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School Day {Chapter 3}
By Aragorn
~ CHAPTER 3 ~
The Long Road
I
In the Industrial Arts room, Jeff was looking around at all the high-tech equipment. The I.A. room had huge desks split off into four sections, each section with a computer. There were long desks going across the walls, plus a video editing room. There was another room attached, which had all the machinery used for woodworking.
The teacher was a fairly old man with red hair and a red beard, making him look almost as if his head was on fire.
The teacher said, “While I'm getting my notes, I want you guys to get to know each other. Make new friends.” The teacher turned and went to his desk to get his notes on what he was to start teaching.
Jeff sat at one of the computer consoles and turned to the person in the console next to him.
The person next to Jeff greeted him, “My name’s Brad.”
“I'm Jeff. Are you new to this town? I've never seen you before.”
“Moved here a couple weeks ago,” Brad answered. Jeff nodded his head. “So, what do you like doing?” Brad asked, making conversation.
“I like watching horror movies. I write my own stories.”
“I like watching people die in horror movies,” Brad said. Jeff looked at him weird. Who was this guy? He was kind of strange. Brad continued, “I recently bought Day of the Dead. Do you want to come over sometime and watch it?”
Jeff thought for a moment. That didn’t sound half bad. It was the only one in the trilogy he hadn’t seen yet. “How about tomorrow night?” He answered.
“Sounds good.” A few more minutes went by when the two kids, along with everyone else in the room, talked some more.
Brad looked across the room and pointed to two gothic people. “Who are they?” He asked with disgust. He didn’t like Goths. Felt they were too self-centered and screaming for attention.
Jeff chuckled, “That’s Jill and Amy. They’re a part of this group of gothic teens. They have this ‘If you don’t bother us, then we won’t bother you’ thing going on, so they never really cause the other students any trouble. But the teachers sure get stressed out by them.” Jeff and Brad started laughing, but they were cut off when a small red box on the wall at the front of the room started to flash and make an annoying ‘beep beep beep’.
Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at it, wondering what was going on.
The teacher left his desk and rushed over. “That means there's an emergency meeting in the gym,” he explained. Everyone in the class stood up and the teacher started moving them to the gym.
***
Students and teachers walked down the halls, crowding around the gym doors, all trying to get in at once.
Once Jeff managed to squeeze inside the gym, he looked around the crowd of people and spotted Edward. He walked quickly, pushing and squeezing by people. He finally got to him.
“What's going on?” Edward asked.
“I have no idea,” Jeff admitted. They looked at all the people as they made their way to a couple of seats and sat down.
As the other students all found seats and sat down, Heather Stuart walked up onto the stage at the front of the gym. Her shoes echoed as she walked, but weren’t audible due to all the students talking. She walked across the stage and to a microphone that was set up.
“Sit down everyone and be quiet!” Mrs. Stuart said sternly into the MIC. Once everyone in the room quieted down, two police officers came in from the back of the room, their black boots clunking as they walked across the room, past the students, and up onto the stage. They stood behind Mrs. Stuart with their arms crossed.
Everyone started putting what Mrs. Stuart just said with this scene, and they began to get scared.
Principal Johnson walked on stage from the back of the gym. He had a very angry look on his face.
He snatched the MIC away from Mrs. Stuart, almost taking her hand with it. She backed away, clearly shaken up.
“Students and Staff,” The Principal said sternly to his audience. He was trying his best not to loose his cool. “There is a sick person among us! Earlier today, someone laced my chair with an AIDS infected needle. It is not certain yet if it was indeed AIDS or just a very sick prank, but when we find out who did it, you are in big trouble! We know it is one of you students and this has become a serious police investigation!”
Everyone looked at one another and a soft murmur started to rise. Who could have done it? The person next to you? The one behind him? No one knew.
The group of Goths looked at each other and they all started to sneer and snicker. Amy turned to Angela and whispered, “Did you do it? Is that why you left the Smoking Area early?”
Angela shook her head but continued to smile. “No, but I wish I had.” They all continued smiling as they looked forward again.
Mr. Johnson shoved the MIC back to Mrs. Stuart and marched off stage with the two cops following close behind. They walked across the quiet room and out the back door.
