Chapter 1007 - 1007 Chapter 192- Epilogue 3 (VOLUME 5)
1007 Chapter 192- Epilogue 3 (VOLUME 5)
Back to School Part 2
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Reagan
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Going back to school felt surreal. I walked onto the campus with Levi, Luka, Elias, Rowan, Cypress, and Beech. We had all been gone during this time. And since we’re listed as being a giant extended family, we had just told the professors that there was a family emergency. No one even cared though. This was college, we were adults, and attendance was less important here than it was in high school. What mattered here were results.
After our first morning cla.s.s back, the seven of us guys decided to grab some lunch from the diner and eat it in the quad next to the fountain. It was a peaceful place to just sit and relax, but there was more to it than that.
From this place on the campus, I was able to see almost every building that made up the school. I saw most of the students that were here at the moment as they milled around. This was the center of the university, and that meant something to someone as young as me.
My whole world consisted of my friends, my family, my time at school, and the things that I had learned over the last almost nineteen years. I had thought that I was smart. That I was wise. That I knew more than most. But I was wrong.
After the event over that last couple of months, I knew that just wasn’t the case. There was so much that I didn’t know. So many things in this world that I am not privy to. And that annoyed me.
.....
“What’s the matter, Reagan?” Elias asked as he set aside his drink, taking his sandwich back in hand to munch another bite from it while he waited for my response. I, on the other hand, hadn’t even taken a bite yet.
“I just can’t seem to understand it all.” I said as I continued to look around.
“What can’t you understand?” Luka sounded confused.
“Life really, but not just that. Think about what happened. Think about the battle that just took place. Think about how many people died recently. And then look around. Can you tell that any of it happened? Can you see any evidence that it even affected the world?”
At my urging, they all did as I said. They set aside their food and started to look around. They saw the couple that was sitting under the tree making out. They saw the group of girls that were talking animatedly as they sipped lattes and other drinks from the coffee shop on campus. They saw the guys that were playing football, frisbee, and other roughhousing games. They saw all that I saw. And then they started to process it all.
I saw the moment that they all understood what I was getting at. At first, they all looked around with eyes that were quizzical and filled with excitement to see the s.h.i.+ning new thought that I had. Only it wasn’t a s.h.i.+ning thought. This was dark. This was deep. And I think that it said more about me than the people that were around me.
“You know what, Reagan, I don’t see it. I don’t see anything that shows that anything happened at all. I can’t even tell that they were upset about the murders that were happening. It’s like nothing has affected their lives at all.” Levi looked saddened, and he wasn’t the only one.
“I know that. And it was like that before as well. I knew that people were feeling uneasy about the murders before my parents and sister stopped them, but these people here, these students, they acted like their own little bubble was unaffected. And the horrible thing is that, just a couple of weeks ago, I was one of them. I was p.i.s.sed when my parents stopped us all from going to school. I was angry. But I understand it now. I understand that they were just trying to protect us.”
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“What is your point here?” Beech asked me, wrinkling his brow in confusion. “What does all of this mean?”
“I think it means that we’re different now. That we have changed. And that not an ounce of that change has affected the world around us. That sounded self-centered of me, I know that, but I was hoping that something that was so profound in me would show here in this part of my life as well. Aside from the fact that the exchange students are gone now, there has been nothing at all that changed in the lives of our peers.”
“I know, Reagan, I really do.” Elias leaned in and put a hand on my shoulder. “But that is just how the world is. They aren’t affected by the others that were around them when personal implosions take place.”
“Yeah, I think that I get that now. I don’t like it, but I get it.” I nodded at him.
“It is freaking me out too, Reagan.” Levi said as he took another look around. “I hadn’t thought about all that had happened recently, but now that I am, it feels strange that we are the only ones that are affected by it. Us and the others that were involved.”
I just sat there, still people watching and ignoring my own sandwich. I knew that I needed to eat it. That I had a limited amount of time left until I needed to be in my next cla.s.s, but I was just so preoccupied. I couldn’t stop thinking about the impact that this event had on the world, and what was going to happen in the future.
I think that my friends were starting to get a little unnerved by me. They wanted me to say something. To do something other than just look around like I was some sort of weirdo. They needed to know that I was OK. And to be honest, I wanted to know that about myself as well. Was I OK?
I thought that I was. I just had a revelation, and it was taking its toll on me. There was something that I wanted. I hadn’t thought that I wanted it before now. I haven’t even considered it a possibility before now. But I wanted it more than anything that I had ever wanted before. Smiling and looking at them now, rather than the people that were milling around us, I told them what I had just thought about.
“I want to make a difference in the world. I want to change the bad things that there are and help to make sure that there is nothing that affects these people again. I don’t want anyone else to have to sit here and stare at the world like I just did. I don’t want anyone else to wonder about the things that I just wondered.”
“What does that mean?” Elias asked me with his head tilted to the side.
“It means that I am going to first train to be my father’s heir. That was already set in motion, but after that, I am going to change the world. One small thing at a time if I have to. I am going to do whatever I can to protect my people.”
“Isn’t that your mom’s job?” Cypress asked me, a chip held in front of his mouth waiting to be eaten.
“I am not counting just the s.h.i.+fters or magic users.” I shook my head. “I live in this world with all the other people. All the people on the planet are my people. I am going to help all that I can. No matter who or what they are.”
“Soo, you’re saying that you’re going to be Superman? Or a politician? Or a philanthropist?”
“I don’t know yet, maybe I will be the next king of our people and work at it from there, but I know that I want to preserve the peace that these people think that they have. I want to make sure that they really do have peace.”
“Good luck with that.” Elias laughed. “Don’t worry though, cuz. I will be there with you every step of the way. Just like my dad is there for yours, I am there for you.” He held out a hand and took mine. It wasn’t a hand shake or a high five. It was more than that. It was a promise being made right then and there.
“I’m with you too.” Levi added his hand to ours.
“Me too.” Luka said, gripping the three of ours.”
“You know I’m in.” Rowan added his hand to the group.
“Duh! We’re in too.” Cypress and Beech said in unison as they added their hands to the pile.
“Let’s protect the world, like our parents have done before us.” Elias’s words should have sounded corny, but they didn’t. They sounded important and full of truth.
I think that knowing these things now, seeing what I wanted in the future so clearly, I was finally able to relax. I took my sandwich after that and discovered that I was famished. I ate the thing so quickly that it was hard to tell that there had even been a sandwich in my hands to begin with. We all laughed and acted like we didn’t just feel the call of fate moments before that. We had all known that those words we said weren’t empty promises. They were going to mean something to us. We just didn’t know how long it would take for that destiny to come upon us. It didn’t matter though. In a week, in a year, in a century, we would all be ready for it.