Present, Future and PastA Story by Ruby Moon This is the final edit... Someone suggested dialogue but I don't think I'll have the time to put it in before the 31st of March, in time for the competition but I may put it in afterwards...or in my next story Sighing, I open my eyes and look around... nope, nothing has changed. I am still stuck in a store room with two other people. They look familiar and yet I can’t place them in my mind. The sense that I know them, that I’ve seen them from elsewhere, and not just from the workplace, is becoming overwhelming. Talking about that, I am still rather in denial that the restaurant I work in could lack the required maintenance so much that it allowed the store room door to break and lock us all in like this. That is why I was wasting my time trying to figure out where I know those two from, rather then figuring a way to get us out of here. It is no fun being stuck in this small room with two guys, not to mention the fact that I am a female and I can only shudder to think of what could happen to me. Yes, I do have a wild imagination and having heard enough stories whispered of rape, this situation is more then enough to scare me. I am definitely asking for more off days after this. I’ll say something about being traumatised, even though I know that the boss won’t buy it. It certainly is a nice distraction thinking about what to do if I had all that extra time to myself… a long soak in a bathtub, curl up with a nice book, maybe go look for some company. I wonder if I could sneak in a puppy at the boarding place I am staying at. After all, it is not like I had anything else to do at the moment, not to mention that I am out of speculations about my two co-workers. Too bad my thoughts were interrupted by the boss coming to our rescue. I guess he finally realise that three of his workers are missing in action. He probably thought that we were “slacking off”, as if it was by choice that we got stuck in there… That is actually not a bad idea, slacking off by pretending to get stuck at a random location. I should file that away for future use. Just kidding. There is no way I am going back in that room and risk being stuck there for an even longer period of time. On a side note, I finally realised that one of the males that was stuck in the store room with me was a fellow student and the other was a teacher from our school. It is interesting that I did not notice that before. Thank goodness that teacher is not teaching me and has never taught me before. At least I think so, as far as my recollection goes, he isn’t. I don’t want to see my teachers everywhere I go. I guess this release from the store room a signal back to work. The other student, he guy intrigues me, and not because he is really cute looking and he was really good in an all-rounder kind of way. Rather, it is more like because he was the model student of the school and now he suddenly turned into a model student of how not to be. Let me explain, I was a late comer to the school, a transfer student and this is rare for this particular school. He was assigned to show me around as well as to help me cope with the many differences in the school culture as compared to the others. This was one of the reason why they school does not allow transfers in. I was to be in the same class as him and this makes me wonder even more, why I didn’t recognise him earlier as not only the school discourage transfers into the school, they discourage class transfers as well. This was to see how far we can build a sense of being a team in all the years we are to study there. It was also to encourage competiveness among the students, especially inter-class. It is all in effort to recreate the “working environment” with one company again the others. This means that I saw the transformation from the excellent student to someone who is on the verge of being kicked out. The school that we are all part of is the toughest school there is! Toughest, period! That means that it is not only the toughest school in the state or country, it can be argued to be the toughest school in the world. To give you an idea of how competitive it is, even this “work” is part of the timetable of that school. Working, even part time while still being in school, is normally a forbidden thing as it would lessen the time the students have to concentrate on their studies. However, in this school, this is just another part of training us for after graduation and the “real working world”, whatever that is supposed to mean. That is how competitive this school is. We are allowed to choose any of the locations on a list that the school has prepared and we must work there for a certain number of hours while maintaining at least a certain grade on all our school related activities and studies or else we would be dropped (read, expelled) from that school. At least it is not free labour; we still get some salary even though it is about half the normal market price. However we still do it as being dropped from the school is considered worse then never entering the school at all. This brings us back to the question of how a once elite student could drop so far down that even he would find it tough to enter even the worst school in our area. Normally the other schools are eager to pick up “dropouts” from this school as it would boost up their scores and look good on paper. This is because they are the students who can’t make it to our school standards but are still way beyond the standards of the other schools. No student would ever voluntarily disgrace themselves from leaving the school that I am in and no one, not a single person can answer that initial question of how or why there is such a difference. ~~~ As luck would have it that the said teacher pass me his book to pass it back to him, told me that his appeal session would be held the next day and to tell him that any materials he wish to use in the session needs to be handed in by 3 to 4 A.M tonight. The teacher is so lazy, couldn’t he just drop it at Gen’s place on the way home? We students know to check our phones for any messages first thing in the