Fear Attraction

Chapter 2

“Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself.”

― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

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I walk into my AP English class and sigh as I sit down at a random desk that is closer to the back than it is to the front. English is not my happiest subject, the fact that it is so open ended and there is no certain answer like in math or science is what annoys me. Somehow I got into the advance placement for some reason which is probably my dumb luck. As other’s begin to come in I smile to myself as some of them look in my direction and practically sit opposite of where I am. Old targets that learned their lesson. After all, they always do.

“Hello everyone.” The teacher, Ms. Pepper, begins when it is time for class “As I’m sure you have heard, a new student has just recently come to our school. He will be joining our class, so please give him a warm welcome as he comes in and introduces himself.”

No way it can't be, I think as it dawns on me who she is talking about, He has two english classes? Why would he have two? Most students take just one for each year. I'm not sure why I found it weird right now but I guess its because I just didn't expect him so soon. Oh well, let the games begin.

Everybody begins clapping and looks towards the door as the new student comes in. It however soon stops as we see him. As he stops at the front of the class I see that my friends got him correct. He was intimidating for really no good reason. He wasn’t tall and imposing, didn’t have any scars or tattoos, and his clothes were not even all that scary with him decked out in red and black checkered vans, black jeans, and a leather jacket.

If anything it was his expression and his eyes that were the scariest part. He stared at us with an analytical gaze with brown eyes that were dead and cold like mud. It’s almost as if he looked at you with interest and then immediately dismissed you. His expression was…expressionless and it made you wonder if he was a master at poker.

“My name is Christopher Smith,” He says in an extremely deep voice that sends shivers down my spine, even though I had prepared for it it was still surprising how deep it actually was.

It’s also pretty sexy, I also think but push that thought to the back of my mind.

“I’m from the valley so I’m not a complete foreigner or anything like that. I love books, video games, and music. I would like to become an author and I dabble in song writing. I hate drama, fake people, and most of all,” he finally breaks his stoic expression with a smile “public speaking.” This gets everyone to start laughing which is probably what he intended to do. “Is there anything else I need to add?” he then asks the teacher.

“Yes, if you can, tell us something that is interesting about yourself?” Ms. Pepper responds.

“Ok…” everyone quiets down as he thinks for a moment. “I guess one interesting thing about me is that I’m really interested in fear.” The class is dead silent as I’m sure that no one expected him to say that afterall it was pretty much the last thing I expected, that's for sure.

Finally the teacher asks, “What do you mean you’re interested in it?”

“Well from the simple fact that our lives are governed by it. I mean think about it, why do we do most of the things we do?” he ask us.

“Because we want to, duh,” One kid says making everyone start laughing.

“Wrong! Next,” Christopher simply says.

“We need to,” Another student guesses.

“Wrong! Another guess.”

“We can’t see another way?” another proclaims.

“Wrong, the correct ways to have said those are we don’t want to do other things. We feel we have to, and because we are scared to find another way or scared to do it another way,” He looks around and most likely sees nothing but confused faces. He sighs, points at a classmate and asks, “Why are you in school?”

The student is startled a bit, but quickly recovers and responds, “Because I need to get an education of course.”

“But why do you need an education?” Christopher follows up quickly with another question.

The student says matter of factly, “To get a good job and be successful.”

“What does being successful mean to you? To live and not really worry about where your money will come from next. That you can take care of your spouse and children and even set them up to comfortably make their way into this world right?” Christopher quickly fires off some more questions.

“Yeah for the most part.”

“So you’re saying you don’t want to be poor, that you don’t want to live paycheck by paycheck, that you don’t want to end up like a bum on the street and be seen by everyone; your parents, old friends, and society in general as a failure. Why… because that’s a pretty scary and sucky future,” He looks around the room for a moment before asking a girl, “Why are you dressed like that?”

The girl in question is wearing a black t-shirt with skulls, matching skull earrings, combat boots, and black jeans. Very gothic. “What’s wrong with what I’m wearing?” she asks defensively.

“Nothing. Skulls and black go hand in hand. I think it’s pretty awesome, but I am asking why are you wearing that ensemble of yours?” Christopher coolly responds.

“Because I like it. It was in my closet. It’s my style. I…” she rattles off a list of reasons.

“Bam! Right there. My style. By saying this is my style your saying that you don’t have other people’s styles. Because you don’t want to be like those fake bubblegum cheerleaders with their…pink theme,” He says the last words with a visible shudder, making several people laugh and some of the girls on the cheerleading squad glare at him.

“You also are not necessarily a tomboy, so guy clothes don’t work for you. Your not bookish either, and don’t even try to get you in a dress. You just don’t want it. You want to set yourself apart from the crowd. You want people who are like you to know you are like them. Why, because you want to be an individual, you don’t want to be a part of the crowd. However at the same time you don’t want to be alone and you want to be accepted by people like you because no one likes to be lonely. That is what you're saying by having a certain style,” He looks around again before speaking

“All our lives we have been conditioned to fear things that we honestly have no reason to really fear. Being alone, being a part of the crowd, and not going to school won’t kill us. But the thought of actually not doing those things scares us to death, figuratively speaking of course. And that concludes my presentation thank you,” He jokingly finishes. Everyone sarcastically claps and even cheers.

“Wait I have a question?” the goth girl asks. He indicates for her to continue “What got you interested in fear? I mean you have obviously been thinking about this for a while at least. What started it all?”

He awkwardly grins before saying, “It’s actually pretty simple really. You see...I can read people’s fears.”

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Bum bum bum. Hello everyone reading this story. My internship is over so now I can start really cracking down. So what do you think? Does fear really control what we do and how we live our lives? It’s really kind of sad if we think of it that way. Anyways yeah, vote, comment, and fan. But definitely comment. I would love to know what you’re thinking. Don’t be afraid to speak your mind. Ha ha little joke get it? Because the story talks about fear, and afraid to speak your mind. Ha ha okay…not funny got it. Jeez tough crowd. Until next time. Laters.