“This type of behavior is unacceptable here at Great Mills High School,” Mrs. Stuart continued. “Now, for the rest for the day, you are all going to sit quietly in this room, thinking about what happened. You are not to talk to one another, and you are to remain seated. We do not tolerate such behavior here.”
The audience moaned, but other then that, did as they were told. Jeff and Edward couldn’t believe it! The first day of school, and there was already a police investigation. They had to admit, that was a new record.
***
Later in the afternoon the students were still in the gym, hot, bored, and starting to get restless, shifting around in their seats, others slumped back or slumped over, some even asleep.
Finally the bell rang to end the day, the loud electronic buzz causing all the students to breathe a sigh of relief. Never in their life had they been so happy and glad to hear that bell.
As everyone started standing up and rising, so did their voices, the room suddenly becoming loud with complaining.
Within minutes, everyone had left the gym and were either at their lockers getting ready to leave, or had already left.
***
Grim Reaper stood on top of the roof of the school holding his scythe straight up, his hood and suit blowing in the soft wind, making a soft flapping noise.
He looked out and below, watching as many of the students rushed out of the school and going onto buses, to their bikes, to their cars, or just walking away, some in groups while others were alone.
Some also waited by the entrance doors for their friends, others lighting up cigarettes while they waited or while they walked.
***
Jeff and Edward walked through the crowd of people, heading for their cars in the student parking lot. “That was lame,” Edward complained as he unlocked the door to his car. “We all got punished just because of one student.”
Jeff agreed as he also unlocked his car door. “They could have used that time to find out who did it, but instead they had to be gay and make us sit there for three hours with nothing to do in a hot and sticky gym.”
Jeff climbed into his car and Edward climbed into his, feeling the soft cushion of the car seats and welcoming it over the hard plastic seats they had just stood up from.
“I’ll call you tonight,” Edward shouted before he shut his door.
Jeff acknowledged with a nod of his head. He closed his door and started up his car, letting his engine roar to life. The radio started blaring a song at full volume, causing Jeff to jump and his car to vibrate. He reached over and turned the volume down to a bearable level and looked through his window and into Edward’s car. Jeff saw him laughing as he backed up and drove off.
Jeff backed his own car up and also drove off, getting stuck behind another student’s car that was moving much slower.
***
Allison, Shauna, and Leticia were outside, the light wind softly blowing their hair. Leticia moved a strand of hair out of her eyes and behind her ear. They were walking down a quiet tree-lined street, leaving the school behind. They were the only people on this street. There were houses on both sides of the road, a car or truck parked by some of them.
They were in the middle of the empty street when they suddenly heard the sound of a car coming up behind them. They looked behind and saw they heard correctly for a car was driving up behind them.
They moved over onto the sidewalk and as the car passed, the driver honked his horn.
“Ah, shut up!” Allison yelled. “We moved for ya, didn't we?” As they walked down the sidewalk, Shauna started talking about the incident that happened earlier that day, bringing up a topic both Leticia and Allison didn’t really want to talk about.
“I wonder who did that to Mr. Johnson,” Shauna said, making conversation. “Whoever did it is going to get into so much trouble!” She giggled a little, cutting the silence of the street.
“It's sick,” Allison stated. Then she smiled. “Funny in a way, but still sick.” The wind blew their hair back a little, and then died down again. They all started laughing at the thought that their principal might have gotten AIDS and actually made it public.
***
Dirisha arrived at her house, which was just down the street from the school. “Hi mom, I’m home!”
Her mom walked out into the porch from the kitchen and greeted Dirisha as she closed the door. “How was your first day at school?”
Dirisha slipped her shoes off and walked down the hall, her mother following close behind.
“It was good,” Dirisha responded. Then her nose caught a whiff of something with a sweet taste. “You cooking supper?”
“For you and your father. I have to go out.”
Dirisha nodded.
“You have any homework?”
“No mom. It’s only the first day. They never give us homework on the first day.”
Mrs. Crosley walked back into the kitchen to finish making whatever it was that she was making. Dirisha continued to smell the cooking and the taste buds inside her mouth went spurting to life, giving Dirisha a hungry feeling.
She turned and walked up the stairs towards her room. Once she reached it, she closed the door behind her and flung her bookbag into a corner, causing it to make a thump as it plopped down.
