The Book of Fate

Chapter 1

The bells rung to signal the end of the school day. Teachers said goodbyes to pupils as students filed out of the classrooms. The corridors were filled with excited kids wanting to leave school. Friends met friends and talked while walking down the halls and even lone students looked like they had smiles on their faces. The building was full of the cacophony of silly banter, laughing, and happiness expended by the children.
The front doors burst open and the mob of people left the school. Many went to the line where parents were picking up their kids; the kids were happy to finally go back to their houses. Others started walking the shorter distances back to where they lived, able to go without a mode of transportation. The rest went to the buses that had started to pile up.
Now to skip past this whole flowery exposition, we’ll get to who this story is actually about. She is having a conversation with her group of friends nearing the buses.
“So, how do you guys think you did on that test in History?”
“Oh, horrible, but I guess that only makes sense since, instead of studying for it yesterday, I stayed up all night talking to ‘him’.”
“Ooh! You have to tell us more! We need to know all of the tantalizing details!”
“Yeah, that’s not going to happen.”
“Oh, c’mon! Diane, you have to tell him otherwise!” exclaimed the teasing Hannah.
“Huh?” Diane said, startled, “I’m not getting involved here.”
Hannah scoffed, “Suit yourself.”
“Oh, wait!” Diane sighed, “I forgot one of my textbooks. Let me go grab it; I’ll be quick!”
“You’d better or you’ll miss the hot gossip!” threatened Hannah.
“I wouldn’t dare miss it!” Diane emphasized.
“Oh, but I totally wanted to completely spill my guts about my love life to you,” Jack said sarcastically, “Well, next time!”
“Yeah, next time!” Diane fired back.
Diane jogged back to the school entrance and back inside. It seemed more empty than before, but that is to be expected when the majority of the occupants had already left. She dashed down the halls, careful to not accidentally take a wrong turn. Diane looked at all the lockers and doors she passed daily on her way to classes. She saw the fliers for different clubs and school activities, all illustrated to try to cater towards teenagers but failing miserably. Diane continued down the halls until she found the door to her classroom.
She stealthily turned the knob and opened the door. Diane didn’t want anybody to know that she had to go back in to get her textbook so she was trying to be quiet. She was already known as a klutz, so this would just bring more evidence to her given reputation.
She tiptoed towards her desk and quickly searched it for the book she was looking for. Diane found her textbook underneath the chair for some reason. She didn’t know how it got there, but Diane just shrugged it off. She hopped up and shot for the door. Diane swiftly opened the door inwards, and then fell backwards in fright.
She scrambled to her feet and embarrassingly smiled at the person in front of her. It was her teacher, Mr. Phillips. He was a new teacher and in his early to mid 20s. Mr. Phillips was relatively good-looking, so many of the girls and some guys who had one of his classes had crushes on him. He tended to be oblivious of his students’ feelings until he was blatantly told and then he would just blush and turn them down nicely. Mr. Phillips was kinda shy but would always try to befriend and help his students when he could. In general, he was a pretty alright guy.
“Oh! You scared me! Did you forget something?” Mr. Phillips added after he regained his composure.
“Yeah, sorry! I left my textbook. I’m gonna need it for the homework that you gave us today!” Diane replied.
“Well it’s nice to hear that someone actually cares to do the homework I assign.” said Mr. Phillips with a smile.
“I like to keep my grades up, otherwise it’ll upset my parents, and I don’t want that!” Diane replied with a tinge of sadness.
Mr. Phillips’s smile faded a little but went on to a cheery face immediately after he noticed his expression changed. “If you ever need to talk, my door is always open. Even if I’m doing something at that moment, I’ll try to make time to talk.”
“No need! I’m fine, Mr. Phillips! Really, you don’t need to worry about me. My parents aren’t like that at all!” Diane explained quickly.
Mr. Phillips looked a little shocked, “Oh! I didn’t mean to insinuate anything! I’m sorry if what I said made you uncomfortable...” He got a little red in the face as he apologized for his mistake.
“It’s fine, honestly!” Diane replied. “I better go now. Bye Mr. Phillips!”
“Alright, see you, Diane!”
Diane walked back out the door and down the halls again, contemplating over the awkward encounter she had just had. Like the others, she could see the appeal of her male teacher, which made her a little uneasy around him sometimes. That whole experience made her anxious as she had been what the others had been calling her, a klutz, around him. Around him! She didn’t feel so great and wanted to go to the bathroom, but she had to make it to the buses before they left.
While exiting the school, she looked at the same posters and lockers and doors as she had seen before. Of course, everything was all exactly as they were earlier. Except for that book on the ground. That was new.
The book was behind a trash can, but Diane could see the outline of its outside. Diane went to it and lifted it up. The book had a dark green, emerald-like cover and was smooth to the touch. It didn’t look like it was in any disrepair, rather like it was newly printed and just came out of the press. There was no identification to the book: no title, no author’s name, no writing anywhere on the outside. The book had a mysterious aura to it that Diane sensed. It was also a bit ominous feeling, like it was foreboding a new arrival of bad things to come into Diane’s life if she just turned over its front and exposed its inner pages to the outside world. It captivated Diane and made her curious as to what the book had written inside of it. The arm she was using to feel the book was tingling in fright, but it only made Diane want the book even more. She couldn’t help her curiosity, so instead of leaving the book where it was like her body was telling her to do, she grabbed the book and placed it in her bag. Diane returned to her friends and stepped onto the bus with them. As they sat down and started conversing, Diane was only focused on the weird yet alluring book in her backpack. Her thoughts kept going over the unending possibilities of what the contents of the book could be. She couldn’t begin to narrow a single subject, and she fully desired to find it out. However, Diane wanted to wait until she got home to read it on her own.She wished to be able to read it undisturbed in her own room.
