I'm Writing This For You

Chapter 8 || Magic, Airbending, and a Symphony

"Brand new month, brand new assignment!" Mrs. Chung exclaimed, as she wrote down something at the front of the class. I squinted at the board in a futile attempt to read her small and messy handwriting, but it was hopeless.

The class collectively groaned. At this point, most people were still failing the class, but that didn't stop Mrs. Chung from trying to teach them.

"Since it is a brand new month, I'd like to dig up an old assignment. Quite frankly, I really don't have anything new for you to do, so what we're going to do today is an assignment quite similar to the one that we did on the first day." Mrs. Chung walked back to her desk and shifted a few of the papers placed on top of it.

"The rules are simple. Write a story about anything that you want, but just keep it clean. You have until tomorrow to hand this in. At this point, you know my rules, so hand it in on time to avoid any issues. You can begin."

Opening my notebook, I decided to spend some time brainstorming before I began to write my story down. Mrs. Chung had recommended that when I went in for extra help. What could I write a story about? My mind raced trying to figure out the possibilities for this story.

I considered a story about a boy who finds out he's a person who possesses magical powers, and then goes to a boarding school with other people who also have magical powers. Nah, too similar to Harry Potter.

I also considered a story about a boy who discovers that his dad is a Greek god, maybe Poseidon or Zeus, and goes to a summer camp full of other demigods called – nope, too similar to Percy Jackson.

I was stumped. Time began to slow down, as the sound of the clock began to tick at an agonizing pace. Tick tock, tick tock.

Looking beside me, Mike seemed to be writing down furiously, his pencil moving at a rate that was disparate from the rest of my surroundings. His pencil moved smoothly amongst the paper, gliding amongst the surface as seamlessly as skates on a rink of ice. I had no idea what he was writing about, but it looked like he just wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible.

He had his best poker face on, showing no emotion as he powered through the paper, writing lines and lines of what I assumed was total nonsense.

It was clear that he didn't care about this entire thing, and mulling it over, I started to think that I shouldn't as well. This teacher seemed to be incarnated from hell, created to ruthlessly terrorize students for generations on end. Even if I tried and took her advice, would that ever be good enough?

Looking at the window next to Mike, it was clear that if Poseidon was real, he was in charge of the weather that day. The sky was completely gray; the prominent sun of yesterday being overshadowed by a mob of clouds. A flurry of rain droplets fell out of these clouds at an electric pace, creating rapid tapping sounds as they hit the grass below.

It was easy to get lost in these surroundings, so lost that one could begin to lose track of time. Before I knew it, the bell rang. Looking at the blank notebook in front of me, I sighed and stuffed it in my bag.

"That was easy. You know, I'm actually looking forward to failing again, aren't you?" Mike said while smiling at me.

"I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic or serious at this point," I replied, shrugging my shoulders.

As you'll begin to find out, your Uncle Mike is an interesting character. He's definitely someone to watch out for whenever April Fools Day comes along.

Mike ran his fingers through his hair and laughed nervously. "Neither do I man, neither do I."

Walking towards the front foyer of the school, the collective background noise of other people's conversations got louder, forming into an overwhelming sound of confusion and clutter.