolled out and took one good look at me. It said,

  "You really can't keep yourself from hurting your body, can you? If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were doing this on purpose now." That may have been true, yet I truly couldn't tell her that. She grabbed an ice pack from the back and handed it to me. I said,

  "Thank you so much, nurse. Phew, this feels so good." I wasn't lying about that either. It felt incredible as soon as the chilly ice hit my scolding hot bruise.

  "I made it extra cool for any student that got injured today. I suppose that lucky student is you." The nurse said with a blank face.

  I waved goodbye with the nurse not waving back as it had no social cue programmed into its mechanical brain. I hurried back to the A building, rushed up the stairs quickly, and finally sat back down on my seat.

  Now that I had gotten the ice pack, I patted it on my bruise for a couple of seconds, trying to see if Mrs. Foyager was staring at me again. She luckily wasn't, she was enamoring herself with another student that looked eerily familiar to the child she had burned to a crisp in that photograph.

  I asked Aquafene the same question in a much more profound tone,

  "Aquafene. Is there anything, anything, wrong with you right now?" She continued to shake her head and mumbled something under her breath that, as I heard it, was something along the lines of,

  “I'm okay,”

  Yet, because Aquafene hadn’t given me a clear answer, I looked around once again to see if Mrs. Foyager was focusing on our conversation. She still wasn't. I leaned back a little as I pretended to stretch out my arms.

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  Now, I may or may not have accidentally slipped the ice packet to the back of her neck. And she may have immediately jolted out of her sear in a panic.

  "AHH!! WHAT WAS THAT FOR!?" Aquafene shouted.

  "SHHHHHH!!! Keep working, students!" Mrs. Foyager exclaimed at us. She wasn't eyeing in our direction, thank god for that. I responded to Aquafene in a whisper,

  "You didn't respond to me beforehand, so I might as well make you answer me with an ice pack. Now tell me what's wrong before I take this ice and shove it down your bare back!"

  Aquafene began to weirdly fidget around and profusely shook her head no, likely wanting me to give up on the matter. Yet, I didn't know whether or not she was saying no to the ice pack or to answering the question.

  However, I was tired and mentally done with Aquafene's antics and threatened her once again by whispering,

  "Aquafene, I'm not going to ask you again. Tell me what's wrong with you or else I'm going to shove this ice pack into the back of your shirt. And trust me, this thing is extremely cold. The nurse told me that HERSELF!" She quivered for a moment, but thankfully, my threat with the ice pack forced her to immediately confess,

  "Ok! Ok, just listen. I'm not supposed to tell you this, but I heard of a secret factory, or temple, or whatever the hell the structure is! It has ancient spirits that could haunt this world and take over our minds within a matter of seconds!”

  “That's why I've been so upset. I don't see a point in learning anything if these spirits can teach you so much more! I'm worried if these spirits took control of my mind, would I learn more than what I am right now?" Aquafene whispered. My eyes began to instinctively twitch, my face spilled over with disgust. I accidentally shouted out at her,

  "Aquafene, that is. THE most. STUPIDEST—"

  "SHHHHHHHH!! Students are trying to learn here!" Mrs. Foyager exclaimed, her patience running lower than it already was. Fortunately, she still hadn’t turned her back on us just yet.

  Okay, perhaps I hadn’t accidentally shouted at her. But still, what she said was honest-to-god crazy. Actually, scratch that, it was batshit wild!

  "Sorry ma'am, I'll keep my voice down," I replied in a deeper tone so Mrs. Foyager couldn't recognize it. She seemed to buy it as she helped another student at the far left side of the room. We sat on the far right side. However, because the room was relatively smaller than most other classrooms, I was forced to whisper,

  "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard! Aren't those spirits trapped in literal confinement in the first place? There is no way they can get out. And can I just say that that idea is still FUCKING CRAZY!? Do you even hear yourself?! That's the kind of stuff a crazy homeless person would say when they're on drugs! Or what my mom would say after two bottles of wine."

  "B-But!" She tried to respond in a whisper. But I interrupted her,

  "No buts!" I exclaimed. Aquafene contemplated her inner thoughts for a few fleeting seconds, no words expelling from her mouth towards me or herself. I had no idea what she was thinking, I would never know. She finally whispered to me in defeat,

  "Maybe I'm going crazy. I guess this school has gotten to me and has broken my sanity, huh?"

  "I don't blame you. After seeing a literal blaze of fire on the first day I would also be pretty insane. Where did you hear about this stuff anyway, Aquafene?" I asked her, now out loud.

  "I heard it from the internet after I deep dove into an iceberg about disappearances."

  "Why would you go into a deep dive about disappearances?" I asked her, curious now.

  "It's a hobby of mine, alright?! I took my home phone and searched through the internet for all of the mysterious disappearances like the cases of Jimmy Hoffa in 1975 and of Boder Cooks in 2050. That's when I stumbled upon the spirits being trapped somewhere. I think it was inside of a structure that resembled a temple. The evidence seemed so concrete, like someone had dedicated their whole life to research about these lost souls.”

