The FlipSide Read online

  The FlipSide

  Book One of

  The Connected Worlds Trilogy

  M.G. Samuel

  For those that need the extra encouragement to finally just go out and "do it". Whatever "it" may be for you.

  Chapter 1

  It was easy to get lost in the daily cycle of life as a student. You woke up at the same time, ate the same cereal, just barely making it to the bus stop on time so you could get to first period just in time to start the endless droning of going from class to class. Everyone had their own after school activities to go to; whether it was the science club, a sports team, or going to work. It didn’t matter what you did after school, but it was probably the same thing you did yesterday and the day before that.

  Axel sat slouched in his first period English class, tapping the eraser of his pencil against the top of his desk. The reality of this daily cycle was hitting him harder than usual this day. It was the middle of October, which meant the excitement of the start of the year was gone, and Thanksgiving break was too far away to begin counting the days. The basketball season didn’t start till next semester, so he didn’t have anything to look forward to at the end of school days till then. He often wondered if everyone else was just as bored with the routine as he was; or maybe he was the only crazy one that couldn’t fit into society like everyone else.

  To his left there was a quiet boy named Malcolm. Malcolm sat in his seat with perfect posture, looking forward waiting for the teacher to officially begin class. His copy of A Tale of Two Cities sat pristine on his desk, ready to go over the assigned readings from last night. He must have bought his own copy of the book, since all the copies that the Chicago Public School system gave the students were barely holding together at the spine.

  To Axel’s right, two girls sat next to each other glued to their phones. Their thumbs flicked from the bottom to the top of their screens quickly as they scanned through their feeds. Axel had no idea how they were managing to actually see what they were scrolling past, but he was never really a fan of social media, so he didn’t “get it”. Whenever he had to explain to someone that he didn’t have an Instagram they would always follow up with jokes about how he already was acting like an old man and avoiding the things that were popular. This was far from the truth; Axel hated seeing people online boast about all the trips they’ve been on and parts of the world they had traveled to. His parents were constantly at work to support the family, and even with all the hours they still couldn’t afford to go on vacations. The truth was that Axel had never actually left Chicago before. He used to dream about going all over the world and spend countless hours looking up different vacation spots that he heard fellow classmates go to, but once the reality set in that he would most likely never leave the city that he grow up in, he stopped dreaming about the world. Why should I dream about something that will probably never be a reality? He never felt sorry for himself since he knew that he wasn’t the only one that would stay in this city forever. Some of his teammates claimed they would make it to the NBA and get to constantly travel the United States, but Axel didn’t focus on fantasies like that; he was a realist. ‘I’m going to make it to the NBA’ was what half of the boys in Chicago would say growing up and only a handful of them ever made it. Axel hoped that he would at least be good enough to earn a college scholarship to some far away university like Miami, but his last season’s performance wasn’t impressing any of the Division 1 schools that came to scout their games. He just had to learn to become content with this city that he would have to call home for the foreseeable future.

  Axel continued to space out in his thoughts until his English teacher clearing her throat brought him back to reality.

  “Good morning everyone. I hope you all had a marvelous weekend and were able to spend some quality time reading our current novel” she said.

  Axel exhaled from his nose quietly and smiled as he tried to recall anything from the chapters. Of course, he hadn’t read them, but he at least cared enough to look up a summary online. It seemed the teacher always knew which students were diligent enough to keep up with the book and which were not. And of course, she would only call on those students which she knew hadn’t spent a single minute of their weekend reading Charles Dickens.

  “Mr. Matthews...would you like to tell us your favorite part of the last chapter?” As she tapped on the desk of her first victim, “Or did you not read the assigned sections?”

  The student perked up and began rifling through his backpack to find the book buried at the bottom. Axel could’ve predicted this happening from the moment he walked in the classroom. It was always the same routine. Day in and day out.

  A few more boring periods went by with the same monotonous work in each class. Finally, sixth period came around and that meant the start of his favorite part of the day; gym class. It wasn’t because he was some hyper jock type that made him like physical education, it merely was due to it being such a nice break from the rest of the day. To Axel it seemed like everyone should love the opportunity to take a break from classes and play various sports with other classmates. Even if it was some dumb sport to him like badminton, it was still better than reading books or solving complex math problems.

  Axel made it to the locker room just as the bell began to ring and started spinning his lock to get to his gym clothes. His friend, Damien, came around the corner of the other lockers – he was already completely dressed.

  “Hurry up man, otherwise we’re going to get stuck with the crappiest basketball again” Damien said.

  “It’s Chicago, Damien. All the basketballs at this schools are crappy.”

  “True, but some of them are kinda better than others, and you know that’s a fact.”

  Axel shrugged his shoulders and smiled as he pulled the lock open and swung the door of his locker, “You go get us one of these supposedly ‘less crappy’ balls and I’ll be right out.”

  Maybe Axel spent way too much time being negative about everything in his life instead of focusing on the positives. Maybe that is what set him apart from all the people like Damien who seemingly could look on the bright side of anything that came their way. It always came back in his mind as choosing to be a realist about everything, and the reality in this situation was that all the sports equipment at this school was terrible despite all the funding that the news claimed the schools were getting now.

