Class of Armageddon

Before

"Hey, there he is," Jacob Donners pointed out to his friends. "Hey, Sean, come here!"

Sean Pointer walked cnjup to his friends as they were waiting for class to begin. Once again, he realized how average he was in comparison. Jacob was class president and was going to major in political science in college. Sarah Reiver, his oldest friend and Jacob's girlfriend, was the lead cheerleader and was already a decent fashion designer. Martin Johnson was the star running back and captain of the basketball team. He had a scholarship.

The only person he could even conceive of as average was Jessica Kraken. She had medium-length, straight blonde hair, brown eyes, wore plain clothes, and didn't participate in any extracurricular activities. But she was an incredible singer and songwriter; she was just too shy to do anything about it.

He knew what it was like being shy. He had wanted to ask her out for a while. He wasn't necessarily afraid she'd say no, but that she'd say yes so as not to hurt his feelings.

Sean was average. He had average looks, an average build, was a member of some clubs but nothing spectacular. And, though talented, was a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none.

Meeting his friends in the morning had been a tradition for them for the three years they've all known each other. Everyone met in groups in the morning, but they managed to get the same spot every day.

"Have you heard of super volcanoes?" Jacob asked.

"Yeah," Sean answered.

"Told you they were real." He turned to the rest of the gang with a proud smile.

Marty looked at Sean, skepticism on his face. "You're telling me that there's a gigantic volcano under Yellowstone National Park?"

"I think it's Yellowstone," Sean replied. "Anyways, it's supposed to be one of those cataclysmic events that could end the world as we know at any moment because it was due a hundred years ago or something like that." He never thought of himself as a trivia guy, but everyone else seemed to think so. So when he said it, it held more muster than Jacob. "I saw something about it a few years ago."

Jacob (no one knew why he didn't want to be called Jake) had a look of disappointment in his eyes, as if upset that he found out so much later. "Sooo... what does everyone think will bring the end of the world? You obviously know my answer."

"Jesus," Marty said. Everyone looked at him, sarcastically suspicious of him. "What?" He was an atheist. "Fine, robots and ultra-intelligent AI."

"Really?" Sarah questioned. "I betcha it'll be aliens." Jacob and Marty laughed, neither one believing in aliens.

"It'll be a massive black hole," Jess said out of nowhere, "if the government doesn't screw us over first." She had an angry hippie streak in her.

Everyone looked at Sean, as if he knew the answer. "Uh, I never really thought about it. I mean, who's going to care how the world ends, especially since the world would have ended."

"Come on, man," Jacob urged.

"Don't leave us hanging like that," Sarah begged.

"Um, okay." He thought for a moment. "I'll say meteors."