Eyes of Fire (Camren/Norminah)

Prologue: Legacy

Cameron could feel his pulse racing at the prospect of getting off school, despite the endless half hour that still remained on the old analog clock. Nothing had been changed in the old building, every desk still creaked, every chair was still adorned at the foot with a tennis ball, and every wall covered in old, stained whiteboard. He felt his eyes drooping closed, balancing his knuckle against the soft part of his cheek and fighting the urge to put his head down and sleep through summer.

"Hero is a very strange word." His teacher, a plump woman easily in her late fifties explained as she paced awkwardly around the classroom. "We use it in a lot of different ways, there are superheroes, civil heroes, everyday heroes. All of them play a role in shaping society, and help young minds grow up with all the right values." She looked around the class. "You guys agree, yes?"

"Yes." A dull murmur echoed through the tired mass. No one was really paying attention, for the room was mostly made up of dead, expressionless eyes that only wanted to quell the teacher's need to keep to the school's strict timetable. Cameron leaned back in his chair, folding his arms and noticing out of the corner of his eye that the woman was busy organizing a thick stack of light blue papers stapled together.

"I know you guys are familiar with the idea of a summer assignment, and most of the time teachers ask you to keep a journal of what you do and mark down anything exciting that happens." She continued, starting to leaf through the papers. "But this year I want to try something a little bit different. This is going to be a test of procrastination and focus for all of you."

A sheet of blue paper landed on Cam's desk, and he looked down with a scowl to read the assignment headline.

"What is a Hero." The page read in big block letters that were posed to look cheery, but had no real place in his hands a half hour before summer vacation.

"I want you guys to each write an essay based on a person or people who you believe are heroes. It can be anyone, any kind of historical figure, someone you know in real life, you can even write it about yourself. I want your essay to reflect why this person has been chosen as a hero, and what it is they do that deems them as heroic."

A girl raised her hand, and was immediately chosen to speak. "What if we don't have a hero?" She asked, tilting her head to the side like a parrot.

"Oh Cassie, I'm sure you've got some kind of hero in your life." The woman smiled. "And if you really can't seem to choose anyone, you can always go ahead and write about yourself. Explain why you feel being yourself is not unlike being heroic."

Cam read the page through to the bottom, noting that she had chosen to accent the assignment with a cute picture of a smiling sun and a beach umbrella. Around him, the class seemed to have a slew of unnecessary and redundant questions ready and waiting, and spent the next fifteen minutes asking and discussing unimportant assignment parameters. The boy folded his pieces of paper in half and stuffed it into his messy binder, subtly sliding it into the backpack that sat at the foot of his desk. Before he knew it there were ten minutes left on the clock, and all the boy wanted was to rush out into the sunshine and never come back.

"I'm going to let you guys go early." The teacher finally said after all the hands had been tended to and the class had grown quiet once more. "Thank you for another wonderful year guys, hope you have a great summer."

"I'm going to write my essay about Ryan Reynolds!" A girlish shriek erupted the minute the class was dismissed. Cameron stretched, rising from his seat and slinging his back over one shoulder. It had been a long school year, full of ups and downs, revelations, heartbreak, and a very eye-opening trip that he was willing to take over and over again. Cam felt like a soldier that had just come home from war, and as he bid goodbye to his friends, the boy knew that the worst of it was finally over.