See You in Two Years

Chapter 1: See You In 2 Years

Azurah Middle School

“Alright everyone! Have you all decided on which high school you are going to? If you are one of the lucky individuals attending Azurah High, then I will be teaching P.E there as well!” Mr. Collards said to everyone wrapping up the class that was in session.

RIIIIIIIIIIIING

The school bell sounds. One by one, students began grabbing their belongings and shifted out of the gymnasium.

“Thank goodness! I was scared that we would have to face the horrors of those stupid Runner’s Tests I saw on TipTop.” Shivers rushed through the student’s body reflexively to try and ward off their possible destiny.

“Right???” Another student exclaimed with his eyes widened, also relieved from the possible terrors.

Mr. Collards finished up his final sayings to students that would stay and those that would go in the next year. The two students from earlier gathered their things and began to head out of the gym along with the others, continuing their conversation.

A moment of silence falls over two boys that have stuck together since they were in elementary.

“You don’t have your stuff together yet? Weren’t we gonna hang at mine?” Shinya playfully punches Ezra’s arm a few times while presenting a big smile on his face .

“……” Ezra’s lips shrivel up as if he had sour candy in his mouth. Droplets of sweat began to trail down his face.

“????” Shinya deeply stares at him waiting to hear him out. Within his gaze he did not blink, not even once until he heard what he wanted to hear.

‘Geez, there he goes again staring a hole through my brain with those creepy eyes…’ He lets out a deep sigh to prepare the bad news. ‘guess I’ll tell him now.’ Ezra surrenders to his opponent's attack of the death stare.

“Well, turns out III’m gonna be going to another high school than ... .what we planned…” Ezra mumbles while drifting his gaze off into the far distance of what ifs.

Shinya grips his friend by his collar.

“Bro. Why am I JUST hearing about this?!?? We made a promise to attend the same high school…”

Ezra gives a nonchalant side eye in Shinya’s direction. “My mom, she got a new gig in Shanghai. So we’ll be living there. Our flight leaves tonight.” Ezra collects his belongings and tossed Shinya’s bag at him. The two of them end up being the last to leave the gymnasium besides the instructor.

“Well, I guess we will text? Hop on some Oplex? Like old times?” Shinya asked him with a slight grin expressing a bit of disappointment. He reached his hand out waiting for Ezra to meet him half way.

“Yeah.” Ezra replies, then acts as if he doesn’t see his friend’s hand waiting for him.

Shinya chokes on the air that he breathed, offended and in disbelief of what he just had to go through. ‘Hol ma hand?’ The thought while having a teary eyed expression.

“Kkkk-” Ezra slips out a small laugh and entertains the hand that was still waiting. The two friends did a handshake that they always did.

“I knew you wouldn't just cook me like that. After all the damage you've already done.” Shinya pouts and cradles himself for comfort.

Ezra scoffs “You are so dramatic” he makes his lips into e puckered his lips tightly like a fish.

The friends make their way out of the gym and walk down the main hall to exit the school. At the last moment where they will see each other for a long while, they both wave saying their goodbyes.

“YOU BETTER BE ONLINE!! CROSS SERVERS, THEY'RE A THING NOOOOWW!!” Shinya yells at the top of his lungs to his best friend. Shinya gets in the back seat of his parents car.

Ezra responds back with a thumbs up long enough for Shinya to see, then he gets into his parents' SUV.

—3 years later—

Azurah High

Students are coming back from their spring break. Everyone meets up in their first period class, gym.

“Why is everyone gathered here like this? Are we getting a free period or something?” One classmate asks.

“What? No sports today?! Gotta be cap.” Another classmate says in disbelief.

Usually students are divided into their own cliches in the first period. More and more students began to converse with their speculations of what the news could be. As the gymnasium became more rowdy, Mr. Collards finally decided that it was about time to let the cat out of the bag.

“Listen class! Pipe down, pipe down. Today we have a returning face from a little while ago.” Shinya's gaze fixed onto the teacher, anticipating what words he was going to say next. “For those who went to Azurah Middle, you would know this face. Even though he looks so much different now.”

A tall figure walks from behind one of the entrances to the gym. Shinya could not believe what was before his eyes, but also wasn’t surprised at the same time. This reunion was overdue in his mind.

