Late Bloomers (Short Story)

Late bloomers

I woke up to my alarm blaring. I let it ring a couple times before making myself break out of my blanketed cocoon and blindly turn it off. The sleepiness began to set in again almost immediately, and I had to force myself to get out of bed before I fell asleep again. It was a painful process, but I finally willed myself out of the warmth, and started getting ready for school.

At around 7:15, I plodded into the kitchen where my older brother was sitting, already ready to leave for school. I quickly grabbed a granola bar for breakfast, and was soon herded to the car with him grumbling about how I made him late, but his classes didn't start for another hour. He was in college, but had morning classes today, so I got to ride with him rather than take the bus.

I got dropped off at the front door of the high school, which led into the cafeteria, where most of the students waited. I, however, was lucky enough to be able to go to my math teacher's room, where the scholars bowl team hung out in the mornings. As I walked in, I saw everyone talking as usual, it was a warm atmosphere as usual, however, today was a little off. I didn't see my best friend Grace. It was especially odd, as we always hung out here in the mornings together since she transferred here two years ago.

I sit in my usual spot and join in the chatter. The upcoming competition had most of them pretty excited, while others were nervous. I was excited too, and turned to talk to Grace when I remembered that she wasn't there. It was so odd, she didn't say anything about being sick, but I suppose I can't expect her to tell me every time she might not make it to school, the thing was, she usually did. I couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong, but I just couldn't figure out why.

The bell soon rang, marking the beginning of class. I walked out of the math room into the now crowded hallways. As I turned down the hallway that had my locker I saw Grace and began waving, but quickly stopped. She was standing with a group of boys and girls that I didn't really know. She glanced timidly at me, and I noticed the others giving me mocking and dirty looks too. If I wasn't confused yet, I was now. Was she being forced to hang out with them? If she was, I was going to get to the bottom of it.

I went to my locker and made it to first period safely. It was Algebra 2, and as was typical in most of my classes, Grace was assigned to sit beside me. She sat down and I could tell immediately she wasn't comfortable.

"Hey, are you alright?" I asked, "those kids earlier weren't making you do something you didn't want to, right?" She shifted in her seat uncomfortably before glancing at me.

"No, they're some friends of my brother," she said softly. Friends of her brother? She always told me how she didn't like his friends, she thought they were two faced and bad people. But now she was hanging out with them too? I don't think this could get any weirder. The atmosphere felt off in an uncomfortable kind of way. I really couldn't figure out why she was acting so strangely, it was entirely out of character.

Class today was a work day, but I had finished my homework over the weekend, so instead of just sitting around, I decided to go to the bathroom and text my brother about the situation. I checked all of the stalls to make sure that there weren't any teachers to catch me on my phone, and then went into the stall closest to the wall opposite from the entrance. "Hey Jord! We have a situation! I need your detective brain!" I texted hurriedly. I had to wait a while before I got a reply.

"What do you want? I'm in the middle of class and I'll get skinned alive if I get caught not paying attention!" He texted back.

"It's important!" I texted before continuing on. "Grace has been acting off, like not talking to me, hanging out with those weird kids that I told you about before, and just acting really off!" It was silent for a little bit before I got another reply.