Dull steps of worn out sneakers on a concrete path repeated itself. Chad Nosmith, a second year high schooler was coming back from a pep rally. He had moved to this school at the beginning of the academic year and was still trying to get his life back into a normal rhythm. So far he had done a decent job. He would wake up, have breakfast, go to school and go home. Not all too impressive since that was his exact schedule before he had moved to this new school, but he did expand a bit on his schedule this year. His mother made him get a job. So on Saturdays he worked at the local library and on Sundays he would go to church with his mother. The monotonous routine gave him comfort and he looked forward to further getting used to this schedule.

Chad kicked a pebble on the sidewalk. It bounced down the pathway making satisfying noises as it rolled further ahead of him.

“That whole thing was quite interesting.”

The pep rally that was held at the end of the school day ended in a borderline riot from the students. Chad of course wasn’t a part of this riot. He was upset that the scheduled pep rally had disrupted his consistent schedule, but that could be forgiven since he still left school at the same time. What had caused the hysteria was an announcement from the student council president. She announced something dealing with the shortening of afterschool activities and the lengthening of the school day. He wasn’t sure of the details since the crowd’s yells overtook the student council president’s voice. Or was the reason why he didn’t remember the details because he was sitting in the back doing homework? Either way, he at least heard the main announcement that led to the bedlam.

The shortening of afterschool activities didn’t affect him in any way. He wasn’t in any sports or activities and it wasn’t because he had just transferred to Manha High School this year. He just felt that it was such a bother to communicate with other people. Even if he was interested in playing basketball or doing arts and crafts, he just didn’t want to deal with the other people that came along with those activities. I wonder if there is a sport or activity where I don’t have to interact with anyone? Chad cataloged that thought for later.

The lengthening of the school day was the other big adjustment the school was making. This one was mildly annoying to him, although his classmates seemed to be a lot more upset about it than him. He figured that they couldn’t just reschedule all of the students' classes during the middle of a semester, so he deduced the school would just lengthen the classes he was already in. He was alright with this since it wouldn’t ruin his routine too much. Still, being at school for any longer than he needed to only allowed for more opportunities for people to interact with him. But again, this was only a mildly annoying adjustment for him. Overall, these changes seemed like they wouldn’t affect him too much so he didn’t worry about it. He would just make sure to check his email over this weekend for the adjusted schedule so he could get acclimated to it as fast as possible.

Only after about five minutes of walking, he arrived at his house. The house he moved into was only a stone's throw away from his high school and with the shortcut he took it made it feel like an even shorter distance. This made it so he didn’t have to take the buses to school allowing for less chances of interacting with other people. The house itself wasn’t anything to write home about. It was big enough to comfortably fit him and his mother with a bit of elbow room to spare. It was in a small neighborhood, but luckily he hadn’t run into any overtly outgoing neighbors. People seemed to keep to themselves which he enjoyed.

Chad walked into his house. The door was unlocked and his senses were hit with the smell of onions, peppers and spices meaning…

“How was school sweetie?”

His mother, Rebecca Nosmith was laying on the couch with her feet up. Her laptop was propped on her knees and she wore her reading glasses towards the tip of her nose. She had a glass of red wine on the coffee table that matched her knitted crimson sweater. Her brown hair was tied back into a ponytail and her eyes peaked over her glasses at him. Overall, Ms. Nosmith was quite an attractive woman for her age. His friends at his old school would constantly remind him of this. That irritant was just one of many reasons that he didn’t and still doesn’t invite people over to his house.

“School was school.” Chad shrugged.

“Is that all I’m getting?”

“Uh, you're home early I guess?”

“I never left.” she replied with a smile.

His mother was an editor for a publishing company. This often allowed her to work from home. She still got called into the office. Her work schedule often puzzled him with the arbitrary hours she worked. She had to be ready to meet with a writer or coworker at any time. He couldn’t fathom how his mother could deal with such a chaotic and unorganized schedule. Hearing his mother talk about her day would often make him agitated. He enjoyed talking to his mother, but when she would reiterate the disorderly conduct of her coworkers it made him tense up.

With a small grunt he took off his shoes and began heading to the stairs. His mother’s eyes went back to her laptop, but she continued to converse with her disinterested son.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“There’s chili in the crock pot whenever you want any.” Her fingers started to clack on the keyboard.

“Thank you, I’ll be back down to grab some later.”

