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School Day {Chapter1}
By Aragorn
DAY 1
~ CHAPTER 1 ~
A New Day, A New School
I
The early morning sun rested in the sky, shining bright sunlight down on the new school. This school, Great Mills High School, had just opened and this was the students first day of the year. First school day, that is.
Before now the town had three different high schools, all smaller in size then this one. One of these schools was having renovations done on it when some of the new tar caught fire and burned the school down. Luckily it was during a holiday so no one was injured or killed.
At first the School Board wanted to move the students that went to that school to one of the other schools, but there simply wasn’t enough room, so they built small buildings made out of trailers, all in one area and used that as their school area.
Then, about half a year later, one of the other two high schools had a little problem. Their students kept reporting seeing rats, but at the time no one believed them, as the town was famous for being ‘Rat Free’. A few of the students ended up getting bit and had to be brought to the hospital. After that that school closed down so they could send exterminators in to deal with the rats.
They had discovered a huge nest in the basement and killed all the rats, but the fumigation pealed paint off the walls above on the first and second floors, and damaged people’s belongings in their lockers.
Due to the school once having a rat infestation, no one wanted to return to it, so because two out of the three high schools were down, the School Board voted to build a new, larger school that could house all three schools’ students. It was a gigantic project and they used their entire budget and then some on it, but it was state-of-the-art.
Once students and teachers both saw the school after it was built, they couldn’t wait for the first day of school to begin so they could go inside and check it out.
The school had four floors that could be seen from the outside and a basement level below ground as well as a windowless attic. When it was first built, the construction workers messed up, because they had used the blueprints of a mall to build the school, but by that time, they had the majority of it built, so they couldn’t just take it down. They compromised and built classrooms into it.
It was designed, so that once school was out for the day, the doors were set to magnetically seal and the only way to get in would be to use a security card that only teachers and School Board officials carried. They also had a lock on the door for emergency uses, but that idea was fairly new and only a few School Board members had the keys, however they were working on all the others getting a key, as well as the teachers, so within a couple days all the teachers, janitors, and other school officials would have them.
***
This morning was just like any other school morning. Cars were pulling up and parking on the side of the road, some almost too close to others, bikes were being locked up at the bike rack, skateboards being ridden and then coming to a stop when the riders saw their friends, and other people were walking.
Some people took the walkway up to the main doors while others went across the grass even though the principal was standing outside telling them not to walk on the grass. He shielded his eyes from the sun as a breeze lightly blew his suit. He didn’t want to be outside anymore then the students wanted him outside.
Everyone was arriving at different times, different conversations taking place. There was yelling as a car came to park and lightly bumped into the back of someone else’s truck. The owner of the truck, a Grade 12 student, got out and started yelling at the person who bumped into him.
For Mark Abbot, he knew what was in store for him. As he walked across the street to go to the school, a group of three students ran by him, pushing him and ruffling his curly whitish hair, then giggling as they ran off. Mark sighed and straightened his thick-rimmed glasses.
As he fixed his glasses, his fingers felt the tape on the sides that held the glasses together and wondered when his daily ritual of being picked on would end.
Attached to the side of the school was an area fenced off with a swinging door in the fence and a stone garbage can in the middle. Old cigarette buts covered the ground as a group of people stood around, breathing in and out on their cigarettes and talking to each other.
Dozens of other students and staff were entering the school. There were many kids around the school, inside and out, having both nice conversations, and not so nice ones, and a couple fights breaking out; fist fights that teachers had to brake up as well as yelling fights: A girl stomped on her boyfriend’s foot and ran off, after yelling something nasty at him.
There were also nerdy kids getting picked on and guys trying to pick up girls. Old friends were meeting each other, slapping high-fives, or in the girls’ cases, hugging.
***
Two of these kids, seventeen-year-old Jeff Long and seventeen-year-old Edward Washington walked up to the school and stopped outside to marvel at it as the other students walked inside. Jeff, whose full name was Jeffrey but hated it when people called him that, brushed his dark brown hair back as he took off his sunglasses and put them inside his jacket pocket.
He, like all of his friends, had gone to the school that didn’t have any problems and didn’t think there was a reason to change schools. Once he saw the new school however, he couldn’t wait to attend it.
His father was in the military and so he moved around a lot. The first place he lived was Germany but couldn’t remember too much of that because he moved away when he was only eight. After that he moved to Newfoundland, Canada, where he stayed for about six years. During those six years, he had made many friends and even had a few girlfriends over time. One of these he went out with for nine months, and then found out his dad was posted and so he had to break up with her and move to Heartfield, a small town in Alberta.
While there, one of his first friends was Edward, a dark skinned kid, the same age Jeff was. They made other friends and enemies over the past three years, some who themselves moved away, and some who didn’t.
Jeff and Edward had their fights and troubles, but they were always friends in the end. They even went to get their drivers licenses at the same time; both passed.
“This new school is real sweet!” Jeff exclaimed, looking up into the bright sunlight to look at the school. “I heard its doors are magnetic!”
“Yep!” Edward confirmed. “This school looks really cool. Did you know that it's designed like a mall?”
