The Evil Inside

Chapter Seven - ALEX: I Become BFFs with Mr Miller

An email came through to my parents that night. From... guess who? The one, the only, Mr Miller! Supposedly, my “maths wasn’t up to scratch”, but Mr Miller would be “happy to assist with extra tuition”. Does he live to make my life a complete misery? Answer: apparently, yes. Dad thought it was a great idea. Well, he would, wouldn’t he? He’s not the one that has to suffer.

Kate rang me up soon after. “Did your parents get an email from Mr Miller? About extra tuition?” I told her I had. Apparently, she had too. This confused me. Kate was Mr Miller’s star pupil; she was good at maths, polite and hardworking. What reason could he have for doing this? Kate thought that maybe it was for everyone in our year.

We spoke to Kelsey, who was at Kate’s house. She checked, but told us no, she hadn’t got an email. The same happened with Mike, Em, Arran, Tyler and Blythe. Ani came down while I was doing this. “It was you who stole the biscuits earlier, you little creep.” She snarled. “I’ll get you back for that. What are you doing?”

When I told her, she said, “It’s because you suck at maths, there is no hidden reason, stupid.” She swore at me, and went through to the kitchen. One big happy family, hey?

Kate called down the phone, “Alex, hello? Are, you still there? Was that your sister swearing?” I put the phone up to my ear again.

I nodded, and then realised she couldn’t see that “Yeah that was Ani,” I said “Surprised?”

“No” said Kate. She was right; it wasn’t surprising. Ani swore a lot. “I’ve called everyone in our class, and none of them have been asked to do extra.”

“That’s weird.” I said, and then a funny thought occurred to me. “ Did you ask Brian?”

“Uh huh” Kate said, giggling, “He was really jealous. He would give his right arm to be maths tutored more than he already is.”

“What do you think his parents buy him for Christmas?” I asked, continuing the joke. “Extra maths papers? I heard he taught his hamster how to calculate the area of a trapezium!”

Kate was laughing hard now. “Definitely. That sounds just like something he’d do! See ya tomorrow, Alex”

“Bye” I said absentmindedly, still chuckling as I hung up. As I walked into the kitchen, I didn’t see Ani, and I walked straight into her, making her drop the biscuit she was eating. She scowled at me. “Who’s the cookie thief now then?” I said, grinning.

“Shut up, freak,” my big sister grumbled. I smiled sweetly at her and walked on.

A counselling session? Why on earth do I need a counselling session? I’m sane, aren’t I? Don’t answer that, but honestly, I blame Kate for getting me all worked up. Really, at the deepest root, this whole mess was her fault. But… as she’s my best friend, and generally she’s awesome, I guess I’ll forgive her. Eventually.

I trudged slowly but surely towards the guidance room. Man, this was embarrassing. A talk about feelings I didn’t know how I felt about with a weird woman I barely knew? Pretty much my idea of hell. You know, right then, boy was maths looking good.

When I arrived, Nurse Humfrey was (surprise) already there waiting for me. I half expected her to turn around in a wheelie chair stroking a fluffy animal like all the cliché bad guys do. Because, in the story of my life, Nurse Humfrey was the villain.

“Ah, Alex, there you are! I was wondering where you’d got to, you’re a little bit late, you know.” Surprised, I checked the clock on the scrubbed white wall behind her. I was a whole fifty seconds late. This lady was punc-tu-al.

“I’m sorry to keep you waiting Nurse Humfrey, I just didn’t want to run in the corridors.” I said, shining with innocence. You could almost see the halo above my head. Almost.

I don’t much like the angel analogy; it clashes with my permanent devil horns. Now Kate, on the other hand… urgh, I had to stop thinking about her so much. Back to the - currently horrible -reality of my actual life.

“That’s quite all right dear,” she said, smiling kindly. Honestly, some people will believe anything. And, by some people, what I really mean is Nurse Humfrey.

Slowly, she heaved herself off of the bench. When I say heaved, I mean precisely that. Tons of bunched up flesh jiggled frantically about as she tried to stand up. Heaving was, in fact, extremely, necessary. She patted the space she’d just left, like she wanted me to sit in it. I stayed standing up until she practically pulled me over there, so I could plonk myself down. The wood underneath me was uncomfortably warm.

Villain Humfrey put her chubby hands on my shoulders and leaned over my, her face blocking out everything else in my vision. She leaned in closer. I presume that this was a verified way of ‘making sure that the test subject (sorry, patient) feels comforted and empathised with’. Whatever. It wasn’t working. And her breath absolutely reeked of cabbage.

I struggled to think of anything I could say that would a) not offend her and b) make polite conversation. I.e. something that was vaguely normal, like I did this sort of thing every day. And definitely not ‘I know a really good place to buy breath mints. Want some?’ How had I reached the age of fourteen and never been to counselling? And why now of all times have my few brain cells chosen to desert my brain?

I came to the conclusion that, essentially, the world hates me.

I looked slowly and subtly around the room. No exit except the entrance. Which had closed. Great.

It was going to be a hell of a long lunchtime.

 A/N: Helloooo, i am back with the updates. revision escape!!!!!!!!! yes!