Imperfect Life: Arc 1

Chapter 12

When Brandon and Crys got to school that morning they immediately knew that something was wrong. Everyone who they passed gave them the dirtiest looks, looks even worse than the ones they were receiving last week. Some of the students even yelled insults at them. It felt almost like the whole school had been turned against them. This wasn't good for either of them. They could only assume that Josh's rumors had gotten worse somehow. The two of them made sure to keep their heads down and stay quiet. Tomas looked towards them a few times in the classes the three shared, but it seemed like Tomas was unable to go up to Brandon or Crys without getting in trouble with the other students. This was not good at all. After the seemingly endless Monday that Brandon and Crys endured, they both collapsed in their respective homes and sighed. There was seemingly nothing they could do but keep going to school and hoping everything would just fade away over time. The next day was Tuesday. When Brandon and Crys got to their science class, they noticed that they would be doing an experiment. During the experiment in class, everything was going perfectly well. Crys and Brandon were peacefully doing the experiment when a small explosion went off on the other side of the room. One of the students had been messing with some volatile chemicals, which resulted in an explosion. The explosion created a small fire which caused the fire alarms to go off. Once the alarms started to blare, Crys put her hands to her ears and looked like she was in a bit of pain from the shrill shrieking of the alarms. The sound of the alarm also startled Brandon, causing his heart to skip a beat. Everyone was then escorted out of the room and building along with the rest of the school.

"Man... that really hurt my ears." Crys said, standing outside, still with her hands on her ears to block out the residual noise coming from the school building. "Stupid curse making normal life harder for me as well..." Crys complained.

"I hate fire alarms..." Brandon said.

"Well, at least you won't go deaf from them." Crys said.

"Yeah, well I almost had a heart attack." Brandon exaggerated.

"Fair enough." Crys said back.

School proceeded as normal afterwards, until lunch. During lunch, Josh went up to Crys and Brandon at their table. Brandon kept his head down and ignored Josh, hoping he'd go away. Crys sighed and took another bite of her lunch, knowing it would be the last bite she took for a while while she dealt with the problem at hand.

"Hey. You know, I've heard some nasty things going around about you. If you would maybe join me over at my table, I could get this whole thing sorted out." Josh said with fake sympathy and a disgusting grin.

Crys slowly looked over to Josh and gave a blank expression. She was furious that Josh would try something like this. She slightly shook her head and then said, "You really think I'd do anything with you?" Crys said with a serious and strong tone. "You're the one who started those rumors in the first place! What even makes you think I'd want to be near you! I'd much rather just stay here with Brandon and let you keep saying whatever it is you're saying about us."

"Really?" Asked Josh, letting out a little bit of annoyance. "You'd rather be here with this loser?" Josh glanced at Brandon and gave him a look, as if he was contemplating something, then looked back at Crys. "I don't know," Josh said, changing subjects. "Maybe those rumors are true."

Crys couldn't stand Josh's audacity. She stood up rather quickly and stared Josh in the eyes. "If I were you, I'd get back to that pathetic lunch table of yours before I make the cafeteria a mess." Crys said sternly.

Josh squinted a little, then glanced briefly at Brandon before turning and leaving without giving any more trouble.

Crys sat back down and gave a breath of relief. "I really hate people like that. Can't stand how rude they are." "Agreed." Brandon said. "But why didn't you just go do what he asked just this once so we can maybe have the school not turned against us?" Brandon asked with a little concern.