Ezra Phantoms: The Cursed Sword

1

"For the last time Alex, I don't know how we were the only class to get a pop quiz," I said.

"It literally makes no sense, Ezra," he replied. "I know Mrs. Long said we would get one if we didn't do our English homework last night but the homework was just getting definitions for six vocab words. The dumbest and laziest baby on Earth could do that in their sleep."

"Yeah I really don't know how it came to this."

"Well, I know," Alex said with a tone that suggested he was annoyed with whatever he knew.

Alex was a skinny boy with long, shaggy brown hair that covered his eyes a little, light green eyes, and had an average height. He was also one of my best, and only friends.

"How?"

"You and your dumb bad luck that's how."

"Okay relax, my luck isn't that bad," I lied. Not even a week ago, I almost got hit by a car. Then right after, a truck that was coming from the other direction almost eliminated me as well. I managed to dodge both of them, but wasn't able to dodge the dark brown pile of dog poop in the grass as I ran across the street. I exasperatedly sighed as my sneakers squished into the homemade chocolate a dog had left just for me. I could laugh off cars almost hitting me, but feces on one of my favorite pairs of sneakers was where I drew the line.

"Yeah whatever, you liar," he chuckled. "Anyways, are you excited for that field trip to that dinosaur exhibit tomorrow?"

"No, dinosaurs are boring," I replied. "We should go to an exhibit with actual interesting and good things. Like an exhibit of spicy pickles."

"Why spicy pickles?"

"Why not?"

"I don't think spicy pickles beat dinosaurs, Ezra."

"I agree," Hailee interjected, as she slid an arm around my neck playfully from behind me. Hailee and Alex were my only best friends in this school filled with judgmental snakes looking for any chance to get popularity points as if they were like XP in an RPG. Alex and her didn't have that much in common, but I guess I was their common denominator that brought them together slowly but surely. They used to argue a lot in the past which made me upset. It always sucked seeing two people I cared about a lot and would trust my life with bickering over the most trivial topics. 

Somehow though, I think they picked up on the discomfort I was feeling from witnessing that, and eventually stopped. I loved being their friends. Well, I loved being Alex's friend. I despised with all my heart being Hailee's. Not because I hated her or anything. It was actually for the complete opposite reason. I was madly in love with her perfect long naturally curly amber brown hair, her sparkly hazel eyes, long luscious pastel white legs, her skinny hourglass build, and to top it all off, her incredible personality. I didn't know any other girl that was more perfect. But as perfect as she was, she was also just as malicious. She put me in a friend zone I could never escape.

"I beg to differ," I said. We continued our intellectual debate on pickles and dinosaurs as we headed to our last class together. A lot of people don't get the luxury of having multiple classes with their best friend. I was one of the few that did. Not only one best friend, but two. I guess that's something I wasn't unlucky with.

It didn't feel like a whole day passed, but all of a sudden, I was already at the dinosaur exhibit staring at the bones of prehistoric animals that used to inhabit the Earth. To think it only took one meteor to end their whole existence. I got distracted by Hailee's beauty for a few seconds as I saw her looking at a huge exoskeleton of a t-rex and accidentally knocked into Meredith Button. She was a tall blonde girl with a lot of acne and a lot more attitude. She was one of those spoiled rich girls who relied on their daddy to do every little thing for them. To make matters worse, I spilled a smoothie I bought from a cart on the way to the museum on her heels. Luckily, it wasn't a lot and most of the spill was on the floor. Being Meredith though, she made it seem like I just killed her pet puppy in cold blood right in front of her.

"Do you have any idea how much these cost?!" she yelled. "Oh wait, you probably don't considering you look like you get most of your clothes from the thrift store. You better lick every single drop off of my shoe-"

"Look I'm sorry I spilled my drink on you but there's no way I'm licking your shoes clean. Plus, it's not even that big of a spill. Just clean it with a paper towel in the bathroom-"

"Listen here Smurf, I know you're a peasant but these cost way more than your whole existence. So, get to licking before things have to get ugly-"

"I thought they were already ugly," Hailee said, coming to my rescue. I turned my head to look at my hero. She looked gorgeous as always, but even more gorgeous as she was saving me from getting athlete's tongue. "Oh wait, it's just you. My bad."

"Haha very funny. Now get out of the way so I can teach that baboon a lesson."

"Nope," Hailee replied as she stood in front of me with her arms out to block Meredith's path. "If you try to even lay a pinky on him, I'll tell everyone what you did at Camp Shine last year-"

"Okay okay!" she retorted, rapidly. "I didn't want to stay around you weirdos any longer anyway. I don't even know why you hang out with that blue-haired freak in the first place, Hailee. Girls, lets go." On that note, her and her three minions strutted away. I looked at Hailee and tried to say thank you, but everything that was coming to mind as I stared into her eyes was everything except thank you.

"Uh, Earth to Ezra?" she said as she waved her hand in front of me. "Stop staring into space already."

"Oh sorry," I said as I snapped out of the trance. "Thank you for what you did just now."

"For bringing you back to Earth?"

"No. For saving me from having to lick another person's feet involuntarily. I wasn't going to lick them anyway, but still."

"Hey, what are friends for right, bro?" she asked as she lightly punched my arm.

I'd gladly lick yours though, I thought to myself.

We met back up with the rest of the class and continued the tour of the museum. Alex was in a different group for the trip, so it was just me and her which I didn't mind one bit.

After a long day of staring at Hailee's hair more than any dinosaur bone, the field trip was finally over. We began heading outside and waited for the buses to come. My bus had not arrived yet, and I was extremely in need of a bathroom. Unfortunately for me, that day was the only day out of the whole month where the men's bathrooms in the museum were out of order. I couldn't hold my pee during that whole bus ride forever. I had to do something. 

So, without even second guessing, I ran into the woods behind the museum and searched for a tree to relieve myself on. I found a pretty good-looking tree that was far enough from the class so that nobody would look at what I was doing, and relieved myself of my bladder problem. As I zipped up my pants and prepared to return back to the class, I noticed something as I was walking. There was some mysterious object on the ground. To be more specific, a small, shiny, white stone of some sort was near my foot. 

Something told me to not pick it up, but the feeling I got that was telling me to touch it was ten times stronger. I couldn't resist the magnetism of the mysterious glowing object anymore, and leaned over to pick it up. The second my fingers touched it, I felt a feeling flowing throughout my whole body I had never felt before. It was like I was being thrown through space time at warp speed. I saw a million different things flash before my eyes as this overwhelming sensation took over my body. 

When the feeling finally wore off, I opened my eyes slowly and couldn't believe what I was witnessing. I was laying on sand instead of dirt from the woods I was in. Everywhere I looked, I saw what looked to be like people, but incredibly different. 

Regular people were not blue. Or green. Nor did they have extremely long noses and spots. I pinched myself hard over and over again just to make sure I wasn't lucid dreaming. Nothing happened. Everything I was seeing was real. I had no idea where I was, but I was aware of one thing. I was not at the dinosaur exhibit anymore.