Summerville High

Chapter 1 (Part 1) {Lucas} - The Start

I walked into school holding the straps of bag tightly; it was a crisp summer morning and the air was rich with the scent of body odour and cheap perfume. As I walked through the main gate, I thought about my old school, how my life was never going to be the same after I left Warnervale and moved here, to the small town of Lauraville, I was deep in thought as a murmuring voice disturbed me, it said,"There is Lucas Bell."

I smiled and waved ambitiously to the new student and their tour guides, which were all senior students, they acknowledged my greeting and went straight back to introducing themselves to people. In Lauraville, everyone knew everyone and it was sort of annoying.

Lauraville was your typical country town with farms and more less exciting stuff found in the country towns. The only difference between here and Warnervale was that everyone avoided my family. I couldn't even walk through town without people running home, or mumbling insults under their breath to the person beside them. I was alone at school, even the teacher avoided me, and it took me a while from having five amazing friends to having none. It was almost as if I was diseased and it was contagious or something. Every day I just ignored the whispering and the teasing I received from the other kids, I get up every morning and pray that it will be different for no apparent reason at all.

Everything changed one day when there was a field trip to the city and I had my note signed by my parents, who had both resorted to never leaving the house by the other residents of the town. The bell rang for roll-call, sending a vibrant feeling throughout the whole school as everybody ran for their lines on the quad. As usual, I was sent to sit on the wall opposite my line as i was always told that ‘there wasn’t enough room in the line’. I hate this school, I thought bitterly as I clenched my fists in rage. I bit my lip nervously as a crowd of year seven kids strolled to my direction and sat along the wall with me. They all stared at me as if they wanted something I had, or they were mentally debating who was going to speak.

A blonde girl who was close to me leant forward and randomly hugged me, her hair getting in my face. When she sat back down, her blue eyes dancing, she told me, "Happy birthday."

"You actually remembered?" I asked questioningly as I cocked my head to one side and stared at her. She looked as if she was about to respond when the teacher at the front asked that all the students going to the excursion go to the hall where we sat for ten minutes listening to the rules. I gazed around the hall and received the usual sight of everyone glancing at me and then reporting to their friends, I gave up on making friends on my first day when everyone was calling me a ‘freak of nature’. The worst thing is that I didn’t understand why they were saying it, I guess I never took the time to ask anyone, it just seemed like it would be a part time thing, boy was I wrong. It wasn’t all bad, being the most hated person that is, because you get a first pick of everything because no one wants to be near you. I was the first onto the bus and I made my way to the very back seat as everyone moaned and grunted because everyone wanted to sit there. Our whole grade piled into the yellow bus, no one sat next to me or even thought about it. There were four students who didn’t get a seat, they all looked back at me and flipped their hair as they turned and walked towards the teacher. I watched as they pointed to me,and then walk of the bus. The teacher made her way to the middle of the bus, and announced, "Due to the decrease of seating, I will be driving four students to the city." She said as her glare caught me and lured me in with rage like a lasso, I felt as if I was going to puke. Her glare was so strong that I had trouble looking away from its superior power; everyone in the bus except me yelled in triumph as the teacher left the bus with her waist length hair flowing behind her as she made her final step off the bus.

The drive was long, and being the complete loner I was, it was boring; I watched as groups of people chatted and swapped seats with others to be closer to their friends. It only made me long for a similar fate and future, I only wanted my friends here with me to talk to and to play hand games with them like we used to when we were in primary school. I lay down my head on the highly uncomfortable, leather seat and slept the whole way to the city. I then woke up to the teachers checking the bus for luggage that was left behind and although all of them had seen me, none of them bothered to awaken me from my light slumber which made me aggravated. I grabbed my penguin bag and walked off the bus with it tightly strapped to my back. My purple tinged, black hair reflected the sun’s rays with ease and everyone looking at me squinted in pain. I walked over to the table which was covered in name tags, I scanned the lot looking for the one that read ‘Lucas Bell’. It wasn’t there and everyone was walking away when I turned around to ask about it.

