Advanced Sublunary: Inception

Chapter 1

Man, time really drags when you have things to do afterwards. I looked down at my watch, only five more minutes until I was out of class. Today was a long day, way too long. Looking around the classroom it was clear that I was not the only one who was restless. One kid had his mobile video game under his desk moving his thumbs a mile a minute. I have no idea why his parents are paying for him to go to school, it's clear that it's a waste of money. This other kid Jimbo was staring straight ahead without blinking. He was obviously having a daydream. From the looks of his face, it didn't look to exciting. Tina, a girl who sat on the other side of the room had her head down on her desk. That was not the worst part. She let out a little snore, causing a couple of kids to look at her and giggle. How could Professor Wake not hear it, he had to. Tina was one of the rich students on campus; he would never discipline her in any way. If that was me, I would've been kicked out of class. It's sad but true.

"So, who would like to name one of the empires who conquered ancient Egypt?" Professor Wake asked. His eyes wandered around the room looking for a volunteer with a smile on his face. I instantly shifted my eyes towards my desk. No way was I going to make eye contact. I did not know the answer, but right now, I didn't care about the answer. "Mr. Akeel... what do you think?" He knows who the smart kids are, why doesn't he pick them? There is a girl literally right in front of him with her arm up whom he could've picked but no, he picks me. Just great.

"Gee I don't know Professor Wake."

"You have been studying, correct?" he asked.

"Yea of course. Other Africans, from the southern part of the continent?" I nervously answered in the form of a question. I didn't get why we had to know about things that happened so long ago. This is the year 2075, who cares about what happened thousands of years ago.

"Are you asking me or telling me?"

I glanced at the clock on the wall. In a couple of seconds, the bell should be ringing. I did not have the answer for him so I was depending on the bell to ring. As soon as that thought came into my head, it became a reality. The bell went off and it was music to my ears.

"Saved by the bell Mr. Akeel. Okay class, read up on Egypt in your books – Mr. Akeel, I trust you will have that answer for me tomorrow." I nodded as I walked by him without knowing what he said. I had one thing on my mind: basketball tryouts. I had to meet my best friend Casper at the gymnasium.

The heat hit me in the face once I stepped out of the building. An unusual warm day for mid-October in New York. The sun shined like a beautiful canary diamond in the sky; there was not a cloud in sight. I could see the gym almost from my building. It looked like I was early. After standing around for ten minutes, people started to show up. In typical Casper form he was nowhere to be found.

Casper and I have been friends since middle school. He moved to Brooklyn when we were teenagers, but we remained friends despite me still living in Staten Island. "Look who's trying out," a voice arose from behind me. I turned around and it was Ronnie aka Ronnie the loser. He had nothing else to do with his time besides bother people. Dude this is college, I thought bullying ended after high school. He always wore his hair slick back, with sleeveless shirts that had pictures of skulls on them and crap like that. I'm not a fashion guru or anything like that, but his style is just weird. He was always with a kid named Brennon. Brennon was captain of the football team. He always wore some sort of athletic wear. Of course that includes wearing his football letterman jacket. I don't think he ever took it off. The third part of their crew was a kid named Chalk. Chalk was Ronnie's yes man. It's like he had no brain of his own. The kid looked like his mom still dressed him in the morning for school, he was a born follower. I turned my head back around hoping they would just walk by. "Good luck weakling." He gabbed as he and his friends walked by.