December 4, 2023

"Parker!" Luke whispered to me, from the seat in front of me.

"What?" I mouthed.

"Mr. Furish just asked you a question." Camden whispered, leaning closer to my seat to the right of him.

"Parker, I will repeat this one time only." Mr. Furish said, looming over my desk, "Wallmont, Parker?"

"Present." I said, confidently, keeping my relaxed posture with my arm on the desk, and my feet in the aisle.

This happened a lot, and I had no problem with him walking up to my desk and trying to intimidate me.

"You'd certainly go places if you actually payed attention in class, instead of daydreaming about whatever girl you have your eyes on." Mr. Furish said sarcastically.

"That's a bit sexist, Sir, but I understand your view." I said, looking into his black eyes, "Unfortunately, I do not have any eyes on a girl, because they like to stay inside my head, with my pre-puberty non-sadistic brain."

"Too bad the part that made you focus, and helped you think without sass, didn't stay." Mr. Furish retorted with a smirk.

I might have been a little bit too aggressive with my words at that moment, because I knew that I was more than a good enough student. I had A's in every class, and did well on every test he gave me, without cheating.

But.

I think Mr. Furish thinks that that doesn't justify what I said next.

"Obviously, you'd know what losing your head is like too," I retorted, "I mean, the top of it is gone."

Mr. Furish gave me a look, as to maybe not talk about how bald he is.

He responded, "Well, if hair is a part of your mind, then that'd certainly explain why you have such a big head."

I just smiled pleasantly, and said, "It's not nice to call yourself dumb! Obviously we're talking about how little hair you have, not how much hair I have."

Mr. Furish just sighed, and then said, "Parker, I tolerate your behavior more than I should."

"Well, sir, that's more of an achievement than most others who meet me." I said calmly, fiddling with the pencil in my left hand.

"Truly, I am proud of myself for it." Mr. Furish said under his breath.

"Well, if you think like that, if I stay, you might get all your hair back!" I said with a gleaming smile.

The class giggled, and Mr. Furish put up his pointer finger to tell them to stop.

This had been the routine every day for the past 3 months. Every day I got lost in another daydream, and didn't hear Captain the first time he did role call. Then, we'd always bicker for a minute, and I'd always win, and the class would laugh. Then the day moves on.

Over and over and over again.

It'd been to much like clockwork for me. I always need change.

I try to spice things up a bit by talking like I do to Mr. Furish.

Don't get me wrong, I don't disrespect the man of anything, it's just a joke to have the class laugh, and to make Mr. Furish realize that he does a lot for us, and deals with a lot.

Lauren says I don't do it right though.

The class calms down a bit, and we have a minute before the bell rings, so Isla walks over to me.

"Really, Parker? Again?" Isla says, crossing her arms, and putting her waist at a stance.

Her violet eyes aggressively stare down at me, while she taps her pale hand on my desk.

"Again what?" I said innocently.

"Parker." Lauren says annoyed, turning her chair to look at me.

She sat catty corner to me, but still made her voice loud enough for me to hear.

"What, Princess?" I asked her, with a smirk.

"I told you not to call me that." Lauren says, putting her hand over her green eyes embarrassedly.

She flicked her thick dark brown hair closer to her right ear, and began to bite her fingers nervously.

"Lauren, biting your nails is bad for you." Isabel said, touching her shoulder carefully.

"Why are you biting your nails, do I really make you that nervous?" I asked her jokingly.

"What? No, it's nothing." Lauren said, moving her hand to the back of her head awkwardly.

"Parker, you really need to be nicer to Mr. Furish." Isla said starkly, running her fingers through her wispy white hair.

"I wasn't being mean, I was just joking around!" I said defensively, putting my hands up.

"This is no place to joke around!" Isla said, slamming her hand on my desk, and leaning in closer to me, "We're important."

"If you haven't noticed," I said crossing my arms, "We haven't been doing many important or interesting things since Cassie disappeared. I'm just trying to spice things up while we have nothing to do."

What I said was true.

We hadn't really been doing anything since we got everyone back safely.

Well, everyone except for Cassie.

It was nearing Christmas, and we hadn't done anything since before Lauren's birthday.

