A teenage boy opened his eyes as a cat pounced on top of him. Getting up from bed, he looked at his calendar and sighed.
"Jack! You're going to be late for your field day at school!" His mother shouted from the bottom of the stairs.
"Coming!" He replied as he ran into the bathroom.
Quickly, he combed his hair, brushed his teeth, and splashed his face with the cold water from the tap. He then ran down the stairs with his backpack on his shoulders. Running past his mother, he quickly grabbed a piece of toast and his lunch and took off for the bus.
"That was close." Jack huffed as he took a seat at the far back. Had the bus arrived at the school much earlier, he would have been late for class. The school was a massive building of three stories in height. The hallways are packed with people who are looking for their assigned groups. Jack waited at the entrance of the office, waiting for his turn.
"Jack Flame, am I correct?" The principal asked.
"Yes, that is me," Jack replied with a fake smile.
"You're late," The Principal sighed as he dropped into his seat. "You have been assigned to class three B."
"Thank you, sir." Jack thanked the principal and then ran up the stairs as fast as he could. As he reached the third floor, the bell rang. He gave the hall a quick scan and slowly walked across it. As he reached the door, he heard his teacher call his name.
"Jack," he heard, "Jack Flame."
"Here, miss!" He said as he entered the room.
"Mr. Flame, where have you been?" the woman asked. The lady has a lock of golden brown hair wrapped into a bun, her dark brown eyes glanced at Jack over her glasses. She looked to be in her mid-twenties.
"Sorry, Miss Heather, I overslept," Jack laughed.
"I see, please take your seat, Mr Jack," Heather said as she pointed toward the empty seat next to his elementary friends.
Marcus is half-Greek and half Canadian. He wore dark blue jeans, a yellow t-shirt and a lime sweater. His yellow eyes look as if they could glow in the darkness. He looked like he had just woken up from a hundred-year coma because of his messy hair sitting on top of his head. Bella is what you would call a natural beauty. Her long, smooth, brown hair flowed down from her head, and her emerald eyes sparkled. She wore a simple gray skirt with a white shirt. The black stocking was reaching for her thigh.
"Alright, class," Mrs. Heather said, "please go out to the field, the bus will arrive soon."
"How long is the flight to Europe?" asked a student with messy brown hair. His hair was messy, like he had just woken up from a nap.
"About six to seven hours," Heather replied, " They said they found an ancient carved statue from the Dark Ages."
A line of fifteen buses stopped in front of the school's main entrance. As the doors split open, the driver waved at them.
"Bus to the airport?" the driver asked.
"Yes, we are class three B," Heather announced, "Students, get onto the bus and we'll wait for the other classes before we depart for the airport. The Driver got off the bus and lifted open the storage doors along the way.
"Please put your luggage in the storage below the bus," The driver ordered, "you can take the small bags aboard."
As the students started boarding the bus, the other grade classes came out of the school and started loading their luggage into the other buses. Within a few minutes, the bus was filled with students ready for the trip to Europe.
"Everyone," a staff member said, "This is very important to make sure that everyone is present for this trip."
The staff called the names of every student one by one. The students raised their hands when they heard their name. Everyone has arrived except for one.
"Mia!" Heather called, "Mia Porter?"
"Does anyone know where Miss Porter is?" Heather asked her students
"I'll text her," Bella replied.
Bella opened her phone and sent a text message to her friend asking where she was. Mia quickly responded with one word, 'Coming'. Two minutes passed, and Mia had finally arrived at the bus.
"Sorry, I'm late, I went to the washroom." Mia huffed
Mia is an African-American girl with dark brown eyes and curly black hair. She wore a green hair tie, a bright green shirt and ripped jeans. She is the type of person you call a bad-timer.
"Mia, you must let the staff know where you are; this trip is once in a lifetime." Heather sighed, "This is a very rare trip, only the top ten schools get invited to see this."
"I am very sorry, I will inform you next time," Mia said.
The bus departed for the airport shortly after the staff took a second round of attendance to confirm that no one else was missing. A boy sitting behind Jack and Marcus tapped on Jack's head.
"Jack, you made it to school?" The boy asked in surprise
"Oh, hey Luke," Jack responds, "yeah, and don't make it seem like I'm always late."
Luke is a friendly German boy with hair carmel coloured hair and dark green eyes. He wore a coral jacket and a white T-shirt. Luke is a person who can befriend almost anyone with his kind and funny personality.
"How long are we staying in Europe?" Jack asked.
"About a week since we are going to two events," Luke said.
"What's the other event?" Jack asks out of curiosity,
"The other event, I think it was based on the same subject," Marcus said, "They say that the scientist found something strange about the statue."
"What's so strange about a statue?" Jack wondered
"I have no idea," Luke said and began to wonder the same thing.
The bus arrived at the airport after an hour's bus ride. The students got off the bus, retrieved their belongings. The students grouped up with their classes, waiting for the other buses to arrive.
"When I call your name, please come up and receive your tickets," a staff member called to the students.
"Okay, let's see, I am sitting at A-26," Jack read.
"Looks like we're sitting next to each other, I'm sitting at B-26," Luke said,
"What's your seat number, Marcus?" Jack asked.
"I'm sitting in front of you guys, my seat number is A-25," Marcus responded.
The school of eight hundred students followed their teachers into the airport. The heavy luggage is set onto a conveyor belt, sending it to be stowed on the plane. Once all the students gathered at the port, they were almost immediately called to board the plane.
Once everyone found their seats, the plane started descending the runway shortly after. The students watched in awe as their plane ascended into the skies. Little by little, the plane rocked Jack to sleep.
