The Conspiracy Theory of June 17

by Alessia Holmes

  "I never told you that."

  "I know." A pause. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

  "Yes," I say, a sudden sense of something...else washing over me. "I know exactly what you're thinking. But I'm going to continue."

  9 minutes 56 seconds

  "After that, we went on the mission. All of us here, minus Damon." His name slips off my tongue so easily but hangs in the air with much difficulty. I gulp.

  "And then, I..." I know exactly what to say, but the words just don't come out of my throat. It's as if something's frozen my throat all of a sudden.

  Jessie looks at me. "We don't have to talk about Damon in the story, he's not part of it anymore." As she says it, it's as if every doubt in me, suddenly becomes clear, but at the same time, I don't really want to believe it. Strange.

  "We hop on the plane, and that's when we get separated. I end up in Edinburgh, in the right place. But I don't know that. I could've stayed put but...I called Jada and Drew, who were back at school. Right?" She turns around and faces Jada.

  "Yep," Jada says. "We get a message from an 'unknown number' as Drew says." She gives an annoyed and slightly angry (actually, very angry) look at Drew, who ignores her and continues. I notice Jada's still gripping the rails with all her might for some reason, and I frown. The rails look a little...bent.

  What...

  "We know what happens from now, we don't have to go over that again." Drew nods frantically, looking around. I open my mouth to say something but decide against it. Then, I say, rather casually or so it seems, "Anyone have any confessions to make?"

  "That message was from Kevin," Drew says. "Kevin is the only person behind it all, I can assure you all that. At least, that's all I know."

  Flynn speaks up, "Kevin works for someone else. I don't know who he is, but I do know he's a middle-aged man, and that Damon works for him too."

  The mention of Damon's name is like a hard knock to my head.

  6 minutes 19 seconds

  For a moment the room is silent.

  For a long moment.

  5 minutes 3 seconds

  There's a gasp, and a clank of metal against concrete. I lift my head to see Drew staring at Jada in shock. A metal bar is lying on the ground, and another bar is bent beyond repair. Jada is still grasping it. She's glancing at the bar at the ground and then at her hands.

  Mrs Renee clears her throat. "You know, I knew this girl called Cassie who had superhuman strength."

  For some reason I smile. Jada frowns, shaking her head. "I was just mad," she says, giving Drew a not-so-nice look. Wasting no time, she crawls through the hole she created and starts to open Drew's bars, much to his surprise.

  It's not every day you find out one of your best friends has superhuman strength. Or find out that your other best friend can read your mind and you can communicate telepathically. And somehow, these newfound powers work in a power-restricted area. But then again, what's normal in the conspiracy anyway?

  Mrs Renee stares at me. "Alessia," she says. "You can do something too." At first, I don't understand what she means, like does she expect me to start freeing everyone with my mind or something? But then I get it. Nevertheless, I stare at her blankly.

  "There's something in you, Alessia. A spark. A burning flame. You don't know how to feel about something – you want to feel mad, but you can't."

  I feel my hands burning up. When I look at them, they're turning purple.

  3 minutes 11 seconds

  I don't know how to feel anymore. Jada comes over and frees me, and as I walk out, I realise I'm the last one to escape.

  For once in the conspiracy, my brain is numb and still. There's only one thought that floats.

  Shoot.

  I put my hands up and aim.

  ∞

  Over the sound of the piercing alarms, the angry yells and violent footsteps of Frasier's men and the desperate cries of Kathy Krysten, her best friend, there's a booming sound. It drowns out all the voices and even the sound of her own heart pounding in her ears, replaced by a buzzing, ringing sound. She gasps as she watches the wall to her right explode, pieces of tin and concrete flying everywhere, smoke rising to the ceiling. Clutching Kathy's arm, she awaits. Waits to see who walks out of that rubble, unharmed, Bad Blood style.

  But of course, life is nothing like a Taylor Swift music video.

  Kat slapped herself mentally. Why was she thinking of Taylor Swift at a time like this?

  Maybe there's a reason she's 27, working for two teams at once and has a fake identity as a teacher and no one knows really who she is, not even Kathy, her best friend. Her life's pretty much a mess, no joke.

  A student - no, two – students from her history class step out of the rubble, along with Shayleigh (who's also in her history class, she realises), two boys looking about the same age and a woman possibly in her late twenties, who looks super familiar for some reason.

  "Ms K," The girl in the front says. Kat mentally slaps herself (again) as she can't remember the girl's name.

  "I figured it out. It took me a while, but I figured it out. We figured it out."

  18.

  I haven't felt this happy since we boarded that train way back on the first day of our mission. I keep telling myself, it's not over, it's not over, but I can't escape the giddy, excited feeling I'm getting. Maybe it's because I just found out 20 seconds ago that I have powers, like Iron Man. Anyway, we still have to rescue Mrs Mitzeegh, and to be honest a lot of things can go wrong, but I'm not going to let anything stop us. We're so close.

