Their Fandom, Their World

0n3 D4y

We have always walked since we were little. And if we can't walk, we walk in the spirit. We always walk towards something, goals, fate, a greater version of ourselves. But this is how I walked for a greater good.

I walked into school on the cold January morning, it was the day after winter break and the school was abuzz about all the things people did over the vacation. I had a pretty basic one, Christmas and then a family party on new year's.

I walked into my ninth grade homeroom and greeted my best friend Isaac, he had Carmel colored hair which was always very messy and square wire-rimmed glasses. He was also very tall just like me. 

He greeted me like normal, "Hey black cloud." That was his way of saying hello every morning, on account of my thick black curly hair. I smiled and sat down next to him.  "Have you seen the new kid?" Issac questioned.

"No, why? I didn't even know there was someone new."

"Well, he came in today wearing a hoodie and jeans all black, and an air filter mask. The only clothing items that weren't black was a pair of gold-colored headphones. Weird right?"

"Yeah, weird." I sighed. Issac knew all about what was going on in town and especially in school. He was probably going to tell me some very personal detail about the person, or some strange fandom that they're in.

"Oh, that isn't even the weirdest thing." Then he whispered in my ear, "He has a bearing that I have never seen before, it looks all glitched and there is a number below it! And when I try to get a description of the fandom all it says is "Walker and then that number!" I think the number was like 237- something!

I looked at him wide-eyed, a fandom we haven't heard of? Such a thing was very rare. You could always tell if it was a new fandom, but this was a bit off the charts.

Then Issac pointed to the door, "And I guess he is in our homeroom."

I looked at the door and saw the kid that Issac had described to me.

Issac gave me a nudge and whispered, "Check his fandoms." I discreetly touched my left temple with three fingers. My vision darkened, and I could view everyone's fandoms just by looking at them. I looked around at my classmates to makes sure the implement in my head was working and finally looked at this kid. He had some pretty basic fandoms, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, a couple different T.V. shows, and the strange symbol with the number. It looked like a W with a pointed arch through it, and the number was 23773.

"Should we go talk to him? Maybe ask him about that fandom?" I was very curious about this new person.

"Sure, but not right now, class is about to start." I looked at the door and saw that the teacher had entered the room. I sighed, it was going to be a long morning.

***

I waved goodbye to Issac and walked to my next class. It was mid-morning now, and I had math class next. I rounded a corner and bumped into something black. It was him.

"Oh sorry about that." I apologized. "You're new here right? Hi, I'm Dom, Dominic." I held my hand out for them to shake. He looked at my hand and took it in a bone-crushing grip, shaking it.

"I'm, Virgil."

"Nice to meet you, Virgil! What class do you have next? You looked a little lost."

"Yeah, I am. I have science next, in room 24B."

"Ok, I know exactly where that is. So you want to go around this corner, go down the hallway by the bathrooms, its the fourth door on your left."

Virgil looked at me and even behind that weird air filter mask, I could tell he was smiling in gratitude. "Thanks, I owe you one."

"No problem," I was about to say bye and leave but I remembered that I still wanted to find out about that unknown fandom that Virgil was a part of. "do you maybe want to come and eat lunch with me and my friend today?" I thought that this was the perfect way to be able to talk to him about that fandom.

He paused for a bit before nodding. "See ya' then I guess." Then he adjusted the plain black backpack on his shoulder, and he was off.

I smiled and headed to my English class.

***

It was almost the end of the day, and it was time for gym class. All of the boys went on one side of the basketball court and the girls went on the other, technically the gym classes were co-ed but depending on what you wanted to do you were split up into two different groups. The "girls" side usually did yoga or dance or basic gymnastics or something like that, while the "boys" side usually did exercises like pushups and stuff, and at the end, we would play something like basketball.

I noticed that Virgil was on the boys' side, I waved to him but he didn't notice me.  Soon the coach was telling us to line up for push-ups.

After 45 minutes of working out, the coach allowed us to play basketball.  We separated into teams and got into position.

What happened next we never saw coming.