Renegade

Ripple Effect

One Month Later

Melvyn

The morning is quite bright, full of happiness and excitement galore. It's got all the characteristics of a warm July morning, with the exception of my two sisters' graduation ceremony coming up later today. Yes, Tia has grown to become my sister, Noelle a firm mother figure. The living room smells of different scents clouding the original begonia scent, probably due to the massive amounts of squirts both girls drowned themselves in.  I'm not attending the ceremony, much to Abella's and Tia's and even Uncle Joe's and Aunt Mag's chagrin, because I hate formal events. I really do, and I don't even know if I'm going to attend my graduation.  It's all still blank. 

Anyway, I'm sat, a bowl of popcorn in my lap, watching the Good Morning Mach, my favourite midmorning talk show, hosted by the gorgeous Odette Williams, and Winston Beet. Everyone else in the house, including Noelle is pretty swamped. I'm probably the only one free right now, maybe Rigby too as he's just standing there, but he has an agenda.  Back to GMM, Winston raises a topic concerning world peace, the road to achieving it; and a possibility of a Third World War. This topic irritates me so much, and I'm about to surf off of my favourite talk show when Odette's magnificent smile knocks my socks off. I am defeated. I continue to listen, as Winston narrates a gruesome tale about the relations between the Five; an organisation the five most powerful World Leaders right now; and their respective understudies. 

"I've got the lovely Marina Kirch up in the desolate nation of Tajikistan. Now tell us Mary, what do you make of these rumours?" 

Marina smiles. "Well, we all know how irreparably devastated Tajikistan is right now, with the cumulative destruction afflicted on her by the vicious group, SRBC, all summing up into one huge attack, which shook the world last week." 

Winston nods, as Odette fiddles with some papers. "Our prayers go to them, Mary. How is the state of The Five right now?" 

"Well, it's quite hard to tell. However, our sources in Moscow have told us they're fixing a meeting at their usual grounds, the State House Moskva, later this month." 

"A meeting? That's quite surprising. What's it about? Do you have any clues?" 

"Not lucid ones, but we have reason to believe there is some animosity stirring up between North Korea's President Kim-Baek Hyun and Germany's President Janina Kirchoff; and a meeting has been fixed specifically to 'clear the air.'" 

My popcorn bowl falls out of my hand at the mention of the word animosity. I recoil in my seat, extremely shocked and frightened. The prospect of the planet being plunged into a Third successive global fracas is far too disheartening. I taste bile in the back of my throat just thinking about how the Earth would look like. 

When I look back at the TV, Odette is reviewing sent-in life hacks, and is currently explaining how to get a stain off of your shirt using a fire extinguisher.  Just then, Abella walks directly in and out of my field of vision, looking worried. 
"What's the matter? You getting nervous?" 

She doesn't even look at me. "How could I?" 

"Alright, what are you looking for then?" 

"Nothing important, dillweed." 

I smile. I know exactly what she's looking for, but she's unaware of my knowledge. In fact, i know where it is.  "So, you wouldn't mind if I told you I know where it is?" 

She immediately takes a striking stance, fixing a death gaze directly at me. I'm frightened for a brief second, but I don't let it show.  "You don't even know what I'm looking for."