  We're following Ms Katarina, who presumably knows where Mrs Mitzeegh is being kept. Well, she says she doesn't know for sure, but we don't know at all, and so this is pretty much a giant step closer to our destination.

  Everyone is so quiet, yet I can feel they're excited too, relieved some of them.

  Can I read feelings too? Or is that just my strange personality?

  Ms K stops and turns right to face another giant door. Despite all the excitement my stomach gives a sudden lurch in nervousness. What if this is another trap?

  This is our last hope, our last chance.

  Here goes.

  Ms K looks at all of us, "Brace yourselves," she says, before, slamming open the door with all her strength. We all tumble inside. To my relief, there's Mrs Mitzeegh. What we've been waiting for all this time. What lead us here, what brought us into the conspiracy, what made us even think about the conspiracy.

  There's nothing else in the room, just her, and the table.

  "Okay girls," Ms K says, which earns some weird looks from Flynn and Drew, and Mrs Renee. "And guys," she adds, ignoring Mrs Renee. "Don't untie her yet. I need to break her out of her spell."

  "Do you know how to?" Mrs Renee asks.

  Ms K stretches her arms out. "I'm a witch," she finally speaks. "I can do it."

  "I knew it," Jada whispers, the first thing she's said since we left the cage room.

  As Ms K leans over an unconscious Mrs Mitzeegh, a horrifying thought crosses my mind. Mrs Renee looks at me and explains, "Drew stopped time while we were walking. They have no idea we're here as of now. When they find out, I don't know."

  I nod, even though I'm not very comforted by her words.

  The six of us stand there, staring at the back of Ms K, silently praying that the others don't find us. Well, even if they do, we've got powers now. And they work.

  Even so, my heart is thumping against my chest too hard. It practically skips a beat when Ms K turns around, her face blank.

  "Please tell me-

  "I can do it," she says, raising her arms, silencing me. "But she's going to have..."

  Oh no.

  "...no memory of anything that happened from when she met you, to now. She knows everything before."

  My whole body is frozen with shock but somehow, I manage to squeak out an okay as Ms K nods and turns around to do her spell.

  Jessie grabs my hand suddenly, and looks at me, no expression on her face. S
he doesn't need to say anything, though. I know exactly what she's thinking. On my other side Jada and Drew, Drew on the far side of Jada grabbing her arm, come closer towards us. Mrs Renee, Flynn and Shayleigh come stand next to Jessie. Everyone is staring at the two women in front of us.

  Mrs Mitzeegh finally stands, with the help of Ms K. She doesn't look that shaken, or scared, just a little confused. But at the same time, she looks like she knows everything.

  Everything about the conspiracy.

  "Hello," she says. It feels like it's been ages since I've heard her voice. "Thanks for helping me. I'm going to go now. You all can leave, too."

  And that is how it all ended.

  Like seriously.

  You can stop reading now. It's over.

  At least, this chapter of our story is.

  EPILOGUE

  "Oh my god, we can choose our powers?"

  "Yep," Mrs Renee saws, eyeing the drink in her hand as if she can tell if it's alcoholic or not by staring at it long enough. "There’s a trick to it. Within the first week, practise as many powers as you want, and you can summon them later after the week is finished."

  Jessie smiles, her eyes lighting up in happiness. Next to her, Jada smiles. "Hey, I don't know about you guys, but I've had enough conspiracy stuff for a while. I'm gonna practise my powers tomorrow," she says. And with that, she struts off towards the food area, or towards Drew. No one would know for sure.

  "I'm gonna go get some more sushi," Jessie says, getting up sharply. "You coming?"

  "Sure," I say, smiling creepily. "I need to gather more information about this sushi chef you're digging."

  "Alessia!" Jessie exclaims, pushing me playfully, but even she couldn't hide the colour that rushes to her cheeks.

  "Hello." We both jump as we realise, we're standing right in front of the Asian sushi chef. He doesn't look anything like Damon or Flynn – he looks like a genuine, nice, happy-go-lucky person.

  And then I realise it's Greg.

  "Hi," I say, searching for any sign of recognition in his eyes. He doesn't notice me. He's looking at Jessie, totally engulfed in her words. They start to spark up an entirely heated conversation about...peanut butter?

  Totally not third wheeling right now.

  Just then what seems like a tin can hits me on the head, the way handballs hit me at school. I look to see Flynn smiling cheekily and Shayleigh with her hands over her mouth, completely shocked.

  I smile.

  "Sorry," she says. "I'm learning telekinesis, even though I'm not very good at it at the moment. And Flynn's a terrible tutor."

  He shrugs. I shake my head at him humorously.

  For some reason, after a while start to walk away from the extended beach shack, away from everyone, and towards the beach. The water. It's as if the ocean is pulling me closer. I don't stop until I feel the icy cold water gently pour over my feet.

