Tales of an Eighth Grade Nothing

Chapter 2

After what seemed an eternity the lesson finally ended, if this wasn't the day that I moved on I knew I would soon go mad. Indie pulled my hand and dragged me to our next lesson, Math, which we shared with Kai. When we reached math something odd happened, something very odd indeed. We had a sub, he was a thirty something man, of a rather round build, he had sandy hair speckled with streaks of grey. His nose was roman and noble, but his brow low, giving him look like that of a Neanderthal. He had harrowing blue eyes, which pierced Cassia's own blue eyes.. This wasn't right, this had never happened before. We did not have a sub on the 4th May 2008. A shriek erupted from my lips. The entire class stared at me. I was the nobody with only two friends. I never spoke up. I never put up my hand. I was just quiet old Cassia Wick, a bland girl who blended into the background, it was not the natural order for me to bring attention to myself. Each face in the room appeared almost horrified at the disruption of the status quo, their faces were alight with curiosity and disgust. I fitted so well into the background most of the time, many people didn't even know who I was. Their thoughts were splattered across their expressions, 

"Who is this freak!? What in the hell is wrong with her!?"

A bright scarlett flushed onto Indie's face, clearly embarrassed at her association with the girl who was currently screaming at nothing. Kai's enchanting eyes filled with worry, he ran up and grabbed me by the shoulders and in a desperate attempt to stop me shook me vigorously, yet I continued to bawl.

"Cassia! CASSIA! What's wrong! For God's sake what the hell is wrong! Are you taking the piss!?"

Wriggling, I set my self free from his grasp, my heart thumping, ecstatic from his touch.  I halted my screaming. I stared into the eyes unfamiliar and threatening man who stood in front of me. He gave me a knowing look. He knew who I was and what was happening to me. The door was wide open, I ran right out of the room.

What the hell was going on, what did this mean? My entire world had been thrown completely upside down. Did this mean that the day might finally end?

My feet were racing down the corridor as I came to my senses, if I wanted to know who this guy was I would need to observe him. Lightly shuffling back to the room I heard Kai explaining my behaviour to the sub, or at least explaining what he thought was the reason.

"Sorry Mr-?"

"Haddern." The sub had a reedy Boston accent, a rather unnerving voice, the kind which creepy horror film crazies have.

"Mr Haddern, Cassia found her mothers dead body in their bathroom last year, she has flashbacks sometimes, that's why see just screamed."

Most of the class didn't know this, and acted accordingly, all turning around to discuss this juicy bit of gossip.

"I see." Smirked Mr Haddern, he knew exactly why I screamed, and that was most definitely not the reason.

I swept into the classroom, I was rather taken aback by the fact that the sub didn't even care to ask if I was ok, he just scrawled in shabby and child-like handwrighting, (x6-x9)(x1+8x) on the board and told us to expand it. Slightly shaken with shock at Mr Haddern's nonchalant behaviour, I sat down next to Kai, concern swam in the water of his eyes. My heart fluttered like a hyperactive butterfly as I realised he may feel for me the way I feel for him. My heart then filled up with regret that it had taken me 3 years of repeating this day to realise it.

When the Math lesson finally ended Indie and Kai said they were going to the Library to work on our Geography project about Coasts of the British Isles. I told them that I would join them but I had something I needed to do first. The students stampeded out of the classroom like wild horses. When there was only Mr Haddern and I left in the classroom I opened my mouth to speak but I was interrupted by his chilling voice.

"I know what you want, but I cannot tell you anything  but this- today is going to be different, you must figure out how to carry on with life and move on, but if you fail, when you die tonight, you will die in reality."

"What do you mean 'reality'!?" I frantically asked, but he had disappeared. I shook my head with frustration. His presence was infuriating, what kind of information was that. How was I supposed to figure how to save myself? I felt relief at being given a chance to progress, but I felt fear at prospect of failure and it's consequences.