Of Stones and Stars
Chapter 2: First day of school
I awoke in the morning filled with a sense of calm unlike anything I had experienced ever before. I rose from my slumber without the aid of an alarm clock or the call of my mother. I woke because it was time to wake, because I somehow knew…
The moment my head left the pillow I was filled with a deep hopelessness, a longing; something was missing. I felt empty inside until I slipped a hand under my pillow wrapped my fingers around the stone. Without the cold stone I was lost and alone, but with it the inner calm returned and I was at peace once more.
I dressed quickly, placing the stone in the pocket of my jeans. I wore a striped collared shirt and my faded blue jeans. These weren’t the new school clothes my mother had taken me for when we went shopping a few weeks ago, but they were comfortable. I like my clothes to be broken in and worn, not stiff and new. Except for my socks, that is. I like new socks. I ripped off the bits of plastic and slipped the grey toed white socks onto my feet, grabbed my backpack, and headed down the stairs.
The kitchen smelled like freshly brewed coffee. I love the smell of freshly brewed coffee. My mom walked into the room as I got a cereal bowl out of the cupboard. I opened up the cereal cupboard and grabbed a box of Crunch Berries®.
“You’re up early,” mom said.
“Yeah,” I said, opening the box and unrolling the plastic bag inside.
“You want bacon and eggs?” she asked.
“No,” I told her, “I like Crunch Berries®.” She always thinks that cooking breakfast is awesome, but I usually prefer cold cereal. There’s something about the milk at the bottom that is incomparably awesome.
“Alright,” she said. “Do you want some coffee?”
She was joking, of course; she knows I don’t drink that crap. I just rolled my eyes. Coffee: love the smell, hate the taste.
My dad walked in while I poured the milk into the bowl. He kissed my mom on the cheek and she wished him a good day at work.
“What are you doing up already?” He asked me.
I shrugged my shoulders and put the milk back in the fridge. “I just woke up early,” I said.
“Alright well, have fun at school Andy,” he said mockingly.
“Yeah, have fun working,” I responded in turn.
He smiled a bit and stepped out the door, briefcase in hand.
As I ate my cereal in silence, I was completely at peace that morning, so untypical of my usual self. That morning there was no anger, no suppressed frustration, no animosity. I was alive; so alive. It was like being charged up on caffeine but without the jitters and the shits and the quickened pulse. Okay, maybe not so much like caffeine; maybe that was a bad analogy. I guess it’s kind of hard to explain. I was wide awake and energized, but completely calm. I was at peace with everything, like those Zen heads or something.
I finished my breakfast quickly and put the bowl in the sink, rinsing the milk from the bottom and down the drain. I said goodbye to my mom and walked out the door.
The walk to school was like any other, but different somehow. It wasn’t different in that it was the first day of school; it was something more than just that. I was never exactly excited to go to school, but that day the reluctance was even more prevalent.
Regardless of my urges to avoid the place, I eventually found myself at the doors to the school where a crowd of kids stood around and waited for them to open the doors.
My friend Ryan stepped out of the crowd and waved to me. I waved back and made my way over to his side. He was a nice enough kid, a real brain. He’s gotten me through quite a few tests I didn’t think I was going to pass. I guess you could call him a bit of a nerd; but was definitely one of the cooler nerds I’d ever encountered. He was also one of the more entertaining people I’d met.
“Hey,” he said.
“What’s up?” I returned.
“You ready for this shit?” He asked. Ryan had started swearing regularly last year. He was becoming pretty proficient at it too; it was almost like a second language. In his case, maybe it was a fourth language.
“Not at all,” I replied.
“Neither am I.” He shook his head.
We stood there in silence for a bit before he opened his mouth again. “Did you see what Kristi is wearing? I’m going to have to carry my text books in front of my cock all day.”
We laughed. Normally I would have dropped everything and went to check it out. For what ever reason, though, I didn’t feel very motivated that morning.
“Man,” Ryan said; “I’m so fucking tired.” He rubbed at his eyes a bit and yawned.
“Not me,” I said. “I woke up before the alarm. I don’t think I’ve ever slept better than I did last night.”
The bell rang and the doors were opened. The flood of young adults slowly filtered into the building.
Ryan and I were among the last to enter. It was always that way; neither of us were terribly interested in attending school. The main difference between Ryan and me, aside from my obviously stunning good looks, was that he didn’t have to try very hard to get the grades.
