Stories of Primateria. Part: 1, Salt. (ENG)

It was a usual day in a small coastal town, or more precisely, in a preschool there. A teacher with long ginger hair was sitting behind his desk. His out form was strong and he had a bit muscular build. He was waiting for his students to come inside from the yard, while he was sorting out paper dolls in three piles. They had earlier that week had a vote on should they do warriors, princes, or princesses. The vote had been so tied, so he had gotten all three, so everyone could do what they wanted. He was humming an old song from his childhood before his memory cut out to a moment when he met his adoptive mother. It had always bothered him what was between that time where he had no memories from, but he had accepted it. His mind was locked so hard nobody could access it.

He was snapped out of his mind by the ringing of the bell and children’s happy voices from the hallway as they walked to take off their outdoor clothes and walked to the class.

The teacher looked at them with a happy smile. He loved his students like they were his own children. He didn’t have a wife nor time to adopt a child, even though he wanted to, so he was happy to be working here. Children liked him, and he liked them. Kindness is the key to everything, like he always told his students, so his class spirit was high and nobody was left alone or outside of the group. His class had the best spirit in the whole preschool. There were two other classes, but they, unfortunately, had bullied, and sometimes some of them were left out. Maxwell’s group was called Puppeteers, as the other two were Musketeers and Privateers. There was always some activities and contests in the kindergarten, but they were always playful, even though the Privateers-group was very competitive, mostly towards Puppeteers, because their teacher despised Puppeteer’s teacher for being so feminine even though he was feminine in only the way he had very long hair, but his students loved it, and that was enough for him.

‘’Good morning everyone.’’ The teacher of Puppeteers greeted his class, walking in front of his desk.

‘’Good morning mister Maxwell!’’ The class said in a choir.

‘’Today we have a competition with the other classes going on this evening, as some of you might remember.’’ Maxwell smiled.

‘’But before that, we go through letters from G to I, so can someone tell me which ones, please?’’ He asked, looking at a few hands rising.

‘’Will you tell us, Eva?’’ He asked as he leaned against his desk.

‘’G, H, and I!’’ Eva smiled proudly.

‘’Very good. Someone has been doing their studies.’’ Maxwell praised with a small giggle.

‘’Round of applauses!’’ He smiled, clapping his hands, as did the whole class.

‘’Mister Maxwell!’’ One of the students said, putting up his hand.

‘’Yes, Jonathan?’’ Maxwell asked, looking at the boy.

‘’What do we play today in the competition?’’ Jonathan asked.

‘’That’s an excellent question. This time the planning is in the hands of Musketeers, so we will have it as a surprise.’’ Maxwell smiled.

‘’What about the paper dolls?’’ Asked a quiet voice of a quiet girl.

‘’Oh, right. Good thing you reminded me, Viola!’’ Maxwell smiled.

‘’We will be starting them today. I have the dolls and their clothes with me. But we will continue them later this week.’’ Maxwell answered to the girl, seeing another hand rise.

‘’Yes, Milo?’’ He asked.

‘’What’s for food today?’’ He asked.

‘’For lunch? Hmm… I am not sure. You need to see it from the list when break starts.’’ Maxwell answered and looked through the class, no other hands rising.

‘’Well then. Take your books and let’s read some G, H, and I’s.’’ He smiled.

The students walked to their lockers, taking out two books. Text- and workbooks as well as their pens.

Maxwell smiled as he watched them, suddenly getting a weird tingle in his fingers. He peeked at them, but as he didn’t see anything, he just shrugged it off, starting to teach his class simple sentences and words with each letter.

Soon enough the bell rang to the break and the children put their books back to the lockers and walked to dress up. Milo looked at the lunch list.

‘’Meatballs and mashed potatoes!’’ He declared.

‘’Thank you for the declaration.’’ Maxwell giggled and walked to the teachers’ room, putting on his outdoor clothes, since it was his turn to look after the kids with two assistant teachers.

Maxwell and his assistance, who had just arrived from a meeting, exchanged a few words in the yard.

