“I’m at the back door,” I text to the random number on the mysterious flip phone. I followed the given directions, and I ended up at an abandoned warehouse about twenty minutes outside of Richmond. I am camouflaged in the night sky, as requested, along with bringing $100 and a black backpack. Did I feel sketched out by any of this? Totally, but at this point, I really felt like I had nothing left to lose. If I truly wanted my senior year to go out with a bang, there would be no point in hoping for change without taking risks. Additionally, my best friends Ben and Sam love being in this thing, so why wouldn’t I? Thoughts collapsed through my mind as I remember how I got here, as the rusty metal door slowly opens into the darkness.
“Who are you?” the man at the door asks.
“Tyler Adams.” I respond.
“Who sent you here?” he orders.
“Mr. Williams, or Kevin, whatever I should call him,” I said.
“What is the code?” he questions.
“Live to change,” I said.
“Okay, perfect. Do you have the stuff?” the man requests, nodding his head.
“Like I was told,” I fired back.
I sit on the far right side of the circular table; I feel like I am in one of those spy movies where the good guys look at the news on the humongous screens. However, there are certainly no screens around here along with very little light. Only the dim candle in the middle of the table provides the room with vision. I still do not entirely know why I am here, or why they brought me to the mid-
“Welcome Tyler to quite possibly the most important meeting of your life,” a voice bellows from the other side of the table, temporarily launching me out of my chair. “As you may know, my name is Kevin Williams, but feel free to call me Kev. I understand that this may be a lot to analyze, and you might not truly know who we are, so I think it would be helpful to outline what we want to do for you. Understood?” Kevin asks.
“For sure, any information is helpful,” I respond truthfully.
Kevin slowly walks across the outskirts of the room. “Well, first off, we are the Live To Change Committee, or the LTCC for short. By watching you through your computer and phone via our advanced technology, we have noticed your disappointment and frustration with your senior year of high school. Would you agree that you want this year to be better?” he asks.
I nod my head. “Yeah! Everything has been pretty boring so far with college stuff and all that, so I am looking for something new.”
“Perfect,” Kevin exclaims with a loud clap of his hands. “We come across thousands of teenagers who have your same exact problem. So, we help those like you by providing facilitated tasks that, when completed, will change your reputation and life. I cannot dive into the objectives that we have planned for you, but just know that The Committee has put a great amount of thought into them. Does this all sound good, Tyler?”
“Definitely,” I state with a huge smile. “So am I now a member? Do I have to do anything else?”
Kevin analyzes my comment and chuckles. “Woah, slow down, I’m glad you asked. In order to be initiated into the LTCC, you only need to do two things for us,” he slides me a piece of paper. “Just read the statement, and then sign the document.”
“What is the point of the contract?” I ask.
Kevin clears his throat. “Signing the contract shows an element of loyalty to The Committee. Additionally, it officially makes you eligible to receive your first task. Once again, if you could please read the statement and sign, you will be good to go.”
“Okay” I confidently say back. “I, Tyler Adams, agree to take on every task that any member of The Committee provides me. I may not completely understand why I am here, but I know that after becoming an initiated member, my life currently and in the future will immensely improve. I will respect everyone in The Committee, and I will never question any decision that is bestowed upon me. Finally, I will not communicate any information about The Committee outside of this building. Silence is power, confidence is strength, change to live.”
I sign my name on the dotted line.
“Congratulations TYLER!!” Kevin along with ten other voices shout from the darkness. “Welcome to The Committee. We think it is only fair to you to explain why you are the one we chose to join our family. However, the LTCC believes that it is more effective to show not tell, so we will be immediately providing you with your first objective.” Kevin proceeds to slide a flip phone right in front of me. ”This is your new flip phone, or your primary communication with anyone in The Committee. For now, you are free to drive home, just be sure to check this flip phone Monday morning before you head off to school.”
The 7:25am alarm goes off as usual. I get up, get dressed, brush my teeth, say hi to my Mom, pour a bowl of cereal, get my backpack together, put on my swea-
“WAIT A SECOND, THE PHONE!” I excitedly scream to myself. I rush upstairs and grab the phone from my dresser; I determinately scroll through the phone to find the message. After a few seconds of searching, I finally discovered the text.
“Hello Tyler, as you know, there is about three weeks left in the semester. Expect to have a different weekly objective until the end of the semester. For this week, your goal is to enter yourself into the schoolwide talent show, and we will help you out from there. Get to it.”
“Tyler Adams, grade twelve, general talent,” I write on the signup sheet. Never in a million years would I expect myself to sign up for the talent show, nor Ben or Sam, who are also signed up as well. Yet, here I am, and I don’t even know what I am about to do. The show is on Wednesday night, so until then, I am going to stay prepared and open to whatever is thrown my way.