After unfolding and studying the schedule, I made my way to room 213 for my first class, Algebra. I was among the first to arrive, so I pretty much had my choice of seats. I chose a seat in the back.
The bell rang and the last few students slipped into the classroom and quickly found their seats.
“Good morning,” came the voice booming over the speaker system, “It’s time for your morning announcements. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance.”
Everyone rose reluctantly to their feet, our right hands over our hearts as we recited the pledge. When the pledge was over, we returned to our seats to hear the principal welcome us back and go through some menial announcements that I’ve never paid much attention to.
Eventually the announcements were over and the teacher cleared his throat. “Welcome to Algebra, I’m Mr. Kinder and I will be your teacher.” He sounded nervous. He had thin hair and coke-bottle glasses.
“Now,” he said. “Who can tell me what number this symbol represents?”
He drew the symbol for Pi on the black board.
A few hands went up, mine included. “That’s Pi,” one of the students answered.
“Yes it is,” Mr. Kinder responded. “Now what number is Pi?”
Less hands were up in the air with that question. Mr. Kinder called on me, glancing at his schedule to get my name right. “Andrew, is it?” I nodded that I was indeed Andrew. “Come on up to the board and write out the numerical version of Pi, please.”
I’ve always detested going to the board, especially in a mathematics class. But there I was, eagerly moving forward and taking the chalk from the teachers hand. I began writing out Pi. Until that moment I had been unable to recall anything beyond 3.1415…
My hands moved with a purpose, as though I was no longer in control. I don’t know how it happened, but I suddenly just knew.
“3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820974944592307816406286208998628034825342117067982148086513282306647093844609550582231725359408128481117450284102701938521105559644622948954930381964428810975665933446128475648233786783165271201909145648566923460348610454326648213393607260249141273724587006606315588174881520920962829254091715364367892590360011330530548820466521384146951941511-”
Suddenly the teacher wrenched the chalk from my hand. “Have a seat, Andrew,” he said with a frustrated look on his face. Most of the other students seemed amused and some were chuckling a bit as I made my way back to my desk.
“While I am truly and deeply impressed of your knowledge of Pi, I will ask that you stop when I ask you to the first time in the future,” he said evenly to me. “Is that understood, Mr. Wells?”
“Yes, sir,” I replied.
“And quite frankly, I’m sure most of these numbers are just random scribbling that you wrote up here. I’ll not have such tom foolery in the future. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes, sir,” I said.
The teacher went about erasing my markings as I sat there pondering over what had just happened. Kristi turned around in her seat to face me. I hadn’t realized she was sitting in front of me until just then; and taking note of her outfit I now understood what Ryan was talking about.
“That was funny,” she said, a huge smile on her face. God, but she was beautiful. There was a hit of cleavage peeking out of her shirt and her nipples were hard. It was a real struggle to maintain my gaze on her face.
Any other time she would have talked to me I would have been a stuttering fool; tripping all over myself and making myself look like a total ass. But things were different that day, I kept my cool; my nerves were steel.
“I guess,” I said. “I just did what he asked me to do. I don’t see what his problem is.”
“Oh come on,” she said to me with a playful smirk curling at her lips. She pushed back on dark curl from her face as she continued to speak. “There’s no way you knew all that.”
“No, that’s Pi,” I said. “I just wrote it on the board like he asked. Seriously, I don’t see what his problem is.”
She looked at me quizzically for a moment, her head tilting cutely to the side. “Did you get contacts?”
“No…” I answered.
“Hmmm,” she said. “I never noticed how blue your eyes are.”
“Kristine, if I could recapture your attention please,” Mr. Kinder said. “Thank you.”
As the teacher droned on and on about what Pi was used for and how infinite the number truly is, I couldn’t help but reflect on the brief interaction I had just had with Kristi. She talked about my eyes… Vaguely I was aware that she had been flirting with me, but primarily my thoughts centered on one of the things she had said. She had mentioned that she had never noticed how blue my eyes were… But my eyes weren’t blue at all. They were a dull and uninspiring shade of brown; always had been.
The teacher clapped his hands together after a particularly long speech about something. “Alright,” he said; “We have a few minutes left in class and I really don’t have much else to say except to issue all of you with a challenge. I offer this challenge every year to my classes. If you can stump me with a math question I will make sure that there is no homework for the entire month that the question is asked.”
He smirked a bit arrogantly and added; “There has not yet been a successful attempt at this, by the way.”
That’s when I raised my hand. Like the Pi thing, I don’t know how I knew it, I just did.
