The Arks: Over Heaven

Chapter 20.5: Reminiscent

Original Post Date: Feb 5, 2024

Note: Story starts in Wyvern, Aerial ABC backwards filter and has a Prologue. Last chapter in Griffin, next chapter in Glowbug. This is a “decimal” chapter. This means it does not exactly fit on the timeline, but still has relevance to the plot.

~

“So. Why do we love?”

Mr. Realz walked back and forth at the whiteboard, his gray, red striped trench coat swaying back and forth, and his sunglasses reflecting the buzzing light off. Everyone stayed silent. Some students were on their phones, some were jotting down random sketches and some were dozing off. This was a place where nobody cared about their academic careers, a place where people were trapped within their own worlds. The teachers were aware of this, and they didn’t care about it either. As long as they weren’t disrupting the classroom environment for the others who did care, they could do whatever they pleased.

Ben rapped his fingers along the desk as his eyes darted around the classroom. The vintage old wooden desks that looked like they came from the 1900s littered the classroom. Some were left empty because of ditchers. One of the desks had an engraving of the big letter B. Ben didn’t know how long that B had been around, but it must have been for a while because it was filled with dirt and dust.

Ben looked to his right. John had his head in his hands and was staring at his paper in horror, his eyes darting from sentence to sentence and word to word. Ben sighed and looked over at his other friend, Ian, who was looking at Mr. Realz blankly. There were earpods in his ears that connected to the phone in his pocket. Ben could distinctly hear piano music coming from the earpods.

“Ben. Do you know the answer to this question?”

Ben’s eyes shifted to Mr. Realz, who gave a smile back.

“You’re asking that as if I care,” Ben replied.

“I know you do a little bit. Otherwise you wouldn’t be so distracted.”

“What if it’s something else that’s bothering me?”

“...I’ve loved before too, you know.”

“But is it really your business to know about what I’m going through though?”

Mr. Realz raised his eyebrow.

“No. It isn’t. But just give it your best shot. At my question, that is. There’s no right or wrong answer.”

Ben shuffled in his seat uncomfortably and crossed his arms.

“Fine. Love is the strong feeling you have toward someone. It can be romantic or platonic, doesn’t really matter. A strong feeling that you wish to take care of them or be with them. Happy?”

“Eh, not really. I feel like you have a better answer than that,” Mr. Realz replied.

“Well I can’t think of anything… I guess I’m stumped,” Ben quickly lied with a shrug. He glanced over at the corner of the classroom. Sitting in the middle row of seats was a girl wearing a white blouse and skinny blue jeans. The classmate smirked as she glanced over at Ben. Ben quickly turned his eyes away.

Mr. Realz’ smile shifted to a frown.

“Enjoy the moments as they last, Ben. You don’t have much time left.”

Ben stared down at the desk.

“Yeah. I know.”

BRRRING!

Saved by the bell, John’s head jolted up, and he instantly rushed out of the classroom with his backpack strapped around his shoulder. Everyone else did the same as well, paying no attention to their surroundings or others. A random individual who Ben did not know (nor did he care to know) brushed his shoulder against Ian’s.

“Hey, watch where you’re going punk!” the random snarled. Ian rolled his eyes and raised his fist in the air. The random’s eyes bulged and he began to back away.

“Jeez, you don’t have to take things so personally!” he muttered under his breath. Ian lowered his fist, brushed his hair back, and looked over at Ben with a smile. He adjusted the collar of his black leather jacket.

“Let’s get out of here, I’m ready to go to Carlos’ place,” Ian said with a toothy grin. Ben smiled back softly. His eyes darted over to the girl’s desk, which was already empty. A lone flower lay there, however, its fragrance slowly traveling on the wind current. Its light-blue tone, and that’s all she left.

“You go meet with the others at the entrance first. I have to do something really quick.”

Ian closed his eyes and turned away.

“Alright. See ya.”

Ian walked out of the classroom with his hands in his jacket pockets, and Ben walked over to her desk and gently picked the flower off of it. As he did, a spike of adrenaline suddenly hit Ben’s heart.

