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School Day Chapter 3
By aragorn_8
~ CHAPTER 3 ~
The Long Road
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 parts, each part 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 wood cutting.
The teacher was a fairly old man with red hair and a red beard, making it look almost as if his head was on fire.
"Now," 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 was sitting at one of the computer consoles and he turned to the person in the console next to him.
"Hey man." The person next to Jeff greeted. "My name’s Brad."
"I'm Jeff. Are you new to this town? I've never seen you before."
"Yeah. Moved here a couple weeks ago."
"Cool." Jeff nodded his head.
"So, what do you like doing?" Brad asked, making conversation.
"I like watching horror movies. I write my own stories."
"Cool. I like watching people die in horror movies." Brad said. Jeff looked at him weird. Who was this guy? He was kind of strange. "Hey," Brad continued. "I rented Day of the Dead. Do you want to come over tomorrow night and watch it?"
Jeff thought for a moment. "Sure." He answered. 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 Goth people. “Who are they?” He asked with disgust.
Jeff chuckled. “That’s Jill and Amy. They’re apart 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 are trouble. But the teachers sure get stressed out by them!” Jeff and Brad started laughing, but they were cut off when suddenly a weird red box in 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." Everyone in the class stood up and the teacher started moving them to the gym.
Students and teachers were walking down the hall, crowding around the gym doors, all trying to get in at once.
Once Jeff managed to squeeze inside the gym, he looked around, and among the crowd of people, he saw Edward. He walked fast, pushing and squeezing by people and he finally got to him.
"Hey, man!" Jeff greeted.
"Hey! What's going on here?" Edward asked as they looked at all the people as they made their way to a couple of seats and sat down.
"I have no idea."
As the other students all found seats and sat down, Mrs. Stuart walked up onto the stage at the front of the gym and her shoes echoed, but wasn’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 had 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 and stood behind Mrs. Stuart with their arms crossed.
Everyone started putting what Mrs. Stuart just said with this scene, and they started to get scared.
Then Principal Johnson walked on stage from the back of the gym, and he looked very angry.
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. Yes, I contracted the virus. When we find out who did it, you are in big trouble! And we know it is one of you students and this has become a 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. 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 behaviour 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."
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. Even they had to admit that was a new record.
It was later on in the afternoon and the students we 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.
Suddenly the bell rang to end the day, the loud electronic buzz causing all the students to breath 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 was 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, going onto buses, to their bikes, cars, or just walking away, some in groups, others alone.
Some also waited by the entrance doors for their friends, others lighting up smokes while they waited.
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.”
“I know.” 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 stupid 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 hut his door.
“Ok.” Jeff shouted back. He closed his door and started up his car. 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, and saw him laughing as he backed up and drove off.
Jeff then backed his car up and also drove off, getting stuck behind another student’s car.
Allison, Candice, and Leticia were outside, the light wind softly blowing their hair. Leticia moved a strand of hair out of her eyes and behind her hair. they were walking down a quiet tree-lined street, leaving the school behind. They were the only people outside 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, and they suddenly heard the sound of a car coming up behind them. They looked behind and saw a car driving up behind them.
They moved over onto the sidewalk and as the car passed, it honked it's horn.
"Ah shut up!" Allison yelled. "We moved for ya, didn't we?" As they walked down the sidewalk, Candice 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." Candice said, making conversation. “Whoever did it is going to get into so much trouble!” She giggled a little, cutting the silence of the street, along with the soft whistle of the wind.
"It's sick.” Allison stated. Then she smiled. “Funny in a way because I hate him, but still sick." The wind blew their hair back a little, then died down again. They all started laughing at that thought that their principal, who all three hated, had gotten AIDS and actually made it public.
Dirisha arrived at her house, which was down the street from the school. “Hi mom, I’m home!”
“Hi honey.” Her mom walked out into the porch from the kitchen as Dirisha 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.
“You have any homework?”
“No mom. It’s only the first day. They never give us homework on the first day.”
Dirisha’s mother walked back into the kitchen to finish making whatever it was that she was making. Dirisha could smell it and the taste buds inside her mouth started to spurt 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.