Jeff shook his head. He hadn’t known that. He would have wondered where Edward got his information from, but he knew that one of their friend’s mothers worked on the school board and Edward talked to him a lot more then Jeff did.
“Can’t wait to see the inside of it.” There was a hum and the doors electronically opened outwards as they approached the thick metal doors. When they got inside, they wiped their muddy shoes on the red carpet in the porch and continued on.
Inside the school, it looked pretty much like the average school, only larger and with a lot more students and teachers. It had its fair share of hallways and on the walls were painted murals of different countries from around the world, showing people, buildings, and locations to match each country.
There were muddy shoeprints all over the recently cleaned shinning floor, from those students who didn’t bother wiping their shoes.
As Jeff and Edward started walking down the halls, a thirteen-years-old girl ran up to them with her friend. This girl, Dirisha Crosley, was in Grade Seven, and used to live on the same street as Jeff. They hung out sometimes outside of school and talked on the phone constantly, but rarely ever talked in school because of the people that kept annoying them about how a Grade Seven and Grade Eleven shouldn’t be hanging out because of the age difference.
Dirisha greeted Jeff. Dirisha’s friend was a bit taller then Dirisha, and less talkative. She mostly just followed her friend around.
“Hey Dirisha.” Jeff said back. Then nodded at her friend in a greeting gesture. “Andrea.” He turned back to Dirisha. “Have you been around the school yet?”
“Some of it. Holy shit, it’s huge!” Dirisha exclaimed, moving her arms out to show that the school was big.
“We’ll be checking it out soon,” Jeff said. “What do you have first today?”
“I’m not sure yet. I have to go get my schedule from the Office. I didn’t get mine at the end of last year.”
“Alright, well talk to ya later.”
“Bye.” Dirisha and Andrea turned and walked down the hall.
Next, Jeff saw Travis walk by, but he didn’t say anything, just glared at him. Travis was another Grade Seven who used to pick on Dirisha. One day Jeff went to talk to him, but he ended up sending him through a locker. Travis had never picked on Dirisha since then, and has been fairly scared of Jeff.
Dirisha got mad at Jeff over that, because Travis told the principal that Dirisha told Jeff to slam him into a locker, even though she didn’t. Jeff had only seen Dirisha crying and asked her what the matter was, and she told him. He then went and ‘talked’ to Travis, without Dirisha ever knowing.
As they walked, they noticed that some people were having trouble opening their lockers, while others didn’t. One kid kicked his locker so hard in frustration, that he started limping. There were other people walking the halls, having various conversations.
Jeff and Edward continued down the hall when a tall kid by the name of Steven Tucker ran up to them. Steven had lived in Heartfield his whole life, and while he never really had anything against Jeff, he and Edward were bitter enemies. Ever since Kindergarten, Steven was always on Edward’s back, teasing him, playing pranks, doing things to get in trouble and then saying Edward did them. It was because of him that Edward used to fake sick in Elementary so he didn’t have to go to school. Since they entered High School, Stephen’s even tried beating him up a couple times. Steven himself though, belonged to a nice family. His parents weren’t the richest, but they sure had a lot of money, and Stephen had practically got whatever he wanted ever since he was a little boy.
“Hey Jeff,” Steven greeted as he got to them. “I told Allison!”
Jeff turned to him, a look of utter horror on his face. A few days before, Jeff had seen Stephen in a local convenient store, and he had a secret that he had to get off his chest, but didn’t know who else to tell. He didn’t want to tell Edward, because he would bug him about it, and up until then Jeff and Stephen had been cool with each other, so he decided he’d tell him.
“What did you tell her, Steven?” Edward asked, curious.
“That Jeff has had a big crush on her since he moved here, but has been too scared to ask her out.”
Edward got a smirk on his face. As soon as Jeff saw that smirk, he knew what was coming. “Jeff, I told you, don't trust Steven with your secrets. He tells everybody.”
“Shut up, Edward!” Steven yelled with hatred. Then he turned and walked away, down the hall, into the crowd of students.
Jeff shrugged. “I was going tell her this year, anyway.” He knew that Edward could tell he was lying. Jeff could like a girl and never tell her for as long as he lived. Edward gave Jeff a look that had ‘yeah, sure’ painted all over it.
As they walked down the hall some more, brushing past other students, Edward got an idea. “Hey, let’s explore the school before class starts. Dirisha said it was big, so we should get an early start.”
Jeff agreed. He pulled back the sleeve on his jacket and looked at his watch, moving it so the glare of the lights didn’t reflect off it. “We still have a few minutes left before the bell rings.”
They started down another hall, exploring the school and admiring the murals on the walls.
***
Minutes later they walked into the cafeteria. They stopped in their tracks as they gazed into the huge room that was void of other students. It was a giant room filled with tables and chairs, the chairs laid on top of the tables, upside down. Small restaurants lined the walls.
Edward looked around in wonder and amazement. “This is just like a food court in a mall! We've got KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and more!”