The bulb of the flower glowed, but then it faded away. Ben put the flower away in his pocket.

“Don’t be afraid,” Mr. Realz suddenly said, “It’s not a good idea to deny your emotions. Because one day you’re going to make the wrong choice, and that regret is going to hang around your side for a loooong time.”

Ben ignored Mr. Realz and walked toward the door. He turned back to Mr. Realz, who sat down on his office chair dejectedly.

“Don’t pry into my business, teach.”

Ben exited the classroom to be greeted with the bright sun shining on his face. He shielded his eyes, and a flock of birds was flying overhead. They seemed to be a family.

Ben looked left to right and noticed many of the hallways empty and barren. They must have left quickly. Ben began to walk toward the entrance. Things felt a lot heavier that day. Ben knew why.

“But I can’t let them know,” Ben thought gloomily. The sounds his shoes made pounding across the asphalt path felt a little louder. The whistling of the wind mirrored that of a cavern, despite the open air and bright skies. Well, almost bright skies. Clouds seemed to be gathering a little far away.

“Hopefully they forget it’s my birthday today.”

Ben soon found himself at the front gates of Altos High, and he stepped outside to admire the view. His four friends were all sitting on a bench, talking about the school day they had.

“How was Culinary for you, Carlos?” Ian asked gently, his earpods out and the music absent. Carlos, another of Ben’s friends, smiled back. He was wearing a black shirt and tan khakis.

“It was really fun to be honest. We were cooking whatever we wanted today, so I chose a burrito because I thought it’d be funny cooking something I don’t like to eat.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, but then I accidentally set the building on fire-”

Carlos paused as his eyes graced Ben, and a grin grew on his face.

“Ben, finally you’re here! What’s the wait for? Ian told me that you needed to do something really quick!”

Ben smiled back and gave a thumbs-up to him.

“Nothing. Just needed to ask that yappin’ Mr. Realz why I got such a mid score on my paper.”

“Ha ha! Yappin’ Mr. Realz!” Paul, the last of Ben’s friends, laughed. His face was covered in sweat, he must have just come out of PE. He was wearing his iconic bright red shirt with a white zipped up jacket with short sleeves covering it. Then he squinted his eyes and scratched his head, “Wait. What does that mean?”

Everyone began to laugh to themselves, and John got up from his seat, putting a straw hat on.

“Come on, let’s go walk to Carlos place as we planned this Thursday.”

All five of them agreed. They began to walk away from the school and down the streets. Ben turned around one last time to glance at the school. He mentally took a picture, and turned around, not daring to look back.

~

“So. What should we do now that we’re all here!” Paul asked with enthusiasm. He seemed to have stopped sweating on the way there. Ian leaned back in his seat and shrugged.

“I’m not sure. Usually we just talk, but we’ve talked about all our school days already…” Ian said. Paul suddenly pointed a finger in the air.

“Ah ha, I know! Let’s talk about fire trucks!”

“Heh, sure, fire trucks,” John sarcastically said. Paul shot a sneer at him.

“What’s wrong with fire trucks? I love fire trucks!”

Carlos seemed to be looking at his bar counter, where his parents kept all the alcohol. Obviously they weren’t legally allowed to drink, but… There was a bottle of grape juice freshly bought.

Carlos got up to get it, and Ben’s fingers brushed the peduncle of the flower. It felt so soft, yet so warm at the same time. Flowers weren’t really supposed to feel warm, so it intrigued him.

“I do remember her talking about botany. She wanted to be a botanist,” Ben recalled. He smiled at the thought, “That’s right. Botany.”

Ben heard the pouring of a liquid, and Ben glanced over to see Carlos pouring grape juice into glasses for everyone. Paul licked his lips.

“I love grape juice!” Paul said gleefully.

“I have a good idea,” Carlos replied. As the last drop of grape juice dripped into Ben’s glass, he set the bottle horizontally on the table. He sat back in his seat and signaled at the bottle. A look of confusion spread on Ian’s face.

