Chapter 1: The Awakening
Jake walked down the hall to his classroom mumbling quietly to himself. He hated English but for some reason could write great essays when he wanted to. He didn’t even know how he did it. He’d look at the page and just write. It was almost painful but in the end it turned out to be what his teacher called “a masterpiece.”
Today, she’d asked Jake to come speak to some other kids who weren’t doing so well in the class. So here he was being the good citizen he was supposed to be. It’s not like it would help anyway. The school couldn’t expect a bunch of kids who hate school to suddenly get a huge wake-up call after a chat with another student.
Jake turned to the classroom and was about to walk in when a girl caught his eye. She was standing by a locker with her books in her arms and chatting with her friends.
Sophie was a girl in Jake’s grade and was by far the prettiest girl in their grade. She was thin with shoulder length black hair. Her eyes were a deep green that attracted Jake’s gaze every time he looked at her.
Sophie turned her head and locked eyes with Jake. He looked away and hurried into the classroom where Mrs. Tach was waiting for him with about ten other kids in his grade.
“Jake! Thanks for coming!” Mrs. Tach said. She turned to the others, “You all know Jake. He is going to be tutoring you all for the next few days.”
They all looked at him with a mixture of loathing and indifference. None of them wanted to be there but they all knew if they agreed to come they’d at least pass the class. Jake was feeling tired and just wanted to go home. School was getting tedious and Jake had to do a lot of homework for algebra. Why did he have to be in advanced 8th grade classes? He didn’t know but did it anyway because he liked the challenge.
“Hello fellow students,” Jake said with a hint of sarcasm, “are you all ready for a mind blowing hour of writing?”
They all gave him a stare down. If looks could kill Jake would have been dead on the spot. He reminded himself to calm it down. He didn’t need to be getting these kids on his bad side.
“Why don’t we start with the format of an essay?” Jake said opening his notebook and finding his notes on essays, “You have the introduction, body, and conclusion. I’ll start the introduction and we can make an essay together.”
An excruciatingly long hour later full of Jake’s lessons on paragraphs and blank boredom filled silence, Jake walked through the hall toward the main entrance of the school. He had all his stuff crammed in his backpack and was thinking about the social studies test this week.
Jake made his way through the school and was passing by the main office when something caught his eye; a small sliver of light in the principal’s office. The office was closed for the day and most of the staff had gone home. What could it be? It was flickering such as a fire would do. He was about to open the door when a headache formed on the side of his head, but this was not a normal one. This felt like a sledgehammer coming down on his temple. Jake’s vision blurred and he sunk into the pain, welcoming the darkness that embraced him.
***
Heather felt horrible. She didn’t like this part of the job. The boy had taken it very badly and had been hurt worse than was meant. Heather wanted to quit and go back to the hideout, but she knew she could never go back without this boy.
She left the school and walked out to the van. Heather did not want to draw attention to herself and so walked briskly but calmly. George opened the door for her and gestured to get in quickly.
