9 Potential of Negative Ten

Jane Good felt like her world had turned horizontal. "My son has the highest potential of anyone here? Higher than 900?" She pinched herself before rubbing her eyes and looking at her son who looked as stunned as she felt.

Ralnas was pulling Jayce out of his chair forcefully whispering, "Jayce you moron get up! They called your name! DO NOT EMBARRASS ME LIKE THIS!"

Jayce snapped out of it after Ralnas' pleading and focused on just getting up to the stage. He cleared his mind and thought of nothing but walking and smiling. As he climbed he noticed Chiron doing his best not to laugh at him. Jayce scowled at his professor for a second before going back to smiling and shaking his hand. Chiron motioned for him to remain standing on the stage and turned back to the microphone.

"Mr. Good and I have quite an interesting relationship. From the day his mom brought him here he's done nothing besides pranking me. While this at first caused me quite a bit of distress I soon realized that I came to enjoy the challenge of avoiding his pranks. I consider him one of my favorite students and while I knew he was clever I never expected his potential score to be so high." At this Chiron readjusted his glasses and prepared to read the most shocking sentence he had ever written.

Jayce standing on the stage was blushing slightly having been called out so openly by his professor in front of everyone.

"No one since King Arthur has had the same potential score as Mr. Good. Jayce almost broke our measuring device in fact." The audience laughed but only for a second because they were almost about to explode from Chiron continuing to drag things out. " His score is the legendary score of negative ten." Chiron stepped away from the mic. A dead silence hung in the gymnasium for a few long seconds.

To Jayce, it felt like an eternity. "He really did bring me up here to make fun of me. I can't believe I almost fell for his trick. Who's even heard of someone having a negative score, much less a negative ten!" Jayce's mind was already thinking up dark plots to get revenge on Mr. Chiron when he heard a camera hit the floor. Breaking him from his own thoughts Jayce looked up to see a bird-like alien standing like it had been hit by a bolt of lightning. Jayce was beyond confused, "Did he find it so funny he forgot how to laugh?" Then he noticed that everyone that wasn't human had the exact same expression on their face. He was reeling, "What the hell is going on...?"

Jayce glanced at Ralnas who shrugged and then over to Micu who's glasses were reflecting the bright stage lights so he couldn't figure out what his facial expression was. Chiron started clapping finally and the rest of the humans in the room also politely clapped. Jenira noticed that Leon Roberts had that same lightning struck look on his face and decided to find out what a negative ten potential really meant.

Jane Good was sitting quietly by herself. "Negative ten? What in the world does that mean? Why didn't Jayce tell me the truth? Is negative ten bad?" She looked to her right where a muscled alien wearing blue clothes was sitting and noticed he seemed somewhat shaken, though less so than the other aliens around them. She mustered up her courage and then, " Uh excuse me, sir?"

The blue alien glanced at her before noticing the similarities between the boy on stage and this woman. "Yes ma'am?" he replied cordially.

"Uhm could you explain what negative ten means?" Jane was searching for any clues to help her understand.

The alien's face seemed to contort and Jane hoped it was surprise and not anger. "You mean you don't know?" his voice was deep and sounded like waves crashing against rocks on a beach.

"Please forgive me, but no. I have no idea what my son's potential score means." Jane asked with pleading eyes.

The alien seemed to sigh and think for a moment before answering, "Negative ten is the potential of the Overwatcher's kin. For a race that is present in this game to have that score has happened only four times in recorded history." The alien paused again, "Your son's life is about to turn upside down. He's destined for incredible things." Then the alien stood up and headed towards the door. Even though he looked quite muscular he slipped in and around people like a fish gliding through the water. Jane barely was able to utter a, "thank you," before he was gone.

Jane turned back to her son who was finally stepping off the stage still looking somewhat baffled about what had just happened. She smiled to herself, "Incredible things huh?"

Jayce sat down and knew that every pair of eyes was on him. He wanted to hide behind Ralnas but decided against it. Hoping Chiron was about to steal the show he, finally, had his prayers answered.

"And that concludes our ceremony! I want to say thank you to all the staff, teachers, and other support staff that make running this school a possibility. If any of you would like to linger and chat we have prepared quite a feast of snacks in the courtyard and invite you all to join us." Chiron then brought up the other teachers and they all bowed to the parents, like a theater group that had just completed an incredible performance. Everyone stood and gave the teachers a standing ovation before the teachers slipped behind the curtains on stage and turned the lights in the gymnasium back on.

Students swiftly ran to their parents and hugged them. Jayce walked like a zombie to his mom who was waiting for him in the furthest left corner of the gym. Ralnas and Jenira had followed after Micu to try and meet his mysterious parents.

"So, above average potential score huh?" She looked at him like she had just caught him stealing cookies from their pantry. "I guess I may have bent the truth slightly... I just didn't want you to be embarrassed by having a son with a negative score." Jayce replied guiltily. Jane raised her eyebrows, "Wait you mean you don't know that it's a good thing?"

Jayce looked at her confused, "Good thing? Mom, I have a potential below zero, I don't think that's a good thing. Even if King Arthur had it there's no information anywhere on the internet about whether or not it's a good thing. For all we know he succeeded in SPITE of his potential rather than because of it." Jayce wasn't in the mood to argue with his mom but he was sure she had no idea what she was talking about.

Jane smiled, "finally," she thought, "I know something that my son doesn't about this world." She had been playing catch up since they had been teleported here and it was far harder for her to adapt to this new world than it had been for her son. There had been many a day where she would have to call him and ask how to do something because she simply had no idea what to do. "I just talked to a dark blue alien that says that you're completely wrong," Jane said smugly.

Jayce felt his confident exterior shatter. "You talked to a what?" He thought back to who was sitting near his mom and there was only one alien he could think of that fit that description. "Did his voice sound ocean-y?" Jayce felt panic rising in him.

"Why yes! It did, he was ever so friendly. He really answered my question much more than I hoped he would." Jane smiled, "Why do you ask? And how do you know what his voice sounded like?"

Jayce felt like today had been too much. "Mom you talked to Dark Blue? The third in command of team Ocean?"

"I guess? I mean he was the only one who I thought might know what your potential means and I figured there was no harm in asking." Jane wasn't sure who Dark Blue was but she knew team Ocean was one of the top teams to compete for. She had often glanced through the sports section of the Daily Human to try and keep up with things her son was interested in.

"Ohhh god," Jayce hoped his mom hadn't said anything embarrassing. "Well, what did he say?"

"He said that only overwatcher's kin had a potential of negative ten. Do you know what that means? After that, he said you were going to do incredible things!" Jane was smiling with pride.

Jayce scratched his head, "Huh? Incredible things? But no, I have no idea what the Overwatcher's kin means. I know that the other races here often call the people who teleported us off Earth Overwatchers though." Jayce paused, "Wait does that mean I really do have the highest score out of everyone at this school?"

Jane shrugged her shoulders. "I mean if we do it numerically you have the lowest score by almost 500." She laughed as Jayce scowled and then pulled him in close for a hug. "No matter what path you decide to take just know I'll always support your decisions. Unless they're bad decisions."

"Gee thanks mom," Jayce said sarcastically while hugging his mom tightly.

Meanwhile, Micu was crying while holding his mom and dad. "I didn't think you guys would be able to get work off. Don't you have patients waiting for you?" They held him tightly, "Silly boy how could we miss our only son's graduation ceremony?"

Ralnas and Jenira watched with a shadow in their hearts knowing that their parents would be doing the same if they were around. Looking at each other a knowing look passed between them before Jen motioned for Ralnas to follow her as she sought out Leon Roberts.