“Yes Andrew?” Kinder said, calling on me.
“Take any positive composite integer, m.
We have m = ab = cd, where ab and cd are distinct factorizations, and a, b, c, d 1. Show that an + bn + cn + dn is composite, for all integers n 0.” I said.
“I’m sorry?” he said, acting as though he hadn’t heard me. Maybe he was trying to buy himself some time. Maybe he was trying to get me to second guess myself and withdraw my question. But that wasn’t going to happen.
For his benefit, I repeated myself. “Take any positive composite integer, m.
We have m = ab = cd, where ab and cd are distinct factorizations, and a, b, c, d 1. Show that an + bn + cn + dn is composite, for all integers n 0.’ Did you want me to right it out for you?“
“Yes,” he said. “Please do.”
I got out of my seat just as the bell started to ring.
“Class dismissed,” he said with a satisfied smile.
The man was saved by the bell. He cast one glance at me that spoke volumes of contempt as I stood up and exited the room along with the rest of the students.
“I’ll write it up there tomorrow,” I told Mr. Kinder.
“I look forward to it,” he said coldly.
The rest of the day passed pretty much the same way. I knew all the answers to all the questions. I debated the glaring holes in Einstein’s Theory of Relativity with the physics instructor, and argued over the legitimacy of Shakespeare’s literary merit under the stance that the majority of his writing was plagiarized.
When the end of the day finally came, I started walking home. As I walked, I recounted some of the events of the day. I wondered if Mr. Kinder would honor his word. He was right to say that my question could not be answered, it was quite impossible actually; there was no answer.
Inevitably my thoughts soon turned to Kristi. She had dominated my thoughts and dreams for years; she was the most gorgeous girl in school. And that low cut shirt she had on today, and the tight jeans… Ryan’s joke about carrying text books in front of his crotch wasn’t too far from the truth. And was she flirting with me? She’s never flirted with me before, rarely even spoken to me as a matter of fact. It was all so confusing…
Thinking of the brief conversation Kristi and I had, I was reminded of her comment about my ‘blue’ eyes. I couldn’t believe I had forgotten. What a strange thing to say. Was she just trying to start a conversation with me? But that didn’t make sense either, why would she want to speak to me?
I looked up at the sky in that moment, about to ask God for guidance, when I noticed that I was not headed in the right direction. I was several streets out of the way. How the hell did I end up there? I must have gone a good ten minutes out of the way.
I turned in the direction of home and took a few steps, but something kept nagging at me and tugging at my conscious. It’s like somewhere within me was a resistance to return to my home. There was a yearning or something within me that told me to keep walking down the street, away from home.
Keeping a presence of mind, I forced my feet to carry me home.
********************************
As I got closer to home, the little tug inside of me became weaker until at last it had disappeared entirely. I unlocked the front door and stepped inside.
The house was silent, my dad was still working and according to the note on the door mom ran to the grocery store. I had a good half-hour before Lizzie would be coming home, so for the time being the house was completely mine.
I figured that it was the perfect opportunity to locate my dad’s box of dirty movies and pop one into the DVD player.
I had to get a stool from the hall so that I could reach the box in his closet, but I found it soon enough. After a quick skimming of the titles, I found one I hadn’t seen before and put the box back up.
I took the DVD back to my room and popped it in, pulling my manhood out while the FBI warning played on the screen. Why the hell did the FBI warning have to take so long?
Eventually the previews started and I was able to skip them and go directly to the movie.
Before I could really start anything I heard the front door open downstairs and I quickly shut my TV off and took the DVD out, putting it back in the case and shoving the case in between my mattress and the box spring.
I hate it when that happens. Just when I was about to relieve my mounting sexual tension, someone has to come home. I glanced out the window and saw my moms car in the drive just as she called up the stairs to me.
“Andy, honey,” she called. “Come help me unload these groceries!”
“One second, ma!” I called back. I had to give my boner some time to die down. The last thing I wanted was to have an erection around my mother. That sort of thing was always embarrassing, but what’s the sexual abstinence motto? “Sex can wait, masturbate.”
Eventually everything was good and I went downstairs to help my mom unload the groceries from the trunk of the car.
“What took you so long?” She asked.
“I was, uh, doing some homework,” I told her, hoping she didn’t notice the flush that was undoubtedly overtaking my face.
After I helped carry in the groceries in, my mother told me to finish up whatever homework I had. I headed up the stairs and into my room, closing the door behind me.
