The Conspiracy Theory of June 17

Epilogue

"Oh my god, we can choose our powers?"

"Yep," Mrs Renee saws, eyeing the drink in her hand as if she can tell if it's alcoholic or not by staring at it long enough. "Powers are like skills. Within the first week, practise as many powers as you want, and you can summon them later after the week is finished."

Jessie smiles, her eyes lighting up in happiness. Next to her, Jada smiles. "Hey, I don't know about you guys, but I've had enough conspiracy stuff for a while. I'm gonna practise my powers tomorrow," she says. And with that, she struts off towards the food area, or towards Drew. No one would know for sure.

"I'm gonna go get some more sushi," Jessie says, getting up sharply. "You coming?"

"Sure," I say, smiling creepily. "I need to gather more information about this sushi chef you're digging."

"Alessia!" Jessie exclaims, pushing me playfully, but even she couldn't hide the colour that rushes to her cheeks.

"Hello." We both jump as we realise we're standing right in front of the Asian sushi chef. He doesn't look anything like Damon or Flynn – he looks like a genuine, nice, happy-go-lucky person.

And then I realise it's Greg.

"Hi," I say, searching for any sign of recognition in his eyes. He doesn't notice me. He's looking at Jessie, totally engulfed in her words. They start to spark up an entirely heated conversation about...peanut butter?

Totally not third wheeling right now.

Just then what seems like a tin can hits me on the head, the way handballs hit me at school. I look to see Flynn smiling cheekily and Shayleigh with her hands over her mouth, completely shocked.

I smile.

"Sorry," she says. "I'm learning telekinesis, even though I'm not very good at it at the moment. And Flynn's a terrible tutor."

He shrugs. I shake my head at him humorously.

For some reason, after a while start to walk away from the extended beach shack, away from everyone, and towards the beach. The water. It's as if the ocean is pulling me closer. I don't stop until I feel the icy cold water gently pour over my feet.

I've always found the ocean intriguing - wild, untamed, unpredictable – yet the waves lap against the shore rhythmically, not stopping for even a moment to catch its breath. It was so...complex...yet looked so simple from the outside. A split personality hidden by a calm demeanour.

Alessia.

I hear a male voice call my name. Worse, I know who's voice it is.

Alessia, it's me.

"I know who you are," I snap at no one in real life.

Look, it's hard to explain, but I'm sorry.

"Get out of my brain!" I exclaim, a little too loud. The wind carries my frustrated voice away. I flip back to check if the others have heard. They haven't.

I'll get out in a second. Alessia, you have the potential to have amazing powers using your brain.

"Halt die Klappe," I say, a little rudely, but it's because I'm trying to ignore the pain that's growing in my heart.

I hear an exasperated sigh. I'm sorry. I know this doesn't mean anything to you, but I'm sorry.

I don't say a thing.

You know the conspiracy's still going to go on after this, right?

I wait for a while. Then, before the voice can return, I mumble a yes.

Don't worry, we'll see each other again. At school, and outside of school.

"Yes, I know Damon. But I don't know you at school, and you don't know me. Got it?" A lump forms in my throat as I utter these words.

Yes.

Angry, feeling defeated and stupid, I walk back to the beach shack, so I can forget all about the boy that hurt me.

And I do. The sight of my friends, old and new, young and old, make me happy again, and my previous feelings wane away. It's true that the #curryclub were pretty close before, brought together by similar standards, hobbies and culture, but the conspiracy has brought us even closer. As for the others, well, what can I say? We decide on a new name. All respect goes to the CSS, especially the founders, Lucy and her mom Amanda, but the CSS is no longer the CSS. It's the CSC, the Conspiracy Stoppers Club. Ok, so it's pretty close – but it's brought us all together. A real team, unlike what Kevin described back at headquarters.

Ok, so there's a heap of stuff we don't know about the conspiracy, but there's also a heap of stuff that we do know. And that's enough for us. Did we figure out why we were being targeted? What this entire thing really was? How everyone was linked to it? No. But, we did save 27 TCs and a very important maths teacher, even though she doesn't remember us like she used to. That's more than we planned for, and it's definitely something. It's like the strangeness of the conspiracy made us even more calm and believe it or not, normal. At the end of the day, we're still a bunch of teenagers plus a teacher. Even though we do spend the last week of our holidays practising our secret powers behind the privacy of closed bedroom doors, our brain filled with thoughts and secrets no one else knows, a connection between students and teachers so rare to find, we're still teasing each other about Gregs and Drews and complaining about Mackenzies and stressing out over exams like true nerds.

Yes, we live our life as normally as we can, discussing the conspiracy here and there, until it makes a real, solid appearance in our lives again, like it had when we first discovered it. What's surprising about it this time is that it's sooner than we think. And it's in the same place - well, in spirit. 

END