When the alarm clock went off, Alex felt just like the world had come crashing in again. The sweet release of sleep so brutally and unfairly interrupted by the new day. A day, he decided, that would no doubt feel as hollow and empty as every other. He wondered if those girls would leave him alone today. It was embarrassing, being bullied by girls. There was something worse about the hopelessness brought about by being bullied by the sort of girl the teachers think are princesses, to be called names by someone half his build was the cruellest reminder that words can hurt anybody. Laying there in his depression, Alex felt as if he couldn't even move his legs, let alone face another day. Eventually, he found the strength to drag himself over to his bedside table and slam the snooze button, begging the alarm for ten more minutes to hide from the coming day in unconsciousness. After some ten minutes that seemed like thirty seconds to Alex, the alarm roared its offensive siren again. This time, Alex found the strength to turn off the alarm and face the day. He had not long started year 11 and the popular girls in his class had resumed their terrorising of him. His birthday was in late August but every time he went to school, he wished he had been born just a few weeks later, to avoid their horrid name-calling.
He stared at himself in his bedroom mirror. His long black hair was a mess and he was in desperate need of a shower. Alex surveyed himself like this for a few minutes checking for any acne that may have reared its ugly head on his pale white face and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.
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Soon, he stomped downstairs and grabbed a slice of toast his mother had prepared for him. Underneath lay a note which read, "Had to leave for work early. Made you some breakfast. Get to school on time and PLEASE PLEASE be good. Mum xxx."
Alex felt momentarily offended that his Mum would assume he would misbehave before the day even started. Then, he recalled insulting James, his Mum's boyfriend, the night before and found himself agreeing with her instincts. He recalled laughing at James when he threatened to leave, remarking that he didn't care.
It wasn't that there was anything wrong with James as such, he seemed like a nice enough guy. He just wasn't Alex's Father no matter how much he tried to act like it. He knew his mum deserved to be happy but Alex felt a strong connection to a man he never met and the thought of her with anyone, but his father felt like a betrayal. So many people told him to give up on this 'pipe-dream' of a proper family, that his Father was either long dead or uninterested, but Alex felt as if he could never accept it. He grabbed his bag-pack and swung it over one arm and set off.
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There was a squirrel outside. Alex stared out of the classroom window watching the little guy as he scampered around. Hungry? Alex asked the squirrel in his thoughts, you're going to be disappointed mate, there aren't any oak trees in this prison. The squirrel seemed undeterred however, sniffing and scampering around as if to say to Alex, I know it's here somewhere! Alex wished he could help his small friend but unfortunately, he was stuck listening to Mr Lestrat, the English teacher and possibly the most boring man who ever lived, give some lecture about the history of vampires in literature. Every now and again one of the girls would ask when they'd finally get to the sparkly ones.
"Forget those," snapped Lestrat, "Vampires are meant to be scary! Intent on terrifying, not marrying."
"But what if they're really fit?" came a voice at the back of the room who'd not been paying much attention either, focusing instead on practising her aim by throwing scrunched up paper at other students when they weren't looking.
"Shut up Beth, Jacob is way fitter," argued another girl who had decided to pay attention once twilight was being talked about.
Mr Lestrat rubbed his temples with frustration, "Let's just watch a movie if you all promise to stop throwing things." He reached under his desk and pulled out a DVD copy of Dracula.
In the meantime, the squirrel had started digging in a small flower bed by the building and found itself an acorn. Alex found this particularly surprising as there has never been an oak tree out there at any point he could remember but surmised that the squirrel must have buried it there at some point, he weirdly felt that he had helped his tiny friend by willing him to find what he was looking for. The idea was absurd, but the gut feeling that he had somehow contributed through sheer will was there nonetheless.
"If you really must not listen to my teaching," came the teachers raspy voice as he approached Alex, "can you not find the interest to watch a film Mr Caper?"
The English teacher wore a polyester suit and had a pale complexion that properly suited his strange mannerisms and slightly off tone short grey hair.
Alex looked up apologetically, "Sorry sir, I promise I'll pay more attention."
Mr Lestrat stared out of the window. The squirrel had gone but left a mess in the flower bed that seemed to catch the teacher's attention. Mr Lestrat sniffed the air.
"Since we're on the topic, I know I haven't released the marks for last week's mock test, but we need to talk about your grades," he placed his hand on Alex's shoulder, "See me at the end of the day, son." Lestrat looked down and quickly removed his hand off Alex's shoulder and walked back to his desk seeming to berate himself under his breath. Alex sat still for a moment and placed his hand where his teacher's hand had been, it was cold.
After about twenty minutes of the movie, Alex's promise to pay more attention wavered as it inevitably would. He surveyed the room and saw that all of the students were chatting to somebody. The head girl Beth was showing four other girls something on her phone. The girls all giggled but Alex wasn't convinced it was actually funny. The others wouldn't dare speak their own mind. Besides her was a quiet girl, Sarah.
She actually isn't so bad, Alex thought.
Whilst Beth and her cronies regularly made fun of Alex's attempts at being dark and brooding, she always kept quiet, evidently choosing to fit in but stopping short of joining in the bullying. Once, when Beth had mentioned Alex's father, Sarah had yelled at Beth for going too far. A transgression that took some time for the queen bee of the school to forgive.
There was a knock at the door and the school counsellor, counsellor Una, poked his head in,
"I just need to steal Alex away from you, it's time for our session."
YOU ARE READING
The Ethereal Saga - Volume One - The Child of Light
FantasyA mother who refuses to remember, an all too familiar school counsellor, and a teacher hiding a terrible secret. Alex never knew his father. A fact which he has allowed to define him for his whole life. He always believed there was more to the myste...
