Without Chance

Chapter One: Chance Meeting

I looked immediately for the office, since I had to check in and pick up my class schedule. It wasn't hard to find, first door to the right as soon as I walked in. It was open, and I could see the receptionist's desk.

Heading through the door I was greeted by a portly, though friendly-looking woman behind a desk. She wore a floral print dress, and had her hair tied up behind her head. Unfortunately that made her round face rounder, but at least she looked nice enough even if she did look like she belonged in an old sitcom.

Her greeting consisted of holding one hand up to forestall my speaking as she talked into a telephone that had to be at least a few decades old. I mean, the thing still had a rotary dial. I'd seen those before, in movies.

I looked at her desk. Tidy, but a little cluttered. She had a picture on one side, showing herself, a man only slightly less round than she was, and a chubby-cheeked infant. A whole round family, I thought to myself. They looked happy. I remembered what that was like. I sighed and looked away from the picture.

She spoke for a moment to whoever was on the other end, hung up, and turned to me with a warm smile. I found myself liking her, despite my unpleasant mood that morning.

"Good morning, sir," she said. I liked the way she called me sir. It implied that she intended to treat me like a person, rather than a child. I smiled back. Maybe this town wasn't a total loss.

"Good morning," I replied. "My name is Ryan Jacobs. I start school here today and need to pick up my class schedule." Her smile broadened.

"That's jus' wonderful!" she exclaimed, her accent showing through. I found I liked her accent too. It was soft and charming, rather than the cowboy movie accent I was expecting. "The good Lord knows we can benefit from a polite new student. We jus' got your transcripts on Monday. You're a pretty good student already, but there's a bit of room for improvement in your social sciences scores." She winked at me. "Don't worry though, we all struggle with something. Mr. James teaches in that department, and he's wonderful. We'll get that C to an A in no time with him."

She handed me a few slips of paper. I looked down and flipped quickly through them. One was a copy of school rules. Blah, blah, blah, same as every other school. The next sheet was my class schedule. I had algebra first. It should be illegal to schedule math classes first thing in the morning. Woodshop next though, so that was cool. I skimmed over the rest. Nothing riveting.

The third sheet was a school map. The school was bigger than it looked, I realized. I was suddenly very grateful for the map as I regarded the many turns of the surprisingly long hallways. The school must extend pretty far back from the road, though it didn't look it, driving up.

"I'm Mrs. Bradley," she told me. I looked back up at her. "Anything you need, or if you have any questions at all, you jus' come to me, okay? I'll be right here." I smiled at her again.

"Thank you. I'll definitely do that," I told her honestly before turning and heading into the press of students in the hallway outside the office. I paused just outside the doors to track down classroom 3C on the map.

The lights flickered slightly overhead. Wow, maybe rundown was the right description for this place, I thought in annoyance. I had just found the C hallway when someone bumped into me, causing me to drop my papers.

"Sorry," sneered a voice as it moved past. I looked up into the face of what I instinctively recognized as the popular kid in the school.

This was given away both by the confidence in his walk, the unpleasant smile on his face, and the group of his fellow students that moved with him, laughing as he chuckled at me. The moron wore a great big cowboy hat as if it were a sign announcing his coolness. Clearly he misread the sign, I thought.