  I've always found the ocean intriguing - wild, untamed, unpredictable – yet the waves lap against the shore rhythmically, not stopping for even a moment to catch its breath. It was so...complex...yet looked so simple from the outside. A split personality hidden by a calm demeanour.

  Alessia.

  I hear a voice call my name. Worse, I know who's voice it is.

  Alessia, it's me.

  "I know who you are," I snap.

  Look, it's hard to explain, but I'm sorry.

  "Get out of my brain!" I exclaim, a little too loud. The wind carries my frustrated voice away. I flip back to check if the others have heard. They haven't.

  I'll get out in a second. Alessia, you have the potential to have amazing powers using your brain.

  I say nothing.

  I hear an exasperated sigh. I'm sorry. I know this doesn't mean anything to you, but I'm sorry.

  Silence.

  You know the conspiracy's still going to go on after this, right?

  I wait for a while. Then, before the voice can return, I mumble a yes.

  Don't worry, we'll see each other again. At school, and outside of school.

  "Yes, I know Damon. But I don't know you at school, and you don't know me. Got it?" A lump forms in my throat as I utter these words.

  Yes. Okay.

  Angry, feeling defeated and stupid, I walk back to the beach shack, so I can forget all about the one that betrayed my trust.

  And I do. The sight of my friends, old and new, young and old, make me happy again, and my previous feelings wane away. It's true that the #curryclub were pretty close before, brought together by similar hobbies and culture, but the conspiracy has brought us even closer. As for the others, well, what can I say? We decide on a new name. All respect goes to the CSS, especially the founders, Lucy and her mom Amanda, but the CSS is no longer the CSS. It's the CSC, the Conspiracy Stoppers Club. Okay, so it's pretty close – but it's brought us all together. A real team, unlike what Kevin described back at headquarters.

  Okay, so there's a heap of stuff we don't know about the conspiracy, but there's also stuff that we do know. And that's enough for us. Did we figure out why we were being targeted? What this entire thing really was? How everyone was linked to it? No. But, starting with Flynn, we’re getting to the truth, and we’re planning our potential next move. We did save 27 students and a very important maths teacher, even though she doesn't remember us like she used to. That's more than we planned for, and it's definitely something.

  At the end of the day, we're still a bunch of teenagers plus a teacher. Even though we do spend the last week of our holidays practicing our secret powers behind the privacy of closed bedroom doors, our brain filled with thoughts and secrets no one else knows, a connection between students and teachers so rare to find, we're still teasing each other about Gregs and Drews and complaining about Mackenzies and stressing out over exams like true nerds.

  Yes, we live our life as normally as we can, still chasing the mystery of the conspiracy every day, until it makes a real, solid appearance in our lives again, like it had when we first discovered it. What's surprising about it this time is that it's sooner than we think. And it's in the same place – well, in spirit, anyway.

  END

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Firstly, I’d like to thank and remember the real life #curryclub, for not only making your mark on my life with love and laughter, but for inspiring me to write this story based on one of our weird conversations. I hope you read this and remember our good times together.

  I’d like to thank the real-life people – my classmates – on whom the characters Amelia, Shayleigh, Drew, Flynn, Greg, and Damon were based on (no hard feelings, real Damon!) You guys don’t know who you are, but, in a strange way, I hope one day you realise that you have inspired me, though unknowingly, to create the most interesting characters that have no doubt become my friends as I wrote this book. Maybe if we meet again, I’ll let you know which character you were, and we can be friends too!

  I’d like to thank the real Mrs Mitzeegh, Ms Katarina and Mrs Butch for being such unique influences in my life, so much that I remembered your class and decided to include you in this story.

  I wholeheartedly thank the real Mrs Renee, the most exceptional English teacher and who once again, kickstarted my passion for writing.

  Last, but certainly not least, I’d like to thank my parents and my brother. You were the ones who gave me the opportunity to fuel my love for writing and storytelling. I could’ve never dreamed of this if it hadn’t been for you supporting and cheering me on every step of the way, and I am forever grateful for your ongoing presence in my life.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Afra Islam wrote this story when she was only 14 years old – beginning the day her extension maths teacher announced she was leaving for Scotland, sparking an unforgettable idea. Born in Bangladesh, she has lived in two countries already – Japan and Australia, the place she calls home today. At currently 17 years old, Afra and Alessia are not that different. Other than the superpowers and probably also the blind trust in strangers,
Afra mirrors Alessia a lot. As a South Asian girl, she is unapologetically emotional and frequently nostalgic, has amazing friends, a tireless thirst for mysteries and an overall love for life in all its glorious detail. That includes going overseas with her family, on spontaneous outings with her childhood friends, maths, doing well in school, reading, beaches, and of course, storytelling. While she hopes to continue studying next year in university, she wishes to keep the best moments of her teenage years – and Alessia’s life – alive through her passion for writing.