“You aren’t suggesting that we-”

“EWWWW,” Paul said. He began to gag, “That’s GROSS! I can’t believe you Carlos!”

“What? NO! That’s not what we’re playing you dummies, I was going to suggest truth or dare!” Carlos replied, turning a little red, “You guys… Jeez, why did you think we were going to play that?”

“Don’t know, don’t care, how is this even going to work?” John asked.

“I guess whoever spins the bottle will ask truth or dare, and the person it lands on will have to choose between the two,” Ben suggested.

“Yeah. Basically. So, I guess I should go first since I’m the host!” Carlos said with a grin. He grabbed the bottle and afterwards spun it as hard as he could. The bottle kept spinning, until eventually, it landed on…

“Ian!” Carlos said. Everyone began to “Ooohh”, and Carlos began to scratch his chin, trying to think of what to say.

“Hmmm, Truth or Dare, Ian?”

“Truth,” Ian replied with a smug look. John smirked at him.

“What, too chicken to choose dare?”

Ian looked back at John with a smirk.

“I’ll be expecting you to choose Dare when you get picked,” Ian added on. John slunk back into his seat, and Ian smiled and looked back at Carlos, who finally decided what he was going to say.

“Okay… Who was the last girl who tried to get with you?”

Ian looked up at the ceiling, biting on his finger as if he was trying his best to remember. Then, a few seconds later, he looked back.

“It was Madison.”

“Madison?!” Paul exclaimed with surprise, “She’s the most popular girl in the school! That’s surprising.”

“Yeah, I know. Last week in math class, her friend was bugging me about her. So I talked to her about it, pulled out a few flirty moves, and then… we were kissing. So yeah, we’re together now. She’s smokin’ hot, what can I say?”

“Wow, that’s just fast,” John said, a bit shocked, “I thought you were dating Alice? Wasn’t that just last month?”

“Yeahhh but she was using me for my money,” Ian said. His eyes glazed over with sadness as he said that, “We broke up. But it’s not that big a deal. There are fish everywhere in the sea.”

“I’m sorry, Ian,” Paul said, putting a hand on Ian’s shoulder, “You’re okay though, right?”

“I am. Like I said… not that big a deal. Girls are always like that. I can’t expect much from them except a little fun,” Ian sneered.

“And what makes you think Madison will be any different?” Ben suddenly interjected. Ian looked back at Ben.

“I’m sure she’s better than the last,” Ian blankly stated.

“You can’t just keep hopping from one girl to the next,” Ben said, “Sometimes it’s better to just reflect and think about who you really want in a person. It isn’t about if they’re hot or if they’re cute or anything like that, is it?”

He took a swig of his grape juice and set the glass down. All eyes turned to him with raised eyebrows. Ian chuckled a little bit.

“Well what do you know about love?” Ian asked, “Riddle me this, Ben. Ugly girl with a fun personality, or a hot girl with none?”

“I-”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought. So how about this? Once you get a girl to like you… I’ll listen to whatever you have to say.”

“He’s got a point though,” John added on, “No one’s liked you yet, right?”

“No… But what does that matter?”

“Then we’re just going to have to wait and see. Till’ then your advice is just blank advice, y’know?” John said. Paul bit his lip. He seemed uncomfortable about the topic.

“Guys can we just move onto the next person.”

“Okay. Seems fair enough to me,” Carlos said, “Ian you can spin the bottle next.”

Ian smirked and grabbed the bottle by the neck. With a quick spin, it spun round and round, and each person watched on with wide eyes, wondering who would be picked next. The bottle began to slow down, and the cap was pointing at…

Ben.

“Ohh, here we go,” Ben thought to himself. Ian looked at Ben.

“Truth or Dare, Ben?”

Ben began to scratch his chin.

“Usually, I’d pick Truth, but…” he looked at Ian, who seemed to already have a devious question cooked up. Ben felt his face get prickly and the air felt sharper.