morning and last thing before we turn in. Even a student that is going to be expelled like Gen would have some common sense to do this. Unless, of course, he wasn’t planning to show up for the appeal to stay on in the school as a student. However, why would anyone turn down a chance to stay on such a prestigious school is beyond me. Why is the school giving him till 3 or 4 A.M? It is more common to have any work submitted by midnight… is this a way of showing that they hope for him to stay on? The leniency of even an hour is rare, considering how strict they can and normally are. This would definitely be a good opportunity to learn more about him and hopefully answer some of the questions I have about him. ~~~ Coming down the stairs from where I just met the educator. Even though we are encouraged to call them educators and not teachers, since they do more then teach us in the typical sense of the word, I still call them teachers in my mind out of habit. I spotted Gen some distance away. Running up to him I called out “You know Gen,” and after those three words I found myself having to jog to keep up as I deliver the rest of the message “the edu asked me to pass you this. I heard about tomorrow’s appeal. You going to show?” Why can’t he have the decency to stop when someone wants to talk to him? Not to mention an answer would be nice. He didn’t have to snatch the book from me and just stalk off like that. ~~~ Back in the restaurant, after the delivery of the message, I change back into my usual clothes. It is all I do to restraint myself from poking deeper into the matter, and this is no easy task for me. I could only say that I was normally a curious person and I was really curious about this guy. Not to mention that he is rude, crude and curt. I want to know why! He was not like that when we first met. This was probably one of the main reason as to why I am so please to find him waiting for me even though it is a surprise. The invitation to go along with him for a ride home is definitely a plus. Even though it is against the school rules to have a detour without advance permission I am too curious to turn it down. This could be the beginning of a relationship with Gen and a relationship would mean answers. I am not going to turn it down just because of the school rules. Besides, this particular offence would only get me extra work hours duty. I can handle it… I hope. However, saying that, this is the lesser of the two evils. I am not one who can contain my curiosity for long. What the heck! With eyes wide in surprise I had time only to choke out “You…have a… a vehicle!? Wow!”. I think he took that as a yes as he turned and started walking in a speed of what I would call running. I was curious and grateful enough to have someone from school talk to me that I would follow without question. It has been ages since someone talked to me or approached me without wanting or needing something from me. It fells like gliding on air when I half skip, half run to keep up. It’s so surreal, to feel the ground under my feet so soft and bouncy. I normally felt chained down to earth, like no amount of strength I possess can get me free, being observed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week is really draining on a person. ~~~ Our destination turns out to be a shop some distance away and thankfully not one of those on the list. If it was on the list of approved shops, there would surely be the educators present. He went to a table with six other people in it and the nerve of him! He didn’t even look back to see if I was following. They are people I see him hanging out with outside of school… friends? That is a surprise, we, students of the school I mean, are normally too busy with our timetable and grades to make what people would call friends. I miss my friends from my previous school but I am from a poor family and this school is the best. My parents explained that it would help improve the standard of life as the school pays everything of the students. No one knows how the school seem so wealthy but it is a good opportunity. Back to the present, it would seem like he normally comes out and spends time with his friends after work. So this would explain why he is always leaving early and leaving all the cleaning up to the rest of us. I know I am being bitter and complaining a lot but it is no easy task to clean up at the end of the day after the army of customers that march in and out into a two storey building. I can’t help but notice the two couples at the table. Great… welcome to couple land and a detention if I get caught. Why is that school so against human relations anyway? Is it not an aspect we need to excel in as well in the “real world”? The table was at a corner so two sides had the build in couch-like thing and the other two sides had normal chairs. He took a seat on the couch near the corner while I took the least awkward position, the chair which put me between two females and almost opposite him. Two opposite corners of the table, like how we are two opposite people. He is popular and I am just wallpaper, he is the best at what he does (that includes being the worst of the worst) and I am just an average girl. At least that is how I feel, sitting there and that was even before I got displaced by the latecomer, a female by the way… that was just another blow to my confidence and a reconfirmation to how out of place I am. I am so out of place that I stick out like a sore thumb. All I want right now is to excuse myself. It is not like I am really wanted in the group anyway. The only reason they stand me was because Gen brought me along and he probably brought me along just to embarrass me. I do not want to stay when all it does is to make the situation more awkward and the only place I could hide myself was the toilet. It is quite a nice one, the toilet… it was done up like a home toilet and the mirror was one of those with a coloured mirror mosaic at the sides. ~~~ What is it now!? I just came escaped that ridiculous situation for less then 2 minutes and now a SMS? It is almost never good news when I receive any SMS. Only