Pestilence Plagues | ONC 2021

01 | Family Day

Each click of the discipline mistress' high heels against the white marble tiles sent a shiver down my spine. I pressed myself against the blank stone wall, trying to make myself as small as possible. This single wall was all that stood between a certain doom and myself. Just this last junction and I would be at the fields. Adrenaline surged through my veins. The prospect of getting caught was high, but I was determined to avoid that.

Click. Click. Click.

The sound of her heels faded into the distance, as she likely crossed said junction. When I was absolutely certain she was no longer there, I let out a sigh of relief that I did not know I was holding. God. That was terrifying. This needed to stop happening.

I stuck my head out from behind the corner of the wall, and took a quick glance in both directions.

The coast was clear.

In one deep breath, I made a run for it across the hallway. My sneakers seemed to squeak awfully loudly against the sparkly clean tiles with each step taken.

Please don't turn around. Please don't turn. Please don't —

"Miss Clarke." The voice I dreaded to hear called out for me. I froze in my place. Shit. So close. With what I hoped was an innocent smile, I spun on my heels to face the certain doom.

Instead of the expected stern and disappointed face of the discipline mistress, it was freaking Layton grinning from ear to ear.

"You idiot! You gave me a heart attack! Stop doing that!" I whacked Layton on the arm harder with each sentence. That idiot! Does he want to scare me to death? Ever since he learnt how to replicate the way Madam Houghton, the discipline mistress, spoke, he used it every single chance he got. And given how often I was late to just about everything, that was very often. It didn't help that Layton could teleport, popping up left and right as he pleased.

"You should have seen your face!" Layton chortled, his right index finger pointing at me, his other arm wrapped around his stomach.

"Jerk," I muttered under my breath. With a huff, I did a grabbing motion with my right hand, my mind focused on pulling the water vapour from the surroundings to make a fist-sized water ball floating right before Layton.

Layton had stopped his laughter, his hands held up in a surrender position, chuckling nervously, "Hales? We're best friends right? Don't do this to me," He backed away slowly into the hallway.

With a scoff, I flicked my wrist, sending the ball of water flying towards him at the speed of light. No way he can teleport his way out of that.

SPLASH!

"Serves you right." I swivelled on my heels and continued my jog to the fields. I was late enough as it was. I had volunteered to help with some of the final preparations for Family Day today. Well, technically it was detention for my small punctuality problem, but I had already volunteered prior to receiving the detention last Wednesday either way. It wasn't like I had anything else to do on Family Day.

Family Day was that one time in the school year parents could come down to visit their kids at school, check in on their progress, get to know the teachers, tour the school and mostly spend time with each other. A lot of the kids usually looked forward to this day, given how busy their parents usually were. I was not one of them.

"Wait up!" Layton called out from behind, catching up to me quickly after the initial shock wore off. He was rather fit after all. "Dry me please? It's cold," he whined.

His usually messy brown hair was stuck to his face, covering part of that small purple scar like mark on his face. The purple marking was part of his mutation, making him distinctly a mutant, like the rest of us here at Vindex. I didn't have a visible mutation. I suppose I was luckier in that sense.