Flawed Programs

Club Activities

Chapter 1

Club Activities

"Hurry, Kiiro, or else we're going to be late for our club. President will get really mad and we'll be tuck doing punishment clean up for a month!" I yelled at him.

"I'm coming, Wyla, I just don't feel like running today." Kiiro whined but quickened his pace slightly. He looks dizzy today like he sometimes gets. Kiiro's pretty mysterious when you stop to think about it. He was found just outside our small town a few years ago with no memory. Sometimes he'll get really dizzy but the doctors said if he has suffered a brain trauma it might be something he'll have to deal with for the rest of his life. He was also unresponsive to everyone at first. He wouldn't talk or even really listen to anyone.

He actually got named Kiiro by the class when they enrolled him into school to see if a normal environment would help him. He didn't have a name and he wouldn't respond to the one given to him. At the time I was big into learning Japanese and felt incredibly proud when I learn to say the colors. The conversation with one of my friends went as so,

"Say a random color and I'll say it in Japanese." I told the now club president.

"Fine, yellow, now leave me alone." She snipped and went back to her book.

"Ha! Too easy, yellow is kiiro." When I said it the at the time John Dough jumped and looked at me. It was the first time he'd reacted to anything. "Is your name Kiiro?" I asked. He focused on me again but it was another two weeks before he even began to talk but by then his name had officially been changed to Kiiro.

To this day he can't remember a thing but the word kiiro is important to him. He doesn't know why either. Now a days though you couldn't tell he'd shown up in some kind of shock four years ago. He's a completely different person now but I kind of like him more this way. He's no longer passive and unresponsive. He can be kind of whiney at times, usually when he's dizzy, but he's friendly and curious. The only odd things about him is he doesn't eat, has unnaturally quick reflexes and he knows a lot of stuff like advanced math not even our math teacher can crack. He seemed so smart until one day in Spanish class he thought the word 'gato' meant something else. Come to find out the reason he wouldn't talk originally was because he couldn't understand us. His native language is similar to English, Spanish and Korean but has yet to be identified.

Then there were other strange things like he didn't know what a birthday was or a party, a gift, jokes or even what fun and games were. Once we learned that we guessed he was better off never remembering his past. He was most likely a poor kid who had technically never been born and suffered abuse all his life in his parents' basement. There's no telling and we're guessing we don't want to know.

"Sorry, we're late!" I apologized and dragged Kiiro in after me.

"I'm not," he muttered. I tossed him in a chair and he glared at me.

"It's okay. Kiiro looks like he's having a dizzy day so you're forgiven. If you hadn't led him here he might have gotten lost." Gloria the club president said in her usual high pitched kind of bored voice.

I looked at him an he was staring into space kind of swaying back and forth. I have a feeling he's sleeping. I shake him and yell, "Wake up idiot!" When I let go he just falls face first onto the table with a loud thump.

"Is he okay?" Prez, asks.

"Falling," he lifted his head and arms and made maneuvers as if he was falling through space, "Systems are not operating correctly. Going in for a crash landing."

"What is he dreaming of?" Greg asks looking up from his manga.

"I think he's flying a plane. Or maybe a spaceship." I replied and went about stretching his face into weird positions to get him to wake up.

"Leave me alone." He muttered as I stretched his mouth back to reveal all his shiny white teeth which the doctors confirmed most likely aren't his real teeth. They are some sort of glass porcelain. They sharp too. Learned that the hard way when I stuck my finger in his mouth to wake him up and got bit instead. He woke up when I screamed. Kiiro is still one large mystery.

"Did you remember anything this week?" Prez asked.

"You ask me every week and every week you get the same answer. No I haven't and I don't want to know." He said testily.

"Were you dreaming about airplanes?" Greg asked.

"No, I was free falling. Free falling actually feels really nice. I like it anyways." He muttered not opening his eyes or lifting his head.

"Then what was up with the systems are not operational?" I asked suspiciously.

"I dunno. Don't remember that part." He opened his eyes in interest.

"He was dreaming, it's not supposed to make sense." Greg said going back to his manga.

"I dunno, dreams can be portals to the past. His dreams might have something to do with his lost memories." Prez said.

"It's possible," he admitted, "Those dreams seem really real when I'm in there but I can't remember what I'm thinking in them. I haven't seen anyone else that could possibly be someone I know. I've seen random class mates, the student body president and the nurse's assistant, which might just be my mind telling me something. I blame the stupid teenage hormones for that one." He said losing interest.

"This means you hold still and we'll hypnotize you into remembering." Prez said getting all worked up and taking out her hypnotizing kit.

"But I don't want to remember." Kiiro insisted.

"Why not though?" Prez asked looking innocent.

"I have a feeling if I remember we can't be friends anymore. That I can't stay here at all." He said sadly and mysteriously.

"That's a stupid fear. Now watch the watch and when I count to three you'll get very sleepy. I'll count to ten and snap my fingers and you will wake up. When you wake up you will remember your past. 1...2...3." Prez intoned and Kiiro falling for it falls asleep with his eyes open. "1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10" She snapped her fingers and Kiiro started.

That's where it got weird.

He screamed and curled into a tight ball but the moment anyone got to close he made a flying leap for a corner. About a half hour later he calmed down and when he was finally calm we asked him if he was alright.

"I don't know. What happened?" He looked dazed and confused.

"So you don't remember?" Prez asked a little disappointed.

"No," he said uncertainly.

"It seems you remembered for a moment but you freaked out. You most likely suppressed the memories again. It's not that you can't remember, you don't want to subconsciously as well as consciously. Something in your past must have been quite traumatic." I said giving his black hair a pat. It's kind of longish and surprisingly soft. His eyes are a bright blue but kind of lost looking.

"Lets stop trying to make him remember. It's a likely chance his previous personality conflicts with his current one and remembering will just hurt him." Greg said seeing the point, "We don't want to lose our friend and at this rate we will. It's not fair to make him suffer just to solve the mystery."

I nodded in agreement, "You'll remember eventually. But not until your ready." I encouraged him.

Prez gave in, "But we'll have to rename the club and come up with a different theme." She sounded disappointed but if Kiiro's past scared him we had to give up.

"How about the mystery club. We can investigate Kiiro's past and also solve other mysteries." I offered.

"Sounds fun, let's give it a try." Greg said thoughtfully.

"Sound good to you?" Prez asked Kiiro.

"Sure," he replied but seemed lost in cyberspace at the moment. If only I knew how accurate that was at the time. I could have changed everything.