Blink {Featured}

Chapter Six

'I'm telling you Marty. This is real.'

Marty snorted, avoiding eye contact and picking at his top.

Okay so it sounded crazy, but this shit was real. If anyone on the planet could try and understand, it had to be Marty. 'Come on man. Just think about it. Have I ever told you any shit as crazy as this? Why the hell would I lie?'

A silence came, and Marty shrugged, tugging even harder at the loose strands on his sleeve. Finally he looked over. 'Look John, would you believe me if I told you I could fly?'

'That's not the same mate.'

'Isn't it?' Marty said, and John had to admit he had a point. So he explained briefly what he had seen the day before, and how the history book and the chapter had changed. Marty was still sceptical. 'John, come on. Those ghost stories have always been in the history.'

'No,' John said. 'No, they haven't. I swear it wasn't there yesterday.'

Marty smirked, and John got a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach that Marty would never believe him. No one would ever believe him. He would be the cracked loner begging in the streets--shouting crazy things--and nobody would listen. Then it came to him. He had to prove it, of course. That's the one thing the crazy doomsday beggars never had: proof.

'What if I could prove it?'

Marty cocked his eyebrows. 'Right. And how're you going to do that?'

There had to be a way. John chewed his lip as he thought. 'Do we have a math test today?'

Marty's eyes bulged and he threw his arms in the air. 'Did you forget? God, it's no wonder you're failing.'

A sparkle shone in John's eye. 'Today is going to be different, and that's how I'll prove it. You know I suck at Math, so you'll believe me if we get a hundred percent on the test, right?'

'Ha!' Marty all but gagged, standing and dusting his ass. 'If you got that right, I would kiss the Head.'

'Are you sure? Because the Head's going to have it in for you. We are going to get a hundred percent. Here's how it will happen.' John swiped his hand through the air, as though displaying an imaginary sign.

'When we get to class, take a picture with your mobile phone. I will Blink into it and grab the answer sheet out of Ms Arie's file. It doesn't matter how long it takes for me to get the answer sheet, because time barely moves at all when I'm in the Blink.'

'God, really John? You named it?' Their footsteps echoed in the hallway.

'Just bear with me, okay. I swear this is real.' The bell rang and kids erupted from all over, heading to their classes. 'When I come back from the Blink, the answers will be stuck to the bottom of my desk and I will slip them over to you when Ms Arie isn't watching. Then we'll have to wait for the results, but I guarantee it will be an "A" plus.'

Marty sighed, obviously not convinced. 'Are you sure you didn't just swallow a crazy pill?'

John glared at him.

'Okay,' Marty relented. 'Let's do it. Worst case we fail, which you probably would anyway.' Even as he said this, Marty was shaking his head. It didn't matter. Whatever happened, John would get those bloody answers and prove he wasn't a total nutter.

#

'You have five minutes of study and preparation time,' Ms Arie shouted into the raucous, rabid frenzy that was our math class. Not even a lull appeared in the noise we created. Sometimes I felt sorry for Ms Arie who'd been placed in the worst subject ever, and was soft spoken as a mouse. It's no wonder we were all failing.