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Chapter 2
The main door stuck a little as John opened it. “What’s with this door?” John mumbled. His voice was naturally smooth and quiet. Words seemed easy for him to say, and other languages were a challenge. Some languages had short and choppy words that wouldn’t flow as easily. Spanish was amongst the easier with certain words, but he still had troubles.
A boy with dark brown hair that wasn’t all that long. He had green eyes that turned in to an electric blue near his pupils. His face was in between rough and smooth. “Hey, John, what’ sup?” the voice that came out of the rough mouth.
“Not much, you?” John replied as he reached out to open his locker. The door was colder than he had expected. Ack! What’s wrong with these lockers? John’s friend looked at him with a smile.
“I’ve got a date. It’s that one girl, you know, with the blonde hair and blue streaks in it,” he paused for a moment and then talked again, “But I never remember her name.” John did his best to stifle his laughter. It didn’t exactly work out completely. He only managed to hide it for a few moments.
A small group of girls walked by. Some laughed as John did. They wore skirts that John couldn’t figure out why they liked them so much. But most guys just stared at them, because that group was the cheerleader group. They were known for being the last to ask a guy to the dance. Making the pressure on the guys build up more than normal.
“I hate those girls,” John said as he grabbed at his clothes for first period Phys Ed. John’s friend nodded. “Wait… Owen, why do you bother to even go to school? You don’t ever do the homework for any of the classes, or do you even participate in class.”
Owen shrugged. His black shirt had white designs on it that were unique in many ways. Some were just put on randomly, or were there on obvious purpose. Owen’s jeans were a faded blue and he wore a large belt buckle that had an American flag.
The hallways were lined with lockers and people standing by them. The floors had shadows that were brought there from the lights that were on the ceiling. Walking to the Middle School Gym. It was a small gym for the amount of people that were in the class.
Cheerleaders were already in the gym. They all stared at people as they walked in. There was laughing coming from them as they talked about certain people, and making rude comments.
The lead cheerleader was the worst though. She had perfect blonde hair that was bleached and curled so that it bounced with every step. Several of the other girls in the group were trying to copy her, by getting their hair curly so that it was like hers. Most of the sports playing guys already had a bet on who was going to the dance with the head cheerleader. To top it all off, she had bright blue eyes that could be cold at any moment and could be bright and cheery the next.
John continued to walk by them and Owen slowly did the same. The walls in the gym were blank and basketball hoops were lining the walls. There were also banners from schools that their school team had beaten. Meaning that there were a lot of banners on the walls. Most banners were several years old, because they didn’t want to replace them every year.
It seemed impossible that the people that were on the basketball team were able to participate in the team, with their very-low-and-somehow-able-to-get-by grade. John could be on the soccer team, but he didn’t care. Only the coach did. John knew his parents didn’t care either. Especially his mom, who didn’t even know what time of day it was anymore.
“How’s your mom?” Owen asked, trying to break the silence. John just shrugged. He didn’t say anything about his mom. Neither did John’s dad. They both knew that there was something wrong with her, but there was nothing that they could possibly do.
John tossed his clothes in to the locker room. Some of the guys were messing around with their phones. One looked up, his black hair was covering one of his eyes. He wore a red shirt that was plain with khaki shorts. His shorts had paint all over them. There were multiple colors, to make it even more interesting.
“Hey, what’re you doing ‘round these parts?” the guy said. His voice was soft and rarely used. Yet his words seemed to be perfected and well chosen.
“Putting my stuff away. That’s what I’m doing,” John answered. Owen smiled as he watched John talk to people that didn’t even really belong at Northern Heights Private School.
Other guys came in. Most of them were the guys that spent their time talking about sports on the weekdays during schools. On the weekends they watched the games at home. Their voices were strong and overpowering. Their actions were large and always known. They were the guys that had bets that the head cheerleader was going to pick them.
John and Owen walked out of the locker room, deciding that it wasn’t worth being stuck in with the obnoxious sports watchers. But it didn’t matter as much, because they were just going to walk out of the locker room and play basketball until the bell rang for chapel.
Ringing loudly and the sound was as if someone was hitting a tin can with a rock. That was what the bell sounded like. A few people still covered their ears as they walked past one of the many bells in the hallways.
Chapel was a small get together of the eighth, seventh, and sixth grade. One of the twenty-two different teachers would do a fifteen-minute time killer and then everyone would go back to class. Some of the worse chapels were the ones where the Headmaster would talk. Usually the chapels were supposed to follow a theme, as in Integrity, but that was rare.
Most of the teachers just made it up the night before, or as they got to school that morning. But almost everybody seemed to be content with those chapels, since they were short enough.
The chapel area was also the auditorium. It was a small, hot area, and with around one hundred people, it seemed packed. But that wasn’t what was worse. It was the fact that every grade was assigned seats, and that each grade had four sets of pews. John usually sat with Owen, but Owen just disappeared.
Why did Owen do that? I guess… I’ll just have to sit alone today. Unless I can find someone, but that’s rare. John’s thoughts were calmed as he sat down in a spot he liked to sit in. This was near the end of the pew in the very back of the eighth grade section. A few people sat down in the pew, but they sat farther towards the middle part of it.
The seats of the pew were a dull blue. Most people had resulted in calling the blue an ugly blue, because they saw it every day and got tired of it. The seats would creak as people sat in them, from the years that they had been used. Certain rows of pews could be rocked back and forth, since they had lost the necessary screws to keep them in place.
The stage was wooden and had tape on it. Most of the tape was from the plays that had taken place on it. The stairs that led up to the stage were higher in height than the others and led to people often times tripping on them as they walked up.
A teacher that was newer to the school that year was sitting in front of John. It was Mr. Dip and he taught the sixth grade social studies. Mr. Dip also coached the seventh grade soccer team. He was the teacher that had spotted John’s talent, while the others ignored it. Mr. Dip’s hair was short and light brown. He had grass green eyes that seemed to be always looking around out of nervousness. He often wore a white button up shirt that was only tucked in half way. Today he chose to wear a gold colored tie that was off center.
As opposed to the other teachers, Mr. Dip was unorganized from time to time. At least, according to the sixth graders that were his students. Some also said that he chose favorites in classes.
During chapel John stared at the floor. It was either that or Mr. Dip’s head. The floor was a little more interesting, even though it was cement. Mr. Dip didn’t' even realize when John stood up in the middle of chapel to get a tissue, since he kept coughing and sneezing.
The office was quiet. None of the secretaries were in it. There wasn't any clicking of the keyboards as they typed. No phones were ringing throughout the office. The tissues were in a far corner and almost hidden. As if the secretaries wanted to be able to yell at students for not being able to find a box of tissues. The silence became awkward, but John showed no want to leave the office.
To John, it felt like home. Silence was an awkward thing in his family's house. Rarely did any of the pots that were untouched in the sink get washed until late at night, so there was no clinking of pots as they got washed. Words were rarely exchanged, and if they were, it was usually a comment or something that needed to get done.
But it didn't matter. Ringing loudly, the bell made everything clear. It made the fact that chapel was running over clear the most though. John just watched through the glass walls as people slowly started to leave the auditorium. He didn't know what they were talking about, but they all seemed to leave in crowds. Girls stared at each other as they talked. Guys walked side by side, or farther ahead of one another and talked.
 m.ikstar · Fri May 25, 2007 @ 11:35pm · 0 Comments |
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