The Fallen Angel

Chapter X

The entire school had been summoned for a meeting in the auditorium during second period on Monday morning. Everyone knew what it was about, including me, but no one wanted to speak of it. The school was still shaken up by last Thursday's events, but for me, it was all just a blur. All I could remember was running through the unfamiliar corridors, as if being chased through a giant labyrinth that had no way out. It made me shudder just reminding myself of it.

We took a seat and my eyes instinctively searched for Nathan in the crowd. The room was dimly lit, but I could still make out faces that were a few rows from me. I had been placed in dead centre of everyone, with a limited view of the stage. As I searched, my eyes met Jonathan's and he grinned. I hadn't had a problem with him, not since the second day of school. But once and a while I would catch him staring at me in class with a scowl on his face, as if he had witnessed me killing his dog or something as horrible as that. I made no expression and went on with my search.

I finally found him sitting a few rows down to my left, with Sarah's head rested on his shoulder. I laughed to myself, knowing how uncomfortable he must have felt and let my back comfortably rest against the red theatre chairs, waiting for the principle to speak.

He finally walked across the stage, pulling at is collar nervously. Had we not been in school, you would've sworn he had never spoken in front of an audience before. Sweat marks stained the under arms of his white blouse and I could hear everyone stifle a laugh at the sight of it.

"Good morning students," the principle began and the boy next to me rested his elbow on the armrest and placed his head his hand, as if he had a million better things to do than listen to him speak for the next half hour. If I hadn't lived it myself, I would've been curious as to what had happened, and by the looks of it, everyone else attentively listened, except for the student to my right.

"As all of you know, an incident occurred last Thursday. An intruder entered the building and placed it on lock down. Unfortunately, some students were in the hallways during the event but thankfully, no one was injured." Some people turned their heads to look at me and I slid further in my seat, wishing I would disappear. Nathan turned around, sending me a questioning look, as if to make sure I was okay. I nodded. "But it has shed light on the security measures that need to be put in place to ensure the safety of all our students here. So the establishment has set up a new security system around the school and has ordered that we practice the new emergency protocol during the course of the next few weeks."

He continued to speak for the next twenty minutes, but I began to drift off. Once the conference was done, the second period had finished as well, to everyone's relief. Everyone cleared out to the cafeteria and I headed to my locker. I eyed the yellow file peaking from my bag and retrieved it.

I went off looking for Nathan. I had spent the entire day before searching for any information I could find of my birth parents. My father, who went by the name of Sam, owned a convenience store a few streets away from their home. My Mother – Elizabeth – worked at a flower shop across the small town. Other than that, I hadn't found anything else. My adoptive parents had kept my birth name, however, which made me feel a little bit more like a real person for some reason.

I finally found him exiting the Men's bathroom and I approached him. "Can I talk to you?" We walked side by side.

"Sure. What about?" He seemed distracted, his eyes wandering around the hall in search of something or someone.

"My Dad gave me the documents about my birth parents," I handed him the papers and he flipped through them quickly.

"And?" he handed it back.

"Up until a few days ago, I didn't even know I was adopted, and now I have my real parent's names and I even know where they live. This is important to me," I defended and he began entering the combination to open his locker, not even giving me second glance.