Yeeep!
EOYs ARE OVER!
(And HC is about to descend upon our heads. Dang.)
As promised:
-
That smell… I turned away from the chemicals. A flash of white. Snow outside the classroom?
*
The grey man looked startled. “You’ve progressed. I see you’ve been practicing faithfully. You never used to be able to do this.” His mouth widened in a travesty of a smile.
I stared at him. What did he mean by “this”?
“No matter.” He frowned, then his lips stretched into a crafty grin. “By the way, welcome to your new home. Here,” He motioned to a plain, nondescript door.
It slid open with a slight hiss.
It was plainly furnished, with a white chest of drawers tucked in one corner. A plain wooden bed dominated the room. “Bit cramped, but you’ll live.”
I frowned. “What’s that to you?”
“Oh? Everything.” His smiled coldly, advancing towards me menacingly. I backed away towards the door I’d come through. I scrabbled at the doorknob. Locked. Damn. I should have known that there were auto-locking mechanisms. How was I going to get out?
Just relax.
What? Are you kidding?
Relax, you eejit.
I did, and the looming face of the grey man slowly faded away, replaced by darkness and solace.
*
When I came to, I had a vague vision of something grey. And doorknobs. The grey man? But what had he got to do with doorknobs? Who was – is – he? And what had transpired this time?
Then I became aware of something tickling my face. I rubbed my nose.
“Oh, thank goodness!” The voice was high. I blinked. Something hovered above my face.
“Casey?” I blinked again. The room slid into focus. I was suddenly aware of a loud thundering sound. It took me a moment to realise that it was the sound of blood gushing through the blood vessels of my ear, combined with that of thirty chairs being dragged across the floor. It gave me a splitting headache. Covering my ears, I started to get to my feet.
“Don’t get up.” Someone restrained me.
“I’m fine.” I shrugged off the hand gripping my shoulder and sat up. Had I fainted?Must there be a first for everything?
“No, you’re not.” Erica knelt down beside me, placing a restraining hand on my shoulder.
“Ms Brown, why don’t you stay put?” Mr Chancery hurried over. The whole class started to gather around our table. “The rest of you – she needs to breathe.” He motioned for the class to move away.
I stood despite Erica’s and Casey’s combined attempts to drag me to the floor.
“I’m fine now.”
I saw Chris frown from the corner of my eye.
“Are you certain?” Mr Chancery frowned.
“Yes. It’s just the smell of the chemicals.” I eyed the bottles on the table warily. What was it about that smell that made me feel so lightheaded?
He peered at me in concern. “In any case…”
*
“Just stay still and…”
I looked on with interest as the nurse attended to a scrawny freshman with a nasty cut on his forehead. He saw me watching and grimaced.
“Nurses.” He snorted. “Always grumpy.”
“Are they?”
“From my experience, yeah, totally.”
I shrugged, feeling sorry for the nurse who was tending to him. “Perhaps. How’d you get that cut, anyway?”
“Well… I saw this guy vandalising a locker and tried to stop him.” He shrugged. “Looking for trouble, yeah, I know. Bit off more than I could chew and all that. But he was going overboard, man. Smearing…”
“Smearing?” Something clicked in my mind.
“Will you just stop moving?” The nurse snapped, glaring balefully at him.
Hmm. He did have a point about nurses being grumpy.
Or maybe his luck was just bad.
“Now, what’s happened to you? Do you have a headache?” Another nurse turned to me, smiling kindly.
“No, I… fainted in biology.”
“Ah.” She smiled knowingly. “The sight of blood makes you queasy?”
“No, no.”
“No? Well, what is it, then? Do you diet?”
“No, of course not. There was a weird smell. Something like ethanol, but yet…” I frowned. What had it smelt like? “Chloroform,” I realised with a start.
Something clicked into place in my subconscious mind, but my brain refused to divulge its secrets to my conscious self.
The nurse cocked an eyebrow. “Chloroform? Did you breathe in too deeply?”
“I don’t know. Can’t remember much.”
She smiled pleasantly. “Well, you should rest for a while. Come here.”
She led me to the beds and bade me lie down. When I was settled, the freshman continued to ramble on.
“Yeah, so anyway, the guy totally went berserk and started smearing the inside of the locker with honey and stuff. It was off the charts, man. I think there was a bottle of ink as well. And…”
“Um, sorry to interrupt, but did you recognise the vandal?”
“Recognise? ‘Course I did. I mean, this is our school you’re talking about. No one vandalises stuff except Swift. And his gang. But they weren’t there. I heard the others were in detention. Finally. Not that it works on them.”
I closed my eyes. “Did you notice which locker he was vandalising?”
“I was on my way to the toilet near staircase four, so… Probably near A102?”
Oh, holy crap.
“Why are you asking, anyway? Is it…”
“STOP MOVING, for heaven’s sake.” The nurse glared at him. “Are you ADHD or something?”