“No rush.”

With that simple interaction with his mother, he had reached another point in his meticulous schedule. Rest. On the second floor of their house was his bedroom. The room was quite clean and organized for a male high schooler. The fact that there wasn’t much in the room to begin with helped with that.

In the room was a small desk with a pencil placed aligned with the edge of the desk. There was a swivel chair that he would often put his school bag on when he came back from school. After placing his bag there, he collapsed onto his bed. His body was tired even though he hadn’t done much that day. He looked up at the white ceiling and then to the gray walls.

I managed to finish all my homework at the pep rally.

This was usually the time he blocked out in his day to finish his homework. He often finished quickly and had some free time to himself, but not this much freetime.

Chad looked over next to his bed, his face pressing against a soft blanket. There was a large bookshelf filled with books. He enjoyed reading, but this bookshelf had mostly books he hadn’t read yet. Most of them were from the publishing company his mother worked at since they would often send her projects she worked on for free. His eyes scanned the bookshelf, titles such as Dog’s Best Friend, Where the Hell am I? and Fragments caught his attention, but he had already read those.

I don’t really feel like reading anyways.

He laid his head back down on his bed. He reached above him and grabbed one of his pillows, holding it against his chest.

A nap sounds pretty good right now.

He could always fit a nap into his schedule. His contacts were still in, but he would take the chance of losing them behind his eyelids for an hour of rest.

The sun outside and the room lights berated his eyes, but he was too tired to do anything about it. The light seemed to help shut his eyes and keep them closed. He focused on the repetitive sound of the ceiling fan. It helped clear his mind of any thoughts and worries. The wind gently flowed over him like a cooling blanket, a smile slowly grew across his face.

This. This is nice.

All of his muscles relaxed, his body sunk further into his bed. The gentle hands of sleep reached out to him. He was so close. So close to reaching a nice nap that would fit nicely into his schedule.

Ding-Dong

His eyes snapped open.

Well there goes that.

He sat up, hunched over and tossed his pillow back to the head of his bed. Even though he didn’t actually sleep, he still felt groggy as if he had been awakened from a deep slumber.

He heard his mother call for him from downstairs and reluctantly stood from his bed, dragging his feet to the bedroom door and opened it. He called back down to his mother.

“Yea?”

“Someone’s here for you.”

Who the hell could that be?

Since moving to this school, Chad had met one person who you could maybe call a friend, but he didn’t know where he lived. Could it be his boss at the library? What business would she have coming to his house? It wasn’t logical. She had his phone number if she needed to get a hold of him and he would be at work tomorrow if she needed to see him in person. So who could it be?

The curiosity woke him up a bit from his almost nap. He walked out of his room and down the stairs. The bottom of the stairs faced the main entrance of the house. On the last few steps he saw his mother next to the opened front door smiling.

“Chad you aren’t keeping a secret girlfriend from me are you?”

“Huh?”

Next to Rebecca, in the entryway, was a girl around the same age as him. She wore a white sundress with a blue floral pattern covering it. A small silver purse hung from her shoulder that matched her earrings. Her curled blonde hair seemed to glow from the sun in the background. Her glasses daintily drooped down to the tip of her nose with her blue eyes looking over them at him.

“Oh, s-so you’re Chad Nosmith?” The girl hesitantly said.

Who the hell is this? Does she know me?

She seemed to be familiar with his name, but didn’t particularly know him. He scoured his brain to match the person in front of him to anyone he recognized.

Wait. This girl looks a lot like the student council president.

That couldn’t be right though. Their physical characteristics were extremely similar, but their vibes were polar opposite.

He didn’t pay too much attention at the pep rally, but the student council president just naturally took a hold of people's attention. It was just the way she was. She confidently strode out in front of the entire student body without a hint of hesitation. Her voice was strong and didn’t waver. The girl currently in front of him bared no resemblance whatsoever. She seemed uncomfortable in her own skin, twiddling her thumbs in front of him and avoiding eye contact. Well, he had been staring at her without saying a word for a little while, so that could be the reason why. Still, there was no way that those two girls are one in the same.

After a bit too long of a silence, he finally replied.

“Uh, yea that’s me. And who are you?”

“Oh, I’m sorry for not introducing myself. I’m Rose Visca, Manha High School’s student council president.” she said while politely bowing her head.

No. There is no way this is the same girl from the pep rally.