The Golden King
My eyes flickered open; I yawned, stretched, and sat up. I turned my head toward the clock and almost jumped out of my bed. The time was 7:30 am. WHAT! No way. Did the alarm clock break!!! The bus is going to leave in ten minutes. How am I going to get to the bus in ten minutes?!! I thought.
I dressed quickly, brushed my teeth, and jumped all the way down the towering stairs. My parents weren’t home since they go to work at five. I expeditiously shoved Fruit-Loops into my mouth and headed toward the door. Then the orange container on the counter caught my eye. I remembered the pills that I had to take every day. I’ve taken them my whole life. I’ve never missed a day. The doctor checks on me every two months and said that if I miss even one little day, I could have severe consequences and problems. I eyed the capsules through the orange cylinder. Then I eyed the clock mounted on the wall. I only had one minute remaining, and it took just over a minute to get to the bus. I could hope for the bus to be late or… I bet I’m going to regret this, but too bad, I hooked my backpack up onto my back and bolted out the front door.
Sprinting down the narrow, light-brown sidewalk and past the familiar houses, I turned the corner sharply and almost fell on my back. I stumbled, but got my balance, just in time to see the last person step up to the bus and get on.
As I raced toward the bus, I shouted, “WAIT. STOP! STOP THE BUS!” I darted through the street as the bus was about to take off I leaped onto the bus at the other corner of the block. Drenched in sweat from head to toe, I pulled out my ID, showed it to the bus driver, shuffled down the aisle, and chose a cleaner gray cushioned seat to sit on.
My legs felt like lead. But by the time I got to school, had stopped shaking and hurting. I had no one to talk to on the bus. Even though I am average in school and I think I have a great personality, I had no friends. I always felt different, - like an alien. Sometimes I think I AM an alien.
I got off the bus and walked to my locker. Locker 99. I got my stuff out and went to my first period class Science. Mrs. Morris took attendance.
“Emma Anderson.”
“Here.”
“Jacob Bennett”
“Here.”
After a few names.
“Hugo Griffin.”
“Here,” I said.
Finally after one minute we finished attendance.
We learned about aerodynamics,, blah, blah, blah. RRRIINGGG. Next math. We took a pretest for algebra. I startled myself. I knew all the answers and it felt like 1 + 1 to me. Weird. After a few more easy periods I had P.E./ Physical Education. I changed into my P.E. clothes and went outside to start the soccer tournament. We first had to run around the soccer field three times. I was the last one out and surprisingly I was the first one to finish by two minutes. I usually finish with everybody else. And this time I didn’t even break a sweat. The things that are happening to me is very weird. We got onto the field and warmed up a bit. We passed the ball around and I kicked the ball to my partner and the ball flew across two fields and hit someone in the shin. I honestly swear that I didn’t know how I even kicked it over there. The guy who was hit ➖ George ➖ got a massive bruise on his leg. He had to go to the nurse because it swelled up into an elephant's leg.
By the time everything was settled, there were only nine minutes left for the actual tournament. My teammates put me on offense because of what they saw. They thought I had pure skill, even though I had none, ninguna, aucan, however you want to say it. We get the ball and had to kick-off. I kicked it to Drake and he dribbled down the left side But a dark haired girl steals the ball, maneuvers around everyone on our team, and shoots at the goal. Fortunately, the black pentagonal checkered ball bounces off the tall metal goal post and falls right in front to the goalie. Then Hank dives forward and catches the ball. He punts the ball forward and aligns exactly with the middle of the field. Now, that is what you call skill.
I rush towards the ball as it descends towards the middle of our side. I run up and something unexpected happened. I promise you this was an instinct, not skill. I jumped and did a Double Layout Full In ➖ two flips in layout body form with the first flip having a 360° twist ➖ and kicked the ball in mid-air while I did the second flip. I was amazed and proud of what I did, even if it was instinct. The ball rocketed toward the goal in a blur of black and white. It collided into the goalie’s stomach with such great impact the force made him fly back into the net and made the whole goal topple back with a crashing sound. This happened in a few seconds. The goal fell as I landed on the center of the field. I felt like I was an olympic champion who just won first place, until I found out the other goalie had to go to the hospital. There was a painful empty feeling in my stomach; guilty sweat formed on my palms, even though everyone said it was an accident and they thought I did gymnastics (I don’t). I went home almost depressed. Maybe this is a hallucination because I didn’t take the pills, or I might be dreaming. That made me feel a little better. If this was a hallucination I promised I would always take my capsules.
☀☀☀☀☀
A few hours ago as Henry, the goalie who got hit, came into the nurse’s office with help. With one glance and a very quick explanation, she hurried to tell the principal to call 911 to bring him to the hospital. Periods were stopped for 45 minutes and no one was allowed in the halls.
The principal said to the emergency squad, “Henry Jackson was hit by Hugo Griffin with a soccer ball really-”
“Hugo Griffin!” the Police Chief said.
“It was only an accident as I said before. He’s a great student and I know he didn’t mean it. Like I said, he was hit really hard and had his lower rib cage shattered. Please come quickly; he is unconscious.”
When the ambulance came everyone knew. The blaring siren wailed like a crying baby. The emergency personnel lifted Henry into a stretcher, then into the ambulance. It roared off to the hospital.
