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Chapter Ten

I spent three lovely weeks relationship free after my relationship with Natalie flopped, and honestly they were some of the greatest. Our football team made it to the finals, Ethan who was captain of the dragon boat team had won their regatta, Daniel and the basketball team also made it to the finals. My bros and I decided we'd celebrate our successes by playing laser tag and drinking. It seemed like the best thing to do and the most fun. When we got there, we split up into three teams of two; Daniel and Tevin (Since he was on the basketball team and the youth football team), Ethan and Nathaniel and Me and Riad. We were joined by some other people who had the same idea as us. In the end Riad and I won the match due to my leadership and Riad's quick thinking. We decided to go to the best bar in town, Paradoxical Oxymorons. Within the next 4 hours we were all at varying stages of intoxication, with me being the most drunk and Ethan due to his fast metabolism the least drunk. A part of me knew this was gonna turn out bad yet still we continued to drink to the point where we decided to sing karaoke. First up was Riad who sang a Bob Marley song, Tevin who sang a Kendrick Lamar song, Daniel sang an Ed Sheeran, Nathaniel a G-Eazy song and Ethan a Lukas Graham song. When it was my turn I thought long and hard about what I wanted sing. In the end I decided to sing a song by Mike Posner. The crowd loved it and I received a standing ovation.

After we sang drunken ideas swirled around in my head, just itching for an opportunity to jump out. "Hey guys, let's start a band!!!!" I said to the guys as I tried to sober myself up. Riad and Tevin declined but the rest of us agreed. "What are we gonna call ourselves?" said Daniel. "Asthmatic Cockatoos!!!!" I yelled jokingly and it stuck. From then on we decided to call ourselves Asthmatic Cockatoos and to solidify our bond as band mates we sang a song together. The music escaping from the karaoke machine was overshadowed only by the sounds of the screaming girls as we sang our rendition of a One Direction song. Around 3 in the morning we decided we'd go home. Using my powers I summoned a chauffeur to drop everyone home. Halfway towards Ethan's house having already dropped Tevin, Nathaniel and Daniel I noticed a shadowy spectral figure trailing the car. "Ethan, did you see that?" I asked him pointing out the window. "That's called the sun bro" he replied mockingly, "No more drinking for you." I looked out the car window and there was nothing. Had I imagined it in my hungover state or did I actually see it. I just told myself and said nothing about it to anyone again. We dropped Ethan home, then Riad who lived 15 minutes away from me and then finally I was home. As soon as my head touched the pillow I plunged into the realm of dreams, not my own, but someone else's. The words "Help me" plastered everywhere in crimson red in large letters. Before I could make anything of it I shot up drenched in sweat from my sleep thrashing. I sat on the bed contemplating what I had seen in the dream. Someone needed my help but who was it???

I spent the rest of the day trying to piece together the dream so that I could figure out who needed saving but it was futile. After hours of trying to decipher the cryptic message I decided I'd leave it alone for a while. "Nico!!!!" shouted my mom from downstairs, "You have afternoon training in a half hour!!!!" Jogging my brain back into reality, I hastily organized myself to go training and heading down there just barely making it. As we were training I contemplated telling Ethan, Nathaniel and Daniel about the dream but I could already predict what they'd say, Ethan would say "Bro, those drinks really hit you hard, first you're seeing things and now you're seeing weird dreams. Next time we'll take it slow." Nathaniel would say, "That sounds kinda fishy but just leave it alone for more." And Daniel would say, "Bro, I don't know what to tell you." Reenacting that situation in my head made me reluctant to tell them so I kept it hidden for now. Training was so strenuous that I barely even remembered the dream to tell my bros even if I wanted to. "Hey bros." said Nathaniel, "Let's go for pizza." We murmured in agreement and changed as quickly as our tired bodies would allow. As we traveled to the pizzeria I again noticed the spectral figure trailing the car but this time I said nothing and let it fade away. When we got to the pizzeria it seemed like it was our lucky day as we were the 100th group of people to come in therefore we'd get free pizza till next week. Given that we were boys, we would often eat a lot, coupled with the fact that we were athletes as well as coming from training, this was one of the best things that could've happened to us that day. We ate pizza to our hearts' content until we could eat no more. Food definitely drove my spectral stalker out of my mind. At least for the time.