His assumptions were true; after that Jonathan and Amy spent the rest of the morning having private conversations behind closed doors.
Clearly things got pretty heated between the pair since Mrs. Jefferson spent the entire car ride silently clutching the steering wheel with an iron grip.
It makes for an awkward ride to school but Cloud distracts himself by pouring music into his ears through his headphones with the window rolled down to let the breeze fan across his burning face in the sweltering hot vehicle.
He’s always been slightly short sighted so whilst sitting in the front seat, the forest, buildings and everything in between blur together until North Silver Oak Academy finally comes into view.
Amy gently taps Cloud's knee to get his attention, motioning for him to take his headphones off, pulling Cloud in for a peck on the cheek but unable to resist the urge to fix his hair once they pull apart. "I'll be picking you up from school, please, stay out of trouble this time. I don’t want to have to come get you again.”
“How much trouble could I possibly cause on the last day?”
Mrs. Jefferson simply raises a brow, giving him enough time to recall the events leading up to said moment. “May I remind you that we’re still paying for damages.”
"Okay, fine, I'll try." he moans, already one foot out of the car.
"Cloud." She calls, forcing him to bend over to meet her gaze. "I love you honey."
"I…love you too." he mumbles, doing his best impersonation of a teen being embarrassed by their parents.
He barely finishes speaking before an arm wraps around his shoulder, practically dragging him into a headlock. "Are you cheating on me?"
"Dude, ever heard of personal space." Cloud groans, budging his best friend a little to loosen his grip.
"Personal space, hm, no never heard of it." He replies, chuckling gleefully whilst feigning ignorance. "Looking good Mrs. Jefferson."
Amy gives the boy with a rosy baby face with a matching set of baby blues, a polite but tired smile. "Casey, how many times will I have to tell you you'll always be too young for me?"
"I don't mind." He says, rubbing his shoulder after getting smacked, his golden candy floss curls bouncy almost as much as he is. "Ow!"
"That's not what she meant." Cloud growls, stepping away from the car to give her space to drive away before heading up the steps of the Academy.
"Your mom's still hot dude."
Cloud sneers, holding the chipped, rusty green door open for Casey before ducking through it himself. "And you're still not funny."
"Speaking of not being funny, I’ve got something to tell you."
"Did you blow up my locker again?" Cloud asks, still sceptical that anything of importance will follow after a segway like that.
"My brother’s here."
“Yeah?”
The pair slow down as they approach three separate queues blocking the barricade, made up solely of students in their year, which piques Cloud's interest for at least two seconds before Casey's confession finally dawns on him.
"Wait, wait, run that back." He stutters, fluttering his long lashes as he spins on his heels. "Topher?"
"Yep."
"Is he standing right behind me?"
Casey frowns, twisting Clod around by his shoulders. “What? No, he's right over there. What made you think that?”
"That stupid look on your face." Cloud retorts, coming face to face with the clone, or rather it's the other way around since Christopher was born first.
The Greyson twins, identical in every way that counts except they're usually kind enough to style their hair differently; Casey with his curly tuft of hair, Christopher usually sporting some sort of curtains.
"Shouldn't you be at that boarding school of yours?" Cloud asks, watching the second Greyson of the day type furiously into his phone whilst looking bored out of his mind.
"Do they not say hello here?" he replies, pausing to glance down at the watch on his arm.
"No, we usually just harass each other." Cloud hisses, glaring pointedly at a distracted Casey who busies himself by solving a Rubix cube.
"I'm here for the entrance exam.”
Cloud shrugs his shoulders, unbothered to pretend to know what that means. “Doesn't ring a bell.”
“South Silver Oak Academy? They hold these exam for the seniors every years."
"The place in the hills? Since when?” He asks, glancing back at the lines, spotting more friendly faces as his vision begins to pulse, making it harder to stand squarely on both feet. "…excuse me."
Cloud rushes to the front of the line, accidentally bumping into Sammy on the way there.
He coughs out an apology but doesn't stop to hear her out, nor does he see the eye roll. “Like I said, we might as well be invisible.”
“Here.” Justin utters, offering her the book after dusting it off with his clean sleeve.
Meanwhile, after just one look at the privately hired guards, Cloud prepares for a scene. "Can you let me go through? I have to sit…I have this condition."
"Nice try."
"No, dude, I'm serious."
The second brute is a little more intimidating than the first, using his larger frame to tower over him. "Back of the line. Now!"
Cloud considers passing out just to prove a point. Maybe then they'd finally listen to him, however, before things can escalate any further, a voice confident in delivery and tone interrupts.
"No, it's true, he has hallucinations and occasionally suffers from a lack of bodily autonomy.”
"Hey Sky." He says, her little frown telling him he overdid it again, but in his defence it wasn't his intention to grin at the sight of her.
Neith chooses then to pop open a bag of skittles with her right arm linked with Sky's left. “Fuck me I guess.”
“Hi. Sorry I didn't see you.”
“Jefferson it's way too early for more short jokes.”
Sky clears her throat before speaking to get the conversation back on track. “Respectfully, gentleman, your next steps are obvious.”
There's a moment where they take their time actually thinking before letting him go.
He should be focused on getting to a seat but all he can think about is why won't she look him in the eye.
"Good luck, Cloud.”
"Yeah...you too." he utters, watching her walk around the corner without ever looking back, not even once.
When he eventually makes it to one of the rooms that they’ll be occupying for the exam, he immediately takes the nearest seat to the door, dropping into the chair with beads of sweat start streaking down his temple.
Cloud focuses on his breathing, counting in his head just like all his therapist suggested.
It helps a little but the irregular thumping of his heartbeat makes it difficult to establish a soothing rhythm for more than a couple of seconds.
He shamefully considers if this is it, the end, if he’ll die of a heart attack in the middle of this stuffy room, in a little nowhere town in the centre of nowhere vill, and that they’ll only notice his corpse when he's the only one still sitting.
Melodramatic?
Sure.
But when the first body drops, and it isn’t his own, death no longer seems so out of the question.
The ringing sobers up, swiftly replaced by the raspy sound of his hyperventilating lungs, as one by one they drop like flies!
YOU ARE READING
The Initials | Nanowrimo 2023
Fantasy[Book 1 in the Displaced Angels Series] "You took the life of my best friend, made her life a living hell...so I took your building and everything inside, and turned it into ash." °°° Being abducted the first time was already crazy enough, but twice...