I never intended to follow them anyway; I had much better preferences on my agenda. I reached into my black denim jeans pocket and pulled out the map I had printed out at home the morning, I began walking glancing down at the map every now and then for re-assurance. After four blocks of walking I found what I was looking for, the Mystic Mystery shop. I glanced around before entering to see if my year group was anywhere near me, my grey eyes flicked from left to right and studied the surroundings on both sides before I walked into the shop. Bead curtains covered the complete perimeter of the store, isles and isles of psychic items were cramped into shelves. To the left of the doorway was the reception and retail desk.

"Are you here for an appointment?" a lady asked as she made her way to the reception desk and sat down at the computer. I looked at her questioningly. How did she know I was here? I reached into my penguin bag and pulled out a card with the stores insignia on it and an appointment time, she nodded and walked me through to the psychic medium. She was a dark skinned woman, who was rather large. Her black hair was tied up into a high ponytail which stood courageously atop her head; she sat on cushions and slowly looked over towards me as I entered the room more and more by each passing second. The psychic was performing a tarot reading on her as she signalled me to take a seat opposite her; I felt obliged to do so and followed her command, filled with nerves.

"Hello Lucas. I am Margret Mystic, a psychic medium." She said as I took a seat and shook her offering hand with unintentional awkwardness. As soon as I realised that I didn’t get the chance to tell her my name I tilted my head with an in-awe expression planted upon my face.

"Um." I began to say as she shoved the deck of tarot cards in my hands and instructed me to shuffle them. I was still concerned that she knew my name. I looked down and the deck of tarot cards which were lined with gold and had the usual pictures of the original tarot. I shuffled the cards vigorously in an attempt to get a descent tarot reading. I finished shuffling and looked up to her to see her raising one finger, I assumed that she wanted me to take one card from the deck. I fanned out the cards, face down, along the table and picked one at random. It was death, she gasped as I placed it down on the table. I stared at the card in disbelief as a light breeze swept through the beaded curtains surrounding the private room. What could it mean? I thought to myself as nausea churned my stomach, making me feel dizzy. I stood up, shaking off the sickening feeling that boiled deep within my stomach. She looked gravely concerned, which only further filled me with a similar feeling.

 As I ran out of the shop, I tripped on the step in the exit and rolled along the footpath, I hit a solid object which screamed in pain. I opened my eyes and saw one of the students which didn’t have a seat on the bus, looking down at me with rage clearly plastered on her face. I stood up and moved away slowly from the girl with the flowing, waist length blonde hair and skinny body. She looked like a super-model with her high cheekbones and swamp green eyes which shot painful glares at me. I stood giving her the same evil glance as the death tarot card began to fly into my hand from inside the shop; no one accompanied it as it flew into my palm, almost reminding me of its presence in my future. I looked down at the card, as did everyone else as their expressions changed from hatred to pure shock. In synchronised timing, all three students spun around on their heels and began running for the bus, screaming stuff like ‘Witch’ or ‘He’s haunted’.

I ignored all of them and made my way silently to the bus, looking at the card every so often to check that the past events were not a dream. When I walked up the thick black steps of the bright yellow bus, I realised that every seat was taken except for one in the middle of the bus which had one student sitting on its leather padding. It was a boy who looked just as alone as I felt; everything about him reminded me of myself. His face was so life-less that it looked as if he were a statue sitting among bunches of energetic people, he sat with his white face pointed out the window, observing the landscape. His dark brown hair was think and swept to one side of his head, his aqua coloured eyes were darting around the outside of the bus in panic. There was something odd about him and I suddenly felt the urge to find out what it was, I moved quickly to the last remaining seta and took my rightful place next to the boy. Am I really like this? I mentally questioned myself as the boy turned to face me awkwardly and with warning eyes.

…