A Journey, A Coincidence, A Memory

Chapter 2: Maisie

January 18, 2022, 7:30 am

"I'm almost there," I say, riding on my bike to that threatening place, also known as 'school'. I always wondered why school was called 'school' and no offense, this name is really awkward. My curiosity made me dig into my pocket for my phone and search it up.

I quickly type, "Why is school called 'school'?" making some errors in the way. Ugh, I hate typing on the phone. The results come in about 0.66 seconds as google indicates with a jaw-dropping 2,160,000,000 results. Woah, who knew google aced all those counting tests, I can't even read that number.

Anyway, I scroll down to the 'people also ask' area and found my answer. It says that the word 'school' comes from a Greek word 'scholē' which means 'leisure'. Do they have to make English words so confusing? I mean seriously, who even speaks Greek nowadays? I don't even think 'school' means 'leisure', as in reality it means... 'Seven Cruel Hours Of Our Lives' which is totally true, especially when you sit in a chair seven hours straight doing some nonsense, grubby work.

Speaking about the so-called 'leisure', I reached that horror-stricken place in under ten minutes. My house is far from the school, which totally sucks. Ever since I did that catch-up to the bus, Mom had secretly seen me running all the way to school without hopping onto the bus. She wanted to 'save money', so instead of going by bus to school, Mom told me to drive to school with my bike which explains why I get leg pains in between lessons and go to the nurse almost every day.

I furiously hopped off my bike and entered that forbidden building where Algebra gets on your nerves. I leisurely climbed up the infuriating stairs and walked along the interminable corridors. I almost forgot about the Hollywood auditions today; I sort of got reminded by Lara, she sent me a billion texts yesterday night:

Are

You

Excited

For

The

Hollywood

Auditions

Tomorrow

?

Each word is in a separate text, classic Lara. She gets flipped out whenever there is something related to 'Hollywood' going on in our school. I'm guessing that Lara will have dark circles around her eyes when I see her.

A few minutes later, I reached that atrocious destination: Class 8V. I hate it when my class is in a section from range the 'Q-Z' as those classes are right at the end of the corridor, it literally takes a mile to walk there. I carefully push the door labeled '8V' and entered in. Well, what do you expect after reaching class late? Everyone's staring at you.

"Late, again?" Mrs. Julia sarcastically asks.

"Yup, late," I say in the same ironic tone as Mrs. Julia.

"Well, you better make sure to be early next time, this is your fourth time being late and I don't want to get you into trouble, understand?"

"Yeah, okay," I say in return with my sardonic tone fading away. I reached over to my seat, and sat down next to Lara and well ... my guess is right; she really does have dark circles around her eyes.

"I am extremely excited!!" Lara chuckles.

"I can see that," I reply. Looks like I have math first lesson; I really hate Algebra. The teacher wrote the word, 'ALGEBRA' on the board with big letters in caps almost covering the whole board.

"Open page 78," she instructs.

I really wished we had our auditions now; I would rather do some acting instead of sitting in a math class daydreaming and glaring at the clock.

Minutes passed by and the teacher wrote the first equation on the board for us to solve. But then, unexpectedly, an explosive sound was suddenly heard which freaked the teacher out when she was explaining the equation. Silence emerges around the class and the teacher looked and paused with terror as if someone had a machine that could pause the time.

"What was that?" Abigail warns.

"I don't know, I'll check," Mrs. Julia mutters. The whole class returns to the quiet scenario, a grotesque event with everyone's faces full of fear and anguish. Including mine, I stare at the board in terror, thinking of what might've happened. Worry starts to grow around my body and I grow curious. What's happening? Are we safe? A few minutes later, Mrs. Julia re-entered the class with her face full of agony I'd never seen. "Everybody! Out!"