There would be no opportunity for what I had been about to do, what with my mom home and my sister about to come home in a few more minutes, so I unzipped my back pack and pulled out the text books.
Homework on the first day of school is a good indicator of the type of teacher you are going to have, and it would appear that my Science and History teachers were going to be difficult. I had a feeling that Math would be no exception.
I was done with my History reading in less than half and hour, and then I opened the science book. It was chemistry, and as I read through it I found that nothing within was new to me. I knew all of this.
Now, I’ve never learned any of the information in the chemistry book, nor have I ever been interested in chemistry (I’ve always been more into artsy things), but every word I read, every term I encountered, every lesson in the chapter; was familiar.
What’s more, the periodic table seemed incomplete. There were many, many elements that I knew of which were missing. Was I going crazy? I didn’t think that I was, but I was certain that the periodic table in the text book was inaccurate. I don’t know how I knew, or how I could trust my knowledge, but I was so certain of everything that I had to hold trust in myself.
I flipped ahead through the book and experienced the same thing. Every page was filled with things that I already knew, except for a few of the items that were blatantly false. Was modern science somehow behind me in my understanding of things, or was I absolutely off my rocker.
I closed the book and set it down on the bed. I began freaking out. What the hell was going on? What was happening to me? How did I know, or think that I knew, all this crap? Why was this suddenly happening?
And then, as if in answer to all of my questions, I felt a pulsation of cold coming from my pocket. It was possibly the deepest chill I’d ever felt (save for yesterday at the beach), but it didn’t bite the way ice did in your hand. Though the cold was intensely so, I did not grow numb or stiff.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out the strange stone I had stumbled upon at the beach. I know I’ve said it before, but it’s hard to describe just how brilliant a shade of blue it was. It was glass smooth and ice cold. The light within was pulsating still, slowly and rhythmically; soothingly.
As I stared into its depths, all of my worries and fears and anxieties faded away. I was transfixed in it once more, completely absorbed and wholly unaware of my surroundings. The house could have fallen to the ground in that moment and I wouldn’t have noticed.
I don’t know how long I stared at the stone, but the moment seemed to last forever. How long is a moment, anyway? I know it’s not an exact measurement of time, but when is a moment no longer considered a moment? I don’t know why I’m asking, as I have no idea how long that moment lasted. All I know is that I didn’t snap out of my revelry until I heard my mom shouting loudly up the stairs at me that dinner was ready.
Once I broke eye contact with the stone I became aware of the rumbling in my stomach. I was hungry. I glanced once more at the stone before slipping it into my pocket and running down the stairs.
When I got to the table, I found that everyone was already sitting there with plates of food before them.
“What’s with you today?” My mom asked. “Are you going deaf?”
“What?” I asked. “No, I was just…” Just what? Just staring so intensely at a rock I found on the beach that I didn’t hear her? Just being hypnotized by a soothing blue stone that glowed with an inner light?
“Just…?” mom asked.
“I was really concentrating on my Chemistry,” I answered, trying to sound natural.
“Ah,” said my father, “I understand. Chemistry can be very involving.” He fixed me with a knowing glance that told me he thought that I had been masturbating.
My face flushed with embarrassment and I moved into the kitchen to make myself a plate. A few hours ago he would have been right, but this time I was involved with something else entirely. I wasn’t quite sure exactly what I had been involved in, mind you, but it was something other than strangling my manhood.
As I scooped the casserole onto my plate my father called out to me; "Don't forget to wash your hands!"
I did my best to block out the implications of his words and thought about the stone… It was much more than a stone, that much was clear. But what the hell was it? A pulsation of cold emitted from my pocket as I thought about the rock. Was it sentient? Was it somehow linked to my thoughts?
I had so many questions and no way of answering them. I ate my dinner in virtual silence, pondering over my questions; speaking only when I was spoken to.
****************************
It came to me in my dreams again that night. On the previous night I had convinced myself that the dreams were just a byproduct of my obsession over the pretty rock I had found on the beach. I ignored that it had spoken to me, I had forced myself to believe that things it told me were things that my mind had made up.
But that night I realized that it was speaking to me, truly speaking to me. The stone was sentient. It began the dream in the form of a star, just like it had last night, but it soon became a jewel of some sort that fit into a silver crown. There were other stones beside it, other beautiful and strangely colored stones.
The secrets came again that night. They were whispered sweetly to me in the night. At first it just kept repeating the same secrets as the previous night, over and over again, but then it started with some new ones. The things I was told I cannot repeat. That’s why they’re called secrets.
