Note: I apologize for making duplicates, I didn't notice a mistake I made earlier so this got posted in the wrong branch at first.
Jon just couldn't take in what was being taught today. His mind kept trying to figure out what was different, other than his change in knowledge. He knew that something was amiss, he just couldn't figure it out. His distracted mind was partly stuck on that and partly stuck on it being picture day. He realized it a bit too late and noticed that his clothes weren't probably the best for school pictures. It was still early enough that they hadn't started calling people out of class, but it was only a matter of time when he would be called. At least he wouldn't have to worry about going first, considering his last name was Madison. So no matter what order they did it in he would almost always be in the dead center of it.
"Jon, please answer what's on the board." The teacher said in a demanding tone.
He glanced at the board. 'I must be in math class' he thought as he looked at the trigonometric formula. It took him a few seconds to grasp what was written and when he realized that he couldn't answer it without knowing what was taught just a few minutes prior, he sighed. "I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention."
The teacher gave him a harsh scolding that didn't register at all with his dulled mind. Luckily, he was saved by the intercom as the voice announced the beginning of the junior class pictures. Jon thought it was strange that they were moving along a lot faster than normal. In past years, it took nearly a full day just to cover the freshman and sophomore classes and they were already on the junior class before lunch. What surprised him even more was the fact that they called for everyone A through M, so even he had to leave the classroom. He looked around and got the same impression from his classmates' expressions. Brushing off this weird chain of events as a stroke of good luck, he moved into the gymnasium where the pictures were being taken and ran into his friend Karyn Black.
"Do you think this has something to do with your wish you can't remember?" Was the first thing she asked him as they sat down in the bleachers awaiting their turn.
Seeing that Karyn noticed this anomaly as well put his mind at ease a little, "I don't know. It might."
The photographer approached the one side of the gym and began calling out last names in alphabetical order. Karyn was among them, so she had to leave Jon behind on the bleachers. He watched as the photos were taken with almost frightening precision. It almost seemed mechanical how well it was done. He shivered a little as he saw a bright flash and pulled out the box that the stone resided in. Hesitantly, he uncovered the lid and saw an incredible sight. The stone appeared to be glowing. It wasn't the blinding white he saw a few times when wishes were granted, but a dark hue almost like it was emanating some sort of black light. It made the stone look more eerie than it already was. Just when he thought of getting rid of it, he heard his name being called. In a panic, he closed the lid on the box and stuffed it back into his pocket. He'll have to deal with that one later.
---- Leon's Perspective ----
It took me longer than expected to find the owner of the stone. Although being a cameraman was merely a stunt, I still did take actual pictures as well as I could. Some of the students seemed to be surprised at how fast I was at taking them and complimented me on making their lives easier. I just chuckled and told them that the other people must not have been as much of a professional as I was. That wasn't entirely untrue, I just failed to mention that I was actually a cyborg who looks acutely like a human. I had one human eye and one robotic eye which allowed me to take near perfect pictures in one or two attempts. When the object of my search finally appeared before my eyes, I spent a little bit longer to scrutinize the owner in order to discern his character. The boy named Jon Madison looked a little impatient as I seemed to take longer than the others to finish taking their picture, so I apologized and finished what the school wanted me to do.
After I sent him on his way, I took out a walkie-talkie and radioed the person on the other end. "His name is " I glanced back at the name on the sheet to make sure. "Jon Madison. See if you can get any info out of him."
After hearing an affirmative on the other end, I put the device away and continued enjoying my little job of taking photos.
---- Jon's perspective ----
"Karyn," He asked while they were heading back to class, "did that man look at you weirdly?"
Lost in thought she replied absentmindedly, "No, but I am still curious how they got someone as good as him without paying much more than usual."
Jon stopped and put his hand on her shoulder. "I have this strange feeling that this guy has some sort of magic power."
Karyn turns around with a smirk on her face, but quickly turns serious when she sees his eyes. "You're absolutely certain?"
"I'm not. It's just a feeling I got from what I still know about magic."
Her mouth hangs open. "You're still losing your memory?"
He shakes his head. "I'm not losing anything I've known for a long time, it's the more recent stuff I'm forgetting."
"Jon I think you should see a doc oh wait, there are no magic doctors."
"Karyn it's fine. I told it to you before. From what I had known of magic, I knew that what was happening to me wasn't something I should be scared of. It'll correct itself by tomorrow."
She looks at him suspiciously. "Well, alright. If you say so."
They continue down the hallway until they have to part ways to go to their next class since it was about to be lunch. Karyn grumbled why they had to be in a classroom before and after lunch even though they weren't teaching them anything. Jon just reminded her that the freshman were too rambunctious in middle school so they needed this 'study hall' class to keep them in line. She just replied with a groan and left for her class. Jon took a quick look around him to make sure he wasn't being watched or followed and walked back to his own class.
Everything seemed normal when he arrived back as he saw some of his newer friends chatting away. He glanced around the room and saw that Sarah McMillan was sitting near the spot he usually sat in. His face distorted with disgust and he decided to sit on the other side of the room to not draw attention to himself. Much to his chagrin, it didn't help him in the slightest.
Sarah waltzed over to his desk, "What took you so long?"
The word suck-up ran through his head as he responded. "I was talking to a friend."
"Oh you mean that loser Karyn?" Sarah scoffs. "She's nothing but a dork. You should cut ties with her and join me and my friends."
