Broken Genes

Chapter Eight

 January 3rd finally arrived and it was time to start school for the next semester. I am a sophomore at Spring Valley High school. Jase and I had started the year well, keeping under peoples radars and staying out of trouble. I don’t love school but it is better to be bored out of my mind in school, surrounded by friends, than to be bored out of my mind at home, with no friends.

The next day I got up early, ate my breakfast, had a shower and got changed. Once done, I grabbed my bag and headed out my front door. There is a bus that heads around the town but it doesn’t come down this far, so I chose to walk to school.  The forest that surrounds my house circles round to join up to the back of my high school so I follow the path from my house right the way round. I know the woods pretty well as Jase and I used to explore them when we were twelve, pretending we were adventurers.

Jase now hates the woods and find them a creepy place to be – even in the daytime. I, on the other hand, have always loved the woods – night or day – and am always happy to walk through them. However, after so many of the visions being placed here, I found myself feeling nervous walking up the path. I ended up rushing and stumbling a few times whenever I heard a twig crack. What I once thought were the beautiful sounds of nature, now sounded like death threats.

Because of my rushing, I make it to school five minutes early. I walk over to the benches and sit down with my bag. The school isn’t completely empty but it was definitely isn’t full. Spring Valley high school has a medium sized campus with a football field, a running track and a few tennis courts. The actual building itself is old and falling apart. It is your typical red brick work with a few floors and mouldy class rooms. The school only has a few hundred pupils and is much smaller than the high school I would have attended if I had stayed at the orphanage. The teachers are okay, but they tend to always pick on you if you look like you aren’t listening – which tends to result in them picking me a lot. Although, these past few years I have noticed the teachers have started to slack with me, clearly deciding I’m not worth the effort. That’s fine with me.

Just then the bus pulls up and kids trickle out, their shoulders hunched, heads down and looking generally miserable. I knew how they felt. The last person out of the bus is Jase and I stand up and walk over to him – he too looks grumpy.

When he sees me walking towards him he smiles and says, “Hey! You came in. How’s your arm?”

I shrug but wince as the movement shoots pain up my arm. Jase rolls his eyes at me and says, “Come on, let’s get to homeroom.” I nod in reply and we make our way towards the front of the school.

On our way we stop by our lockers to put away the textbooks we don’t need. It’s then that I realize that I don’t even know my timetable. Jase’s locker is next to mine, so I turn and just as I open my mouth to ask, he says, “You have art, history, English, biology, lunch, trigonometry and gym.” A smug smile plastered on his face.

“Thanks.” I say and get out my books.

By the time we reach homeroom the second bell has rung and our homeroom teacher, Mr Relding, tells Jase and I off for being late – despite the fact that there is about half the class is still missing. We both apologise and head to our usual seats at the back.

After the rest of the class arrives, the morning announcements sound, informing us to remember to vote for who we want on the student council. I never know why other candidates run, it’s always one of Sally’s back up Barbie’s who win. Jase and I never even bother to vote.

Eventually the bell rings and Mr Relding dismisses us with a bored wave of his hand. Unfortunately, just as I go to leave I bash straight into Marcus and his girlfriend Sally. Marcus, turns slowly and I can practically see my tombstone. Once he sees that the culprit is me, his world gets a little bit brighter. I notice that the rest of the class, even Mr Relding, has vanished.