Neo Chronicles
Episode 34: I Weep For Our Youth
Table of Contents
My jaw is wide open. Then I feel myself fighting off the urge to bust out laughing. That story Kai told was just – “Oh my God,” I utter. “Kai, I'm so sorry.” I bite my lip down, but I know he sees the smile beam through.
“You oughta be,” he spits back, pounding his fist on top of the table. “You ruined everything!”
So apparently, if I followed everything up in his story right, he tried to ask out this girl, Octavia. I know he's had a thing for her for a while. She's his first, real high school crush. So I took it upon myself to help him out. We go back. I owe it to him. He's young; I'm mature. He's green; I'm wise. It's my duty to bring the youth up, and I take that duty seriously.
So to hear him tell me—over a lunch tray of corn dogs on a stick, mac an' cheese, an' broccoli—that he put his heart out there—out in the streets—just to have it crushed by the steel toe of rejection gives me pause. Not because I feel sorry for him. Even by his own admission, he came off like a jerk. Frankly, I'm glad Octavia put him in his place.
But I still pause. I weep for our youth. Kai's just one of the many, many kids in the world who're lost because they're tryna keep up with everyone else.
Tragic.
“Sounds to me like you did most of the ruining.” Ah, and there's Nickie Fields. She steps in with the swagger of cheetah. Proud, poised, and full of attitude. Her lips are poked out as she looks down on Kai.
Kai looks up to her. She sets her lunch tray down next to his. Then she sits down next to him. Kai just about turns his nose up at her, then, looking back over at me, he asks, “What's she doin' here?”
Nickie smacks her lips at the question and abruptly responds, “It's a free country; I can eat wherever I want.”
I look over to Kai and say, “Kai, we need an expert to help you out with this, so I asked her to join us.”
“An expert?” he exclaims. “At what?” Then turning to Nickie, he asks, “Do you know how to pick up girls?”
“No,” she replies, “But in case you missed it, I just so happen to be a girl, but y'know what? Now that I know it's you Noah was talking, and that you're trying to get with my homegirl, I think I've changed my mind.”
“Nickie, wait! No!” I shout. “Look at us! Look at him! He's pathetic. He doesn't know where to go. He doesn't have a clue. Throw us a bone! Give us insight. Put us on the right path. It's not like he's gonna try to go after Octavia anymore, anyway, so what should he know for the next one?”
To my surprise, Kai takes issue with that last remark, and interjects with a, “What are you talkin' about? I'm absolutely goin' after Octavia.”
“Really? After all that?” I question.
“Especially after all that!”
“Jamal—whose name is also Kai; how did that happen, by the way?—do you even know why you're interested in her?” Nickie asks.
“Cuz she fine; why you think?”
Oh Kai. Just how many times are you gonna put your foot in your mouth, today? At least he's upfront about it. He's never been one to censor himself. Except when it comes to cussing. Sayin' “ish” instead of “s**t,” and the like. That's respectable. But everything else?
Nickie facepalms herself. “Is that it?” she asks. She looks him in the eye, desperately searching for something worth salvaging out of this broken mess. “You don't care about what she's interested in? How about hobbies? Do you two have anything in common? How do you even know if you'll get along?”
Kai stares at her, blankly. For a moment, it looks like he's looking inward. His eyes trail up, looking towards the ceiling for inspiration. Is this the first sign of introspection? Maybe there's hope for him, yet!
Then he finally replies, “Why do I need to know all that?”
Now it's Nickie who stares at Kai, blankly. She shows no signs of emotion. I was expecting anger in the face of his ignorance, but instead, yep, that's it. The sigh she gives seals it. That is utter disappointment. “I'm done,” she states.
“No, Nickie! No!” I cry out, reaching my hand across the table. “We're hopeless! Our feeble minds only know about the stuff we see on TV!”
“Then I'm sorry,” Nickie says, gently placing her palm in mine, “But y'all are gonna have to start followin' different shows, dear.”
