as the way comes

Chapter 1

Jobs. Jobs, jobs, jobs. I heard the word all the time, and it sickened me. Everyone at my school had jobs. All my two friends had jobs. My uncle and aunt both had jobs – of course. But, why would I need a job? Why would my peers need jobs? It's High School. I don't need to buy anything.

Then I discovered the truth in Economics class.

The truth is that we live in a capitalistic society whose very existence is founded around jobs. We are forced to work as low-to-middle-class citizens to survive. These jobs work around rankings. The harder one works in school, allegedly, the higher degrees one may obtain and, therefore, the better job one can get. A better job means more money and, well...more money means a greater ability to buy cool crap.

Now, I saw a big problem with this setup. What if I don't want to work? What if I don't want to go to school for however many more years just to work for the rest of my life and survive? It seemed ridiculous. But I shrugged and moved on.

It was as I sat in Economics class that I learned about the disgusting capitalistic society that we live in. Its entire existence is founded on the principle of hard work and success. We are forced to work these jobs to survive. The harder one works in school, allegedly, the higher degrees one may obtain and, therefore, the better job one can get.

As I left my Economics class, I saw the clock. 2:12 it read. How have I not had lunch yet? I find it astonishing that somehow just because some lazy tired fool complained about early school start times (He should've relaxed. We started at 8.), we now started at 10:00. Seriously? Now school doesn't end until 4:30. Some idea that was!

As I walked down the narrow, crowded hall to get to the cafeteria, I was interrupted by a locker. Yeah, some Hulk managed to slam his locker so loud that the entirety of the student body within a 50-foot vicinity froze. They froze for, yes, only a moment. And while I thought this would only be a mildly inconvenient event at its worst, this made the school paper the next day.

Apparently, the person who slammed the locker was named Alf and absolutely nothing else eventful happened that entire week. I still couldn't believe that some minute "event" like this could make it to the school paper.

The next day, I entered the school and was walking to my locker in the crowd of students. Amid the chatter, one voice stood out. "Can you believe this?" A soft-like-silk yet simultaneously dominant voice captured me.

I looked around, confused. Holy crap. Was someone talking to me? I was allured by the voice, but nobody in the mass of rushing students seemed to match it. Well, screw my eyesight. Because after looking around for what seemed like hours, I saw her. A tall, lightly tanned blonde with light pink and blue hair tips and pale blue eyes walked towards me. She reminded me of Brianna. Not in looks or personality. But something about her aura seemed familiar. Like Brianna was trying to reach me from a distance.

"Hello," She waved at me, as if to grab my attention.

I hesitated, then, bending my neck upwards to look at her, awkwardly muttered, "He—Hello."

"Yeah, hi..." She rambled and I could not stop admiring her entirety. This woman was talking to me. Me! Why was that?

"So, would you be willing to do that for me?" She finished. Crap. What was she talking about?

"My apologies." My muscles tightened and sweat drowned my body. I was like a taut ape, paralyzed by poison. But I managed. "What were you talking about?" My voice, too, reflected what my unable body seemed to indicate. If she had any idea what I said is beyond me.

"Well, firstly allow me to introduce myself. My name is Tabetha." There was a brief pause. "And your name is?"

"Unimportant." I responded, a bit less tense. "Well, I really should be getting to my Physics class now." I really didn't want to go. But I knew that if I was late to Physics again, Ms. Freit was going to flip out.

Tabetha muttered something then said, "Well, see you later." Part of me died when she left. But as she left, I thought of all the possibilities this could bring. Why, if she could talk to me, then perhaps anyone can talk to me. Now I just need to be able to talk to them.