The Living Game

(1) Hickey

“Genesis Avery.” My Life-Science teacher, whose name I’d forgotten the first class, called. He held out a paper, asking me to come and read it. I looked around me, trying to figure out if I was being punked. No one laughed or giggled, no one even paid me much mind. I slowly walked to the front of the class to read my paper aloud like he requested.

We’d been given a topic – Can Vampires be Real? Prove It or Discredit It – and for some God forsaken reason, my teacher had liked mine a lot. Out of the fifty or so people in my class, he had picked my paper. I honestly hadn’t even put that much effort into it.

“Vampires are mythological creatures, written throughout history in folklore, horror and romance.” I started, my nose wrinkling on the word romance. Vampire romance books were awful, even if some did happen to be well written. Who’d want to fall in love with a blood-sucking creature of the night?

All of the females of the class went giddy and the rest of my report was completely wasted on them as they day dreamed and fantasized about vampires. Most of the guys talked or fooled around, not paying attention. I didn’t mind it that way. I’d always preferred to just be a part of the background, not the spot light.

Once I was finished, the teacher made everyone give a round of applause while I ducked my head and scurried back to my desk. All of the students quieted as the teacher stood in front of them.

He was a young teacher, roughly twenty-five and absolutely gorgeous. All the girls wanted him and all the guys hated him for it. I wasn’t about to claim that I was unaffected by his stunning good looks but I didn’t exactly drool over him either. Personally, I thought he wasn’t a cocky jerk and personality outweighed looks every time.

“Genesis’ essay will be printed in the news paper and featured at a conference and science convention…which she will be attending with me!” He announced it like I was the lucky winner of the lottery. I worked hard to suppress my groan at all the attention I was getting but it slipped out anyway.

As call finally came to a close and the bell rang, signaling our next block, I gathered my things quickly. In the hallway, girls of all shape and bitchiness bumped into me.

One group of nerds brushed passed me and I heard what they were saying. “…Didn’t even deserve it. She doesn’t even care, anyway! The only reason she got picked is because she’s sleeping with him.” It was one of the girls in the group. She pushed her glasses higher on her nose and lifted her chin.

“Yeah,” a guy agreed. “Her paper wasn’t even good.” They all laughed viciously, shooting me looks.

I proceeded to my locker, pretending that I didn’t care about the vicious rumors people were whispering a couple feet away from me. Let them talk. It wasn’t true and it wasn’t getting them anywhere.

My next class was Music Studies, something that I excelled in. There was a small group of us, maybe twenty. We were all pretty close because it was so small compared to all our other classes. Our teacher was nice and she even knew us all by name.

“Hello Genesis.” She greeted as I walked in.

“Hey, Miss Silverstein.” She was the only teacher whose name I actually remembered.

Once we were all gathered, she took out her notebook and had us all sing a couple notes to see how we had improved over the weekend. The class was all about harnessing and using our voices to express ourselves, as well as other instruments.

“Genesis, will you lead the class today?” She gestured behind her to the grand piano. I grabbed my song book and went to it, sitting down. Usually, someone lead the class with a guitar or drums but occasionally she liked to go for the classic taste. I was the best piano player, since I’d been doing it the longest.