All we had done, was live in the same large house, and go to school.

We occasionally went to practices every week, and worked hard for the FOF, I guess.

But even then, nothing had happened at practice since Lauren and I got kidnapped.

Even that was a small ordeal.

Not for Lauren, she was obviously pretty scarred from it, but I had been abducted and living with a fake family for years, so it wasn't too out of the ordinary. I hadn't heard anything about my real family in ages. Not since Eva died.

I still kept that bracelet that my mom gave me, and never took it off. It was actually my Destiny Stone (the thing that lets us charge up our FOF powers and use them to transform(I know it's pretty weird)) and used it whenever I was bored.

Nobody had ever seen me in my charged form before. Not anyone from the FOF anyway.

I usually escaped the FOF household every night, and went up in the mountains to watch the night sky in my charged form.

I snapped out of my monologue, because of Luke saying, "He's not wrong, Isla."

I smiled a little at him, but he continued, "But, Parker, that doesn't mean you can treat him however you'd like because you're bored."

I let out a sigh.

Isabel finally looked at me and said, "Wait, what did he do again?"

She was obviously busy paying attention to whatever Lauren was doing, and hadn't heard most of what we had said.

It was probably for the best too, she probably didn't need to listen to our problems, while she seemed perfectly content.

"Parker was just bullying Mr. Furish again." Lauren said, rolling her eyes.

"Oh boy." Isabel said, looking at me annoyed, "What did you say this time?"

"I just mentioned that he was bald." I said, "Which he is, can you disagree? If anything I'm observant, not mean. Besides, I didn't mean anything by it."

"You say that every time." Camden said quietly.

"But it's only the truth." I said, holding up my finger to make a point, "I really don't want to be mean. I'm not breaking any rules."

"It's just not morally correct." Isabel said with a  sigh, "But you're not wrong."

"You should at least tell him that." Luke said, flicking his hand from his forehead outward, almost as if to salute.

"I will..." I said dejectedly.

"Good." Isla said with a satisfied yet angry face, "He should know that you respect him. If it wasn't enough to make it seem so."

"At least I'm not worse than Skye." I mumbled.

"You're not wrong about that either." Camden said, "She kind of scares me..."

"You do NOT speak of an FOF member like that, are you weak?!" Isla said sternly to Camden.

"Y-yes, Ma'm." Camden said shakily.

"I'm not old, you will either refer to me as Miss, or Isla!"

"Y-yes, M-ma'm. I-I m-mean- I-I mean Miss." Camden said, huddling back into his seat anxiously.

Camden blew on his light brown bangs, in order to get them out of his eyes, but then resorted to using his shaky hands to smooth his hair out.

"Speaking of Skye, where is she?" Lauren asked, looking around the classroom.

"Here." Skye said from behind me.

I jumped forward in fear, as did the rest of us.

"When did you get here?" Luke asked her, regaining his posture.

"I was hear the entire time" she coughed a little, "Parker."

"Ah, so you heard what he said." Isla said, looking down at her nails calmly.

"I am not worse than you, Sassy Boy." Skye said, walking to the front of my desk.

She kneeled on the ground in front of the desk, and rested her arms casually and put her head atop them.

"Excuse me, but I prefer to go by the King Of Sass." I said in a British accent.

"Stereotyping Britain again?" Skye said.

I had almost forgotten that Skye had a British accent, although, I had no idea why.

Lauren said that she wasn't from modern day Britain, and was from somewhere in the past I guess?

I had no idea how she knew about all modern day appliances and trends, because her clothes couldn't be more on point.

She wore a light blue varsity jacket, with the letter Z inscribed onto the right side, some light grey skinny jeans, and black Vans, which all blended in with her golden blonde hair which was pulled into a low ponytail. The clothes matched with her bright teal eyes, of which were pointing daggers at me.

"Sorry. I just think that the accent sounds fancy." I said casually, "It's not like we have kings in America. And I am one, so I best get an accent like one."

"You'd be a very... unique... king, Parker." Lauren said raising her eyebrows.

"Of course I would be, they don't say 'Be Unique' on every single kids TV show for nothing." I said with a shrug, "Like you, because it's December and you're still wearing shorts."

