Aquaphobia

Chapter 2

[WALKER MURPHY]

So I'm sitting in Mr. Eulin's first period Trigonometry class when the door begins to open. Usually interruptions don't happen in first period, but when they do it's always something ridiculous. So when the door slowly creaks open, I kick back my feet and put my hands behind my head. I'm all ready for a laugh!

What happens isn't really funny at all, but it's rather puzzling to put it the lightest. A weak-looking red-haired boy stumbles into the classroom, and from the first step he takes, he looks completely a mess! His hair is messy, his posture is broken, and he's not even wearing the school uniform correctly. I don't want to name any names here, but somebody doesn't know how to tie a tie.

Mr. Eulin ushers him to introduce himself to the class, so with what appears to be much reluctance, he does.

"Hi. I'm Scott Voorhees," the boy stutters through his raspy pre-pubescent-sounding voice. It's clear as day from the first word that his confidence is significantly lacking. His face is flushed and his body is nearly trembling. I wonder if he's okay. All he says is his name, and that's it. What an odd boy. Every transfer student says AT LEAST their name and where they're from. This boy 'Scott' really takes the cake on the "quiet, shy type."

I guess Mr. Eulin is just as surprised as I am, because he asks him some follow-up questions.

"Tell us some more, Scott! Where are you from? What do you hope to achieve here at Insula Academy?" he urges.

"I'm not really from anywhere. I've moved too much in life to know. I hope to achieve solitude at Insula Academy," Scott whispers, just loudly enough to be heard.

Man, who IS this boy? I've never seen anyone like him! I've been living on the Insula Islands for nearly 18 years and I've seen plenty of shy outcasts. This is just ridiculous though!

Suddenly, I flinch in shock as Mr. Eulin points to me.

"Very well then, Mr. Voorhees! You'll be sitting in that empty seat in row 3, right next to Mr. Murphy," Mr. Eulin says, pointing.

I give the thumbs up to Eulin and watch the awkward boy slump over to the seat right next to me. Oddly enough, everybody else seems to have stopped paying attention and focuses on their own thing. It kind of seems like I'm the only one who's bewildered by this boy's oddity.

Scott quietly sits down next to me and doesn't even look in my direction. It's clear he'll avoid all conversation with me unless I start it. So I do.

"Hi," I begin. I get his attention and he looks my way. "So you're Scott."

"Y-yeah," he stutters quietly. This is going to be harder than I thought.

"Hi Scott! I'm Walker! Walker Murphy! Looks like we're going to be Trigonometry buddies!"

"Yeah."

"So where did you move from? You said you move a lot so where did you move from most recently?"

"Los Angeles."

"That's way cool! I want to go to America some day! Insula is technically an American territory, but I want to actually go to the continent!"

"Yeah."

"Was Los Angeles nice? I heard it's got an Island right off of its coast called like, 'Nanalawaii Island' or something like that?"

"Yes."

"I hear from the internet that it's even nicer than Insula! I'd like to find out for myself someday!"