“I love this place!” Jeff shouted. They started walking across the floor, their steps echoing throughout the room as they looked at all the restaurants that were present. After a few minutes of looking, they turned and headed back across the room, heading for the door.
Right as they were about to leave to go back out into the crowded hall, a girl wearing a red tank-top with long brownish-blonde hair walked in.
“Hi Jeff,” She said, smiling.
“Hey Allison,” Jeff said slowly. Allison Luk passed by them and started looking around the room. Jeff started nudging Edward out of the room. He finally managed to get Edward into the hall and they started walking again.
After a few minutes, Edward felt like he had to break the silence between him and Jeff. “I think she likes you.” Edward said. Jeff turned and glared at him. He knew Edward wouldn’t leave him alone about that once Steven told him.
Suddenly an electronic buzz sounded throughout the entire school and some students jumped while others practically ignored it.
“Shit!” Edward shouted. “We're going to be late for our first class. We're already starting off on the wrong foot.” Now that he thought about it, he and Jeff had been too busy exploring the school that they didn’t even bother to see what class they had first or where the room they had to go to for their first class was located.
Jeff and Edward looked around the halls and saw that all the other people were still wandering about, seemingly just as confused as they were.
“Well at least we're not the only ones,” Jeff pointed out.
“Everyone listen up, please.” A voice filled the air. Jeff looked around and saw an intercom on the wall; the voice was coming from there. That must be the voice of their new principal. What was his name? Jeff remembered that he saw it written someplace. Johanson? No, that wasn’t it. Jillbob? Oh well, either way Jeff hoped he was better then their old principal, Mr. Codare.
The voice continued and all the other voices in the hall from the different students quieted down, except for the rare couple that then tuned their voices down to a whisper.
“Greetings students and staff, I’m you’re new principal, Mr. Johnson.” Jeff snapped his fingers. Mr. Johnson! That was it! The Principal continued, “Please disregard the bell. I understand that many of you are lost. This is a brand new school and it is pretty immense, so I'm going to go easy. There is a large map that can be found on the wall outside of the office in the main hallway. You may use that to help you locate your classrooms, so find your classes and report to them before Nine O’clock. Anyone in the halls after nine will be written up. Have a nice day and enjoy the new school.” The intercom turned off and the voices in the hall began to rise up again as people went about their various conversations.
Jeff felt his heart sink as he played back in his mind what the new principal had said. ‘Anyone in the halls after nine will be written up’. That meant they were using the demerit system again. Jeff had hoped they’d get a different system since all schools had a different way of doing things. The demerit system went like this: A student would get demerits for doing certain things like being late for class or talking back to a teacher. Basically if someone displayed any inappropriate behavior then they’d get a demerit, sometimes even more then one, and they’d be written up. Once a certain amount of demerits were given, certain privileges were taken away, such as not being allowed to go to after school activities or participate in school sports teams; things like that.
“Man!” Edward shouted. “I don't even know what class I have first.”
“We should find out,” Jeff suggested.
Edward looked at his watch. “Well we better hurry. We only have ten minutes left.” They both dug into their pockets quickly, moving stuff around, and pulled out their schedules and unfolded them.
“I have English first!” Jeff stated with a smile.
“You like English?” Edward asked, frowning.
“Remember, I love to write stories. Especially Horror stories.”
Edward hit himself on the head. He couldn’t believe he forgot that! He had read every one of Jeff’s stories, and so had a lot of other people. Jeff was most well known around their old school for writing stories.
Edward unfolded his schedule which was wrinkled beyond belief, and straightened out the bumps and lines as he looked at it. His eyes lit up. “Hey, I also have English first!”
“Let's see what else we have together!” Jeff suggested excitedly. They both put their schedules up on the wall next to each other and started comparing their schedules.
Jeff looked at his and saw he had English first, then Science, then Computers, Industrial Arts, and Social Studies. Edward looked at his and saw that he had English, Math, Music, Home Economics, and Science. They both looked at each other’s schedules and saw that they even had Lunch at different times. Lunch was at different times for different students, so the halls weren’t get too crowded.
Edward made his disapproval of their schedule differences well-known by muttering a string of curse words.
Jeff sighed, taking his schedule and folding it back up in his pocket. “We should make the best out of English. We don’t even have lunch together.”
Edward looked down at his watch to see what time it was. He swore once again as he saw the time. “It's Eight-Fifty-Eight! We're gonna be late!”
They whipped around and looked around the hall, seeing that they were the only students left. The other students must have left when Jeff and Edward had their backs turned, looking at their schedules. They had been too preoccupied to notice.
They rushed off down the hall, their feet echoing as they ran. After a few minutes they reached the office. Outside the office, on the wall across from it, was the map of the school.
“We have to find Mrs. Gulbra's room!” Jeff said in between heaves, catching his breath. They put their fingers on the map, tracing them along the different halls, trying to find their English room and find out how to get there from where they were.
“Damn it!” Edward swore. “Why does this school have to be so damn big?”
Jeff answered, “You have to take the bad with the good I guess.” But he really agreed with Edward silently.
The bell rang, making an electronic buzz throughout the school. Edward swore again, giving up with the map and turning around, putting his back against the wall.
