Their Last, My First.

It’s my first year of high school, but all anyone seems to talk about is what happened last year. I’ve tried asking people what happened, but nobody seems to know what actually happened. The thing that I know for sure is that only the seniors were involved, and no one, absolutely no one aside from the seniors knew what really happened. 

“Why do you care?” Bern asked. “I don’t care, I’m just curious.” “What a nerd.” “Shut up, do you know anything about it?” “Not really. I’ve heard that they took one of their parents' police cars, and they gathered in the old drive-in theater on the other side of town.” “Wow that’s probably the most plausible thing I’ve heard.” “Why? What have you heard?” “Well, I’ve heard there were aliens involved, they summoned demons in the woods, or they toppled a secret cult here in town.”  “Yeah, that definitely didn’t happen.” 

During class, I couldn’t focus on math when the biggest mystery was less than a year old. Wait. Mr. Rhyne is also a Calculus teacher, so he teaches the seniors, so he also taught last year's seniors. Perfect! But the clock seems like it hasn’t moved at all. Just then the bell rang, and my heart sank not expecting the bell to ring for another 30 minutes. Just as everyone left I walked over to Mr. Rhyne. “Hey Mr. Rhyne, were you a teacher for seniors last year?” I asked. “Yes I was, but I don’t know anything about what they did last year. Moreover, I doubt they even did anything. But since you’re curious the seniors this year might know what they did.”

Well at least I’m glad this didn’t waste my lunch since I’m actually pretty hungry. As I was getting my stuff, the door opened and a guy walked in yelling, “Mr. Rhyne! Help me!” Mr. Rhyne moved his nose deeper into his book, as if wanting to ignore the guy that walked in, but as he continued reading he immediately shot his head up and said, “Damien! Just the guy I was looking for!” “Really?” The guy stopped suddenly, with a confused look on his face. “Yes! See that kid over there? That's Luke and he needs your help with something!” 

I was impressed, appreciative, but also frustrated that now I wasn’t going to be able to go out to eat. “So whats up? What’d you need help with?” “Well actually I wanted to know what you knew about the seniors last year.” “Ahhh, so you want to know about the Trauma of 1989 huh?” “Is that what it's called?” “That's what I call it.” “Oh.” “So do you?” “Yes!” He grinned, with a malicious look in his eyes. “So, it was around the end of the school year, a few of the seniors went to the Old Drive-In Theater, just to hang out, but as they arrived they had a bonfire at the center and people in hooded robes gathered around it, chanting. Seeing this, they hid behind some bushes to watch what they were doing when they said that the chanting grew louder and faster, and then a demonic red skinned, horned figure began to appear out of the fire. One of the girls in the group yelled and all of the hooded figures turned towards their direction as the chanting and fire stopped. That's when they ran away as fast as they could to the nearest convenience store. The next day everyone was talking about what the seniors had seen, and so it is believed that the seniors gathered together and went back to fight off the hooded cultists.” “There’s no way that actually happened.” “Believe it. I still remember the rumors about it.” “They used a cop car to scare them away, but when that didn’t work I heard that they got into a full on group fight.” I honestly can’t believe that that is actually true. There is no way that's true. “Well, I get you wouldn’t believe me, so you can go talk to Reyna, and she’ll back me up.” Well, that guy didn’t really tell me much, because it sounds so absurd how can he expect me to believe that they saw a demon loving cult? Conveniently, I have Reyna in my art class, so I can talk to her next. 

