The Ripple Effect

Normality

Acacia Taylor woke up on the 4th of December to the voice of her mother. She woke up filled with joy, the way she did the morning before, and eagerly welcomed the day. As per her usual routine, Acacia first got dressed in an outfit appropriate for the cold weather, then went downstairs and made herself breakfast before going back upstairs to brush her teeth and gather her supplies for school. After the entire routine was complete, Acacia sat in her mother's car and waited for her to be ready so that she could drive Acacia to school. It wasn't long after Acacia had gotten into the car herself that her mother came into the garage and got in the car to take her daughter to school. When Acacia arrived at school, she told her mother what time she would like to be picked up, and began walking to her first class to meet with her boyfriend, Daniel Wright, before classes started.

The two had been "going out" since the beginning of the new semester. Acacia had had a crush on Daniel since her freshman year of high school and the day before the break at the end of their first semester, she and Daniel were seated right next to each other in the only class they had together. At the beginning of the new semester, Acacia had decided that she was going to confess her love for Daniel to him that day and met with him after school to declare her feelings for the boy. After she so confidently stated her emotions, she followed the current which she had created and asked the stunned boy out. In response to Acacia's bold move, Daniel agreed with words that the girl could never forget.

"Hey, now. That was supposed to be my line," Acacia repeated quietly to herself as she approached her boyfriend who was waiting ever so patiently outside of the door to their first class.

"What was that?" Daniel asked as he overheard a sound come out of his girlfriend's mouth.

"Nothing," Acacia hummed as she gave the boy a hug, "Good morning, Daniel."

"Good morning," Daniel said with a happy tone as he returned the favour. After the two separated the bell rang and they headed into class, together walking to their spot in the back of the classroom.

Life for these two was normal. Nothing strange happened, nothing out of the blue, and everything felt natural and felt as if every decision was made on the individual's own accord. There were no anomalies and everything stayed 100% the same unless someone, intentionally or not, changed something. There was very little unordinary about the lives that revolved around Acacia and Daniel. They never felt as if something odd was happening or if some outside force was changing their lives. But, after all, that is a very normal thing to think. Normal people don't ever think that there is an outside force affecting their lives. Even while that was the societal norm of which everyone had unanimously accepted, no one had the slightest idea that they had someone to thank for everything that had happened in their lives up to this point. As far as they knew, and as far as they were willing to accept, they were responsible for everything that they had done so far. After all, that is the general idea of which every individual has. Aside from an omnipotent God or gods, the idea that another being could control the lives of other people was complete blasphemy. It was a completely absurd idea; primarily because it wasn't true.

After biology ended, Acacia and Daniel hugged goodbye before going their separate ways. Each of the two went through their classes as they usually did but with the faint glow of the honeymoon phase following behind both of them wherever they went. Classes were their usual and nothing was out of the blue. The two simply did as instructed, as was expected of them, until the lunch bell rang and they met together in the cafeteria tens of metres away from the primary courtyard at the table Acacia had been eating at since she was a freshman.

Acacia sat down at the usual table as she got out two lunches, one for herself and one for Daniel, and a book while she waited for her two guests to join her. One, of course, being her boyfriend and the other being the darling delinquent of the school: Alexis Smith. Alexis had been a friend of Acacia's since childhood, despite that the two didn't go to middle school together, the gutsy girl saved her from a bully in elementary. Ever since Alexis had decided to help the poor girl, the two had become best friends. Though it was now more of an incentive for Alexis to make sure that nobody was harming Acacia in any way, they still cared deeply for each other.

It didn't take long for Daniel to show up, he approached the table and sat next to Acacia before kissing her cheek and thanking her for making him lunch. Acacia had begun making Daniel lunches after she noticed a constant trend of him never having lunch before the second semester when the boy had begun sitting with Acacia and her friend.

Soon after Daniel showed up, Alexis confidently walked to the table and sat at the opposite side of the two love birds. "I can feel the intimacy from the cafeteria entrance," Alexis teased.

"Greetings, Alexis," Acacia welcomed the girl with a smile, "How art thou on this fine day?"

"I'm good," Alexis answered, "How are you two?"

"Good," both Daniel and Acacia they said simultaneously, causing Alexis to laugh to herself.

"You two synchronised awfully quick," Alexis joked.

"I guess you could call it new love's charm," Daniel suggested.

"Oh, ew," Alexis instantly rejected, "You two don't know what love is, I can assure you that."

"How does one understand what true love is like?" Acacia asked, curiously.

"Well, that's really not something I can describe," Alexis said, "That's kinda like asking me to describe what a colour looks like or what defines a beautiful sound. You always think you know you're in love but then the relationship ends and after you get over your heartbreak and trust your heart with another person, you get a feeling of intimacy stronger than the love you previously had. The idea that you've fallen in love gets stronger and stronger as you jump from relationship to relationship but in the end you haven't ever really been in love if the next right person comes along and makes you fall for them even more than the previous one. I would say that you could only know love after you've felt it, but you never know if you've really felt it or not."

After her monologue, Alexis looked down at the center of the table for a moment. What she had said obviously emotionally struck her and she took a moment to re-compose herself. "The only thing I can guarantee is that you two are not in genuine love," Alexis said, still looking down.

"You've been through some real shit, huh," Daniel boldly asked.

Alexis took a deep sigh before looking up at Daniel, "That's one way of putting it, pretty boy. All I'm tryna' say is you two innocent newlyweds have no idea what the feeling of love is. I mean, I ain't one to talk since I'm still in high school like the two of you, but still..."

"I see what you're saying," Acacia said, "But what if we actually are in genuine love? I mean, I know you don't think that a high school relationship could be capable of coming to know what love really was, but what if we did?"

"There isn't really a way to see if you two really are in love," Alexis started, "But I'd be impressed if you really were."

The group stayed silent after that jurisdiction. Daniel and Acacia ate their identical meals and Alexis sat across from them keeping to herself. The conversation stayed stale like that for a good while until conversation eventually sparked again and the trio conversed as they usually did. After the bell to resume classes, the three went their separate ways. Acacia and Daniel gave each other a goodbye hug before leaving to their own classes which they patiently sat through until the end of school where they met with their rides to return to their homes. After Acacia and Daniel arrived at their homes, Daniel called Acacia's house phone as had become a habit and the two talked until Acacia fell asleep deep into the night.