The bell chimed. Rory snapped his head up, looking around the room. The desks were mostly filled with students. The burst of conversation and talk of the new year came to his ears.

Rory turned his head to look beside him. There in the seat next to him was the boy.

“Holy Sh-”

Rory clamped his mouth, although his eyes were still bewildered. The immaculate boy and his articulate hands were always there. The whole idea of it haunted Rory slightly but also relieved him for some reason.

Mrs. Carter stood at the door greeting students, and grinning from ear to ear. The bell rang, signaling the start of class. She came to the front of the class, that smile still placid on her face.

“Good morning everyone! Today marks the start of your junior year. I'll start with attendance…”

Rory lost interest very quickly. After her bellowing and beaming introduction. His inner feeling could sense that this new school probably wasn't any better than his old one.

She went through the names of students at a slow pace. It gave him time to look at each and study their faces. Then it hit him. This was his chance to discover the boy's name.

Name by name he waited.

“Corrin Nenko?”

“Here.”

That was him! Finally, I have his name… Corrin…

The name echoed in his head. It felt good to learn something new. Rory had taken care of his morning commute, his school “tour”, started his school day, and most importantly, obtained info on Corrin.

After attendance had concluded, class started officially. She went over rules and regulations.

Rory glanced at Corrin's desk. He saw him writing in a notebook. He saw constructed writing in a web, but nothing that caught his eye. As he kept staring he made out one word being repeated several times: Oasis.

Where have I seen that word before…

Class went on and Rory went on staring at Corrin's writing.

Suddenly the bell rang. Everyone got up to leave, their minds moving on to their next agenda. Corrin folded back up his notebook and tucked his pencil into a compartment in his bag.

Rory felt a pang of sudden desire to search up the term “Oasis”. But at the same time, the word dawned on him as lost information. What if he didn't find anything? Would Corrin still be a specimen of research?

The day continued on. The whole day consisted of explaining expectations, and rules of the house. So far, he wasn't impressed. He knew it was too early to cast judgment. But he was already prompted by his brain, that the school was ludicrous junk.

Rory finished off his day with gym class. He hated physical exercise more than five packets of homework. And hated it even more now, thanks to the fact that he had to finish off his day with it.

He entered the large gym. The same image repeated itself here: teenagers laughing and greeting each other, after the long summer.

The gym teacher was Ms. Lopez. Rory remembered her when she was working at some retail store awhile back. She had certainly changed since then. Her old wavy, dark, red hair, was now even longer, straight, and in a ponytail. Her old clothes were stylish, lavish, and posh. But now she wore military styled attire and chunky boots. She was still curvy, but her face wasn't so baby-like anymore.

“Oh, Rory is that you?” Ms. Lopez said aloud, a small selection of people looking over at him.

Rory nodded, then queued himself to go to her.

“Rory! Wow, you really have grown! You were like half my size the last time I saw you! Look how tall you are now…”

She kept spouting off words about him. It was just friendly banter, but Rory was done with the hollow, fake, remarks. Couldn't people be a little honest with their words?

“...So how's your mother doing Rory?”

“Huh, what?”

“Man. You haven't changed… still out of it… well, how's your mother?” She repeated.

“She's fine,” Rory said back, not looking at her at all.

His vision had found Corrin.

“Um... It's nice to see you again after all of these years…” Rory said indirectly, his mind already somewhere else.

“Yeah, it is! You better be a good student!” She teased.

“I will…”

He went the other way, heading towards Corrin's direction. Again, he saw him working with the broken com. Rory wanted to get closer or possibly say something. But then, Ms. Lopez called everyone over to start class.

Rory held a bitter expression throughout class, wishing he could learn more about Corrin.

The day was over. The clouded and wet sky had turned into a softer blue, with warm hues mixed into it. The summer heat wounded upon his skin. It made him break out in sticky perspiration.

He watched as Corrin exited the premises. He followed, keeping a good enough distance. He decided to create another incident, to get to know Corrin.

He got closer and closer…

Suddenly his com rang out. A loud, shrill, ring pumped from his com. Corrin turned around in shock, his expression stricken with fright.

Rory scramble for his com. He got it out finally, answering it, and silencing the horrendous sound.

“Hello?” he addressed, trying to stop his face from cringing.

“Hey, it's Vega. Can I talk to you when you get back home?” he asked, his voice laid back.

“Yeah. I'll be home in like two hours; so come by at like six or seven.”

“Huh? What? Why?”

“I'll tell you later!” Rory piped, “I need to go! Bye!”

He hung up, then vigorously shoved his com back into his pocket. He ran out of the school, trying to catch up with Corrin if he could.

When he rounded the corner, Corrin was still there luckily. Corrin was munching on some fries and fried fish. He was walking really slowly. Rory just watched. Watched Corrin's mundane process of getting home, eating, and so forth.

A last, Rory was home. He waited until Corrin had gone into his house, to go to his. As soon as Corrin closed his metal door, Rory rushed into his house.

In his room, he turned on his computer and got out sheets of lined paper. Once his computer was done starting up, his “homework” began.

First, he created a new folder dedicated to Corrin; he simply named it “Oasis”.

Secondly, he went to the infamous internet. Immediately he typed Oasis into the search bar. He searched immensely, going into even the darknet. When finally, he found something pleasing. It was some sort of website that that wanted theories or something, he was really sure yet. He clicked on it, seeing a dark, blue, colored galaxy background. In the center of the website was a long paragraph that read:

“Eighty years ago a phenomenon occurred, changing earth's sated being into a land of hell and dangerous freedom. The species known as ‘Oasis’ reigned on earth July 6, 2134. Ordinary people panicked, animals changed, the land we knew changed before our eyes, and the humans with strength in intellect thrived. In only five days, Governments fell, civilization destroyed itself, and an unknown race had made its resting place on earth. Even eighty years later, the idea of ‘Oasis’ is shrouded in myth.”

Rory stared wide-eyed at the paragraph.

What the fuck…?

He scrolled down to the bottom of the site. There were two tabs. The first said “Submit Your Theory”; While the second tab said, “Read Other Theories”.

He dragged his already perplexed and baffled mind into reading the theories.

One theory claimed that Oasis was an extremist group of humans disguising as aliens, and attacking the earth. Another claimed that Oasis was an alternate reality of earth that bent on destroying all of the alternate earth's, but failed to destroy ours.

To Rory, all of the theories were bric-a-brac thrown together by sci-fi or DC comics universe nerds. But the main idea of Oasis on the front page was beyond his trail of thought.

How did researching some boy turn into a conspiracy on Earth?