*Kaelith*
"The earth isn't flat, runt! It is Geoid!" Ms Spencer, our geography teacher, yelled out at Gertrude, the popular lone student, from the front of the class, but while others laughed, I didn't. I simply watched them.
I watched them not because I found them picking on her as fun.
I watched them not because I wanted to see if 'that' would 'finally' get a reaction out of Gertrude—It didn't by the way— however, I stared for a completely different reason.
And that was because I could suddenly see a strange number appear over her mass of wild curly brown hair.
And it said: No. 125.
With a shocked gasp, I glanced at a few others in the class— the class bully, Thomas, the dumb blonde cheerleader, Amy, the stupid self-proclaimed geek, Micah, and even Ms Spencer herself.
They all had weird numbers floating above their heads like some animated character— just like Olaf the snowman from Frozen 1. The numbers ranged from 120- 600, but never anything above that or beyond.
The world buzzed around me, their wild cheering fading into nothing but white noise. I remember blinking several times to clear my vision—and failing woefully. I remember staggering to my feet, tripping as my best friend, Dustin, turned sharply to stare at me.
I remember losing my footing and falling to the floor. I remember how the attention shifted from Gertrude the loser, to me— I became the new loser.
All because I had fainted in class.
All because I didn't seem so cool while losing consciousness.
That day, my world became flat.
Cold.
Lifeless.
Not some stupid name gotten from some stupid old geographer. Geoid.
It was simply flat. Like the motherfucking whiteboard in front of us. Like the stupid floor I just fell face-first on.
Like Ms Spencer's ass in that weird pastel skirt.
For the first few seconds, I could swear I saw my entire life flash before my eyes. I swear I saw my dad's face smiling down at me— his usual compassion slipping into his slant gray eyes, and my mom's, glaring at me with its usual touch of undiluted disdain.
I saw my crush, Kai, but he wasn't looking at me— he never did.
And I saw Dustin, my stupid best friend.
Weird ringing sounds filled my ears. My vision waned as tiny stars danced in my line of sight. My body trembled ever so slightly… And then it was darkness. Full out darkness.
Like how the world was before God created light in Genesis 1 v 3.
And that was one of the few things I learned in Bible school before I stopped attending.
Before my father lost his faith.
Before I lost mine.
***
I woke up with the wackest headache in the history of headaches. It felt like my skull was being cracked open with a pickaxe and glued right back with gorilla glue— only for the process to start all over again.
I groaned, forcing myself into a sitting position and my eyes widened when I noticed where I was. The school's freaking sickbay!
"Fuck! Dad cannot afford to have this added to his bill!" I muttered under my breath.
My lower lip trembled and I bit down hard on it to stop myself from crying. But did that help? Of course, it didn't.
Just then, someone pushed the glass doors open and I sat upright, half expecting to see one of the school's grim nurses walk in, but fortunately it was Dustin. I sighed. "D?"
Dustin looked like he'd seen a ghost. He dumped the two bottles of sweetened vegetable juice in his hands onto the side table and rushed over, his shiny black hair bouncing over his large framed glasses as he leaned closer.
"Kaelith, you're fine?"
He looked worried. He sounded worried.
I nodded. "I am."
Then he smiled. "You had me worried there. Everyone panicked."
I remembered the wild cheering I had heard before I passed out. The name calling… even the whistling as everyone made jokes about my fall.
I shook my head at him, my expression serious. "I don't believe that."
Dustin flushed. He glanced away. "But I was indeed worried." He said,
And I didn't argue about that with him because I knew. I always knew that he'd always be worried about me, even if it was just me finding it difficult to take a shit.
I smiled at him, even though my lips still trembled as I did. And I whispered; "Thank you."
Dustin watched me for a while and then deciding that the boring mathematical video he was watching on YouTube was way worth his time now, he turned away to watch it instead. But as he leaned away to pay attention to it, my eyes wouldn't peel away from the space above his annoyingly beautiful hair.
And that is because a number danced over his skull. Just like everyone else. But his was different.
His was No. 62.
A little above 100. And the first I've seen so far.
My heart thundered in my chest. My hands suddenly went clammy. I trembled with the nauseating thought that I was finally going crazy.
Maybe all those hard pills my mother took while being pregnant with me were responsible for this.
Maybe it was just me going mad after living 16 years in absolute frustration.
"Kael? Kael?!!" Dustin's voice snapped at me and I blinked in both shock and bewilderment, whilst staring up at him like he'd just sprouted a second head.
Again, I blinked. And to make myself appear more 'relaxed', I smiled. "What is it?"
"Your dad." He simply said, tilting his head to the side. "He's here for you."
At the sound of his voice, I glanced upward, in the direction of the door, and a smile lit up my face when I saw my old man beaming the brightest smile at me. His beautiful gray eyes were tired— they were always tired.
But today, there was something more.
Something strange.
He had a number floating above his head too. And it was No. 95.
That felt like the last straw. The final thing that broke the camel's back— my back.
A gasp slipped past my lips before I could help myself; and that was all I remembered before the world went 'black out' on me again.
I slumped against the hard bed. And I drifted into unconsciousness shortly after I heard my father's panicked voice.
He was begging me to stay, ranting about how I was the only thing pushing him to live, and how he couldn't go on without me.
I knew I wasn't dying yet, but something about his words— and his desperate pleas shattered something in me.
It made me fight when the nurses urged me to.
It pushed me to respond when they shocked me with the defibrillator.
And when I finally drifted into sleep— not a state of half death— I heard his relieved sigh.
And I was glad.