The Untamed

Chapter 1: An Unlikely Start

        This was not how the first day of school was supposed to go. In fact, it was the exact opposite of how he had planned it. Now, because of one stupid mishap, the entire block had its eyes on him. It was the boy’s first day of high school and already he was in some hot water. He stood there, avoiding the gaze of passerby; at the moment, he was a great source of entertainment. Even cars slowed to see this little episode. After today, everyone at school was going to know his name: Clyde Skiles.

     For the most part, the day had gone accordingly, which was something unusual for Clyde. Ms. Hansen decided to give him a chance in a public school and Clyde was more than happy to get out of the house. She made it abundantly clear that if the boy were to stir up any trouble at all, she would not hesitate to throw him back into home school. For a change, Clyde took his caretaker’s warning seriously. Nothing was worse than having to live at home throughout middle school with Ms. Hansen simply because of something he did back when he was ten years old.

     Standing here only meant that his chances of being thrown back in home school had just skyrocketed. To those passing by, Clyde was a tall, thin boy with carefree, hazel eyes. His brown hair fell over his forehead and crawled all the way to his back collar. His hands were in his pockets and he stifled a fake yawn.

     His teeth chattered and he could feel the cold sweat creeping down his back. The pockets in his jeans were being yanked by his hands, nearly ripping them off. Clyde stood before a police officer as he scribbled away madly on a ticket. The boy had just been caught J-walking and the policeman showed him no mercy – nor did the public. The two of them were standing on the side of the road next to the cop’s motorcycle.

     Talk about making a first impression, from this point on, school was probably going to be more of a pain than he thought. Clyde took a good look at everyone that had their eyes on him. There were boys – big and small that simply stared, girls – pretty and ugly – that shook their heads and spoke amongst each other, parents that glared, and even a man with an eye patch that leaned against a tree. The man shook his head and shrugged as if to say, “What could you have done about it?”

     The officer handed Clyde his ticket, made a few more remarks about him “just doing his job,” and then told Clyde to have a nice day as he hopped on his motorcycle and drove off. Cautiously, as if he was about to look at the result of the biggest exam of the year, Clyde thoroughly examined the ticket. At once, his heart became a stone and sunk; he had been cited for $139. As ridiculous as it was, it was nothing compared to what Ms. Hansen was going to do to him the instant he got home. He folded up the ticket and, to the crowd’s dismay, began hurrying through the bustling city.

     From where he lived, the school was a good three miles, so going home on foot wasn’t the best idea. However, even if he had to run in order to avoid the crowd, it was worth it. Clyde didn’t have this much attention in the three years while he was home schooled. Growing up, however, was an entirely different story. In elementary school, he was considered the “tornado,” a nickname everyone knew him by.

     The boy did everything in his power to break as many school rules as he possibly could. He wasn’t sure why, but he felt giddy about it all. Silently starting food fights, wasting all the toilet paper in the boys’ bathroom, fighting with the other kids, skipping detention, and just flat out being the most hated student by all.

     All of his teachers constantly met with Ms. Hansen to discuss the boy’s behavior, but it never did any good. The simple reason was that Ms. Hansen’s threats were bold, but empty. Thus, the boy had not a care in the world over what he did. But all that changed after what he did to his fifth grade teacher…