Zepotha

The Beginning

Alaine Lexington sighed as she slammed her book shut. The school bell rang out, indicating fourth period was over. She grabbed her backpack and threw it over her shoulder. She began to walk out the door but was cut off by a swarm of students rushing out in front of her. She threw her arms in the air impatiently and just waited for the rest of the students to leave.

"Good work today Alaine. I'm really impressed with you!"

She turned around as the voice of her physics teacher chimed out from behind her. She gave him her most friendly smile to hide her annoyance at the other students in the classroom.

"Thank you, Mr. Fritz. Did I do okay on my essay?"

Mr. Fritz nodded and patted Alaine's shoulder supportively

"I think you'll be very impressed with yourself. Keep up the good work!"

Mr. Fritz gave her a double thumbs up as he spoke before exiting the room, finally giving Alaine space to leave the classroom. She flicked her long brown hair over her shoulder and adjusted her beige backpack higher on her shoulder.

"Hey! 'Laine! Wait!"

Alaine jerked her head towards her name being called as she stepped out of the classroom and saw a familiar blonde boy rushing towards her, papers flying out of his backpack. Alaine laughed to herself as she watched him stumble over his untied shoelaces and messy appearance.

"Skeet, you're losing all your work!"

Skeeter Grail was Alaine's close friend. He stood tall next to her as she finally caught up to her, soft sighs escaping his mouth as he regained his breath. He tossed his hand at her, dismissing her words as he brushed his hair back and swallowed, hoping to moisten up his mouth after drying it up while running to her.

"Whatever, I'm failing all my classes anyway. You ready to eat lunch? I'm starving!"

Alaine laughed dryly and nodded, pulling him by his arm to the lunch room. It was packed. Of course. Kids piled in the lunchroom, ravingly starving after the previous four periods. Alaine and Skeeter pushed past crowds and crowds of students before sitting down at their lunch table in the corner. Where they always sat.

...

Meanwhile, a few tables over, Maxine Baker, glared at Alaine's table. She cracked her knuckles and rolled her eyes at the sight of Alaine. However, her thoughts were interrupted by her shoulder being tapped. She quickly snapped out of it and brought her attention back to her friends.

"Maxine, stop paying attention to her. All that's going to do is rile her up."

The curly haired girl, Zanna chimed in next to her. Maxine sighed and took a bite out of her ham sandwich

"Yeah, sorry. I'm just still mad at her for throwing away our friendship so quickly."

Maxine muttered, her mouth full of bread and ham. Zanna patted Maxine's shoulder and popped some hazelnuts into her mouth

"Girl, that was almost two years ago. You need to let it go."

Maxine just pushed Zanna's hand off her shoulder and continued to eat her sandwich with a scowl plastered on her face.

...

"Maxine is looking at you again. She looks like she wants to literally murder you."

Skeeter whispered with a laugh in Alaine's ear and she just scoffed and pushed him

"Thats not funny Skeeter."
Skeeter put his hands in the air defensively and two of their friends, Danny and Lydia sit down at the table across from the two