Reality Runners

Chapter 1: Study

A muffled echo is all Griffin could hear as he struggled to zone in on the teacher's lecture. There was so much on his mind lately. His past decisions, his imaginative ideas, whether or not he wanted to go to the bathroom now, or after class. All of it has been a jumbled mess inside his head. "Why can't I focus. That's all I want right now is a little bit of focus," he mumbled to himself. His mind began to drift.

"Alright, that is it for class today. You're free to go." Those were the only words Griffin fully heard the teacher say during the entire hour. He looked, squinting at the clock as if the time might be lying to him.

"Not again, I could have sworn class wasn't done until another thirty minutes," Griffin thought angrily. "Every time I drift off in thought a little it seems time jumps ahead. Now I'm behind on notes."

"Talking to yourself again?" A familiar voice said behind him.

Griffin turned to see who it was. "Oh, hey Don." Donny, nicknamed Don by everyone that knows him, was a fun guy to be around. He's almost six feet tall with short shaggy hair. His brown eyes always show their honesty. He is calm and reserved most of the time, except when he's around Griffin. Griffin and Donny have been best friends for, what seems like, forever.

"Come on, pack up your stuff already," Don teased. "You're always the last one out of the room."

"I'm coming," Griffin groaned as he packed his empty notes into his backpack. "So what did you bring for lunch today?"

"Oh, you know, the usual," Don replied while they walked out of the classroom and down the hall. "Just a couple peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, a banana, and maybe applesauce. My mom keeps surprising me with something new. She thinks I'm sick of the same thing, well I am, but she doesn't have to go through all the trouble."

"Hey, at least your mom has been making you lunch all year," Griffin stated. "I have to pay for a sub every day. I wish this program would have some sort of cheaper lunch."

They sat and ate their lunches at the Subway campus seats, continuing on about the program they were in.

"I really like the opportunity this program has given me," Don said nodding. "This will give us a step up on life, you know. Plus it's amazing that so many colleges are requesting I go to them."

"Yeah, it's pretty great," Griffin agreed. "I'm just happy we were both selected to apply. I had a really good overall score on that test, but you're the one that had the highest score possible on the math portion."

Don tipped back in his chair and smiled. "There was no way I wasn't, thanks to my dad's awesome mathematics genes. I barely had to study."

Griffin sighed. "At least it's obvious where you're going in the world. I'm average in everything, maybe a little above, that's all." He took a deep breath and relaxed in his chair. He tried to simplify things by concentrating on finishing the rest of his sub, but Don's food, or lack of food, caught his eye. "Don, you eat way to fast to even be human, did you even taste your food?"

Don stopped leaning in his chair and positioned his arm to hold his head up. He looked like he was thinking hard. "Well, the good news is my brain doesn't have short-term memory loss like my taste buds."

They both laughed together and began to clean up their area.

"Okay, I'm headed to my advanced math class. I'll see you after school today, or tomorrow, whatever comes first," Don said starting to back up towards the direction he had to go.