Then, drawing her hand away, she looks as if she's about to stand up. But before she does, a white girl shows up behind her, holding a lunch tray of her own. She dawns a large—probably two sizes too large—red, flannel jacket, back turned baseball cap, dark blue denim jeans, and white T-shirt.
“There you are Nickie,” she says. Another freshman in the same grade as Jamal and Nickie. They might know her, but I don't. “Are we sitting here today?” She blows at the straight, loose strands of brunette hair as they fall in her face. Adorable.
“No Alexis,” Nickie says gathering up her tray as she stands to her feet. “I was just leaving, actually.”
“Actually,” a black kid, with a curly low top fade, wearing a striped, brown polo, and some black khakis, steps up next to Alexis and says, “I think all the rest of the tables are full.”
Nickie looks around the cafeteria. She can see, first hand, that the guy is right. People are still pouring into the room, but all the tables have bodies. From one end to the other. Wall to wall, kids're sittin' down with their tight knit cliques, scarfin' on salty, sweet, processed goodness. Or not. Some people are just here to socialize.
“Yeah RJ,” Alexis says after having also looked around, “I think you're right.”
Nickie looks disappointed. She sits back down, gives Kai a stern glance. Kai clicks his tongue. Then they both look away from each other. I guess they're gonna pretend like the other doesn't exist.
Alexis comes to the other side of the table and sits down in front of Nickie, next to me. RJ sits down next to Alexis.
“This algebra class is kicking my butt,” Alexis says.
“Mine too,” RJ adds in. “What'd you make on the last test?”
“A D.”
“Ouch.”
“Yeah, I can't even begin to figure out how I'm gonna break it to my parents. I'll be grounded for the rest of the school year.”
“You're exaggerating,” Nickie says.
“They've done it before!”
“Oh.”
“What'd you make, RJ?”
“A C,” RJ responds.
“That's not much better. What do we do?”
“Why don't you ask your sister for help? Isn't she a super genius?”
“Other than the fact that she's the wickedest witch anyone could ever ask for,” Alexis seems to be irked by the thought, but then she relaxes as she goes on to say, “she's way too busy with her college work to even think of helping me out.”
“I'm sure you two'll think of something,” Nickie states. “Do you know where you're messing up at?”
“The algebra part's easy.” RJ says. “But now Ms. Donald's putting these weird geometry type problems on the test.”
“She hasn't even covered geometry!”
Kai's doing everything he can to ignore their plight. He continues tearin' into his food, gulpin' down his carton of strawberry milk, burpin' in between inhales. He's a very frustrated eater. Everything he does is forceful. He's way too over the top. If I didn't know any better, I'd say somethin' was eatin' at him.
His tray is just about empty. There's still at least fifteen minutes left in this lunch period. I'm in no rush. I like to enjoy my food. The sweet and salty combination of the cornbreading around this dog is perfect.
“So what are we gonna do about them demons?”
You know how I know Kai's still salty about this morning? Because for the first time in all of eternity, he was the one who brought up the demon thing. He hates the demon thing. He hates the entire situation we're in. He hates that me, him, Nexus, and Lynn meet up after school and on weekends to learn how to deal with them.
I can't help but smile. He sees me smiling, too. I'm sure he hates that, too.
“Don't give me that look,” he says.
“What look?” I play dumb, knowin' full well that I'm fighting off burstin' out in a laugh.
“Whatever. Have you actually been learnin' anything from that Hirohito guy?”
“You mean you haven't?” I ask, as I tear into this mac an' cheese. My mind, and my attention is on the food in my plate mostly. I look down at it, scoop up a portion with my fork, then look back up at Kai in between each gulp.
“Yeah, I mean, I got a few things down. If a demon were to show up in school right now, I wouldn't be able to kill it, but I think I'd be able to do more than we did last time.”
