Is There Anybody Out There?

Weird

It started when I was in geography on a chilly Monday morning. It had been a normal Monday so far, waking up too early than I'm sure is healthy, reluctantly getting ready for school, and a boring home-group. It had been a little foggy, but that's to be expected in winter. It started to get weird about fifteen minutes into class, my friend Adam and I were just chatting with each other about normal stuff, how idiotic homework is, how stupid our teachers were, that kind of thing. Mr. Stone was just explaining longitude and latitude or something when he started to scratch. It started off just little, a couple of tiny itches on the back of his hand, but it got more intense, he began scratching real hard at his forearm, and I don't mean a normal sized scratch, no, I mean raking his fingernails up and down his arm like some kind of mad dog. All of a sudden, just as he was about to start tearing his hair out, he just stopped. I'm not sure if I imagined it, but a glazed look seemed to roll over his eyes. He said in a voice so calm and expressionless that it made me want to run straight out, 'Why don't you lovely children got out and play?' I seemed to be the only one who realised this was a little odd, but I went along with it.

The rest of the day was the same, the teachers just let us out as soon as we got into the classroom, all in that creepy, mindless voice. As I walked home beside Adam, we discussed theories about why all the teachers were acting so weird today. He said it might be 'Annual Be Nice To Students But Be Really Creepy At The Same Time Day' but I wasn't convinced. By the time we got home, it was about 4 o'clock, I found it weird that mum wasn't angry at me for taking forty-five minutes to get home from school, she just asked me if I wanted a chock-chip cookie and some milk. I stayed in my room all afternoon, doing homework that should have been done a couple of weeks ago, not because I was told to, but because I needed something to take my mind off the weird behaviour of the adults.

Dinner was really strange, mum and dad were continually telling me that I need to eat lots of vegetables so I can 'grow up to be just like daddy'. I couldn't help but notice that they had the same glazed look in their eyes and dreamy voice. I could tell that my little brother and sister were looking a little scared, but enjoying our new parents at the same time.