  Before he knew it, Axel was already back in the locker room changing into his regular street clothes. As he put on his boots, he carefully tucked the end of his joggers into the boot. Before leaving the locker room, he stopped briefly at the bathroom mirror to make sure his short black hair was still kept neat.

  The rest of the day flew by as it usually did after gym class. After droning on a little while longer, Axel was walking out of his school as the final bell rang. As he walked out of the school, he looked for his usual bus home but couldn’t find it waiting where it normally was. Many of the kids that rode his bus stood where it should have been.

  Axel walked up to the group and asked to no one in particular, “Hey, anyone know where the bus is?”

  “Apparently it broke down while dropping the middle-schoolers home.” Someone said. “The principal said they were finding a different driver to bring us home.”

  It had been a long time since any variation to his day had happened, but this wasn’t what Axel had in mind when he wanted something to change in his day to day life. Waiting outside in front of his school wasn’t exactly his idea of fun. Still though, he couldn’t complain about something different happening. Though there wasn’t a chance that he would stick around and wait for the school to figure out his ride home. Instead, Axel started walking away from the school towards where he knew he could catch a quick train home. He put in his earbuds and threw his hood over his head to zone out in his own thoughts as he made his way through the streets. For as much as he complained about always being in Chicago, Axel still had to admire the beauty of being surrounded by tall buildings with the lakefront being so close. Walking through the streets instead of driving always made him appreciate it more. He always wished that the buildings around his home were exotically designed like some of the ones he saw when walking through the Loop. Everything around his home seemed to blend together in a boring sea of gray and brown.

  As he approached the crosswalk to get to the stairs leading up to his train, a black SUV came speeding past, nearly hitting him, as it ran a red light. Axel instantly snapped out of his daydream and pulled out his earbuds and stepped back in bewilderment. That guy could have killed me! The SUV kept speeding out of sight as it drove along the traffic-less road. It was more surprising to Axel that no other cars were crossing through the intersection when it sped by. Axel’s heart rate began to drop back down to normal slowly as he walked across the street, swearing that he wouldn’t be so absent minded about crossing the street again; at least not for a while. He raced up the stairs to the platform and was able to board just in time as the train door closed.

  He wasn’t used to taking the train at this time, but the whole car was filled with what he presumed to be businesspeople; dressed in fancy suits and carrying brief cases. Axel always assumed that anyone that dressed like that made a lot of money, which made him severely jealous of them. His jealousy usually just turned into hatred – thinking that everyone that had to dress like that for work thought they were better than people like him. Maybe one day he would be a businessman and younger kids would be looking at him with the same feelings. If he ever had money like that, the first
thing on his purchase list would be new basketballs for all the gym classes for public schools in Chicago.

  With each stop that the train made, the car got less and less crowded to the point where Axel could actually sit down. Most of the businesspeople were gone at this point, but he took notice of a man dressed in an all-black suit wearing sunglasses, a kind that made his eyes look like a bug’s, directly across from him. He held a newspaper in his hands that covered most of his body and the bottom half of his face. Axel couldn’t tell where the man was looking due to the sunglasses, but for some reason it seemed like he was more focused on Axel than on the newspaper. As Axel began to stare at the man in black’s face, the man’s head turned upwards and clearly began staring back. Axel quickly looked down towards the other side of the car to pretend he wasn’t staring at the man. Based on the movement of the man’s head, he may not have been staring at Axel before, but he sure was now. Axel continued to pretend to stare down the rest of the train car, but he could still feel the bug eyes fixated on him through the black frame. He didn’t want to turn to actually check if the man was still staring out of fear.

  Luckily, Axel’s stop was coming up shortly anyway. For a moment, Axel figured that this man staring at him was all just in his head, but as he stood up, he felt the man gaze up at him, still holding his newspaper. He quickly exited the train, glancing back once to see the man’s eyes still following him through the train window. Only his head had moved to keep watching Axel, his body remained fixated forward, still holding the newspaper with both hands. Creeped out by the whole experience, Axel began to run home once he got back to street level. It was only a three-minute walk to his house from the train stop, but he felt the need to be in the safety of his own home as soon as possible.

  Chapter 2

  Axel’s teacher cleared her throat again, beginning class the same way as she always does. Things seemingly were back to normal from first glance. To his left Malcolm was still upright ready to answer any question that came his way even though none would come, and to his right the two girls continued to be on their phones despite the start of class. The only thing that was different in the room was Axel. He wasn’t as slouched as he usually sat, and he was tapping the eraser of his pencil at a much faster pace than was typical.

  He wasn’t necessarily still freaked out by almost getting run over by a car yesterday and then being stared at by a strange man, but he couldn’t pull his mind from the two things; especially about the man on the train. People in Chicago always minded their own business, and it was normal to make eye contact with random strangers while in a train or on the streets, but there was something not normal about the man from the train. The more that Axel thought about it, the more it seemed like the man had seemed to recognize him upon eye contact. Would he have started staring if Axel had never made the initial glance his way?

