Under the Same Sky [BOYXBOY]

CHAPTER 53

Spring break soon came to an end and the students of Lumière slowly settled back into the dreary monotonous life of school. April passed without any notable events and May appeared to follow the same trend. However, in the middle of the month, a curious incident happened that belied this notion. The students paid little mind to this at first, but it set into motion a chain of cataclysmic events that would forever leave an indelible impression on the minds of everyone in the school.

Indeed, years later when Paul was to later look back to that almost uneventful month and remark that that was the beginning in which their whole lives began to change, not a single one of his friends disagreed with him.

We are however, getting ahead of ourselves and indeed, on this particular day, not blessed with the gift of hindsight, the friends remained blissfully unaware of what lay ahead. On the contrary, the day began normally enough with a boring first period and an even more boring, second period.

Leo was drooling into his notebook, fast asleep as the decrepit anachronistic professor droned on about the properties of soil and how to identify which part of the city it came from by its colouring.

Cam was sitting by him and he rolled his eyes exasperatedly when he let out a drawn-out snore as the professor moved on to soil structure.

Paul was in the science lab with Samuel for second period Chemistry and they were so busy with the instruments, trying to take exact measurements for their experiment that they didn't notice what was happening until much later.

Jayden was the first to notice it. The day was perfectly clear with not a spot of cloud in the sky for miles. The sun was glowing with unstinting benevolence as it shone upon the earth and Jayden had just stepped out of the building with Noel by his side.

He was explaining a particularly difficult math problem when he suddenly stopped and tilted his head towards the sky. His eyes grew curious as he studied the sky, cocking his head slightly in that curious way of his.

'That's odd,' he muttered.

'What is?' Noel asked, placing his hand to his face to look up at the sky.

'It's going to rain.'

Noel frowned doubtfully as he stared into the perfectly blue cloudless sky. 'How can you tell?'

Jayden shrugged. 'I just know.'

He looked down and placed his hands into his pockets. 'Come on, we better get out of the open. It's going to be a heavy one.'

He was soon proved right when not a minute later, dark heavy clouds appeared on the horizon, seeming to materialise from out of nowhere and in less than a few minutes, had completely covered the sky above Lumière, enveloping the entire school in darkness.

Fat heavy drops fell from the sky and it soon turned into a torrential downpour. Samuel looked up from his beaker to stare in surprise out the window as the wind howled furiously and webs of forked lighting flashed through the sky.

'There wasn't any rain forecasted this week, was there?' he asked Paul.

Paul shook his head as he too watched in amazement as nature unleashed its fury on the world. It didn't take long for the lake to overflow its banks, flooding the surrounding area. Classes were called off for the following day as the storm persisted deep into the night.

The next day, instead of subsiding, the storm rather grew in intensity and the gloomy weather settled like a fog on the spirits of the students of Lumière.

Jayden sat by the window in his dormitory as he played a game of cards with Noel to while away the time. Sharp needles of rain shot against the window as he paused to stare out into the maelstrom and as the rain continued its steady downpour, he couldn't shake off the deep feeling of foreboding that settled like a rock in his gut.