Lynchpin

“Mr. Creed!” a hand slammed down on Ryan's desk which jolted him from his nap.

He held his uniform top in fear as he looked up to see the angry face of Mrs. Keen. Light from large classroom windows shone brightly behind the woman, enhancing her evil aura as she stood over him. The other students in class snickered quietly to themselves but were quickly silenced by Mrs. Keen's evil glare.

“If you enjoy sleeping so much, Mr. Creed, maybe you would like to sleep in detention!”

Ryan tried to protest but the teacher wouldn't listen. She only walked her twig legs back up to the front of the room and went back to teaching. Ryan grunted and dropped his back in his seat in an angry manner. His parents would kill him for getting detention. No one in the Creed family gets detention.

“Ryan, is everything alright,” Xandra James asked after class.

“Yeah, you've been rather distant all week,” Barnaby agreed joining the two.

Ryan and his friends left the large classroom into the bright hallways that made up the school. The ceiling was made of glass, allowing in natural light during the day, and held a few lights for those rare moments that anyone would be at school at night. The walls were colored in cool gray and beige colors which apparently were meant to give a relaxing feel to the high school life, but really only made the uniforms stand out more than they should have.

Crossing down the few hallways towards their next classrooms, the three stopped at their gray lockers, still pestering Ryan about his sleepy attitude that day.

“If this is about Natalie skipping out on your date-”

“Jeez guys, this isn't about Natalie!” Ryan slammed his locker door shut and glared at his friends, “I just haven't gotten a lot of sleep lately!”

Xandra leaned over to Barnaby muttering something about Ryan's attitude was the result because his parents wouldn't allow him to get the new enhancements package.

“Dude!”

She rolled her eyes and closed her locker too, “Come on Ryan, you were talking non stop about wanting to change your eye color.”

“You clearly don't know me if you think I'd care right now about changing my eyes to a 'luscious pink'.”

She gasped and forced her locker back open to glance at her mirror. She stomped her fancy healed foot and frowned automatically complaining that she wanted a “cherry blossom” pink. Ryan gave a disgusted look and continued walking to his next class minus two friends. New enhancements came out every few months, weather it was a 'new array of eye colors' to being able to 'lift five extra pounds' to the already beyond strong factory workers. Every enhancement was out there to make any Upper Civilian's life an amazing one. Sure he wasn't happy that his parents wouldn't allow the eye upgrade, but at least that would make him fit in a bit better at the campus.

Ryan slowed his angry walk when he passed by a long stretched window by the office. He glanced out to the rest of the campus and beyond to the beautiful landscape of the Upper Society. The tall buildings of the city and patches of land hidden between was railed with success and fine living. There was nothing overly bad about the city, only if being overly successful was a crime. Ryan blinked at a memory of someone standing at that same window late in the day with the sun shining in front of them. The memory ended of the figure turning with a smile on his face.

That person was why he was losing sleep. However, every memory of the man was cloaked in silhouette. Ryan sighed, being interrupted by the warning bell to get to class. He turned too quickly, slamming into a girl carrying too many things. Everything fell to the floor and she shrieked, apologizing a thousand times a second for not watching where she was going. Ryan didn't make a big deal of it helping her anyway. Every little object from pencils to textbooks was picked up and placed back into her arms. He never got a good look of the girl, who hung her head low and rushed off without another word.

He shrugged about to walk off when he noticed something stuck on the bottom of his shoe, “Hey you forgot-”

By then she was too far gone. He knelt down in a little hop and grabbed a business card for a local shop in town. He squinted at the card trying to analyze every single little detail of the card. He hadn't seen it before, yet it looked so familiar. The final bell rang and he sprinted off to class. For the next hour he analyzed the card, rotating it in his hands and tapping it on his desk lightly trying to remember where he had seen it before. He must have seen it in passing, or even... in a memory.

The end of the day didn't come fast enough for the teen. He rushed home, ignoring the fact that he had detention. The two story building was the smallest they ever owned in his lifetime, yet he liked it the most. It had that old world charm that his mom always wanted in a house. All of his friends owned homes that all looked alike, so it was nice to have some variety. He called out to the dirty living room to see if any family was home. His sister and parents all were not home so Ryan ran with the opportunity.

He rushed upstairs to his room that felt way too big for just him. Dropping his things in the middle of the room, he snuck into his closet and crawled all the way back into the corner. A small box sat there with his initials. It was hidden among the garbage he threw in there to please his mom for a clean room. He would have never found it if he actually went cleaning in there last week day. The closet was dark, but he could see perfectly fine. He opened the box and there laid inside a few objects that did not belong to him. A wallet, filled with plenty of things from cards to movie stubs, a notebook, and a few other random things that Ryan never understood why they were in there. All the cards in the wallet had the names and numbers filed off. Even the student ID that was addressed to his school had scratched off the picture. The transport card, needed for any travel, was also located within the wallet, but completely wiped clean of any information. Whoever's wallet this was, they were gone now and along with Ryan's memory of them.

Hidden inside the wallet was a completed punch card stapled to a receipt. No one used punch cards any more, but the card didn't look that old. He kept his eyes fixed on the punchcard as he pulled out the one that the girl dropped earlier. Glancing back and forth to the design, one may have been a business card and the other a punch card, but they were the exactly the same.

Ryan didn't understand the actions he took next. Taking both cards he left his home and tracked down the business. It took a little while but an angry phone call from his mom later he found the small little cafe. Iron chairs and tables were outside and a neon sign sparked in the window with the same logo on the cards. He calmed his nerves down and walked through the glass doors.

“Welcome,” the chipper plump woman behind the counter waved, “what can I get for you today?”

He stuttered for a moment, unsure what to even get or why he was even there. He just stood there looking at the menu hanging above the counter. Ryan opened his mouth, about to talk, but only fumbled with the used punch card instead. He felt the silky side of the receipt and pulled it up to see the faded ink on the page. The information may have been gone, but what was ordered was not.

“Well...?”

“Uh... special number six and a tall moca with strawberry sauce...?”

He looked up to see the strange stare she gave to Ryan. He stuttered and gave a questionable smile, “Please?”

Her stare changed back into her chipper jolly self and rang up the order. He pulled out some money and after paying was told to sit down and she'll bring out the order. Listening to orders, he walked to a seat in the corner of the room and waited awkwardly. People came in and out but none stayed and wondered why he was there waiting. Soon enough the food came and she thanked Ryan for his service today.

He nodded but she left before she could hear a response. He sighed aloud and looked down to the ham sandwich meal that was placed in front of him. It was all placed together in a fancy basket that yelled out to Ryan to eat the food. Giving in he picked up the sandwich and took a bite into the sandwich. It wasn't half bad, minus the random paper that was buried inside.

He pulled the long strip of paper from his mouth and found a receipt.

“What the-”

He was so close just to throw out the rest of the meal when he saw something of interest on the page. Besides the stains of mayonnaise and a pickle, there were many small lines of black ink. He couldn't read them but one word was written big and clear...

“Lynchpin”