Clay Heroes

Chapter 2: Forming The Heroes

"Chad? Chad! Wake up!"

Black silence had just settled over Chad's miserable consciousness when his mom called him out of what little sleep he'd managed.

"You'll be late for school!"

His eyes opened quickly, but his body was not so eager to rouse. Slowly, he rolled out of bed, rubbing his swollen eyes and yawning as if his head would split open.

His mom rushed in and began shoving clothes into his hand. "I swear, sometimes I think you might need a doctor's appointment if you can't get a good night's rest—"

By the time Chad was fully awake, he'd eaten breakfast, grabbed his lunch bag, and his mom was pulling the car up in front of the school.

He trudged to class just as the first bell rang. He found the hook in the coat closet with his name above it—but someone had hung their coat and backpack there already. He sighed and found an empty hook with the name ZANE. He couldn't remember if there was a Zane in class, or if that label was left over from a previous year, but he hoped the latter was true; if not, he just might find his belongings kicked to the back of the closet—but what more could he expect?

That was only the beginning to his day.

All during the group times, Chad bore the brunt of silent, passive teasing. Someone had rifled through his pencil box and taken his erasers; his school notebook was at the bottom of the stack; Remy, the boy who sat at the desk next to him, constantly muttered under his breath, making it difficult for Chad to focus. Every time he would raise his hand, or the teacher would call on him to answer a question, someone else would shout out the answer, or when he hesitated, crowed in the space, "He doesn't know!" His teacher announced the school talent show coming up, but Chad ignored her; he had no talents anyway, nothing that would interest anybody at all. Participation was optional, the teachers assured the students, but for Chad, there wasn't an option at all. It would be a relief not to participate.

Not even lunchtime offered any relief. Chad was sandwiched between the two messiest eaters in the class, and he could not look up without seeing Mando and Corbin, the two fourth-graders, staring daggers at him from across the cafeteria.

Finally the day was over, and Chad could begin the long, lonely walk home. He was three blocks away from the school when he remembered first of all that the bullies would be waiting for him at the parking garage on Birch Street. Secondly, he remembered that his mom had given him an alternate route to the house. What was it? Hill-something... Chad looked up at the street sign on the corner, which read Hillsmith. Relief washed over him as he turned right down the lane. He would outsmart the bullies this time! He walked down block after block, before he realized that there should have been a turn. It was a road that started with a C...Clark? No, Court, that was it—but he had passed Court street two blocks ago. With a sigh, Chad walked back to where he had seen the sign for Court Street, but when he got there, he could not remember which direction to turn. Was it right or left? He recalled his mother saying something about turning left on Court.... Hadn't she? It was growing later, and Chad knew his best bet would just be to walk in some direction and get home as quickly as possible. He made a left turn, and walked until he reached a street he recognized—three blocks down from his street. At last, he made it into familiar territory, but the journey had taken him twice as long as normal. He only hoped his mom wouldn't freak out.

As it turned out, Chad didn't need to worry. The house was dark and still when he walked up. He tried the front door, but it was locked. Where had his mom gone? It was still at least an hour before his dad would arrive from work. He couldn't think what his mom would be expecting him to do if he got home and she wasn't there. Chad sat on the porch steps and let his face drop into his hands. Tears itched the back of his eyes.