1 The beginning
I’m the Shadow Master and this is “My logbook”
©nanmenxing
Legal deposit September 1, 2021
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Day 1
The bell rang in the courtyard, and students pushed their way inside the high school while teachers lined up to take roll.
I was a senior member of the T1 class. Yes, indeed! On a Saturday night out, all the females would have wanted to have the best-looking, brightest guy on their arm. My parents were pleased that I was usually six months early because I was born in December.
That meant giving commands in high school, such as, "Go clean the whiteboard!" You: Put the chalk away! You've arrived! Yes, you, go gather the mats in the gym and make sure the basketballs are lined up on the high shelf... Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
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Day 2
All of this would have been much better if it hadn't been for the fact that there was this guy named Alain in my English class who was a terror and my opposite.
Even though I was a few months ahead of schedule in school, Alain was two years behind and his parents didn't seem to mind. They were content as long as school kept their son occupied, he ate lunch in the cafeteria and only returned at the end of the day.
Alain had eyeglasses and I had green eyes. I was fifteen centimeters taller than other teenagers my age, while Alain was fifteen centimeters lower, resulting in a significant height disparity between us. Alain had a brown tuft on his egg-shaped head, while I had long blond hair.
To put the ball in the hoop, all I had to do was extend. Alain? Basketball was something he despised, but poetry was something he adored. Not that the two couldn't get along, but... Alain liked to observe grasshoppers on tree trunks while I composed songs and founded my band 'The Best of All'.
We just had two things in common, and it was Hanna! Hanna had no eyes for either of us, and we were secretly in love with her. This may have fostered a sense of cooperation between Alain and me, but sadly, rivalry prevailed.
Hanna wasn't the prettiest girl in school, but she was the smartest, in my opinion. Her bun-wrapping manner was unique to her, and her grin could brighten even the darkest October day when the rain fell nonstop, morning and evening.
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Day 3
Our conflict began in English class, when our English teacher stated that the simple preterite tense, in general, related to a past that no longer had any reference to the present, which did not last, and which we could accurately position in time. What a significant event!
Naturally, as the greatest student in the class, the teacher pointed to me and asked me to explain her point with an example of my choosing. I said, smiling, that it would be wonderful if the school year was in preterit. Hanna burst out laughing. Because only Hanna and I were laughing at my joke, I deduced that the rest of the class had no understanding what preterite English meant, and Alain deduced that I had earned some brownie points with her.
That Monday, the first day of school, and notably my English class, I had expected vengeance.
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Day 6
Three days later, I realized I was running into Alain in the hallways far too often, so I kicked it into high gear and locked him in his locker, which I had padlocked after forcing him inside.
Because I was afraid of being punished for having Alain as an informant in front of the math teacher, I decided to show him the principles of Newton's law of gravitation, which I had mastered in junior high school physics.
Isaac Newton developed the law of universal attraction, which states that two point bodies attract each other with a force proportional to each of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. The line passing across the center of gravity of these two bodies determines the force's direction.
This statement is taken from the textbook. It's a different story in practice. Take a person who would steal a tomato from the cafeteria with the sole aim of eating it; wait until his victim is within a fair distance, then push the tomato with all the force in his forearm, and you will see what I mean. Newton's law does not always hold true. The proof lies in the fact that the tomato's path did not follow the straight line passing through his body's center of gravity; it landed directly on his eyeglasses.
While Alain went to the restroom to clean his glasses, I received congrats from my pals and winks from the girls.
My phone rang, and it said, 'Congratulations! Our VIP club has now accepted you as a member.'
"What is this?"
"Oh, VIP?" remarked a female who approached me a touch too closely.
"VIP?" Looking at the notification on my phone screen, I mumbled.
"Yes! This club does not taking applications! They select their members and call them forth."
"What if I don't want to?"
"Why wouldn't you want to? You have no idea what benefits you enjoy as a member of their organization!"
I shrugged and continued on my way to the gym, away from her. I was followed by footsteps.
When he got close enough, the man asked, "There must be something you're passionate about, something you'd like to do more than anything else, a dream you want to realize?"
I intended to go to the gym to warm up for the interclub cup friendly match with the Louis le Grand team this afternoon.
I grumbled, "Mastering the Shadows!"
The man's laughter echoed across the room. I, on the other hand, walked into the dressing room to freshen up. I took the ball under my arm and proceeded to the opposite end of the room. On the way, the man caught up with me.
"Your response is a little unexpected."
The basketball hoop cast a long shadow across the gym. The sun was shining brightly through the windows at the top of the gym, but it wasn't quite at its peak.
"And why would you want to master the shadows? That's a brilliant idea!"
"As a child, you were scared of the shadows at night. You even requested that your room's shutters be closed to keep the darkness out."
The man looked at me in awe. His appearance had changed, and his welcoming demeanor had vanished.
"For starters, it's not true, and second, how do you know?"
"What difference does it make if it's not true?" I responded by kicking the ball into the basket.
"You didn't respond to my query."
"I have a feeling."
"Okay, I was terrified at night, but I never said anything about it. How did you learn about it?" With interest, he responded, "I vow to keep it a secret."
"High five!" I shouted it while extending my fist.
The man gave me a high-five and stared at me. I had no idea how I had discovered that the man had a fear of the night as a child.
How could I explain to him that he had appeared to me as a youngster just moments before, as we stood side by side in the middle of the gym? I'm not sure how or why this happened; all I know is that his room's wallpaper had yellowed, and the parquet floor of the house where he resided had cracked, both of which scared him to death at night.
I threw another ball into the basket and remarked, "I don't know how to express it."
The man sighed and went away, tapping me on the shoulder.
"Who are you?" I exclaimed as I turned around.
He didn't respond, and I assumed it was because he was furious that I had revealed his secret.