Then 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, and then back at the desk and on top of the TV. When she still didn’t see 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 went downstairs to make a sandwich and she had accidentally brought the remote with her.
She rushed downstairs and jumped the last couple of steps. She rushed over to the dishwasher, but the top of it was empty except for a plant. She turned and went into the kitchen and looked around the counters but still no sign of it.
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 one for downstairs. 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, she saw a figure dressed in a hood and cloak standing behind her in her room.
She whipped around, but no one was there. Strange. Now that she thought about it, the reflection of her room didn’t look like her room, but a hallway in her new school. She shrugged it off, thinking it must have just been her imagination.
She pointed her remote at the TV and turned it on, sitting back in her chair and flicking through channels.
Suddenly her bedroom door opened and her mom popped her head in, putting on earing on.
“I’m going out shopping, so I’ll be back in a few hours.”
“Ok.” Dirisha replied, not really paying attention, only watching a show on TV.
“Your dad should be back in an hour, so when he gets home, tell him to cook that Hamburger Helper stuff you like so much, ok?”
“Sure.”
Dirisha’s mom closed the door again as Dirisha continued to stare at the TV screen.
Edward was driving home when he decided he’d go to the gym to work out. He turned his car down a road that was off to his side, and 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. He took the keys out of the ignition as he got out and locked and closed his door.
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, you 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 he had seen her at the video store before.
“Ah, no.” 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, you either had to pay five dollars, or you could pay for a year-long pass for thirty dollars.
Before he continued on, he turned back to the Attendant. “Didn’t you use to work at the video store?”
“Yes.” She said. “I quit last week because they were giving me crappy 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 ti think about things, and just to waste time. He turned out onto the highway and sped up, passing by a log truck.
After about half an hour of driving straight, with nothing to see except for wheatfields, 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 as he suddenly 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’. He did like most of his classes though, on the exception of having a test everyday in Science, and he wish he got to go to his classes after Industrial Arts, but that stupid assembly was called and they had to wait in the gym for three hours.
As he was driving home, he passed by Allison, Candice, 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. They probably thought it was some person passing by and honking at them to get out of the road.
Jeff looked out the side window some more as he drove and he saw a herd of cows in a field, eating the grass and looking out at the road.
As Jeff looked straight again, he was hit 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 pulled up his sunglasses, putting them on, allowing him to fully open his eyes once again and speed up once more.
Suddenly a ringing noise filled the car, 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.
“Hello? Jeff Long speaking.”
“Hey Jeff.” He heard a familiar female voice say. Whose voice was that? He knew 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 3 years. How did she get the number? His home number was listed, but not his cell phone. He had only gotten 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 even really friends now?
“Hey Allison. What’s up?” Jeff said, and he knew his voice was filled with caution and he could have sworn 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.
“Yeah?”
“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 me, Edward, and Mike always go 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.”
“Bye.” Jeff said. He pressed the ‘End’ button and placed the phone down as a giant smile formed on his face and he turned on the radio just as ‘Walking on Sunshine’ started playing.
He slowed the car down and made sure no other vehicles were around, and he turned his car around, heading back towards town to head home to get ready. He thought about calling Edward and telling him, but then decided against it, thinking that Edward would beg to come to see how he handled it, and if Jeff said no, he’d show up anyway.
Jeff sped up, going over a hundred miles an hour, racing home.
Later that evening, Edward was in the changeroom at the gym, wiping sweat off his head with a towel. He had been working out ever since school ended, and he was tired and hungry. He closed the locker he was using and was about to start walking away, when he heard Dillon’s voice enter the changeroom. It sounded like he was on a cell phone or something.
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 sight as he went to a locker directly across from Edward.
“Yeah, I heard about it from Candice. 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. They’re ruining my chances with her.”
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, 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, because 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 Candice 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 the leave and beat the crap out of that little twerp.”
Edward saw Dillon throw his bag in the locker, shut the locker and start walking away. As Dillon’s voice got more faint, 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, getting 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, then call Jeff and talk about movies or something. He wasn’t going to bring this up though.
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, knowing Dillon would beat the person up.
Edward started up his car and drove away, turning his headlights on.
