《Reaching For the Stars》Chapter 13
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Feeling the sunlight light up my face, I flutter my eyes open and recognize but don't recognize my room.
So I am still here in this world.
It wasn't a dream.
I kind of wish I could've told my family I love them one last time before leaving. Though I have the same people in front of me, are they the same people?
I stretch my arms out and yawn(This is called Pandiculating).
It's too early in the morning to have these thoughts. I just need to remember my old life and everything will be okay.
Deciding on that, I pick up an empty journal and begin writing down five memories of my family from the past world.
I smile while reminiscing happy moments in my life.
I enter the bathroom and reciprocate the same actions I took yesterday when I first felt my natural urges calling to me.
Well, I guess it's my new life.
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Going out into the living room, I get a mug of water and watch the blue morning sky still in my pajamas.
For a while, I stare at it in a daze. Yesterday, I wasn't able to fully assimilate the fact I was in a new world due to the rush of the school, meeting new people, and the system. Now, it's just me, and the view.
These people all have different memories of me. My parents and sister from here see me differently than my parents from back on Earth.
I probably won't see my close friends from Earth ever again. Though I have new friends now whom I can already trust, it still hits pretty hard knowing you won't see the people who you spent so many days of your life with.
Fate, however, decided to vanish all of those people except my ex.
I raise the cup to my mouth to take another sip but it's now empty.
I don't feel sad, but I feel a little empty.
Do my friends and family back there still think of me? Have they forgotten me yet?
Are my parents still the same people, or are they different people with the same shell?
I take out a coffee capsule and insert it in the coffee machine with some milk.
My cup is now filled with coffee.
It's the same empty cup… but now filled with something else…
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I check the time, it's still 6:50… I used to need at least eight hours of sleep to function well, but at 6 hours I'm feeling the freshest I've ever been. Great Body is something else…
Sigh. I close my eyes.
Though I'm in a new world, my friends and family are still together with me in my heart. Who knows if I'll see them again? Who knows if everything's just an illusion? All I know is if they were here, they'd tell me I'm an idiot for moping around instead of enjoying life.
I open my eyes with a new different will.
I hear the door of my sister's room open. She probably woke up even earlier than me but was doing her hair and morning routine.
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I look at her as she comes out.
"Good morning, Charlotte."
"Hi, Charlie."
"Haha, you look like an old guy just staring out the window."
I begin laughing with her.
"Okay okay, I'm still just sixteen years old. Barely even two years older than you."
She stuck out her tongue.
"Alright come here you rascal, you don't disrespect your Charlie like this."
She yells and runs around the dining table as I chase her.
She starts laughing in both panic, and because it's me that's chasing her around.
"Wait no. Hahaha, wait, stop Charlie. Stop stop."
She's laughing as we stupidly do ring around the Rosie around the table.
I hear the door of our parent's room open and we pause our dumb game while they just stare at us.
"Let's calm down now." Mom gently smiles at us.
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I enter my room and don my uniform while realizing I might be needing a new one. I'm probably not going to fit anymore a few months in the future.
I go back out and we have a fulfilling breakfast.
"Have a great day…"
"Bye!"
We wave our parents goodbye.
We exit our third floor apartment and just walk down the stairs.
My sister and I converse for a while like true siblings. She's still the same but a different person. They act similarly, but they have different experiences, likes, and dislikes.
I listen to her with a smile as she explains to me the current drama going on in her grade about some guy stealing his best friend's girlfriend. I might need to convince her to tell me whenever a boy approaches her. I can't have an idiot playing with her feelings or getting into a relationship with her without me knowing. After all, I know how relationships can be both euphoric and horrible.
We arrive at school and instead of splitting in the middle, I accompany her to her homeroom first.
Though I'm a stick, I'm still a 6'3 stick which should be pretty intimidating to some mere pubescent kids who want to try playing around with Charlotte.
I'm not trying to play the overprotective sis-con, but I can't have her go through the same thing I did. After all, she's even more emotional now on this side and it wouldn't be healthy to be heartbroken at such an early age when she's still growing and developing her brain and views on the world.
She unites with her friends and I wave her bye as I leave the ninth-grader (14-15 years old in the USA) building.
I walk back to the upper high school section and see my friends on one of the outside tables chatting and laughing happily.
Lizbeth notices me and yells while waving her hand,
"Hi, Charlie!!!!"
My eyes turn into crescents,
"Good morning guys."
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Walking towards my next class, I'm chatting with others in the friend group that share this same class with me.
Well, it's time to grind some.
----------------
We get out of class and I feel pretty energized from the class, rather than tired.
