02x05: Ninjas and Magic

A new innovative card game hits Austin and his gang as Roey exhibits some of his powers. Austin gets to know Bukidnon a bit more.

NINJAS AND MAGIC

 

     The year started off great. Austin had met a lot of new people. A few days after what Austin called Power Day; Sr. Edmond had given them a seating position. Austin crossed his fingers to sit beside someone he wanted to sit beside. Well, it was in alphabetical order and he got an old classmate of his, Kat.

     In front of him was Rico. He was still accustoming himself to his ability to create acid. He would usually burn his pens or pencils. He secretly burnt a hole through the bottom of his compartment.

     Beside him was Janella, what were the chances. Austin would talk to her and Rico during the uneventful homeroom classes. They were really entertaining conversations, and Kat would join in sometime and it would be a great conversation.

     This year already seemed to be better than last year. He was a damn oddball for the past two years but he went more interpersonal this year and he made a lot of friends and actually vanquished his hatred towards an old enemy.

     It turns out that PJ was a really nice person. Austin was to be honest, quite a nerdy douchebag last year and maybe that contributed. But he can’t help but worry if maybe he’s being treated this way because he has authority. Everyone knows that he can take away anyone’s superpowers in the blink of an eye.

     Behind him was another cool guy, Ricardo. He mastered his supernova power and would usually annoy his seatmate.

     He was seated beside Aubrey, the weirdo. Actually, the class had three weirdos. First was Ernst, second was Aubrey, and third was an old student, Bea. Aubrey was weird because well, she was… unorthodox. She would do random things that aren’t normal. I mean, random doesn’t always mean weird but she’d hug a pencil if the teacher said something like “we’ll have a quiz”. Not to mention she was obsessed with two things that are usually hated by normal people, Twilight and The Jonas Brothers.

     Ernst, well he had his seatmate laughing pretty often but Austin would usually psychic slap Ernst if he tried this. She would usually laugh annoyingly loud but can Austin blame her?

     Bea, had a long mouth. She’d also b***h on everybody that pisses her off. Sr. Leo once gave a group assignment that they had to make an advertisement on a region of the Philippines. She was assigned Metro Manila but when Austin asked her for it, she’d shrug. If Austin would persist, she’d shout. If Austin would piss her off, she’d use her superpower which was to create vacuum force from her mouth. Austin would just puff fire in front of her face to shut her up and quickly run.

         During Recess and Lunchtimes however, Austin would usually find his other friends gathered in a circle. They were playing a card game but it was hand-drawn. It was made by one of them, Roey de Santos. Almost everybody else made fun of Roey but frankly, Austin didn’t get it. Aubrey was worse. Sure Roey would go into utter spurts of randomness but at least he has a reason. Aubrey would start singing a JoBro song if the teacher says “pineapple”. Thank goodness the teachers rarely say “pineapple”.

     The game they were playing was called Ninjas and Magic. It seemed too weird for Austin at the time but maybe it was just his old a*****e pride that stuck with him from 5^th grade that was saying, “Nah, it’s too nerdy”.

     They would usually play by the catwalk but the Level Coordinator, Sr. Dan, probably evicted them. They would now play by the stage. Soon they disappeared from the stage and went back to the catwalk. Soon they disappeared altogether. This was the only time Austin could talk to Ivan so he had to look for them. Austin gave in one time and tried to play the game and it was actually quite fun. Now he had to find them because he felt like playing.

     The first week of July, Austin was really getting pissed off. They can’t be located by his mutant locating skills. He noticed something weird; some parts of the school were blocked from his psychic abilities. He was eating lunch one time in the canteen and saw a couple of shadows in the above floor. He saw a short boy and a boy with glasses. It was Ivan and Roey, probably waiting for the guys. He quickly finished his lunch and went off to Roey’s place.

     “Hey Roey, I’ve been looking for you since last week.”

     “Sorry Austin. Hey, wanna play Ninjas and Magic? We were just hoping you’d come.”

     “Why?”

     “We were wondering if you could add a ‘third dimension’ to the game.”

     “Why, isn’t that your power?”

     “Yeah but it only works on my cards, the other players are stuck in 2D.”

     “You want me”

     “To put a permanent 2Dà3D lock on the cards!”

     “Yeah, I was just about to say that.”

     Then another person just walked in the room.

