Arthur wakes up leaning on the side of the wall. He looks confused then shocked as he looks for that woman. He sees the two boys and asks about the woman but they told him that they have never seen a woman with that description. He looks at the time and only a minute has passed. He wanders up and down the halls looking for that woman until he happens to bump into Elizabeth. When he sees Elizabeth this time, he gets a better look at her. Her long black hair rests on her left shoulder as it still passes her hips and her gold eyes meet his. Arthur is mesmerized by how she looks today. Elizabeth waves her hand in front of Arthur's face.
“Arthur come on, aren’t we supposed to go down stairs and make sure Tyler and Kat are ok?” Arthur blinks his eyes and looks shocked to see Elizabeth “ Ugh, come on we need to get over there before we head off to class” she says as she starts to run. Elizabeth has been on the track team since junior year and it shows. She doesn’t do the best out of the team, but she still likes the feeling of running and the freedom it gives off. Arthur always loved to go and watch her race and she always appreciated it. Deep down, Arthur has liked Elizabeth since sophomore year but he could never ask her on a date, and he believes that Elizabeth only sees him as a friend, so he doesn’t try to “make a move”. Arthur and Elizabeth head down stairs to find Kat and Tyler. They see Arthur and Elizabeth, stand up, and head to them. “Hey guys, sorry, I went to give Mrs. Godwin my project since we won’t be here on Wednesday or tomorrow right? I already forgot the plans that we made.”
“Yeah tomorrow we’re going to go to Huntsville state park to hike and do some exploring and then Wednesday, we’ll come in for the first class and leave to go to the steakhouse Kat has been dying to go to,” Tyler says as they all start to walk to the classrooms before the bell rings. “Were you turning it in or were you doing some stuff with Arthur? If you know what I mean.” Tyler elbows Elizabeth on the shoulder. Elizabeth blushes, punches Tyler in the shoulder, and then starts walking faster away from Arthur and his friends. Kat giggles and starts to run for her to slow down but stops and sighs, knowing it was hopeless. Tyler gives Arthur a thumbs up as he holds his shoulder in pain.
“Yeah, smart move Tyler, now she’s annoyed. Oh well, hey I’ve got to head to class. See y’all later, ok?” Arthur waves goodbye and heads towards his first class. His first class was in the back of the school where they have outside portable classrooms. The small wooden building is slightly larger than an RV, with stairs and a walkway for the one entrance. When he enters, the room has two groups of desks on the left and right side of the room. In the middle sits a projector and the whiteboard that the teacher uses to teach. Directly in front of him is the teacher, who is half asleep at the moment. Not even the coffee can wake her up for the nightmare that starts this week. Since she teaches Health, freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors are all in the class, and each one has a different mood for the last week of school. As the rest of the students start to sit down, Arthur walks to the very back to his seat where no one sits around him. He grabs his headphones and starts to listen to music. Arthur has a 100 in the class and the teacher, like most of the other teachers he will see today, will let him do nothing and listen to music for the rest of the class period. As Arthur sits back and closes his eyes, he starts to dream. In this dream, Arthur is sitting in a poorly lit room, on a metal chair. He tries to move but his body won’t respond, and as he focuses his gaze upwards, he sees a woman that he has seen before, but can't place his finger on it. She’s in a green dress and it looks to be woven out of leaves and grass. She smiles and walks to a door and opens it, filling the room with light as Arthur realizes he is in an interrogation room. She turns and Arthur sees that it's the woman he saw earlier today as she starts trying to speak, but no words come out. Arthur can tell she is trying to say “You have been Chosen My Dear. Be ready”. Arthur then gets woken up by the bell ringing. He starts to walk out of the class, gives the teacher a “thanks for the teaching,” and walks to the next class. The rest of his day, as it always does, goes the same. Arthur goes to the class, sits down, and listens to music, but he doesn't want to try and sleep again because he doesn’t know what he could dream of next. When school ends, he walks to Tyler’s car and waits for everyone to show up. Arthur hears something behind him, and turns just in time to see a fist in his face. After a bit he realizes he is on the ground and Benny is standing over him with his girlfriend.
“Hey Arthur, what are you doing on the ground? Hmmm, maybe that's where you belong. Well Arthur, I’m glad you finally know your place, closer to what dogs shit out.” Benny chuckles. “Maybe next time I ask you to do my project for Mrs. Godwin, you don’t copy and paste everything you did two years ago.”