I awoke in the morning filled with a sense of calm unlike anything I had experienced ever before. I rose from my slumber without the aid of an alarm clock or the call of my mother. I woke because it was time to wake, because I somehow knew…
The moment my head left the pillow I was filled with a deep hopelessness, a longing; something was missing. I felt empty inside until I slipped a hand under my pillow wrapped my fingers around the stone. Without the cold stone I was lost and alone, but with it the inner calm returned and I was at peace once more.
I dressed quickly, placing the stone in the pocket of my jeans. I wore a striped collared shirt and my faded blue jeans. These weren’t the new school clothes my mother had taken me for when we went shopping a few weeks ago, but they were comfortable. I like my clothes to be broken in and worn, not stiff and new. Except for my socks, that is. I like new socks. I ripped off the bits of plastic and slipped the grey toed white socks onto my feet, grabbed my backpack, and headed down the stairs.
The kitchen smelled like freshly brewed coffee. I love the smell of freshly brewed coffee. My mom walked into the room as I got a cereal bowl out of the cupboard. I opened up the cereal cupboard and grabbed a box of Crunch Berries®.
“You’re up early,” mom said.
“Yeah,” I said, opening the box and unrolling the plastic bag inside.
“You want bacon and eggs?” she asked.
“No,” I told her, “I like Crunch Berries®.” She always thinks that cooking breakfast is awesome, but I usually prefer cold cereal. There’s something about the milk at the bottom that is incomparably awesome.
“Alright,” she said. “Do you want some coffee?”
She was joking, of course; she knows I don’t drink that crap. I just rolled my eyes. Coffee: love the smell, hate the taste.
My dad walked in while I poured the milk into the bowl. He kissed my mom on the cheek and she wished him a good day at work.
“What are you doing up already?” He asked me.
I shrugged my shoulders and put the milk back in the fridge. “I just woke up early,” I said.
“Alright well, have fun at school Andy,” he said mockingly.
“Yeah, have fun working,” I responded in turn.
He smiled a bit and stepped out the door, briefcase in hand.
As I ate my cereal in silence, I was completely at peace that morning, so untypical of my usual self. That morning there was no anger, no suppressed frustration, no animosity. I was alive; so alive. It was like being charged up on caffeine but without the jitters and the shits and the quickened pulse. Okay, maybe not so much like caffeine; maybe that was a bad analogy. I guess it’s kind of hard to explain. I was wide awake and energized, but completely calm. I was at peace with everything, like those Zen heads or something.
I finished my breakfast quickly and put the bowl in the sink, rinsing the milk from the bottom and down the drain. I said goodbye to my mom and walked out the door.
The walk to school was like any other, but different somehow. It wasn’t different in that it was the first day of school; it was something more than just that. I was never exactly excited to go to school, but that day the reluctance was even more prevalent.
Regardless of my urges to avoid the place, I eventually found myself at the doors to the school where a crowd of kids stood around and waited for them to open the doors.
My friend Ryan stepped out of the crowd and waved to me. I waved back and made my way over to his side. He was a nice enough kid, a real brain. He’s gotten me through quite a few tests I didn’t think I was going to pass. I guess you could call him a bit of a nerd; but was definitely one of the cooler nerds I’d ever encountered. He was also one of the more entertaining people I’d met.
“Hey,” he said.
“What’s up?” I returned.
“You ready for this shit?” He asked. Ryan had started swearing regularly last year. He was becoming pretty proficient at it too; it was almost like a second language. In his case, maybe it was a fourth language.
“Not at all,” I replied.
“Neither am I.” He shook his head.
We stood there in silence for a bit before he opened his mouth again. “Did you see what Kristi is wearing? I’m going to have to carry my text books in front of my cock all day.”
We laughed. Normally I would have dropped everything and went to check it out. For what ever reason, though, I didn’t feel very motivated that morning.
“Man,” Ryan said; “I’m so fucking tired.” He rubbed at his eyes a bit and yawned.
“Not me,” I said. “I woke up before the alarm. I don’t think I’ve ever slept better than I did last night.”
The bell rang and the doors were opened. The flood of young adults slowly filtered into the building.
Ryan and I were among the last to enter. It was always that way; neither of us were terribly interested in attending school. The main difference between Ryan and me, aside from my obviously stunning good looks, was that he didn’t have to try very hard to get the grades.
After unfolding and studying the schedule, I made my way to room 213 for my first class, Algebra. I was among the first to arrive, so I pretty much had my choice of seats. I chose a seat in the back.