  “Axel, is there any reason you don’t have your book out yet?”

  Axel was so lost in his train of thought that he hadn’t even realized that his teacher had been standing in front of his desk staring down at him.

  “Sorry I just...I don’t know I forgot.”

  She gave him a sideways look, but nevertheless took this as an acceptable answer and moved on with the class, taking the momentary spotlight off of him. I guess it helps to pay attention and be a good student all the other days.

  All of Axel’s classes seemed to be going by even faster now that his mind was preoccupied with something different entirely. He was looking forward to gym class even more than usual today since it would be the perfect opportunity to take his mind off his fears and blow off some steam. This time he was able to beat Damien to the locker room and be dressed before most of the other guys. He thought about going around to find where Damien and his other friends were at but left the locker room to head to the gym quicker. Maybe this time he would be able to get one of the balls that Damien always claimed were “better”.

  When Axel got to the gymnasium, he noticed a girl on the other side of the room that he had never seen before. She had bright red hair like a cardinal’s, definitely dyed, and a pale face that made the color of her hair stand out even more. Axel knew he would have noticed this girl before at school, so that meant she must be a new girl. Suddenly there was yet another thing that made this day different than the rest, the opportunity to meet someone new. Better yet, it was an opportunity to meet a girl that he thought was pretty cute from first glance. He figured there wouldn’t be any harm in introducing himself now before he got all sweaty from class. As Axel began walking over to greet her, he was stopped by an ambush from his friend.

  “Axel man you’ve been out here all this time and still didn’t get us a ball?” Damien exaggeratedly stuck out in his arms in disbelief. “Come on we were all waiting for you in the locker room thinking you were late again!”

  Axel laughed, keeping his eyes on the girl, “My bad, I was preoccupied on the other, more finer things in life.”

  Damien turned to meet his outward gaze, “What? That girl? Oh come on, it’s always some girl with you isn’t it? Can’t keep your eyes or mind off em! She can wait, Axel.”

  “Can she? Have you seen that girl before? She must be new, which means all the guys in every past class period have already tried hitting her up. I’m late to the game here man.”

  “If that’s the game that you’d rather be playing...”

  Axel gave a Damien a look that made him know which he’d prefer, “I’ll catch you later.”

  He began walking toward the bright haired girl again when the loud whistle of the teacher blew. There was always something that would prevent him from being where he really wanted to be. The teacher started to round up everyone in the gymnasium like cattle, telling them their daily choices for the day; even though they were the same every day. They could stay in and play basketball on the courts or run on the track outside. This usually resulted in the class being separated by gender. A majority of the guys played basketball while most of the girls were running on the track. Since the weather was getting colder, all the girls brought sweatshirts to class to wear over their school uniform. Axel noticed that this new girl was already prepared with a hoodie for the track too. For as long as he could remember, he never missed a single day of basketball during class, but there was never any harm in breaking from the daily routine. Damien and all his other friends began walking towards the courts, obviously expecting him to follow suite. Knowing his friends, they would never leave him alone if he told them he was going to go on the track for a day, so Axel tried to slip out of the gymnasium as stealthily as possible. He waited for the whole crowd of girls to start funneling through the doors to the outside track. As the line formed, he slipped his way into the queue and could see the bright haired girl up ahead. As the doors outside opened, Axel could feel the cold air making the hairs on his arms rise. He hadn’t brought a jacket to class; he never had a reason to. The cold would be bearable, or so he thought. By the time the entire group had made it out to the track, Axel was starting to question whether or not this girl was worth all this effort and possibly freezing to death.

  He could feel over thirty sets of eyes on him. It wasn’t typical for a player on the basketball team to choose to be outside running. Enough people knew who Axel was to question why he’d ever choose to be out here instead of inside with all his friends. As he looked around, he noticed some girls chose to just immediately start walking on the track while others began to jog or sprint to start. He recognized most of the girls sprinting ahead from the track team. In the middle of all the sprinting, the bright haired girl kept pace with most of the joggers. As any teenager would, Axel over analyzed his approach to how he could start talking to this girl without coming across as awkward or weird. He didn’t want to sprint past her or make his approach to her too awkward. Starting off with a quick jog, he began making leeway on getting closer to her pretty quickly. Her pace was constant, so all he needed to do was keep running a little faster and they would be next to each other soon enough. After a few minutes and two laps around the track later, he was within fifty feet behind her. As if knowing that he was trying to approach her, the girl began running at a faster pace. You’ve got to be kidding me. Axel picked up his pace to go faster than hers to maintain his distance. Again, the mysterious girl began to run even faster. Her legs seemed to glide across the track effortless. Although he was in shape, Axel wasn’t sure how much faster he could run and for how much longer. For the first time since he’d seen her outside, she looked back and made eye contact with him and smiled. Did she know he was trying to catch up with her? With the smile, she began to slow her pace so that Axel could finally catch up.