Chapter 6: A Grand Illusion...
A shout out to Kenjisato for his amazing editing skill and suggestions...
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No Sex... (AN: I am also laughing at the irony...but as I said wait for the weekend.)
Thursday...
He wasn't sure where he was, but his surroundings were covered in thick fog and darkness— there was nothing visible. He wasn't sure how he arrived at wherever he was; after all, the last thing he could remember was sleeping in his room on his comfy bed.
This meant it was some kind of dream, but he couldn't understand why he wasn't waking up from it.
Normally, when you realize that you are dreaming, you wake up from the dream, but here he was, still experiencing the same hazy darkness, instead of waking up in his bed.
Suddenly, he felt a burning sensation within his chest; he looked down, only to notice his chest shining with a bright golden light which was spreading across his body. In less than a second, his entire body was being illuminated by this golden light, but that wasn't all; the burning sensation had also increased by tenfold— he was barely able to breathe!
The burning sensation kept increasing, and with a loud burst, his entire body blasted like a firecracker.
"MUMMY!"
He woke from this weird and scary dream, which felt so realistic. The first thing he did, was to look down, only to find his chest was normal.
'That was a strange dream, it felt so realistic!'
A knock on the door brought him out of his reverie. 'Who could it be?' He looked at the clock, it was six in the morning.
He got out of bed and opened the door, only to find his dad standing before him.
Mike Strode was a man in his late forties. He had a streak of grey hair and a few wrinkles on his face. After his wife's death, he hadn't paid enough attention to his diet which was quite evident, in the form of his balding head and a round belly.
"Morning Jim, are you all right? I heard your scream, champ; another bad dream?"
After the accident, every night, he would experience nightmares, when he would often be comforted by his Dad. But as time passed, those dreams became fewer and fewer, and by the age of ten, they just stopped. It was the first time in the past few years that he had experienced such a dream.
"Yeah, Dad?"
"Oh... If you want to talk about it, you know I am here, right?"
"Nah... Dad, I am fine. I will catch some sleep, I mean, it's still early, right?"
"Yeah, of course, but are you sure you would be fine all alone for the whole weekend?"
The dumbfounded expression on James's face was enough for his Dad to remind him, "You remember, right; both me and Viviana are supposed to go for a weekend cruise trip. I mean, I asked you if you want to come, but you said you would be fine."
"Oh... yeah, Dad, I remember it. I mean, I would be fine. And Debby would be around, right?" He spoke making sure his words were coated with enough brotherly love.
"Champ, it's the last weekend of the month. Debby wouldn't be around, either."
He then remembered that every month, on the last weekend, Debby would go to California to spend time with her Nana
;
because she loved her Nana so much! But James knew the real reason— her Nana's residence was in LA ,which was nothing more than a dream city for Debby.
"Oh, yeah. Still, I will be fine, Dad." 'But wait a minute, if Debby wouldn't be here, then what in the hell had Cindy planned for me?'
"If you want to come with..."
"No, no, Dad, I will be fine. I mean, I also have my weekend plans."
"Oh anything that I should be aware of?" Mike asked, while raising an eyebrow in a comical expression.
After his mother's death, James had seen how his Dad would be always skulking but once he started dating Viviana he had changed greatly; of course, he wasn't as adventurous as before, but he had started enjoying his life, which was all James could ask for!
"What? No, Dad. I mean, we are going to do some big missions on Clan Survivors and that's all there is, nothing else." 'Now I can't tell my Dad that I have to save my ass from my school bully, escape a humiliating scheme of his stepdaughter, and also meet a fine, hot Milf whom I met online!'
"Well that's good, I guess..." With that, he shook his head in understanding.
James could see a slight disappointment in his old man's eyes. To be honest, James could understand, after all, he had never gone out on a date, or had brought a girl to their home.
"All of us had taken Friday off and will be leaving on an early flight. First, we will drop Debby off and then go on the cruise, so we won't disturb your sleep tomorrow."
