3 The Prodigy

Half an hour into the flight and Jayce was still thinking about the visions he had been having. Wondering what they are and if they meant anything. He was trying to think of any possible explanations behind all this when noticed a brochure in Mark's hand. "The Camrin University" it read.

"You're going to Camrin?" Jayce asked.

"Yeah, you too?" Mark replied.

"Yea that's where I'm gonna have my bachelor's degree in diplomacy, you?" Jayce asked curiously.

"Master's in engineering," Mark replied casually, "finished my high school when I was 13." He added.

"Wow. So… you're one of those genius prodigies huh?" Jayce asked while frowning.

"Well… yeah." He replied. "So… is it your first time traveling to another country?" He asked Jayce, extending the conversation.

"Umm… yeah, I am one of those student exchange program candidates, but by seeing you it feels like you travel a lot," Jayce asked in return.

"Well yeah, I started trying out different universities after the sophomore year of my bachelor's degree and because of that I've traveled quite some places," Mark went on saying, "never been the one to stay in one place."

"So exactly, where are you from?" Jayce asked.

"I'm from Berlin, Germany. I just came here for a vacation, before I start my master's".

"Okay .. that sounds expensive haha,'' Jayce replied while revering.

"Well, you know my dad is one of the wealthiest men in Berlin, his name is David Evans, the founder of Evans Industries. You might have heard this name"

"Woah.. wait a sec. You are from that Evans household, the genius engineer who's now at the top of the Nano-Tech Industry!" He asked excitedly.

"Ah Yeah" replied mark

And the conversation went on and on

At the end of the flight, when everyone was deboarding, and Jayce was packing his laptop, he dropped his phone. As Jayce was asking Mark for help, Mark handed over the phone to him even before he could finish his sentence.

"Why did I react even before he asked for my help, and this is not my usual self, this guy is weird..." Mark wondered.

"Thanks, man. I hope I'll see you at the university too. I'll be heading my way now. See ya!"

"Uh yeah sure, It was nice meeting you." Said, Mark.

After the flight, Jayce took a cab to the hostel, put the luggage in a corner, and went straight to bed after taking a shower.

7 IN THE MORNING

After waking up, Jayce checked his phone as a reflex and yelled, "Mom, I'm hungry!", "Oh, wait, I live alone now." He then looked at the time, "7:13 a.m.," it read. "Should be about 1 at home." He opened his contacts and called home and talked with Mrs. Clark. He told her about the flight and the stranger he exchanged his seat with. After a while, he hung up the call and started doing some light workouts, and then he meditated for 20 minutes as he was quite disturbed by the strange visions and dreams he had been having for the past couple of months.

After being done with all this it was 8:07 a.m. "I should start looking for an apartment soon." He told himself while brushing his teeth and went to the cafeteria to eat something. There he also bought the newspaper and started to look for apartments for rent while having breakfast. For the next few days, Jayce kept on looking for apartments as he wanted to find one before his university classes got started. It was only on the 4th day of the hunt that he found the perfect apartment for himself. It was a 1 bedroom, kitchen and hall apartment on the first floor of the building, the view outside wasn't much but it was just 5 blocks away from his university and the rent was quite reasonable so he took it on the spot. He had to pay the rent for the first 3 months in advance for which he used the money his father had given him. By the time paperwork for the apartment was done, it had already been 6 p.m.

So he went to a restaurant to buy dinner. He ordered a take out and as he was waiting he saw a beautiful blonde woman with ocean blue eyes, about 5'9 in a black off-the-shoulder dress, giggling and talking with her friends. It seemed that they were just done with their dinner.

Jayce was star-struck by her and so it happened that this girl started to walk in the same direction as Jayce's apartment. Jayce rushed for his order and started following this girl unknowingly, all he wanted at that moment was to talk to her. After following her for 2 blocks their paths divided when Jayce had to go straight and the girl was turning left to get to the other side of the road. As she was crossing the road Jayce noticed a black Mercedes headed right to her at about 30km/hr. Jayce dropped his food and rushed to save her. He dives onto her wrapping his arms around her absorbing all the force of impact on the ground.

The moment their skins came in contact all the street lights went off and an aftershock pushed Jayce a little further away. Everyone around failed to notice that incident because of the accident. A moment later the girl rushed to Jayce, to help him get up but he got up in an instant.

"I'm so sorry." She apologized, "You were just trying to save me and I pushed you away. Are you okay?" she added.

"Yeah. I'm okay." Jayce replied, catching his breath.

"Are you sure? You're bleeding." She said, "Yeah, no it's nothing," he replied.

"Thanks a lot for saving me. I'm Samantha." She thanked him while offering a hand.