☀☀☀☀☀
When I got off the bus, I walked to my mail box and brought the mail inside home. I checked for any mail that was addressed to me. I found one with burning red suns printed on the corners. I opened it carefully and started reading. It said:
“Dear Mr. Hugo Griffin,
We heard you have accidentally hurt Henry Jackson.” the letter continued.
Uh-Oh. Is this the police? Am I going to get in trouble and go to jail for an accidental action that they thought was real?
“We also know you haven’t taken your capsules this morning. We will reveal something really important to you. You are an Evoquorhar. Don’t worry; the letter is covered with a special coat so no one can read it but the person it is for. Back to the subject. An Evoquohar is a subspecies of humans who developed into a smarter and more athletic race. We are far more advanced in technology and other things. We are hidden underground in the middle of the ocean in a large city-like place. The middle of the city has a laboratory. Nobody will find us since we have a force field that you can go through. But when non-Evoquohars enter the range, they forget what they are doing and go back.”
First of all, how do they know I didn’t take my pills? And second, I am an Evoquohar? No, I bet this is a prank. But maybe it isn’t? I don’t even know what is real or not anymore!! Or maybe this is why I sometimes feel like an alien.
“You must be thinking I am a spy and I am crazy, but I am not. I am being dead serious. I know you haven’t taken your pills because you aced the math pretest and you did a Double Layout Full In the first time perfect with large amounts of force. Again you must be thinking how this relates to your pills. I will tell you. When you were born into a noble family, we knew you were the Golden King. In a prophecy the Golden King is the strongest and smartest person, someone who will unite or destroy everything in the worlds and has the power to make the universe better or worse. When we tested you after you were born, we found that you already had the strength of a ten-year-old and an IQ of 150.
Your parents and we were scared you might destroy everything and become the world’s most evil person. So we devised a plan to give you pills that made you profusely weaker and less smart. We wanted to wait until you were 15 and then bring you here and teach you. Then we would ensure that you would make the universe stronger and smarter. But now, since you didn’t take the pills and experienced being way smarter and athletic than anyone around you we had to tell you the truth before you accidentally did anything else. Your parents know already because they work here. The place is called Evoquoral. And we have been tracking you the whole time you were up at the surface. Tomorrow at 5:00 am, open your door and we will escort you to Evo Headquarters to learn more. You can tell us what you think by typing on this paper. A keyboard will appear after you finish reading. Meet you tomorrow.”
My eyes shot down to see who sent it. I was half hoping this was a prank, and half hoping this was real.
“From, Evo President Ethan Batiuk”
I had so many feelings. I was excited, infuriated, and I was not sure. I’ve always had to urge to help others, so I could be the Golden King. If I was the Golden King, why didn’t they tell me? I don’t think I would destroy everything? But I don’t know. And if I am going there, how will I make up for school? I bet the Evoquohars are going to figure out something. After analyzing this further, I began to like that I was smarter and stronger and would like to have something in common with someone else. I believed that I was an Evoquohar that would make the world better. I hope I wasn’t disappointed if this was a lie. I thought my parents we going to come home, but I bet they are still working to plan my training. I went to sleep after ordering some pizza since my parents were still at the lab. I went to sleep and made sure my alarm worked.
I woke up at 4:30 am, dressed and did all the necessary stuff. Then something popped into my head. I think I am supposed to move there. If I am, I forgot to pack stuff!!! This happened just as the doorbell rang; I rushed to greet the man. His name was Jerry Geo, and he said he sent the letter. I scared of him because he looked like those secret agency people. I was also excited to learn more. I asked him if he only stayed in Evoquoral or had work up here and worked part time down there. He said he was the Police Chief. He gets information from the surface and informs the Evo Head about those events privately. He also said that we secretly aided with building technology. The first computer had our help to build it.
“Don’t worry, we will teleport there, so we can always come back and get your stuff.”
“Oh, okay. To be sure this wasn’t a prank. I want to make sure, you said you tracked me and kept an eye on me right?”
“Correct. We know everything, every detail, you did or even thought.”
“Okay. Then what did I do on March 18 last year,” I confidently, since if they didn’t track me they would never know this. I went to a birthday party at Jack’s house. I don’t know why he invited me. I wasn’t even his friend. Jerry looked at his computer-like watch and pressed a button. A hologram of a computer appeared in front of him. He pressed a file and typed in “March 18, 2019”. The pages on the screen whirred past my eyes like tornado. Until he got to the end of the pages and reached a synopsis. How did they write that much so fast?! They must have used their advanced technology. I really would like to learn some.
“You went to a birthday party in Jack’s house.”
I jumped back in surprise. How could they possibly know that? Even Jack forgot. If they knew this they must have been tracing me the whole time. I felt relieved it wasn’t a prank.
“Wow! You guys are so cool! You can find information about anything in seconds. So the letter had real information?”
“Yes,” he said said with enthusiasm. “Are you ready to go?”
“I am more than ready. I am very excited to learn more about me and how I can save the world.” He did something on his watch and another hologram appeared. He pressed some buttons and told me to put my hand on the screen. I pressed my hand on the screen and he did the same. After one second, a cerulean colored beam of light shined down on us. Then everything went blank for one millisecond. Or was it a blink? I don’t know. But, I think everything went blank. I felt like I was being shoved into a small box while the box was shrinking and then one second later we popped out of the ordinary world into the amazing Evoquoral. I saw we were at the door of the laboratory. I scanned the whole place side to side and a feeling of belonging rushed over me into my brain. I felt like I finally fit in with everything around me.