She turned and pulled out the chair from her desk and sat down. She reached over to where she kept the remote control for her TV, but all she felt was the hard wooden desk. She turned her head and saw that the top of the desk was clean except for the TV and VCR.
She stood up again, wondering what she did with the remote. She looked over her bed, then back at the desk, and then on top of the TV. When she still didn’t find it, she went and looked behind the TV, then under the bed, finding only old school work and clothes she stuffed under there to clean her room faster one day.
She stood back up with a sigh. Where did I put it? She started scanning the room from her spot, thinking hard as she looked at everything in the room. As she looked at the doorway, she suddenly remembered that the day before she had gone downstairs to make a sandwich and she accidentally brought the remote with her.
She ran down the stairs and jumped the last couple of steps. She rushed over to the dishwasher, but the top of it was empty except for a green plant that was turning brown, causing the leaves to be slightly curled up, as it was preparing to die.
She turned and went into the kitchen and looked around the counters but still no sign of the remote.
She turned and walked into the living room where the family TV was and to her relief, she saw her remote control on the coffee table next to the ones used for the downstairs TV. Mom or Dad must have thought it was for something in here. She thought to herself as she went back up the stairs to her room.
As she closed her bedroom door behind her, she turned to her TV, but before she could turn it on, in the blackness of the TV screen she saw a figure dressed in a hood and cloak standing behind her in her room. In the reflection there were lockers by her walls.
She whipped around, but no one was there and there were, of course, no lockers. Strange. Now that she thought about it, the reflection of her room didn’t really look like her room, but a hallway in her new school. She shrugged it off, thinking it was probably just her over-active imagination.
She pointed her remote at the TV and turned it on, sitting back in her chair and flicking through channels.
Her bedroom door opened and Mrs. Crosley popped her head in, putting on earring. “I’m going out now, so I’ll be back in a few hours.”
“Ok,” Dirisha replied, not really paying attention, only watching a show on TV.
“Your father should be back in an hour. When he gets home, tell him that I’ve cooked supper for you guys.”
Dirisha nodded. Her mom closed the door again as Dirisha continued to stare at the TV screen.
***
Edward was driving home when he had the sudden urge to go to the gym. He turned his car down a road that was off to his side. Within a couple of minutes the giant building that was used for both swimming and the gym, came into view.
He slowed his car down as he entered the parking lot and found a place to park his car. He took the keys out of the ignition as he got out and locked his door behind him.
He walked across the parking lot, traffic driving up and down the main road behind him. He reached the building and walked in, taking his shoes off in the porch. In this building people either had to wear an extra pair of shoes or none at all, and since this wasn’t a planned trip, Edward didn’t have his extra shoes.
He placed his shoes on the rack and walked through the second set of doors, into the Lobby and up to the front desk.
“Going swimming?” The Attendant asked. She was in her twenties and Edward thought that she looked familiar from some place.
Edward answered, “I’m going into the gym.” He showed his ID card and she waved him on. In order to get into the gym, people either had to pay five dollars, or they could pay for a year-long pass for thirty dollars.
Before he continued on, Edward turned back to the Attendant. “Didn’t you use to work at the video store?”
She answered, “I quit last week because they were giving me shitty hours, and this place was offering me better pay and better hours.”
Edward nodded and walked across the Lobby, his sock-covered feet slapping the hard floor.
***
Before Jeff went home, he decided he’d go for a drive out in the country, just to have time to think about things. He turned out onto the highway and sped up, passing by a log truck. Getting stuck behind a log truck was just asking for trouble. Jeff had heard that five out of ten times, the logs aren’t secured tight enough and will either fall, or have the possibility of falling, on the car behind. He didn’t like those odds.
***
After about half an hour of driving with nothing to see except for various different wheat and corn fields, Jeff turned a corner and started passing farmland. As he drove, he spotted a red farm with two stables next to it.
Out next to the stables were three horses and a farmer, who was feeding them. Jeff smiled at the scene, and soon found himself thinking about the events of the day. The entire school now knew that he had a crush on Allison, and he knew that Dillon wouldn’t be leaving him alone about it any time soon.
