Chapter 2: The Crystal

Steven had woken up in the morning, at 3 am. About 5 hours before school had actually started. The reason? He simply went to sleep too early. What he thought would be a nap had ended up much worse, hurting his sleep schedule in the process. He couldn’t go back to sleep, so he decided to do a few things he hadn’t before he went to sleep. Such as showering and having a meal. Once he was done, it was around 4 am. The school had no rules against walking around it during nighttime, so he went to take a morning walk around the school. Though with the environment, it’d been hard to distinguish morning from midnight. He walked through the desolate landmarks that had just been bustling with students during the day. The cafeteria, completely empty with seats waiting for their use. The library, though rather quiet in the day, had adopted a solemn silence during the night. All of this was quite interesting to Steven. But perhaps the most interesting finding was a glow in the middle of the running track. Steven went up to the glow, and as he went closer it began to shine in all different kinds of colors. The illumination in the middle of the night was as exquisite as a great artist’s painting. Steven was marveled by the gleaming of whatever it was. He went closer and found it was a crystal stuck in the ground. The crystal was about up to Steven’s knee, and he had deduced that if it was taken out it could be taller than he. Steven decided to walk back to his dorm. He’d definitely have to tell Marty and Iris about this finding.

Period 4, Journalism

Steven had been dying to tell his friends about his crystal. Nothing eventful happened during any of his previous periods, which was eating away at him. As he sat down, Mr. Noronake told them “So the assignment I have for this week...just a simple group powerpoint project. Get a team of 2-4 and each of you will make a powerpoint slide about what you already know about journalism. It’s due on Friday. Have fun.” Mr. Noronake went on his phone, and seemed to be playing a game. Steven quickly got to telling his friends. “Hey guys, I saw something earlier this morning. It was-” But before Steven could finish his sentence, Marty had interjected. “Wait wait wait! Before that, I have something to tell you. Yesterday me and Iris saw something as well!” Marty had seemed as hyped about it as Steven was. Iris had to bring them to an agreement. “Why don’t both of you say it at the exact same time?” Steven and Marty looked each other in the eyes. They both started counting. “3...2...1…” and exclaimed “I FOUND A GIANT GLOWING CRYSTAL!” The three friends looked bewildered at each other. Iris asked, “So...do you guys wanna go see the crystal during lunch?” Marty and Steven both nodded their heads.

Lunch

The three students strided straight past the cafeteria after the class. They made their way to the middle of the track field. “So Steven,” Iris asked, “You said you saw it right? How big do you think it is. Me and Marty said that we should sell it to get rich.” “Well it’s submerged in the ground, but taken out I think it’d be taller than me.” Marty sized up Steven, very obviously. “Well that doesn’t really mean much, you’re like 5’2 right?” Iris snickered with her hand covering her mouth, and Steven sighed. “I’m 5’7…” Marty reclined his hands to the back of his head, with his eyes closed and a smug look on his face. “5’2, 5’7, what does it matter. It’s all short to me. Big 5’8, my friend.” Steven kissed his teeth. But before he could say anything else, they had been about 4 feet away from the crystal. “Wow, it’s pretty cool,” Iris said. “Damn right it is!” Marty went. “You know, we could actually sell this and make so so so much money.” He started approaching the crystal. “I’m thinking at least $5,000 per gram. And if it’s taller than Steven...Ohohoho!” As his foot was a few inches away from the crystal, he began to lean down towards the crystal. “I think even splitting it between the three of us can cause a mighty change in our lives. I’m thinking-” Iris interrupted him, only then realizing what he was about to do. “Marty, stop! What the hell are you doing!? You don’t even know what crystal that is, what if it’s one we aren’t supposed to touch.” Marty stopped his descent. “Well if we can’t touch it then how can we get the money?” Dead silence filled the air. Marty then continued, and extended his palm out, and began to feel the crystal. “Woah…” He went. The crystal felt glassy, with a warmth that felt like it could feed a child. Then, the warmth grew hotter and hotter. The crystal began to glow brighter. And eventually. “BOOM,” the crystal went. It had blown up. The explosion knocked the three students back a bit, but none of them were actually hurt. As Iris got back on her feet, she looked around the hole in the ground that once occupied the crystal. “Well Marty, answer me this, yeah? If the crystal isn’t there, how the hell do we get the money?” She scolded him. “Well there’s got to be some scraps of the crystal around...maybe we can scour the ground for any-” Marty stammered, before being interrupted. “Go ahead, look around. There’s no single trace of the crystal.” She retorted. She then sighed “Ahh, and to think I was gonna get rich quick.” “Well uhh” Steven started trying to mediate the drama. “I think it’s more important to think about why that happened rather than the money. Let’s think about the situation rather than the lost potentials, don’t you think? I mean, it isn’t everyday that a giant crystal explodes.” Marty went “Oh, well I guess that’s important too. Maybe it was like a mineral that was sensitive to heat.” Iris looked up to the sky, with her angry expression softened. “I think the sun would have triggered that explosion if it was. Maybe it’s sensitive to the electricity that our bodies conduct, like a touch screen phone.” Steven nodded his head. “Right, so then that’s one thing done. Another thing we have to think of, what kind of mineral it was. There are some that are fluorescent, but none to the extent of what we saw.” Marty had an answer. “Maybe it was a new undiscovered mineral.” Iris' scoul returned. "Well now, not only have we lost the chance to become rich, we also lost our chance to make history." Little did Iris, or any of the three, knew that by touching that crystal their lives would be forever changed. Steven eyed the hole that the crystal left. "Damn Marty," He said, as he looked towards Marty. "You really screwed up here didn't you? “Damn Marty.” He looked back up to Marty. “You kinda screwed this one up, didn’t you?” As the three disappointed 9th graders headed over to the gym, the rest of the day went pretty normally.