“We're dead now,” Jeff complained. He and Edward walked away and down the hall to where there were a couple of benches and sat down on them, looking at the floor.
Jeff heard footsteps and looked up. What was that? He blinked, but didn’t see it again. He thought he had seen a dark shape at the end of the hall, going around a corner. He could have sworn he saw the back of a Grim Reaper costume, but it must have been his imagination. He shrugged, passing it off as just him being over-tired for having to wake up early that morning, and went back to looking at the floor.
“I want to go home,” Edward mumbled. Then he opened his mouth wide and yawned. “I want to get the hell back in bed.”
“Cheer up.” Jeff looked up and at the wall on the other side of the hall. “Today may be cut short. I heard a severe snowstorm is working its way up the coast.”
“Did you get that off of Steven? He’s full of bullshit lies.”
“Nope, the News,” Jeff replied. “It was all over The Weather Network.” Jeff had found it strange when he first heard about it. Heartfield rarely got lots of snow, and they had never had a blizzard since Jeff had been there. When he first heard about it, he didn’t believe the blizzard would actually hit, especially since it was only September, months before the first snowfall usually happened, but he had to say something to cheer Edward up.
***
A Hall Monitor known by the students as Mr. Stuart walked down an empty hall. Frank Stuart was in his early forties and had led a pretty interesting life. He started off as a janitor at a business building when he was nineteen, refusing to go to university or collage. While there, he met another janitor the same age as him, named Heather.
They started talking day after day and having their lunch breaks together. As time went by, they got close and started dating. By the time they were twenty-two, Frank and Heather had gotten married and moved to a small town just north of Heartfield. They stayed there for many years, Frank working as a janitor at a local Elementary school and Heather getting a bus driving license and driving kids to school.
They stayed there for many years but one year the pay was bad, so Frank was forced to steal money from the school safe in order to keep their house. The school found out and fired him, as well as brought him to court and charged him.
Heather was also fired from her bus driving job because it was proven that she knew about Frank stealing the money and agreed to keep it.
Once that news got out all over town, no place would hire them, so they were forced to move to Heartfield, which from what they heard, was a nice little town with very little violence.
They couldn’t get a job at first, mainly due to no place hiring, but when they heard about the new school opening, they went to the School Board and managed to get hall monitor jobs.
***
Mr. Stuart turned a corner and saw a dark skinned teen and a white teen sitting on a bench, talking. He was too far away however to pick out what was being said. He breathed in as he started walking towards them. First catch of the day.
He held a walkie-talkie in his left hand, but only static was emitting from it.
“Shouldn't you kids be in class?” He asked. The teens stood up and turned to face him.
“We can't find Mrs. Gulbra's room,” the White teen announced.
“Follow me.” Mr. Stuart sighed.
***
Jeff and Edward followed Mr. Stuart down a hall. Once they got to the end, they turned a corner and Jeff saw a staircase. They started up the staircase and down another hall. Man, this school IS big! Jeff thought as they turned another corner.
As they walked down another hall, Mr. Stuart broke the silence. “This school may be big, but it's easy to navigate. All the English rooms are in the English hall, all the Math rooms are in the Math halls, ect.”
“But this school is new,” Edward said. “How are we supposed to know where the different halls are?”
“You can look on the map by the office or ask a staff member to assist you.” He came to a stop and pointed to a door at the end of the hall. “That’s the room you’re looking for.”
Jeff nodded. “The class has probably already started without us.” Jeff and Edward gave a quick wave good-bye and started to run down the hall, but were stopped when Mr. Stuart called them back.
The two teens stopped and hung their heads low as they turned and slowly walked back to Mr. Stuart. “I'm still going to have to write you two up. Now what are your names?” Mr. Stuart pulled out a device that looked like a calculator, but was a bit thicker with a small long and skinny plastic rolling bar at the top. This was for printing paper. This contraption was called The Dica.
“Our names?” Jeff asked. Mr. Stuart nodded. Jeff sighed, “Jeffrey Long.”
“Steven Tucker,” Edward lied. Jeff turned to look at him, a surprised look on his face. He couldn’t believe that Edward had just done that! Steven was going to kick his ass if he ever found out!
The Hall Monitor thanked them and typed out the names on the Dica. A minute later, a printing noise was heard as a piece of paper printed out. Mr. Stuart ripped it off from the Dica and ripped it in half on a dotted line, handing the two pieces to Jeff and Edward.
“Now get off to class,” Mr. Stuart ordered. He turned and walked away. Jeff and Edward watched him go around a corner.
Jeff shouted, “Demerits on the first day! They should give us some kind of a break!”
***
Inside Mrs. Gulbra’s class, students were seated in their chairs, some turned around and talking while others silently looked up front to where the teacher stood trying to get their attention.
The door opened and everyone hushed up as Jeff and Edward slowly walked in. They handed their demerit slips to Mrs. Gulbra.
“Nice of you boys to join us,” the tall curly haired teacher said. “Now, for the next few minutes, greet each other. Get to know one another while I take care of these slips.”
