September Howl

Chapter 8: Back To School

*Two days later*

Dad said that we shoudn't drop off the face of the earth because we lost a loved one. We should go out and try to enjoy life, because it can be snatched just as quickly as it was given to you.

He's making us go to school today, even though it is Friday, we could at least tell our teachers what happened so it won't seem like we skipped school or switched.

Oliver, Shane, and I got out. The three of us had notes written and signed by our parents.

*Homeroom*

 Shane wasn't talking to his friends. I wonder if he's upset. I know I was too...

"Shane." I called his name.

"Hmm?" He looked my way.

"Are you okay?" I asked him.

"Uh...-" He was interrupted.

"Shane Knight, Miss Howl, could I speak to you two in private, please?" Ms. Harris asked us. Shane and I came up to her desk.

"I just read what happened to your sister. I suggest you have a couple meetings with the school counselor, Mrs. Ferrell. Call your parents and tell them to meet me after school. This situation is anything but trivial." Ms. Harris explained.

"Yes, ma'am." Shane said.

"I'm terribly sorry..." Ms. Harris said.

We called our parents using the school phone and they agreed that we should see the school counselor and they our moms will meet with Ms. Harris after school. We sat back down.

"Shane." I called his name again. He looked my way.

"*Sigh* I'll tell you later." He told me.

*In between periods*

"Saphire?" Shane came to speak to me at my locker.

"Hmm?" He got my attention.

"Are you alright?"

"...Yes. Are you?!"

Shane put his head down and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"No?" I asssumed.

He looked up at me, and put his hand on my shoulder.

"If you...are okay. Then, I'm okay...okay?"

"...To be honest. I'm worried about you...more than anyone else, at the moment." I confessed.

"Hmm." He gave me a broken smile. "You don't have to be worried. Look, we'll talak later, class is about to start." Shane said.

Him and I went to class.

(Time Passes)

I sat down in the seat I sat in before.

"Um, excuse me?" Someone tapped me from behind. I turned around. "Your in my seat." Mackenzie said with a bit of an attitude.

I got up without saying a word and gave her a sarcastic smile, she quickly rushed to sit down, and I was left standing there, confused.

"Psst! September!" Someone whispered. I looked to see who was calling my name. I saw James signaling me to sit next to him by tapping the chair to his right.

I sat down next to him and smiled. He smiled back and I began to blush.

"These are our assigned seats." James explained. I was confused.

"Hmph, she could've just said that without acting like a..." I stopped my sentence after I noticed the next word I was about to say was a curse word. "Why do we need assigned seats?!" I asked. He shrugged his shoulders.

"Oh, and you need to get a syllabus from him and the rest of the teachers. You need to bring it back, signed, by Friday." He explained.

"Okay." I got up and got a syllabus from Mr. Schafer and sat back down.

Mr. Schafer began the lesson. We got a test about things we should've learned in middle school. Mr. Schafer said that we will be taking these tests in all our classes except for foreign language courses, Health, and any other extra classes. These tests were just meant to let the teachers know how much we know about the subjects.

When the class was finished testing, we began to talk amongst ourselves.

"So, why did you leave me alone yesterday? I was worried." James asked me.

"Uh, I don't really want to talk about yesterday..." I told him.

"Oh, I understand..." James said.

We just sat there quietly for a while...I wasn't feeling too well...

"I'll be right back." I told James.

"Okay." James said.

I asked Mr. Schafer if I could go to the restroom. He gave me a pass.

I didn't really have to go, I just needed some time alone. I was really upset.

*Bathroom*

I looked in the bathroom mirror and began to cry.

I was suffering from extreme sadness for the first time in my life. I hated it. It kinda seems like, the minute I entered high school, bad things started happening to me...I wanted to know why.

Oh, Victoria! She died at such a young age! Why did she have to leave? Oh, God! I can't take it!

I got really hot and began to sweat. Then, I transformed. My hair turned scarlet red, my eyes turned hazel.

I ran into a stall.

Victoria had asthma. She was trapped under a piece of the ceiling that fell and sufficated to death. The building blew up because of a gas leak.

So, I'm cursed with the thing that killed my older sister, technically.

That infuriated me.

There's gotta be a way to lift this wretched curse.

I changed back to my regular self.

I wiped my face with a paper towel and went to class.

*Algebra*

I noticed James wasn't there and one of the other passes were gone. So I put my head down.

*Library*

I started getting really tired. I was sitting in a part of the library that wasn't in the librarian's point of view so, I put my head down, again, cried a bit, then took a cat nap, or at least...that's what I was planing on doing...