“See, that's your problem right there!” The words come out more muffled than I thought they would. I'm talking with my mouth full. I search the table for a napkin dispenser. After Kai passes it to me, I take up one and wipe my mouth as I swallow. “You can't kill them. Nobody can kill them. They're not animals. That was the main, numbah one thing Hiro tried to emphasize. They're spirits. Only way to fight a spirit is with a spirit. Only way to get rid of a spirit is to banish it.”
“Shut up, nerd! I know all that! I was there when he said it, too. But what does that mean? All that magic ish is Lynn's thing. How does shootin' fire or ice or whatever actually do that?”
“Well Kai! What Lynn does is, well, um, uh –”
“Um, uh, duh, what? See, you don't know, either!”
I think our conversation's gotten to the point that it drowns out the one happening next to us. Kai and I are naturally loud speakers. We're both inherently argumentative. We passionate about the littlest of things. Alexis, Nickie, and RJ are staring at us inquisitively.
“What are you two talking about?” Nickie asks.
Without even making eye contact with her, Kai responds, “Demons, magic, the end of the world? I don't even know anymore!”
“What game is this?” RJ asks, sipping his milk through a straw.
“No game,” Kai says, turning and addressing him. “This is real life.”
“Kai!” I interject. “Is this the kinda thing we need to share?”
“Who cares?” Kai sharply bites back. “We were told straight up, as it was happenin', an' we still didn't believe until it was over. If they think we're crazy, they think we're crazy. If they don't, then they know. Simple as that.”
Alexis looks to me, then she looks to Kai. Her hair falls in her face again. Then, as she tucks the loose strands behind her ear, she asks, “Know what, exactly?”
“That demons are comin' from Hell tryna wreck ish.”
Her eyes trail back and forth at us. Then her brows came together, and her big brown eyes opened wide with concern. “So what do we do about them?” Her voice almost quivers.
“Nothing,” Kai bluntly responds. His answer doesn't do much to alleviate Alexis's worry. “At least nothin' I can think of, because that stupid Hirohito guy goes out of his way to be cryptic about everything! An' that's why we're all gonna die.”
“He's not cryptic, and we're not going to die!” I interject.
Kai scoffs. “Then how are we gonna stop them, then?”
“I don't know! We'll get there when we get there!”
Now everything's awkward.
And quiet.
At least among our group. The rest of the lunchroom's still roarin' on.
Alexis still looks worried. She concentrates on her food, taking small nibbles of each thing at a time. First her corn dog, then her mac an' cheese, then her broccoli. Then she sneezes. It makes the cutest, squeaking sound.
RJ looks more intrigued. I think he still thinks we're talking about a video game. I see him look at me an' Kai in anticipation. Like he's waiting for us to give him the punchline. When it doesn't come, he shrugs his shoulders and goes back to his meal.
Nickie hasn't given us the time of day. I'm not sure if it's because she's still mad at Kai, or if she just doesn't want to deal with our foolishness. She's sorta just playin' with her food. I see her use her fork to stir her mac an' cheese. Come to think of it, isn't she vegetarian? What's she doin' with the main lunch anyway? She hasn't touched it since getting here.
And then there are the shadows.
They're like splotches in between the nooks and crannies of the table. They're on the floor. They're on the table. They're on the walls. The way they move about, is weird. Everytime I focus my attention on them, they break apart and reform some place else. I'm surprised no one else's seen or commented on them. I figure they're someone usin' their ST while daydreaming.
It's really awkward right now.
“So Kai,” I say, breaking the silence. “Are you really gonna sit here and act like you don't get straight A's in math?”
Alexis perks up, instantly. “You do?” she asks enthusiastically.
Kai is visibly irked, as evident by his jolting shrug. He throws a scowl my way. I smile in response. His scowl grows deeper. He furrows his eyebrows, narrows his eyes, and does everything within his being to frown in anger.
Now I'm laughing. I'm laughing hard. Nickie's finally smiling now. She looks to Kai, so does RJ. Kai's mad. I bet he can feel all their eyes on him. He nods his head, and finally says,
“I hate you Noah.”