Lauren rolled her faded green eyes at my comment, and stood up from her desk to walk over to me.

She wore dark jean shorts, a red Space Camp T-shirt, grey Adidas, and a grey jacket of which her long brown hair, which reached down halfway on her back, sat awkwardly upon the hoodie.

"Parker, we live in Arizona." she said, pointing to the weather app on her phone, "It stays hot out here."

"Sorry." I said, putting my hands up.

"Why are you-" Lauren began, then understood where I was taking it, "Seriously?"

"Sorry, you know I had to make that joke." I said with a smirk.

"Yeah, I do know." Lauren said, putting two of her fingers to her forehead in annoyance.

"I think we all do!" Isabel said cheerfully, smiling widely.

I chuckled a little at how cheerful she was, and said, "I don't doubt it, Isa."

The bell rang loudly, echoing throughout the entire school.

And with that, the room silenced, knowing that class was about to begin.

"Alright class." Mr. Furish said, walking up to his podium, "Today we're going to continue Calculus."

_______________________________

"Repeat!" Mr. Furish yelled.

"Rule 1: Call you Captain

Rule 2: Because your destiny is implied into our everyday life, we need to be careful what decisions we make, some could have us end up dead easily.

Rule 3: Subpart of Rule 2- No relationships, we don't want it to end up like Romeo and Juliet, no matter how strong our love may be, we'll still have a huge chance of dying, therefore, we may not date or have interest in anyone inside the FOF.

Rule 4: We are not allowed to share our powers with others, and our charged identity must remain a secret, even amongst colleagues.

Rule 5: The Followers Of Fate is a secret. No sharing with anyone we know.

Rule 6: Trust no one. We don't know when someone has the destiny of the enemy.

Rule 7: Come to practice every day.

Rule 8: No leaving candy wrappers in the locker room, they make a big mess."

We all recited the basic 8 Rules Of The FOF in synchronization monotonously.

As we did every week.

"Good." Captain said, clasping his hands together, "Now go get changed, we are going to be swimming today."

"Really?!" Lauren said excitedly, jumping up and down.

She slipped a little on the wet floor, but then regained her balance.

I chuckled a little.

"Competitively." Captain said, as to lower her expectations.

But she still said, "Yes." under her breath.

We all sprinted to the locker room, and returned out into the main area with black skin-tight swimsuits.

The girls wore the normal strapped one piece, and the boys wore tight swim trunks.

Not going to lie, I didn't like it wearing the suit.

"Alright, kids" Captain began, "We're going to be doing racing today. You need to be able to swim effectively if there is ever a scenario where it's necessary. And what's a better way to practice other than having you guys race?"

"Yay!" Lauren yelled, immediately turning bright red after the words slipped from her mouth.

I smiled and laughed a little, patting her back.

"I'm glad someone's excited." Isla said, looking at the water nervously.

"Who wants to go first?" Captain asked.

_______________________________

After a couple of hours, everyone but Lauren and Isla had gotten into the pool.

Lauren said she didn't want to make it unfair, so she was going to wait.

I had no idea why Isla refused to get into the pool, but Captain obviously wasn't having it.

"You two girls! Isla! Lauren!" Captain yelled, "You have to race at some point here!"

Lauren looked a little shaken up after Captain directly addressed her, but Isla looked plain terrified to do whatever Captain said she was supposed to do.

"Alright." Lauren said, jumping down from the bleachers where she was sitting.

Lauren said she was a swimmer, and it was pretty obvious. She had the obvious build of one, with her long and formed arms and legs. She was very tall. She was very allured by anything that had water. She was strong, but wasn't on any of the school sports teams.

Isla on the other hand, you probably would have guessed it by now, seemed a little afraid of water. But she had the build of a swimmer also.

"Tie your hair back, so it's easier for you to swim!" Isabel said, walking over to Isla and Lauren with two hair ties.

Neither Isla nor Lauren wore their hair up very much, so it was weird to see their long hair in ponytails.

They were both handed goggles, and rested on the blocks for a minute while we conversed.

"What are we swimming?" Lauren asked, putting the goggles on her forehead.

