Tales from the Darkside (Currently Being Rewritten)

17

"I know, I know." Mr Barrett waved off the numerous groans as though they were gnats. "No one likes assignments, you don't like doing them and I don't like using up most of my weekend to grade the red bull induced Wikipedia plagiarised essays written at 2:00 am that you lot hand up."
The class began to exchange looks with one another. "Is he serious?" Erica mouthed as Paige shrugged, my mind half paying attention to what Mr Barrett was talking about and the other half was still wondering why the only person I'd seen was Abby....where were the others?
"Now, before I go into details about your first assignment, I've made a list of due dates for all of you, so none of you can use the excuse 'I didn't know when it was due.'." Mr Barrett explained, he rubbed his hands together in excitement before continuing. "For your first assignment: I want all of you to pick a book, any book and write a book report on it."
There were whispers from students, a lot of whom sounded relieved that it wasn't an impossible task to complete.
"The book report is a maximum of 2000 words." Mr Barrett added as the class fell silent again. "I don't expect you to write 2000 words, but I will give an automatic F if your book report is only a single sentence. The same goes if your book report is copied and pasted off any website."

The rest of the lesson was silent apart from scattered whisperings about what would be the easiest book to do a report on, along with complaints about having to physically read a book instead of taking the easy way out.
"What book are you doing?" Erica asked Paige, the two of them chatting comfortably with each other while I doodled on the paper Mr Barrett had handed out with a list of due dates.
"Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot." Paige replied, "I've got a copy at home. What about you?"
"Jules Verne's The Mysterious Island." Erica tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. "My dad used to read it to me."
"Used to?" I wondered, looking up from my doodling.
"He doesn't do it anymore." Erica shrugged, looking uncomfortable before she smiled at me. "What are you doing a report on? And why did you grab a bunch of those due date papers?"
"I have no idea." I shrugged, nervously tapping my pencil on the desk. "And I grabbed them for my-" I stopped, uncertain of what to say. "My friends."
"When can I meet them?" Erica asked as I stared down at the desk, listening as all the chatter vanished.
"You can't." I muttered, still staring at the desk. "They don't like people. They're cliquey."
I looked up, glancing at Erica's confused expression. She looked ready to open her mouth when - "Let's talk about something else." Paige interrupted.

As students began to file into the Chem Lab on the first floor after waiting for 10 minutes for any sign of our teacher, I looked around for Abby, wondering where she could be. Had she gone to where the others were? Where the fuck were they?
"Abby!" I almost cried out as I spotted her familiar ginger hair moving through the crowds of students still trying to make their way to various lessons.

There was only one spare work bench, smack bang in the middle of the lab. I slid into the seat closest to the window, Abby sliding into the seat next to me, just as Ms Callahan started to write on the whiteboard, looking back and forth between the board and a piece of paper she held in her right hand as she did so.
"Organic Chemistry and Chemical Synthesis." Ms Callahan turned to face the class, tapping underneath each word with the end of her marker. "Can anyone tell me what either of them mean?"
A few hands shot up but a third of them quickly lowered, leaving only two people in the room with their hands up. "Yes, Mr Sui?"
"Chemical Synthesis is the process of using two or more molecules to form a product." Zane exclaimed somewhat nervously from his seat at the front.
"That's exactly right." Ms Callahan gave him a confirming smile before turning back to the rest of the class. "Now, does anyone know what Organic Chemistry is?"
Zane's hand lingered in the air for a bit before it shot down, leaving only one hand still in the air.
"Organic Chemistry is the study of the structure, properties, composition, reactions, and preparation of carbon-containing compounds." Bella Langdon explained as though reading straight out of the textbook.

AUTHOR'S NOTE
Hi everyone,
Hope you're enjoying the rewrite and sorry for not updating sooner. My work is stressing me out and I've had several nervous breakdowns and panic attacks about it because all my conversations with my boss leave me feeling like I'm a failure which is the reason behind my panic attacks. My friends tell me that I should quit but it took me ages to get the job I've got and my boss is likely going to fire me anyway.
There'll be some more excitement/drama in the upcoming chapters, so stay tuned.
Hope you enjoy reading.