Afterschool

Steven wasn’t very tired after school that day. After all, he’d had his long sleep the night before. He spoke to his friends a bit about general high school stuff. They even got their Journalism class assignment done, even though it was due on Friday. About an hour after school started, the three went to visit the garden. “It’s a little crazy how this school has a whole garden.” Steven said, as they entered the garden through the back of the library. They walked through, seeing the wondrous site of vines and brilliant plants. Marty looked up to the vines that were intertwining with the ceiling and said "Wow, something like this should be at the front of the school." He smiled a bit, and turned to Iris. He found her profusely blinking her eyes. "Iris, you good?" He asked her. Steven, preoccupied with a purple flower, had asked "Hmm, what happened?" Iris shook her head. "I think I'm gonna go back to my dorm." And turned to head off. "Wait!" Marty said. Iris turned, and Marty picked the flower that Steven was eyeing. "Hey…" Steven mumbled, holding his hand out as if he needed the flower. "Take this flower," Marty told Iris, as he held the flower out to her. "I uh...I saw this website. It said that purple was a lucky color. Or was it green? It was a long time ago so I don't really remember…" Marty sighed. "Well uh, just think of this flower as a good luck charm from me. I can tell something is wrong, so I hope it gets better." Iris blushed a little, and took the flower. "Thanks..." She then walked off. "You think Iris is alright?" Marty asked Steven, who was still coping over the loss of the flower. "I hope so." Steven replied. Five minutes passed, as they walked through the garden. “I think this is where I take my leave. Peace,” Steven told Marty. “Alright, don’t die,” Marty responded. Steven walked on the concrete path back to the dorms on the side of the garden. As he was walking, he was met with a blue butterfly. He swatted it away with his hands a few times, but it wouldn’t go away. He sighed, and just let it be. It went away a few seconds after this. When Steven entered his dorm, he had just remembered of his School Almanac since school started. “Of course I’d forget. But damn...this is gonna be a bit to write down. I wish it had written itself.” He opened up the drawer he had put it in, and put the book on his desk. He grabbed a pen from a pen holder, and readied his hand for the exercise that was to come. “Alright…” He said, as he opened the book. But what happened next was nothing short of unexpected. Letters started flying through the air. They were all going in a central direction. The book. Once they made it, they plastered themselves onto the book, and were forming words. Steven noticed something about what the letters were making. “What in the…” Steven said. The page they were going on, the first page, was about him! And the page read “Steven Scriptum: A young man from Veterra, Steven is the owner of this book and is very sharp. He occasionally spends his time alone, but wishes to change that in Magula High School with his book. He planned to start writing in it about his friends, but he forgot to during the first two school days. After the second school day, he decided to write in it only to be greeted by the letters writing themselves!” And once the first page was finished, at least for now, the letters began to gravitate to the second page. It was about Marty. As soon as Marty’s page was done, the book vigorously flipped to the next page, which had information on Iris being written about. When the letters were finished forming the information on Iris, all the chaos of it came to dead stop. The air grew silent, as did Steven. The one thing that was on his mind was “I have got to tell Marty and Iris about this.”

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