SoulStuck

Austin Hauffman

Well.... You've certainly had an interesting day so far, two of your friends are in a gay relationship, they then proceeded to knock themselves cold in the combat room, you nearly perfected the soul clone technique to a quad split, something only Jason and Andrew have been able to pull of, except they can split up to ten times. You never understood how a combo so powerful started off so weak. Those two were practically forced to be partners when it all started, Jason had shown up freshly orphaned by a car accident that took away his grandparents, his father... Well, he never said. His mother was nowhere to be found in the matter. His only siblings were gone, all he had were his dogs, and the money left behind by his grandparents and the state, as well as the company that provided the truck from the accident. The state decided that because he was so close to the legal combat age, he could stay alone, like he preferred, living in the county that his life flipped upside down in. He is a 15 year old kid living on a pile of money the size of Mount Everest and he refuses to use it except to pay the bills.
You walk down the hallway and into 3rd period, Meister skills of the soul 101, or MSOTS for short. You drop down in the seat and notice that Jason, And Ben are still not back, Jena has wraps on her hands. You look her way before seeing the angered look on her face, it practically reads: "Don't say a word or I'll cut your throat."
You decide to heed the advice in her glare and turn to the board. Professor Knight is rambling on about how important soul resonance is for about the 90th time.
Instead of furiously scribbling notes like you normally would, reviewing them later to find that half of the words written are identical, you let your mind wander back to the subject of Jason.
He came to Summers county a year ago, some time in mid April he was quiet and very untrusting. He almost didn't want to speak, unless he was asked a question in class, you never heard him speak, until, that is, it was time for weapon pairings. The skills had developed over the years, and it was becoming obvious who was a Meister and who was a Weapon. One weapon in particular came as a shock, Andrew Stewart, who showed no signs of weaponry, out of the blue during gym class, snaps at a student, and his arms turn to cannons. All that time people thought he was a Meister just because of his physicality.
The same moment this happens, Jason walks into the gym and sees the commotion. You, at the time, only really talking to Skyler, your best friend, not really liking Andrew, stuck to yourself. What Jason did was phenomenal, he walked up, grabbed Andrew by the shoulder, and completed his transformation, except, not into a cannon like thought, but several different weapons, all of the transformations stable. One you noticed in particular was a set of heavily built pistols, connected by the Handle with chains. It seemed to you that the moment the two of them made contact the energy around you surged. You had no clue why. All you remember is seeing the soul wavelengths visible even to people who couldn't see souls normally, because for weeks that's all people would talk about, how this new kid showed up, took control of an unruly person and even made their resonance visible to everyone. Then, a week after the incident, they pair up and take off on a week long mission assigned by Kid. You didn't know what to think of him, all you knew was that as long as he was there, you were determined to know him.
While you were day dreaming, you didn't notice Ben walk into the classroom, looking disheveled and hurt, holding his side as if he had been stabbed. Then you remembered the wound that he got during his recent mission. He must have reopened it or something. He limped over to his seat beside you and slouched into the seat, closed his eyes, and his breathing steadied. You looked to the front of the room. Professor Knight gives a confused glance, but decides that it isn't worth stopping class to act, he shoots you a look and then glances at Ben, almost to say: "Tell me later."
"Ugh, I feel like shit." Ben groans under his breath.
"What happened in there, and where is Jason?"
He takes a deep breath before answering.
"He's still in the dispensary, and judging by his condition, he's going to miss the rest of this period and maybe fourth, as for what happened, If I had the slightest clue, I'd tell you."
"Well that sucks, hopefully he will still be well enough to go out tonight."
"Honestly, I hope that he'll be able to walk after what happened."
"Eh, Jason is pretty resilient, I think he'll be fine."
"Whatever you say. I'm going to sleep, wake me up if I miss the bell."
you purse your lips and sigh.
"Okay, whatever."
You open your textbook and stare at the pages, all of the words seem to be melting together. You can't think straight. Maybe once Martin gets back with Gwen, they can fix everything. They always have a solution.
You slouch in your chair and think of your friends, returning from their mission with another soul collected.