Part 2- Consequence

"You are a bolt of lightning, come on you son of a gun," shouted Ishil standing at the edge of the field. He whistled and cheered for Aaden who took his place at the mark to begin the race.

Aaden's heart was pounding, he could feel the pulse in the ground. He steadied his breathing.' come on you can do this.' He placed his fingers firmly on the ground, he could feel that pulse. The sounds reverberated from the ground, through his hands to his brain. His vision narrowed and he could see the race track leading toward the finish line. He heard no cheers and didn't feel anything else. The whistle blew, and he started running. He felt the air on his skin, his vision narrowed further and he could see nothing but the finish line. He crossed it. Slowing down, he panted and flopped on the ground.

"Well done," said Ishil as he came running towards him. "You have qualified for finals." he handed him a bottle of electrolyte drink.

"Good work Aaden," said the coach who followed Ishil, "but why are you hesitant when you are closer to the finish line?" he asked. Aaden nodded a no as he breathed heavily.

"Just keep in mind that when you are running keep your focus on the finish line. Nothing else matters, think that no one else is around you. It's just you and the end of the line that's it." The coach said. Aaden nodded in affirmation as he sipped from the bottle.

"Alright, we are done for the day. The finals are on the fifteenth. I need you to focus, just don't overthink it. I will see you tomorrow morning sharp at 6. am."

Aaden stood up and said "Yes coach," the coach patted his shoulder and left.

"I knew you would be selected for the finals. But you did look hesitant toward the end, what happened ?" Ishil said as he took the bottle from his hand and took a sip of the drink.

"I don't know why. I think I was anxious for today's race. This never happens. I had practiced, I knew I could do it but when I reached the finish line I felt that I wouldn't be able to cross it." Aaden said.

"That's odd, you never get race jitters, you kicked my ass in the quarter-finals. You are one of the best I know. Is there something else on your mind? I mean, you haven't been yourself for the past week." he said.

Aaden did have something else on his mind. But he could not tell him that. Even if Ishil had been his friend for eleven years, his only friend. What would his reaction be if he told him that he was half-human? Which he had found out only three years ago when he was fifteen. His hearing had improved drastically, his skin had become more sensitive to air, and he could run faster and for longer distances. But most important of all he could feel vibration from his hand when he touched the ground which gave him an entire map of the place around him.

When he talked about this to his parents, his father looked happy but his mother looked anxious. That's when she told him who he was. Who she was. She was not human, she belonged to a species of aliens that had come to Earth and inhabited it for almost five thousand years. Parthams, humans had called them. In the beginning, they had worked together but then a war broke out which lasted for hundreds of years. Finally, when there was peace a council of five elders was formed that looked over all of the laws and rules and made sure that there was peace between the humans and Parthams. Interbreeding between humans and Parthams was forbidden for many years. But then some of them mated with humans and produced offspring which were called half-bloods. These didn't show any Partham qualities till they were fifteen years of age. They were considered as a threat to the Partham identity and secrecy. So the tests were organised, called the Selective Legacy Tests. In these tests, only the best of the half-bloods were chosen and given a place and protection in the Partham world. And now Aaden was either going to be a part of this world or not, that was the question.

If his mother gets approval from the Partham elders, he won't have to take the tests and he can get on with his life as usual. But if the elders disapprove then he will have to compete against his sister and brother. If he doesn't get selected he can pretend that the tests never happened and move on. But if he does, he will have to leave his home, leave his family and his friends. And his life will change forever.

"Hmm tell me?" he asked, breaking Aaden's train of thought.

Aaden nodded in negation. "I dunno, I will try and figure it out later. Let's go change, I am going out with Nidhi. She had said that she would have a surprise for me if I qualified for finals." Aaden said. Brushing his hand through his hair.

Ishil raised his eyebrows and smirked at him. "Finally you agreed to go out with her. She's been begging you for the past two months."

"She seemed nice, I mean...thought of giving it a try." He said.

" Uh, you are spoiled for choice. Lucky dog. Poor me I don't have anyone." Ishil taunted.

"Yeah right, " Aaden smirked.

But you had a crush on the other girl umm... Neela." He snapped his fingers. "What happened to her?"

