EHRR! EHRR! EHRR! EHRR! EHRR!

CRACK!

“Ah crap! That freaking hurt!”

I had woken with a start, bashing my head on the sharp corner of my dresser. Somehow during the night I had ended up on the floor. Pain flared through my skull and I inhaled through my teeth, my hand pressed to my temple. “Stupid alarm,” I muttered to myself. Hobbling to my feet, I tore away my many blankets that had tangled around my legs like hungry pythons. They were damp with sweat. Gross, I thought as I fumbled blurry-eyed for my still blaring alarm clock. I really needed to change the screech. After several tries, I finally managed to hit the snooze button and I collapsed onto my bed. My head throbbed like an MLB heavy hitter just took a swing at my face. “Home run,” I moaned, fingering the place where I knew a bruise would soon form.

"Jack?! You ok?" called a voice from below.

"Yeah Mom! I'm good! Just hit my head!" I replied.

After a few moments melting into my sheets I peeled myself off the bed and stumbled to my closet. Just as I finished slipping a shirt over my head my 12 year old little brother, Finn, came barging into my room like a herd of wild elephants. His rocketship pajama pants were on backwards and his blond hair was sticking up every which way.

"Dude! Ever heard of personal privacy?" I asked with a smirk.

"Nope!" He said, a wild grin on his face.

"Soooo, what's up?" I asked, already knowing what was going to happen.

He messed around with some little trinket he found on my bookshelf, then blurted, "I need help on my math homework," There it was.

"Dude! You didn't do it last night? I've got to get to school!" I said incredulously, but also not very surprised. This type of thing happened quite a lot with Finn. He loved school but making him do homework was like trying to give a cat a bath. Possible but daunting. I took a quick glance down at my watch. 7:25. What?! How long was my alarm going off?! I wasn’t usually this much of a deep sleeper.

"Mom said you need to help me," Finn demanded. His eyebrows furrowed and I could tell that he was getting frustrated. Time to remove myself from the equation before it got ugly.

"I bet you she said that yesterday aaaand I’m going to miss my bus." I said, shoving past him before he could block my doorway or start his begging routine.

I took the stairs down two at a time, scooped up my overfilled backpack, and poured myself some cereal. I noticed my mom sitting at the kitchen table. I frowned. She seemed as if she was up all night. Her hair was tied in a messy bun and bags were starting to form beneath her eyes. Papers were scattered all over the table. In fact, there wasn't a single bit of unused space. I spotted at least three different types of caffeinated sodas and something that looked suspiciously like an energy drink. She was probably working on a job for another client. I was going to ask her if she was alright but I knew she didn’t like me to worry about her. I silently wished that she would let me take care of her like how she took care of our family. That would never happen though. I smiled to myself. She could be so stubborn. I quickly started to inhale my cereal and heard my mom start chuckling.

"What?" I asked with my mouth full, turning to face her.

"That's some goose egg you've got there," she said, trying not to smile, "How'd you hit it?"

"I had a weird dream last night and I somehow managed to fall off my bed," I said, vaguely remembering something about someone on fire. The rest of it was pretty foggy. I shook my head. “It was a weird dream,” I repeated.

“Well, you might want to stop lollygagging and hurry up. Otherwise Finn is going to hunt you down. Also,” she said, tapping her wrist, “You're going to miss your bus.”

I choked on some milk and, grabbing my backpack, muttered something that resembled a “love you” and bolted out the door with my shoes in hand.

***

Have you ever tried running and putting on your shoes at the same time? It’s possible, but you might as well go barefoot, because the whole time you’re doing it you look like an idiot. So there I was, hopping through the Seattle suburbs, with a major need of some aspirin and struggling with my shoelaces, when I barreled right into my friend, Scott.

I fell hard on my butt and his backpack went flying into the street. He hurried and snatched it up before a car came, narrowly missing him. He scrambled to his feet, his curly black hair tousled by the wind.

“Yo! Jack, what’s the hurry?” he asked, “That almost killed me right there.”

I got up to my feet slowly, my tailbone aching. Man, was I accident prone or something? “Sorry Scott, I was a little distracted.” I said.

