Spirit Offspring

Chapter 1: The Brewing Storm

June 21st, it's the last day to hand in permission slips for the biggest school trip of the year, you have to be selected to attend; and racing through Lakeview High School to the office is 15-year-old Gene Brooks. His only real friend, Lydia, just reminded him after his last class and he was on a mission to hand in his paper before they rallied all the slips. His dirty shoestrings flapped as he ran past a group of guys standing by the lockers; they laugh and one of them put his foot in front of Gene as he darted by.

Gene tripped over the boy's foot and fell to the ground, normally he would sit there but today he was on a mission. Gene saw the office and ran inside with, for the first time in a while, a smile on his face. His face dropped almost immediately once he realized the basket full of permission slips had already been collected. Gene plopped down in the office chair and put his head in his hands.

"Genie baby what's wrong?" asked the older secretary who frequently saw Gene.

Gene exhaled and muffled, "I didn't get to hand in my permission slip, now I can't go on the trip with Lydia."

The secretary busted out into a loud laughter. Gene looked in confusion and stood up to leave.

"Aw no sweetie, the fan was blowing the papers away, so I moved it, the basket is right here."

Gene looked at the basket and tried to keep from laughing as he placed the permission slip inside. The bell rang; Gene had spent his entire last class of the school year in the office.

"Alright Ms. Jones, have a good day maybe I'll see you before I leave for the trip." Ms. Jones didn't respond but merely let out a laugh-filled grunt and head nod. Gene walked out the office and down the stairwell straight to Lydia's locker. Lydia took her funny straw hat out of her locker and put it on. As she closed her locker she turned to see Gene standing there making a funny face and laughed.

"Ha-ha what are you doing you goofball?" she asked.

In a weird Italian-like accent Gene said "Well I'm just here to eh let you know that your best friend in the whole world successfully handed in his permission slip and will be attending the field trip."

"Really? I thought you'd never hand it in," she said playfully punching his shoulder.

"Yeah yeah yeah, well I did." Gene said rubbing his shoulder.

Lydia took the lock off her locker and her and Gene left school. As soon as they got outside they noticed it was raining and saw Lydia's mom's car waiting. Lydia hugged Gene and ran to her mother's car stopping halfway.

"You want a ride home? It's raining pretty hard."

"No I'm alright I have to make a stop anyway."

"Okay Gene get home safe, text me when you're home."

Gene nodded, turned left and began walking home. The rain got harder and eventually Gene stopped seeing people outside. On a long strip filled with stores and normally many people, there was no one but Gene. Gene reached in his pocket and felt the ten-dollar bill he had been saving to get something to eat. It was wet and mushy, but still able to be used. Two blocks from Gene's house was a Chinese takeout restaurant and that's where he darted into as soon he passed by it. Gene, all wet from the rain, walked up to the counter and ordered his meal. As Gene sat and ate his food, he looked out the window to see two fully cloaked figures staring at him. Gene looked away in fear putting his head down, upon looking up, the figures were gone. Gene sprinted out of the restaurant straight home and ran up to his room without speaking a word to anybody. The trip was two weeks away but Gene already began packing. Gene begged for his own room away from his brothers so his room is in the attic. Gene heard his brothers laughing and creeping up the stairs to his room so he turned off the light and jumped in bed, pretending to be sleep. Gene's brothers, laughing maliciously, opened the attic door and threw pieces of paper and candy at Gene. After believing he was sleep and no longer having fun, they exited Gene's room. Afterwards Gene opened his eyes and smirked, then looked up at the dark sky through his window. Staring, his eyes fell heavy and Gene was dragged into a deep sleep. As Gene slept, on the West Coast of the United States, and a bit sunnier, Davin Diebold was gulping down Gatorade on the sideline at his "Faculty Vs. Student Basketball Game". Davin is already the game's most valuable player, with 26 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 assists. Students are still down by 5 points and it's 4th quarter. Davin gets put back in the game and shoots a 3-pointer upon re-entering and makes it. Down by 3 points now, matter of seconds left. The ball is stolen, passed to Davin, he stops and quick passes to his teammate who makes the buzzer-beater 3-pointer and helps win the game. Breathing heavily Davin says "Great way to end the school year right? Ha"