“There’s nothing here,” Luke groaned after yet another walk around the top of the multi-story carpark. What could have caused the transformation? They were miles away from where it actually happened… even if there was a ‘line of sight’ to the school there was … nothing.
Steven looked crestfallen. It was… perhaps just too good to be true. Just somehow ‘stumbling’ onto the solution. They had been going around the carpark roof for over an hour, combing every detail. Occasionally Steven took a picture of some oil-slick or weird crack in a wall but in the end, it was all just… nothing.
Luke was also quite disappointed. He didn’t really like wasting time but it wasn’t as if he had any ideas either. It was too far from the school in his mind to have had anything to do with it. “Looks quite normal from the distance doesn’t it,” The blonde teen thought gazing at that school from the railings.
“Yeah…” Steven nodded. “I used to come here with a few friends. We’d watch a movie, drink some milkshakes… and we’d see the town from here.” He stared at the school quietly.
“I hear they are going to demolish it,” Luke said watching the town and the position of the sun. He guessed sunset would be in about an hour. “We should probably start heading down before we get kicked out.”
Steven clenched his fists inside his coat pockets. A dead end… another one. He was stupid to think he of all people could solve the mystery. There were people- actual ‘experts’ who probably already knew exactly what happened… “So you don’t think there’s a chance it started here?”
Luke tapped his cheek in thought mulling it over. “Well… I don’t know. It happened there… in the school… why would it be because of something here?”
Steven shrugged. “I was thinking a weapon… like a laser or something. Maybe a magical blast?”
“Ha, you are imaginative.” Luke chuckled. “Okay fine, let’s say you are right… what about the motive? What you’re talking about would mean someone ‘wanted’ this to happen… I mean that would sure make our job easier. Then we got to figure out why they targeted that area? Also… a weapon? What kind of a weapon would do… that? That’s a lot to work out.”
Steven gave it some thought. Were they making too many assumptions? He didn’t realise that just thinking it might have come from somewhere else would also imply a lot of other assumptions. It was little wonder the cops had not gone down this way. “I don’t know… this just ‘feels’ … right.”
“Well there’s no evidence.” Luke shrugged in response. “Look, I’m going to grab a soda and call it a night. I think we’re done for today.”
Steven glanced around. Had he missed something? He couldn’t see ‘anything’… he felt like there was something here… something… but there was no convincing Luke of this theory. “Where would you want to go next?”
“…Frankly, I want to talk about sneaking into that school.”
Steven blinked. “Dude- you can’t be serious!” The teenager gave a serious look. “Do you have any idea how much trouble that can get us into?”
“…do you know how much I want to be transformed?” Luke asked. “I don’t care if they send me to prison. Hell, they’ll thank me if I do end up changed.”
Steven gave a flat look. “They already tried… nobody else has changed. What makes you think you’ll be any different?”
“…because I know I’m different.” Luke stated emphatically. “Because I know it deep down. I’ll transform… and it will be awesome.”
Steven wondered if his new friend was utterly deluded. “Well… I don’t want to risk anything on some stupid crazy idea of sneaking in past what looks like freakin’ Fort Knox at the moment.” He shook his head. “We are not going to get inside. You know that. They’ll stop us way before we get anywhere near the classroom.”
“I’ll find a way.” Luke stated. “I just need you to distract some people for a bit and I’ll get insid-“
“Whoa! No way. I’m not being an accessory to that.”
“Don’t you want to find out what happened to your friends?”
“I do!” Steven cried out. “But that’s not the way to do it.”
Luke gave another shake of his head. “The stakes are what they are… and the cost to play is the cost. If you ae not willing to pay it… you’re not going to find out. Caution will make you like everyone else… without an answer.”
Steven looked down at that. He had always been… very cautious. So very careful… often to the point that he barely interacted with people. Certainly making friends, trying to avoid… people making him feel as worthless as the voice inside his own head. “..you might be right.” Steven admitted. “-But what good is finding out… if you end up a lab experiment? They’ll want to know why you changed and nobody else did… even if it does happen.”
Luke shrugged. “You may have a point there. Look I just don’t know what else to do. We wasted the whole day and we’re no closer. You wanted to know what I would do? That’s what I would do.”
Steven admitted that was true. There was also the fact he had homework to do still and even with all this investigating he didn’t want to slip behind on that. The dark tanned teen looked a bit down… “Sorry I wasted your time today. I thought.. this had potential.”
Luke shrugged. “Hey it’s fine. I know it’s not easy being in a new school. How about I invite you to our online group?”
Steven looked up. “Huh? You have a group?”
