Phantom Scythe - Shards of Aether: Book 1

Chapter 3

Brandon tapped on the steering wheel to the beat of the music. It was a short drive from the Laboratory to Ridgemire High School, which allowed him to beat most of the rush hour traffic. Even so, there was a bit of a traffic jam at the main high school road. He rolled his eyes. Had the engineers who designed this road system never considered traffic was like fluid dynamics? It was almost as if they were trying to bottleneck the traffic in and out of this area. Or they were just too damn lazy to put in a traffic circle.

He scanned the sidewalk filled with students waiting for their parents to pick them up. He smirked as most of them gazed in awe at his car as it passed. It was a rare sight to see on the roads, red with silver highlight streaks and a spoiler on the back to give it a racecar look. He had even installed special tire plates that glowed redder the more the engine revved. It was only one of the many benefits of being a top scientist in the country.

As the line of cars crawled forward, he spotted Evan sitting on a bench at the end of the sidewalk. His brown hair ruffled in the wind as he pulled up the collar on his jacket. He barely looked up when Brandon stopped his car in front of him.

Brandon smiled at Evan as he got in the passenger seat and closed the door. "How's my rock star doing?"

Evan hunched his shoulders and sighed. "Alright."

Brandon raised an eyebrow as he pulled into the middle lane and drove away. "Doesn't sound 'alright' to me, what's going on?"

"Nothing, it's fine," he said, gazing out the passenger side window.

"No, don't avoid it. Tell me what's up."

"I don't wanna talk about it."

Brandon shrugged. "Well, if don't tell me and whatever it is gets worse, then later on you will have to tell me and will be far more unpleasant."

Evan scoffed and hugged his backpack tighter. After a few seconds, he spoke. "I don't think anyone likes me."

Brandon furrowed his eyebrows. "Really? What makes you say that? I've seen you plenty of times walking around with kids after school."

"I do know a lot of students," Evan admitted," but nobody ever seems to want to hang out with just me. It's always with one of their friends as well, and then they mostly talk to each other. Sometimes it's like I'm not even there."

Brandon glanced at his son with concern. "Surely they include you in their conversations."

"Mostly for answers to homework questions. They don't do much else with me."

"And you still stick around with them? Have you tried to find other friends?"

"Yeah, but then when they discover how much I read, they just drift away. They stop calling me Evan and start calling me Norallis again."

"Ah," Brandon said, nodding his head. "I see what's happening."

"What?"

"You're too smart for all of them, and the other kids your age don't like feeling stupid. All they want is to feel 'cool'."

"I'm not sure that's it. I never try to make them feel stupid. Besides, math is cool. Science is cool. Aether crystals are cool." He looked at Brandon, his eyes glossy with tears. "I don't understand."

Brandon put a hand on his son's shoulder and looked at him, while making sure to keep the car from drifting out of the lane. "Hey, don't worry, bud. You'll find your group eventually. The world just isn't ready for someone like you yet. Maybe when you get to college you'll find some people willing to nerd out with you. But until then, you're going to have to grow a thick skin to how people treat you."