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It's a quick 10-minute break before our next class. Alex told me where they usually hang out during the break which is just in the schoolyard.
We hang out on the bleachers and in front of us is a basketball court with an adjustable net for volleyball and tennis.
Currently, Arlo is watching his younger sister playing volleyball in the court while cheering her on.
I mentally palm my face, he likes to yell.
I suddenly feel something tapping my back.
I turn my head around and I see an unexpected face.
It's my old friend group and I can see a few unfriendly expressions painting their face.
"Hey, what's up?"
"What do you mean what's up, Charlie? Why aren't you with us?"
Huh?
Isn't he being a little too immature and aggressive? What's wrong with a guy who you did not even check up on for six months to suddenly leave and get along with others?
"Who are you?"
I'm honestly not lying when I ask this. Pangaea Charlie's memories on his friends and ex are extremely blurred and cloudy.
That's all why I was extremely surprised when I found out his ex too was the same person.
Obviously, I could have been a little more respectful and a little more thoughtful of my words, but I honestly don't care about them. They didn't even try to seem friendly at all which might have ignited a little rudeness from me.
"What the fuck man?"
He snarled and looked at me threateningly.
A few memories trickle in. He's one of the guys who was friendly with me but commanded me to do things out of my own volition and usually threatened me like this when I didn't do as he said.
My friendly smile vanished and I merely stared at him.
He stared back.
"What the fuck are you staring at?"
Dang, he's pretty aggressive. He's most likely trying to scare me; unfortunately for him, I'm not the same shy Charlie anymore.
"Can you leave?"
He stared at me a little surprised that I talked back. Typical of a guy who's always had his way.
"Why the fuck are you fucking talking back?"
Sheesh. Today is not his day.
"Do you need something?"
I honestly don't need to argue with someone like this. He'll probably keep on getting even more frustrated at my reactions. Whatever he does in frustration, if he decides to take it out on me he's not going to have a good time.
"Yeah, I need you to get your fucking dumbass here."
I stand up towering over him and stare at him in the eyes.
By now, the others have obviously heard his loud mouth. Some of the guys try coming over but Reed and Alex pull them back while the girls just stare at us.
Well, I'm obviously not going to be the one to initiate a fight but if the idiot wants to keep being so hostile I'm not going to back down.
He takes a step back.
Something I've noticed that is very effective is having a deadpan face and staring very deeply into their eyes. It's worked pretty great on this clown.
Well, he thought I couldn't suddenly become a confident guy from a guy who he thought was below him.
He glanced back at his friends. He's unsure now.
Gaining his bark back, he yells at me,
"You wanna fucking fight, bitch?"
If I provoke him, it'll definitely evolve from a small confrontation to a blown-out fight.
I'm not going to do that since I'm going to get in trouble and it'll affect my future reputation.
In the past, I'd immediately throw hands; but with the added points in intelligence, I'm a much calmer person.
Why ruin my future success over this guy?
He looks at me angrily and tries to shove me to which I just push his arms to the side, redirecting the force elsewhere.
He slightly trips but quickly regains his footing
Seeing him take physical action, the guys yell and stand up. This time Reed and Alex don't even try holding them back and they too look at him threateningly.
He tries to shove me again but it's now his friends pulling him back.
The other girls look at them in contempt and Lizbeth tells them,
"Can you guys leave already?"
He shoves his friends' arms off of him and walks away fuming.
The others just glance at each other and look at me one last time before leaving elsewhere.
I smile at my friends,
"Thanks, guys."
"Who were they anyway?" Natsumi asked.
"I was friends with them a long time ago, I don't know what he was so mad about though."
"Weirdos," Lizbeth adds.
"Good thing he ran away, I was going to smash his head in"
"Yeah, lucky bastard."
"He comes back again, I'll kill him."
Damn, something I've noticed is that though the friend group might not be too big, they're all fiercely loyal to their friends.
I smiled in gratitude.
"Did you steal his girlfriend or something?" Catherine asked.
I coughed,
"What do you think I am? Some sort of playboy?"
Elle disagrees with me, "Are you not a playboy?"
Arlo elbows me and all the girls voice their agreement with Elle.
"He's really weird too," Natsumi adds her own opinion.
I stare at her, "You're the weird one here…Sniffer… Who smel-"
She quickly covers my mouth, "Shut up! You're not allowed to say that."
She gradually takes her hand away, "You like to sm-"
She smothers my mouth once again and glares at me threateningly.
[Author Note:
Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did! A little heavy chapter to finally focus on Charlie's feelings on entering a new world, and him confronting his past friends!
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