The Final Dreamer

Oddities

September 9th, 2021

The sound of my father's voice jolted me awake. "Sebastian." He sternly said as he shook my body. I opened my eyes and looked around. Everything was... normal. "Finally. I've been trying to wake you up for the past five minutes. Did you stay up late again?" My dad said in a somewhat irritated tone. "No..." I groggily replied. "Yeah, right. You're about to be late for school, so hurry up and eat some breakfast." He walked away, leaving me alone with my thoughts. I immediately pulled my right hand out from under the blanket and inspected my palm. There wasn't any blood, but oddly enough, there were a few small scars.

After performing my morning routine, I gathered my things and left. "Hm... It's kinda chilly today. Maybe I should've worn a sweater or something..." I muttered to myself as I exited the apartment complex and began making my way to school. I had already memorized the route from yesterday, so I didn't need to use my phone's navigation app. As I was walking, I came across an unusually large puddle next to the sidewalk. "Huh? That's weird... It must've rained at some point while I was sleeping." I thought as I stopped to gaze at the puddle. Suddenly, just as I was about to continue walking, a car blasted down the road at blazing speeds, running over the puddle.

I quickly shut my eyes as I anticipated some water to splash onto me. After a few seconds of nothingness, I slowly opened my eyes. There was... a large wave of ice looming over me?! Startled, I took a step backward and stared at the oddity in front of me. "What... what the hell?" I muttered to myself. It was as if the water froze just as it was about to touch me. "But that's impossible!" I repeatedly pinched my arm, in hopes that I was somehow still dreaming. Then, the ice began to lean towards me slightly, indicating that it was about to collapse. Still stunned by the sheer bizarreness of this situation, I found myself completely unable to move from my current position.

Sure enough, the ice began to fall onto me. I desperately began trying to push it back with my hands, but I knew that I wouldn't be able to maintain that defense for long, as the ice was simply too cold and heavy. "Someone! Help me!" I yelled. Alas, my cries for help were consumed by the deafening silence of the empty street.

Suddenly, a surge of purple electricity-like energy began to radiate from my hands. I was instantly reminded of the purple aura that was emitting from the strange stone in my dream. My eyes widened with awe and confusion as I began to feel an intense wave of power flowing through my arms. Without thinking, I used this newfound strength to push the ice away. It shattered into large chunks as it landed on the ground.

The surge of strength quickly faded away as my hands stopped emitting energy. "What the hell just happened?!" I exclaimed as I looked at my hands. Despite all of the thoughts that were currently racing through my mind, I continued walking to school. Any normal person probably would've stopped and taken some time to try to figure out what was going on, but I was in such utter shock that my first thought was to just continue my day normally and pretend that nothing happened.

. . .

Throughout homeroom and first period, Ari repeatedly exchanged intrigued glances with me from across the room. I could tell that she was looking forward to lunchtime. When lunchtime finally came, I made my way to the cafeteria and looked around for Ari. When I found her, I quickly approached her table. Two girls were sitting across from her, and I recognized them both; They were the other girls who called me cute during homeroom yesterday.

Ari's eyes lit up as she noticed my presence. Meanwhile, the other two girls briefly studied my appearance before blushing visibly, glancing at each other, and hanging their heads in... shame? Honestly, I couldn't really tell. I decided to strike up a conversation with Ari in order to relieve the awkward tension in the air. She seemed to be startled and flattered by my sudden confidence.

I told her about my hobbies and interests, and asked her about hers. Despite seeming somewhat shy at first, she managed to carry the conversation with a sufficient amount of enthusiasm. We quickly learned that we actually had quite a lot in common.

This conversation also gave me a chance to take a good look at her appearance. She was... surprisingly attractive. She had semi-long, luscious brown hair, which complimented her rather alluring facial features and cute figure. She was wearing a casual pink hoodie, along with black tights which complemented her rolled-up jean shorts and brown snow boots.

I tried not to let her attractiveness influence my overall opinion of her too heavily, as I didn't want to seem shallow.

When the bell rang, I quickly gathered my things and rose from the table. The two other girls glared at me oddly and began whispering amongst themselves, while Ari remained by my side as I exited the cafeteria. "Are you, uh... free this weekend?" She asked in a rather nervous-sounding tone as she softly tugged on my t-shirt. I glanced at her and noticed that she was blushing quite deeply. "Probably. Why?" I casually replied, trying to remain calm and collected despite knowing what was most likely about to happen. "Well... I was wondering if you would like to hang out, um... outside of school..."

Up to that point, I had never been asked out by a girl... I always found myself doing all of the heavy lifting, and even then, my chances of acquiring a date as a reward for my efforts were slim. Even though I had not spent enough time with Ari to really determine whether or not I liked her, I saw this as an absolute win nonetheless.

"That sounds great. Let's do it." I replied. Ari's head perked up. "Wait, really? Awesome! Text me later, okay?" She said as a smile appeared on her face.

We then parted ways, as we had to go to our respective classes.