Kevin got on the school bus along with Mike. Apparently the both of them were supposed to go to the same school and class. “Just wonderful” He thought. The small talk he had with Mike’s parents was proved to be worthless. It was weird. It was like they thought Kevin had lived with them for a while now. There were no awkward silences or extreme attempts to make him feel accepted whatsoever. The fact that they were all dealing with this like it was normal by itself wasn’t normal. Fortunately for Kevin he managed to have a few words in private with Mike. An adult would be used to lying but not a kid. He asked Mike about how and when they first met but the boy seemed genuinely confused. Kevin didn’t insist much after that. Like him maybe those scientists had done something to the family.
Mike found a place where they could both sit together but Kevin had another idea. He looked at one of the boys. He had curly black hair just like the other kid from the building. Beside him was the boy with short hair: Jake and Ryan, he recalled. He didn’t know if it was his eyes playing a trick on him but he could have sworn it was them. Just like him they were kids again. All those feelings of distrust of them immediately fell as he saw them in the same situation as him. His paranoia the previous day had really messed up his priorities.
He told Mike that he needed to talk to some friends and despite the sad look on his face, the other boy nodded. He sat behind the boys he thought were the ones from the previous day. Fortunately they were isolated from the other boys and girls on the bus so they could speak freely.
“Hey guys it’s me, Kevin” He whispered.
“Oh yeah, the douchebag that thought we were working with those fuckers” Said Ryan. Kevin managed not to giggle. It felt weird hearing such words coming from a child but he was glad that they remembered him nonetheless.
“The other guy, the black dude, what’s-his-name…” Said Kevin.
“Tony” Completed Jake. “He’s not here but I suspect the same thing happened to him.”
“This is seriously messed up…” Said Kevin feeling a bit down. “We need to do something about this.”
“Be my guest. What do you think we can do? I don’t even know what’s happening! Yesterday some bastards injected me something and today I woke up and found out I’m 10 again! Worse than that I live with some Asian fuckers that act like everything’s normal! They even called me Tom!” Luckily Ryan’s shouts were not heard by the other children who were too busy screaming and playing with each other.
“Yeah, something like that happened to me as well. I already told Ryan. They insist on calling me Logan, though” Said Jake not feeling much happy about that.
“I guess they’re doing that to all of us. Today I woke up and found out that apparently I’m Rob and I have a brother named Michael. You know, the one that entered the bus with me?” Said Kevin and the other two boys nodded. “The thing is” He continued “I doubt the families know much about this whole mess. I don’t know but they’re treating me like I always was their son.”
“They’re faking it, it must be” Opined Ryan.
“I doubt it.” Said Jake.
“Oh yeah, why is that?” Demanded Ryan to know.
“Look, I was adopted and changed homes multiple times. Not once I met people like those two. No parent gets from 0 to 100 out of nowhere and yet they treat me good but not a needy good to prove that they love me neither do they treat me awkwardly. This whole thing seems messed up and those scientists are to blame.” Said Jake.
“I agree with that. I mean it’s just too weird. We fell asleep and the next day with have good families out of thin air? I guess only those scientists have the answers…” Kevin sadly stated.
After a while the bus stopped and another boy got in. The three boys immediately recognized Tony due to his skin and waved at him. He kept grinning as he sat next to Kevin.
“Hi guys! Do you wanna go to my place after school?” He said still smiling.
The other three looked at each other concerned. “Tony, are you all right?” Asked Kevin.
Tony seemed confused for a second. But then he looked worried at the others as he pushed his childish state away. “Yeah I… damn I don’t even know anymore. I suddenly felt so…”
“Childish.” Jake completed. What if the injections would make them act like kids as well? That would make things scarier. “Maybe there’s more to the shots than we thought…” Added Jake.
“Wait, no man. It was just… I was just kidding man, that’s ridiculous!” Tony tried to convince both the others and himself. “Yeah, maybe I was acting stupid in the situation but that doesn’t mean…”
“No, I felt that way as well earlier. They’re not just taking our age, they’re taking our minds as well!” Said Jake.
All of them wanted to refute Jake’s idea but they could not. It was a plausible thought after all.
