Chapter 1: Ignition

*beep beep beep beep beep beep beep* his alarm went as he rocked and rolled, trying his best to turn off the alarm without 'losing the sleep'. After he finally turned off the alarm, he was already too irritated to go back to sleep. "Romaine!" His mother called out, "You have an hour until I leave for work! Oh and Donte's coming over today!"

Romaine tried his best to pull himself out of bed, denying his clinomania. After about ten minutes in the shower, five minutes brushing his teeth, and another ten getting dressed, Romaine still had thirty-five minutes left. So he thought that it would've been a good opportunity to get some more sleep.

When Romaine woke up, it was at the sound of his mother in her room taking up the car keys from her dresser. To Romaine, the rattling sound of those keys are unique, even subconsciously, when Romaine hears those keys there would be no way that he confuses them with anything else.

Romaine had realized that he had overslept. He then went over to his bag, which he hadn't packed last night. So he quickly packed the essential books and then bolted down the stairs.

By time Romaine had opened the door and went outside, all he could do was watch his mom drive off, as she had already reversed out of the driveway and turned the car to the direction in which she had desired.

"Aww man!" Romaine went. Now it was up to the school bus to transport him to school. Romaine waited about fifteen minutes, then finally, the bus had arrived.

50 Minutes Later...

Romaine dashed off the bus and through the hallway. Up the stairs, then down the corridor and into the second to last class. Romaine was now panting, as he was greeted by a menacing look from his form teacher, Mr Cruise. "Late again, Green."

Romaine tried his best to not insult the teacher and went to his seat.

After a few more minutes of sitting through the teacher's talking, Romaine was glad to finally get out of it. But now he had Physical Education, P.E, to do.

After the class had changed into their P.E gears, the boys went out onto the multipurpose field and the girls went onto the netball court.

Everyone was discussing a rumor that they had a new P.E teacher. But Romaine knew that the always announce and present new teachers in devotion.

"So what do you think we're doing today?" Romaine inquired of his closest friend Dondre.

"Triple Jump probably." He replied while shrugging his arms.

"But the sand pit wasn't renewed last night." Romaine pointed out

"Javelin." Dondre suggested

"Fair enough." Romaine responded.

Just as their conversation had ended, Romaine and Dondre had turned around to see what the commotion was about.

A man was entering the multipurpose field. He had a dark complexion, was wearing a tank the said, "Hope is not something given, Hope lies within. Believe in yourself.", And he was also soaked in sweat.

"Oh. My. Gosh." Romaine and Dondre both said in amazement.

The man now wearing the signature smile that people see him with on TV.

"Can it- Can it be?" Romaine now thought he was still sleeping.

Kyle, another of Romaine's classmates, questioned, "Usain Bolt?"

The man's smile widened as he let out a laugh. "In the flesh."

Everyone's mouths dropped. "I know you have questions and all, but how about today, I play football with you? Eh?" He offered while presenting the football that they'd be using.

Usain Bolt had switched teams at halftime to make it fair. The result being a tie. But at least everyone had fun.

After P.E class, everyone changed back into their khaki then went back to class.

Now was time for Geography with Mr Gregor.

After Geography, Romaine, Dondre, Kyle, Kirk, Chris, Jake and Malcom all went to the canteen.

Because of the usually long lines, the group would just tell Malcom what they want and give him the money.

Most of the group got a medium lunch, which consists of one and a half pieces of chicken along with rice, peas, and pasta, and a Splash Drink, but Romaine just got fries and a Splash instead.

After they got their lunch, they went to the eating area and sat at their usual table.

Dondre and Romaine would discuss scientific stuff and Marvel and things like that while the others would discuss football and other stuff.

Lunchtime ended and it was now time for Social Studies.

The topic they were looking at in social studies was government. And like politics, the whole class was arguing on their opinions.

Next and Final they had Music class. Romaine was mildly bored, but managed to get through.

School was now over, and Romaine went home as quickly as possible.

As soon as he got home, he put down his bag, changed his clothes, and went to watch TV.

Abit later Romaine heard a knock on the door. He knew who that would be.

He bolted down the stairs and rushed to open the door. He was then greeted by his little cousin's smile. "Hi Romaine!" Donte greeted jovially.

"Sup Cus?!" Romaine responded as he went to hug him. "How's Grade 5 treating ya'?" Romaine inquired of him.

"Great! The school is fun too! And the best part about my transfer is that I pass your house to go home now, so I can come here everyday!" Donte replied.

"Woah woah woah woah!" Romaine stopped Donte. "How 'bout we just take it easy k? So one day a week for now, eh?"

"Alright." Donte murmured with a frown now on his face.

"Hey, I didn't say we can't have fun now."

"Yaaay!!!" Donte rushed past Romaine and started going all around the place looking at and touching stuff.

"Oh brother." Romaine murmured to himself.

One hour later...

"Umm... Donte," Romaine called his attention, "It's 6:24. I'm pretty sure your mom's worried. You should probably head home now."

"Awww man!!!" Donte frowned.

Romaine saw Donte off. And not too long after, Romaine's mother came home.

Romaine went out to the driveway to meet his mother as he usually does.

He greeted her and took her stuff into the house.

"You seem extra happy tonight." She observed.

"Yeah 'cause I met the most awesome teacher I could ever have!" He explained

"And who would that be?"

"Usain Bolt!!!"

"What?! Wow. So he's a teacher now huh?"

"Yup."

"Ahh...I remember the good old days."

"What good old days?"

"Oh...nothing. It's nothing."

"O...k... then. Wulp! I'm going up to my room! See ya'!"

Romaine's mother chuckled, "They grow up so fast."

