The Ward

chapter 2

"Mr. Whiteman, fancy meeting you here... again." The first words that came out of the principal's mouth were no surprise to me. I'm in most of Jacob's classes and he's sent to the administration about every few days. He wasn't on probation or anything; he just left some nasty comments to people a few times here and there. Like the one he had made just now in class. I looked around the office. There was a block of wood with "Mr. Smith" carved in it and designed well.

"And Ms....?" He was signaling for my name. I wouldn't blame him; it's the first time I'm in here.

"Elle. Elle Woodmen."

"Are you here to pick up a slip or something?"

"Ah no sir, I-um was sent to your office."

"You and Jacob were both involved in this scandalous occurrence?"

"Yeah, pretty much." This wasn't as bad as it seemed in movies. He was a bit open-minded and knew that it was all a mistake and no disrespect towards Ms. Fare was intended. Even though Mr. Smith understood our point of view, we were both given an after-school detention pass, it was supposedly a school rule to be given detention with any type of commenting to teachers and anyone involved in it.

The rest of the day went by pretty slowly. The bell that signaled lunch rang right after we stepped out of the administration.

I decided to head to the library because the cafeteria would be unquestionably crowded at this time, plus, I wouldn't have a table to sit on, each clique had their own, and I didn't even have a clique.

I sat down on the uncomfortable wooden chair right after I had found the perfect book to read. I decided I would be a typical high-school girl and read "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Brontë. I plugged my earphones into my phone and popped them on. I played calm music and began to feel a bit tired. It was all becoming too much, the school, the bullying, the newly assigned report which I have no idea is about, and mostly the 4 hours of sleep I have had since the beginning of the week. It was Wednesday and I needed sleep. I thought I could doze off for a few minutes. "-Just until the bell rings." I thought to myself. "I'll be up in no time." I closed my eyes and drifted to sleep in what felt like a few split seconds.

"Elle..."

"Mom... let me go back to sleep" I shrugged.

"Elle" ... "ELLE!"

"I'm UP!" I opened my eyes and to my surprise it was Jacob.

"Umm, I didn't mean to wake you, but Mrs. O'Leary told me to look for you since you weren't at detention."

"Detention? Wait what time is it?"

He pulled his phone out of his pocket. He flipped the screen over for me to see it. It said:

Message from Jessica

Missed Call from Jessica (4)

Oh the time! I remembered why I was looking at his phone and read "3:47 PM". Shit! I was going to miss the bus, I thought!

We exchanged quick goodbyes and I ran out. I stood in the empty school parking lot and remembered that the bus had left more than an hour ago. Great, just great!

I began my 2-hour walk just as the sun started to set. It was like any other walk I've ever had, I slowed down when I got tired and speeded up my pace when I saw a few men on the other side, not that I was scared or anything, but it wasn't very often in Plymouth that you'd see a teenage girl walking alone in a dark street, and on top of that we had 6 homicides per night, so scratch that, I was scared.

At exactly 1 hour and 3 minutes into my walk, I felt someone following me. Every now and then I would look back, but no one would be there. I felt footsteps as mine hit the floor and also felt them stop as I did. I was now sure that someone had to be behind me. I felt my legs carry me a bit faster then my usual walk in the park. I still had about one hour left to my walk and I could tell it was going to be a long one.

~AN: Sorry for the late update and short chapter! Hope you like it though