Jeff and Edward walked down an aisle and took a couple of seats next to each other. Most students turned and talked to their friends, some put their heads on their desk and tried to catch up on their sleep, and some did turn around and talk, trying to make new friends.
Jeff and Edward turned and talked to each other. All around them, they kept hearing parts of other conversations, but they never paid much attention to them.
“Look,” Edward pointed out by nodding his head. Jeff turned part way around in his seat and saw Steven sitting at a desk by the window, bright light shining in on him as he slept with his head down on his arms, which were folded on his desk.
“This sucks,” Jeff complained. “Hopefully he’ll sleep like that in this class for the rest of the year.” Jeff had really started disliking Steven since that morning, and he had a funny feeling that Steven was going to tell more people if he hadn’t already.
“He probably will,” Edward knew that Steven was a slacker and wondered how he even made it into the eleventh grade without failing yet.
“I can't believe you told Mr. Stuart you were Steven,” Jeff changed the subject. “If Steven ever finds out, he'll re-arrange your face.”
“Nah. Unlike last year, I stick up for myself now. I learned a lot over the summer.” Steven had picked on Edward so much in the previous years that over the summer while Jeff was on vacation, Edward had taken a Self-Defense class to keep himself pre-occupied over the summer.
Jeff changed the topic again, “There’s a bunch of other people from our old school in this class.” He pointed as he looked around the room. “There's Leticia, Allison, and Shauna over there.” He pointed to the three girls. Shauna was tall and skinny with a strand of hair coming down the side of her face in a curl. Leticia’s parents were both Latina, causing Leticia to look kind of like a younger version of Nelly Furtado. She had boys fighting over her constantly.
“Ok class,” Mrs. Gulbra spoke up. “You only have a few minutes left for chatting, so try to finish up your conversations.” Everyone ignored her as they carried on with their conversations. She went back to her desk and continued going through some papers, preparing to start the class.
Leticia’s chair scraped against the carpet as she pushed it back to stand up. She walked across the room to Jeff and Edward and leaned down on Edward’s desk, smiling. Edward found his eyes drifting to the top of her chest, which was rested on his desk. He never connected to her mentally, but like every other male in the school, he was definitely attracted to her physically.
“If it ends up snowing, you guys want to go out sliding by my house after school with me, Shauna, and Allison?” She asked in her thick Latina accent.
“If anything falls,” Jeff said. Leticia smiled and nodded then walked back to Allison and Shauna.
“Hey Shauna,” Jeff shouted over. Shauna looked over at him. “Can't you read? No dogs allowed!” Edward laughed at Jeff's insult. Shauna glared back. Jeff and Shauna weren’t really friends, but they weren’t enemies either. Ever since Jeff moved there though, they had always thrown insults back and forth playfully.
“Fuck you,” Shauna said back.
“Sorry, I’m not into beastiality.”
“Shut up, Gimpy!” Jeff was one of the most accident prone people to ever arrive in Heartfield, so he had quickly picked up the nickname of ‘Gimpy’.
“You first, Dogchow!”
“At least I'm not accident prone!”
“Shut up! That’s in the past. This year I'm a whole new person,” Jeff smiled.
Shauna stuck out her tongue and then she stood up, leaving Allison and Leticia as she walked over to another group of her friends.
***
Allison and Leticia started talking to each other after Shauna left.
“I need you're help,” Allison said.
“Sure, what is it?” Leticia asked.
“Steven told me Jeff really likes me. But I don't know if it’s is true or not because every time I flirt with him, he acts weird. And besides, it was Steven who told me. He’s one of the biggest troublemakers around. Can you find out whether he likes me or not? I like him, but before I make any moves, I want to be sure he likes me back.”
Allison and Leticia looked over at Jeff and Edward, who were talking among each other. Jeff glanced over at them and he and Allison made eye contact briefly before he quickly turned back around.
“He does,” Leticia said matter-of-factly as her and Allison turned back to face each other. “You can tell. He's just a shy guy, that’s all. I'll still find out for sure though.”
Allison thanked her and smiled.
***
Mark Abbot, the nerd that was being picked on at the beginning of the day was also in this class. He got out of his desk to go to the front, and along the way one of the other students stuck out their leg and Mark tripped on it, lost his balance, and went flying forward.
Mark heard a soft amount of laughter from the group of people who tripped him and as he started standing, the thought, Why does everyone pick on me? entered his mind.
He got back to his feet and walked up to Mrs. Gulbra's desk. The teacher looked up and took her glasses off. “I need to make a call home. I forgot my lunch,” Mark explained.
“Go ahead. Be quick though, I'm about to start the class.”
Mark turned and rushed out of the classroom, just missing a couple of flying paper balls which hit off the wall instead and fell to the floor.
***
Brad Turner, another student of the school, was walking down one of the many halls, looking for his class. He had slept in and arrived late, so he hadn’t had any time to look around for where his class was.
As he was walking, he heard footsteps echoing close by and turned his head around, but no one was in the hall that could be making the footsteps. At least not that he could see.
He called out, but all he heard in return were faint voices coming from a couple of the classrooms close by.
