The Ripple Effect

Ripple

What are the odds of nobody out of an entire thirty-person class showing up on the same day except for two people who had spontaneously obtained affectionate feelings for one another? The chances seem less and less insane to think about when you add up the facts of who exactly Acacia Taylor and Daniel Wright were, what the cosmic value their material possessions held, and how truly important interactions between the two really were. Acacia Taylor was one of the most important people involved in damning an entire world to an existence of pure anomalies. Due to one fatal mistake she made, she was now endlessly slipping in and out of reality and dragging Daniel Wright with her every so often. Her world was now constructed almost purely out of cracks and faults to which Acacia would accidentally fall through and on the high chance that she did, she would be taken out of reality and into an anomalous variant of her reality where everything could and more than likely would eventually happen.

While Acacia occasionally took Daniel into this world with her, the completely altered world had a much more straining effect on the boy. Things like Daniel's memory and emotions as well as his mental condition would be severely changed in some form or another and the damaging changes would remain with the boy even after he returned to reality. This altered world could create it's own Daniel which acted, looked, and sounded exactly like the real one; subsequently, Acacia could never tell if the boy was real or not.

Acacia Taylor woke up on a normal school day to the usual sound of her mother's voice. The young girl slowly arose from her slumber, sitting up straight to show her mother that she was awake both mentally and physically.

"Acacia," the girl's mother began, "What's that mess on your desk?"

"Mess?" Acacia asked with a tired tone as she looked over to her desk, "What me-" At that point, the girl's sheer shock cut her off. Strewn across her desk were several shards of black plastic with small broken pieces of graphite amidst the mess. That which each of the pieces had originally belonged to was the fifth pencil she had received from Daniel the day after she had attacked him after school.

"Did you have a fit last night or something?" her mother asked in confusion.

"No," Acacia said with panic defining her tone of voice, "I was fine. I personally can't fathom an explanation as to why my desk is covered in those plastic shards."

"Can you please clean it before we leave to take you to school?" her mother asked.

"Certainly," Acacia answered as a tear ran down her cheek.

"Thank you," her mother responded before leaving the girl's room. After her mother left the girl began crying at the sight of the pencil she had grown attached to at an abnormally fast rate. The girl was confused as to what could have destroyed the pencil to such a magnitude, especially since she was using the pencil just the night before. Whatever could have completely demolished a pencil overnight was a scary question in itself. The girl didn't know how to react to the situation she was given.

After several minutes of Acacia sitting on her bed and thinking about what could have caused the anomaly, the girl decided to let go of the idea temporarily to prepare for her day at school. Acacia did as she usually did on every morning, first getting dressed, then going downstairs to make and eat breakfast, then returning upstairs to brush her teeth, hesitantly clean the shards of plastic off of her desk, and gather her supplies before going into the garage to sit and wait in her mother's car so she could be taken to school.

The ride to school was empty as usual with no worries plaguing the girl aside from the confusion and angst brought upon her in the morning still hanging over in her mind. During the ride Acacia thought about nothing and felt no need to think about anything. She simply sat there, gazing at the road her mother drove down until they reached the school.