Beneath the Ashes

Beneath The Ashes - Chapter 2

   Every morning. At 6:32. Like clockwork. Mr. Jennings appears in the school parking lot in his blue Mini Cooper. Coffee in hand. Tie loose around his neck. And purplish bruises under his eyes.

   Then there's me. Slightly off to the side. Waiting for him as usual in my everyday sweatpants and hoodie. Pretending I don't exist.

   As he fumbles for something in his bag I sit up slightly straighter and slowly draw in a breath. This is what happens every morning. And Mr. Jennings has finally stopped looking at me funny every time he's sees me sitting there. Awkward as usual, with my feet pulled close. Always on the sixth step. Hunched backed and shivering, but not because i'm cold.

   "Morning Ms.Gorstein" He says. His back is turned to me and he's still fumbling. I can see from here the coffee's already kicked in and I wonder how many shots he's had exactly. His hands are shaking extremely hard. Just like mine.

   "Morning" I return, standing up and shoving my fingers in my pocket.

    Mr. Jenning stops rooting through his pack and finally pulls out his teacher ID. He starts walking towards me and smiles wearily.

   Sometimes I wonder what Mr. Jennings' personal life is like. He's very young, probably in his mid twenties yet he looks so worn. There are already creases around his eyes and he's started balding. It sounds stupid but he's a good friend. He doesn't even know it but he's probably the best... Pathetic I know. But he's the only one that didn't question me or give me threatening stares when IT happened. He let me eat lunch after he saw me heading to the girls bathroom everyday. And --

   His hand jutted out and handed me the coffee.

   -- he gives me coffee every morning. Just the way I like it.

   He's not one of those creepy teachers that looks down girls shirts or any of that stuff. He's just a nice guy.

   As he unlocks the schools doors I silently trudge behind him. Mr. Jennings' biology room is in what I call the "Back Cave". The walls are painted black and the ceiling constantly drips a greenish substance. When we get there he sets his things on his desk and boots up his computer. I take my seat directly across from him and play with a slinky next to his name plate.

   "How are things at home?" He asks, not looking up. His fingers are already flying over the keys and he stops momentarily to push up his glasses.

   I slump down so my butt hangs off the seat, "Same old, same old." I glance over at the clock behind his chair. 6:37. My attention snaps bag to my teacher, still typing away. "What are we doing in class today?"

   He sighs,  "Don't worry about it Callie, no flames involved."

   Instinctively, I flinch at the word, and Mr. Jennings pauses, looking up. Sometimes I think of him as my therapist. He sure is better than Miss. Connolly, the 50 year old part time therapist that my Dad hired. I figured out only a few weeks ago he'd gotten me a crap therapist on purpose. So that I didn't progress emotionally at all. I'd told Mr. Jennings about it and even though none of them admitted it, I knew he had phoned my Father about it. Miss. Connolly was out of my life for good now. She'd done more damage than needed. I hadn't even known she was hurting me more than helping. She had impossibly increased the guilt I felt even further than I could have imagined.

   "Are any of the other teach--"

   "No." He sat back, "Callie we've talked about this, I wont let that happen, And even if it does i'll warn you" He scratched his neck and blinked at his computer screen. "Anyway I have things to do."

   There was beat of silence. When I didn't budge, he made a small pouty face.

   I tried to smirk but it came out more like a grimace, "You want me gone already?"

   He gave me a look and shoved some papers across his desk. "Here's something to do. We have a new student. Alistair Galandi, It's your job to help him get around for the day. You'll have passes for the rest of your classes."

   "New student?" I reach over and grabbed the stack "Where from?"

   Mr. Jennings shrugged, then pointed to something beside me "Are you going to drink that?"

   I looked at my coffee and grabbed it. "Yes it was just too hot!"

   Now it was his turn to smirk. "I told him to be here by 8:00 to get a tour of the place."

 I nodded absentmindedly. After a minute passed I frowned "Isn't this somebody else's job though? Like the attendance office or something?"

   "Yes but I love volunteering"

   My lips pinch together. Best thing about Mr. Jennings. He's the only person I open up around, plus he's got this funky sense of humor that almost makes he smile... Almost.

   I decide to head out a few moments later. And the minute I step outside I here Mr. Jennings dial a number and a few seconds later, get in a heated argument on his phone. My legs pick up speed to distance myself from the room. Never get involved in other people's business. That's my number 2 rule.

   It's around 7:00 am, meaning I have an entire hour to kill time. During that time I stop by the attendance office and plop down in an empty seat.

   The lady who runs the office, has just finished unlocking it and gives me a half sympathetic half annoyed look, but doesn't question me.

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   It's amazing how time can fly when you blank the world out. That's what i'd been doing for the last hour and a half. The other students had started filing in through the doors and hallways. The first bell rings at 8:30, the second at 8:35, signaling the start of class. He's late. And in the meantime I had downed my cofee, gotten my passes, and was now alert and on the lookout for the new student. I was wondering if he was even going to show up at all.

   Suddenly, there was a blur of movement to my right. I snapped my head in the direction of it and pulled my hood tighter around my head, double checking that my entire face was concealed. Bonnie Philler, a former friend of mine, came strutting through the door. She had on a gray sweater with basic  jeans, along with knee high boots. Normally i'd be along side her but that was't the case anymore. She walks up to the attendance lady and asks a few quick questions about missing class. I'm take a deep breath and tryitry to hide my panic. I hadn't seen Bonnie in months, and after all that hard work of staying as far away from her as I could manage, she appears at almost the worst time possible.

   I bend down quickly and untie my shoe. Then retie. Then untie. Then retie. 7 times before I can hear the conversation end.There's a shuffling off feet and not moments later, an intake of breath. I'm still tying frantically. Cross over, bunny loop twice, criss-cross the ears, pull tight.

   "Callie?"

   I curse under my breath and sit up slowly, letting my gaze travel only as far as the hem of her shirt.

   "Hi." I reply cautiously.

   The chair beside scrapes the floor as she sits down, and this time I do curse out loud.

   She decides to ignore my slight outburst, "How have you been?" she asks, I can feel her trying to search my face and my hood is immediately pulled tighter around my face.

   "Fine."

   Silence.

   ... Bonnie finally sighs and says "So how have your classes been.. Good?"

  "Yep."

   Another boy has just walked in and I rapidly focus on him. His back is turned so I can only hope staring at him will distract me from Bonnie.

   She asks something else but i've tuned her out. The boy talks to the attendance lady, who's for some reason turned white and pasty. Her skin is stretched tight over a beaky grin. I cock my head, but just before the boy turns around.

   My heart falters a bit. And Bonnie, who has fallen silent, lets out a little squeak.

   Alistair Galandi. Mystery boy. Was far from what I expected him to be.