Up in his room, Romaine was on Discord with his friends.

After spending time on Pinterest, WhatsApp and Wattpad, Romaine finally went to bed at 11:36PM.

The Next Day...

*Beep beep beep beep* Romaine's 5:30 alarm went. "Ugh." He went, as he struggled to fight his clinomania.

"Romaine! One hour! And I'm leaving early to get gas!" His mother informed him.

Today's schedule for Romaine was Biology, Information Technology, Career Development, Mathematics and English Literature. The order of which he has them being respectively, and lunchtime separating Career Development and Mathematics.

Romaine hastily packed his bag and went into the shower. He then put on his clothes and did the rest of things he would do, except today, instead of sleeping, Romaine decided to look through some movie trailers for movies that are soon to come out to Palace Multiplex.

At the exact time when Romaine's mother was supposed to leave, Romaine bolted down the stairs.

When he went to the driveway, there was no car in sight. Come to think of it, Romaine hadn't heard anything moving around the house up until fifteen minutes ago.

-And I'm leaving early for work!- rang in Romaine's head. "Ugh!" He went out of frustration.

Now for him to wait on the bus to come.

One Hour Later...

Romaine finally reached to school. He spurred off of the bus all the way to class.

"Morning Sir." He greeted his teacher.

"Morning Green, take a seat." Mr Belanfante replied.

Romaine went over to his seat and plopped right into it.

Romaine found it very hard to stop panting.

After Biology and I.T. , Romaine was now in Career Development class.

Mr Dixon, the school's head Guidance Counselor and Grade 9-13's Career Development teacher, showed up quite on time.

What they were looking at in class was setting goals toward you desired occupation.

But Romaine didn't know what he wanted to be, so the only goal he had was graduating. Dondre on the other hand, wants to be a Software Engineer.

Romaine was now just questioning people on what they wanted to be.

Kyle said that he wanted to be a Health Inspector.

Suddenly, the wall that was facing the outside of the school got cracked. And from outside came in a Figure.

Of course everyone ran out of the class, even Mr Dixon.

"My amulet!" Jessie shouted. "My amulet fell off!"

"I'll go back for it!" Dondre volunteered.

"No! I'll do it!" Romaine said "You guys go on ahead! I'll catch up!"

As the group went on, Romaine made a U-turn without diminishing his speed.

Romaine didn't think he could go any faster, but he did.

When he had reached back to the class, the figure was still there.

When it caught eyes on him, it threw shadow balls at him.

Romaine barely dodged them as he took an analysis of the class for the amulet.

Finally, he located it near to the back of the room.

As Romaine made his way over to it, the figure began to get irritated.

By time Romaine took up the amulet and looked back up, there was a big shadow ball heading right for his face.

As Romaine flinched to block, he let out a shout. Then something sparked in his brain.

Romaine was there in the blocking position with his eyes closed for about five seconds before he wondered why he wasn't hurt yet.

When he finally opened his eyes, he found that everything was moving at an exponentially slow rate. The ball was about a meter from Romaine's face, moving at the speed of a snail.

Romaine took the opportunity to run toward the door, but before he left, he wanted revenge.

Romaine ran over to the figure and gave it two punches to the gut then a spin kick to the head.

He then ran out to the multipurpose field, which is where the school must evacuate to in emergencies, to give Jessie her amulet, but things weren't speeding up .

With everything still moving superslow, Romaine didn't want to waste the opportunity standing one place.

So he ran back into the school and brought some of the other students out.

Things began to speed up, but Romaine didn't want to stop now.

He ran back over to his class to check-up on the shadowy figure.

By time he reached to class, everything was normal speed again, and his body was in pain.

As the figure approached Romaine with a shadow ball, it finally experienced the punches and kick that Romaine had dealt it earlier.

The figure was apparently thrown to it's right.

Romaine let out a snicker then began limping out.

Meanwhile at the multipurpose field, all the classes were taking rolecall.

As some people were still Abit confused as to what happened: when Romaine ran past them, instead of seeing him, they say Dark blue lightning flash past in amazing speeds.

In the rolecall, everyone in 9M was worried because Romaine didn't come back yet, especially Jessie; that amulet meant the world to her.

Eventually, everyone began seeing someone limping through the gate of the field people began to talk amongst themselves.

Romaine mustered the strength to get up. He walked over to Jessie and handed her the amulet. "Here." He said.

With most of the Grade 9 classes destroyed, the entire school got a half day so that the teachers could assess this.

The Next Day...

Romaine had gotten up early, healed up from yesterday and filled with energy and ecstasy.

Romaine got ready in twenty minutes. He knew his mother wasn't up yet, so he was very swift and quiet in his movement.

And this morning, he decided to walk to school. Instead of the usual One and a half hours, Romaine only took forty-five minutes.

When Romaine got to school, he noticed a lot of construction vehicles. And that there were no other Grade 9 students either, but he thought he was just early.

Before he got to class, Romaine was intercepted by Mr Dixon, who informed him that all Grade 9 students would now do their classes on the school's website.

After a long walk back home, Romaine was now annoyed. When he entered through the front door, he saw his mother making her porridge like she does every morning.

"Hey Mom." He said.

"Aww, you're up early. That's what I like to see in my little man." She commented

"Yeah I went to school and came back. Apparently we're supposed to go on their website now."

"Oh I know." She said with a smile, "The school called me about it yesterday and let me know. When I came home you were already sleeping. I'm glad you're ok though."

"Yeah." Romaine muttered while walking to his room.

When in his room, he threw down his bag and fell on his bed. Just then, his alarm went off. *Beep beep beep beep beep beep* The same scheduled alarm that usually wakes him up.