Actually with his luck, Dillon would ask her out and she’d say ‘yes’. Jeff decided to think about something a little more positive.
He liked most of his classes, with the exception of having a test everyday in Science. He wished he got to go to his classes after Industrial Arts, but that damn assembly was called and they had to wait in the gym for three hours.
As he was driving home earlier, he passed by Allison, Shauna, and Leticia and honked at them as he drove by, but he saw Allison shaking her fist and yelling at him so he didn’t think that they knew it was him honking to say hello.
Jeff looked out the side window some more as he drove. He spotted a herd of cows in a field, eating the grass and looking out at the road.
As Jeff looked straight again, he was hit so hard by the angle and the brightness of the setting sun that he had to slow down and almost pull over while he squinted his eyes.
He reached down and his fingers gripped his sunglasses, putting them on over his eyes, allowing him to fully open his eyes once again.
Suddenly the ‘Jingle Bells’ music filled the car in a high pitch tune, and he felt around for his cell phone. He felt his hand touch the cheap plastic and he picked it up and pressed the ‘talk’ button as he held it to his ear with one hand, and drove with his other.
“Hey Jeff,” he heard a familiar female voice say. Whose voice was that? He knew it, but he couldn’t quite place it. As if the person on the other end could read his thoughts, she added, “It’s Allison.” That’s who it was! Jeff snapped his fingers on the hand that was driving.
Then his thoughts turned to question. What was she doing calling him? She had never called him in her life and they had barely talked to each other in three years. How did she get the number? His cell phone was unlisted. He had only gotten it that the week before school started. Was she going to talk to him, and say that she didn’t want to go out, but they could still be friends, even though they weren’t really friends now?
“Hey Allison, what’s up?” Jeff asked. He knew his voice was filled with caution and he was willing to bet money that Allison sensed it.
“Well I was just wondering...” Jeff felt his legs turn to jelly and his heart suddenly start skipping as thoughts started racing through his mind of what Allison was going to say. “I was wondering if maybe tonight you’d want to go out for coffee?”
Jeff almost shouted out with joy. It wasn’t quite what he hoped for, but it was damn well close enough! He found his heart racing and realized that a minute had gone by without him responding.
“Hello?” He heard Allison call out. “Are you still there?”
Jeff was quick to answer this time. “Yeah, sure!” He almost shouted.
“How about at eight ‘o clock?” Allison asked.
“That’s great!” Jeff started feeling more relaxed talking to her now then when she first called.
“Where should we go?” Allison asked. “I’ve hardly ever gone out for coffee.”
“The Long Road is good,” Jeff informed her. The Long Road was a coffee house/restaurant just outside of town, across from the highway. That’s where Jeff, Edward, and Mike always went for coffee on the weekends. “They have the worst gravy, but the best coffee.”
Allison giggled on the other end and Jeff smiled. “Sounds great.”
“So I pick you up at eight?” Jeff asked.
“Ok. See you then.”
Jeff placed the phone down as a giant smile formed on his face and he turned on the radio just as a rock song about teenagers in love started playing.
He slowed the car down and made sure no other vehicles were around. He turned his car around, heading back towards town to head home. He thought about calling Edward and telling him, but then decided against it. Edward would probably beg to come to see how he handled it, and if Jeff said no, he’d show up anyway.
Jeff sped up to over a hundred kilometers an hour, racing home.
***
Later that evening, Edward was standing in the change room at the gym, wiping sweat off his head with a towel. He had been working out ever since school ended and he was tired, exhausted, and hungry.
He closed his locker and started to walk away, but stopped when he heard Dillon’s voice enter the change room. It sounded like he was on a cell phone because no one ever answered back and Edward was pretty sure Dillon wasn’t the kind of person to hear voices in his head.
Edward quickly opened up the locker and jumped inside, keeping it opened a crack so he could see and hear. He saw Dillon enter his sights as he went to a locker directly across from Edward.
“Yeah, I heard about it from Shauna. They’re going out to The Long Road for coffee. I have to meet up with them there. Nobody takes Allison out for Coffee and gets away with it. He’s ruining my chances with her, man.”
Edward started thinking about who Allison was going out for coffee with. It couldn’t have been Jeff because Jeff would have called him on his cell to tell him about it, plus Jeff would have never asked her out. He was too shy. Whoever it was, was going to be getting a real beating from Dillon.