‘This bastard’s tryna aurafarm with an entrance! Walking all cool with his long, wavy dark brown hair swaying with each step he’s takin….’ Shinya’s jaw drops open after a realization.

‘Wa- Wavy?!?? I thought it was always straight ‘ Shinya begins to recall the time Ezra told him that his hair pattern changes when it gets long. ‘And here I am almost mistaking him for a pro basketball player or something’ He then places his hand over his face and lets out a groan.

The mysteriously handsome student finally introduces himself after making such a grand entrance.

“My name’s Ezra, I used to go to Azurah Middle, but had to spend some time in Shanghai for a bit. I am back for good though. Hope we can have some fun~’ He concludes his introduction.

A small group of female students began to gossip over his looks. “ Wow, his hair’s so long!” Lola whispered. “What shampoo does he use cuz I can still smell it from when he walked past us!!” Daniella said, “Gurl, I’m tryna get more deets than what shampoo the man uses” Amber exclaims as she meticulously rubs her hands together like a fly while gliding her tongue across her teeth.

Ezra shoots a glance over to the small group of girls signaling that he could hear them. The three girls then freeze in their positions and all faint in unison just from his glance. “He- heard …us?!” The first female student says, withering away.

Ezra raises his brows and quickly averts his eyes from what he just witnessed. He then focuses back to the rest of the class. He smiles with fox-like eyes and a small sweat drop falls down his temple.

‘I’m gonna have to deal with that group? But they will be mad when they find out that I’m not into girls’.

Mr. Collards gets back to instructing the class. “We will have three sports being played indoors because it’s raining right now. Group 1 will be playing basketball, 2 will be running relay laps, and 3 will be playing badminton” The teacher then begins to separate students into each group for each sport.

‘Bet that fool is lighting up inside, afterall, that is the only sport he’s ever loved playing.’ Shinya looks over to Ezra’s way and sees him jumping up and down in excitement. ‘ Is no one else seeing this??’ Shinya asked himself in disbelief that Ezra’s reaction did not kill his image the other students built for him brick by brick.

‘Now that I think about it, Ezra was never really bad at any sport.’ Shinya relays memories of when they played basketball, golf, tennis and a few other sports together.

Finally, the teacher gets to putting the crowd Ezra and Sinya were in into a sport to play. “Ezra, team badminton……annnd Shinya. That should be everyone.”

The teacher makes his way into the gym office to attend to some internal tasks.

A shock shoots up Shinya’s spine making him jolt a bit. ‘I don’t want to talk to this mans yet!!’

‘Ezra always was great at badminton.’ Shinya's memories trickle back in time when the two would play doubles just for fun. ‘Every time he jumped to do a smash, it was as if all of time had stopped’. As Shinya was stuck in his train of thought the opposing team served the birdie and it flew right at him, knocking him right in the head. The birdie left a stinging imprint on his forehead. Small bits of steam came from the impact.

Ezra couldn’t help but let out his laughter from the sight of it. “Kkh-… AHAH HA HA~” as he stopped laughing, the mark on Shinya’s face made him think of a steak cooking on the grill.

—An hour later—

RIIIIIIIIIIIING

The school bell sounded and everyone had already changed from their gym clothes to their traditional school uniforms in the designated locker rooms. Shinya and Ezra find their way back to each other afterwards.

‘He always found a way to get himself hurt. It didn’t matter what it was’ Ezra thought to himself. He could remember the time he was walking up the stairs and he missed the very first step. Another time he was sprinting up the stairs and it was like he stepped on a phantom step and just fell. ‘It’s even more funny because I could see him now, just sitting there in disbelief of what his body had just done.

‘He really has a thing for falling up the stairs, doesn’t he?’ Ezra confirmed in his train of thought.

“Aaaachoo” Shinya sneezed and looked at Ezra blaming him with his eyes.

“Eeeew… ur infected” Ezra said to him while slightly increasing their distance from each other.

“Am not!!” He yells back at him. ‘You’re probably still making fun of me in that head of yours’ he internally grumbled.

Ezra gets even closer to Shinya that they previously were, then rests his arm on Shinya’s shoulder as they make it to their next class for the day.

“I thought I was infected.” Shinya boldly states.

“I can be infected just this once~” Ezra teases while pushing his finger from his other hand onto Shinya’s cutely annoyed face.

End of Chapter 1.