The sound of crackling fire popped and crackled from every direction. Jack looked cautiously around the alien world. The heat from the burning touches and the flowing of lava. The place looked like what you would call the home of devils. Jack walked down the aisle of torches, and with each one he passed, the flames grew bigger. All of a sudden, a crystal with the colour of a fiery red appeared from the altar. A shadow raced towards the altar and only slowed down enough to stop the impact. A large bird the size of an ostrich with a wingspan of fifteen feet descended from the blood red skies. Jack watched in awe of the mythical creature in front of him, the beautiful burning red feathers, three large antanai sat on top of the bird's head like a crown, it was a phoenix, a beautiful one. The phoenix slowly opened its eyes, revealing a ruby red eye, and looked at Jack. The large bird shook its head.
"Now is not the time, for he has not yet to be awakened."
Jack could not seem to understand what the phoenix meant; he tried to approach the bird, but his vision slowly started to fade.
After the six-hour ride, the group finally arrived in London, Europe. The students hurried off the plane, not wanting to waste a single second. Everyone was eager to see the outside world. A man with a sign that read Charlotte Heather was walking around a bus.
"That'll be the bus for our class." Mrs. Heather said. Once everyone in Jack's class got on the bus, they went down the streets of London to their hotel. The Bus stopped in front of a fancy-looking hotel named 'Z Hotel City'.
"Alright, class, this is the hotel we will be staying for a week," Heather informed, "Please arrange yourselves for room partners."
The class started to find their friends and pair up with them. Jack paired up with Marcus, and Bella paired up with Mia. The class was fully prepared and ready for their assigned room. The class went into the lobby and waited for Mrs. Heather to finish collecting the room keys.
"Class!" Mrs. Heather announced, "Everyone, please unpack and take some rest, we will be meeting here at eight thirty sharp!"
As Jack and Marcus opened their dorm, they were shocked to see well-made beds, clean bathrooms, and TVs ready for them to use. The two of them went to their separate rooms and started unpacking. After what felt like hours of unpacking, the two slowly made it down to the lobby.
"Class, please pay attention," announced Miss Heather. She was trying her best to speak over the voices of all the excited pupils, "Settle down, I would like to announce our upcoming schedule in Europe." Jack tried to concentrate on what she was saying, but Luke seemed to have gotten Jack's interest.
"You excited about the discovery they made?" Luke whispered.
"Yeah," answered Jack. "I guess. But still, a rock statue that was perfectly preserved from medieval times? That's gotta be fake, right?"
"Ahem," coughed Miss Heather. Jack and Luke immediately stopped talking and turned toward her.
"As I was saying, I will now announce our schedule. Tomorrow, we head to the British Museum. There, the head of the museum will inform us about their latest discovery."
The class exited the building to a nearby restaurant called 'The George on the Strand'. The class waited outside of the restaurant for a long while before the were enough seats for everyone. The classes filled up the restaurant quickly. Jack and his friends had a six-seat table all to themselves.
"Luke, will Alexandra be joining us?" Bella asked.
"Yeah, she's just in the washroom," Luke replied.
Alexandra arrived shortly after the group started making a list of what they wanted to eat. Alexandra McKinly is an Irish girl. She wore a white T-shirt and jeans. She is a shy person and is known as the school's bookworm. She knows all the book's locations, even the ones that have just arrived at the school.
"Sorry, I'm late," Alexandra apologized. Embarrassed, she quickly sat down and ordered a soy-glazed pork belly and a savoy cabbage. The group promptly finished their meals and headed back to the Z Hotel City for a night's rest.
Morning came as Jack and Marcus walked down to the hall where the rest of the class was waiting. The class sat down in the lobby and had their breakfast. They were served sunny-side-up eggs, toast, and juice. Once everyone had finished their breakfast, they heard a bus stop in front of the hotel. The bus driver went up to a worker and asked him for the teachers.
"Class," said Miss Heather. "The buses are here, so we'll be leaving in about ten minutes. The seating order is the same as last time. Is everyone present? Yes? Good."
As the class walked outside and sat down on the bus, the bus driver turned around and grimaced. He was an old man who looked like he was around his mid-fifties.
"Listen up, you brats," he called with a raspy tone. "I don't want any foolin' around in my bus, alright? And I certainly don't wanna hear any jabberin' from you brats."
The bus quickly arrived at the British Museum. As Jack marvelled at the grand building, a man in a suit stepped out of the building. The man is a fat British man, he carried a cane as he walked, and tipped his top hat as he greeted the guests.
"Welcome, welcome," said the man with a British accent. "My name is Sir William Lambiose, and I am the head of the museum. You all must be students from Canada! Jolly good!"
"Come in, come in. We haven't got all day." Sir William chucked. As the class walked through the doors of the museum, they gasped at hundreds of statues, paintings, and models.
"There are the mammoth tusks," said Sir William. "And there are the tanks from World War two. But that's not why we're here, is it?"
He led the class into a large room, and in the middle of it, was a singular large statue of a boy. It looked peculiar. The statue wasn't the flawless marble statue you would see from Ancient Rome or Greece; instead, it looked as if it was carved from a normal boulder. It resembled a person, but the posture was strange. It looked like the figure was lying down, sleeping.
"This statue is unique for many reasons," began Sir William. "First of all, our experts have concluded that it came from medieval Europe, but the name of the artist is unknown. Just as mysterious, the statue depicts a peasant, not a lord or king, but a typical statue from that period. Perhaps it was for religious purposes, but the experts are still unsure. It was found near the shores of the west coast. The fact that it is still perfectly preserved is shocking!"
"How do we know you didn't just make it and fake the story?" asked a girl. Jack looked in the direction of the voice and realized it was Bella who had asked the question.
The head of the museum laughed.
"I promise you, my dear, this was most certainly not made by us, nor any other person alive." Sir William laughed. The statue shook.