“If that’s the case we’ve got to avoid thinking and acting like them” Kevin said looking at the other children on the bus.
“How, man? I mean it’s not like I’m a kid but it’s kinda weird not acting like children when we’re surrounded by children and we ourselves ARE children” Said Jake.
“Besides if we act like ourselves it’ll attract much attention. Adults will always try to keep an eye on us since they think we’re kids” Added Ryan.
“I guess we have to pretend we’re children in order to keep appearances, then. Besides it’s likely those scientists will try to keep an eye on us. But we’ve got to stay together. If one of us starts acting like a real kid for real we’ll do whatever it takes to stop it” Kevin said.
“Playing pretend as a teenager to pass as a kid? That’s gotta be the craziest thing yet” Ryan mocked. “But it’s actually one of the few crazys situations that make sense in this whole mess.”
Tony seemed distracted. His eyes were focused on the 3DS one of the boys had. “Man, I wonder what he’s playing…” He wondered. Suddenly he felt someone knocking on the top of his head and he complained “That hurts!”
“Serves you right, dipshit!” Ryan answered. For a second Tony seemed shocked that the other boy swore in front of him.
“Tony, knock it off!” Kevin said as he shook Tony by the shoulders. The boy’s eyes seemed to regain his maturity once again. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to…” He sobbed.
“It’s all right, man. Don’t worry” Jake said in a calm voice. Tony seemed to regain some of his composure.
“That moron is already losing his mind. We’d better ditch him” Whispered Ryan so that Tony wouldn’t hear. Jake however shook his head and whispered back: “No way man. I don’t care if you don’t like blacks but we’re in this together. Remember: you and I could be next.”
Ryan shrugged his shoulders, clearly not happy.
As they got to school they headed towards their class. Unfortunately they found out the other kids would get angry if they took their seat so they decided to wait until all those irritating brats sat down so that they could find their own place to sit.
Unfortunately they couldn’t stay together. Michael had made a signal to Kevin to sit down next to him. Kevin sat next to him, though he wasn’t really sure why. On the back of his it just seemed natural to him.
As for Jake, he sat down with Tony at his side. He found it to be the best solution. Ryan couldn’t stand the boy and he had to make sure Tony’s mind wouldn’t slip. Meanwhile Ryan sat down next to some other kid that was far more annoying than the others. He kept talking and talking about stupid stuff with some other kids behind him. Jake thought that it would take all Ryan’s self-control not to punch him as he saw the tense posture of his… friend? Maybe companion would be a better word.
Class itself wasn’t that hard, just as Jake had suspected. Certainly there was some stuff he didn’t exactly remember but a short revision helped him through. What bugged him the most was that the teacher and his other classmates called him Logan. He had to keep focus. He was pretending to be Logan but he was Jake. He was 16 not 10. He couldn’t forget that. As time went on Jake found it more difficult to keep his mind on so many things especially as he was doing some Science exercises. The question said “Identify two things from the environment that a green plant needs to survive.” He first put water but he had to think for a while for the other. After a few seconds it hit him. How silly! He had forgotten about carbon dioxide! Wait how was “dioxide” spelled? He was about to ask Tony but as he looked at the boy beside him he was startled. Tony kept swinging his legs back and forth and chewed on his pencil as he thought about the exercises. What shocked him as well was that Tony’s handwriting was clearly messy. Just like a fourth grader. He suddenly looked at his own handwriting. Crap. Just like Tony’s his own calligraphy looked childish. It seemed like a progressive process. On the top of the page the handwriting was his usual but as he looked at the latest things he wrote they were all scribbled.
“Hey Tony are you okay?” Jake asked but the other boy didn’t seem to hear him. “Hey, Tony! Can you hear me?” Jake insisted, touching the other boy’s shoulder.
“Hum? What is it Logan?” Tony asked confused.
It was Jake’s turn to look confused. What did he want from Tony? Oh right! “Hey, do you know how to spell ‘dioxide’?”
“I think it’s D-I-O-X-Y-D-E” Answered Tony.
“Thanks!”
Soon they were both swinging their legs as they completed their exercises with each other’s help.