“Dare,” Ben finally replied. There was a moment of silence, as everyone just looked at each other, unsure of what to say.

“But Ben, you never pick Dare!” Paul pointed out.

“I guess… I’m feeling a bit more bold today,” Ben replied lightly. Ian seemed to be thinking hard. This obviously wasn’t part of the plan. But then suddenly his face lit up. He turned to the others.

“Bagels,” Ian randomly said. Paul’s eyes widened. He put his hands over his mouth to keep himself quiet. John nodded in affirmation, and Carlos began to crack his knuckles. He began to walk over to the kitchen and put an apron on. Ian turned to Ben.

“I dare you to stay in the bathroom until we knock on the door,” Ian blurted. Ben raised his eyebrow. What a weird dare.

“Okay… Just don’t take too long, okay?”

Ben walked into the bathroom and locked the door behind him. He heard his friends all shuffle, whispers about a ‘plan’, and then the beeping of a stove.

~

Someone knocked on the door.

“Hey, Ben, we’re done!” Ian yelled. Ben groaned and got up from the toilet seat. He felt a little sore, which was expected because he had been waiting for the past fifty minutes. He walked up to the door and opened it up, but nobody was there.

“Come over here!”

Ben walked down the hallway and through the living room door. Suddenly confetti poured from the ceiling, and the sound of a party blower shrieked in the air.

“Woah! What the-”

Ben looked around in dumbfoundment as Paul had a party blower in his mouth, and John was holding onto a thin wire that connected to a bucket above Ben’s head. Carlos was carrying a poorly constructed cheesecake. His white apron was covered in cream cheese stains and his hands were coated in white flour. The cheesecake looked droopy, and red frosting made a smiley face. Strawberries resembled eyes. Five lit candles were stuck in the cake. Ian was wearing a party hat and was playing birthday music.

“Surprise! Happy birthday, Ben!” Ben’s friend, Carlos yelled with a huge smile.

“What a beautiful cake!” Ben said, his eyes sparkling, “You guys actually remembered it was my birthday…”

Ian smiled and patted him on the shoulder.

“Don’t worry, Ben. We’re all friends. We all remember each others’ birthdays,” Ian leaned in and whispered into his ear, “You don’t need to lie, you can say the cake is ugly.”

“Hey!” Carlos shouted.

“No no, I really do like it!” Ben said honestly, “I couldn’t ask for anything more.”

Paul, the optimistic, cheerful dude as he always was, walked up to Carlos with a grin.

“Don’t worry friend!” Paul said with a goofy grin, “We all worked hard to make Ben happy and he is happy! That’s all that matters!”

John smiled, and turned to everyone one by one.

“Okay then. What are we waiting for? Let’s sing happy birthday!”

For the next minute or two, they all sang happy birthday, and Ben couldn’t help but smile. Life was great. Things were going well, and the friends he had been with for a while were on his side, as always.

“It’s not what I expected, but… I don’t want to-” Ben thought as the sing-song voices of his friends came to a halt.

“I don’t want to go.”

“Make a wish now, Ben, and blow out the candles!” Carlos said, interrupting Ben’s thoughts.

“I think you should wish for Carlos to get better at cooking,” Ian whispered into Ben’s ear.

“I heard that!” Carlos shouted while waving his fist in the air.

“Nah, don’t worry Carlos I won’t make that wish,” Ben reassured him with a grin. He leaned forward, his wish ready. With a soft blow, only one flame of the candle was extinguished. He blew it again with all of his might, and at last they were extinguished. His four friends cheered, clapping as Ben grinned one last time.

“Thanks everyone, thanks,” Ben said with a smile.

“Hey, what was your wish?” Paul asked curiously, and with raised eyebrows.

“He can’t tell you, otherwise the wish can’t come true!” Ian warned him.

“Oh…” Paul said with a frown.

“Don’t worry about it, it’s nothing important,” Ben reassured Paul with a soft smile.