  “I believe it said that it was an abandoned building deep inside the Isle of Colganla and worse yet, it is said to contain whispers that tell people to come inside. Multiple sources pointed this out too!"

  "Sure, but we also agreed that the whole story about the spirits in a temple is a big load of crap, right?! There's no way something like that exists on Earth. I'm betting some weirdo decided to pull a prank on people and planted some sort of device that sounded like whispers in whatever that structure is. Maybe even inside a temple." I stated back. There was one minute left until class ended. So, I whispered to her once again,

  "Listen. I would love to believe you, but I just can't! What you're saying is beyond the laws of common sense. So please, stop believing what you read online. Not every article, no matter how professional, is trustworthy. Okay?" She sighed and stated,

  "Agreed."

  "I thought I told you to stay away from George Cameron, Aquafene Yü—"

  Before Mrs. Foyager could finish her sentence, though. The bell rang loud and clear past the loudspeakers planted within the ceiling. A smile that resembled the Mariana Trench ran across my face like hers would.

  "Sorry, what was that? I think class just ended, so you don't exactly have control over us anymore, do you?" I asked her, grabbing Aquafene and my bag and getting the hell out of this deathtrap of a classroom.

  Yet, for whatever reason, I swore I could sense Mrs. Foyager still gazing daggers at me as I walked out.

  Once the final bell rang, me and Aquafene exchanged home phone numbers. I was now rather excited for the days that would follow. I'd be able to go to the café on Saturday while also finally relaxing away from this god-awful high school for the rest of Sunday.

  That was about all I was going to do this weekend, huh? Damn. I thought there would be more but oh well, I'm happy with getting Aquafene's home phone number and going to the café.

  As I unlocked my bike from its captive rack and hopped onto it. I turned the wheel backwards and rode down the school's open gated exits towards my home. I thought of what Aquafene was saying and about the structure in the deep deserted Isle of Colganla,

  The Isle of Colganla stood to the south of Altandor in which half of the isle was filled with scorpions and deserted areas after a drought decimated the area. The other half was a profound forest with streams, numerous animals, trees, and fruit bushes in a forest surrounded by rivers and streams.

  However, ever since a few years ago, the drought in the deserted area has grown smaller and weaker, but only little by little. At the same time, it seems like the forest is becoming more abandoned by the day's end.

  How do I know this? I can thank my only history class in seventh grade for that knowledge. Thanks, Mr. Historia! Yes, that was his real name.

  I arrived back home and saw my brother trying to fix a shelf that had been broken while I was gone.

  "What happened?" I asked him.

  "Obsidia tried to walk on the shelf since she was dressing up as an elf for Halloween. Which is stupid enough since Halloween is a whole month away. Though, when she tried to get off she skipped over the shelf and onto the table. Causing both of them to break apart." Coal said with a heaving sigh of bummer.

  "Is she okay, though?" I asked him.

  "Perfectly fine, thankfully. I still have to clean up this whole mess while Obsidia is being babied by Mom." He said, cleaning up shards of plank from the broken shelf. I looked at the table, noticing that it was fixed by pure love and determination. In other words, it was barely able to stand by just a couple of strands of loosely placed duct tape.

  "You need help, don't you?" I asked him.

  "Yes, please!" He pleaded. I nodded and said back,

  "I will, don't worry. I just have to put my backpack upstairs. And if you don't mind, I'll be taking this for now." I took the home phone that had been placed on our creaky couch.

  "What, so you can talk to your girlfriend again?" He asked me.

  "She's my friend and no, I have to do research for one of my classes. Be right back!" I exclaimed, trying to hold my serenity to not scold Coal. I walked upstairs and entered my room. I cracked my neck as it was strained beyond belief.

  I glanced behind myself, only to see that my mother was patting my sister's head lightly, holding her hand tightly with her free hand. I smiled warmly and closed the door behind me.

  As I changed into my pajamas, I stared down at my home phone. Was Aquafene right about there being spirits in a temple or perhaps a factory? If there were there, what knowledge could they potentially give us..?

  GAH! I have to stop thinking like Aquafene! There's no structure, no spirits, NADA!

  I set my phone down as I plopped myself onto my bed. I lay my left hand open in the air, my right hand instinctively picking up my phone once more. I inputted Aquafenes' phone number and set it down on my chest. I was conflicted to say the very least.

  "What if what she said was true?" I muttered to myself.

  I groaned, not only because I didn't know if it was even worth it to have a conflicted thought over some fake spirits in a fake structure. But I also groaned because my elbow was still in an ache that wouldn’t go away. Seriously, why did I have to hurt myself to get a bogus answer from Aquafene of all people?!?

  I got up and set the phone down on the bed. I walked out of my room and stepped carefully downstairs so as to not accidentally trip and fall. Coal was on the brink of fixing the shelf as if a two-year-old had decided to fix it.

