Stories by me

Preposterous prompts #1

Prompt: You enter a classroom and everything is normal except everyone's water bottle has fallen down. 

"Mind if I take your fries?" Georgina enquired. "You don't seem interested in eating them." She was seated across from a her best friend in a buzzing cafeteria at their school, everybody chatting excitedly about the concert taking place that evening. 

The tan boy sitting across from her nodded. "Sure G. I'm not hungry." 

"Fraser!" Georgina protested, as the boy took a swig from her bottle. "Get your own water!"

"Can't be bothered." he said lazily, moving away so that it was out of her reach. As Georgina tried to get it back, she noticed her classmate Eric Vasquez dashing in their direction. But before she could warn Fraser, the bottle was knocked out of his hand as Eric ran into him. Eric caught it, but his momentum made him fall to the floor, the bottle's contents spattering onto the tiled floor. A few snickers echoed across the room. 

Fraser helped up a slightly flustered and very displeased Eric. 

"What the hell!?" a voice echoed from across the cafeteria, where another bottle had fallen over and soaked a students sandwich. 

"Did you see that bottle fall down at the other table? That was a crazy coincidence!" Georgina exclaimed, approaching the boys. 

"I didn't- I was too busy falling on my face and ruining my favourite shirt." Eric stated, with a pointed glare directed at Fraser. 

"You were the one barreling down the cafeteria man, don't put this on me." Fraser said, picking up the now empty container. "If you need an extra shirt to change into, I have one in my locker." 

Eric decided to follow Fraser to his locker and with a quick goodbye, Georgina and the boys parted ways. 

Georgina headed to her class, where she had left all her belongings before lunch. She made it there early, only a few students in the room, moving towards their places.  

"No! No! No! I spent five hours painting that!" Georgina's classmate Emma cried out. She was standing over her brand new sketchbook that now had a colourful smudge where there was once a scenic sunset. Emma's stainless steel flask lay over it, as if knocked over by somebody. 

"Who did this?" Someone yelled from across the classroom, holding up his soaked novel. 

"My bag is wet too!" another one of the students exclaimed. The classroom was soon full of confused and irate protests, chorusing threats to whoever executed this horrible prank. 

The rest of the day went by like this, miffed teenagers accusing each other for pulling off this "stupid prank". 

Soon the sun was setting over the city, causing an orange hue over the buildings, just like Emma's painting. It was time for the concert. 

Fraser picked Georgina up in his familiar second hand car, and she insisted they take Eric along with them to the concert; his house was only a few minutes away from hers. 

"I feel bad for him. I saw some people laughing at him in the cafeteria, after he fell. Plus I texted him already, and told him to get ready. He has a ticket but didn't feel like going. I managed to convince him." Georgina said, gazing outside the window as the neighbourhood whizzed by. 

"You texted him already? What if I didn't want to pick him up?" Fraser glanced towards her in exasperation. 

"But you do want to pick him up. Plus, you owe him." she said pointedly, not looking away from the window.

"I do not owe him! He owes me- A shirt." He protested, and after a pause added nonchalantly, with a smirk, "Oh wait... I get it. The need to take him along, the sudden urge to make up to him, changing plans for him, frantic texting... You have a crush you haven't told me about." 

She now turned to face him. "What? No! That's ridiculous. I barely even know him. I do not have a crush on him, Fraser." she stated, the rising colour on her cheeks telling him otherwise. 

"I totally believe you." Fraser said, the sarcasm imminent in his voice. "Then how do you have his number?"

"I asked him during psychology." she said, sounding flustered. "Slow down, this should be his place" she stated, conveniently changing the topic. After typing a quick text to Eric, she turned towards Fraser. 

"Don't make this any more awkward than it needs to be. I swear if you even try  to embarrass me-" she broke off as she saw Eric approach the car. 

"Hey Eric!" Georgina said, her tone completely different from the threatening one she used with Fraser. 

"Hi Georgina. And Fraser. Thanks for picking me up bro." Eric replied, getting into the backseat of Fraser's car. 

Fraser gave him a stiff nod and then they were off. 

After about an hour of bad music, small talk and awkward silence, they finally made it to the venue. 

Although they had reached early, there were already various groups of people milling around- some buying snacks and drinks and others waiting for their companions near the parking lot. The sun had set and the darkening sky was illuminated by the bright led lights installed around the large field. 

After getting a few snacks, the three of them made their way towards the entrance, where tickets were being checked. 

"Stupid phone!" Eric muttered to himself as he aggressively tapped his screen which seemed to be frozen. As line shortened, he desperately fiddled with the device, trying to open his E-ticket. In his Frenzy, the phone flew out of his hand and landed with a soft thud on the damp soil. 

There was a chorus of gasps around them as various phones landed on the ground, including Georgina's black one and Fraser's Gray phone.

"Did you- it can't be..." Georgina sputtered, reaching for their phones. Her mind flashed back to Eric falling with her bottle in the cafeteria and then finding everyone else's bottles fallen down later on. 

"Bro... what the hell" Fraser said slowly, eyeing Eric as if he were an odd specimen. 

Eric stood stunned, nobody else paying attention to him as confused and shocked murmurs rose around them. 

"...as if a powerful magnet-"

 "...as if someone pulled my phone out of my hand.."  

Echos of the words "ghosts" and "demons" and "aliens" filled the night. 

Fraser, with a protective arm around Georgina, gestured for Eric to come along with them, away from the growing crowd.

"What just happened?" Fraser asked Eric, disbelief and confusion clear on his face. "That couldn't have been a coincidence. Plus what happened in school today..." he broke off.

Eric stood awkwardly away from them struggling to find words. "I- don't know... It's happened before... never in such a large crowd though. When I'm angry or excited. I thought it was a coincidence- it can't be. Somehow... I seem to be able to control- uh- many objects of the same kind." 

Georgina looked at him in disbelief. "Tell me this is a joke," she gushed, "how did you do it? Magnets? That must be it. A strong enough electromagnet can-" 

"No Georgina. It was me. I felt it." Eric cut her off, his tone dejected. He suddenly felt exhausted. "I- I don't know what's wrong with me..."

Eric could see the fear building in Georgina's eyes. Apparently Fraser saw it too. 

"Let's go G. I don't feel like attending the concert anymore."  Fraser said, leading the shocked girl towards his car and away from Eric before the situation got any worse. Georgina went along with him, after a forlorn lingering glance at Eric. 

Eric stood in the parking lot for a long time after they left, concert-goers filtering past him into the field. As the concert began, and cheers echoed into the night, the boy walked off into the darkness.