Red Glow

Chapter 1

Everything was always the same for Clayton, good grades, parental approval (most of the time), and Eric. Eric was, as some would say, a nice guy. Clayton was part of the minority that felt like Eric was the bane of his existence. Gayton was the nickname Eric gave him. Everything about Eric pissed him off.

I just want things to change.... Was all that was going through Clayton's mind that morning. He sat at the table and shoveled eggs onto his plate from the bowl sitting in the middle.

"What are you going to do today in trigonometry Clay?" Martha, his middle aged dark haired mother, asked as she sat down to the table.

"Get my grade up to at least a 98 percent."

"Good, I don't want to see anymore 80s in your trig class. Got it?" she said pointing her fork at him across the table. Clayton muttered a reply in his milk, then got up to leave. His mom was always that way, claiming she wasn't pushing him, but then did just that when his grade dropped below a 92 in any of his classes.

He left his house and walked down the familiar sidewalk to the school. Laurenson Academy was a private school that Clayton had known all his life. However, the students at Laurenson wouldn't be able to say that they knew who Clayton Stevens was. The only person he could legitimately call "friend" was a teacher's helper, Cassandra.

"Hey Cassie. How's it going?" He asked as he strode up to her in the hallway. The only thing people were jealous of about him was that he was so close to Cassie. She was a very attractive girl, with long flowing black hair and mysterious chestnut eyes. Her skin was the rich dark color of honey.

"Nothing much, just running some papers down to the copier. You?"

"Going to another one of my "special advanced" classes to fix my "low" grade of 89." he responded with a voice that was laced with sarcasm.

"Did you get harped on again?" her high cheekboned face was full of concern.

"How'd you know?" he mocked surprise.

"Jesus...." she mumbled.

"No, actually it was my mom."

She glared at him, trying to hold back a smile. He flashed a grin and walked to class. Sitting at his desk he looked out the window at the scene outside. Birds soared as if being lifted up by invisible hands, and the trees reached for heaven, tired of life on earth. The sky was as blue as the sea that it melted into, and the clouds like the dandelion seeds floating in the spring breeze.

I want to go outside. Get out of this classroom. He thought.

"Clayton, will you come answer this?" he heard his teacher say, snapping him out of his daze and bringing him back into the reality that he so despised. Silently, he stood and stalked to the board. Laying his hand on the black dry-erase marker he began to point out the grammatical mistakes in a sentence. He made quick work of it and promptly went back to his desk.

"Nice work, Gayton." he heard Eric chuckle as he walked by. Lowering his head and biting his lip he made his way back to his seat. I just want things to change.

"Ok class, the bell's about to ring. Gather up your stuff and turn your assignments in." the teacher commanded as she pushed up her metal rimmed glasses. Clayton got up and brought his persuasive paper to her, the subject was "What drives human behavior?". Handing over the thick stack of papers he left the classroom to find his favorite spot in the school.

"Where are you going?" Cassie asked as she fell in step next to him.

"The garden, I have study hall now, remember?" he tsked.