Allison rushed out of her house as Jeff’s car pulled up next to it, and Jeff leaned over in his seat and opened the passenger side door. Allison climbed in and closed the door as Jeff drove off.
“Hey.” Allison greeted.
“Hey.” Jeff said back. He still couldn’t believe this was happening. He was going out for coffee with Allison! “What have you been up to?”
“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.
“Cool. What were you watching?”
“Ah...” Allison thought for a second and said the first thing that popped into her mind. “Barney.”
“Barney?”
Allison felt her face go red, and she was glad Jeff was looking at the road. “Uh, yeah. Me and my sister watch little kid shows all the time.” she made something up 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 and they both broke out laughing.
Within half an hour, Jeff and Allison were at The Long Road, seated, waiting for their coffee to be served to them. They sat across from each other, music playing softly from some speakers that were close by.
The place was almost empty mainly because it was where the teens hung out, and barley anyone went on school nights.
A waitress came by with a pot of coffee and two mugs and filled them, then left. Allison and Jeff reached for a bowl of creamers and Jeff opened a couple up and poured them in, adding some sugar. He started stirring it around as Allison stood up.
“ Hang on.” Allison said. She walked to a nearby table and unfolded a napkin that was holding a fork, knife, and spoon together, and took the fork, and walked back over, taking her seat.
“What are doing?” Jeff asked.
“I’m going to show you something really neat.” Allison took a creamer. “It’s called Milk The Cow.” She took the fork and poked the ends through the top of the creamer, then she laid the form down and she dumped the creamer upside down above her coffee and started squeezing the plastic cup.
The milk came through the holes caused by the fork, and into her coffee, looking like milk coming from a cow.
Jeff started giggling. “Cool!” he took a third creamer and the form Allison took from the other table, and did the same to his creamer and coffee.
“Isn’t it fun?” Allison asked as they both laughed.
“Oh by the way,” Jeff asked. “How’d you get my cell phone number?”
“Well I looked in the phone book for your home number, and when I called, your parents gave me your cell number.”
“Oh.” Jeff nodded his head in understanding. “So what do you think of the new school?”
“It’s really big. Almost too big.”
They continued talking for the next couple of hours they talked about everything - 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 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 cheque 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. “Lets go for a ride.” Allison suggested.
“But it’s late.”
“So? 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.”
Jeff reached over and turned the radio on, and it was in the middle of ‘I don’t want to close my eyes’.
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, 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 his eyes dart up to the rearview mirror and back at the road. “What’s up?” She asked. “That was like the tenth 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. Suddenly Jeff’s car jerked forward and they both flew forward, the seatbelts catching them, and then slamming back into their seats.
“What the hell is he doing?” Jeff yelled.
“He must be drunk!” Allison guessed.
Suddenly 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 suddenly moved to the middle of the empty highway and sped up, catching up to Jeff’s car, going 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. “His truck is stronger then this car!”
“I’ll think of something!” Jeff said, but wondered the same thing Allison was.
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 at Jeff, not allowing him to pass.
Dillon swung his truck over again, but at the same time as Jeff swung his car over, and they both hit each other, neither one going off the road.
Then Jeff got an idea. It could work, and probably would if Dillon was drunk. He waited a couple of seconds, and then when he saw Dillon’s truck swinging towards him, Jeff slammed on the brakes of his car, causing it to come to a complete stop, and causing Dillon’s jeep and drive 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 was going to drop Allison home, and then go back to his place and get some sleep. He still didn’t know how he planned on getting up at six the next morning, 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 as she opened her door.
“No problem.” Jeff said back. “Quite interesting little night. You even got to be in a car chase. That seldom ever happens, so don’t expect it the next time we go out for coffee!” Jeff joked.
Allison laughed and joked around as well. “It must be one of those bonus things you only get when you do something for the first time.”
“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.”
They both started laughing and suddenly they saw one of the lights turn on in an upstairs window.
“Well I better get going.” Allison said. Then she leaned in and whispered, “My dad has two shotguns and I was supposed to be home two hours ago.”
“Well I better get going to.” Jeff said as he started the car’s engine. Allison laughed as she waved good-bye and turned and quietly walked inside her house.
Jeff started driving away, heading back to his house.
6/10/2002 1:14:24 AM
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