"Yeah, thanks, Dad." With that he gently closed the door, he knew within a few hours he would be back at school on a new day filled with the same trouble. He only hoped that both Henry's anger and the gossip had died down!
--
He jogged to the school, while still musing about his ability, although it wasn't something like super strength or speed, it was still an awesome ability if you thought about it, right? 'I mean, who in the world wouldn't want to have sexual superpowers? But still, what is the origin of this ability?'
This was the question that even after five days, he had failed to find an answer to. While, usually, in any superpower fantasy, the person gained power through accident, experiment, etc.; in his life, no such thing had happened.
So, to put it simply, there was just no way to explain how he got his ability; well, except for him helping that old man to cross the road.
'Which doesn't make sense, I mean you don't get gamer-like ability by just helping an old man cross a road, I mean, that would be the lamest origin story anyone have ever thought of!
'I mean what am I supposed to say? 'I am James Strode and I got my powers by helping an old man cross the road!'
He kept thinking and questioning multiple things within his mind, while jogging toward the school.
Even though he was so lost in his thoughts, he noticed when he entered the corridor that all of the students had stopped whatever they were doing, and looked at him; some of them were also talking in hushed tones with each other, while pointing fingers at him.
It was the first time he was getting so much attention, and without stopping, he just kept his head low and kept walking toward the classroom. Again, when he entered the classroom, all of the activities came to a halt, and everyone looked at him.
Again, he just kept his head low and walked toward the back of the class. After some time again, the entire classroom started to chat and he would occasionally hear his name, Jane Dunbar's name, along with Henry's.
There were also hushed discussions about how Henry had sworn to beat him black and blue. Those lines sent a cold sensation across his heart, and his stomach lurched at the prospect of beat down, even though he was a victim in this entire incident, yet there was no justice!
He knew approaching teachers would be useless since Principal Holmes would shy away from punishing Henry for crimes he had done, and forget about punishing him for something that he hadn't done yet!
'Well, today, I will also have to go through the library to escape from Henry, I guess!'
That thought suddenly made butterflies dance in his stomach, and the image of Mrs. Holmes masturbating in the library's storage room appeared before him.
Again, he started to curse himself for being such an idiot and not taking up the opportunity to film Mrs. Holmes while she was presenting such a hot show!
Last night, he had barely fallen asleep when his eyes opened wide in sudden realization, 'Why didn't he do it? Why didn't he make a video of Mrs. Holmes's jilling session? How could he miss such a rare opportunity?' These kinds of thoughts tormented him for at least an hour and he had barely fallen asleep when he suddenly woke up from that weird dream of him being blown up like a sparkler.
'That was surely one of the most realistic and vivid dreams I have ever seen in recent times.' After the accident, in which he lost his mother, he would have nightmares every night; all of them filled with pain, horror, and death. With passing time, he stopped experiencing those realistic and vivid nightmares, and in the past few years, he hadn't seen even a single nightmare. This was the reason why the dream last night had caught him off guard.
'I hope it was just a one-time thing!'
The rest of the day was uneventful, except for angry glances from Henry and some curious fingers being pointed toward him; nothing else happened. Once the day was over, he sneaked out of the classroom and rushed toward the library; during his escape toward the library, he had looked behind and didn't see Henry or his lackeys following him; which, instead of making him relax, increased his tension. After all, Henry wasn't the kind of person who would let this kind of thing go so easily.
Still, he kept running and entered the library, only to find Nina Jackson sitting on Mrs. Holmes's chair.
Nina Jackson was an assistant librarian, and since she was sitting in Mrs. Holmes's chair, it only meant Mrs. Holmes was on leave.
'Fuck!' Even though he wouldn't bluntly admit it, deep down he had wished for repetition of the previous evening and this time, to also film it.
He was about to walk past Nina, who just gave him a slight look and went back to her phone doing whatever she was doing, but suddenly, she raised her head and spoke.
"Hey, you are that kid who kissed Henry's girl, right?"