"Ja-- Aah!!" as he received the handshake his head started to explode with visions and immense pain. He held his head in pain, screaming and falling on his knees then he went unconscious.

Samantha panicked and tried to wake him up. "Hey? Come on, wake up!"

"Someone call 911!" she yelled.

Suddenly Mark walks in through the crowd. "What's going on?" Then he saw Jayce on the ground "Jayce?" He said.

"Are you a friend of his?" Samantha asked melancholy.

"Kinda." He replied. "Help me get him up, I live around the corner. We'll get him first-aid. Call 911 to 44/A Berk street." He directed her. They both picked Jayce up and took him to Mark's home and gave him first-aid. Soon the 911 came and checked him but they couldn't find anything wrong with him. They concluded that it was syncope.

"Well I got some snickers in my fridge," said Mark mockingly.

About 5 minutes later Jayce got up and saw Mark and Samantha around him.

"Mark, where did you come from?" Said Jayce in confusion.

"Ah dude, you are at my house." He replied. "We got you here when you fainted on the road like a sleeping beauty," Mark said sarcastically.

"Hey don't tease him. Jayce, after saving me you fell unconscious. The meds said it was syncope." Said Samantha.

"Umm yeah, I couldn't eat anything cuz of the paperwork of my new apartment," said Jayce while rubbing his head.

"Oh it's late, I gotta go guys," Samantha said, looking at her phone.

"Yeah, I should be going too." Said Jayce.

"Bye guys," she said while heading out. As she opened the door, saw that it was raining outside. "Crap! It's raining."

"You guys can stay until it stops." Mark offered.

Both looked at each other and then nodded in agreement to stay.

"You guys want something to drink?" Mark asked.

"Do you have tea?" Samantha asked. "I do," Mark replied casually.

"I would like to have tea as well then," Jayce said. "Alright just gimme a few minutes and feel at home," Mark said and went to the kitchen.

"Jayce excuse me for a minute, I need to make a call," Samantha told Jayce as she went to the next room. "Alright," said Jayce behind her and he takes a seat.

After a while, both Mark and Samantha came to the living room and joined Jayce who was scrolling through his phone.

"So what should we do now?" Samantha asked as she put her phone on the couch.

"So, you guys know each other?" Jayce asked them. "Not really," Mark replied. "Nope." Said Samantha.

"So then my guess is that after I fainted, Mark appeared like a knight in shining armor to help me, and then he invited us here because he saw that it was about to rain?' Jayce guessed.

"That's pretty accurate actually," Samantha said, "You're a good guesser."

"I'm good at a lot of things." Said Jayce confidently. "Oh really? Name two." Mark smirked.

"Umm.." Jayce stumbled on his words. "Oh I know, fainting," Mark mocked him. "And even better at introducing yourself," Samantha added.

"Huh?" Jayce frowned. "When I told you my name you were like Ja-AAAA and bang on the floor you were," Samantha explained and both laughed with Mark. "Hey that was because my head felt like it was gonna explode and…" Jayce said defending himself then went quiet. "And?" Both asked. "Nothing." Jayce dismissed.

"Seriously though, get a proper check-up," Samantha said with concern.

"Yeah, we'll see," Jayce dismissed.

"How about a proper introduction now? I mean a lot happened today and I barely know you two." Samantha suggested.

"Sure.", "Alright." Both replied. "I'll go first," Jayce said. "Hi, I'm Jayce Clark, 19, I'm from Bruges. Herewith the exchange program and I'm in the second year of my diplomacy."

"I'm Mark Evans, 19, doing my masters in AI engineering here and I'm from Berlin," Mark told.

"Samantha Brown. 20, been here for the past 5 years and I'm trying to be a musician someday. I'm doing my bachelors in vocal Music. in Camrin."

"Hey, that's where we go. What are the odds?" Jayce said excitedly.

"I can calculate the odds if you want," Mark said teasingly. "Dude please no," Jayce said dismissing him.

After finishing their tea, they all talked for a while waiting for the rain to stop but when Mark checked the weather stats he found that it wasn't gonna stop until morning and so he offered them to stay for the night. He gave them some blankets and they all slept after talking for some more.

7 In The Morning

"Yawns, morning guys," said Jayce while coming out of the room.

"Well it's just the two of us, Samantha left early in the morning as she had some work," said Mark.

"Oh, she could have at least said goodbye," Jayce mumbles.

"Anyway, thanks for everything man you saved me last night and let me stay in your home," said Jayce as he shook Mark's hand.

This time, Mark felt something strange when he shook Jayce's hand.

After a brief pause, he replied.

"Ah no problem make sure to be safe while going home Mr. sleeping beauty," said mark

"Haha right"