After School Society

Chapter 1 - The inception of a nightmare

The buzzer rang signalling the end of the last class. Einar stretched his arms and rubbed the tiredness from his small eyes. With the finals around the corner, this semester was beginning to get exhausting. There were test preparatory classes, crash courses and revision classes and they were all the same; just different names. The students at Beau Monde were machines; chewing up books and sputtering them out.

Einar packed up, separating his books into two piles; one for homework, the other went into the locker. The second buzzer rang and all students stood in attention waiting for the speakers to trumpet the National Anthem of Crouvania. It always started with a screech - Not the national anthem, but the speakers. And that would mark the end of the day.

Einar glanced over at his best friend Luke. They had been friends since diaper days and to make things better they were even classmates this year.  Einar knew Luke to be a walking ray of sunshine even on the most stressful days. Luke was very intelligent but the extreme stress meant his academic performance had been on the rocks. And so, as it goes with students at Beau Monde, Luke was assigned to The After School Society- It was a study group for those struggling at academics and as the name suggests it took place after school hours. This study group seemed to be very effective as the students always showed major- almost miraculous improvements. At first, Luke was elated after every study session but as of late his health seemed to be deteriorating. The effects of which were pretty visible to Einar. The past few days, Luke has had his head hung low blaming it on a headache and Einar was beginning to get concerned for him. Now, Einar couldn't help but wonder if all that pressure was weighing him down. The last thing he wanted, was to see his best friend give out.

"Luke, mate, are you alright?" Einar asked gently patting his back.

"Just one of those headaches, I'll be alright" he responded with the smallest of smiles.

A comforting hand still on Luke's back, Einar bent over to look at him once more 

"Maybe you should excuse yourself for today, you should go home. Don't force yoursel-"

"I'm alright Einar!" Luke snapped as brushed past Einar leaving him confused. He made a mental note to check up on Luke later.

Einar walks out of the building, amongst the many students, letting out a sigh of relief at the thought of being done for the day. One must think that the air around Beau Monde possibly had a high concentration of Carbon dioxide from all the sighing in the evening. Einar turned behind to glance at the building, ironic, he thought, The bright red brick building appeared so alive, so welcoming and cheerful with the lush green vines around it; a representation of growth. But the minute you stepped into its reality, through its corridors you could breathe in the toxic fumes of overworked students. 

Beau Monde High, was Crouvania's best private school and it happened to be in the city of Arbinia, right where Einar lived. He was always an intelligent kid, always at the top of the class so attending this prestigious school had always been his dream. After all, it was Beau Monde, they produced the crème de la crème of students in Crouvania.

Einar felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He pulled out his phone, the lock screen displayed "14.30 pm" and a text notification from Luke that read "DX350............itsh" 

Einar let out a small laugh, 'I'll take that as an apology' he thought to himself. Laughing once again at the typo message he received, he mounted his bicycle, slamming on the pedals. The wind ruffled through his soft curls and the golden hour rays shimmered on his olive skin, as he rode back to the safety of his warm home. Little did Einar know, that this would be the inception of a very long nightmare.

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Author's note-

The first chapter of my first book is finally out! I'm super excited and super nervous. 

I will be updating a chapter each week and each chapter will be a POV of one of the 3 main characters. For this week I have revealed the first Character Einar, the 15 year old high school student.   

Please feel free to critique. Your feedback is much appreciated.