The bell rang and the last few students slipped into the classroom and quickly found their seats.
“Good morning,” came the voice booming over the speaker system, “It’s time for your morning announcements. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance.”
Everyone rose reluctantly to their feet, our right hands over our hearts as we recited the pledge. When the pledge was over, we returned to our seats to hear the principal welcome us back and go through some menial announcements that I’ve never paid much attention to.
Eventually the announcements were over and the teacher cleared his throat. “Welcome to Algebra, I’m Mr. Kinder and I will be your teacher.” He sounded nervous. He had thin hair and coke-bottle glasses.
“Now,” he said. “Who can tell me what number this symbol represents?”
He drew the symbol for Pi on the black board.
A few hands went up, mine included. “That’s Pi,” one of the students answered.
“Yes it is,” Mr. Kinder responded. “Now what number is Pi?”
Less hands were up in the air with that question. Mr. Kinder called on me, glancing at his schedule to get my name right. “Andrew, is it?” I nodded that I was indeed Andrew. “Come on up to the board and write out the numerical version of Pi, please.”
I’ve always detested going to the board, especially in a mathematics class. But there I was, eagerly moving forward and taking the chalk from the teachers hand. I began writing out Pi. Until that moment I had been unable to recall anything beyond 3.1415…
My hands moved with a purpose, as though I was no longer in control. I don’t know how it happened, but I suddenly just knew.
“3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820974944592307816406286208998628034825342117067982148086513282306647093844609550582231725359408128481117450284102701938521105559644622948954930381964428810975665933446128475648233786783165271201909145648566923460348610454326648213393607260249141273724587006606315588174881520920962829254091715364367892590360011330530548820466521384146951941511-”
Suddenly the teacher wrenched the chalk from my hand. “Have a seat, Andrew,” he said with a frustrated look on his face. Most of the other students seemed amused and some were chuckling a bit as I made my way back to my desk.
“While I am truly and deeply impressed of your knowledge of Pi, I will ask that you stop when I ask you to the first time in the future,” he said evenly to me. “Is that understood, Mr. Wells?”
“Yes, sir,” I replied.
“And quite frankly, I’m sure most of these numbers are just random scribbling that you wrote up here. I’ll not have such tom foolery in the future. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes, sir,” I said.
The teacher went about erasing my markings as I sat there pondering over what had just happened. Kristi turned around in her seat to face me. I hadn’t realized she was sitting in front of me until just then; and taking note of her outfit I now understood what Ryan was talking about.
“That was funny,” she said, a huge smile on her face. God, but she was beautiful. There was a hit of cleavage peeking out of her shirt and her nipples were hard. It was a real struggle to maintain my gaze on her face.
Any other time she would have talked to me I would have been a stuttering fool; tripping all over myself and making myself look like a total ass. But things were different that day, I kept my cool; my nerves were steel.
“I guess,” I said. “I just did what he asked me to do. I don’t see what his problem is.”
“Oh come on,” she said to me with a playful smirk curling at her lips. She pushed back on dark curl from her face as she continued to speak. “There’s no way you knew all that.”
“No, that’s Pi,” I said. “I just wrote it on the board like he asked. Seriously, I don’t see what his problem is.”
She looked at me quizzically for a moment, her head tilting cutely to the side. “Did you get contacts?”
“No…” I answered.
“Hmmm,” she said. “I never noticed how blue your eyes are.”
“Kristine, if I could recapture your attention please,” Mr. Kinder said. “Thank you.”
As the teacher droned on and on about what Pi was used for and how infinite the number truly is, I couldn’t help but reflect on the brief interaction I had just had with Kristi. She talked about my eyes… Vaguely I was aware that she had been flirting with me, but primarily my thoughts centered on one of the things she had said. She had mentioned that she had never noticed how blue my eyes were… But my eyes weren’t blue at all. They were a dull and uninspiring shade of brown; always had been.
The teacher clapped his hands together after a particularly long speech about something. “Alright,” he said; “We have a few minutes left in class and I really don’t have much else to say except to issue all of you with a challenge. I offer this challenge every year to my classes. If you can stump me with a math question I will make sure that there is no homework for the entire month that the question is asked.”
He smirked a bit arrogantly and added; “There has not yet been a successful attempt at this, by the way.”
That’s when I raised my hand. Like the Pi thing, I don’t know how I knew it, I just did.
“Yes Andrew?” Kinder said, calling on me.