Brad started to feel scared so he quickened his pace.
***
Mark was on his way to the office when he too heard footsteps echoing close by. He looked all around the hall, up and down, but couldn't see what was causing them.
He shrugged it off and continued walking, ignoring it. Soon enough the footsteps got quieter and quieter and the sound faded away.
***
Around the corner, going down another hall, a teacher with high heels walked, making the noise with her shoes as she hurried to her class.
***
Savanna Luk sat in her seat quietly as she pulled her long blonde hair back behind her ears. Savanna was Allison’s younger sister, who enjoyed being mean and picking on nerds for her own enjoyment. Luckily for her, Mark‘s seat was in front of her.
The teacher stood up and walked to the front of the class. “Ok class, I’ll be handing out a course outline and we’ll be going over it.” She handed a thick wad of paper to a student, who took a sheet off the top and passed the rest on. Part way through the handing out of the course outline, Mark walked back in the room and quietly took his seat.
Once all the paper had been handed out, Mrs. Gulbra started explaining the course outline. Savanna tapped Mark on the shoulder and he turned around as Savanna whispered to him, “I heard that Allison likes you.”
“What!?” Mark shouted in a squeaky high-pitched voice. This caused the teacher to turn around.
“Please be quiet,” Mrs. Gulbra ordered.
“Yes Mam.” Mark turned back around to face the front as the teacher continued explaining the outline.
Savanna leaned forward to whisper in Mark’s ear, “She told me herself.”
Mark turned back around to face her again. “Your sister likes me?” Then he thought for a minute and during that minute, his face turned beat red like a fire. “Why do people enjoy picking on me? Why am I always the center of pranks?” As he talked, his voice gradually raised in volume. “Why can’t you people just leave me alone?” He hated how everyone always picked on him, and he wished that he could move to a different town and start all over.
Mrs. Gulbra turned to Mark and shouted his name out. “I’ve told you before to be quiet and you didn’t listen. I’m afraid I’m going to have to write you up.” Mrs. Gulbra went over to her desk. She opened the drawer and took out her Dica.
A piece of paper printed out and she walked down to Mark’s desk and placed the paper in front of him.
“I’ve never gotten a demerit in my life!” Mark complained. “I’m not a bad kid!” Mrs. Gulbra turned and walked up to the front, ignoring Mark’s sniffling.
Mark’s eyes had begun to water as he placed the piece of paper in his pocket. Behind him, Savanna snickered and that snicker haunted him for the rest of the class. He wished there was some way to get her back.
He was preoccupied for the rest of class, trying to think of how.
***
In another class, a girl with jet black hair sat slouched back in her seat. In this class, she stuck out like a sore thumb; she was dressed all in black and her lips had black lipstick covering them. She had two earrings in each ear plus a nose ring and a tongue ring that she constantly played with, with her teeth. She was wearing a black leather jacket, but under that she had a black shirt on that showed her stomach and her bellybutton was pierced as well. There were rumors that she had another place pierced, but no guy in the school was lucky enough to have known for sure.
She had blood-red streaks dyed in her hair and a contrasting silver cross hung around her neck. her fingers stuck straight out as she tapped them on the desk, making a clunking noise. On her fingers, she had numerous rings which were clunking on the desk.
The teacher at the front of the class turned around and pointed a finger at the girl. “Can you stop that please?” The male teacher asked.
“Sure,” The girl replied as she continued tapping. Then she blew a bubble with her gum and it made a loud pop as it exploded. She sucked it back inside her mouth. “But I won’t.”
The teacher sighed and went to his desk, taking out his Dica. “What’s your name?”
“Angela,” The girl replied without much emotion, as if she were bored. She didn’t mind getting in trouble. She was used to it. Her parents died when she was young and her foster parents kicked her out as soon as she turned eighteen. It was a wonder that she managed to make it all the way to Grade Twelve.
All of her friends were in Grade Ten or Eleven, having failed a couple of times, except for those who had dropped out. Angela should have been done school, but she failed once and was thinking about dropping out this year.
She was the average trouble maker that every school has a plentiful supply of. She was out doing drugs and stealing cars by the age of thirteen, and she had been smoking since she was ten. She had lived in Heartfield all her life and just started hanging out with the wrong crowd from the beginning.
She used to only do drugs and drink on the weekends, but ever since she failed, she was also drinking and doing drugs during the school week. She was never known for doing her homework, but that was because she was rarely in school. She skipped almost everyday, and only showed up once in awhile on occasion.
She also had a big problem with authority. She was always talking back to teachers and mouthing them off, and police even had it worse.
The teacher asked sternly for her last name.
“Coates. Angela Coates.” She popped her gum again and the teacher looked up from his Dica at her. He gave her a stern look as the class burst out laughing.
“Thank-you,” The teacher said coldly as a piece of paper printed out and he handed it to Angela.
Angela took it and as the teacher turned to walk back up to the board, Angela took the paper up to her mouth and spit her gum into it, then crumpled the paper around the gum and threw it.
It soared through the air and hit off the wall next to the door and fell down into the garbage can. The teacher turned around just in time to see it fall into the garbage. He turned back around to face Angela.
