Psycher Chronicles

Chapter 29

Psyops

(Amoni Jacobs)

The time had come and passed since Amoni had been both kicked off the team, and once again been able to drive her beloved van. In an ideal world, Amoni would have been off suspension for hitting a teammate, been accepted back to the starting squad, and been given her vehicle back.

There was of course just one problem, well multiple problems if Amoni was being truly honest with herself. First, while Amoni was no longer suspended from the team, she had been demoted to the betas, yes, her coveted starter position had been stripped from her.

Coach even went so far as to say, “you lost your position by your own actions, now you have to earn it back from your own actions.”

Amoni had taken that to be Coach’s speech for, “prove that you deserve to be a starter and you will once again be a starter. Until such a point, you will be the first one off the bench.”

In the past, Amoni would have brushed off such thoughts easily. Yet, the message had been clear, the new girl had not only stolen her spot, but she was the one that Amoni needed to now beat, in order to regain her coveted position.

That was the first major problem. While she had served her suspension, she now had a long road uphill to get back to where she was.

To make matters worse her cousin Jerome had apparently hit a deer or something, what did that have to do with Amoni? Well good question, apparently it meant that her van, which she let him borrow for a pack thing, was now MIA. How messed up is that, he hits something while driving her van, the van he has been using since the start of school, and suddenly he has the audacity to demand his car back?

Worse, the entire pack seems to agree to this, as Jerome got his father to talk to Amoni’s father, and now it is a political problem. While her father promised to work something out, to either get her vehicle fixed, or get her a new vehicle, but unfortunately such acts would take time.

Then, to make matters worse, she now had to either take the bus to school, or sit in the lap of Roger, the newest sycophant of Jerome’s little crew.

Needless to say, the bus sucked. Amoni had to wake up thirty minutes earlier, to arrive barely on time.

The worst part of it all, Amoni had been replaced.

Rather than having to ride the bus in solidarity with the other members of her pack, they all ditched her like rats from a sinking ship, and got a ride with the new girl. The very girl who had gotten her suspended and taken her position on the team.

Freaking traitors.

To make matters worse, those traitors had no loyalty. Not even K-Bar seemed to understand the level of betrayal, saying “look it is just a ride. She even offered to pick you up as well.”

As if Amoni Jacobs would ever lower herself to ride in some two-bit instigator’s ride.

Seething.

Rage was building up, burning just under Amoni’s skin. The more she thought about the injustices that had been levied against her, the more she thought about things, the more she felt true rage, coped with utter helplessness. Never in her whole life had she ever felt so obsolete.

For the longest time, she had been the pillar of the school. A model student, a starter on the basketball team, and able to drive her own vehicle and be the sole ride for her fellow teammates. Then in the course of a week, ever since that new girl came, she had been dropped off her pedestal. Not only had she lost her position, and her car, but now that same new girl was even taking her spot as the smartest in the class.

Ping.

To make matters even more annoying, Amoni was now being stalked by a cyber stalker. For now, her phone kept getting blown up by random numbers and users who all asked her the same annoying question.

God: Where is your van?

A: Bitch if I knew do you think I would be riding the bus?

That was Amoni’s typical response, before she would go and block the user. Unfortunately, the person she had annoyed, or who now took delight in annoying her was persistent, as even after blocking the one account they would come back with more, all asking the same question. When Amoni contacted the phone company to get this person to stop, the company had no records of any messages being sent to Amoni’s phone.

What was worse, was that now her once favorite class was slowly turning into a nightmare. AP Physics was slowly turning into, how amazing the new girl is at math. She was now even asked to help with handing out assignments and asked to help others who were having a harder time grasping the materials.

Of course, all the boys in the class feel for the act almost immediately. Half of whom lost their minds, even Peter pretended to lose his mind as he just wanted the girl to come over and check his answers.

Seeing as how everyone was basically drooling over the new girl, it only made Amoni hate the girl more. As no one ever drooled over Amoni when she was asked to be the class helper, not that she would let anyone drool over her, but still it would be nice to be appreciated at least once.

“Toady, we will have a pop-quiz to see how well you all would do on a cumulative test. There are four sections that will be covered, everything from Area to Slope, to Ohm’s Law.” Dr. Cahill, the physics professor stated.

Then he handed out the nine question quiz.

Groan.

As the first set of students looked at the problems, the other students began to moan in unison.

“Don’t worry, this is all I have for you today. Once you are done with this, you can consider the rest to be a study hall period.” Dr. Cahill stated reassuringly.