     “Hey Austin! Sup?” Joel said.

     “Gimme the cards” Austin said to Roey.

     “Hey Austin, What’s up?” Joel said again.

     Roey gave Austin the cards and he, twisted the band on his wrist and placed his hand on the cards.

     “Hey Austin, What is up?” Joel said in an annoyed tone.

     Austin gave Roey the cards.

     “Wow, thanks Austin.”

     “HEY AUSTIN!” Joel said.

     “What!?” Austin yelled, startling Roey causing him to drop a card.

     “I dropped a card, wait a sec.”

    The card was called the Mastermind and it was depicted as a short boy. The card went from 2Dà3D and soon, there was another Ivan standing amidst them only with purple eyes.

     “HOLY CRAP, I LOOKED LIKE THAT?” Ivan yelled.

     The 3D figure gripped Austin’s face and everything went black for him.

     He was walking away from the school. He felt sad for some reason. He went in the base to get a glass of soda. He sat down on the table when suddenly; a man jumped from behind him, strangled him to the floor, and broke the band on his left hand into shreds.

     Austin woke up; he was in the male ward of the base. It was almost the end of lunchtime. He went out and teleported towards the school.

     They were lining up. Austin noticed a few girls teasing Janella. They were teasing her about a boy. It was John.

     So Austin found out that it was really them. John had tweeted on Twitter that he missed j*****a. He only knew one person that could fill those blanks.

     Later that week, Thursday, Austin was in another conversation with Janella, Rico, and Kat. Rico and Kat were soon having a conversation of their own as Austin and Janella were silent, each sneaking a peek at the other, or maybe it was just him, and his imagination.

     Janella soon started asking questions and Austin, like any normal human, answered them. Janella mentioned that he was nicer than well, she kept her mouth shut after that. Austin, being the noob in romance that he is, asked who. She didn’t know that Austin knew. Austin took wild guesses but they weren’t really guesses because he knew it was John.

     In Filipino class, they had a group research activity. It was about the famous writers during the Spanish occupation of the Philippines. He was groupmates with Janella and Joel and some other people. Janella made lot of suggestions and she was very active. Austin found this extremely attractive. Joel however seemed annoyed.

     When they were going home, while walking to the exit, Joel talked to Austin.

     “Man that girl was noisy.”

     “Which girl?” Austin asked suspiciously.

     “The ugly one.”

     Austin’s blood boiled up a little but he wasn’t sure who Joel was referring to yet. Janella was the only active one except for the random girl who kept asking him questions.

     “What’s her name?”

     “I don’t know, I think she’s Rico’s seatmate.”

     He wanted to punch Joel in the face but that would make things too obvious. Fight for her, don’t stand up to this! Well, right now, even Austin didn’t know what was happening yet.

     During TLE, they were cooking. Austin usually used his powers to do the dishes but Ms. Ruby has activated the anti-power walls. Austin was such an idiot that he was guessing all the way. Janella was in his group. She noticed that Austin was struggling in this simple task and took over for him. He felt ashamed but saw her giggling. Or maybe it was his imagination again.

     The Friday after that, Austin had not gone to the second floor to play Ninjas and Magic. He wanted to go relate to people. Apparently, Janella liked to hang out with two old “friends” of Austin’s. He wasn’t really close with them. Danie Rodriguez and Justin Lubag. She also got along with Aubrey and Bea but they would quarrel too. This lunch however, Justin was not present and instead, there was Kat. The two ladies were asking Kat who she had a crush on, she wouldn’t tell and Austin just had to go over there. They noticed him and Janella asked him the question. What are the chances that she’s be the one to ask. 33% right?

     Austin gave subtle clues and soon, a few people joined in the conversation. Among them was Rico, Clara, and soon enough, Justin. The conversation, after a while, had become a game of twenty questions. It was really becoming hard but soon everyone found out, except for her. Kat, being a member of the Vanitiez, spread the word. Everyone knew except for her. It was really a day in the dumpster for him.

     Soon, August was there. Before it was the Quarterly tests though and boy, Austin met some strict teachers. One was a seemingly nice teacher who smiles a lot but yells a lot more than she looks but that’s not important since August was here. Filipinos would celebrate “Buwan ng Wika” during this time of year so Austin was excited. They were the only country to celebrate their own language and well, it was usually festive...