C.R.E.W

Chapter 4 ~ Bathroom

Yesterday was a rollercoaster of events.

1. It was the first time I went to school without Noelle being my friend.

2. Some kid named Riley wrote me a rude note so, I wrote him a "nice" one back.

3. A very nice teacher named Mrs. Brock had a one-on-one talk with me. She also excused me from my fourth period class.

4. I got home and my mom didn't seem to know what I was talking about when I mentioned the children disappearing and how the parents may be next.

However, today is today, not yesterday. I headed off to school and just like yesterday morning, people stared, not as much, but a pretty qualified amount. Throughout the day, I saw Ms. Schultz in different rooms, she looked rushed, and paler than usual. I wanted to offer to help, but anytime I got closer to her, she disappeared. I tried to catch up to her when she exited a room, but she rushed away. It seemed like I was the only one who saw her. Out of all of them, one of the times I can't get out of my head. It was the one where she walked out of the doorway but forcefully stopped in place, she turned her head to look at me, it looked like she mouthed, 'help me...' I furrowed my eyebrows at her, but she acted like someone was pushing her to keep walking. The weird thing was, no one was near her or even close enough to touch her.

Someone tapped my shoulder and I shot back with my hands clenched in fists.

"Oh! Mrs. Brock," I brushed off my hands on my shorts, "what are you doing?"

"I came to see you, actually." She remarked.

"Oh, what for?" I stammered.

"We never finished our conversation yesterday, I was wondering if you were ready to finish it today?"

"Uhm...," I took a pause. I was still trying to comprehend whether I really saw Ms. Schultz, or if she really wasn't there and I was just imagining it. I'm really just desperate for the rumors to go away.

"You don't have to. I would just-"

"No, I'll go. When do you want to meet up, er... talk?" I cut her off but I was still overthinking Ms. Schultz's mysterious appearances.

~~~

I was walking out of Chemistry and I saw Noelle with a group of girls. She noticed me, looked me up and down, and had a disappointed look on her face.

"I'm not crazy!!" I yelled at her. It was until after I said that how stupid it sounded, the truth was, I really was crazy. Although, it seemed almost everyone knew it before I did.

People looked and scoffed at me, some even backed away. Most of them did with disgusted looks on their faces.

"Oh, come on! Do any of you really believe those lies?!" I tried to force out a laugh but nothing came out.

People looked weirdly at me and gave skeptical looks.

"Wow, y'all are pathetic." I picked up my bag, swung it around my shoulder, and headed down the hallway.

I'm not usually a very sensitive person, but I felt tears forming in my eyes as I sped through the hallway. I ran into the girl's restroom and busted open the stall. I set the seat down and sat right on top of it. I cupped my hands to my face and started thinking about everything. Noelle was running through my mind most of the time, but Ms. Schultz made quite a few appearances throughout my thinking. Was she really there? Am I just going crazy? Is this all a dream? Is it all fake? If it was fake, and I really was dreaming, where could Ms. Schultz really have gone? The questions roamed around my head for a while until someone knocked on the stall door.

"Hello, Ms. Morgan?" They knocked again. "I'm here on behalf of Principal Werner, he says you've missed your past two classes."

I looked up in astonishment, 'two classes?!' I thought. 'There's no way it's been that long'. Yet, I checked my watch and it was true, two classes had passed.

I stuttered, "Who are you, again?"

"Oh, haha! Sorry, I'm Mrs. Milias." She chuckled.

"Can I just have some privacy?" I asked.

"I would prefer if you got to your next classes. Don't you think you've had a long enough break?" She was forcing me to get out, I just knew it.

"Whatever." I grumbled. I picked up my stuff but before turning the knob to open the stall door, my temper got out before I could, "you better move your body out of the way or I'm going to swing this door into your face." I realized what I had just said, I put it in the back of my head and tried to keep up the bad girl attitude. I saw her footsteps move away from the door, I took a deep breath, and slowly, carefully, opened the door. I tried to avoid eye contact and rapidly washed my hands.

"Quite a temper you've got there." She tried to spark a conversation, I tried to avoid it.

"Yeah, yeah." I genuinely didn't want to have a conversation with her, I just knew she was going to bring up everything she knew about me, maybe even my birth name, probably, my birth name. I tried walking out but she grabbed my shoulder, her hands were ice cold, I could feel them through my t-shirt.

"Don't," she said stiff, "talk, like you know who I am." She said in a muffled, glitchy type voice. She almost sounded robotic. I gave her a frightened look and her glassy blue eyes stared right into mine. I tried to back away and shove her hand off my shoulder, but once I did and tried leaving, another one of her appeared right behind me. This one with short, black, wavy hair, the same glassy eyes but in brown. The woman clutched onto my shoulder, too. She gripped so hard I felt my shoulder crunching into tiny bits and pieces. Mrs. Milias didn't miss the chance to scooch up right behind me and grasp onto my other shoulder, weighing my down as I felt her hand move up to my neck and pinch me as I lost consciousness.