Monday and Tuesday pass by like a blur; nothing else truly seemed important other than the talent show. Even though I am not particularly excited about doing an act, it still remained something to look forward to. Finally, Wednesday morning came, and I received another text on my trusty flip phone.
“Hello Tyler, for instructions for what you are going to do at the talent show, please call this number at 6:00PM. Hear from you soon.”
Eight hours later, I pound in the number into my phone; sweat is dripping from my forehead to the ground and my heart is beating faster than a race car engine. I let the phone ring a few times before it eventually goes to voicemail: “Look behind you.” I rapidly turn around and I see…
I turn around and see my two best friends, Ben and Sam, standing with huge smiles on their faces. “Yo what’s good guys? What are you guys doing here?” I whisper.
“What do you think? We probably all have the same task for this week, which maybe has something to do with the talent show. Chill, this is gonna be fun,” Sam fires back.
“What exactly do you do in these tasks?” I confusingly respond.
“Aw, someone’s getting stage fright,” Ben teases. “Don’t worry bro, all of these tasks are so much fun.”
I playfully shove Ben. “But why would The Committee pick the talent show?” I ask. “They must know I don’t perform well in front of crowds, and that you clowns definitely don’t have any talents, except for your drinking skills.”
“Hey!” Sam shouted. ”You know I take a great amount of pride in that. Last Saturday, I was with Samantha and someone handed m—.”
All three of our flip phones buzz with urgency. I pull it out and we all read the message together: “Today, you will be performing the most dangerous and exciting act of your life. This task is so crazy that you guys need to move the show outside. In the parking lot, there will be five fire-lit rings, a ramp, and three bicycles. Your team goal for this performance is to jump off the ramp with the bicycle and make it through all the rings. Obviously, we know you have received no practice, so we will give you up to five tries before we call it quits. Relax, you won’t die, just Live To Change. Put on a good show men.”
My face instantly becomes pale, identical to a snowman in December, while Sam and Ben’s faces glow with excitement. Before I even get the chance to open my mouth, the talent show coordinator’s voice bellows into the speakers; “For the last act of the night, we have Tyler Adams, Ben Callahan, and Sam Tott! However, per request, their act will be performed outside in the parking lot, so everyone please make their way outside.”
As promised, the fire-lit rings, the ramp, and the bicycles all lay peacefully with no cars in sight. While I take a second to analyze what I will soon do, Ben and Sam grab the bikes and begin to pump up the crowd.
“C’mon Tyler, it is not going to be that bad. Even if you mess up, we can always reset.” Ben convincingly says.
“What does a reset mean?!” I shoot back.
“Don’t worry about it, just try your best to complete this and we will all be legends. How about you go first, Ben, and show him” Sam happily says.
I trust the words of my best friends, and I hop on the bicycle. Ben agrees to Sam’s request, and he begins to get into position to ride down the ramp. Ben gives us both a thumbs up, and his body and the bike slowly tumbles out of our sight; he reaches the end of the ramp and the bike explodes into the air. He makes it through the first ring, and then the second, and then he heads towards the third ri…
*CRASH*
The crowd gasps, the videographer laughs uncontrollably, and Ben lays flat on the ground with agony and embarrassment. Sam turns to me and says, “Just wait a few seconds.” I try to interpret what he said, but within those few seconds, all three of us are teleported to backstage, with Ben happy and healthy.
“Dude, did we just time travel!?” I ask Ben and Sam.
“Yeah, that’s how this works. If we mess up, someone from The Committee sets us back to before the incident occurred. We have four more tries, let’s do this!” Ben insists.
Sam then tries the stunt, but fails horribly, and we get reset again. Ben tries to top his first performance, but this time, he crashes at the fourth ring. On the fourth attempt, Ben and Sam finally give me the chance to go. I tiptoe closer to the end of the ramp, give the thumbs up, and hesitantly zoom down the ramp. Suddenly, I feel myself flying in the air, the fire whipping past my ears, and the gears of the bike continuously grinding. Before I know it, I see the platform in sight. I focus on making it through the fifth ring, and carefully, I land the bike!
“I DID THE TRICK, I DID THE STUNT!” I yell to my friends as the crowd cheers and claps. The crowd then begins to chant “TYLER ADAMS, TYLER ADAMS, TYLER ADAMS,” as a huge smile grows across my face. My time of fame is shortly joined by Ben, and Sam soon after, as they both complete the stunt. We all come in for a group hug and we face the crowd, We all give a giant and lengthy bow, soak up the moment, and head back into the auditorium.
All of the acts are now on the stage, along with the talent show organizers. I see classmates of all kinds with me on stage: jocks, nerds, the musically talented, and the gossip girls. I guess all of these people really want that cash prize badly, although that does not even seem to matter to me at the moment.
