7 YEARS LATER...
177Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3gerLqY61Z
"Did you see the news?"
"No."
"It was funny."
"What happened?"
"A scientist guy... I think his name was Dr. B or somethin like that. He was talking about saving the world with creations."
"That sounds dumb. There's nothing that needs saving..."
Jackson tried to drown out the voices of boring news. He didn't understand world problems much. He was 8 years old after all. The only politics he knew was that presidents are the bosses. He got bored and decided he would scrape a metal fork against a glass plate.
"Hey! Stop that! You should be eating, not making noise!" yelled a girl, Kalen, who was calling the science guy dumb.
Jack looked at her. "Are you chewing? You shouldn't make noise." He laughed. She frowned and continued eating in silence. He enjoyed the silence. In his mind, only he could be annoying.
"Hey, how are you?" asked Jack's friend, Lukas, as he sat next to him with his food.
"Shhhhh... you are being too noisy." Jack laughed as he said this.
"Right." Lukas started eating.
"Left," said Jack. "Or was it wrong?"
"It's right either way you put it." Lukas smiled.
"Stop killing my brain!" called Andrew, a good friend who followed Lukas. "I don't know what you're even talking about."
"Me neither" answered both Jack and Lukas.
It was honestly awkward for Jack. He liked the silence, but he could literally hear the echo of each individual person chewing. Lucky for him, as much as he loved silence, he also loved breaking silence just as much.
"You got your microphone with you?" Jack asked Lukas.
"Yeah. Why?" Lukas asked.
Andrew seemed to know what was going to happen. He shook his head as if to say "Don't do it, kid."
"I need it real quick," answered Jack, giving Andrew a look that said "I never had a choice."
"Alright." Lukas took out his microphone and handed it to Jack.
"Thank you." Jack took it and walked to the center of the cafeteria and yelled into the mic. "Who lives in room 1?!" A boy raised his hand. Jackson leaned on a table. "Karl! Buddy!"
"I don't know you," came his answer. Technically, he wasn't wrong. The closest thing to interaction between them before then was when he showed Jack the way to room 13. Why? Because he had a friend there that got adopted, so he had to leave.
"Of course not! I just wanted to say... Sorry for your loss," Jack said.
"What loss?" Karl was clearly confused.
"Your pet fish."
"I don't have a fish."
"I know. At least not anymore."
"I never had a fish."
"Yeah you did! I gave it to you this morning, but it didn't have water, so it died."
"So you threw it out?"
"No."
"What?"
"It's still on your floor."
Karl paused and ran out of the cafeteria, probably to check if the fish was still there. Some people laughed, but some stared, unfazed. Then silence, once again.
ns 15.158.61.51da2
