The Opposite Of Good

[1] The Beginning

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He yelled at me to remain quiet and continue eating. I shivered. His deep voice bounced off the walls of the small kitchen. Fear struck into me.

The excessive vigour in his tone was what forced my hand to hold the spoon in an instant. I was afraid he would do something insane if I didn't keep quiet and eat, as per my uncle's orders.

So that was what I did, not ever raising my head from the bowl of already soggy cereal before me.

The way in which he angrily slammed his hands against the kitchen counter. The dark gray that was shading the sky. The yells of the day before. My muffled screams. The lonely house.

Those were some of the thoughts that clustered my mind when I walked to school.

“Amara!”

An exclamation of my name pulled me out of my thoughts. I turned around to see my best friend running towards me.

I struggled breathing as she embraced me into one of her heartfelt hugs, but that didn't matter. I had missed her, so I wrapped my arms around her thin body and brought my face to the area of her neck. She smelled like clean soap and rain.

“How was your winter break?” I inquired once we pulled away from each other, and she replied by bragging about how amazing it was. I simply grinned at her, and the sky above got darker.

We walked further into the unwelcoming periphery of Rose Etta High.

We were finally in our senior year. But I did not feel excited.

We walked further into the hallway.

“Where's Leah? Do you see her anywhere?” I asked while searching the crowd of overjoyed adolescents for my other best friend.

“Nope, I can't seem to see her...oh there she is.” Kate replied before running in the direction of where she had seen Leah. I followed closely behind her, shoving people's bodies in the process.

“Leah!” Kate yelled, jumping into Leah's arms.

They were definitely more enthusiastic than I was this morning.

Walking into the first class of the day, which unfortunately happened to be Physics, I realized that I was one of the earliest students to arrive.

This was great. I had the opportunity to pick whichever place I wanted to sit at. I decided on a seat at the very back of the class and placed my schoolbag on the desk before me.

As more people started pouring in, I glanced out the window. The gray streaks in the sky were more prominent. The weather people never mentioned anything about rain. No one came to sit next to me.

Mr Wilson walked in with a permanent scowl on his face. Everyday he increasingly looked like he didn't want to be here. The feeling was quite mutual.

He was one of the rude teachers who always shouted at students and gave out detentions like the world was coming to an end.

When he stood in front of the almost full class and studied everyone's faces, he uttered out a forced greeting.

“I'm sure you all know the rules around here by now but because it's a new year, I'm going to say them out again, loud and clear so that all of you troublemakers can hear properly.”

“You will not eat in my class, no cellphones allowed and you don't ever talk unless I ask you a question as I would expect an immediate answer. You should never stand up on your long reptile legs and walk around without my given permission and lastly, if you are late to my class, just never mind coming at all because I will not allow you in.” He yelled, his voice the only thing to be heard in the dead silent room.

Just then, almost like fate was playing a daring game, the door creaked open and he walked in.

His face was as emotionless as the last time I saw it.

His bag carelessly hung around his shoulder.

Faint gasps came from students in the classroom due to his bruised appearance, everyone in this school knew that Justin Hazard was not a person to be messed with. Mr Wilson turned his furious face towards the latecomer.

From the window I saw the first raindrops fall.