MY SCIENCE PROFESSOR BUILT A PORTAL TO OTHER WORLDS, AND IT’S BRINGING ALONG A LOT OF PROBLEMS
The New Girl
Marcus anxiously opened his phone’s home screen again, checking the date. Yep, Wednesday 19th of May. His birthday was on Saturday, and he was kind of dreading it. It just meant one more year in nowhere-high school, stuck in a town right at the limit between a proper city and the rural world. Almost nothing but villages and cereal fields for the next 50 miles in all directions.
So he was loitering in front of the high school gate, waiting as usual for his bus to arrive. The orange hues of the evening started to make themselves known in the sky.
Even he knew each bus barely reached half the seats filled every day. The entire region was emptying out a bit more every year, families leaving the countryside for a shot at finding jobs or better education elsewhere. And here he was, stuck there for at least a year more, as his parents expected him to find a temp job for the sake of experience before being allowed to go in further studies.
The bus Marcus was waiting for was late as usual, leading him to look down at his phone once again. “Damn it, it’s already half past six.” He muttered absently, biting at a nail. His dad was going to get mad at his lateness again, questioning him ceaselessly over it as if it was his fault.
The few students left about were all waiting for the same bus as him, and he couldn’t help but eavesdrop. They were talking about their plans for the summer, the clean shaven brown-haired guy and the short blond girl were graduating apparently, and told their third friend they planned to go together at some school whose name he didn’t recognise.
Marcus wanted to sigh. It was near the end of his junior year and he still barely knew the name of any other student here, apart from his classmates, which included his few friends Jules and Sam.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
His phone vibrated in his hand and he turned his attention back on it.
It was a message from Jules. “Bus still not here yet? Wanna come in?”.
He turned his gaze to his friend’s house, who lived in the same street as the school, and indeed there he was waving from his window. Marcus usually took Jules up on his offer, but he didn’t feel like playing yet another session of gun blazing FPS action.
“nah”, Marcus typed back, “im sure it wont take long now Bsides i got homework 2 do”.
The reply came quickly. “Your loss. See you tomorrow!”.
Marcus sat on a nearby bench, setting his schoolbag besides him. The other students were now silently checking their respective phones. The bus couldn’t come any sooner…
After a couple minutes, someone caught his eye in his peripheral vision. Climbing the slope leading to the parking lot in front of the gate was a young woman he had never seen before.
As she got closer, he could make out more details of her: she was wearing black clothes, and had fiery red hair that looked dyed, falling to her neck.
Well, her clothes weren’t entirely black, her denim rider was covered in button badges depicting various album covers, and her striped stockings alternated between black and purple.
Her massive boots were making a clicking noise as she walked in the direction of the school: they were covered in little metal bits and baubles, such as little chains flowing on each side.
She had piercings on her ears, nose and even one on her lower lip, and she was wearing a very light layer of makeup around her eyes.
As she passed by Marcus, she threw him a polite smile and a quick salute, before turning her head back to the path ahead of her.
Marcus hazarded a guess. Was she a new student or something? The principal was not going to react kindly to her punk aesthetic, that was for sure.
Turning his head to the other students, Marcus started to mutter “Did anyone else see…”, but considering their absence of reaction they probably hadn’t paid attention neither to the girl nor his question.
He let out a sigh, and turned his head back in the direction she’d went. She looked cool, right? It must take boldness to come to school with these kind of clothes. She looked intimidating, and she was rocking it with a smile. Marcus could only wish he had half of her confidence.
His train of thought was interrupted by his bus finally arriving. Climbing aboard, he threw a last glance in the direction of the school before taking a seat.