More Than Mischief

Chapter 2: An Unordinairy Occurence

The sky was overcast. Rain painted the neighbourhood in greyscale and it seemed like no color could penetrate the dreary atmosphere. Perfect weather for a monday, Rowan thought, looking out through the window. Sighing, they turned to go down the stairs, pajamas hanging off their body. At the bottom, Rowan was met by the tired visage of their mother sitting on the couch, looking longingly out at the garden. As Rowan finished the final bit of staircase, their mother greeted them without looking away from the window. The child made their best attempt at sounding upplifting as they answered. It did not quite work, but Rowans mother did not quite seem to notice. Rowan dragged themself to the kitchen for a bowl of cereal. Rowan thought this was looking to be a dreary morning and chewed their cereal slowly. school was starting within the hour and Rowan was in no hurry. Certaintly not, they thought to themself. Who would, when all you have to look forward to is Head-dunking and Algebra?

After Rowan Had finished their measley breakfast, they put away the dishes and began making their way to their bedroom. Their mother stopped them on their way up the stairs.
"Should I drive you to school or do you want to take the bus?" She knew the answer before Rowan even opened their mouth. And yet, she still asked.
"Thanks, but I'll take the bus." Rowan answered in a forced tone and turned to go up the stairs. at the third creak, though, they turned to look at their mom who was still gazing out the window. She turned and Rowan continued their ascent. In their room again and with about forty- five minutes until school started, Rowan decided to put on their school uniform. It was a classic english uniform, blue blaizer and sea green pants with a dark yellow shirt. It wasn't Rowan's favourite part of school, but then again nothing about that place could be considered to be on Rowan's list of favourite things. Rowan glanced at their alarmclock. putting on the uniform had only taken five minutes. God, why does time always move so slowly when you're dreading the day? With that, Rowan decided to pass the time in a rational way- worrying would get you nowhere as mom always said. Rowan picked up the book they had on their bedstand, "the Neverending Story" and began to read. God, i hope it dosen't end! Rowan thought as they sat down on the bed. This book had always been their favourite; a world that went on forever and forever without end, filled with all kinds of magical creatures one could never even dream of. How Rowan wished they could be a part of that world some day. 

As they read and read, Rowans imagination soared through the air like a dragon on the wings of clouds so fast and far, in fact, that they nearly forgot the time. It wasn't until the end of chapter 7, when Rowan finally took a glance at the clock on their be- wait a minute... wasn't that clock... black before? And now it was red- or at least Rowan thought it ahad been. now it seemed like it was back to black... Anywho, it was only five minutes till Rowans bus would arrive!
Scrambling, they leaped up from the bed an slung on their bright red backpak and stuffed their book into it. leaping down the stairs, two steps at a time, they reached the livingroom and almost flew through it to the small entrance hall, kicked on their trainers and renched an umbrella from beside the door and thrust open the entrance. Rowan bounded down the street, toward the distant bus stop on the horizon. Rowan quickly estimatet the time it would take to reach their destination. Based on the speed and direction Rowan was going, Rowan believed it would take about two minutes.
But then, suddenly, Rowan spotted the tall, snake-like, yellow school bus making their way around the bend a little past the stop. by this time, Rowan hhad gotten halfway to their goal, but the bus was still rounding the corner, making it's way towards Rowan. They sped up, pushing everything they had into their small legs, sprinting as fast as they could, the vehicle moved closer, Rowan did to. Close. Closer... and... finally Rowan made it. The bus and Rowan arrived at the stop at the same time and the bus slowly turned to be beside the sidewalk. The Doors opened and Rowan went in. 

The ride was short and before Rowan knew it, they were outside the school grounds. The building was large and square, spreading an appropriate feeling of gloom as the incoming students were drenched in it's shadow. Rowan did not have time to stand and gawk, however. Class was soon to be starting and Rowan did not particularly want to get soaked in the still gray weather. Therefore, Rowan made their way inside the school. 

