Young Writers Society

Chapter 2

The Five

16 years later

01st March 2019, Lyceum International School, Sri Lanka, Earth - 36

Ineth Senivirathne's blue sedan pulled up next to Gate A. The prefect to be (he was still on probation) walked inside the school, looking to all the world like a properly civilized young man. His black hair was combed neatly and his dark brown eyes glinted in the morning sun. He was 4 minutes early so he had nothing to worry about and strolled off leisurely to sign morning attendance.

3 minutes 40 seconds later

The next member of the five; Maran Dhuharan, also a prefect on probation, put his considerable athletic skills on display to the school as he dashed in through Gate D like a man being chased by a pack of hungry lions. He covered the 150m to his destination in about 19 seconds.The head prefect, having just gotten ready to draw a red line to indicate that anyone who signed past the line was late , paused to look at Maran. His black hair was a rat's nest from the wind. His dark brown eyes droopy from sleepiness. He was dripping with sweat. His shirt was untucked and his badge looked like it had seen better days. He earned a disapproving look from the head prefect as he signed as the last person to be on time. One second later and he would have been too late.

15 seconds later

The naturally born wizard of the five, Hasana Perera, strolled into school leisurely through Gate A. He had met a friend on the way and he was chatting away. The black eyed, dark haired boy walked in slowly and headed on towards his class; 11 Science A. He was rather short and quite plump. He had a chubby face with at least three chins.He wasn't someone you'd ever catch running anywhere. He made his way up the staircase, insulting the stairs several times.

10 seconds later

In what was an unusual occurrence, a blue defender pulled up next to Gate A and the next young witch, Nakitha Semalee, got out and slowly walked into school rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. She rarely made an appearance at school this early but today she had been left with no choice. She had dark brown eyes and long black hair. She drew the attention of more than a few boys with her looks as she trudged up the stairs slowly to her class, nodding greetings to the friends she met on the way.

2 minutes later

The black Toyota Aqua of the last wizard to arrive pulled up near Gate A. Rakdu Wijeyaratne jumped out of the car and in a single fluid moment pulled out his bag, an exceptionally large wheeled bag the size of an average hand luggage, and dashed into school with a nod to the security guard at the gate. He proceeded to tear up the stairs 3 at a time. His black hair which his mother had attempted to comb was messed up in seconds. His strikingly dark jet black eyes were lined with red due to lack of sleep. As he thundered up the stairs like a rampaging bull, he dodged around children with an agility that shouldn't have been possible for his rather large size.

20 minutes later

Positively drenched in sweat but full of energy and in high spirits, Rakdu jumped the last 4 steps from the 5th floor to the 4th floor, his monstrous bag hitting the ground with a "THUNK" that rattled the entire floor. He was quite happy, having ended his table tennis practice session with a perfectly executed forehand smash that had flown just a couple of millimetres above the net. As he turned into the corridor that led to his class, 11 Science B, he saw his longtime friend Nakitha chatting away with her friends in 11 Science E. The fact that the bell, which signaled that everybody should be inside their respective classes, had already rung was being blatantly ignored by everyone.

He flashed a quick smile at her and said," Hi!"

"Hi! Is this the time you're coming to school?" she asked, turning away from her friends for a moment. Her friends continued their discussion.

"No!" he declared and then proceeded to explain," we had table tennis practices in the morning. We have a tournament this Sunday."

"Oh!" she said," Good luck then."

"Thanks! Gotta go though. Bye!"

"Bye!" she replied with a smile.

He continued in the direction of his class. As he arrived at his class he nodded a quick 'Good Morning' to one of his classmates, Nathanol, who was standing by the side of the doorway of the class like he was on guard duty, staring at something in the distance.

He walked into class hoping to take the shortcut to his place over the teacher's chair but found that their teacher for the first period, Sir Sujwa, had already arrived. He plastered a fake smile onto his face and muttered a good morning followed by a Latin curse under his breath. Then he proceeded to maneuver his massive bag through the maze of desks. Reaching his desk, he shoved it under it with enough force to slam it against the wall it was next to. After that, he inspected the desk and the chair for crow droppings and found some on his chair. He discretely switched it with someone else's, before sitting down on the chair. He took out his water battle and had a sip before getting up and heading towards Nathanol.

Nathanol was still peeking around the doorway staring at something or someone down in the corridor, like a crocodile watching for an unsuspecting fish to eat.

"What or who are you looking at?" asked Rakdu. Nathanol faltered for a minute and then gave one of his laughs that made him sound like an escapee from an insane asylum. He followed it up by showing all 32 teeth in a massive smile.

"Nothing, I was just…" he stammered trailing off.

Rakdu brushed off the obvious attempt at hiding something and asked," Shouldn't we be going back into class? I mean the bell already rang and the teacher's already here. In 5 minutes school is going to start so we better get back and take our books out before that."

"Okay, let's go sit down then," said Nathanol. He turned around then slapped Rakdu on the back, obviously meaning it to be a friendly pat, but not knowing his own strength, he delivered a painful slap, that emitted a loud "CRACK". Rakdu, fortunately for him, had an unusually high pain tolerance and barely felt anything. He agreed and just to let out some steam proceeded to punch the class room wall at full speed. Not something most people can pull off without breaking a knuckle or screaming in pain but Rakdu's powerful shot had the entire wall shaking and Rakdu continued walking to his seat humming a tune without showing the slightest hint of pain.

Two minutes before the bell was about to ring, the most recent addition to Rakdu's circle of friends arrived at the doorway. His name was Aden. He did a quick scan of the class before spotting the empty seat next to Rakdu. He walked towards the seat slowly and plonked himself down, putting his bag under the chair.

"Hi!" he said," I bought some of that powder that turns people black."

"What!" Rakdu exclaimed. In reply Aden, took out a blue polythene bag full of black powder. He put some water on the table from his massive 2 liter bottle and put some in it. Instantly it turned purple then slowly turned brown as it was exposed to the air.

"Oh! Potassium Permanganate," remembered Rakdu, who had the reaction burned into his memory from an experiment they had done at the lab the previous week. Due to some unfortunate maneuvers, his lab coat now had spots of brown all over the place. “That stuff doesn't wash off easily. You better not be planning to throw that at someone."

"Oh no! I'm putting this stuff in someone's bottle," replied Aden complete with a maniacal grin for maximum evil villain effect. Rakdu just shook his head with an 'I can't believe you just said that' look on his face. Then the bell rang, signaling the start of lessons. This started the mad dash back to class and the class filled up quickly.

Rakdu turned towards the teacher and joined his classmates in the valiant battle to stay awake as Sir Sujwa droned on in his usual flat monotone. The lesson continued till a quarter past eight. As soon as the bell rang, the entire class breathed a huge sigh of relief. Sir Sujwa proceeded to leave. Their class teacher then walked in.

Those who had fallen asleep were quickly shaken awake and they all managed to chorus a 'Goooooood Mooooorning Teeeacher',dragging out perhaps a bit too long for an A/L class. The teacher didn't comment but sat down and began to mark attendance.

Aden meanwhile took out his bag of powder and started turning things brown. The last page of his Math book became the first victim. After that was done, he remembered that he hadn't had breakfast yet and took out his lunchbox. He glanced around the class to make sure that no one would try to steal any food.

Rakdu joined him in keeping an eye on the back of the class, where the pack of hyenas disguised as 11th graders hung out.

A few minutes later at half past eight Ms. Gaithri left and Sir Sujwa walked back into the class to a half-hearted good morning.