the school has my number… “Dear sweetheart. The past couple of months were the best time in my life. I don’t think I have told you that I had my eyes on you since forever. Can we have many more such moments? Please be my girlfriend? If you say yes I would propose to you face-to-face tonight ;p I love you and PS: please say yes” Wait… What? I think my brain is overheating. Pause. I have no one whom I know… definitely no male, who would say anything like this to me. Details, details, what are the details… Wait, what!? The details said that the SMS was sent by Gen and the date shown was the month of May, this month was March. Not to mention I don’t HAVE Gen’s number… so how can it be that his name was stated there and not just a number? I blinked and resigned myself to the fact that it has happened again… Why did my ability have to pop up at such an awkward time? Can’t it just continue to lay dormant? I hate knowing the future. No one believes me when I tell them anyway. Even when I show them “proof” like the books where the content changes to tell me the future or the SMS… they’ll just say I am playing a trick on them. Even after the things happen, they still say it was just coincidence. As if I am so free to pull pranks on them, as if I have nothing better to do with my time. I need to get out of here, it is a little claustrophobic in here… it always has this effect on me, receiving what I called as “news from the future”. I guess I would need to make some excuse to avoid joining them for the rest of the meal. Why do they have to pretend being nice back? Now I would need to make a pretence of walking about the buffet. After a round or so around the buffet, I will go back to tell them that I was tired, I wanted to get home and that it was nice meeting them. I am working on instinct here, my mind is too pre-occupied with the SMS I have just received. I intend to walk home as it was close to my housing area. Not too close but it was enough for me to clear my mind. I normally walked home after work anyway. Home, meaning my boarding. The elite school that I was in required us to stay there as well; this was so that they could keep an eye on our growth; growth in every sense of the word. From physical to mental to even how we interact. It is not as if they let us time to interact on our own, out of their supervision. The sounds of footsteps running after me only penetrated to my senses a long moment later. I didn’t really care as I knew that no harm will befall me, or else how would I still be alive two months from now to receive the SMS. As it turns out, I am right… it is just Gen coming to apologise for his rude behaviour and to find out what was bothering me. Since this is a complicated issue and I don’t want us to be monitored by school officials I slip into a dark back alley nearby. I show him the SMS and he just looked at me solemnly after reading it. I can’t predict how his thoughts would run or what he thinks about this situation and the SMS. After a long, tense moment I suddenly realise that he mistaken my intentions as I could see him holding himself emotionally and that just confirms, for me… that the SMS was real. Where I previously thought that he was distant and cold, I could see that he was interested but was not sure how this would go, or how I would react and didn’t want to frighten me away. I point out the little details such as the date and the sender of the SMS to him. He just looked at me and nod, he didn’t say or act as if I was crazy and out of my mind. He believed me and that was all I needed to regain my mental as well as my emotional balance. I apologise and attempted to brush the incident away as just a malfunction of the phone while trying to back away. He gripped my wrist tightly and explained in a low tone that he believed me, believed in me and would keep on believing in me too… and that he would continue to do so regardless of whether it was logical or not. “Even though I may not have a reason, I probably will still go on believing in you”. That was the sweetest thing that anyone has ever said to me and it I know I want to take this gift that my ability have given to me… even though I know the price of it, of what is to come. ~*~ On that night, the both of us took the chance to trust each other and it became one of the sweetest moments of my life. Everyday I decided to live life to its fullest, that is not to say that academically or in anyway improved my standing in school but rather, each and every moment was savoured. Be the moment plain, ordinary and drab or bright, new and exciting. It was really a different way to live and I could finally understand, why it didn’t matter to Gen what his grades and standing were What mattered was that each moment was savoured, remembered and lived. The date stated in the SMS drew close; I was both nervous and excited at the same time. Finally, the day came and the SMS came… it was exactly the same, word for word. Even the delivery time was the same, 10 A.M. It was truly a unique moment, to see and feel the future come together with the present and to see it pass before your eyes into the past. I decided that I had to tell him that night… the other side of my ability, the one he called a gift. Every time the future is revealed to me, I would… when the future has become the past, forget the bulk of what brought me to that “future”. The past would cease to exist, the memories a blur… erased at worst, edited at best. As for the SMS, of course I answered yes. What else could I answer to the one I love? That night, he proposed… not to be his girlfriend but to be his wife. I was speechless, even after two whole months of reading and re-reading the SMS, I never guessed that proposing marriage was what he had in mind. Before I accepted his proposal, I came clean and ended with the words below… thankfully he agreed with me. “Its ok isn’t it, if I forgot? If the ones I hold dear would remember. Remember that we were, we are… dear to each other. It should be ok right? As long as one of us remembers…” © 2009 Ruby MoonAuthor's Note
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