Barbette

Chapter I: Knock, knock.

When it gets dark, they will awaken, and their spirits will descend to hell or rise to heaven; it all depends on what they did while they could.

I grabbed my pen and kept writing mechanically on my notebook. Mrs. Lara wouldn't stop talking and switching her slides. Her physics class was overwhelming, even though she wanted it to be the opposite, and therefore her standards were insanely low, resulting in teenagers who wanted to rip all the hair off their heads.

-"These are the Newton equations. You can use them for.... Blah Blah Blah". Said the teacher with her faked and with presumptions of finesse voice.

Given the nature of the class, I spent it staring at Mrs. Lara, but not paying any attention to her lesson; perhaps imagining myself in other situations, or complaining inwardly about how boring it was; maybe thinking about one of my few and tacky teenage problems.

.....

One would have thought that the life of a teenager ought to be spicy and full of magic. Unfortunately, for this generation of teenagers, it is not like that at all. Oldies have bred neurotic, maladapted and malnourished teenagers. I'm just glad I'm not one of them, or at least I like to think so. Anyway, my life is certainly boring yet monotonous.

The bell rang. It reminded me of the sound of the imminent deployment of nuclear bombs during the WWII; even though I was never there. In fact, I just had seen it on a documentary by one of those petty educational tv channels.

- "Finally." -We heard several people say in hushed voices.

Everyone started packing up  their stuff in their globalized rucksacks and making a disruptive and anxiety-provoking noise. Abraham went over to Alex to discuss their meet up later at 4:00 pm at the GameStop of a minor mall in town.

-"Be there in time, please. By the way, is there anyone else joining us?" Alex said, looking deep into my eyes.

-"I guess Carla: a girl I met on the socials the other day. I invited her and I bet she's going. Is there a problem with that though?" I replied with the unpleasant high pitched voice that clerks in almost every store use nowadays.

-"Nah, don't worry. I'm looking forward to meeting new people. He exclaimed.

-"That's settled down, then." I replied.

...

Two minutes in, the power went out. How queer! This has never happened, and I've been going to school for 13 years now. Odd. In today's schools, teaching is bound to be done with the use of electrical power; thus, there are no longer white or black boards on the classrooms, and hence, class had to be stopped.

As a result of the accumulation of adverse circumstances, Mrs Lara decided to stand up her chair, take off her greige coat and expose her endomorphic body to just a thin white blouse and black bell-bottoms. She left the room and went to the principal's office to talk to him: Mr Melo, in order to get advice on what to do. She left, and the room stayed utterly silent for about five seconds. I was staring at the coffered ceiling above us, keeping my mind silent as well, and struggling to meditate. Soon after, everybody started chatting with one another.

- "Hey, Abraham!"- Alex Said.

-"Huh?"- I answered.

-"Isn't it bizarre? No power in such a school, the stingy smell that comes from outside, and the utter and absolute silence..." -He said.

-"Nah. Don't worry. You're always such a paranoid." -I said. In deed, it was a well-known truth. He's got the sort of personality traits that seem to be exclusive domain of a tall, slim, curly-haired, fair-skinned and nerdy looking guy: gullible, a little naïve and kind; but at the same time insanely cheerful and affable.