"Depends on how competitive you want to be." Captain said to her.

"Well, no offense Isla, but I'm a competitive swimmer, we can do whatever you'd like." Lauren said awkwardly.

"Say what?" Isla said, starkly.

"I said- um- we can- um- do whatever you'd-"

"You think you will win?" Isla asked, standing up in the block, crossing her arms.

"Well, I am a competitive swimmer..." Lauren said nervously.

"And I am Isla" she cursed, "Runndel. I will win."

"Oh, crap." Lauren said, standing up on the block in an attempt to reach Isla's height, "I guess it's on then."

The girls both aggressively put on their goggles, and stood at a stance on the block.

"Alright then girls," Captain said, "You will be swimming 600 IM."

"Explain to us what the heck that means, please." I responded, crossing my arms.

"They have to swim 6 laps of every stroke. Starting with butterfly, then moving onto backstroke, then breaststroke, finally freestyle." Luke said knowingly.

"How do you know that?" Lauren asked him impressed.

"I might have studied swimming..." Luke said awkwardly, fidgeting with his thumbs.

"Nice!" Isabel said raising a fist into the air.

"Wow, Luke, do actually know how to swim though?" I said, sarcastically.

Luke turned a shade of red, and responded, "A little..."

"I'm just messing with you, buddy." I said, leaning on his shoulder, which was much higher up than me, considering that Luke was very tall.

"You're going down." Isla said to Lauren, putting a black swim cap over her wispy hair.

"Not if I have anything to say about it." Lauren said, suddenly becoming competitive as she put a cap over her thick hair as well.

"Alright, Princess!" I said, raising a fist in the air.

And she actually smiled when I did that.

Luke and Isabel started cheering alongside me, yelling in-cohesive and incomprehensible stuff.

"Calm down, we haven't even started yet." Isla said.

"Oopsies." Isabel said, calming down, while giggling a little.

"Alright girls," Captain began, "Take your mark..."

The rest of us held our breath.

"Get set..."

We leaned forward in anticipation.

"GO!" Captain yelled, as a buzzer sounded, and the girls flew off of the blocks.

Both of the girls kicked underwater for halfway, until surfacing and beginning to sprint as fast as they could.

"Go, Lauren!" Isabel yelled, cupping her hand around her mouth.

"GO! ISLA!" Houston yelled, suddenly becoming noticed by everyone else.

"Bro, I didn't even know you were here." I said, confusedly.

"Who you going to cheer for?" Luke asked Camden.

"I'm afraid Isla will kill me if I don't cheer for her..." Camden said awkwardly.

"Sure. That's why." Skye said, putting her hand on Camden's shoulder.

"GO LAUREN!" Skye yelled impossibly loud.

"ISLA ISLA ISLA ISLA ISLA!" Camden yelled.

"ISLA ISLA ISLA ISLA!" Houston said joining in.

"GO LAUREN GO!" Luke yelled, drowning out the two other boys.

"GO PRINCESS!" I yelled happily, leaning over the water as she turned to begin backstroke.

"YEAH!" Isabel squealed, jumping up and down excitedly.

We all began to chant together for nobody whatsoever, "GO GO GO GO GO"

We kept chanting as they sprinted, going underwater and breathing heavily.

They were on their last lap of freestyle, and Lauren decided to go underwater for more than half of the pool.

I had no idea how she did it, but she flip turned, and began to sprint back to the other end, her and Isla neck and neck.

Turns out Isla has enough drive to do whatever she puts her mind to.

But Lauren was a swimmer.

"GO PRINCESS!" I yelled over the chants of the others.

She sprinted into the wall, finishing a full second before Isla.

"Help then out of the water girls!" Captain said.

Isabel ran over to help Isla, and Skye lifted Lauren out of the water.

All of the girls walked over to the group of us, and we all talked and high fived.

Both Lauren and Isla were heaving, and seemed to be struggling to breathe.

"Where did that come from, Princess?" I said excitedly walking over to her.

She only mumbled a simple, "Beats me..."

"Well, anyway, you did a great job!" Luke said, walking over beside me.

She gave us a small smile.

Honestly, this is where I believe the beginning of whatever happened next began.