Amoni got the page and instantly inhaled. The problems were not impossible, but were clearly tough. Just looking at them showed they would take a few minutes just to figure out what each question was asking and then trying to remember the different mathematical formulas to solve each type of equation would be time consuming.

Out of the corner of her eye, Amoni watched the new girl, waiting for the moment that she crumpled her shoulders in defeat.

Yet, that moment of commemorative misery was lost. As the new girl, seemed to not have an issue with the questions being asked, and instead went and began answering the questions almost instantly.

Seeing that, Amoni grimaced, wondering if the new girl had somehow cheated. Still, she would be the girl at her own game. Focusing, she went and began solving the first problem before her.

Part 1:

W, H.

Those were the answers for Width and Height that were missing from the seemingly easy to solve problem. Then from there, the rest of the questions always felt easier. While the problems were tougher after the first one, having that first success under your belt was always a good confidence booster.

3

R3

Paper rustling.

No sooner had Amoni finished the first section, than she heard papers being rustled. With a quick glance she saw that it was the new girl getting up and taking her paper to the teacher. Seeing that, Amoni inwardly smiled, realizing that the new girl likely had to go up to ask about a particular problem.

“Oh, you are done already?” Dr. Cahill asked surprised.

With that, not just Amoni, but everyone else looked up in astonishment as well.

“Uh, yeah, these all seem to be in order. You can head off to your next class, or if you want, you can stay and help.” Dr. Cahill said, gesturing to the podium at the front of the classroom where Dr. Cahill generally gave his lectures, not at the desk that he was currently sitting behind.

With that, Amoni felt the strain of being left behind, and forced herself to press through.

Part 2:

15

Part 3:

Y=0

U

R

Part 4:

V4

N

There, she was done. Amoni took a mental breath, letting her mind relax. A quick scan of the room showed that everyone else was still working, only the freak was done.

Having stopped, the freak looked up from whatever she was doing and made eye contact with Amoni.

Chills.

As Amoni’s eyes locked with the new girl’s, Amoni felt fear. There was a barely controlled fury that seemed to reside in that gaze. A gaze that spoke volumes about contempt.

Suddenly, whatever Amoni had been thinking she felt towards the girl seemed to be nothing compared to the hostility that seemed to be radiating from the new girl.

Smugly, Amoni got up and defiantly went to the new girl with her answer sheet.

The girl for her part seemed cold, but with a glance down at the sheet nodded in approval.

“Good job. Looks like you got those right,” the new girl stated.

With that Amoni confidently smiled to herself as she began taking her paper from the girl and was about to take it to Dr. Cahill, when she asked something that almost sounded like gibberish given the context.

“You just have one last question to answer.”

“What?” Amoni asked.

“Where is it?”

“Where is what?” Amoni asked, feeling both mentally tired and not wanting to deal with this crazy girl.

“Look at your answers and see what question they ask.”

“What are you?” Amoni began, but then looked at her paper and mentally put together all the answers for each section, only then did she see the tenth and final question.

As she stared at the answers, it was clear that each part seemed to form a word that when put together made a phrase, and that phrase sent chills down Amoni’s spine.

WH3R3 15 Y=0UR V4N?

Badump, badump, badump.

As her mind comprehended the question, Amoni felt her mind race as she saw the same question that kept getting sent to her phone.

ERRRK.

Suddenly the rumbling movement of the bus stopped, and Amoni noticed the movement of others around her. Suddenly she realized where she was, she was on the bus. Apparently, she had fallen asleep on the long meandering ride to school.

To make matters worse, not only had she fallen asleep on the bus, but she had dreamed about taking a pop quiz in class.

“This sucks,” Amoni muttered to herself, looking around the parking lot only to find her car parked in Jerome’s normal spot. Again, she wondered what exactly happened that made it so Jerome got his car back, while Amoni’s van was now missing.

As she arose, she felt a crink in her neck from having to slump over on the hardened pleather that smelled of farts, sweat, and broken dreams. Everything that seemed to perfectly epitomize the typical high school experience. An experience that Amoni now herself had to be a participant of.

Bzzz.

Then just at that moment, she got another text. “Now I’m even dreaming about being in class, while the bus, how lame,” Amoni admonished herself as she got up, not even wanting to look at the message that she knew was on the screen.

Still, after a few moments, curiosity won out, all but forcing her to see the new message that awaited her.

G0d: WH3R3 15 Y0UR V4N?

Seeing the message, only two words came to Amoni’s mind to express exactly what she was feeling. Her dream had all but given her the same exact question, written out the same exact way.

“What the…”