A visit from the MDW
"Yoh, is this a miracle from our Lord Jesus?"
"Who are you talking to, babe? To a ghost?"
…
With his feet a little sore, since he hasn't walked outside his house for a long time and most of the housework was done by the marionette, Sebastian ambled through the hallways.
Little it took for him to realize that the two feminine voices were talking to him.
"...…"
His decision was to turn his head and keep moving.
"Yoh! Don't ignore us! You dumb b*tch!"
"Yeah, don't ignore us mister ghost!"
When the owners of the two voices saw Sebastian going away, their first reaction was running to grab him by one arm each and dragged him back to the locker where the two girls were originally standing.
Bam!
He was pushed against the wall like in a classic K-drama, but reversing the roll and by two people instead of one.
"I have no homework for you two!" Sebastian yelled, moderately, for pure spectacle.
"Even if you gave it to me I don't want it!" Hearing the very first thing the boy said, the curly hair schoolgirl at the right squeezed his cheeks with furry, "Last time you wrote a Shakira song for my Spanish homework saying it was a poem and I almost failed the course!"
"Did I? Oh yeah, I did…Hehe- Ah! Auch! Stop it!" The girl's fingers squeezed tighter after the first indication of laughter heard.
"You have lost your reputation, Sebastian… Shame on you." On his left, the blonde-haired girl also spoke. Her face was full of false disappointment.
They were no one but his friends Alexandra and Miriam— Alexandra on the right and Miriam on the left.
Sebastian took the hands off his face.
Then for pure mischief, he grabbed the two arms trapping him on the sides and put them together in a clap, making their fingers to cross.
The two girls looked at each other and how suddenly they ended up holding hands.
Miriam blushed.
Alexandra secretly gave Sebastian a thumbs up in approval.
"Well, really, what do you two want?" Sebastian sighed.
"Nothing, just checking out on you man. You haven't come to school for a while, we were worried." Becoming a bit more serious, Alexandra explained. But then seeing her friend's black circles under the eyes proved her right to be worried.
The atmosphere turned somber, as neither of both knew how to explain or continue. Fortunately, Miriam recovered from the brief brain short circuit…
"We were worried? Oh, don't include me in the sentence. Say the truth, say: 'I missed you, Sebastian! Every day and night of your vacancy'."
"This is heartbreaking, the love and concern of my girlfriend belong to another man…"
"....."
"....."
"See, I told you she should join the drama club."
"Bro, I get what you mean, but they closed that club three months ago!"
"Oh really? Huh… that's sad, I was excited to see this year's performance." Sebastian lamented as he had flashbacks from Vietnam. "Last year's was legendary."
"Since when you became this sarcastic?" Alexandra commented as she untied the uncomfortable braid of her hair and then tied it back on more loosely.
Sebastian's hand made a gesture without specific meaning, avoiding answering, then he changed the subject.
"By the way, do you know something about this MDW meeting? Why? When? How? Or where?"
The question was asked despite knowing it to be redundant and pointless. If his uncle that was the teacher didn't know anything, how would some normal students do?
"I do." Miriam joined the conversation.
"....."
Fine, next time I'll keep my mouth… thoughts shut.
"I heard from my cousin who's at Ganza City saying that their school had the same notice from the MDW, but their date is tomorrow. Then I asked my friends from the other schools… I won't waste saliva, long story short, we are the first ones to do this in all the region."
I take that back, she doesn't know much either.
"But…"
"....."
Of course, now I'm the impatient asshole.
"…I made some research on the internet and turns out that the respective departments of each country started around this time to send their agents or workers to schools. There's very little information, but basically, they come to help people to awake superpowers."
"No way, really?" Alexandra exclaimed, with 30% doubt and 70% of excitement, mainly because... the hell? Who doesn't get hyped for having special abilities?
On the other side, Sebastian was more calmed.
"So, when do the MDW come?"
"They said it'll be on class time, not in the auditorium, literally in our classrooms."
"I see…" The boy touched his chin, "That's tricky, I don't even know what class I have."
"Seriously Sebastian? We have pre-calc together." The blonde rolled her eyes.
"Oh, right, you're my Saviour Miriam."
"Can I skip Bio to go with you guys? My instinct tells me this will have some serious shit-"
"Language!" Miriam interrupted.
Pitifully, Alexandra looked back at her girlfriend with some 'not in front of my friends, mom' eyes.
But seeing her with no intention to give in, Alexandra surrendered on convincing.
"Some serious MATTERS going on, and I don't want to pass through all this alone without anyone to talk with. Can I come with you?"
"Of course you can babe, why would you even ask? You're free to do whatever you want." Miriam cracked a smile.
No saying the word 'shit' apparently. Sebastian thought.
…
…
By the moment the school bell rang, the three friends were found sitting on the chairs further back of the classroom.
This was so the teacher couldn't notice the infiltrated one.
Although that was not today's case, because the teacher didn't roll call. She only stood by the door and told all students to be quiet, to wait.
Five minutes later, a woman wearing a gray military uniform walked in followed by an enormous… duck?
All students kept silent after a unison gasp.
Because the white animal looked back at them with a smile.
Then, three more soldiers with the habitual color of uniforms also entered the room.
By paying attention to the position they were all standing in, Sebastian noticed that… the duck was the most important?
Before he could determine if that was the truth or just a coincidence, the woman in the middle spoke. She had a very soft, soothing voice, like some kind of audiobook narrator.
"Good morning folks, my name is Tina Allenson, and as you can see from my uniform, I'm a soldier of the D-Zhreta coalition, also an officer from the Ministry of Different Worlds."
"The name sucks, I know." She added after.
Some students laughed, a few maybe because they agreed but others were due to the contrast with her first impression.
At least the troopers watching over the streets were abnormally serious.
With that joke, the tension brought by all the waiting and formalities eased a little.
They knew how to deal with teenagers, that's all Sebastian could say.
"I know a lot of you might be curious about the reasons why we came here today, while others, may have some idea already. But before I can fully introduce you to the topic, I need you all to sign this non-disclosure agreement, it is strictly necessary." Tina Allenson raised a piece of paper.
"You can have some time to read it, the last thing we want in this situation is distrust. Before signing, please take out your student ID for us to verify your names. My subordinates will be in charge of that."
"And lastly, if you decide to no sign the agreement, now is the moment to leave. The only warning I can give is that if someone who did sign the agreement reveals the information given today to someone who has not, both will receive serious legal consequences."
"None of this information can be said outside, not even to your parents. Of course, we won't be as insensible as to ignore the concern of your tutors. If they wish to know what's going on, they can come to school and sign a non-disclosure agreement too. Then, we'll be here to support and provide part of this information."