The New League

Chapter 2

English. I share that class with another best friend. Geez, I say that a lot. She's the youngest one in our group, and I troll her all the time by calling her the baby. She punches my arm every time I call her that, and every time it's still worth it.

I quietly walk into class in an attempt to scare her. She's sitting at her desk listening to music. Perfect. I sneak up right behind her. In seconds, I raise my hands and slam them onto her shoulders shouting.

"Hi, Valeria!!"

"oH mY gOd!!!"

Just like that, I get a fist to my arm, and as a bonus a lighter punch to the stomach. Hooray for me...

"Why do you always scare me?!" She complains like the child she is.

"It's fun. Duh. Plus you're very jumpy." I laugh.

"So are you," she says with her signature sass and crossing her arms.

"Yeah yeah, anyways, I gotta talk to you," I say, taking my seat next to her.

"What's up?" She asks giving all of her attention to me.

"Alright, so last class I have with Sarah, but when she came in, and right as the bell rung, she looked gloomy and bummed out. As she sat down she said she was dying and I asked if she stayed up late but she lied saying no."

"That's...really weird, but what if it has do to with what's happened, you know, the Civil War." She says with sincerity.

She whispered 'Civil War', and with good reason. If anyone said it loud enough for someone else to hear, it ends up in heated arguments of choosing sides, who should have won and all that stuff that no one really wants to hear.

"It could be, but I have this gut feeling that it's something more than that."

"Hmm. Well, there's only one way to find out. We're asking her at lunch right?"

"Of course. I told Bri already and she says she'll try asking her now."

"Okay."

The bell rang telling us class is starting and we need to shut up for our teacher. I look to the board and it reads 'Group Project on Letters Of A Birmingham Jail: I'm choosing your groups so don't even think about it.'

What the heck I gotta do to get out of here..?

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Two excruciatingly boring classes pass and now it's lunchtime, 12 p.m. I enter the cafeteria and walk over to our table, seeing Izzy sitting there drawing as usual.

"Hi, Izzie!" I say cheerfully walking over. Why didn't I scare her like Valeria? Because she'll kick my butt if I mess with her like that, and I know very well she can pack a punch.

"Hey, dude." She smiles but then goes into a somewhat serious tone, "So what's going on with Sarah?"

"Okay, so long story short, she's not acting like herself. Something's throwing her off but I don't know what. I tried asking earlier, but nothing. I already told Valeria and Brianna that we would talk to her now."

"Alright, but what if it has to do with Civil War? You know how passionate and upset she was about the whole ordeal."

"Yeah I do, but my gut is telling me it's something else- oh! Here she comes." I exclaim seeing Sarah looking down at the floor while walking over, Brianna by her side.

"Okay but wait a sec before you start asking her anything," Izzie warns.

"Mhm. Got it." I say quickly as the two arrive at the table. "Hi, guys" I smile, attempting to get Sarah to look up or at least say a word.

"Hi, Alicia, Izzie," Brianna says happily walk over to bend down between us and whispering "I couldn't find out anything either. Stayed quiet the whole time."

I looked over to Sarah sitting down, trying to get her attention again, but her eyes remained on the table as she slowly pulled out her lunch.

I notice Izzie couldn't take any more of her silence as she begins to ask, "Hey, is everything okay my dude? I heard from Alicia that you weren't feeling so good."

"I-I'm fine. Really." She replies in a low monotone voice.

"Please Sarah", I speak up, "We know you're not. So just talk to us and we can help you."

"As best as we can!" Brianna adds while Izzie nods.

Then, in a blur, I see an energetic Valeria running over. More specifically to me.

"Nononono! vALERIA!!" I screech as she tackles me onto the table.

"Gotcha! That's payback for English!"

"Oof" Izzie comments. I simply groan getting up from my karma. I look back to Sarah only to find her giggling at my misfortune.

"Alright alright, let's get back to what's important." Izzie reminds us. "Now, who's hurting you, and who do I have to beat up?" She says casually, though I know she would have no problem doing it.

"No, it's not somebody." She sighs, inhaled and exhaled calmly, prepared to explain herself. The rest of us grab a seat quietly, ready to listen to her.

"I had a dream last night. But it wasn't like a normal dream. And it wasn't a nightmare either, but I still feel creeped out about it. It started out with me standing in a dark space. A black void of nothing. But then I saw this dim night in front of me. I walk towards it, the shape of a book floating half my height. I stopped and grabbed the book. It immediately opened and flipped through pages super fast until it reaches a page that had my name at the top. I was gonna continue reading but the book closed just as fast as it opened. It crumbled away in my hands, and the light disappeared. That's when I started getting scared. I look up to see two white glowing eyes staring at me. Then I noticed they were getting closer to me. The outline of a guy appeared in front of me. I was freaking out, even more, then all of a sudden something bit me. It hurt like hell. And then I woke up."

As she's taking a moment to pause, we were all a mixture of confusion, concern, and curiosity. That is until Valeria bluntly says "Seriously? Is that it?"

"Valeria." I scold her a bit, knowing that there was still more to tell.

"Is there anything else?" Izzie asks in a nicer but still worried tone.

"Yeah there is.." she says nervously looking to all of our faces before looking down at her arm fearfully. "Promise me you guys won't freak out too much?" She asks.

"We can try," Brianna says quietly as Valeria, Izzie, and I nod in agreement.

"O-okay.." Sarah takes another breath again to gain some composure. She reaches for her sweater's sleeve and pulls it back to reveal a small red infected area near her wrist. It was an insect bite.