“Yeah, give me your number and I’ll invite you in. You can chat to people online and maybe make some friends that way.”
Steven was certainly eager to try. “Well- yeah sure!”
For the next couple of days, things seemed to be going fairly well for Steven. His quest to find out what happened to his old friends was… well… not forgotten about entirely but…
Things did have to carry on. He had his own life, studies and… that was okay to prioritise, wasn’t it? Maybe his mom was right… he could make new friends. He felt bad for thinking about his old school less… seeing it do distant though felt like it gave him a bit of closure.
Every now and then, he would get a message from the others in his new class… new people… he didn’t know most of them of course, but it was sort of nice to get a feeling on their thoughts and he was able to get an idea of who he might have a few things in common with. Sometimes the topic of the transformed would come up… and he enjoyed giving a little bit of information on his old school and those students. Being a fountain of unique knowledge was nice. People often talked about what they would have wanted to turn into if they were there. Some saying they would probably end up a mutant turtle like from a certain cartoon, or some cool demon, another countered with their ‘Angel persona’ and got into a fight with the demon- all in good humour.
It made him laugh a bit… maybe Luke was actually quite normal after all, with his desire to transform. Though he was quite sure most of these students were kidding… Luke on the other hand was serious. He noted how he never actually said his true desire online… and made sure not to mention it himself.
Steven wondered if he had transformed… what would he have become? Would he still have his old friends? Maybe they were all talking to each other… and he had been pushed away for being ‘normal’. If he had changed…
Well... he couldn’t help being what he was. He was just… him. Being someone of mixed racial heritage, he was without the same familial bonds that he saw in others. Socially he exited perpetually outside of… everything. He noticed it more growing up, he could almost see the ‘lattice’ of… a… well he wasn’t sure what it was exactly. It was just so much easier to make friends when one looked ‘part of a tribe’. That look was all it took… and it was something he lacked. Humans always preferred the familiar… that was just how it was.
Maybe that’s why Luke’s desire rubbed him the wrong way. His desire to change wasn’t just weird… but the ‘reason’ really annoyed him. Why would he want to change when he had everything he needed, to have what he most wanted? He could easily be popular… changing into a girl wouldn’t fix anything. If he became the most gorgeous, most beautiful girl in the world… would that really make him popular? Maybe… but to lose his humanity… that would make him ‘less’ popular… less part of that ‘tribe of humans’ he wanted to be part of. As much as Luke hated humans… he clearly wanted to be loved by them.
Steven shook his head at the thought. It wasn’t his job to play psychologist even if he couldn’t help it. He saw people from the outside… always. Teenagers, were so very shallow and he suspected it got worse as one grew up. They had each other though… and he had nobody.
A few more messages pinged… just like the old days. Messages about some latest movie or game. One asked for a bit of help with homework, a simple question on trigonometry. Steven was able to answer it very easily for her and he hoped the girl was grateful. He spent time doing his own homework and playing video games… noticing the lack of his old friends online.
The young teenager looked to his old group of friends and messages. He wasn’t sure if to type anything there. Most of the people were greyed out… The ones who were online were either blocking him, or unresponsive. He guessed they were not allowed to say anything. How he wanted to hear something!
Then Steven saw something in his game. One person- from his old life.. there was an active player! Damien was playing online. Steven tried to type a personal message to him. He had turned into a demon-girl… and was in some other state. He hoped he was doing okay there despite the rumours of having to move again. “I wonder if he’ll come back here…” He hoped so.
…that would be weird. Interacting with an old friend that became a girl? He grinned a bit-
Then he saw something… ellipses that indicated Damien was online and typing something! Steven looked hopeful and suddenly excited. His heart beat faster…
‘Stop messaging me and stay the &(&%( away from me!’
Blocked.
Steven blinked. “What the hell…?” He looked at the message utterly crestfallen… why? Why did he- er- she- why! He was alone in his room, staring at the message. He was reported for harassment and booted off the online game for an hour…
Did he… did he upset him? He didn’t mean to! He had just been worried about her- him. He wanted to type something desperately, but he was blocked now… cut off. He felt tears in his eyes- damn it why! Why were people… like this?
Then another message came on from his current group.. they were talking about the changed and hoping to make friends with them… it was at that point Steven made the biggest mistake of his life.
‘I don’t think it’s possible to be friends with the changed…’
With that one sentence… everything began to fall apart. People started to call him names online… they had found their reason to ‘hate’ him. Steven knew he had screwed up big time and wasn’t too sure what to say. He tried to apologize but the damage was done. As the outsider there was nothing more to do…
Now everyone thought Steven was just some ‘bigot’ who hated the changed…
