The whole summer, all Dennis could think about was the first day of school. He fantasized about the thrill of meeting the new high school teachers, being allowed to eat in the high school cafeteria, and while he didn’t talk about it much, he did in fact look forward to meeting high school girls. However, that day Dennis didn’t enjoy any of those things. From the moment Dennis discovered the book he accidentally stole from the surface; he was obsessed with it.
As soon as he and Vance went their separate ways, Dennis began thumbing through the pages while walking to class, careful to cover the front of the book with his hands. His eyes opened wide with fascination by the bright colored images on every page. He flipped through the chapter titles and saw the names of major events, scientific discoveries, and economic revolutions. He opened it up to a random page in the middle and was amazed by a beautifully detailed portrait that stretched from the left page to the right. In the center was a man dressed like a comic book superhero, wearing a dark blue cape, a black mask, and a bright red utility belt, while carrying a child in each arm out of a burning building. The title of the page read, “Captain Skylark” in bold letters. On the sides of the hero, were little facts and details about him, like where he was from, what his abilities were, and what all the different parts of his utility belt were for.
He remembered hearing Vance’s mom once say that heroes like that used to exist everywhere in old Prokopios before the dome went up, and that they were called, the “Gifted”. While he wasn’t completely sure at that moment if this meant that they were real, he knew he had to read more.
He quietly and intently read while walking to class, ignoring all the other excited freshmen around him talking about their summer and what teachers they had on their schedule. He barely looked up from his book, bumping into just about every trash can, table, and bench along the way.
With every slow and crisp turn of the page, his mind was whisked away into what seemed like a new world, all the while unable to determine for himself whether or not he really believed that these things actually happened in Prokopios. Either way, all he wanted to do was learn more. Even after getting to class and finding his seat, Dennis couldn’t pay attention to a single thing the teachers said that day. How could he? Nothing they could say would be nearly as interesting or exciting as what was in front of him. They could’ve said that school was canceled, and every student had another week off, and he would’ve still been glued to his book. He even sat in the back of all seven of his classes, something he’s never done once before, just so he wouldn’t be distracted.
Many of the teachers who were excited to have him in their class, having heard great things from the middle school teachers, were surprised to call on him and discover that he couldn’t answer a single question. As the school day went on, he read stories of great kings and epic battles that were fought on the island of Prokopios. War was something that had been virtually unheard of since the dome went up. Even a civil war would have been impossible considering how much power the Kingdom had. Besides, there was nothing to fight about. Prokopios had been a seemingly perfect utopia since Estaphar put the dome up, so reading about the blood that was shed on their island was surreal. It was terrifying and fascinating at the same time.
By the time the bell rang, Dennis had started from the beginning, and was almost a quarter way through the entire 400-page textbook. He couldn’t wait to share his discovery with Vance and the others if they were all together, which they usually were. His other two best friends were Paul and Ricky. Paul and Ricky lived in the same orphanage together, so they were friends by default. Vance and Paul were family friends, so they knew each other since they were babies. Paul even lived with Vance, after his parents died, until the government found out how little Vance’s mother made at work and brought Paul to the orphanage.
Vance first met Ricky in the principal’s office back in the first grade, as they had a common affinity for trouble making. When they all realized how much they had in common, the friendship was instant and immediate. Dennis on the other hand, always felt like a little bit of an outsider in the group. He didn’t grow up with the other three and didn’t meet them until middle school. However, it never stopped them from welcoming Dennis into their group, so Dennis always felt like he owed somewhat of a debt to them. As much as his parents hated it, they really were the first and only friends he’d ever had.
As Dennis continued reading and walking to Gamill Park where they always met to play baseball before taking a late bus pod home, he noticed that in the middle of the textbook, was a chunk of what looked like about twenty missing pages that appeared to have been torn out by hand. Based on the events of the pages before and the pages after, Dennis deduced that the missing pages must have been about the events leading up to and including the dome going up. It made sense to Dennis that it would be missing, since it was such a controversial event. He shook the book upside down to see if any of the missing pages might fall out, he instead saw a bookmark slowly flutter down to the ground. As he picked it up, he noticed an image that matched the cover of the textbook. When he held it up closer, he saw it read, “To learn more about Prokopian History, visit the Prokopian Museum of History located at: 8758 Gold View Road”.
The address was stamped on in blue ink. Dennis froze for a moment after he read the address. He remembered Gold View Road from the old surface maps he had downloaded online, and to the best of his memory, recalled it being only a few minutes away from their school. He had to tell the others! While neither he, nor any other Prokopian kid had ever been to a museum (seeing as they were just as outlawed as history books), he knew that if it was anything close to what he was imagining, it would be amazing.
He picked up the pace and started running over to tell the others, but by the time he got there, the boys were already in the middle of playing. That didn’t stop Dennis from interrupting.