“Take any positive composite integer, m.
We have m = ab = cd, where ab and cd are distinct factorizations, and a, b, c, d 1. Show that an + bn + cn + dn is composite, for all integers n 0.” I said.
“I’m sorry?” he said, acting as though he hadn’t heard me. Maybe he was trying to buy himself some time. Maybe he was trying to get me to second guess myself and withdraw my question. But that wasn’t going to happen.
For his benefit, I repeated myself. “Take any positive composite integer, m.
We have m = ab = cd, where ab and cd are distinct factorizations, and a, b, c, d 1. Show that an + bn + cn + dn is composite, for all integers n 0.’ Did you want me to right it out for you?“
“Yes,” he said. “Please do.”
I got out of my seat just as the bell started to ring.
“Class dismissed,” he said with a satisfied smile.
The man was saved by the bell. He cast one glance at me that spoke volumes of contempt as I stood up and exited the room along with the rest of the students.
“I’ll write it up there tomorrow,” I told Mr. Kinder.
“I look forward to it,” he said coldly.
The rest of the day passed pretty much the same way. I knew all the answers to all the questions. I debated the glaring holes in Einstein’s Theory of Relativity with the physics instructor, and argued over the legitimacy of Shakespeare’s literary merit under the stance that the majority of his writing was plagiarized.
When the end of the day finally came, I started walking home. As I walked, I recounted some of the events of the day. I wondered if Mr. Kinder would honor his word. He was right to say that my question could not be answered, it was quite impossible actually; there was no answer.
Inevitably my thoughts soon turned to Kristi. She had dominated my thoughts and dreams for years; she was the most gorgeous girl in school. And that low cut shirt she had on today, and the tight jeans… Ryan’s joke about carrying text books in front of his crotch wasn’t too far from the truth. And was she flirting with me? She’s never flirted with me before, rarely even spoken to me as a matter of fact. It was all so confusing…
Thinking of the brief conversation Kristi and I had, I was reminded of her comment about my ‘blue’ eyes. I couldn’t believe I had forgotten. What a strange thing to say. Was she just trying to start a conversation with me? But that didn’t make sense either, why would she want to speak to me?
I looked up at the sky in that moment, about to ask God for guidance, when I noticed that I was not headed in the right direction. I was several streets out of the way. How the hell did I end up there? I must have gone a good ten minutes out of the way.
I turned in the direction of home and took a few steps, but something kept nagging at me and tugging at my conscious. It’s like somewhere within me was a resistance to return to my home. There was a yearning or something within me that told me to keep walking down the street, away from home.
Keeping a presence of mind, I forced my feet to carry me home.
********************************
As I got closer to home, the little tug inside of me became weaker until at last it had disappeared entirely. I unlocked the front door and stepped inside.
The house was silent, my dad was still working and according to the note on the door mom ran to the grocery store. I had a good half-hour before Lizzie would be coming home, so for the time being the house was completely mine.
I figured that it was the perfect opportunity to locate my dad’s box of dirty movies and pop one into the DVD player.
I had to get a stool from the hall so that I could reach the box in his closet, but I found it soon enough. After a quick skimming of the titles, I found one I hadn’t seen before and put the box back up.
I took the DVD back to my room and popped it in, pulling my manhood out while the FBI warning played on the screen. Why the hell did the FBI warning have to take so long?
Eventually the previews started and I was able to skip them and go directly to the movie.
Before I could really start anything I heard the front door open downstairs and I quickly shut my TV off and took the DVD out, putting it back in the case and shoving the case in between my mattress and the box spring.
I hate it when that happens. Just when I was about to relieve my mounting sexual tension, someone has to come home. I glanced out the window and saw my moms car in the drive just as she called up the stairs to me.
“Andy, honey,” she called. “Come help me unload these groceries!”
“One second, ma!” I called back. I had to give my boner some time to die down. The last thing I wanted was to have an erection around my mother. That sort of thing was always embarrassing, but what’s the sexual abstinence motto? “Sex can wait, masturbate.”
Eventually everything was good and I went downstairs to help my mom unload the groceries from the trunk of the car.
“What took you so long?” She asked.
“I was, uh, doing some homework,” I told her, hoping she didn’t notice the flush that was undoubtedly overtaking my face.
After I helped carry in the groceries in, my mother told me to finish up whatever homework I had. I headed up the stairs and into my room, closing the door behind me.