Jon sighs. It's like this just about every day. "I've told you already that I don't want to be apart of your cliche."
Sarah bats her eyelashes at him. "I'm sure we could work out some arrangement." She moves closer to his face and whispers seductively. "I know you have talents that could help me. Maybe if you help me, I could help you."
Jon cringed and shivered uncontrollably as she moved away. He didn't want to be associated with someone that prissy even if it would get him a foothold into a rich family. Honestly, he didn't understand what her fascination was with him. She even had a boyfriend in the football team and a position on the cheerleading squad as their leader, so it eluded him as to why she would go this far just to win his favor. To be frank, he had just about enough of it and was about to respond harshly to her when the teacher suddenly called out to him.
"Jon, you have a visitor." The teacher said. "They're waiting in the principal's office."
He sighed. Once again fate must have been on his side as it yet again pulled him out of a dangerous situation. "Sorry Sarah." He said with a smile as he was leaving. "It looks like I'm needed elsewhere." He walked out of the room as Sarah almost visibly turned red with rage.
---- Sakura's perspective ----
She was both excited and nervous for being given her first task. She had only been with Astred and Leon for about three months and in that time she had seen her fair share of incredible things. Their present and her present time were entirely different. This world or time period, in comparison, felt a lot closer to her own, but it didn't have the same looks as she remembered it. She always thought that the way time travel worked in the movies and animes made it possible to go anywhere in time. According to them though, you can only go back a set number of years and even then, the time you arrive at may be a few years off, depending on how long it takes to finish a particular device. It then became really tedious to try and build more than one to have every important year covered, since it was never figured out how to stop the time on the machine. Apparently the machine they had used to get to the future, was set to go to and from about twenty years prior to the date the machine existed in, the actual number of years was still uncertain. However, to put things in perspective, if they had been in the year 3050 and went back to the year 3030 and then let the date change to 3031, when they eventually would return to the future they'd end up in 3051. Though she didn't understand the rest of the logistics behind it very well, she understood that they were quite far away from her time when they arrived in that ugly looking future.
Shaking the giddiness from her head and body, Sakura enter the head office.
"What may I do for you?" One of the attendants asks her.
"I came here to offer a scholarship to a man named Jon Madison." She replies.
Another attendant's eyes widen. "That Jon Madison? I didn't think he was special enough to get recruiters to come after him."
"May I meet him?"
The first attendant laughs. "Of course. Take one of the rooms to your right and I'll direct him there."
She nods to them and heads toward the numerous amount of meeting rooms on the side. They looked like they might have been office rooms at some point, but she couldn't tell the how important they were now. She took the closest one and just stood in the doorway for Jon to be able to see her. It didn't take long for him to show up and she closed the door so as to prevent anyone from overhearing their conversation. He looked around nervously as Sakura looked him over.
"You look like a decent man." Sakura finally says after a few minutes of silence. "I don't know if they told you, but I'm here to offer you a scholarship to a school."
"First I've heard of it." Jon says a bit coldly.
"Now now, this isn't a scam. I'm being sincere." She glances at the closed door and then looks back to Jon. "Although the nature of this school isn't something that should be said openly." She lowers her voice and leans forward in the chair a bit. "It's a magic school."
Jon sighs. "Are you in league with him?"
Sakura tries to hide the shock on her face from his statement as she responds. "No? I don't know who you are talking about. Could you clarify?"
"The photographer. I was wondering why it took longer to take photos of just me. Did you come here to just scout me?" He asks annoyed.
Sakura could feel her blood boil a little bit. She cleared her throat to suppress her rising fighting spirit. "If you figured that out, then I'll be blunt. We are wanting to investigate your stone."
"So it is a scam!" Jon says a bit too loudly.
"Shh! Not so loud." She tries to quiet him. "No it's not, we believe it might have come from our world and are trying to see how dangerous it is."
Jon grunts. "Trying to get your hands on the stone I see." He sighs. "Fine, I'll allow you to, but on one condition." He pauses for dramatic effect. "I get to talk to my friend about it first. She also knows about this stone."
Sakura's spirits lift as she hastily responds. "Yes, that works."
Jon relaxes. "Ok, I'll be right back then." He leaves the room quickly.
Sakura patiently bides her time when she sees a white flash just outside the door. She thinks nothing of it and continues waiting for another ten minutes before she notices the flashing on her glove. Unsure of what Astred could want she activates Astred's image.
"I can't believe how gullible you are." Was Astred's first words.
"What? Jon said he would be right back." Sakura replies.
She groans but quickly corrects herself. "Wait, you might be able to be affected by the stone. I need to fix that at some point."
Sakura just tilts her head. "What do you mean?"
"That flash of light you just saw, was Jon making a wish. Judging by the location of the energy now, I think he went back to his house."
"Then why weren't you affected?"
"Me and Leon both have magic. Mind magic is one of the more simple ones to resist if you have the slightest bit of magical power. Most everyone in our world does, but those who end up falling victim to it are usually willing participants coerced into it." Her head perks up slightly, as if receiving a signal. "We should get going. Leon just finished up and wants to meet up. He noticed the magical power surge as well."
Sakura sighs, depressed. "Looks like I failed my first mission."
"It's not your fault. Jon seems to be way too cautious. Right now we need to make sure no one else noticed that distortion and make sure the stone is safe. Once things have calmed down, we'll try a different approach."
Sakura nods, shuts off the display and walks out the door.