One of the organizers steps towards the mic and begins reading off their paper. “Once again, thank you to everyone in the audience who came to see our show, and for all of the acts who were brave enough to perform. However, everyone here is still wondering: who is the winner? By a clear margin, the winners are… Tyler Adams, Ben Callahan and Sam Tott!”
Ben, Sam and I collapse into one more group hug, with this time a trophy laying in the middle of us. We turn back to the crowd, and once again give them a heartfelt bow. In the audience, I notice five men dressed in silky black suits standing in the back of the room, nodding and clapping with approval. I make eye contact with one of the men; he smiles and holds up his iPad which reads “Welcome to The Committee, Tyler.” I give him a thumbs up before the three of us head backstage, ending the beautiful moment.
“That was amazing Tyler! You’re now gonna be known as the coolest kid in school” Sam exclaims.
“Absolutely, that is definitely the coolest thing I have ever seen you do” Ben adds.
“Thank you guys, I never expected anything like this to ever happen to me, and I can tell that this will be life-changing for me.” I say back.
“Hey man, Down Ty is no more!” Sam softly punches me.
“For real dude, welcome to The Committee, get ready for a crazy few months.” Ben says.
“I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world,” I happily state back.
“Thanks Mrs. Callahan!” I say to Ben’s mom, thanking her for driving me to school with Ben and Sam. I enter the revolving doors of Crystal Lake High School and begin walking to my calculus class, but not before a group of fifteen people mob me in front of the door.
“Yo Ty!” Steven Hamilton, the football team star at CLHS shouts, “your act yesterday was sick! I couldn’t imagine ever doing that. Big props to you and your buds. Hope to see ya around.”
“Absolutely!! I was at the edge of my seat the entire time. That was awesome,” Sarah Smith, the head of the theatre department, said.
Hannah Banks, one of the most popular girls in the school, and my long-time crush, taps me on the shoulder. “We need to get you on our Youtube channel ASAP! Your input and thoughts about your act will get us millions of views,” she exclaims as she hands me a piece of paper. “Please text me, and we will get something set up, and maybe we can hangout beyond that. Just keep me updated!” Hannah says with a smile.
“Thanks everyone for your support! I’ll talk to all you soon,” I respond to them before walking into my class with Ben and Sam.
Ben looks at me with wide eyes. “Dude, that was crazy! That never happens to any of us, and we haven’t talked to any of those people before,” Ben says.
Sam nods his head in agreement. “Yeah, I thought the same exact thing. Tyler, you are becoming a legend at Crystal Lake; that’s so dope! We can definitely talk about this more with The Committee at the meeting tonight,” Sam states as he opens up his textbook.
“For sure,” I respond to Sam, “I have a lot of things that I need to ask them.”
I arrived at the same abandoned warehouse as two weeks ago, but this time with Ben and Sam. Ben proceeds to knock on the door and the man in black opens it.
“Please confirm your identities,” the man asks.
“We are Tyler Adams, Ben Callahan, and Sam Tott,” we all respond.
“What is the password?” the man requests.
“Live To Change,” we state.
“Perfect, please head inside to see Mr. Callahan and the rest of the Committee,” the man orders as he fully opens the door, allowing us to walk inside.
“Ah men, how was this week’s task?” Kevin asks enthusiastically.
“It was awesome! My life at school couldn’t be greater right now: I’m tight with the star of the football team, head of the theatre department, and I got my crushes number. Everything is moving smoothly, all thanks to you guys,” I gush, looking all around at the members sitting at the table.
“That’s amazing Tyler, I’m glad you enjoyed it. Ben and Sam have been doing this for the past year now, and they feel the same way about every objective we assign them. Right, Ben and Sam?”
They both nod accordingly. “Of course Kev,” Ben laughed, “you never fail to impress us.”
“Hey what can I say?” Kevin says with a shrug, “we do put a great amount of thought into all of our members.”
“So, how often does this happen? How many tasks do we get?” I ask Kevin.
“It really depends on each individual,” Kevin responds. “The Committee will keep you updated about when your next task is, but expect it to be a few weeks.”
I give Kevin a thumbs up. “Okay, that sounds good. But what about the whole teleporting thing? How did you guys do that?”
Kevin smiles. “I knew you were going to ask about that. Within The Committee, certain members have access to specific powers, such as teleportation, invisibility, super speed and strength, and much more. Depending on what crew is assigned to you for a task, they will provide their power towards helping you complete your task. I understand that superpowers seem crazy to believe, but you have to trust me.”
“He is right, Tyler,” Ben says to me, “that’s how we were able to redo the act after I completely failed it the first time.”
I look at Kevin confusingly. “Uh, okay then. So what exactly is the limit for what The Committee can do?” I ask.
“There isn’t one,” Kevin says simply. “You just have to wait to see what comes next.”
Kyle Banker 