The Crimson Phoenix

New school.

It was a Monday morning and Leo was told to wake up early today. Since he didn’t finish his high school education in Sunshine city, he would have to continue it in Sky-hills. He had toured the city and there were three high schools at Sky Hills; Elian comprehensive School, Sky-Hills high school and Bennington Academy. Leo wasn’t actually sure which of the schools he wanted to be enrolled into so his aunt had to choose a school for him. She decided that Leo goes to Elian Comprehensive School since it was the nearest to the house and her friend happens to be the principal of the school. In terms of standard, all the schools here are basically on the same level… well, that’s what his uncle, Williams told them.

They got into the car and drove off to the school. The school was very big, and had a large parking lot which had three yellow school buses lined up side by side and some different kinds of vehicles. The school had a stone platform on which the name of the school was engraved on and It was seven meters away from the school’s front door. Molly parked her car in the parking lot and Leo witnessed students walking in and out of the school’s hallway.

“Are you nervous?” Molly asked. Leo raised his brows and glanced at her.

“Do I look nervous?” he asked.

“A little.” She replied. Leo rolled his eyes and sighed.

“I’m fine. I’m just a little worried,” he replied reluctantly. Molly smiled and cheered him on.

“Don’t worry, I know the principal here. She’s a friend of mine.” She claimed.

“ I see.” They both walked toward the Principal's office and Molly knocked on the door.

“Come in.” A feminine came out of the office. Leo analyzed the voice and made a few, deductions about the person’s appearance. Leo and his aunt opened the door and walked in and just as Leo predicted in his mind, the Principal was a black, tall, and a little bit plump, lady. She looked to be in her late thirties... a little bit close to what Leo guessed.

“Hey, Shelly.” Molly greeted. The principal stood up with a wholehearted smile and shook hands with Molly.

. “Hi, Molly. How are you?” Shelly greeted. After exchanging pleasantries with Leo’s aunt she turned to look at Leo.

“Hello, there young man.” She greeted as she offered Leo her hand. He just smiled warmly and extended his hand to return the gesture.

“Well... this here is Leonardo Anderson, my nephew,” Molly introduced. “He just lost his parents so he’s living with me now.” Shelly was astonished and felt a bit of pity.

“Oh my, I’m so sorry. My condolences.” Shelly sympathized. Leo breathed softly as he closed his eyes and nodded.

Molly continued. “I want to enroll him into this school. He’s almost in his senior year but I’m pretty sure he’s smart enough to be in his senior year…” she patronized Leo and looked at him as if she wanted to get something from him, “Am I right?” She asked. Leo was thinking of something else so he was carried away, but Molly stepped on his foot which hurt him a bit.

“Ow... I mean, yes… yes.” he quickly confirmed to avoid the preying eyes of his aunt.

Shelly just smiled, acting like she didn’t notice the both of them, “ Well that’s not a problem but he can’t join the senior year class since the academic session is about to end. He’ll be put in 11th grade. It’ll be like familiarizing himself with the school. But before that, I’ll need to give him a test.” She said. Molly looked at Leo and he didn’t care. He believed that he could actually pass any test given to him but the look Molly gave him made him feel a bit uncomfortable.

“What?” he asked. He didn’t know that she wanted to know if he was ready for the test. He was absent-minded. After a second of confusion he, finally realized why she looked at him. “Oh, I’m okay with it... I’m ready for any test you want to conduct.” he blurted. Shelly was delighted but also curious as to why a new student would be absent-minded. She didn’t give it much thought though and she put the issue at the back of her mind. Leo was thinking of the kind of people he would meet. He’s a shy person and doesn’t approach people to make friends unless the person approaches him first.

“Great. I’ll be right back.” She said as she stood up to get the test ready. She went to meet the teachers to give her a five questions test. After meeting like six teachers–one for each subject, even though some of them teach two subjects. She came back with the questions and prepared a place for him to do the written test. There were ten subjects in total. Math, Physics, Chemistry, History, Biology, English, Geography, Agricultural Science and Spanish. The first three subjects were not a problem for him and the same goes for Agricultural science, English and Biology. As for the rest… he kinda suck at those, especially History. But even with that, the test was still a walk in the park for him.

There were fifty questions in total but he scored forty. When the teachers were done marking and the added it up, they were surprised he actually got that high. Especially the Math’s teacher, Mr. Connor. He’s very intelligent and he graduated from MIT where he learned Pure Mathematics. He said he selected those five questions specially for me because they were the hardest questions for me at my level but he didn’t expect me to get them all. “An interesting boy indeed.” He muttered to himself. It was not like Leo cared. Math and physics has been his favourite subjects so it’s only normal for him to put a lot of effort in getting those right.

Principal Shelly was delighted to have him in the school. “It’s such a disappointment that you can’t get into the 12th grade directly. But don't worry, your experience here will be the best one yet.” She said happily. Leo felt a bit uncomfortable. ‘This woman is too cheerful today. Did your boyfriend finally propose or what?’ He thought to himself.

