Renegade

- Chapter IV -

- Chapter IV -

"Are you sure about this?" Masky asked from behind me for the tenth time.

He had made it to the school, and the front door stood in front of me, my hand rested on it. I thought for a minute then answered, "Of course I'm sure."

With that, I pushed the door open and all hell broke loose.

There were people everywhere. Some were sitting, some standing, some making out in corners. Every now and then a person dressed like a lawyer with an ID around their neck would walk down the hall. The hall was lined with these little doors that had padlocks on them.

"Name?" I turned around to see who the voice had come from. A man stood there with a clipboard in hand and he was staring at me from above his glasses. He wasn't dressed like a lawyer, but wore a red polo shirt with the same ID card around his neck.

"J- Jason Delgado." I said, mentally cursing myself for the stutter.

"Room 508 for homeroom. Name?" The man said, turning to Masky.

Masky stared back and forth between the man and me and I could tell the man was getting impatient.

"Tim." I blurted out, "His name is Tim Delega."

"I don't have a 'Delega' in the system. Just stick with him until I can iron it out." The man said, gesturing to me with his head and walking away.

"Where did Delega come from?" Masky asked quietly as we scanned the rooms lining the hallway for 508.

"I figured things might work alphabetically here and delega means 'proxy' in Italian." I shrugged.

Masky nodded in reply as we walked into room 508.

"Name?" One of the lawyer women asked as we walked through the door.

There were maybe thirty other kids in the room. Some sat quietly in the back, looking increasingly uncomfortable, and others were as rowdy as those in the hallway.

"Jason Delgado and Tim Delega." I said.

She analyzed her clip board for a minute and then told us to sit down. We made our way to the back of the class and Masky sat behind me.

"This isn't so bad." Masky said quietly a few minutes later.

"Save that for the end of the day. It hasn't even started yet." I warned. As if on que, a bell blared through the halls and I heard scampering of feet.

"Welcome, children," the woman said at the front of the class, "I am Miss Smith."

Miss Smith told us that we would each be assigned a 'locker' and passed a padlock to each of us. My guess was that was what the doors in the hallways were. Next she passed us each a slip of paper with our names printed at the top. Underneath was a rubric of classes with different room numbers by each. Except 'Lunch', which had no number.

"Everyone you are dismissed. Make your way to first period now." With her words everyone rose from their chairs in unison and crammed out the door.

"First period?" Masky asked as we walked, "I thought that was a girl thing."

"I think she means a class." I said, confused.

The classes were quiet and easy. The lawyers, who actually turned out to be teachers, had the reigns on these kids held tightly. The whole system reminded me of a well-oiled machine. Never stopping, always producing exactly what it is asked.

My first class was Algebra I, which, ironically, I had taken last year. We were assigned a packet of problems to do for homework as a 'warm up'.

Next was English. We were each distributed abnormally large textbooks that I skimmed through while the teacher lectured about what we would be doing this year. Languages, along with Literature and Art, were my best subjects.

Lunch rolled around quickly and Masky and I had to wonder around for a while until we finally came across a room larger than any other we had seen in the school yet.

It was the size of a ballroom and tables were lined in neat rows all across the room. The chattering of so many humans at once made my head pound.

Suddenly, my vision wavered and a strange ringing erupted in my ears. Kill them, I heard someone say, Kill them all.

I felt a tingling in my face and on my back. No, I hissed in protest, pushing back the monster that was trying to rip free, Not now. Not here. No no no no no.

I sank down at the nearest empty table and pushed the voice away with all my might. Sadly, it was persistent now more than ever, Rip them, tear them, kill them!

"Junior?" Masky whispered, shaking me by the shoulder gently, "Are you alright?"

Finally I was able to speak through the fog of hate and bloodlust flooding my mind, "Yeah," I said, looking up and rubbing my eyes, "I'm fine. Just a headache."

Rip them...

Tear them...

Kill them all!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Hello my lovelies. Just fyi, I changed Junior's alias from Ashton to Jason. I didn't want anyone getting confused with that... If anyone sees somewhere that I missed making this correction, please tell me in an inline comment where it is. Okay, read on!