“Guys, I have to show you something!” Dennis exclaimed almost disrupting Ricky as he went into his windup on the pitching mound. Vance was waiting in the batter box in nervous anticipation, bat in hand, hoping to hit something out of the park. Paul was in a crouch behind the mound with a catcher’s mask on, hoping Vance didn’t foul the ball off onto his chest, or worse, between his legs.
“It’s going to have to wait, Dee! I’m about to take Ricky out of the park!” Vance replied as he lifted his bat, and got into a proper hitting stand, while hoping desperately for a slow fastball right down the middle.
“This is serious!” Dennis screamed back “I have an idea for an adventure!”
Just as Dennis finished his sentence, Vance swung as hard as he could, missing the slowly thrown fastball Ricky chucked right down the middle of the plate.
“Crap! You got lucky Ricky!” Vance exclaimed, knowing that he had just missed the perfect pitch to hit. “I would’ve crushed that thing if adventure boy over here didn’t interrupt my timing!”
“Really Dennis? First day of school and you’re already thinking about video games?” Ricky joked while ignoring Vance, and catching the ball thrown back to him by Paul.
“No! I’m talking about a real adventure! IRL! (teen slang for "In Real Life" as opposed to online) To a real museum!” Dennis said without thinking. Thankfully it did not draw any attention from the others at the park, as it would have definitely raised a few eyebrows.
“But I thought those don’t exist anymore” Paul replied, trying not to look away from Ricky for too long, at the risk of missing the next pitch.
“They don’t! Dennis is just going crazy.” Vance scoffed, while buckling at another slowly thrown fastball that sailed right down the middle of the plate.
“Strike 2, Vance!” Ricky yelled
“No fair! I was talking to Paul!”
“It’s not imaginary Vance! It’s on this bookmark I found. Look!” Dennis insisted, now walking onto the diamond, crossing the infield with the book open to give them a closer view. Vance stuck his hand out in defiance to stop Dennis from getting any closer.
“Not now, Dee! I need to show this jerk a lesson, just like I showed you last week!”
“Oh yeah?” Ricky replied. “You want me to do your homework too if you get a hit? You know that’s not a good idea, right?”
“If I hit the next ball you throw from a strike over the fence, you’re paying for pizza at Maples!”
“And if you don’t?”
“I will!”
“But if you don’t!”
“What do you want me to do?” Vance replied
“Ask the cashier from Maples out for a date. The one you swear is in love with you.”
“Pfft! Easy! Bet’s on! She’s practically begging for me to ask her out. Now throw the stupid ball already!”
Ricky winded up, and for the third time in a row, threw another soft fastball right down the middle. By this point, it should be said that Ricky didn’t know how to throw many other pitches. This time, Vance finally connected. The ball made a good sound off the bat, and immediately went up high and deep. Vance, without regard for the well-being of anyone else at the park took the opportunity to flip his bat as high up in the air as he possibly could.
“Maples pizza, baby!” Vance yelled towards the empty bleachers filled with his imaginary fans.
Ricky turned his head back quickly, and while worried for a moment, quickly realized that as high as the ball was, it wasn’t going as far as Vance thought it would and pointed up into the air; the universal baseball sign for “pop-up”. Just as he did that, the ball finally came back down, landing about fifteen feet from the fence.
“Boy, I can’t wait to see you embarrass yourself at Maples” Ricky said to Vance while walking off the mound towards the others who had now all congregated by the dugout.
“You got so lucky, dude!” Vance replied while rolling his eyes and talking off his baseball hat to wipe off the sweat underneath.
“So, tell us about this bookmark” Ricky asked Dennis, remembering that he had been patiently waiting for his opportunity to speak while they were settling their mild squabble.
Dennis was so excited to share everything, he looked like he was about to burst. Once he opened his mouth, he started talking a lot faster than he usually did.
“Check this out guys! So, I know this is going to sound super crazy, but I found this book this morning while I was running through the surface-”
“The surface?!” the other three exclaimed, almost in unison.
“What on earth were you doing down in the surface?” Ricky asked, scratching his head in disbelief.
“Is that why your clothes are so dirty, and you smelled like dog crap this morning?” Vance chimed in. “I thought you just forgot to wash your clothes all summer!”
“I missed the bus because I was finishing Vance’s stupid paper and running through the surface was the only way I could get to Vance’s house in time before his mom left. Why are you guys so surprised? Vance, aren’t you always talking about how often you go down to the surface to find our missing baseballs?”
“Yeah, but he was lying!” Ricky interjected.
“Obviously!” Vance added in disbelief. “You should know that about me by now! I lie for fun. Did you really think I would be dumb enough to risk my life to get a baseball? And I’m surprised you were dumb enough to risk your life to shave three minutes off your walk to my house!”
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