“Hey Benny, nice to see you’re still graduating, I think. Anyways, how would I know that the school would have a system that takes everyone's projects and puts them into said system so no one could ever copy them.” Arthur says standing up and brushing off the dirt. Benny looks surprised. His girlfriend bumps Benny. "Well, sorry that you can’t get any more help from me; like I totally wished I could waste my time to do the same thing I just did and-” Arthur feels more pain as Benny punches him back down.
“You think I’m going to let you leave unharmed? I know you're trying to leave to go to Sam Houston and I’m sure if I, oh I don’t know, break something like your hand, then you’ll have to stay at home and go to college here and I know you don’t have a job which means you don’t have the money or scholarships to go to any college you want, so you’ll stay here and go to Lone Star. Am I right?” Benny says with a smug look on his face.
“Dude, I’m going to become a doctor, and if I lose my hand, I could still be able to be a doctor just with a broken hand. And I know for a fact you did not come up with this stuff on your own.” Arthur stands again and looks at Benny’s girlfriend. “Or did she come up with this?”
“Shut up, Arthur! I’m smart enough to think for myself.”
“But yeah, I did come up with this, not him.” She interrupted Benny before he could say more. “Sorry babe but I’m not going to let you take the credit for everything. Anyways, just give up on your dream. You’re staying here and going to do mine and Benny’s work whether you like it or not. We know where you live. We could get the football team to have some fun over at your house. You’re too weak to even fight my boyfriend and he is the star of the football team, remember?” She says leaning on Benny’s shoulder.
Arthur looks down at the ground. He’s never been in a fight and he didn’t plan to be in one on the last week of school, buthe can’t run either. Arthur looks up with his fists clenched. Something dashes past Arthur and hits Benny in the chest. Tyler lands an excellent punch before headbutting Benny to the ground. As Tyler tries to kick Benny while he is on the ground, Benny grabs his foot and pushes him back, allowing him to stand up. From behind, Elizabeth and Kat are just running up beside Arthur. They all look at each other in this standoff, as Tyler and Benny stare into each other's eyes readying themselves for the next attack. Arthur pushes Tyler aside. “Chill we’re just talking, nothing crazy is going on, ok?”
“Are you serious? He punched you in the face Arthur!” Tyler says, trying to pass by Arthur, but Arthur holds him back. “What are you doing? He needs to know that you aren’t taking this shit from him or anyone!” Tyler yells. At this point students start to crowd around them, getting their phones out to record.
“Tyler, we’re attracting attention. I don’t want the principal to find out about this. We won’t win and we will get detention, not him. I don’t know about you, but I want to graduate on Thursday. Benny, can we talk about this some other time? I really have to do some things for my mom and Tyler is my ride. How about Wednesday? Does that sound good?” Benny shakes his head looking around as the crowd stands and watches. He then turns and walks away with his girlfriend by his side. Arthur turns and starts to wave off the crowd “ Leave, no fight today guys. Sorry to bother everyone.” Arthur looks at Tyler and puts his hand on his shoulder “ I know, I know but I don't want us to get into a mess before we go ok?”
“Arthur, you need to stand up for yourself. You can’t let people push you around, even me. I wish we could, but we won’t have your back for the rest of your life and we can’t protect you forever.” Tyler says, shaking his head as they all enter his car. No one says anything for the rest of the car ride. Tyler drops Arthur off and everyone waves him goodbye. Arthur looks down and thinks about what Tyler says. Why does Tyler think that? Once I’m out of this school, I won't have to worry about Benny again. When Arthur walks into his house his mom saw that he was bruised and ran up to him.
“Oh my god Arthur!” Arthur’s mom runs to him and puts her hands on his face.
“I’m fine mom, I just fell off the stairs.” Arthur says sheepishly. Arthur’s mom looks at him in a straight dead stare. “Ok, I got into a small fight.”
“He swung first?” His mom asks. Arthur nods. “I’m glad you’re alright. You need to be more careful. Did Tyler come and save you?”
“Yes but it didn't sound like he wanted to help. He said I should fight my own battles, but why does that matter? In the next few days I won't see any of those people again.”
