“Owen!” Eric ran towards me as soon as I entered the room. “Did you finish the assignment Ma’am Bea gave us?” He had a piece of paper clasped in his right hand.
Eric is a tall teenage boy a year older than me. He is always better than me, but there are times that we are equal which is what makes us close friends. He was finishing his assignment as I came into the classroom.
“Oh, uhm…” I paused for a moment trying to think if I actually did my Math assignment. Then I checked my bag as I sat down on my chair. “I think I finished it last—” Eric took my paper from me after I found it in between a novel about magic and my math book. “Hey!” I took a firm grip on my paper as he tried to yank it out of my bag.
“Come on, I haven’t finished mine yet,” said Eric. “Our first period is Math! Ma’am Bea will be furious again.” He stood in front of me, begging like an orphan boy left out in the streets.
“Sheesh.” I finally let go of my grip and let him take my paper. “I just can’t believe that our teachers still gave us assignments when it’s four days till Summer!” I went over to the door and made my way to the bathroom. “Just put it back in my bag right after you finish.”
“Yes, boss!” Eric said cheerfully.
Oh, how could I forget to introduce myself. I am Owen Star. I’m fourteen years old and I live in a city called Greenfield which, as the name suggests, is a very grassy town. I go to a school called New Hope High. There’s nothing really exciting here, just a plain old school with normal activities. Sometimes, they do have activities that are fun to do, but that’s it. I don’t really want to talk about my parents because they don’t want to talk about my parents. Yeah, I mean my real parents. My “step-parents” never really told me a straight answer whenever I asked them about my real, biological parents. But let’s change the subject. What you are about to read is a story about how yours truly found a new chapter to write in the story of his life. And back to the story…
After school, Eric and I decided to meet at his house to play a few shooters on his PS3.
“Yo, Star!” I heard someone calling out my name as I walked home. “Are you going on a date with your girlfriend, Anna?” He laughed idiotically but unfortunately, nobody noticed. When I turned around, I saw that it was Brutus Sylvester, our official class bully.
“Shut up,” I said turning my back on him.
“Aw, come on,” he said looking considerate. “Can’t you bring her back from the dead using your books about magic? Hmmm?” He was picking up a novel about a person with a magic secret that fell down from my bag.
“Give that back,” I said, sounding so tired. “And she didn’t die, she just disappeared without a trace.”
The girl he was talking about was Anna, a fourteen year old girl who went to the same school as I did four years ago. We were really close friends at that time. But then the tragedy happened. Two years ago, she suddenly stopped going to school. That’s when we found out that she disappeared without a trace. Her parents told me that she wasn’t in her room one morning and was never seen again. All they found was a note which I managed to get my hands on. It said, “He has returned. The New Heralds shall be found,” in a very well-written manner. I never really understood what it meant, but it was the only thing that I could hold on to.
“Whatever.” He threw the book back at me as he ran towards his friends.
I slipped as I caught my book and everybody laughed at me. As usual, I ran away in despair with a tear running down my eye, the same as I did with all the embarrassing times I’ve experienced. That’s because I can be very bashful at times. But let’s move on with the story.
When I got to Eric’s house, I took off my shoes and put it on the shoe rack before I ran up the large staircase with a majestic grand piano inconspicuously hidden under its shadow. His house was very big, despite the seemingly small-looking stature when you look from outside. That’s why I always think, “It’s bigger on the inside!” whenever I go to his house. The living room was amazing; it was large but looked kind of messy giving off that feeling that his family used to own a mansion but went bankrupt. Once you get to the rooms, you’d be pretty disappointed because they were mostly small despite the large area occupied by the living room. His room was tight and I could hardly believe that his older brother was sleeping in that same room. But their beds were a double-decker anyway.
I never really minded the small space as long as it was comfortable. We just sat back on the small, comfy sofa and opened up Call of Duty: Black Ops on his PS3. We were so tired from all the schoolwork that we had so much fun playing. It took us two hours playing until we eventually got tired and watched TV instead. Luckily, Fairy Tail was on and the episode today was the one about the Grand Magic Games. It was already 6:30 in the evening when my mom called me.
Three days later, it was finally time for our farewell party. I can’t go into much detail about that because there is too much to say, but all I can say is that I had a lot of fun.
The next day was finally the start of our summer vacation. Rather than waking up at six in the morning, I woke up at eight instead.. But when I looked closer at my digital alarm clock, I noticed it was already ten in the morning. After I looked at my clock, I immediately dashed to my calendar and looked for the date today. It was the fifth of April.
"Hmm... Yeah, I better go get breakfast already," I said with a hoarse voice, just as always in the morning. I went down the stairs and headed for the dinner table....
I walked past mom on my way to the table and I didn't even notice her because I was kind of lazy at the moment, the usual morning lazy. She was just sitting on the sofa and watching TV along with my Uncle Will and Eric. I realized both of the visitors were there after I finished eating.
"Oh, morning, uncle. Hey, Eric," I said in a very tired manner followed by a yawn. After that, I decided to go back upstairs to clean myself up.
"Owen..." Mom called for me right before I went up the second step of the staircase. "Do you have anything important to do today?" she asked with her arms crossed.
Now I know something is wrong. That was obviously a sarcastic question meaning that I obviously forgot to do something today, which also has something to do with uncle and Eric. I stopped for awhile and thought deeply, but nothing came up.
"Uhm..." I tried to think deeply again. "You know what, maybe I'll remember after I take a bath." I started walking up the stairs again.
"Yeah..." Eric stopped me. "I don't think there's time for that. Uncle has to get back home before lunch."
"Yeah, sure." Clueless, I simply waved goodbye at uncle and continued on upstairs, "Bye, uncle!"
"Oh come on now, Owen. Let’s go! We’re going to be late for lunch! It’s a long drive you know” He stood up and picked up two large bags which I didn’t notice until now. “Hehe,” he giggled, “looks like you forgot again, didn’t ya?” Eric snorted.
“What.” I simply stood up in the staircase staring at the two bags.
Fifth of April. April 5. April. Five. Oh Yeah! Today was the day my uncle, Eric, and I were supposed to go to uncle’s home where we’ll spend our vacation at!
“Oooh… Wait!” I ran upstairs toward my bedroom. Then, I realized I already packed. I had one large backpack filled with all sorts of stuff and one trolley filled with my clothes and others.
Hehehe. I forget things really easily. There was one time I went to school thinking that I’ve taken a bath, which I did, and later realized that I didn’t use any shampoo or soap. I just simply walked into the shower room, turned on the shower, and drenched myself. One minute later, I simply walked out thinking I cleaned myself properly. Luckily, I didn’t smell that bad for the rest of the day.
Anyway… After I put my bags in uncle’s van, I took a bath. It was a fast and hasty bath. I was too excited that I’m finally getting to go to uncle’s old home back in the Malaya Forest after all those years. After I got out of the bathroom and fixed myself up, I ran straight out to uncle's car, where uncle and Eric were waiting. Now this was the start of a brand new adventure together with my uncle and my best friend, Eric. Little did I know that this little trip is going to be more than just a little vacation.