Book of Faith

Chapter 1: The Substitute English Teacher

"Hey, Bro!" Seth called from across the hall. He was standing next to a group of seniors and his younger brother Haley, who was busy reading a book. Brody was used to seeing them like this whenever he walked into school.

Brody had been friends with them both for a long time, since they were little kids. Seth was a rather boisterous individual, always surrounded by a group of friends wherever he went. He had a larger, muscular build even for a seventeen-year-old, which was probably because Seth had been playing sports all his life.

If there had been a physical activity available, Seth was sure to be first in line for signing up. He had played basketball, baseball, soccer, joined a martial arts school, and even done gymnastics one summer, though he quickly got bored with the last one. Currently, he was one of the leading football stars of the school.

Haley, on the other hand, was much more reserved. He always preferred to keep to himself and read advanced books that nobody else in his year tended to read. Brody could recall when he had started reading Shakespeare while they were just in the fourth grade. It had initially caused a lot of teasing, but when Seth happened to catch one unfortunate kid named Bobby Dunton attempting to stuff one of Haley's books into a toilet during lunch one day, nobody dared come near his little brother again.

Neither would tell him exactly what Seth had done, but he could distinctly remember Bobby walking funny for the rest of the day while glaring venomously at Haley. Brody guessed Seth had probably given the boy an atomic wedgie.

"Hey," he said monotonously as he approached the group of upperclassmen.

He was still attempting to shake the fog of sleep from his mind despite having woken up two hours prior and taken a shower for forty-five minutes just to make sure he was awake. For as long as he could remember, Brody had been suffering from vivid dreams and nightmares that would constantly wake him up and prevent him from falling back asleep for hours on end. Last night had produced another bout of dreams, none of which he could remember a single detail of.

"How was your weekend?" Seth said jovially.

"Long," he answered listlessly. "Jolif has his composition class writing an entire report on the book we're reading. Even after we've already turned in our notes that he made us write for the book."

"Sounds fun," Seth said sarcastically. "I swear the teachers always just give us assignments for the sake of keeping us busy. When's it due?"

"Not until tomorrow. I hate having homework during the week, so I ended up staying up all night Friday and Saturday to finish it."

"Well, at least you got yesterday off," Seth chuckled amusingly.

"Yeah."

The hallways of the school resounded with the first bell ringing that signified the start of the school day. Students everywhere were suddenly quickening their pace and talking faster in order to make sure they finished their conversations before classes started.

"Guess we'd better get to class," Seth said.

"Have fun." Brody turned his gaze to Haley who had neatly tucked a bookmark into the fold of his book. "Ready to go?"

Haley nodded somberly, clearly not pleased he had to put his book away. Brody knew him enough to confidently say that the boy was only a social outcast by choice. He was smart as a whip, and not unattractive either. Girls often talked about wanting to go out on a date with him or be taken to the school dances by him. Haley, however, was just never into those sorts of things. In all the time he had been friends with him, Haley had only ever been to one school dance. Even then, all he did was sit quietly in the shadows of a corner in the gymnasium and refuse to dance or talk with much of anyone.