“Well that’s good to hear! I hope your wish comes true!” Paul beamed with a bright smile. Everyone began to laugh, and with that, Carlos carved the cheesecake up into pieces for everyone to eat…

~

Long after the occasion, everyone had decided to head home because it was getting so late. Carlos was cleaning up the mess he had created in the kitchen.

“Well, I’m going to head out right now,” Ben announced to Carlos.

“Oh, okay,” Carlos replied with a smile. He looked back at Ben with a soft smile, “It was nice having you. And happy birthday again, I can’t believe you’re already turning 17. Man, we grow up so fast.”

“Thanks for having me Carlos,” Ben waved goodbye. As he put his hand on the door handle, Carlos suddenly stopped him.

“Before you go, I just wanted to say I really am happy to be your friend,” Carlos blurted. Ben turned back and smiled.

“Me too, Carlos. Me too.”

Ben exited out of the house, closing the door softly. He adjusted his white dress shirt and thin black jacket. He closed his eyes, rubbed them, a mental picture blurred in his head.

“Me too…”

Ben opened his eyes. He was ready to go home.

Ben began to walk through the neighborhood, looking up at the night sky. The stars were distant and fading away because of humanity’s machinery and factories. But one star seemed brighter than all the others, a star that blurred red, blue, and green.

“Hey Ben, sightseeing?”

Ben turned to see his classmate approaching him; she had a warm smile on her face that was as bright as the lone star above. Her hair flowed in the gentle wind. Was it straight? Wavy? Curly? Ben didn’t remember. But it didn’t matter much to him. No matter who she was, she was perfect just the way she was. She was herself, and Ben loved her because of it.

Caught off guard because of her unexpected arrival, Ben didn’t know what words to muster up.

“Oh, um, hey,” Ben replied. His eyes shifted away.

“What are you doing out so late? Shouldn’t you be going to bed right about now? I thought your parents were strict about that sort of thing,” she asked curiously.

“They’ve gotten a bit more relaxed on that,” Ben answered while looking away. He couldn’t look her in the face. He was afraid that she would know what he was thinking, as she always did.

“What do I say?” Ben asked himself. He suddenly remembered the flower in his pocket. Right. She forgot that at her desk. He reached into his pocket and pulled the hibiscus out, moving his hand forward to give it to her.

“You forgot this at your desk.”

She giggled and put her hand gently onto his.

“Oh, thank you- But this is for you,” she said with a smile.

“What do you mean-”

She wrapped her hand around Ben’s right hand, “I got this flower because apparently it never wilts, it never dies. It’s for your birthday.”

“Happy birthday, Ben.”

Ben’s stomach felt fluttery after that. He blinked his eyes and looked back at the flower. The bud was blooming, its fragrance released once more. It definitely wasn’t fake.

“So it’s a real flower?” Ben questioned with a raised eyebrow, “Where did you find this from?”

“I found it at the park, all the way back in middle school,” she replied. She looked into Ben’s eyes, and she frowned.

“I’ve kept it with me since the end of middle school,” she said with a smile, “Take care of it okay?”

“Don’t worry, I will,” Ben promised her, “I’ll never let go of it. That’s a promise…”

She shed a single tear as she looked away.

“Don’t worry about me, Ben,” she told him, “You’ll do just fine without me. You’ll cheer people up as you always have… As you always have at your new school. Just don’t lose hope, okay?”

She began to sob, and she suddenly leaned forward and wrapped her arms around Ben. Ben reciprocated, and he too, felt tears drip onto his face. He shut his eyes hard as his hand clenched the flower.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry…” Ben whispered, “I should have told you sooner, I’ve known all this time.”

“I promise I’ll come back. And we can do the things we were destined to do. I promise, I promise…”

He felt a hum come from the flower, as the world around him began to get blurrier. His shoulder felt moist, and in an instant, it was gone.

He blinked rapidly, and he was back at the Book Club camp. The flames of the torch crackled under his eyes, and he rubbed them a little to try and figure out what just happened.

“Just a memory,” Ben realized. He put the hibiscus away in his pocket, and then continued walking off to the farm.