Ting!
As soon as the bell rang, the bus halted at the stoppage. Ryan looked up and found a woman boarding the bus. She was standing at the doorway while her eyes searched for a seat. The bump on her belly indicated she was pregnant.
"Mam!" Ryan called out, "You can sit here."
The woman walked slowly towards him. Ryan stood up, and she settled herself on his seat. With a warm smile, she looked at him, "Thank you, li'l boy."
Though Ryan didn't like that compliment at all.
'Li'l boy! I'm fourteen.'
But he didn't say it on her face and returned a smile in reply.
The bus had sped up already. Ryan folded his mobile that he was using just minutes ago, and put it back in the pocket of his trousers. He grabbed the handrail to steady himself. Even without looking behind, he could still feel the look of displeasure of the old man standing behind him. Clearly, he was angry; he'd been standing there for a long time, yet Ryan didn't give him the seat, but as soon as the woman boarded, he gave up the seat so easily!
Okay, Ryan was neither 'selfishly self-centered' nor 'mannerless', what most people assumed whenever they saw an act like this. It was just that he believed in 'as you sow, so you reap' mortally.
As for this old man, he didn't like him from the very first day they met. Every week, he saw him boarding this bus to go somewhere, and whenever he met someone of his age, he would just start cursing the young generation. How ill-behaved they were, how inconsiderate and self-centered this generation was, how their time was the best and whatnot!
Ryan never liked this type of old man. They would always make a fuss about something that absolutely had no importance. Sometimes, they'd act like they had done something great just by ageing!
They would forget the fact that time changed, and it was impossible to try to match everything from fifty years ago to what it was now. And they, themselves, were young at one time, and even they were different from the earlier generation.
'Old man, you deserve this.' Ryan chuckled inwardly. 'Why want a favour from the younger generation when you clearly just don't like them?'
Well, some old people were sweet, and Ryan never held a grudge against them; he even tried to help them in every possible way.
As the bus halted at another stop, Ryan glanced outside. His stoppage, Kingston High, was next; named after the prestigious high school he was a student of. He estimated it would take about five minutes to arrive.
He looked away, now at his dress. Instead of the school uniform, he had on a crisp white full-sleeve shirt and black formal trousers. Today was the annual elites meet and greet day; they were instructed to wear something formal instead of the school uniform, to strike a balanced approach between formality and a relaxed tone.
Every year, the meet and greet preceded the annual awakening day, usually a month after the first year started their classes. The elites, the awakened alumni of the school, were invited to have a session with the new batch of students who were going to take part in the awakening procedure. It was only to familiarize them with the upcoming situations they were going to face.
Those who could awaken their dormant potential were sent to the academy for their special training, after which most of them would become a part of the finest layers of society; those who couldn't or didn't have any potential studied in the school as normal students. Most of the awakeners were around fourteen to sixteen years old; though there were some late bloomers or early risers who'd awakened in their late teens, early twenties, or early teens, they were rarer, sheer in number.
There was not much information available about the special training. It was done on the down-low.
The elites never shared much about their training; they only shared the information that'd help the new awakeners go through the process easily, and some minor insight on the roles they had to play.
The new awakeners would find it by themselves after they were sent to the academy. The academy's details, their workings, and the elites' responsibilities; no one knew it clearly, all of these were kept in the shadows.
And it made sense because they were dealing with threats that the commoners were not even aware of. The elites were rarely seen around ordinary people unless they were needed, that too most of the time when monsters wreaked havoc in the city, a few times in months.
Ting!
With the bell, the bus stopped at Kingston High, his stoppage. Ryan surged forward and got off the bus, along with some other passengers, mostly high schoolers like him. Dropping them off, the bus left the stoppage for its destination. Ryan turned his left and strolled forward. The high school was about a two-minute walk from the main road. Soon, he reached the gate. Compared to other days, today, the gate was wide open. Above the iron frame, a colorful festoon flew in the light breeze,
'Welcome to the Annual Meet-and-Greet Day'.
In the parking area, a couple of expensive cars were parked, no doubt those were of the elites invited today.
Ryan took a deep breath, a mix of excitement and fright flickered in his heart. He was a first-year student this year; he had heard a lot of stories about the elites since childhood and seen some battles on screen, and for the first time, he was going to be a part of the meeting, the awakening as well. It was, however, a real deal.
'Ah, let's see, what happens!'
Ryan said himself inwardly, then stepped inside the gate.
As he walked through the gate, the scanner on the iron frame scanned his ID, and on the blue screen attached to the left side of the frame appeared a flash message: Entrance Approved.
The scanner was to protect the high school from trespassers. All the teachers, students, and everyone who entered daily, had an ID card which was scanned as they entered the school. No one could pass the gate without an ID. As for the visitors, first, they had to register their name and purpose of visiting at the counter beside the gate, then enter with a temporary entry pass.
The school was the most secure one among all the other schools in the city. Even thirty to forty years ago, this was not the case; schools didn't need this much security. But with time, it became a very important issue because, gradually, high schools became the birthplace of young awakeners.
Ryan looked around; today, the school's atmosphere seemed a little different than the other days. The security was tightened, and the surveillance cameras were doubled, covering even each corner of the hallways. With the presence of the elites today, it had to be done perfectly, they couldn't afford to make a single mistake.
He strolled leisurely to the auditorium, where the meeting would take place. The auditorium was almost full. Ryan looked inside for a suitable seat and soon found one at the corner of the tenth row.
He went forward and settled himself comfortably. He had a reserved nature and he rarely interacted with classmates. Unlike others, he hadn't made any friends in his total one month in this school, so most of the time he spent alone, listening to music, playing games, or simply immersing himself in studying in the library.
But today, he was not interested in any activity. He sat there watching his classmates. Most of them were chatting among themselves, about the elites, school, awakening days, basically all the chitchats. One thing was common for all of them: they were all highly excited and, at the same time, frightened about the next day. The awakening of dormant potential was a very important event in a high schooler's life. Those who could become awakeners had their lives changed completely. They were no longer a commoner, but a part of the upper strata of the society.
The highest-ranked elites were no less than celebrities; the salaries and the parks they received, sometimes would surpass the top-tier celebrities. They were the 'heroes' of humanity, literally.
Ryan withdrew his gaze and closed his eyes. His ears were still capturing the sounds around him.
'Silly. Talking about the same thing again and again!'