“Next time stand up and place it in,” He said.
“Whatever,” Angela shrugged as she folded her arms and put her head on her desk, closing her eyes and falling into a deep sleep.
***
In one of the Grade Seven classes, Dirisha and her friend Andrea sat next to each other as the teacher rambled on about how much harder Junior High was going to be than Elementary. As Dirisha day-dreamed, she noticed a baseball bat laying on the floor next the chalk board at the front of the room. That’s when she remembered that her teacher also taught gym and assumed that his first module was baseball.
Dirisha’s thoughts were interrupted when she felt a quick sharp pain at the back of her head and she quickly raised her hand to cover the sore spot. She felt another one on her hand and she moved it back around to her eyes, seeing a red spot on it where it hurt. She turned her head angrily, and saw Travis in the back of the room, folding a ripped up piece of paper and bending it in half, loading it into an elastic band. Travis had been in her class for the past three years and he’s picked on her every year.
He pulled back on the elastic band and let go. The paper went flying at Dirisha, but she moved to the side as the piece of paper hit off her desk and bounced harmlessly to the floor.
“Damn,” Travis whispered, but not quiet enough. The teacher turned and looked at him.
“What was that Travis?” He asked.
Travis quickly covered up with a ‘spare of the moment’ excuse. “Nothing. I was just wondering if I could go to the bathroom.”
The teacher nodded towards the door as he turned back to the board.
Travis stood up and quickly left the room. Dirisha started to daydream again, but the bat caught her attention yet again. She stood up from her seat and walked up to the front of the class, picking up the baseball bat. Travis is gonna get it this time. She started to head for the door when the teacher stopped her by calling out her name.
“Where are you going?”
“For a walk,” Dirisha answered with an angry tone as she proceeded to walk out into the hall.
The teacher jogged after her and caught up. He grabbed the bat from Dirisha’s hands and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Back to class, young lady!”
He turned Dirisha around and they walked back into the class. As they did, he leaned the baseball bat against the wall out in the hall.
II
During Morning Break, Jeff and Edward were walking by tons of other students. “What do you have next?” Jeff asked.
“Math,” Edward answered. “God, I hate Math.”
“I have science next with Mrs. Wolfington.”
“I heard she's really hard on her students.”
“Looks like I'm about to find out.”
“Hey guys!” A voice called out. They whipped around and Mike ran up to them. Mike had a shaggy ‘mushroom cut’ haircut and even though he was a bit chubby and had a pot belly, he was oddly enough very athletic. He was supposed to wear glasses, but had recently got contacts put in. His mom worked with the School Board and so she was really strict on him about schoolwork, and his father always agreed with his mother. Because of that, he never really had very many friends. His mom had also never let him go out except if it was to his hockey practice or games. She wanted him to dedicate all his time to school.
He’d lived in Heartfield ever since his ‘Terrible Two’s’ and so everyone knew him. He was in Edward’s class since the beginning and Jeff was in their class since he moved to Heartfield.
“I won my hockey game last night!” Mike exclaimed excitedly.
“For once,” Edward joked. They all burst into laughter as they walked down the halls, passing other students.
As they walked, Dirisha, Andrea, and one of their other friends walked by and as they did, Dirisha and Jeff smiled at each other.
“What do you guys have next?” Mike asked.
“Math,” Edward answered.
“Science,” Jeff informed him.
Mike exclaimed, “I have science too!”
***
Allison, Leticia, and Savanna were walking up a flight of stairs, various other people on the stairs going either up or down, but not as much as around the halls.
Allison asked, “So Leticia, have you talked to Jeff yet?” Allison felt her hand go sweaty as her heart stopped and she planned for the worst.
“No, I haven't seen him since class ended.” Allison felt her heart sink, knowing that Jeff didn’t know that she liked him and she didn’t know whether Jeff liked her back or not. At that moment, she didn’t care if he said yes or no, she just wanted to know how he felt so she could decide whether to proceed and make a move or to get over him.
“You like Jeff?” Savanna asked with a smile, stopping, causing the others to stop.
Allison threw her arms up in frustration and then leaned against a rail. “Now you’re never going to stop teasing me about it.”
“Come on,” Leticia urged. She lightly tugged on Allison’s sleeve. Allison unwillingly gave in and they started walking up the stairs again.
They walked onto a platform in between sets of stairs, and started walking across it to the next set of stairs, when they looked over and saw the elevator doors closing with a ding sound. Inside it, someone was dressed as the Grim Reaper in a cloak and hood. In one hand, was a pole, and on the top was a long pointed curve spike. Grim Reaper slowly raised his free hand, part of the sleeve hanging down, and pointed a finger at them as the doors closed. On his hand was a black glove.
The doors dinged closed.
“Someone must have their months mixed up,” Leticia said, her eyes wide. “They must think this is October, not September.”
Savanna tried to hurry them away. “Let's get out of here. I don’t trust that guy.” She said, still looking at the elevator doors as they slowly walked across the platform. Allison looked around and saw that no one else but them had been around to see the figure.
