Shadow's Mark (Currently Being Edited)

Chapter 2: The Substitute

"What?" asked my two best friends simultaneously.

First period hadn't even begun yet and I had just finished telling my girlfriends, Autumn Tate and Drew Delco, the details of last night's events.

And by events, I meant my horror-filled nightmare with the creepy shadow cloud, and not to mention how I couldn't breathe in my sleep.

I grabbed my books before closing my locker door shut, and spun around to face my friends. The expressions etched across their faces hinted that they were just as worried about me as my parents were the night before.

Before they could say anything further though, I held up a hand reassuringly, "Guys, it's okay. I'm fine now."

Autumn, my incredibly sassy friend, shot me a look of concern,"Girl, you don't look fine." She quickly gave me a once-over as she studied my lousy appearance today.

I scoffed nervously at her remark. "Seriously, I said I was fine, guys. Now, can we just focus on getting to class? We don't wanna be late," I said, hoping they would drop the subject.

"So, you're absolutely fine?" inquired Drew suspiciously, obviously unwilling to drop the matter. "If so, then why are there bags under your bloodshot eyes?" she pointed out as she folded her arms while Autumn placed her hands on her hips.

"Okay, maybe I didn't sleep well last night after what happened," I admitted. "But what do you want me to do? Spend all my time fretting about it?"

"Well, what did your parents say?" voiced Autumn as we began hiking through fellow students down the hallway.

"My parents are gonna take care of it," I explained in a convincingly confident tone. "They're taking me back to see Dr. Fraier about the asthma attack."

It had been a while since I last saw Dr. Miles Fraier. When I was first diagnosed with asthma as an infant, he had been there for me and my parents every step of the way and my family was indebted to him, especially since my condition only worsened over the course of my childhood.

My asthma attacks were not at all like regular ones. Sure, I had the same constant shortness of breath, wheezing, coughing, and chest tightness. But my attacks were almost violent as my lungs would sometimes falter, at times leaving me unconscious or worse, in a ragged, suffering state for a few minutes at times. Even my inhaler didn't seem to fully ease my suffering.

This perturbed my whole family quite so, including my doctor, who had speculated that I would only get worse.

Then almost as sudden as it came, my condition had ceased altogether. Dr. Fraier claimed my asthma had miraculously disappeared and I no longer had a need for my inhaler. But my parents had decided to keep the inhaler anyway just to be safe. And after what happened last night, it was a mighty good thing we did.

"Well, we're here for you if anything, Nat," piped Drew as we continued our slow march to class.

I squeezed both Drew's and Autumn's hands while a grateful smile tugged the corners of my mouth. I was lucky to have friends like these two. Drew with her compassionate kindness, and Autumn with her honesty and fierce loyalty.

My friends and I then busily discussed the matters of unfinished homework and school gossip when the school bell rang, indicating the beginning of first period. Suddenly the hallway was full of students darting and dashing to their respective classrooms.

"Crap," said Autumn with a groan. "I can't be late for class. I'll see you babes later," she said as she began sprinting away in the opposite direction.

Drew and I navigated our way through the sea of students towards our first period, 11th grade History.

We took our sweet time at it because our teacher, Mr. Spence, my only favorite teacher in this prison of a school, had the tendency to arrive ten minutes after the beginning of class. We didn't mind at all his tardiness and he didn't seem to mind one bit of our attendance either, so long as we paid attention during his lectures and passed his assignments. Now that was a teacher who prioritized.