Many minutes went by with Diane’s brain going a mile a second thinking about the book when she heard her friend say, “Hey, isn’t this your stop?”
“Sorry, I was completely zoned-out,” Diane apologized and then got up and off the bus. She stepped onto her lawn and looked up at her home. It was made out of red bricks. The house wasn’t too big or too small; it was two-storey with enough rooms for each family member to have their own bedroom.
Diane entered the house and went straight to her room. She then started thinking about her household. It was a cozy-enough home to live in with her mother, father, and brother: the normal nuclear family. Her mom was a trophy wife and was in all the major mom circles in town. She gets all the gossip and loves to dish it back out when she can. Her mother is also very loving to her children and always tries to talk to them to learn more about their lives. Her father is a doctor at the local hospital, the top surgeon that they have. They used to live somewhere else and he had worked at a hospital there, so when they moved back to where both of the parents’ families lived, he got good recommendations.
Diane knew her parents were hitting a rut in their relationship because of what happened last year. Her mother had gotten pregnant with her going-to-be third child and her parents were so happy to be having another addition to their family. At least, until they learned that her mother had a miscarriage. The two hadn’t been the same since the loss. They have seemed more distant from each other and only talk with each other when their children are around. The situation kept getting worse, so they decided to move back to where their families lived and make a decision on divorce past that. The majority of the new school year has passed and they still haven’t decided.
When Diane would try to bring up her concerns in conversation, she would either be ignored or the subject would be changed. At this point, Diane thought, it is hard to see if this situation will ever change. No matter how I try to go about it, they always shut me down and don’t talk it out. I wish they would, for their own sakes.
Diane has assumed her brother was still oblivious of the tension between their parents; he isn’t that smart. He is just a simple boy that just likes to have fun when he can. Sometimes he could be mischievous when he desires, if only to get an adrenaline rush. Bryan, her brother, once had oiled the floor underneath the staircase and watched as both of their parents tripped and fell. At the time he was laughing so hard he had a coughing fit, but then was so apologetic and tearful when he learned he would be punished for his action.
Diane loved her brother, but sometimes she wondered how they were related at all. Diane could never do something to intentionally hurt another person; she thought it was unheard of to do so. She cares too much about other people’s feelings to do a thing like her brother had done.
Diane’s thoughts were cut short when she heard her mother yell, “Hey honey! How was your day?”
“It was fine, Mom,” Diane said back.
“That’s good! Dinner will be ready in a couple of hours. Be sure to come down when it’s done!”
“Yes, ma’am!”
And with that bit of small talk with her mother out of the way, she went up to her room and closed the door behind her. Once she got on her bed, she opened the book without hesitation. A shock went through her body, starting from her fingertips where she touched the book at. It was a strange feeling for Diane, but weirdly enough, she loved it. Diane looked down at the book and saw the pages were a pristine white color. There were no marks or smudges on them at all. On the front page, there were but four words that Diane guessed was the title of the book: The Book of Fate.
She turned the page again and felt that feeling of electricity race across her body again, but Diane felt she was getting over the initial surprise that goes along with the sensation. On the next page, she saw a list of names, similar to an index, along with page numbers alongside each of them. A few of the names were familiar to her. Diane noticed they were the names of her family, friends, and other people she knew in her life. Diane was confused and could not understand how those names had gotten into the book. Nevertheless, she turned to the page number that was next to her brother’s name.
As soon as she landed on his page, Diane felt the shock again, but more violently this time. She started to feel it was too unbearable and closed her eyes. When Diane did, she didn’t see darkness, she saw her brother in his room. Diane was startled and tried to open her eyes again, but to no avail. She was stuck watching him. Her brother was just in his room by himself and on his phone while on the bed. It seemed he was just playing a game on it. Then suddenly, there was a time jump, or at least that’s what Diane guessed. One second, her brother was on his bed, the next, he was up and walking out the door going to their mother’s calling.
Diane watched as the dinner that was yet to happen happened before her. She saw and heard herself and realized how much that really was her. The movements, the words, the actions; they were all the things that Diane would have done exactly. The whole ordeal spooked her; it was so surreal to her. The experience kept going as her brother went to sleep. The days then went at rapid speed, but Diane immediately learned all that happened during those times. Diane saw the major parts of his life: graduating highschool, getting a boyfriend (Not too surprising, it was kind of obvious Diane thought), graduating college, first heartbreak, getting his first job, getting his first house, getting married, having two adorable kids (two boys), and just having a happy life until the end when he died with his husband and children at his side.
Diane teared up as Bryan took his last breath and left the world. She appreciated being able to see how happy his life was to be. Diane was finally able to open her eyes. She then went through as many people as she could. Diane learned so many things about so many people. Eventually, she got through a whole line of names and then saw something weird. While flipping pages in the table of contents,, Diane saw her own name at the end of the list. She was tempted to turn to that page, but she was afraid of what she would see. It also seemed like a spoiler to her about her own life. However, the temptation of seeing how her future would turn out overcame all other feelings and sentiments she had. Diane was flipping through the pages to her own when she heard, “Dinner’s ready!”, which disrupted her. Even though she did want to see her page, she decided to wait until after dinner. “I mean,” Diane thought, “it’s not like the book will disappear,” Diane left to go to the kitchen to eat.