Aaden's eyes widened, " how do you... Uhh, I asked her out last year, twice, but she said that she was not interested. So I stopped asking." The thought of Neela made him nervous, he had a crush on her since he had first seen her in the library two years ago. Then a year after doting over her he had finally gathered up the courage to ask her out. She'd said that she was not ready to date anyone at that time. So he'd stopped persuading her. And now he found out that she was leaving the city and moving to another place, he was heartbroken.

"Come let's go. I have to get out of these." He said shaking the hem of his wet t-shirt.

After getting dressed he went to his locker and took out books that he had to complete for submissions.

Aaden thoughts kept going back to the council's results. His dilemma was that if he got selected for them would he be able to leave his home, his family or even his school? Did he want to go and see what his life would be as a Partham? His mother is one of them. But she has never talked about it. She doesn't seem to have happy memories about it. This acceleration he felt in his body and mind for a couple of years has an enormous grip on him. He felt better, looked better and thought that maybe, just maybe his life would change for good if he got selected.

After the classes had finished he was waiting as long as he could wait. Because he was overwhelmed by the pressure of going home and listening to the result of the meeting.

He saw Vysna going towards the pool. He called out for her.

"Hey, aren't you going home?"

"Hmm no, a few of my friends and I have decided to go to the pool. For practice. " Why aren't you going home?"

He gestured for her to come closer. She came.

" I don't know what to do, Vysna. Since morning the only thing I have been thinking about is the result. What if we have to give the tests? What if one of us is selected? Are we just going to let it go and leave our house never to come back again? Aren't you worried?" He asked her in a low voice.

" I don't know what to think. But I know one thing Mom is not going to let anything bad happen." She pressed her lips together. " Damn it Aaden. I wasn't thinking about it until you mentioned it just now. Now you've got me all riled up." She pinched the bridge of her nose.

"OK calm down, I am sorry. I didn't mean to get you all worked up like this. But you are right Mom knows better. She will do something. We all will be able to figure it out if it doesn't go in our favour. Ok, don't panic." He said consoling her.

" You always do this, I was not thinking about it until you mentioned it. And now my thoughts are all haywire. Please go. Maybe I will get it out of my system after doing a few laps." She said and started going to the pool area.

Aaden lingered around the campus for a while. Then he got a call from Nidhi reminding him of the date.

"Ahhhh crap," he mumbled and picked up the call. " Hey there, no of course not. I didn't forget. Uh... no, got stuck up with some assignments. I am on my way. Give me ten minutes, yep I'll be there." He hung up. "Shit."

He hurried out on his bike and reached the restaurant that Nidhi had sent him the address of. She was seated at the last table, she waved at him when she saw him enter through the door. She was wearing a floral pink dress and looked very pretty.

"I have already ordered pizzas for us." She said.

He cleared his throat and said,

"That's great."

"So, did you qualify for finals?" She asked.

"Yes, I did." He sat down.

" Oh, cool we can have a party then.

I'll call all of my friends and you can call all of your friends, at my house tomorrow evening..."

She was going too fast with all of this, " Wait, or...what we can do is, if I win the finals, we can have a bigger party at your house. Mmm?" Somehow he wanted her not to be too excited.

His life was a rollercoaster right now and he was avoiding any type of unnecessary adventure as much as possible.

"Excuse me for a second, I need to go to the loo," she said.

"Sure." He sat at the table going through his phone. He was still thinking of the results and fidgeting with the spoon on the table, his eyes darted towards the table adjacent to his. Neela was sitting there with two of her friends. She noticed him and smiled. Without a second thought, he walked towards her.

"Hi," he said. She looked at him.

" What are you doing here?" he asked realising it was a stupid question.

"It's a restaurant so, I came here to eat." She said with a 'are you stupid' type of expression on her face.

" yeah, of course." He replied and went back to his table and hid his head behind the menu card. He had got a lot more confident after he found out who he was but still whenever he talked to Neela, he felt as if his brain devolved into the brain of an ape.

After they finished the pizzas, Aaden asked Nidhi if she wanted him to drop her home.

"Oh no, I brought my car. But you can drop me till my car," she said batting her eyelashes at him.

" Sure," he said. On his way out he once turned back to see Neela still sitting there with her friends.

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