“He just knows that people are afraid of what you are capable of. You are a smart and talented man. Your father would be jealous of the man you became.” Arthur smiles and kisses her cheek. Arthur gets into his room and lays down to rest, but instead stares at the ceiling. He thinks about everything that happened today and wonders what it means. Who was that woman and why did she grab him and why was she in his dream? Arthur closes his eyes and passes out for a while. He wakes up to his phone ringing.
“Hel-hello? Who is this?”
“Arthur, it's me Kat. You ok? You said you would be on tonight to play some games but didn’t get on.” Kat’s voice, for some reason, sounds more calming than normal. Kat has always been the mom of the group, taking care of everyone and making sure things are fine before having the fun “mom” come out of her, meaning she knows how to party more than the others. “It is 2 in the morning if you were wondering. Also I’m bored and you can’t sleep again so what do you want to talk about?” She says with a giggle. She knows everyone and how they are, so how she is acting doesn't surprise Arthur, but he doesn’t understand why she is up so late.
“Yeah sorry about that, I fell asleep. Why are you up so late? We have the hike tomorrow, so go to sleep.”
“I can't. I can never sleep until 4 in the morning. Don’t ask why, I just know that at 4 I’m so tired I can barely open my eyes. Anyways, you like Elizabeth?” Arthur was blank for a second and then realized she is just being like she always is.
“Why are you asking me this at 2 in the morning Kat? I’m like half asleep and still feeling tired. I think those punches made me really exhausted.” Arthur was just trying to change the subject. He didn’t want to tell Kat and she tells Elizabeth.
“She could like you too Arthur. Did you know that?” Arthur just sits in his bed, now puzzled at what Kat just said. He stays in this state for about a minute until he hears Kat. “Hello? Earth to Arthur. Come in Arthur, is anyone there?”
“Oh what? Sorry sorry, I'm not fully in it right now. Kat do yo- you promise to not tell Elizabeth?” It was quiet for a second. Arthur became nervous. “Kat?”
“Sorry, mom was talking to me about some stuff. Yeah I wont tell her. So do you like her?”
“Yes, I do, but I don't know if she likes me back so I'm trying to not do anything yet.”
“Oh my god, are you serious?” Kat started to laugh uncontrollably. “Arthur, you don't understand. She really likes you too. In fact, she thought you liked someone else and didn’t want to try either. Y’all sound perfect for each other just from knowing that.” Kat started to calm down and started to think. “Arthur, you need to ask her out tomorrow.”
Arthur jerked back. “What?! No, I am not going to do tha-.” Arthur stared at the picture he has of him and his friends. He looks at Elizabeth’s face. “What happens if she says no?”
“Are you braindead? Arthur! She is literally…. You know what nevermind. You do you, Arthur. I’m just telling you to live your life like you will die tomorrow, cause anything could happen. Elizabeth could die, you could die, or literally anyone you care about could die in an hour or tomorrow and what would be the last thing you say to them?” Arthur was quiet for a moment and realized that as weird as Kat can be sometimes, she is right.
“Kat?”
“What's up homie?”
“Thanks for looking out for me.”
“Arthur, we all have each others’ back, but please have Elizabeth more than mine and Tyler. She needs someone to look out for her ok? I want to be there for everyone but I can't, so I need someone to take the mantle for me.”
“Kat, I understand. I will and don’t worry, I won't keep her away from you.”
“Oh trust me, you can hang out with her more alone, but when it comes to you or me, she will always choose me over you. Just remember that next time you piss me off ok?”
They both laughed and continued to talk about their adventures during their four years of school.
“Hey Kat, remember when Tyler decided to take the national trophy from the school?”
“YES, AND remember when they went up to him the next day showing him pictures of the culprit and Tyler responds with-”
“Nah that ain't me.” Arthur trying to mimic Tyler’s voice. “And the teachers kept pointing at the picture and they even asked us who it was.” Arthur starts laughing. “And then you responded with'' he's a cutie but not my man.” They just look at you like they’re trying to find out if you were telling the truth.” Arthur starts to hear Kat laugh so hard she finds it difficult to breathe. "Or when Elizabeth was being bullied by the Gardener twins? So then we decided to go to their house and threw so much toilet paper that dozens of police had to come and help just to open the door.” Arthur bursts out laughing and quickly shuts up after he hears someone release a loud snore. Arthur and Kat quietly talked the rest of the night away and Arthur was glad that they did, it helped him feel confident with asking Elizabeth out.
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