Secret of the Myst Chapter 2

After the last class of the day was dismissed, Jamie and Robby strolled down the hallway, most of the other students passing them as they hurried out the door.

“So, what do you like to do, Jamie?” Robby asked him as they approached the entrance of the boy’s bathroom, while other students walked right by them. “Do you play games? Any sports?”

“Well… I have never played baseball before…” Jamie answered shyly. “I’m kinda clumsy, I guess… I’m not much of an athlete.”

Robby gazed at Jamie with frank skepticism. Jamie’s superb physique clearly belied his claim to be a clumsy non-athlete. Robby noted the sharply defined outline of his pectorals showing prominently, even through the thick, loose-fitting sweater.

“You’re not athletic?” Robby exclaimed. He extended his arm and prodded Jamie’s chest. Just as he’s suspected, Jamie’s unyielding chest proved hard as steel. “So, Jamie,” Robby challenged, “What are you hiding under your sweats, then? Rocks?”

Jamie sighed, “Uhhmm…. Well, I lift weights a little,” he admitted reluctantly.

Intrigued, Robby wrapped his fingers around Jamie’s bulging bicep. There was definitely something unusual about Jamie.

“You look like you lift a whole lot more than just a little…” Robby noted. “In fact, you look like you’re kinda strong… Very strong!”

“Uhh… Well…” Jamie mumbled.

Intrigued, Robby regarded Jamie with unconcealed curiosity.

“Super strong…” he murmured.

Jamie just gulped at Robby’s use of the word “super.” He badly needed a distraction to change the topic of conversation.

“Listen… I-I need to use the restroom… How about we meet right outside, so we can walk home together?” Jamie suggested.

All other students had streamed out the double doors at the end of the hallway. Robby and Jamie were the only two students remaining inside the building.

“Sure, I’ll meet you outside, in the parking lot…” Robby grinned.

“Alright, see you in a few…”

As Jamie started to push his way through the swinging door into the boy’s restroom, Robby continued walking toward the exit about forty feet down the hall. Jamie decided on another meeting spot and turned around to call out his suggestion to Robby. “Hey, Robby, why not let’s meet at the soda…” Jamie said. But he stopped mid-sentence. The hallway was completely deserted. Jamie had barely turned his back on Robby before he’d turned back around to speak to him again. Robby may’ve been a superb athlete, very light on his feet, but no normal boy could’ve covered the forty-foot distance to the exit, even at dead run.

“…machine…” Jamie’s voice lowered. He looked to his left, and then to his right. Robby was nowhere to be found.

“Huh? Where did he go?”

Using his super vision, Jamie quickly scanned all the darkened classrooms along either side of the hallway, wondering how Robby could have disappeared so quickly.

“That’s strange,” he murmured to himself, as he turned around and slowly pushed the door to the boy’s bathroom open again. “One moment, I saw him walking toward the exit. I come in here and then I walk out again, just a split second later, and he was gone?”

Jamie pondered this for a moment. How did Robby just disappear from the hallway? Could he have run towards the exit that fast? “Impossible,” Jamie concluded. “Even if he had covered that distance at super speed, I would’ve heard his foot steps.”

Jamie wasn’t particularly fond of mysteries. He liked things to be plain and out in the open.

He quickly used the restroom and then strolled back out into the hallway, swinging his backpack over his shoulder. As he stepped outside the school building, he saw Robby standing by the gate to the schoolyard. He hurried towards him, and they started walking home together.

The two boys talked about where they lived, Robby indicating that his parents had rented the house right next door! They were next-door neighbors!

They just talked about school, other students, sports and video games, as they strolled home together. Jamie decided not to bring up anything about Robby’s unusual disappearance, and he had actually forgotten about it by the time he and Rob made it home.

The boys said goodbye to one another on the sidewalk. Jamie went around the side of the house, entering through the back door. He called out to his brothers Wesley and Madison.

“Wes, Maddie, guys you here?” called Jamie

Wes, Maddie and Greg met him in the kitchen. They had been wondering why Jamie had not walked home with them.

“Hey, little bro. What happened to you after school?” questioned Wes.

“Oh, yeah. We have a new neighbor. That new kid in our class, Greggy, ya know Robby?” said Jamie excitedly.

“Really? That is pretty cool!” replied Greg.

“OH, OH! Let's all go meet him Jamie!” Madison said as jumped up and down excitedly.

With that the boys set off to go meet up with Robby. They all walked toward his house. Madison was bouncing all the way there. He was excited to have a new friend living so close to him.