Edward thought about calling Jeff once he got out from the locker and telling him that Allison was going out for coffee with someone, but decided against it. It would just hurt Jeff and then he’d never ask Allison out, no matter how hard Edward tried.
“They’re going to be there at eight Shauna told me,” Dillon continued, “so I’m going to stay at the gym for an hour, working out, then go and get a couple of drinks, then meet them at The Long Road right before they leave and beat the shit out of that little twerp.”
Edward saw Dillon throw his bag in a locker, shut the locker and start walking away. As Dillon’s voice got fainter, Edward slowly opened the locker and climbed out. He waited until he heard the door close before he turned to leave.
Within a few minutes, he was back outside in the dark night air, climbing into his car, thinking about what he was going to do when he got home. He was going to get a shower and then get something to eat, that much he knew for sure. He thought about also calling Jeff and talking about movies or something. He wasn’t going to bring this up though, that was for sure.
It was going to be a night of relaxing for him, but for whoever was taking Allison out for coffee, it was going to be a long night. Edward felt sorry for whoever it was.
Edward started up his car and drove away, turning his headlights on to see the road in front of him.
II
Allison rushed out of her house as Jeff’s car pulled up next to the curb. Jeff leaned over in his seat and opened the passenger side door. Allison climbed in and closed the door as Jeff drove off.
As they greeted each other joyfully, Jeff still couldn’t believe this was happening. He was going out for coffee with Allison Luk!
“What have you been up to?” Jeff ended up asking.
“Not much,” Allison answered. “Just been watching TV with Savanna. I was so into the show, I lost track of time!” Allison smiled. That was a lie though. She had been so restless all night, waiting for eight ‘o clock to come, she had tried watching TV, but couldn’t sit still long enough.
“What were you watching?”
Allison thought for a second and said the first thing that popped into her mind, “Barney.”
“Barney?” Jeff asked, dumfounded.
Allison felt her face go red and she was glad Jeff was looking at the road and not at her. “Uh, yeah. Me and my sister watch little kid shows all the time,” she fumbled for an explanation on the spot. “They’re really funny if you watch them, thinking about them sick mindedly, it was a real hoot.”
Jeff started laughing.
“What?” Allison asked with a smile.
“The way you said hoot was funny. You dropped your voice right low and it sounded funny.”
“Hoot,” Allison repeated with a low voice and they both broke out laughing.
***
Within half an hour, Jeff and Allison were at The Long Road. They were seated across from each other, waiting for their coffee to be served to them. The most recent popular songs played softly from some speakers that were close by.
Because it was where the local teens hung out and barely anyone went to it on school nights, the building was almost completely void of other costumers.
A young waitress came by with a steaming pot of black coffee and two mugs. She gently laid the mugs on the table and filled them with the coffee before leaving the table again. Allison and Jeff reached for a wicker bowl of creamers and Jeff opened a couple up and poured them in, adding some sugar after. He started stirring it around as Allison stood up unexpectedly.
“Hang on,” Allison said. She walked to a nearby empty table and unfolded a napkin that was holding a metal fork, knife, and spoon together. She took the fork and walked back to her seat.
Jeff looked at her, curious. “What are you doing?”
“I’m going to show you something really neat.” Allison took a creamer from the bowl. “It’s called ‘Milking The Cow’.” She took the fork and poked the ends through the top of the creamer. She laid the fork down and dumped the creamer upside down above her coffee and started squeezing the small plastic cup.
The milk squirted through the holes caused by the fork and into her coffee, resembling milk coming from a cow.
Jeff started giggling. He took a third creamer and the fork Allison took from the other table and did the same to his creamer and added it to his coffee.
“Isn’t it fun?” Allison asked as they both laughed.
“Oh by the way,” Jeff asked as he took a sip of his coffee. “How’d you get my cell number?”
“Well I looked in the phone book for your home number and when I called, your dad gave me your cell number.”
Jeff nodded his head, understanding. “So what do you think of the new school?”
“It’s really big. Almost too big.”
For the next couple of hours they talked about everything - school, TV shows, the news, people at school, death, paranormal things, different types of food, their likes and dislikes; they told jokes and laughed, and they went through many more cups of coffee.