To think that the person with the answers to my questions was sitting right next to me since the beginning of the school year. “Do you need something? I don’t like it when people stare at me for no reason.” I didn’t even realize I was staring at her, so I was speechless for a few seconds. “No! Sorry! I wanted to ask you something.” I told her. She looked at me grumpily, “I’m kind of busy. We’re in class. I wouldn’t be surprised if you hadn’t noticed by how you were spaced out staring at me.” “Can you tell me about what happened with the seniors last year?” Her eyes lit up immediately and her entire personality seemed to change. “I’d love to tell you about today it’s known as the Trauma of 1989.” “By who?” “I see.” “Okay so it started with a group of seniors going to the Old Drive-In Theater.” I’ve heard this before. Could he have been right? “At the Old Drive-In Theater, this group of seniors were arriving at the theater when they said that this glowing light, like a ray of sunlight shines onto them, as one of the seniors was picked up. Looking up they saw a disk shaped object spinning rapidly in the sky, almost invisible in the night sky. Successfully being able to pull their friend from the ray of light, they ran without stopping to the nearest convenience store, and called the police. When the police arrived, no one believed the seniors. Afterwards the seniors. Returned multiple times to the drive-in theater with a police car, in an attempt to bait the alien ship to come back there.” I can’t believe what I was hearing, and my face must’ve shown it because she asked, “You don’t believe me, do you?” I nodded rapidly, showing her just how much I did not believe her. Of course I don’t believe her, she’s as crazy as Damien, maybe crazier. “Fine then,” she said, “If you don’t believe me, go to the one person that was there.” She took out a piece of paper and began writing out an address. “Go here and you’ll be able to find him here. He’ll tell you exactly what I just told you because this is where I got my story from!” “Who?” “Will!” “Who’s Will?” “He’s a senior from last year!” My eyes lit up! Finally! I am going to be able to find out what really happened! Although, I’m still a little worried because she said this is what she heard from him, so is he just gonna be as crazy as them? But if he was there last year, I guess the story must be true then. I guess I’m going to find out later then. 

When school finally ended instead of walking home, I ran towards this address passing the Old Drive-In Theater where everything apparently took place. I even passed a convenience store that wasn’t too far away from the theater. When I arrived at the house, it was the last one on the street, and looked dirty and misplaced since all the other houses looked far different. Every other house on the street was clean white and large, while this house was orange and clearly not taken care of. Walking towards the front door, I could feel my palms getting soaked, and my heart bursting out, wondering what this guy was like. Ringing the doorbell, I could hear it echo throughout the house, as I counted the seconds until the door opened. Behind the door a guy shorter than me said, “Hey. How can I help you?” I remained quiet, not knowing what to say. “Are you Will?” I asked even though, instinctively, I already knew it was him. “Yeah, what about it?” “I came to find out about the Trauma of 1989!” “The what?” He looked at me clearly confused about what I was talking about. “The thing that the seniors did last year!” When I said that he smiled, “I’m surprised that’s still what people talk about, I thought it would go away before the year started.” “Well, that didn’t happen. That’s why I’m here.” “Come in and tell me what you’ve heard.” I followed him in and led me to the living room where it was unexpectedly clean compared to the outside. “You want a drink or something?” “No it's okay, thanks.” “Alright so what scandalous stories have you heard.” “So, I’ve heard that the senior class brought down a cultist group summoning demons, and encountered aliens then went looking for them.” He laughed, “Who told you that? Damien and Reyna probably?” “Yes. Did you tell them those stories?” “Yeah I did.” “Then what really happened?” “Nothing.” “Nothing?” “Yep. Literally nothing.” “Then why is everyone talking about it?” “Because I made them up and asked them two to spread the stories.” “Why?” “Why? Probably because I was bored, and they felt bad for me. I guess my senior class did too. You see, I missed 2 months of my senior year. I got extremely sick with this rare virus. In the end, I didn’t heal until after prom, graduation, and the end of the school year. So, I missed everything. I asked Damien and Reyna to tell people those stories and start a rumor. I didn’t really expect them to last, but I guess the rest of my senior class helped me too.” So I guess Mr. Rhyne was right and nothing really happened. That’s annoying. “I can tell that’s not what you expected, right?” He was right. Even though the stories were insane and in no way believable, I wanted to believe them. “I’m guessing you’re a freshman, so you still have four more years of high school left. Maybe one of those stories will happen to you. This is a weird town, you never know what’ll really happen. Just do one thing for me?” “What?” “Don’t tell anyone what really happened.” “I guess I won’t. Not after everything you just said.” I left his house disappointed, but excited that I still had four more years.