FULL ECLIPSE (Book #2)

𝕾𝖎𝖝𝖙𝖊𝖊𝖓

Carmen and I open our eyes at the same time. I notice her pupils restrict incredibly fast before returning to a normal 3mm size. Is that what happens to our pupils each time we jump? The turquoise colour of her irises has the glare of the sun on it because she's sitting half in the sun, whilst me and Ella are in the shade.

"T-minus 10-"

"10 minutes," I finish off for her. "Yeah, fuck."

"Huh?" Ella gives us a perplexed expression before taking a look at her phone. "Uh, we've still got like 20 mins of lunch left."

"No, Els," Carmen shakes her head with a small forgiving smile. "ETA till the missiles go off."

"Oh my god," her frown turns to a shock. "You guys jumped just then? I swear I didn't even notice. We were literally talking about the checkpoint then all of a sudden yous were like 'ETA 10 minutes'."

"Crazy, huh?" I raise my eyebrows. "'Cause it's about to get even crazier."

"What do you mean?" Carmen queries.

I don't know if I should tell her that Amber is pregnant with her ex's baby... An ex she may still have feelings for. I shouldn't. Amber trusted me enough to tell me and it's also not my truth to tell. Besides, the only reason Amber even told me is 'cause she's afraid of Dad's reaction, smh. I'm supposed to protect her and whatnot, not be her pregnancy scapegoat, tf.

"I mean, in 10 mins, it'll get crazier," I say instead.

"Duh," she shakes her head at me. "So, yous Sylvester's need to hurry up. Yous are like half a mile behind us still."

"For real."

❖

Lunchtime is over and we're in another catch-up class. Ella needed to touch up on her history so I decided to join her, but the whole way through, we couldn't focus. This whole dimension thing was the star of the show and Ella wanted to know more about it. Which got us sent out...

"How bloody long is he taking?" Ella glares at Mr Burrows through the little window on the classroom door. "Does he really have to make us wait the entire lesson for his talk? He coulda just sent us home."

"Tell me about it," I sigh.

The bell rings for home time and the students leave the classroom, that's when Mr Burrows tells us to come back in. "Right-o. You two have disrupted my class multiple times with the chit-chatting at the back of the classroom."

"S-sorry, Sir," Ella speaks up for us before I have the chance to make up some snarky remark. "We're just tryna understand the work, that's all."

"Don't take the piss out of me, Ella, I'm not stupid," he mutters. "Catch-up classes are for those kids who want to excel. If yous don't want to excel, why bother attending?"

"W-we do, Sir," Ella tries. "Sorry, we really didn't mean to disrupt your class."

"But you did," he exhales. "You know, I'm not even getting paid for these extra classes so for me to even show up and hel-"

My phone vibrates at the worst time and Mr Burrows stares at me.

"Have somewhere to be, Dean?"

"I mean, yes Sir, considering it's home time?"

He scowls at me. "I could send yous off to summer camp, y'know?" he threatens, but little does he know, I'm already being sent off.

"N-n-o, need for that, Sir," Ella stammers. "We apologise, truly."

I notice my dad's Caddy Escalade out the classroom window. Fuck, he's picking us up! He doesn't usually but whenever he has something important to tell us he picks us up from school and tells us on the way home. He's got the perfect view of me in this classroom! Imagine seeing your son get scolded by my teacher with a girl by his side right after telling him to do better the night before.

"Fuck!"

Sir looks directly at me.

"Fu..fri..fright! You're so right, Sir, we wouldn't like that," I gulp.

"'Course yous wouldn't, that's why I said it."

"Sir, l-look," I kinda position my back to the window and try to stir up some lie, "we needa go now. I have, like, my dog to feed? And he might be like starving now."

"Really, what breed is it?" Mr Burrows thinks it's a perfect time to spark up a conversation with me, fml. "I got 2 red-nose pities of my own, they're just so adora-"

"Sir!" I kinda shout, then I smile because damn that was loud. "Can we maybe have this conversation another time? My dog will die if I don't feed him ASAP."

"What Dean is meant to say," Ella gives me a blatant smile, "is that we're truly sorry and won't disrupt your class again."

My phone vibrates some more. I sneakily take a glance over my shoulder and notice that Dad has gotten out of his car now and is smoking a ciggy. He's got his Raybans on and is leaning on his car but I can tell he's getting annoyed because he keeps taking quick glances at his watch while scrolling on his phone.

Sir spectates us for a moment before giving us a loud sigh. "Alright, alright, fine, get home. There won't be no second chances next time."

I tell Ella I'll catch up with her when I can. I take a look at my phone, tryna rush to Dad's car. A bunch of texts from my sister greets me and makes my tummy feel weird. Fuck me dead, innit.