By the end, they were both sad it was time to go but Jeff had looked at his watch and saw that it was eleven thirty and it was also a school night. Jeff paid the check and him and Allison stumbled outside, laughing as if they were drunk.
They went back to Jeff’s car and climbed in, Jeff pulling away and out onto the highway. “Let’s go for a ride,” Allison suggested.
“But it’s kind of late.”
“Just a short one,” She pleaded.
Jeff chuckled, “Ok, fine.” So instead of turning off into town, he continued on down the highway.
“Turn the radio on. Let’s listen to some tunes.”
Jeff reached over and turned the radio on. It was in the middle of some love song or another.
They drove in silence for a few minutes, until Allison pointed out the window, up at the sky. “It’s so clear, look at all the stars.”
Jeff looked up out the front window. “Yeah. There just has to be some other form of intelligent life out there somewhere, among all those stars and planets.”
“Yeah,” Allison said, her far off. Then she shook her head and came back to reality. “Wouldn’t it be cool if we saw a UFO?”
Jeff laughed, “Yeah, that would be cool.”
Allison saw Jeff’s eyes dart up to the rearview mirror and back at the road. “What’s up?” She asked. “That was the dozenth time you did that.”
“That truck that’s behind us has been following us since The Long Road,” Jeff explained.
Allison turned in her seat and looked out the back window. All of a sudden, she quickly turned back around, gasping.
“What is it?” Jeff asked, looking at her.
“That’s Dillon’s truck!” Allison informed Jeff, worry creeping into her voice.
Suddenly Jeff’s car jerked forward and they both flew forward, the seatbelts catching them and then slamming them back into their seats.
“What the fuck is he doing?!” Jeff yelled.
They lurched forward again as Dillon’s truck rammed into them. Jeff turned the radio off as he tried to concentrate on the road and the task at hand.
Dillon’s truck moved to the middle of the empty highway and sped up, catching up to Jeff’s car, racing right next to it.
Dillon’s truck swerved over, knocking into the side of Jeff’s car, causing it to swing over and almost go off the road.
“What are we going to do?” Allison asked.
“I’ll think of something!” Jeff replied, but wondered the same thing Allison did.
The Truck rammed into the side of the car again and this time Jeff’s car did run off the road, but quickly got back on again, dust flying from the dirt on the side of the road.
Jeff tried to speed his car up to pass Dillon, but Dillon did the same with his truck, keeping the same speed as Jeff. He wasn’t going to allow him to pass.
Dillon swung his truck over again, but at the same time that Jeff swung his car over towards Dillon’s and they both hit each other, neither one going off the road.
Then Jeff got an idea. He waited a couple of seconds and when he saw Dillon’s truck swinging towards him again, Jeff slammed on the brakes of his car, causing it to come to a complete screeching stop. Dillon’s jeep drove off the side of the road and into a ditch, getting stuck.
Jeff quickly turned his car around and headed back into town as both him and Allison sighed in relief. Jeff planned on dropping Allison home, and then go back to his place and getting some sleep. He still didn’t know how he planned on getting up early the next morning for school, but he’d think of something.
***
Within half an hour Jeff pulled up next to Allison’s house. “Thanks for a great evening,” Allison said honestly as she opened her door.
“No problem,” Jeff said back. “Quite an interesting little night. You even got to be in a car chase. That seldom ever happens on a first date. Usually I save it for the second,” Jeff joked.
Allison laughed. “It must be one of those bonus things I got.”
“Oh no, it’s no bonus. Next time we’ll go and jump out of a plane with no parachute and try and land on a trampoline on a boat that has a bomb on it, which we’ll have to diffuse within thirty seconds.”
They both started laughing, but quickly hushed up when they saw one of the lights turn on in an upstairs window.
“Well I better get going,” Allison said. She leaned in to Jeff and whispered, “My dad has two shotguns and I was supposed to be home two hours ago.”
Jeff replied quickly, “Well I better get going to!” He started the engine up. Allison laughed as she waved good-bye and turned and quietly walked inside her house.
Jeff drove away, finding it hard to keep his eyes off Allison in his rearview mirror.
11/1/2005 2:09:41 AM
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