Rowans classroom was slightly less uniform than the halls and external of the institution.The back of the room was populated by windows, showing the dreary weather. Across from the windows, there was a blackboard, dusty and almost white from chalk of previous usage. in front of the blackboard was an overcrowded catheter full of papers and pens and cups full of pens and even a half opened drawer with even more pens, almost filled to the brim. Why do teachers always have so many pens? Rowan made their way through the rows of desks and chairs and students getting situated in their seats toward their seat; the bottom right corner by the bookshelves. It was the most comfortable seat since no one would provide you undue attention when you sat there. Rowan glanced at the clock. Seven minutes till class started. Not ideal. The more time till class, the more time for Rowan t-
"Hey,Rat-Hair," Toward the front of the classroom, a tall, muscular boy, blaizer in his hand, was speaking loudly to a girl in the front row, catching everyones attention. "how is your mother doing?" the boy sneared. "Dissapointed that her daughter doesn't even know where her right arm is?" The girl he was speaking to was tiny, where she sat in her chair, and her hair was pulled into two pigtails, which the boy promptly tugged, earning him a thin yelp comming from the girl.
"The mouse squeeks!" he said looking around at the rest of the class. Several boys in the front row laughed and he pulled again. The girl yelped once again.
"Stop it!" The girl squeeked. "I mean it, stop!"  The boy did not.
"Stop it, Zacharias!" Rowans voice cut through the laughter and left silence. "She told you to stop, so stop!" Zacharias did stop at this, but he also started down the rows of desks toward Rowan who got up from their chair defiantly.
"Has our favourite plunger come in today?" he sneared. "How lovely." the words sounded like a mockery of how parents speak to beloved children
"Hey, Shut up, Zach!"
"Shut up, dirtbag. You look like a Baboon smeared it's poop all over you."
They were numb to the insult anc countered,"At least I don't look like I belong in a janitors closet," Gesturing to Zacharias' shaggy mop of dirty blond strings. "Honestly, you have no right bullying people over their appearance when you look like- " then, suddenly, Zacharias' hair was not dirty blond. It was purple. A stark, neon purple. there was no indication as to how or why it happened. It just happened. Just out of the blue, Zacharias' hair had changed color.
"H-how?" His voice was shaky. The rest of the room was silent, all in the room were looking in awe at the strange occurence. Then everyone started laughing. The room erupted into Roars of amusement as Zach's face reddened, both from anger and embarasement, ad he opened his mouth as if to speak. Right at that moment, their Algebra teacher, Mr. Harring, entered the room. 
"What is everyone laughing about?" he said, and it was almost like his presence killed all attempts at comedy. Roaring laughter turned to a disgruntled silence, the class reminded that school was still in session. 
"Now, now, settle down. Did you get a new hair color, Zach?"  a few people laughed at this, and Zach's jaw began to vibrate. He mouthed the words, wait till after class, freak, then, he turned to grab his books. 

Rowan wasn't warned unduly. That day, Rowan was soaked more from head-dunking than the cruddy weather.

This day was not particlarly special for Rowan, accept for the spontaneous hair-color change. The punishement Zach dished out, increased triple-fold, but that didn't stop the strange occuraces that happened around Rowan. Wherever they went objects seemed to change colors, small things became bigger things and Rowan could swear once that they saw a button on their blaizer fly off and disapearwhen they sat down to read. The year progressed in that fashion until the respite of summer sung it's golden rays on Rowan. During this time, Rowan payed no mind to the letter they had recieved. No new ones came to their knowledge- none of the same kind at least- and Rowan was slated to go to a completely ordinairy school next year. However, one day when the sun shone golden rays upon Rowans neighborhood, a peculiar thing met Rowan. There, on the desk in their room, by the window, there was a small tawny owl looking expectantly at Rowan. At it's feet there was a letter adorned by a shield of a lion, a badger, a snake and some kind of bird.

(AN: this was kind of a boring chapter to write. I can tell this might turn some people off from the story, but i promise more exciting stuff is on the horizon. we haven't dipped our toe in the plot yet and i promise good things in the future!)