“I can see that!” He laughed, “You could walk off the edge of a cliff and not know you’re falling.”

“Oh, haha,” I said, starting to walk towards the bus station. Now I really needed an aspirin.

Scott smiled. “Let’s just say it’s a miracle you haven’t died an early death yet.”

I rolled my eyes, laughing… and ran straight into a lamp post. Scott mimed checking off a clipboard. "Smart aleck," I muttered.

The sudden sound of a revving engine caught my attention. I stared as our bright yellow school bus left our stop without us. I coughed in the dust and my stomach dropped.

"You ok man? You're looking a little pale," Scott teased. I glared at him. He saw my face and started laughing.

"Dude! I can't believe it! Is this your first ever tardy!?" He looked like he was going to burst a spleen.

I frantically checked my pockets for any spare change. Maybe I could catch a bus? Nothing. My pockets were as empty as Scott’s head. And walking would take forever. By the time we got there it would be second period. While I was fumbling around with my pockets Scott finally managed to catch his breath and started running back towards his house.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“Where are you going?" I yelled at him.

"To grab a bike!" He called over his shoulder, grinning.

Oh boy, I thought, racing after him.

***

Scott and I skidded to a stop in front of the school, breathless, sweaty, and 45 minutes late.

"You didn't tell me. That it was. All. Uphill!" I wheezed, my head killing me.

Scott shrugged. "Guess I left that part out."

We wheeled our bikes to the rack and locked them in. As I was bending down to click the lock in place, the dull pain in my head from earlier this morning flared to what was like a knife stabbing me through the temples.

"GAAAHHH!" I yelled, my vision going fuzzy.

"Dude! Are you ok?!" I could barely make out Scott, whose face was full of concern, as I crumpled to the sidewalk. The pain was like nothing I had ever experienced before. Black splotches started crowding my vision. It got to the point where I felt myself passing out, but as sudden as the attack came, it stopped, leaving me laying on the ground, my head spinning.

"What was that?" Scott muttered.

I slowly got to my feet for the third time that morning. I have got to stop falling over. "I have no idea… I think it maybe was a migraine."

"Pretty intense migraine," he said skeptically, "I was just about to call 911."

"Well, I'm fine now, and anyways it's probably just because I hit my head this morning." I didn’t know if I really believed that, I think I just said it to make Scott feel better. Based on the intensity of that pain, I had a sickening feeling that something was seriously wrong with me.

Scott eyed me nervously. "Maybe we should call your mom," he said.

"Nah, I said I'm fine," I said, not wanting to bother her. She was busy enough as it was with Finn, the company, and my dad out of town.

So, I know this wasn’t smart, especially for someone who was just convulsing on the ground, but I left Scott behind and ran to my next class. I really didn’t want to have to catch up on calculus. You miss one day and you end up with like, a D- in the class. That messes up any chance of getting into a good college you know. I stopped at the door to my class and checked my watch before going in. I cringed. Mr. Harrison was going to have my head. I was almost an hour late.

I gathered my nerves and walked through the door. The whole class turned and stared at me. My neck started prickling. I awkwardly waved, then slowly started to my desk, aware that I had just interrupted Mr. Harrison in the middle of his lesson. That was never good.

"Jack Hemming," he called out from the front of the room. "Since you graced us with your presence this fine morning, would you like to describe how to find the derivative of this equation?" He gestured to the whiteboard. I blanched and squinted at the board. Uhhh…

“Any time now Mr. Hemming,” said Mr. Harrison, holding out a dry erase marker.

“Umm, yeah, ok,” I stuttered and I walked up to accept it. I took a closer look at the problem. I recognized it and relief swept through me. This I actually knew how to do. I wrote down my answer and then confidently strode back to my desk, ignoring the stares of my classmates.

“Hmmm, okay... Mr. Hemming, you did well this time, but just because you're one of the only students in this class with an A doesn’t mean that you can skip out of days,” he said, “I would expect to see more initiative from someone like you.”

Dang, that was a bit harsh. I literally came everyday, more than most other kids, and then I’m late to one class and he’s on my back about it! What right did he have to treat me like this, calling me out in front of the class? I could feel anger welling up inside of me and I think I saw the kid sitting next to me scoot farther away in his chair. I’m sure I looked intense. But I lowered my head anyway and tried to put on an apologetic face.