Episode 34: I Weep For Our Youth
Table of Contents
My jaw is wide open. Then I feel myself fighting off the urge to bust out laughing. That story Kai told was just – “Oh my God,” I utter. “Kai, I'm so sorry.” I bite my lip down, but I know he sees the smile beam through.
“You oughta be,” he spits back, pounding his fist on top of the table. “You ruined everything!”
So apparently, if I followed everything up in his story right, he tried to ask out this girl, Octavia. I know he's had a thing for her for a while. She's his first, real high school crush. So I took it upon myself to help him out. We go back. I owe it to him. He's young; I'm mature. He's green; I'm wise. It's my duty to bring the youth up, and I take that duty seriously.
So to hear him tell me—over a lunch tray of corn dogs on a stick, mac an' cheese, an' broccoli—that he put his heart out there—out in the streets—just to have it crushed by the steel toe of rejection gives me pause. Not because I feel sorry for him. Even by his own admission, he came off like a jerk. Frankly, I'm glad Octavia put him in his place.
But I still pause. I weep for our youth. Kai's just one of the many, many kids in the world who're lost because they're tryna keep up with everyone else.
Tragic.
“Sounds to me like you did most of the ruining.” Ah, and there's Nickie Fields. She steps in with the swagger of cheetah. Proud, poised, and full of attitude. Her lips are poked out as she looks down on Kai.
Kai looks up to her. She sets her lunch tray down next to his. Then she sits down next to him. Kai just about turns his nose up at her, then, looking back over at me, he asks, “What's she doin' here?”
Nickie smacks her lips at the question and abruptly responds, “It's a free country; I can eat wherever I want.”
I look over to Kai and say, “Kai, we need an expert to help you out with this, so I asked her to join us.”
“An expert?” he exclaims. “At what?” Then turning to Nickie, he asks, “Do you know how to pick up girls?”
“No,” she replies, “But in case you missed it, I just so happen to be a girl, but y'know what? Now that I know it's you Noah was talking, and that you're trying to get with my homegirl, I think I've changed my mind.”
“Nickie, wait! No!” I shout. “Look at us! Look at him! He's pathetic. He doesn't know where to go. He doesn't have a clue. Throw us a bone! Give us insight. Put us on the right path. It's not like he's gonna try to go after Octavia anymore, anyway, so what should he know for the next one?”
To my surprise, Kai takes issue with that last remark, and interjects with a, “What are you talkin' about? I'm absolutely goin' after Octavia.”
“Really? After all that?” I question.
“Especially after all that!”
“Jamal—whose name is also Kai; how did that happen, by the way?—do you even know why you're interested in her?” Nickie asks.
“Cuz she fine; why you think?”
Oh Kai. Just how many times are you gonna put your foot in your mouth, today? At least he's upfront about it. He's never been one to censor himself. Except when it comes to cussing. Sayin' “ish” instead of “s**t,” and the like. That's respectable. But everything else?
Nickie facepalms herself. “Is that it?” she asks. She looks him in the eye, desperately searching for something worth salvaging out of this broken mess. “You don't care about what she's interested in? How about hobbies? Do you two have anything in common? How do you even know if you'll get along?”
Kai stares at her, blankly. For a moment, it looks like he's looking inward. His eyes trail up, looking towards the ceiling for inspiration. Is this the first sign of introspection? Maybe there's hope for him, yet!
Then he finally replies, “Why do I need to know all that?”
Now it's Nickie who stares at Kai, blankly. She shows no signs of emotion. I was expecting anger in the face of his ignorance, but instead, yep, that's it. The sigh she gives seals it. That is utter disappointment. “I'm done,” she states.
“No, Nickie! No!” I cry out, reaching my hand across the table. “We're hopeless! Our feeble minds only know about the stuff we see on TV!”
“Then I'm sorry,” Nickie says, gently placing her palm in mine, “But y'all are gonna have to start followin' different shows, dear.”