There would be no opportunity for what I had been about to do, what with my mom home and my sister about to come home in a few more minutes, so I unzipped my back pack and pulled out the text books.
Homework on the first day of school is a good indicator of the type of teacher you are going to have, and it would appear that my Science and History teachers were going to be difficult. I had a feeling that Math would be no exception.
I was done with my History reading in less than half and hour, and then I opened the science book. It was chemistry, and as I read through it I found that nothing within was new to me. I knew all of this.
Now, I’ve never learned any of the information in the chemistry book, nor have I ever been interested in chemistry (I’ve always been more into artsy things), but every word I read, every term I encountered, every lesson in the chapter; was familiar.
What’s more, the periodic table seemed incomplete. There were many, many elements that I knew of which were missing. Was I going crazy? I didn’t think that I was, but I was certain that the periodic table in the text book was inaccurate. I don’t know how I knew, or how I could trust my knowledge, but I was so certain of everything that I had to hold trust in myself.
I flipped ahead through the book and experienced the same thing. Every page was filled with things that I already knew, except for a few of the items that were blatantly false. Was modern science somehow behind me in my understanding of things, or was I absolutely off my rocker.
I closed the book and set it down on the bed. I began freaking out. What the hell was going on? What was happening to me? How did I know, or think that I knew, all this crap? Why was this suddenly happening?
And then, as if in answer to all of my questions, I felt a pulsation of cold coming from my pocket. It was possibly the deepest chill I’d ever felt (save for yesterday at the beach), but it didn’t bite the way ice did in your hand. Though the cold was intensely so, I did not grow numb or stiff.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out the strange stone I had stumbled upon at the beach. I know I’ve said it before, but it’s hard to describe just how brilliant a shade of blue it was. It was glass smooth and ice cold. The light within was pulsating still, slowly and rhythmically; soothingly.
As I stared into its depths, all of my worries and fears and anxieties faded away. I was transfixed in it once more, completely absorbed and wholly unaware of my surroundings. The house could have fallen to the ground in that moment and I wouldn’t have noticed.
I don’t know how long I stared at the stone, but the moment seemed to last forever. How long is a moment, anyway? I know it’s not an exact measurement of time, but when is a moment no longer considered a moment? I don’t know why I’m asking, as I have no idea how long that moment lasted. All I know is that I didn’t snap out of my revelry until I heard my mom shouting loudly up the stairs at me that dinner was ready.
Once I broke eye contact with the stone I became aware of the rumbling in my stomach. I was hungry. I glanced once more at the stone before slipping it into my pocket and running down the stairs.
When I got to the table, I found that everyone was already sitting there with plates of food before them.
“What’s with you today?” My mom asked. “Are you going deaf?”
“What?” I asked. “No, I was just…” Just what? Just staring so intensely at a rock I found on the beach that I didn’t hear her? Just being hypnotized by a soothing blue stone that glowed with an inner light?
“Just…?” mom asked.
“I was really concentrating on my Chemistry,” I answered, trying to sound natural.
“Ah,” said my father, “I understand. Chemistry can be very involving.” He fixed me with a knowing glance that told me he thought that I had been masturbating.
My face flushed with embarrassment and I moved into the kitchen to make myself a plate. A few hours ago he would have been right, but this time I was involved with something else entirely. I wasn’t quite sure exactly what I had been involved in, mind you, but it was something other than strangling my manhood.
As I scooped the casserole onto my plate my father called out to me; "Don't forget to wash your hands!"
I did my best to block out the implications of his words and thought about the stone… It was much more than a stone, that much was clear. But what the hell was it? A pulsation of cold emitted from my pocket as I thought about the rock. Was it sentient? Was it somehow linked to my thoughts?
I had so many questions and no way of answering them. I ate my dinner in virtual silence, pondering over my questions; speaking only when I was spoken to.
****************************
It came to me in my dreams again that night. On the previous night I had convinced myself that the dreams were just a byproduct of my obsession over the pretty rock I had found on the beach. I ignored that it had spoken to me, I had forced myself to believe that things it told me were things that my mind had made up.
But that night I realized that it was speaking to me, truly speaking to me. The stone was sentient. It began the dream in the form of a star, just like it had last night, but it soon became a jewel of some sort that fit into a silver crown. There were other stones beside it, other beautiful and strangely colored stones.
The secrets came again that night. They were whispered sweetly to me in the night. At first it just kept repeating the same secrets as the previous night, over and over again, but then it started with some new ones. The things I was told I cannot repeat. That’s why they’re called secrets.
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