Familiar Tales, New Adventures

Prologue

"Pencils down." The professor called to his class, hearing the multitude of wood being tapped against wood, groans and chairs squeaking under the pressure of having tired students stretch out after what felt like an eternity with the test. Quiet murmurs of how they felt they went or comments about the test floated about as the professor proceeded to collect the papers to graded later.

"Now, I'm gonna offer you all an option to do before I let you all go to stretch your legs." He started, placing the papers on his desk while walking by to his podium. "I can either put on a documentary and paper for you to answer during it about our next subject we will be going over for the next few weeks that will cost  good portion of your grade, or proceed to do class discussion on it and talk about the stories that has come with it?" There was a pregnant pause before everyone started to call out for the documentary.

He chuckled, figured everyone would choose that and gives everyone a chance to relax from the test. "Alright, in 10 minutes, please come back and I'll pull up a documentary about The Journey to the West." 

A loud gasp was let out from the far side of the room. Everyone proceeded to turn to look at the semi quiet but nice girl to see her eyes blown wide, mouth gaping and her book was now laying back side down. "Is there something wrong Ms. (l/n)?"

"Did you say what I think you just said?!"She loudly called out, standing up, hands clapped together.

"I believe so, I'm guessing you know about the journey?" He offered a half smile, watching the pure excitement that almost looks ready to blow like a firecracker from his introverted student. Aside from the common interest or answering any questions or text to read aloud, she mostly kept to herself. Seeing the stars in her eyes about a subject related to school like so is so rare and couldn't help but feel pride to see his student show so much interest.

"Know it?! I lived hearing the stories, visited a temple or 2 when I had to visit my aunt in China and even got it tattooed for my 17th birthday! I adore the stories more than anything! I never expect us to get to learn it in school!"

The class began to chuckle and some even asked what's so great about it. Before I could let her answer, I cut in with an idea. "Before we get into the subject, how about a 3rd choice. Ms. (l/n), since you have a large sum of knowledge, let's put it to the test. If the class is all in favor, why not have you teach the class and I'll be on the side to add anything else along with it. What does everyone say?"

Immediately, the class voted for (f/n) to teach it. Seeing a classmate this enthusiastic got the class pumped up and interested about it. Seeing the biggest grin on her face and a firm nod, I sent the class out for their break while watching (f/n) grab her bag and bring it up to the front table before pulling out her laptop and then 3 books. Taking closer inspection, they were the copies of The Journey to the West! She walked back and grabbed the book she just had and propped it up with the others, seeing it was the complete set of them all.

I helped her hook up to the projection while the remaining classmates that stayed either asked about it or asked to check out the book. With permission, some skimmed through it while others received either cliffhanger answers or got satisfied with the answers given.

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(f/n) POV

Class went on without a hitch, if I do say so myself! Ending the summary of the first book and showing the different videos or clips I knew of that helped keep focus and made it simple enough for the class to follow along. God knows trying to read 16th century version was kinda dry and hard to set the mood. OSP also made it easier to help tell the story but it did cut out a lot since it is a summary video. We only had enough time to do the first and wrap it up. I put up a list of names the youtube videos names incase anyone decides to look it up themselves.

The homework was the paper we were gonna do but majority of it done from the class since the answers followed long with the characters or the first several chapters and my debriefing helped out with answering it!

I packed away everything before Mr. Chang came over to speak with me. "That was amazing, I honestly couldn't have done it better myself. Maybe you might be a college professor in your future if you haven't figured out a career yet." He suggested, leaning on the row of tables behind him.

"Thanks, I'll keep it in mind. It felt amazing to go on about the story, so old yet so familiar and yet never really to everyone else." I commented, seeing the wrapped attention in about everyone, including the lazier students. Bringing up a fighting monkey that is easily more OP than Goku because Goku was made from HIM. Yep, had them sold.

"It's what makes teaching so enjoyable. Actually, did you hear about the museum?"

"No, what about it?" now curious on what they have to do about our conversation.

"They are opening an Asian history section. My brother is one of the researchers there, he even mentioned there was gonna have a exhibit on the Journey to the west! I think they are adding in an area in India for the thunderclap monastery. Possible in a little game of sorts for people to do while learning about history."

My eyes got wide again. A grin grew not long after. "Thank you for letting me know, Mr. Chang! Oh, I can't wait to go check it out! Any idea when it will be open to the public?" I had to know for myself!

"I believe in the next month. My brother and I talked to the Dean and curator of the museum about letting a few classes go on the field trip and use the class to test the waters of how the set up goes and the little game they were setting up. I was planning to tell this tomorrow but I figured to give you a little surprise heads up.

I held back my squeal. Before I could answer, my phone lit up from my desk and began buzzing, showing I have a call. "Oops, gotta go. Thank you again, Mr. Chang!" I grabbed my bag and slung it on before snatching my phone. I placed my headphones in and answered the call.

"Hey, Mom, sorry, I was talking about something with Mr. Chang."

"You're fine, but I got some bad news, one of my coworkers had called out due to labor pains and need me to pull a double shift tonight. Looks like you're on your own for dinner tonight."

"Aw, I hope your coworker will be ok. And alright, I'm gonna order a Pizza then. I'll save you some in the microwave for when you get home." I said, tapping out of the phone app and pulling up my app for my local pizza place.

"Thanks, Angel, I'll see you in the morning. See you, bye."

"See you, bye." Mom hung up while I multitasked my way down, wishing a good evening to the security guard.

Being a 18 year old just out of high school and immediately into college, I still live at home since it's cheaper and one less bill to worry about. Plus mom and I take care of each other. She keeps the house over our heads, I keep it clean. Food is a flip of a coin on what we do. Dad...hasn't been in the picture for a very long time now. Mom is also too busy to really look for anyone, at least, that's what she keeps saying. I see the sad look in her eyes sometimes. 

Dad disappeared one day. No clue where and we haven't seen a trace of him since I was 10. I think he ran off but even now, it doesn't sound like dad. But who knows anymore, people change. Probably hooked up with some younger girl with better curves than what mom had back then. Maybe dead in the ground after karma caught up with him. Who knows.

I pulled out my keys to my bike. It's a red 2009 soft tail motorcycle. I had mom trade in dads old cycle and let me get this after I got both my license's. I put on my bucket head and pulled out my leather jacket from the saddle bag before placing my backpack in it.

Hearing the roar of the engine in the car lot echoed louder than what it already was. I made my way home, hopefully beating the pizza delivery. I hate making people wait.

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Now I'm sure you may think you have an idea of how things may go. Probably a few guesses on future points. You might be clueless and this probably means nothing to you. You are right about that. However, you are all wrong. Every cliché was built off each other and that's what it's gonna feel like. Die and follow into an anime world. Zapped through the tv, waken up, wrong place and time. All are wrong; is it destiny or fate then? Who knows, all we know is that it will happen and then the real story will begin.