With his daily targeting of innocent children completed Mr. Harrison resumed his lesson and I listened, already wanting the class period to be over.

***

The bell couldn’t have rung soon enough. It felt like my classmates kept giving me pitying glances and I could barely take it anymore. I shuffled through the crowded halls and met up with Scott at his weights classroom.

“I just can’t believe him! I have half a mind to go to admin about it,” I complained. I couldn't believe I just said that sentence. That sounded like some valley mom Karen.

“Cheeto?” Scott asked, offering me a bag he pulled from his backpack.

I grabbed a handful and stuffed them in my mouth. “Mumpf, mum tupf barumsing.”

“What?”

I swallowed painfully. “I said, talk about embarrassing.”

Scott smirked and shook his head. “Jack, you put too much pressure on yourself. One day you’re bound to crack. And anyways, everyone knows that Mr. Harrison is psycho.” He circled his finger around his ear.

I didn’t reply and grabbed some more Cheetos. Scott pushed open the door to our history class and stopped dead in his tracks. He slowly turned to face me, his jaw hanging down to the floor.

“What?” I asked.

He pointed to the teacher’s desk. “Who. Is. That?”

I leaned around him to get a better look. Standing there talking to the teacher was a girl wearing a brown leather jacket. She turned around to grab something from her backpack and I reeled back, surprised. Her face looked strangely familiar. Her freckles stood out against her pale skin and that, combined with her fiery red hair and golden eyes, made it seem as if she were burning from the inside out. I racked my brain for where I could have seen her before. Where was it? Also, golden eyes? What was up with that?

“I think I just dropped dead,” I heard Scott say. I gave him a weird look. “Seriously dude? I thought you liked Sophie Beletsky.”

“Yeah, but this girl is on another level,” he replied.

I didn’t see it, but Scott did have a habit of finding true love every few weeks or so. I kept my eye on the girl anyways, trying to figure out the strange sense of familiarity. Maybe she looked like a celebrity or something. As I sat down at my desk she glanced my way and our eyes met. I looked away quickly but not before I saw her give me a look like we were sharing an inside joke just between the two of us. Weird. Scott could have her, she definitely gave me the creeps.

The bell rang and stragglers trickled in. Mrs. Willy, our teacher, went up to the front, closely followed by the girl. Most teachers don’t do introductions for new students, but Mrs. Willy is all about inclusivity and friendship and stuff like that.

“Good morning everybody! Before we start today’s lesson I would like to introduce Lincoln High’s newest student, Alex Finch. Where did you move from dear?” she said.

“Phoenix, Arizona,” said Alex. She seemed sure of herself, unlike most high school kids, and her voice contained a type of quiet confidence. That’s great usually, but in this case I didn’t like it. I kept getting a weird sense of increasing dread.

“That girl definitely gives me weird vibes.” I leaned over and whispered to Scott. He didn’t answer. He was too busy drooling over Alex. I looked around the class to see if anyone else had noticed something off, but all the guys looked as awestruck as Scott and some of the girls were giving looks that reminded me of wet cats. What was going on? It was a strange switch to all of the sudden be the only sane person in the room. It was like everyone was under some kind of spell. As I was looking around I suddenly realized that the only empty seat… was right next to me. Oh crap.

Alex bounded right to it, her blazing curls bouncing. She sat down, and flashed me that same weird smile, like she knew something that I didn't. I shifted uncomfortably, and what made things even worse was my head had started to throb again.

Then all of the sudden it hit me. Scenes of shadows and flames came flooding back and I realized with a shock; Alex was the girl from my dream. There was something different about her, but she was definitely the same girl. Never in my waking life had I seen someone else with golden eyes.

This was just too weird. I had to get out of there. I raised my hand. “Mrs. Willy? Can I go to the bathroom please?”

“Yes Jack, but please take a hall pass with you,” she said.

I nodded and started to rise out of my desk. As I stood up the pain in my head set on fire. My train of thought burned to ashes and I collapsed, blacking out before I even hit the floor.