Silent Night

Chapter One

Chapter one

"Marla." A squeaky-voiced, petite, blonde girl whispered my name and tapped on my shoulder to get my attention.

Our teacher, Ms. Rosas sat at her desk, grading our tests while the students had silent reading. Looking around, some students were actually reading, others worked on assignments from other classes, then there were the people who either caught up on their sleep or passed notes in class. And lastly we had what I called The Zombies. Those were the people that looked like school sucked the life out of them as they stared off in the same direction during the whole classroom, not having a single care in the world.

I leaned back in my seat, trying to be inconspicuous to everyone, especially the teacher. I never took my eyes off the teacher as I spoke to my friend. "What do you want, Mouse?"

She handed me a folded up piece of notebook paper with my name written in glittery pink letters. I opened it up, making as less noise as I could make. Once it was open, I could see writing. Have you asked if you can go tomorrow? She wrote in tiny cursive, making me have to squint to see what she written.

I began to search for a pen or some sort of writing material. How is it that I can never find anything when I need it most?

The feeling of something cold tapping on my shoulder, made me whip my head around to see Mouse holding her pink pen. "Oh. Thanks." I gave her a small smile then turned back to my desk to write her back.

I sat there, staring blankly at the paper, as if words were just going to magically appear on there. I knew when I told her I haven't asked yet, making it two weeks of my procrastination.. Well hesitation of asking, only because of what my parents would say. There was no way they'd let me go off to some camping trip that was tomorrow.

Pressing the pen to the paper to write my response, I knew I would soon regret it. Not yet. I'm not sure they would let me go. As I folded back up the note and handed both the pen and paper back to her, I didn't initiate eye contact with her.

I could hear her opening the note then began to think if it was really a good idea to tell her I haven't asked when she sat behind me. The image of her stabbing me with her pen, giving me ink poisoning flashed through my mind. Hey, at least it's a pretty pen. I'd be poisoned in style.

..Maybe it wasn't a good idea to give her the pen back.

I couldn't see her, but I knew she was giving the death stare to the back of my head, probably hoping I would explode.

My hands started to sweat. To keep my mind off my soon to be death, I began to stare at the clock. We were due to get out in a few minutes. This was one of the times I was thankful to be closest to the door. I grabbed my stuff, ready to bolt out of the door.

In my peripheral vision, I could see other students around me prepared to do the same.

The sound of the bell I hated the noise of, was music to my ears at this moment. I didn't waste a second getting out of the door, I was pretty sure I pushed someone over in the process. While in the halls, I moved between and passed students to get away from her. There was no doubt in my mind a few people gave me dirty looks for bumping into them.

Once I was out of the school, I took a second to catch my breath. I jumped when I felt someone touch my shoulder. To my surprise and relief, it was my tall, curly brown-haired friend, Jackson.

"Hey Marla." He smiled down at me. "Did you see Mouse? She looks piiiissed. I feel bad for whoever made her mad." He chuckled, obviously not knowing I was the one who was going to have to face her wrath.

"Yeah, sucks for them.." My voice drifted off at the sight of seeing my angry friend. "Can you hide me from her?" I gave Jackson the puppy dog eyes I only used in emergencies.