The Phoenices Volume 1 - Expired

Chapter 8 - Elizabeth

I awoke, a mere minutes before the annoying, high pitched tune blared from the nearby speakers of my alarm. I reached out, shutting off the alarm before it could wake, and swinging my feet out onto the cool floor. I pushed my arms out behind me, enjoying the series of pops that came from my upper back and shoulders before standing, heading to the bathroom to tuck all my hair into a tight bun. I smacked some sweats on, grabbing a small granola bar to tide me over until after practice. I hopped into the passenger seat of my mom's car, finishing off my granola bar and stuffing the wrapped into a spare pocket on my swim bag, clicking my seatbelt across my chest before we headed to the pool entrance of the high school. I peeled away the layers of fleece, leaving me and my kneeskin left on the pool deck. I gracefully dove into the water, wetting my hair before tucking it up into my swim cap, pulling it tightly over my ears and forehead, then reaching up onto the deck once again to grab my armband, which was a daily thing now. I stretched the elasticized band around my wrist, it snapping tight the moment I released it. My muscles relaxed as we began warm up, swimming countless laps at a slower, long distance pace. Then we began sprints, racing each other up and down the pool, gasping for breath when we finally rested for a couple minutes at the end. I snapped my goggles up onto my forehead, pressing my palms against my eyes to relieve the building pressure behind them. I climbed out of the pool, pulling off my cap and goggles before heading into the cooler locker rooms, to change out of my suit and into a comfy pair of yoga pants and a baggy sweatshirt. I packed up, choosing to ignore my wrist today, instead heading out into the cafeteria to grab my breakfast. I collected my pancakes, dousing them in syrup and gobbling them down, then facing the sausages. I ate my whole breakfast in less than 20 minutes, before dumping the leftover garbage into the trashcan, heading over to my friends at their table. I sat and began to talk when someone caught my eye from across the cafeteria, the girl that had walked in on me crying yesterday, now she was wearing a baggy sweatshirt and sitting by herself in the corner of the cafeteria. Shortly after this, I noticed another girl who had a completely 180 degree look from the day before. Reilly walked towards me, wearing black knee high leather boots with killer high heels, a light gray open-shoulder sweater and skin tight jeggings the color of dark denim. Her chin was high, her eyes streaked with winged eyeliner sharp enough to stab a man, her lips a warm, neutral pink.

"How's life guys," she asked, as if everything was normal and she wasn't a complete model today.

"This is... new," I gestured to her, well her everything.

"Well, I figured I would go out with a bang," she replied, laughing when I looked at her, a confused expression undoubtedly passing over my face before she held out her left wrist for me to read. My heart was pounding at 100 miles a minute, my eyebrows scrunching in shock. We had the same date. I held out my wrist, to show her mine, and her face mirrored mine. "How many people do you know have this date?" she questioned me,

"So far, just you." Panic shot through my veins, adrenaline kicking my mind racing,"What do you think is going to happen?"

"I have no idea, but I think we should go see if anyone else has the same date as us. Just in case." She stood, turning to look over all the others who were seated in the cafeteria. I tilted my chin towards the girl who had walked into the bathroom I was crying in earlier, one of the popular girls, now sitting alone, a dark look on her face. I glanced at Reilly and that one look said it all. We quickly headed over to the girl, flanking her.

"Oh, um hi can I help you?" she stuttered uncomfortably.

"Show us your date," Reilly and I said at the same time, each revealing out our dates to the girl. I recognized the look of disbelief on her face as she slowly pulled up her sleeve, revealing yet another November 21st, 2017.

"Why are so many people from our school going to die on the 21st," Reilly questioned, her head tilting upwards as her eyes drifting to the ceiling, her hand slowly reaching towards the wrist with her fate on it. The girl abruptly stood straight up, latching onto both of our hands and dragging us through the crowded cafeteria, shoving people out of the way to get through faster. We exited the commons, and headed towards the farthest girls bathroom.

"We need to get our stuff before we go, class starts in less than 10 minutes," I protested, gesturing vaguely back at the lunch room behind her.

"You're going to die in 20 days, do you think school work really matters right now," she growled, gripping our wrists harder not really giving us an option to follow her or not.

"Hey what's your name?" Reilly asked, an inquisitive tone on her tongue and her eyebrows slightly raised.

"Marissa," she supplied, glancing over her shoulder at us, her pace slowing very slightly for no longer than a couple seconds. We continued on, closer and closer to the dark bathroom, the one where all the druggies went to smoke and the whores went to, well, you get the picture. The smell was terrible, it smelt of cigarette smoke and filth, although the bathroom was actually quite clean, although the flickering light made the whole thing feel rather nerve racking. The second thing I noticed after the scent was that there was no one else with us in the bathroom. It was us three, and only us three.

"Aren't we going to try to find if anyone else has the date?" I queried , my forehead creased in slight annoyance at the neglect of this Junior.

"Yeah, really. We need to know how many people die on this day so we can try to prevent it," Reilly continued, resting her shoulder against the wall and sending some sass in the direction of our kind and gentle captor.

"There's no need, I've already found the majority of them by hacking into the school computer. It's just a matter of time before people begin to realizes that there are about 40 people in our school with the same dates on their wrists, and that's when panic sets in." Marissa whisper-yelled at us, seemingly angry at something, probably us. "You two are the first to actually try to do something about it, although I'm almost positive that other people have discovered that one or two other people have the same date. I know for a fact one of the secretaries had a panic attack the day he arrived here, his date is the 21st as well and he had to record all the dates so that teachers knew why any specific student wasn't here if they die during their high school career."

"How many people in our school die before graduation?" Reilly asked, moments before me, I felt a new sense of panic set in, imagining the worst, hundreds of students dropping dead for an unknown reason in the middle of class. I would be one of them.

"The people who die on the 21st. They are the people who die before graduation. Also one senior dies a week and a half before he is due to graduate, he's probably gonna get drunk or something and die in a car accident, knowing him." Marissa muttered, shaking her head slowly. I tilted my chin towards the floor, considering what could happen that would cause this.

"How could 40 teachers and students from one school all die on the same day?" I asked the other two people, my hair falling into her face and getting caught in my mouth, "Something must happen at the school that day," I finished my thought before fishing the strands from my tongue.

"What could possibly happen at our school that would result in the deaths of 40 people," Reilly snapped, her hair bouncing with her excitement. She paused for a moment, seemingly answering her own question when she continued "Okay, there's a lot of stuff that could happen." she exhaled noisily, her hands pressing into her eye sockets before pulling the skin taught as they ran down her face. "How are we going to prevent this. I don't know about you, but I want to have at least one glow-up in my life." she whipped her hair out behind her, dramatically slamming the door on her way out. I glanced back at Marissa, making quick eye contact with her, a simple understanding passed between us, and I knew she would do everything she could to prevent this. I quietly shut the door behind me, quickly jogging back to the lunchroom to hoist my bag onto my back and then heading to my first hour class.

A/N: 1,566 words according to NaNoWriMo