Sightless

Chapter Twelve

            Alex slipped into his seat just as the bell rang and let out a little sigh. He had left his books in Mr. Johnson’s class yesterday and had to retrieve them from the office. He also had to stay silent while Rodney made up a reason why Alex had skipped out early. It wasn’t that hard though, Rodney was a convincing liar, and all Alex had to do was nod.

            Angela leaned closer to Alex, breaking him out of his thoughts, and whispered, “I almost thought you weren’t coming. I didn’t see you in the cafeteria yesterday so I thought you were sick.”

            Alex in no way shape or form was going to tell Angela what really happened so he went with Rodney’s lie. “Family emergency,” he whispered keeping it short and sweet. It wasn’t a total lie, his mother really was one some mystery emergency trip.

            “Oh, is everything okay?” Angela questioned, she wasn’t really all that concerned about Alex’s family, but she did love hearing gossip and the fact that it was coming from Alex was ten times better.

            “I don’t know, yet.” Alex replied. Rodney had told him the key to lying was to keep it simple.

            Thankfully Alex didn’t have to keep the charade up any longer because Mrs. Hayden bustled through the door calling the class to order. “Put away your books and take out your pencils, class, make sure they are pencils because this is a scantron quiz.”

            The class let out a collective groan, save Alex. He was prepared; he just hoped he could focus long enough to answer the questions. His mind just kept flashing back to the previous twenty-four hours and he was shocked that everything that had happened to him had taken place in such a short period of time.

            This time yesterday he was still thinking about his almost kiss with Casey, now that was the furthest thing from his mind. He also thought about how Rodney had taken him to that God-awful place and told him about his family. It all seemed surreal to Alex, but what was even more dominate on Alex’s overwhelmed mind was this morning, how his father had acted. Alex had never seen his father drunk, and he most certainly had never known his father to behave that way, his father never got angry. Something wasn’t right with his parents; Alex just couldn’t put his finger on it. He had the nagging suspicion that he knew last night, but his thoughts from last night were foggy, he just remembered what Rodney had said clearly.

            Alex was snapped out of his thoughts when the quiz was dropped on his desk. He started to tell Mrs. Hayden that he couldn’t read a flat sheet of paper, but he felt a presence beside him. He tilted his head up in expectation.

            “Alex, can you bring your paper and come with me,” Mrs. Hayden requested somewhat quietly.

            Alex nodded and did as he was told. Mrs. Hayden let him over to her desk and encouraged Alex to take the seat that was always by her desk, before taking her seat.

            “Okay, Alex, I’m going to give you this quiz orally and I’ll mark down your answers,” Mrs. H explained, again keeping her tone somewhat low.

            Alex just nodded and waited for the first question. At least this way Alex could focus on what he was doing.

            After the quiz Alex was sent back to his usual seat to read until the end of the period. Thankfully, it went by gruelingly slow, so he could prepare himself for Biology 2. When the bell rang he took his good old sweet time walking and talking with Angela, even if he did want to hit her as much as she hit his arm. It was still better than what was waiting for him in class.