‘’Morning Lucia.’’ Maxwell greeted her, as she walked towards the main entrance.

‘’Morning, Maxie.’’ Lucia smiled. Her short brown hair landed on her shoulders as she turned to look at Maxwell.

‘’How has your morning been?’’ Maxwell asked.

‘’It’s been as good as it can be with a dentist appointment. How has your’s started?.’’ Lucia asked with a smile.

‘’Mine has been good. Nobody was late either.’’ Maxwell smiled.

‘’Alright. See you at the class.’’ Lucia said as Maxwell nodded when two children ran to him in panic.

‘’Mister Maxwell! Mister Maxwell!!’’ They shouted.

‘’What is it?’’ Maxwell asked and knelt to their level.

‘’T-there’s a creepy man in the edge!!’’ Said a young boy.

‘’A creepy man?’’ Maxwell asked, looking a bit confused.

The two took Maxwell’s hands and started pulling him with them, as he stood up and followed them.

What they saw truly was something. There was one of the Privateer’s groups dancing to a man in the long blue coat and a crown on his head. The man had a creepy grin. But there was something wrong with the girl. If Maxwell’s eyes weren’t lying, he’d say she was crying, but her eyes were feelingness.

‘’Hey!’’ Maxwell shouted, getting the man’s eyes focused on him now.

‘’Oh look what the cat dragged in.’’ The man smirked and leaned back to a tree he was standing under.

He eyed Maxwell for a moment. He looked at his white gloves most of all, as the children ran behind him.

‘’P-please Mr. Grales! Help her!’’ Begged one of the Privateer’s students.

‘’Who are you? What do you want with her?’’ Maxwell asked, his tone cold towards the man, but eyes warm as he looked at the children.

‘’Name’s Weston. I am looking for my lost brother and my sources tell that he is somewhere in this stupid shit of a school.’’

‘’Who is your brother?’’ Maxwell asked.

‘’Well, we used to call him Maxette.’’ Weston shrugged.

Maxwell stared at the man and hissed, his fingers getting tingles again, as the man looked at the dancing girl, who had stopped moving and fell but was still breathing.

‘’Stupid bitch.’’ Weston said and put his two fingers next to his eye, the girl starting to scream.

Maxwell stared at her as she started to twitch and tremble, his eyes and ears bleeding.

‘’Stop!’’ He shouted, but the man didn’t turn his glance.

Maxwell’s fingers tingled and his whole mind had one question about it.

‘’What if she died? What if the man attacked the other kids?’’

Maxwell went serious as he almost automatically took off his glove where was a faintly glowing circle with a line going through it. He moved his hand towards Weston and he stared at his finger, as it lowered itself by its own, then at the man who was moving his fingers.

‘’Who are you?’’ He asked as Maxwell didn’t answer.

He just moved his finger, so Weston’s hand went to fist and he punched himself to the face a few times, until he fell, hitting his head to a stone, fainting.

With a shift movement, Maxwell ran to the girl, picked her up, and then looked at the other kids, who were freaked out.

‘’Get inside, now!’’ Maxwell shouted and watched the children run in panic, screaming.

Maxwell looked at Weston, before running off to get the girl to safety. He was panting, as all the kids were in panic. The teacher of the Privateers ran to him.

‘’Oh my dear lord?!’’ She almost fainted, but kept it together, Lucia rushed in.

‘’I called the ambulance!!’’ She said.

‘’Good!’’ Maxwell said, as the girl almost stopped breathing.

Maxwell quickly set her down, starting to do CPR on her, trying to get her to breathe again. The kids looked in shock, some crying, some trembling in fear. There were whispers and soon the sound of ambulance and police sirens.

Maxwell stopped the CPR only when the paramedics rushed in with their equipment and continued where Maxwell left off. At the same time, some police officers walked to the teachers.

‘’We need to talk with each one of you alone, who saw what happened.’’ A bearded police officer said.

‘’Of course.’’ The Privateer teacher said, very much shocked.

Maxwell looked at his students and knelt to their level.

