Freak Week #4 - "Resonance"

Chapter 4 - "Resonance"

Dear Robot Diary,

I apologize for the way I mishandled you last night. Seeing their name next to a directive for destruction might make anyone react unusually. Factor in my being a silly teenager – who has a lost cloud for a head and an erupting volcano for a heart – and an ill-timed truthquake, and what do you get? If your guess was you being thrown at the nearest wall while I yell at the top of my lungs, "Destroy me? How dare you? Not when we're so close to ending this, NOT WHEN I'M SO CLOSE TO CRUSH!", then you were spot-on.

I'll spare you the awkwardness that followed. Except for a few scratches and a flattened top-right corner, you seem fine. I take your allowing me to keep writing as a sign of forgiveness and promise to never mistreat you or drop you again. Not that I could, anyway, since today is the fourth day of Freak Week and gravity has decided to play hide-and-seek! Anything not attached to the ground is currently floating about. It makes for quite a scary setting if you consider what will happen when gravitational attraction suddenly decides to be a thing again.

But I admit: after getting the hang of air-swimming, flying is fun. I have found refuge in the park next to Greatway High, anchoring myself in a swing, my feet towards the sky. Being upside-down without blood rushing to my head is not what I'd imagined. It doesn't feel different, since there's no upside that could be down anymore, but seeing the clouds under my feet creates the illusion of having slipped into a fantasy world.

"Prime numbers," Jim's voice echoes in my ears. Last night's discussion replays inside my head. "Prime. Numbers." he repeats emphatically, opening his right wing with a grandiose gesture. "Misfits of mathematics, theoretically infinite, but hard to practically find. They are the building blocks of all the other numbers. They come up unexpectedly and have intriguing properties – both in math and in nature. They're the foundation of our modern world, an indispensable tool for encrypted communication. They keep everything safe – from the silliest selfie to bank account information. However, I think I've found one more implication. They seem to harmoniously resonate throughout the world; any non-prime tends to dissonate and cancel itself out."

"I think you and your prime numbers should get a room," Harry interrupts, causing a burst of laughter around him. "Then you can resonate all you want, we won't judge."

"Oh, give it a rest, your jokes went stale decades ago," Banana scolds him while rolling her eyes in distress. "I'm sorry," she then turns to Jim, "but what is the connection to Freak Week?"

"I believe genuine human emotions are harmony-inducing in a similar fashion," Jim flaps his wings passionately, leaving a trail of soft feathers as he moves. "And Freak Week is nature's way of restoring a balance that has been severely disrupted. The antibiotic to an infection."

A discordant chorus of vibrations and notification sounds interrupts him. In an instant, all the eyes in the room move from the screens of phones and tablets to me. Jim picks you up before I can, Robot Diary, and his first instinct is to not let me look. To protect me. But it's difficult to hold on to a tablet when you have duck wings for hands. So I grab you. I read. The ground rumbles. I throw you and I spill the beans. Classy, Lace.

"Someone here sent the message," Jim concludes later that night, after thorough inspection.

"Might be just a joke," Harry suggests.

"Even you don't joke in such poor taste," Banana dismisses the idea, but I feel she is only saying it to nag Harry.

"Why would Lace be the key?" Marmie wonders.