Then, drawing her hand away, she looks as if she's about to stand up. But before she does, a white girl shows up behind her, holding a lunch tray of her own. She dawns a large—probably two sizes too large—red, flannel jacket, back turned baseball cap, dark blue denim jeans, and white T-shirt.
“There you are Nickie,” she says. Another freshman in the same grade as Jamal and Nickie. They might know her, but I don't. “Are we sitting here today?” She blows at the straight, loose strands of brunette hair as they fall in her face. Adorable.
“No Alexis,” Nickie says gathering up her tray as she stands to her feet. “I was just leaving, actually.”
“Actually,” a black kid, with a curly low top fade, wearing a striped, brown polo, and some black khakis, steps up next to Alexis and says, “I think all the rest of the tables are full.”
Nickie looks around the cafeteria. She can see, first hand, that the guy is right. People are still pouring into the room, but all the tables have bodies. From one end to the other. Wall to wall, kids're sittin' down with their tight knit cliques, scarfin' on salty, sweet, processed goodness. Or not. Some people are just here to socialize.
“Yeah RJ,” Alexis says after having also looked around, “I think you're right.”
Nickie looks disappointed. She sits back down, gives Kai a stern glance. Kai clicks his tongue. Then they both look away from each other. I guess they're gonna pretend like the other doesn't exist.
Alexis comes to the other side of the table and sits down in front of Nickie, next to me. RJ sits down next to Alexis.
“This algebra class is kicking my butt,” Alexis says.
“Mine too,” RJ adds in. “What'd you make on the last test?”
“A D.”
“Ouch.”
“Yeah, I can't even begin to figure out how I'm gonna break it to my parents. I'll be grounded for the rest of the school year.”
“You're exaggerating,” Nickie says.
“They've done it before!”
“Oh.”
“What'd you make, RJ?”
“A C,” RJ responds.
“That's not much better. What do we do?”
“Why don't you ask your sister for help? Isn't she a super genius?”
“Other than the fact that she's the wickedest witch anyone could ever ask for,” Alexis seems to be irked by the thought, but then she relaxes as she goes on to say, “she's way too busy with her college work to even think of helping me out.”
“I'm sure you two'll think of something,” Nickie states. “Do you know where you're messing up at?”
“The algebra part's easy.” RJ says. “But now Ms. Donald's putting these weird geometry type problems on the test.”
“She hasn't even covered geometry!”
Kai's doing everything he can to ignore their plight. He continues tearin' into his food, gulpin' down his carton of strawberry milk, burpin' in between inhales. He's a very frustrated eater. Everything he does is forceful. He's way too over the top. If I didn't know any better, I'd say somethin' was eatin' at him.
His tray is just about empty. There's still at least fifteen minutes left in this lunch period. I'm in no rush. I like to enjoy my food. The sweet and salty combination of the cornbreading around this dog is perfect.
“So what are we gonna do about them demons?”
You know how I know Kai's still salty about this morning? Because for the first time in all of eternity, he was the one who brought up the demon thing. He hates the demon thing. He hates the entire situation we're in. He hates that me, him, Nexus, and Lynn meet up after school and on weekends to learn how to deal with them.
I can't help but smile. He sees me smiling, too. I'm sure he hates that, too.
“Don't give me that look,” he says.
“What look?” I play dumb, knowin' full well that I'm fighting off burstin' out in a laugh.
“Whatever. Have you actually been learnin' anything from that Hirohito guy?”
“You mean you haven't?” I ask, as I tear into this mac an' cheese. My mind, and my attention is on the food in my plate mostly. I look down at it, scoop up a portion with my fork, then look back up at Kai in between each gulp.
“Yeah, I mean, I got a few things down. If a demon were to show up in school right now, I wouldn't be able to kill it, but I think I'd be able to do more than we did last time.”
