The Gamer (Mashton)

1

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August, Present Day
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I awake to the blaring, monotonous sound of my alarm sitting on my nightstand beside my bed. I reach my arm over my bed groggily and slam the button, ending the noise. I throw the covers off, and finally get out of bed, yawning as I do so.

August 12, the first day of my junior year of high school. Last year was my first time going to public school after being home schooled my entire life. It was nothing but a tedious drag, and I expect this year to be the same.

I go through my old morning routine slowly, not being used to being awake so early. After I'm finished getting ready, and eating a quick breakfast consisting of dry cereal, I grab my backpack off from the messy floor, and go through the front door, locking it quickly. My parents are already at work this time in the morning, and I never learnt to drive, so I usually walk to school on my own, only living a few blocks away anyways.

The sky is cloudy, with a little peak of sun shinning through. The wind is blowing slightly, creating the perfect cool weather. I'm only walking along for about 5 minutes until I see the familiar brown bricks of the school building. As I'm walking up the steps to the front doors, only a few people pass by, mostly teachers. I came about 45 minutes early to have a talk with my best friend, Lisa. She insisted it was important.

40 minutes pass by as I'm sitting on the concrete, bored out of my mind, staring at my phone. I don't know why I expected her to actually be here when she said she would, she's always late for absolutely everything. I check the time, 5 minutes till 7:20, the beginning of school. Only Lisa would be okay with being late on the first day, being late always makes me super anxious.

The sound of the bell echoes of the walls, the front doors wide open. Groups of students rushing in last minute pass by me until I'm left by myself, waiting for the girl who is never on time. I sigh, and debate on whether or not to just go inside and talk to Lisa later, as I feel a light tap on my shoulder from behind. I turn around quickly, straining to see who's there.

"Mr.Irwin, you should be getting to class now, we wouldn't want to make a bad impression, would we?" An elderly man says in a croaky, quiet voice. He turns back up to the stairs and continues walking, quite fast for someone as old and frail as him, and disappears into the school.

I recognize him as one of the freshman history teachers, which is strange. I was homeschooled until sophomore year, how did he know my name? I only know his name and what he looks like, I've never even heard him talk until today. My thoughts are interrupted as I hear someone shouting my name.

"Hey Ash!" Lisa shouts as she runs up to meet me. When she reaches me, she pulls a Manila folder from her tie dye bag resting on her shoulder.

"Hey! What took you so long? I was waiting for almost an hour." I complain.

"Yeah yeah, well I was a bit busy trying to find information." She replies sitting beside me on the stone steps.

"Not this again. School is back in session, we can't be doing this all the time, and besides, I don't really think much of it anymore." I say.

"What happened to you, man? You were completely invested over the summer and now you're out? I don't buy it, there's really something to be looked into here, you asked for my help, and that's what I'm doing." She responds, waiting for me to argue. I don't.

"I know, I know. But we can't miss school whenever we want. Or let this completely take over our lives again. Anyways, what did you find?" I ask, giving in.

"In your grandfather's journal, he mentioned repeatedly about the last name Eber. And you know who has that name?"

"The history teacher? You can't be serious." How could Mr. Eber possibly be involved in my family?

"I am. You have to admit there's something off with that guy. He's always lurking around the school, and the streets all alone, everyday. So I went into the office earlier this morning and snuck into the back room where they keep all their files on students and staff. I found his, look." She opens the folder and hands it to me.

It's completely empty. Absolutely nothing except his name on the tab.

"How does the school have nothing on him? Nothing at all?" I question as she takes the folder back.

"I don't know, he could've done this himself. But we have to find out, there's no way this isn't linked to your grandfather." She replies.

"Okay, I admit that's weird, but that doesn't mean he's connected to my grandfather. It's probably just a coincidence."

"Nothing's ever a coincidence, Ashton. It means something. We have to look into it. Please?" She pleads.

I began the day thinking this year would be boring as hell, normal. But it never is with Lisa.

"Ugh, fine. We'll check it out after school. You should probably put that folder back, by the way, we don't need to get into trouble on the first day."

"We're already almost an hour late, might as well just skip the entire day." She says looking at me with hopeful eyes.

"I don't have an excuse, and they'll call my parents. I really don't want to get into trouble." I respond.

"Just say you got sick, and went home without telling anyone. It'll be fine, let's just go already."

"Yeah, like they'll believe that." I mutter, but stand up anyway.

I follow Lisa to the student parking lot where her car is parked, and hop into the passenger seat, thinking that this isn't the best idea, but Lisa is stubborn as an old man and I could never change her mind.

It only takes a little less than 5 minutes to drive to my house from here, but Lisa manages to talk about 50 different things in the ride there. She pulls up into my driveway, the familiar gravel crunching underneath the tires. I move my arm to open my door, when I feel a hand stopping me.

"Ash, look." Lisa whispers as she points to the mailbox at the front of the house.

Standing in front of my mailbox with the small door open, is Mr. Eber.