Gems: Power Unleashed

Chapter 1

"Cameron!"

I quickly shoved my Spanish homework into my desk.

"What fraction is equivalent to 75 over 100?" asked my teacher.

"Uhh, 3 over 4."

"Good. Now class..."

I kinda zoomed out and focused on something else. I couldn't get over how much homework I had! I know, that's something boring to focus on, but hey, I had nothing else to do.

Eventually, after about 10 years the bell rang. I was going to Spanish next, but something seemed off. I saw a strange sign that that said, "Meet me behind the gym" No one else seemed to notice the sign except for me. I asked my friend Chris if he saw the sign, but he said that I was going crazy.

I still went out to the side of the school, though. There I found a man in a suit with black glasses on, just standing there. For some reason, my other friends were there, too. It was Maddie, Jia, Kaylee, and Lynn.

"Guys? What the hell are you doing here?" I asked.

"We saw a weird sign in all caps. Nobody else seemed to see it except us." Kaylee told me.

"Really? I thought that I was the only one who could see it!" I told her.

"That's what we all thought," Jia said.

"Silence!" the guy yelled. I almost forgot that he was still there.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"And what do you want?" Jia continued.

"I have been asked to give you these. He flipped us each a brightly colored gem.

"What are these?" Maddie asked.

"You'll figure it out. If you can't, I will be here tomorrow, " he replied casually, and he literally disappeared into thin air.

"All right. What the hell just happened?" Jia asked.

"That's a good question," Lynn replied.

"We'll talk about this at lunch," I said, "but I have to get to Spanish."

"What do we say to the teachers?" Maddie asked.

"Guys," Lynn said, "I think I solved the problem." Lynn pointed to the ground. There were five yellow slips where the guy disappeared. 

"They're late passes!" exclaimed Kaylee. We all picked one up. They each had our name and the teacher we were going to next.

"Well it's been fun," I said, "but I have to go to Spanish. Pretty sure I have a C in that class.

"I think we all do," Jia said.

I sprinted all the way to Spanish. Once I got close to class, I slowed down and caught my breath. I walked in as casually as I could.

"Glad you decided to show up," said one of my friends, "you ready?"

"For what?" 

"Oh, the president is coming! We have a test today idiot!"

"Shoot! I forgot to study!"

"Cameron," my teacher started to say, "you better have a late pass!"

"I do!" I pulled the yellow slip out of my pants pocket and handed it to her.

"Have a seat," the teacher said impatiently.

I still couldn't believe what had just happened. A random guy gave us a gem and then just disappeared. As though it was just normal.

For the rest of the day, I couldn't focus. But after what seemed forever, it was finally lunch. I shoved my binder into my locker and went to my regular table. I didn't even buy anything to eat; I went straight to my friends.

I sat down. "All right. What happened?"

"Yeah, 'cause we know that," Jia replied.

"I - I don't get it. What was he doing here? asked Maddie.

"That's what we're all trying to figure out!" I said.

"What color gems did you guys get?" asked Kaylee.

"I got a purple one," said Lynn.

"Mine's green," Kaylee said.

"I have a yellow one," Maddy said.

"Mine is red," Jia said.

"And Cam? What color is your gem?" asked Kaylee.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Mine's blue," I replied.

The gems shined like diamonds. They didn't seem to be like any kind of precious stones that I had ever seen before. They were round, smooth and flat.

"So what do we do with them?" I asked.

"We wait for the guy in the suit to come back tomorrow," replied Jia.

The rest of lunch was pretty silent. I guess it was because we were all thinking about who the guy was and what the gems were for. The day was pretty normal. I tried to act as natural as possible. It seemed to work because no one appeared to notice.

Later that day, before I went to the bus, I looked for the sign from before, but it wasn't there anymore. How was that even possible? I got onto the bus where my friends were sitting. Since we all went on the same bus,  we could talk as long as we wanted to. I was the first one on the bus because my music teacher had let my class out early.

After a few minutes, my friends finally arrived. "Took you guys long enough," I said.

"Yeah, well we don't have the nicest music teacher," Jia said.

"Ok, thanks for sharing," I started, "but to the problem."

"Right," said Kaylee, "should we meet up somewhere?"

"How 'bout the park?" I suggested.

"That's good, but what time?" asked Maddy.

"Four?" I suggested.

"Settled. We'll meet at the park at four." I said.