They soon reached the next set of stairs and turned all the way around and walked up them quickly, Savanna almost tripping on one of the steps.
“Are you going to try out for cheerleading this year?” Allison asked her sister. In their old school, Savanna had been on the cheerleading team.
“Yeah, try-outs start tomorrow after school, so tomorrow I’ll be late getting home.”
“Sounds cool,” Leticia said. “Hope you get in.”
They continued up the steps, heading to their next destination.
***
In the Smoking Area outside, among the casual smokers, Angela and her five gothic friends stood around each other, talking as they breathed in and out on their cigarettes. The air in the area smelled of cigarette smoke as the bright sun beat down on the cold town, not seeming to heat it in the slightest.
Amy, one of Angela’s gothic friends, asked, “So Angela, what are you doing after school?”
“I don’t know. Probably the same thing I’ll be doing all afternoon.”
“What’s that?” Nick, another of the Goths asked.
“Sitting at home, getting stoned,” Angela answered as if it was obvious. She had grown up with Amy, Nick, and their friend Jill, but their other friend Rob moved to Heartfield about three years ago and he was a Goth when he came, so they got along from the beginning. The year before that, an average kid moved there, David, and after a couple months he started dating Amy, so Angela and the other Goths started hanging out with him as well. After some time, David became a Goth to fit in better with them. Him and Amy had since broken up, but they were still friends. There were others to their group, but they had all dropped out of school, so they only hung out with those friends when they weren’t in school.
“School is such a drag,” David sighed as he breathed out, causing smoke rings to drift in the breeze.
“Tell me about it,” Jill agreed. She looked through the fence and out at the forest across the field that was behind the school. The others followed her gaze. “I’m going there to skip tomorrow,” Jill announced. “Anyone coming with me?”
The others all agreed to join her and they continued smoking, waiting for the bell to ring.
After a couple minutes, Angela threw her cigarette on the ground and flattened it with her shoe. “I’ll catch you guys later,” she said as she started to turn to go in. “I have to take a piss before class starts.”
“Way too much info!” Rob called out to her as she walked away.
III
Down in the dark and dusty basement, there was a small room with the power generator attached to a wall with the back up power generator beside it. Outside the small room, half-way across the basement, there was a large metal furnace.
Frank Stuart was in the basement, moving boxes around. He shuffled one across the floor and then picked up another and laid it on top. He went to pick up another, and he felt the strain on his arm muscles as it started to slip.
It fell out of his grasp and crashed to the floor, breaking sounds echoing throughout the basement. Mr. Stuart winced as he waited for the echoing to stop. Suddenly he heard the bell ring.
Better get up there, he thought to himself as he moved towards the elevator. He stumbled on a loose piece of floor and fell forward, but put his arms out and his hands struck the cold surface of the closed elevator door.
He straightened up and reached out, pushing a button on the wall. Soon enough there was a ding and the elevator doors opened.
Mr. Stuart walked on and turned around, pressing another button. The doors dinged closed and he felt his stomach sink as the elevator started up.
He looked to his side and suddenly saw someone dressed all in black, wearing a grim reaper costume. Where did he come from? Mr. Stuart could have sworn that this person wasn’t there when he got on, but he must have been. Mr. Stuart must have been looking at the floor, or his mind must have been elsewhere.
The Hall Monitor chuckled. “Nice costume, kid. You better get to class. The bell just rang.”
Grim Reaper slowly shook his hooded head and raised his scythe up in his hand.
“Now you cut that out! I'm going to have to write you up.” Mr. Stuart took out his Dica from his pocket and asked the figure what its name was.
Grim Reaper snatched the Dica out of Frank Stuart’s hand with lightning speed and threw it to the floor, causing part of the metal plating to brake off. He put his shinny black boot over it and slowly put weight on it, a crunching sound reverberating through the elevator. He removed his boot and all that was left were pieces of metal crunched into a pulp.
Mr. Stuart started to loose his temper due to this act of discourteousness. “You're in big trouble now!” he said in a threatening tone.
Grim Reaper clutched his scythe with both hands and pulled back with it. Then he swung, the cold steel of the blade cutting through the flesh of Mr. Stuart's neck, slicing his head off.
Blood splattered the walls of the elevator as if someone had given a bucket of red paint to a four-year-old. The head landed on the floor and rolled into a corner.
Grim Reaper reached out and pressed a button and the elevator came to a sudden jolting stop and started moving back down to the basement.
***
Once the elevator got back to the basement, the doors dinged open and Grim Reaper walked out and laid his scythe down. He entered back into the elevator to grab Mr. Stuart’s lifeless head in one hand. He dragged the Hall Monitor’s body with his other hand and walked across the basement, heading to the furnace.
Grim Reaper laid the dead body and head on the floor as he opened the door to the furnace with a squeak. He felt the heat coming off the fire that was roaring inside.
He picked up Mr. Stuart's body and heaved it into the fire, and then he picked the head up and also threw that in. He proceeded to shut the door, leaving the body and head to burn and melt inside.
10/5/2005 3:26:00 PM
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