“See, that's your problem right there!” The words come out more muffled than I thought they would. I'm talking with my mouth full. I search the table for a napkin dispenser. After Kai passes it to me, I take up one and wipe my mouth as I swallow. “You can't kill them. Nobody can kill them. They're not animals. That was the main, numbah one thing Hiro tried to emphasize. They're spirits. Only way to fight a spirit is with a spirit. Only way to get rid of a spirit is to banish it.”
“Shut up, nerd! I know all that! I was there when he said it, too. But what does that mean? All that magic ish is Lynn's thing. How does shootin' fire or ice or whatever actually do that?”
“Well Kai! What Lynn does is, well, um, uh –”
“Um, uh, duh, what? See, you don't know, either!”
I think our conversation's gotten to the point that it drowns out the one happening next to us. Kai and I are naturally loud speakers. We're both inherently argumentative. We passionate about the littlest of things. Alexis, Nickie, and RJ are staring at us inquisitively.
“What are you two talking about?” Nickie asks.
Without even making eye contact with her, Kai responds, “Demons, magic, the end of the world? I don't even know anymore!”
“What game is this?” RJ asks, sipping his milk through a straw.
“No game,” Kai says, turning and addressing him. “This is real life.”
“Kai!” I interject. “Is this the kinda thing we need to share?”
“Who cares?” Kai sharply bites back. “We were told straight up, as it was happenin', an' we still didn't believe until it was over. If they think we're crazy, they think we're crazy. If they don't, then they know. Simple as that.”
Alexis looks to me, then she looks to Kai. Her hair falls in her face again. Then, as she tucks the loose strands behind her ear, she asks, “Know what, exactly?”
“That demons are comin' from Hell tryna wreck ish.”
Her eyes trail back and forth at us. Then her brows came together, and her big brown eyes opened wide with concern. “So what do we do about them?” Her voice almost quivers.
“Nothing,” Kai bluntly responds. His answer doesn't do much to alleviate Alexis's worry. “At least nothin' I can think of, because that stupid Hirohito guy goes out of his way to be cryptic about everything! An' that's why we're all gonna die.”
“He's not cryptic, and we're not going to die!” I interject.
Kai scoffs. “Then how are we gonna stop them, then?”
“I don't know! We'll get there when we get there!”
Now everything's awkward.
And quiet.
At least among our group. The rest of the lunchroom's still roarin' on.
Alexis still looks worried. She concentrates on her food, taking small nibbles of each thing at a time. First her corn dog, then her mac an' cheese, then her broccoli. Then she sneezes. It makes the cutest, squeaking sound.
RJ looks more intrigued. I think he still thinks we're talking about a video game. I see him look at me an' Kai in anticipation. Like he's waiting for us to give him the punchline. When it doesn't come, he shrugs his shoulders and goes back to his meal.
Nickie hasn't given us the time of day. I'm not sure if it's because she's still mad at Kai, or if she just doesn't want to deal with our foolishness. She's sorta just playin' with her food. I see her use her fork to stir her mac an' cheese. Come to think of it, isn't she vegetarian? What's she doin' with the main lunch anyway? She hasn't touched it since getting here.
And then there are the shadows.
They're like splotches in between the nooks and crannies of the table. They're on the floor. They're on the table. They're on the walls. The way they move about, is weird. Everytime I focus my attention on them, they break apart and reform some place else. I'm surprised no one else's seen or commented on them. I figure they're someone usin' their ST while daydreaming.
It's really awkward right now.
“So Kai,” I say, breaking the silence. “Are you really gonna sit here and act like you don't get straight A's in math?”
Alexis perks up, instantly. “You do?” she asks enthusiastically.
Kai is visibly irked, as evident by his jolting shrug. He throws a scowl my way. I smile in response. His scowl grows deeper. He furrows his eyebrows, narrows his eyes, and does everything within his being to frown in anger.
Now I'm laughing. I'm laughing hard. Nickie's finally smiling now. She looks to Kai, so does RJ. Kai's mad. I bet he can feel all their eyes on him. He nods his head, and finally says,
“I hate you Noah.”
