Steven was an ordinary student… not among those changed.
He was another typical student though, with not too many friends. All of them were in the ‘changed’ classroom. He had short dark black hair and dark eyes, with light brown skin. A young teenager of mixed heritage, he was always a ‘perpetual outsider’…
…and fate took away the only friends he had.
When the situation first came out, he was sick to his stomach. Nobody was saying anything and he honestly thought there had been some terrible accident and his friends had died. How exactly could a teenager process such a tragedy? Those hours after something had happened… he had nobody to console him, to tell him ‘it would be okay’. He didn’t eat or sleep much as he tried in desperation to get a hold of his friends by phone or message… Clarissa, Edward, Damien, Sally- what happened to them… why was the hospital so silent? Why did they not call him back if they were still alive? Unless…
…unless…
A week had gone by with no school. A break like this would normally be welcome… but he didn’t sleep much still. Eventually, the news came that each person had been transformed in some strange way. It was like something out of a comic book! Steven was very relieved and hoped to talk to the soon… , he didn’t care if they had changed gender, become monsters or whatever it was- he just wanted to speak to them…
…but none of them wanted to talk to him. He tried to blame the ‘men in black’ or whatever… but there was something else about it. He wasn’t sure quite what it was but he got the impression they honestly didn’t ‘want’ to talk to him. He vaguely got word that some of them were not even in the same state any more and their families had gone. They didn’t even say a word to him.
“Why…”
There could be a bunch of reasons. Maybe they were too embarrassed of their situation, or maybe they were told not to? Another vague thought came to mind that he was… simply no longer welcomed in their company. He was too… normal.
Of course, Steven had to be sent to another school. Another shock to his life and one he didn’t take to very well. He endured a lot of teasing for being this ‘weird sensitive boy’… and he knew he would have to go through that all over again. He had learned his lesson though and mostly stayed out of everyone’s way, finding a desk in the back corner or eating lunch alone with his back to a wall, idly making sure he had some means of a quick escape if need be. It wasn’t a very different school to his old one.
“It doesn’t matter if my friends are now monsters… I’m surrounded by monsters all the time…”
He had tried to make some new friends but wasn’t really able to. He had very few hobbies, and the fact that he was ‘from’ that ‘weird school’ but not one of the transformed students gave him ‘at best’ a short celebrity status for his first day. He had a new class, a new teacher and a new circle of people around him that he dare not get too close to.
His attention briefly turned towards a group discussing the event. A large ‘jock type’ called Johnathan was showing something on his phone.
“I heard one of them turned into a mermaid. I think her name is Sally.”
Steven’s ears perked up on that. “What really?!” He was excited to hear a familiar name.
Johnathan chuckled a bit seeing the ‘weird kid’ suddenly become interested. “Yeah, you got a thing for mermaids?” The boy- Johnathan teased. “I bet he does.”
Steven fumed slightly. “N-No! She… she was a friend…” He said looking down. He had tried to call her… was she going to live in the ocean from now on? If he went to the sea would he at least get to say goodbye? No of course not… She was gone. He had to accept that and move on.
“Well there’s a news report about her.” John explained.
Steven gasped. He quickly used his phone… and yes. That was indeed Sally. With new information, he tried to call and text her… “I heard you are a mermaid. Is that true?”
He waited all day… but there was no reply. He tried his other friends numbers, to see if anyone would response. One was ghosting him, another flat out ‘blocked’ his messages… he stopped trying after that. He felt sick to his stomach that nobody would tell him anything.
“Why…”
Home… back home. Steven slung his backpack in the corner. He had to do some algebra homework… but he just didn’t feel like it. He heard his mother washing the dishes… an oddly comforting sound now as it was vaguely familiar to him. Though because his school was further away, and he got home ‘later’ the routine he had was still disrupted.
“I should have dinner ready in an hour or so.” His mother explained.
Steven looked blankly at it… he stared at his mother then just started to ball in tears.
“Oh my-“ Steven’s mother quickly hugged her son. “What’s wrong? Did you get into a fight?”
“N-No… the friends I have… they- they are all… gone…” He sniffled. “Mom… why did they just ghost me like that? Why… was I not good enough to…”
His mother gently patted his shoulder. “I’m sorry hun,” she said taking him to a chair to sit the boy down. “Look… your friends… I don’t know. You have to understand they have gone through something very traumatic too. They probably see you as… something in their old life?”
“They cut me out like I was just…”
Her mother heard him out through the sobs and tears. “I know it’s upsetting you but.., they are going through something much worse then you. You’ve just had to change schools. I know it’s a little hard to imagine but things will get better for you. You’ll make new friends…”
“…what if they cut me out too.”
“Well, then they were not really your friends,” his mother insisted. “Now go on wash your tears. If you like you can have some ice-cream after.”
Steven rubbed his eyes and nodded. He hated being so upset about it.. his mom was right. This was something that happened to ‘other’ people… and he just didn’t matter in that. He wanted to know what happened…
—-
Steven washed his face in the bathroom, staring into the mirror. A lonely, very lonely teenager that lost everyone… not to death but to circumstances. To emotions and secrecy, conspiracies and the supernatural. He was nothing compared to that…
…nobody.
“…I swear… I will find out what happened…” He stared at his reflection. “Please… find out what happened… find out… even if your friends will never know that it was you who figured it out… that you were the only one who could figure it out…” Could he? … but what would be the point?
…all he wanted to do now was to prove that he was part of this. “I’ll fight this… I’ll… fight.”