‘’Don’t worry, everything will be okay.’’ He promised.

The children were crying, scared, and hugging each other.

‘’Just stay inside. We will call your parents to pick you up.’’ He said, trying to calm the children down.

A few moments later, the paramedics checked and talked with the rest of the children, who had calmed down, as Maxwell was up to questioning, as the injured girl was taken to the hospital.

‘’Tell us your name, occupation, and what happened?’’ The bearded police officer asked.

‘’My name is Maxwell Grales, I am the teacher of the Puppeteers group and I saw it all. It was that man you arrested at the yard. He was… Making Sonya dance against her will, while two of the students ran to get me. He told me he was looking for his brother, someone called Maxette.’’ Maxwell took a deep breath. ‘’I am not sure what happened next, but he was laying on the ground, which was when I ran off with the girl.’’ He said.

‘’Is that all? He had bruises from a fist fight on his face. And how was this girl, Sonya, injured?’’ The bearded police asked.

‘’It looked like he was doing it with his mind… I don’t know what happened… I am sorry.’’ Maxwell apologized.

‘’Alright. Well. We will be taking your contact info in case we need more information.’’ The officer said.

‘’Yes, of course,’’ Maxwell said.

‘’And I’d advise you to tell your class they will be having a few days of vacation. The traumatic experience today didn’t do good to their growth.’’ The officer said.

Maxwell nodded in agreement and stood up.

‘’Take care. You can go.’’ The officer said as Maxwell walked out of the room.

He walked to his students, who all ran to hug him. Maxwell knelt to them and hugged back the bunch he could.

‘’You guys will be staying home until this all is figured out. It will take a few days, but we will return stronger, right?’’ Maxwell asked, smiling.

There were a lot of uncertain agreements. Maxwell sighed a bit, as Lucia walked to the kids.

‘’We have informed everyone’s parents. Milo, your mom can’t come to pick you up, so I will take you.’’ She said.

‘’T-thank you miss Lucia…’’ Milo said quietly, as Maxwell stood up.

‘’Heads up. I know today was hard and scary, but I will do my best to make it easier.’’ Maxwell tried cheering everyone up.

‘’Go get your things, your parents will be here soon,’’ Lucia said.

The children left to get their things and walked to the window where they saw the parking lot. Nobody dared to go outside. They were all scared.

As everyone had left home, Maxwell took his keys and walked to his car, driving home to his sick elderly mother. They had lived under the same roof since the moment when she had gotten the diagnosis of cancer.

Once he got to the parking lot of his apartment house, he saw Weston again, standing next to the doors inside. Maxwell looked at him, then took his backpack and tried walking past him, but he moved in front of the doors.

‘’So my sources were right.’’ Weston hummed.

‘’I don’t know what you mean.’’ Maxwell hissed.

‘’Aww come on Maxette. I know it’s you!’’ Weston whined.

‘’Stop calling me that. You put my work at risk!’’ Maxwell hissed.

‘’But I see you still have that kick!’’ Weston said and smacked Maxwell’s ass, but his hand was being caught.

‘’Stop,’’ Maxwell said.

‘’What do you even want?’’

‘’I and Merly are being threatened and we would love to have someone who can help. Aka you, Maxette. Let the Pri-‘’

‘’No. No Primateria Trio. Not ever again. Last time we did something, I lost god knows how long portion of my memories!’’ Maxwell said, pushing Weston to the side and walking to the stairway, walking to an elevator and pressing a button, walking in as the doors opened.

‘’You can’t say no forever,’’ Weston growled.

‘’I can, princess,’’ Maxwell said. ‘’I have a job now and people who like me. I don’t intend to ruin it.’’ He said and left up the elevator.

‘’This won’t end here.’’ Weston growled and left the building.

‘’Yes it will, Westex.’’ Maxwell said as the elevator stopped onto the top floor and he walked to his apartment, opening the door, being greeted by his old mother.

‘’How was your day?’’ She asked.

‘’There’s a lot to tell you about.’’ Maxwell smiled, putting his coat on the hanger…