“Perfect.” Molly said happily and she prepared to leave. “I think I should be heading to work now. Have a great day Leo.” Molly left the school while Leo’s files were being prepared. After the preparations were done, Principal Shelly walked Leo to the 11th grade class. They were having History– Leo's current nemesis.

“Good morning everyone.” She greeted and all the students replied respectfully. “This is Leonardo Anderson, he’s new in town and he’s an outstanding student so he’ll be joining you today.” She said then she faced me. “Say hello Leo.” He was expecting this but he wasn’t prepared. To be honest, he was shy as hell at the moment. He tried to keep his anxiety in check and put on a poker face.

“Hello everyone.” he said as he waved. A few girls waved back and two boys too.

“Hello Leo.” They replied in unison. Leo’s eyes were trying to avoid having too much contact with people so he reduced the principal focus of his eyes making him see everything as a blur and also in double.

“Okay Leo. You go sit next to Kira over there.” The history teacher said as she pointed to an empty seat beside a girl who looked petite and a bit Asian. He went there steadily, unpacked the things in my bag and sat down. He made his face look expressionless and that, he learned from an anime character named ‘Kakashi’ in the anime Naruto.

“Okay. Welcome to my History class Leo. I am Miss. O’Brian.” The history teacher introduced herself. Leo gave a faint smile and nodded. Seeing my response, she went back to teaching. “As I was saying earlier, before our new student joined us, Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth President of the United states …” Miss. O’Brian went on with the lecture. He took out a notepad and was jotting down some useful points. It was how he learned how to go around studies.

The guy in front of him leaned back to whisper to him. “Hey Leo,” he said with a low tone, “I’m Logan. Nice to meet you.” He said as he extended his hand to shake me. Leo noticed that he didn’t have any bad intentions and probably just wanted to make friends with him so he returned the handshake.

“Nice to meet you too,” he said.

“So where are you from?” he asked. He didn’t want to get into trouble on his first day at the school so he decided to answer him fast and suspend the talking for later.

“I’m from Sunshine City. Anything else you wish to ask will be discussed later, okay?” he implied. Logan seemed to get the gist so he nodded and leaned forward, reverting back to his normal position.

History class only lasted for twenty five minutes before the bell rang for a break. After packing his books into his bag Logan sat in an edgy-backwards position. “So, I hear you’re an outstanding student,” Logan said.

“Actually it’s nothing much. I’m not even close to the word,” Leo replied, trying to be modest. For the principal to say someone is outstanding it must mean that he was outstanding.

“So what subjects are you good at?” Logan asked. Leo was actually getting surprised as to why he was asking him all these questions.

“Well,” he said, trying to quench Logan’s thirst for information about him. He briefly had an idea of what Logan was after, “Physics, math, biology, and geography. My chemistry is a little bit rusty.”

“I see. So how good is your physics?” He asked. Leo could roughly guess that he’s struggling with the subject but there’s probably no one else to help him. He didn’t want to brag but he had to help him.

“Better than most. Physics is my strongest suit,” he replied with a tint of pride in his voice.

Logan nodded. “In that case, I’m a guy struggling with physics and I need your help. Do you mind helping me?” He asked. ‘I guess I was right after all.’ Leo thought. Logan didn’t beat around the bush but he quickly cut to the chase.

“No problem.” Leo replied. Logan nodded and left the class. Leo didn’t have anything else to do so he stayed in class. The next class begins in two minutes and Leo already checked the time-table on the notice board before coming here so he knew what they had next, ‘Biology.’

***********

On the same day, the underground lab was being repaired and the sleeping, giant, muscular chimpanzee was being restrained with huge chains, to be transported to special facility. Dr. Cartel and the other scientists were studying the blood of the chimpanzee and wanted to gain more insights from their failures so that they could perfect the gene enhancer.

Ring! Ring! Ring!

Dr. Cartel’s phone rang in his pocket. He took out his phone from the pocket of his lab coat and checked who it was. Seeing the caller, he decided to stop what he was doing and went to his office to receive the call.

“Hello...” Dr. Cartel said. The call was encrypted, and the voice was very deep and made the caller look mysterious.

“I was informed of the recent results of your project.” The voice claimed. Dr. Cartel felt a wave of pressure when talking to this mysterious man and had to choose his words wisely.

“I am sorry sir. A project like this takes time. There are lots of uncertainties and altering the gene sequence of an organism could lead to many results at once. We are...” he wanted to explain himself but he was rudely interrupted but the voice.

“Please. Spare me all the explanation. I don’t care how you do it. All I need is results. I want it all finalized within six months.” The voice demanded. Dr. Cartel couldn’t help but shiver slightly.

“Okay, sir. I will do my best sir.” He replied.

“And also...” the deep voice added, “Try to tame that monstrosity of yours. We might actually need it.” The voice said and finally hung up. Dr. Cartel was shocked. The giant chimpanzee was a monster capable of killing hundreds of people if not kept in check. Them taming it was a problem but if it was in the wrong hands, who knew what would happen? Dr. Cartel couldn’t help but sigh. The whole situation gave him a headache and he kept asking himself the same question, ‘How did I even find myself in this situation?’