  "Leave it! I'll repair the shelf and also repair the table correctly, my god. You just clean up the stuff that fell off the shelf and table." I stated.

  In retrospect, there weren't many things that had dropped from the shelves other than some books and a mug that somehow hadn’t broken. There was also barely anything on the table other than a vase that shattered into a million pieces and the remote for the blinds.

  Meanwhile, our mom walked downstairs, her hair sporadically reaching to the ceiling showed the stress she had undergone through.

  "I'm about to fix the shelf, mom! How's Obsidia?" I asked her. Coal rolled his eyes while I nudged him, accidentally, by my bruised elbow. Just…

  OUCH. I bit my lip in pain as my mom replied,

  "She's alright for now. A little shaken up because of the fall, but other than that she's more than just fine. Also, thank you so much for your help boys, but I think I'll take it from here since, no offense, none of you can fix a shelf or table like I can." She pointed at herself, smiling brightly at us. In retrospect, that smile was more for herself than us.

  She grabbed the duct tape from my brother's hand and proceeded downstairs to get tools for fixing the broken furniture, but not before saying,

  "Oh! There's some leftover spaghetti in the fridge for dinner! You can heat it in the microwave!"

  "Thanks, mom!" Coal exclaimed. Once she walked all the way down to the basement, Coal and I looked at one another.

  "We're not eating that gut-wrenching spaghetti again, are we?" He asked me.

  "Well, she's going to get pretty offended if we don't eat it. So here's the plan, you'll eat the whole thing while I go upstairs and look for something, okay? Okay!"

  I ran upstairs as fast as humanly possible while Coal yelled at me to come back downstairs. But I didn't pay him any mind.

  I know that might've seemed rude, but there was no way I was going to eat that spaghetti. It was the first thing other than the smell of dog feces that made me almost hurl my guts up. Sorry Coal, but you would have to eat that all by yourself!

  Or he could’ve thrown it away, but our mom would've likely found out soon enough.

  I hopped onto my bed once more and, in an instant, I gave in to the temptation for information. I decided to dig into the spirits and the structure they're supposedly stuck in.

  I had located the structure by simply reading through a handful of old articles about it and sure enough, it was inside the isle of Colganla only a few miles from here. I soon realized that this structure, which I found out through my extensive digging on the internet articles upon articles, was an abandoned factory. Spirits were also supposedly there, yet no article specifically pointed that out.

  And maybe, just maybe, we could explore it on Sunday as I had thought, as a fun little adventure!

  I decided to text the group chat what Aquafene had said to me. About how these potential spirits possibly were trapped there and how it would’ve been fun to adventure throughout Colganla towards the factory. Of course, some people took more convincing than others. Like Emily and her now nearly healed ankle. The chat went somewhat like this:

  "Are you sure there's spirits there?! I don't exactly believe this Aquafene girl. I haven't even met her, and better yet that idea of spirits being there sounds crazy on its own." Emily texted.

  "Trust me, it's legit! There's proof of it existing right here!”

  I sent her proof by showing her screenshots of the supposed area where the factory was by Gooleg mappings. Sure enough, a brick structure that seemed abandoned stood out in the middle of the desert like a sore thumb.

  "It seems pretty convincing, Emily." Jack texted. Of course, he would automatically believe it. Which for once I was glad about his gullible essence.

  "Why don't we go? It sounds like a pretty fun adventure and it gives us a nice time to hang out!" Angel texted.

  "I'm still a bit skeptical. But eh, what's the worst that could happen? Some evil spirits would haunt us or something? Pfft, nah!" Fron texted in his incomplete confidence.

  "Icl sounds fun, I'm cool with it if Fron is," Robert stated. I again didn't know what 'Icl' meant, but oh well.

  "I'm not gonna lie, I'm going with Emily on this one. I mean, we don't know who this Aquafene girl is. And it just seems too risky! I mean, 15 miles away?! I would rather stay at home for the weekend." Maurice texted.

  "I’ve known Aquafene from all the way back in elementary school and lemme tell you, she doesn't usually lie if at all. When she says something, she truly means it. Even though I haven't seen her in a while I still trust her enough, I say we go!" Steve texted. Maurice was about to respond, but Emily cut in like a knife,

  "If all of you seriously agree with this Aquafene girl then.. fine. I'll go too. But I'm telling you, if we don't find anything, then I told you so!" I jumped in the air in excitement, we had finally gotten Emily to agree to something for once.

  "Fine. I'll go too. But I still don't trust this Aquafene girl, even if George and Steve trust her." Maurice texted back.

  Just like that, we had planned to go to the entrance of the Isle of Colganla on Sunday somewhere in the afternoon when everybody was available.

  It was all fine in the end with everyone being content that we could all be able to do something on Sunday; even if Maurice still complained that she wanted to just relax.

  So, as I closed my phone, I looked at the time and realized it was about time to sleep. I set my phone down on the table and as I was about to close my eyes, it still seemed like I was missing something.

  But before I could realize what I was missing, I slept for what seemed like an eternity.