-
I still haven’t decided on the school name. I was thinking of basing it on a real school (and I did base it on a real location and a real school system), but then the principal, the teaching staff and obviously the students are completely different, so…
Anyway…
From C11.3:
“You don’t want to kill the bunny?”
— Anon (for now)
WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO KILL A BUNNY D:
-hops, hoppity hop!-
they are so adorable :3
though their poo smells.
and they eat a lot.
but they are furry and jumpy
And what had transpired this time?
^ um. is this asking what happened while she’s out?
if it is, should it be “And what had transpired IN this time?”
just a little confused, that’s all.
who’s Casey?
and ha. the guy in the..what do you call that. infirmary?
he’s so…talkative. and a tad annoying.
“Um, sorry to interrupt, but did you recognise the vandal?”
“Recognise? ‘Course I did. I mean, this is our school you’re talking about. No one vandalises stuff except Swift. And his gang. But they weren’t there. I heard the others were in detention. Finally. Not that it works on them.”
^ oh i don’t get this part. kat asked if he recognised the vandal. oh oh i think i get it. meaning Swift was there but his gang wasn’t? cos i assumed the they weren’t there meaning all of them. opps. though i think maybe you should connect the 2 sentences together? hmm. but i know you want the pause in between. soo. up to you.
and VIVACITY HIGH SCHOOL! XDDD
just joking
ah so she’s allergic to chlorofoam now?
the guy at the infirmary resembles you, phearsa.
so you mean the locker’s hers. because of the other i-whack-you-and-you-pass-out incident? i thought that was the stupid blockhead! since when was there a swift /: except the attack in pokemon, of course. nevermind.
of course i want to kill the bunny. it’s so…hoppity. like phearsa. and i bet the sensation of the neck breaking under your fingers would be nice…
No, she’s not. She’s just sensitive to it.
What blockhead?
Swift is Geoff’s surname. I think it was mentioned somewhere earlier. I think.
To your last sentence:
O________O
You’re definitely a dark character.
Phearsa. Vivacity high? Sounds… ummmm… REALLY familiar.
“though their poo smells.
”
and they eat a lot.
but they are furry and jumpy
What can I say, Phearsa? You’re SO phearsa.
And what had transpired this time?
^ um. is this asking what happened while she’s out?
if it is, should it be “And what had transpired IN this time?”
just a little confused, that’s all.
Perhaps “during” would be a better word?
“who’s Casey?”
Ummm. She’s in AP art (and is, incidentally, someone from AEP), and she’s also in AP Bio, obviously.
“and ha. the guy in the..what do you call that. infirmary?
he’s so…talkative. and a tad annoying.”
By zem’s definition, you’re talkative and a tad annoying?
swift is kinda not appropriate. i mean, how can that kind of person be named swift. it’s unnatural.
and yes. my heart is black obsidian, with a surface so smooth it’s frictionless, and no matter how thin it becomes, it’s deep dark blackness will drown you in it. so don’t try to pick at it. hmph. i like it the way it’s black. wait, that doesn’t sound poetic enough. i’ll try again. the void in my chest has no start and no end; just darkness stretching never-endingly deeper and further, drowning those who venture close enough, and suffocating their hope of redemption. there. that looks better.
was casey the one who fainted the last time kat bleed during class? if so then i know who she is. -wink wink-
No, casey’s not rachel. She takes spanish, not french.
Swift’s name was chosen entirely by chance. Most of the surnames I choose come from this dictionary that comes with surnames of famous people.
(Jonathan Swift wrote Gulliver’s Travels.)
But what do you mean, how can this kind of person be named swift?
On the topic of bunnies…
@yongie
gosh. if you are to do that in real life, you wouldn’t. and why would you want to think of me as a bunny which you want to kill D: but ha. not like you can. muahahaha.
@ xinhui
but it’s true! and in what way is it so me? o__o
In relation to the story…
though it’s not too powerful, but i guess it’s okay.
yeah, geoff swift sounds weird…and i think yongie meant that he’s dumb and all impulsive and bulky and blocky and clumsy that he cant be like nimble and clever as “swift” implies. and yeah i know that pokemon move
AND I AM NOT LIKE HIM. i don’t speak like that! and i don’t move if the nurse tells me not to! maybe the very slightest link between us is that he is an extremely over exaggerated version of me.
oh and yongie. i like your description of your heart.
though it is possible to polish it so that it shines and reflects light
x.x Xinboon, I think you need a list of characters (for this newer version of the story) … with the full names :3
And I realize that I never knew who I was… D: *flap*
Eh, So her locker was probably vandalized?
Ahhh. Okay!
I’ll put up a page on characters (click the tab beside “note.”).
*Flaps back.* How about guessing? It’s not THAT hard.
You’ll know soon. Very soon. About 5 minutes later.