My mind has been in a lull ever since we had dismantled The Eastside Gang last night and agreed to not speak a word about it at school for our security. I went with the flow of the school day to the point I felt like a zombie and finishing every schoolwork I was given before even realizing it. Carl has been especially quiet since the whole ordeal, only talking to me when he really needed help on an assignment or rarely answering a question a teacher had that wanted to catch him off-guard. By lunchtime, the table was in an awkward state of silence, and everyone was thinking in their heads on how to break the ice. Finally, Payton speaks up. "So... have y'all made any progress with your World History project?" I nod silently as I had worked on it bit by bit every night before meditating. Unfortunately, Carl was mentally freaking out since he had barely done any progress since the assignment. "Uh... yeah. Yeah, that's right, mine's almost done and all that." Clearly, she wasn't buying any of it. "You honestly expect me to believe that you would be so diligent to be done at this point? You barely did anything, is that right?" He can't even say anything back, he only bows his head down in shame and nods weakly. Payton sighs deeply and taps her lunch fork. "Jeez, I thought this project was easy enough for you to do but I guess we gotta get him up to speed before the deadline next week. Hey Marcus, I don't expect you to help this hopeless excuse of a friend, but do you want to meet up in the library after school to make his life a bit easier?" As much as I want to immediately help Carl out of his situation, I remember about the conversation I had with my parents last night. "Er, sorry," I say apologetically, "as much as I want to help him after school, my parents had set up an after-school curfew for me that I have to be home by 5:00." They look rather surprised when I say this to them. "Curfew? Geez, what happened that you have to go home before the school even closes?" I think it would be better if I explained it all to them about the conversation that I had with my parents last night...
(Last night, after arriving home...)
"Are you doing ok, sweetie?" Mom suddenly asks that out of nowhere as we are eating dinner. I reply, "I've been doing fine, where did this come from?" Mom and Dad glance at each other and then start giving the look of 'we have something serious to talk about'. "I'm sure it's just us, but we've seen recently that you've been getting home rather late. Are things going alright at school? Is there any trouble that you want to tell us about?" Now that I think about it, I have been going home rather late to the point that it almost goes past dusk and it's mostly because of dealing with The Eastside Gang and trying to help my friends out with different kinds of things. "(Mom) I hope that nothing bad is happening to him, it's been a long time since I thought about having a talk like this." "(Dad) Damn, I've been so busy with work that I haven't paid much attention to him. I hope he isn't mad about that." Even though I ought to tell my parents the truth about what's been going on, I can't risk them getting worried over these things when they already are having worries about many things especially with making ends meet for the three of us. I spend what feel likes a heavy eternity convincing my parents that nothing is going wrong and that I make the convenient excuses that I hang out a lot with my friends near The Mara's Place and help each other out with the massive amount of schoolwork that San Anton High has given us recently. They give each other a glance and my mother replies, "I'm sure that you aren't doing anything bad sweetie, but we just want to make sure that you are safe inside and outside of school. I hope you can understand, but your father and I want to put a light curfew to when you should be home by. Let's say, 5:00 p.m., so we can be sure that you are ok by then." As much as I want to protest this because of the sudden implications, I understand their intent and only want to be sure that I'm doing ok. I quietly agree to the curfew set in place, saving the mental battle my parents were about to start should I have started to rebel. Although, I hope that I won't have to do anything that will make me lose their trust...
(Present time...)
"No kidding? Jeez, that's rough, buddy. I mean, the most we can do is work on it until you have to leave to reach your curfew. By the way, how far is your home from here?" After thinking on it, I say that it's a few minutes from here, not more than 30 minutes. "Sweet! That means you got time to help me out with my project. Come on Marcus, help a friend out, please?" He tries miserably to give any sort of pleading eyes, but I say that I was going to help him anyway, with or without his pleading eyes. With that settled, we enjoy the rest of our lunch before the bell rings, and we have to go to the rest of our classes. When the final class bell rings and everyone is able to leave for the day, I head straight to the school library, sign into the attendance log, and grab a table for the three of us to work on. They soon arrive with a multitude of materials and make their way towards me as soon as they spot me. For the next two hours, I help him research info about the history of Gran Columbia while Payton organizes the work and details for what Carl and I should do, while we try to put on finishing touches on his folding poster display. We make so much progress in our given time that I'm surprised that almost two hours have passed when I look at the time on my phone, where I soon pack up my things and say my goodbyes to them as they continue to work on Carl's project. As I leave the school grounds, I spot Yan hanging out with a few of the Swift Cross members, lounging about. As I make my way towards home, Yan manages to spot me, giving a small nod towards me. I nod back in respect, making sure not to give too much attention to him as we agreed. It's a few minutes before 5:00 when I manage to arrive back home, being able to honor my agreement to the curfew. I don't sense my parents inside, but I guess it's because they are still working late as usual.
As I reach my hand towards the door handle, I hear and old and rough voice talking from inside the house, sending me shivers down my spine.
"Welcome back home, Marcus Fernandino. I've much to discuss with you, man to man."
YOU ARE READING
The Matters of Power
ParanormalThis story involves the supernatural, with the events of one man who was suddenly introduced with very strong mental powers considered to be Psychic. Marcus Fernandino throughout -most- of his lifetime had not lived under the special abilities of su...
