Sandstorm {Discontinued}{Rewritten}

Interlude # 9

"Sorry I'm late. I missed the bus."

The lie was easy enough, which was surprising considering Anita wasn't typically a liar. She liked to think herself a pretty open and honest person, just like her parents had taught her to be.

"That's alright, dear." Mrs. Sax, Anita's second period teacher, gave her the warmest smile. All pearly white teeth and so wide her lips were spread thin. It was so fake, the kind of smile she usually reserved only for the new kids. "Have a seat next to Billie over there." Mrs. Sax gestured to the girl in the back with the horribly dyed green hair. Anita wasn't sure why. She'd been in the same first class as Billie since the seventh grade, and Anita usually sat at the front of the room.

She didn't bother to argue.

Anita was about to take her seat when Mrs. Sax said something that had her stopping in her tracks. "I don't have any new students on my roster. What's your name, dear?"

Anita stared at her, her mouth going dry. This had to be a joke. She had been in her class since the beginning of school in August. She was always the first to raise her hand to answer a question, and she was the only one who actually actively listened to her when she gave a lecture. Mrs. Sax had a bit of a reputation for being mean, so Anita had always made it a point not to give her a reason to hate her. She'd even gotten her to admit Anita was her favorite student a few times. Why was she acting as if she had never seen her before? Was it pay back for that one time she let those eighth graders talk her into pranking her via duct taping her chair to the floor?

Everyone else seemed to be in on the joke too, staring up at Anita with dull eyes, the same way they did every other new student. A few of them even went so far as to ask her questions. "Why move so late in the year?" "Did you come here for the meta humans?" The usually crap the newbies got pestered with. How had she gotten everyone else in on the prank too?

"I'm not...I don't..." Anita waited for one of them to jump up and yell, "haha got ya!" But no one moved. They just kept staring at her, watching her. This wasn't a prank.

The walls were spinning, and Anita thought she might have fallen over had she not been clutching the back of Billie's chair.

The green haired girl glanced up, a small frown on her face. "Dude, if you're gonna be sick turn the other way. I do not want puke in my hair!"

"I gotta go!" Anita bolted, leaving a befuddled classroom behind her. She darted down the hall as fast as she could without tripping over herself. She wasn't sure where she was going, her feet moving all on their own until she was standing outside Daren's classroom. He was already standing there, pacing back and forth, wringing his hands on his shirt. He looked like was about to cry when he spotted Anita.

"No one recognizes me!" he cried. "What is going on?"

"I don't know," Anita said. She was trying to keep her brave face on for his sake, but that was significantly hard to do when the room was shrinking ever so slowly. "I don't know, but, uh, look on the bright side. Now we don't have to go to school today." That got a small and a quiet smile from him, which Anita thought was progress. "Let's go home."

{~}

Anita reached under the rock, where their spare key was located, unlocking the door and leading her brother inside. "Dad?" she called, pulling Daren along. It was cringe worthy, how shaky her voice sounded. But their father worked from home on Fridays, so he'd still be around; and even if he wasn't an expert on meta humans, he had consoled a few of them before. She was hoping he'd know what to do. He was really all they had.

Darryl stepped into the room as he heard the call. He looked a little different. Shorter hair, fuller beard. His eyes were a little different, too, like there was something missing. He wasn't wearing his normal nicely ironed clothes either, the ones Anita's mother always liked best on him. Maybe he was just having a lazy day?