Hollow's Grove (The Preliminary Version)

Chapter Nine: Class

My classroom reminded me of a lecture hall in a university. I found that there were several other teens already sitting at the desks. I felt my stomach give a jolt when I saw in terror that the only empty seat was beside him. Marcus sat proudly near the front of the room. I stopped walking and stared, uneasy at the sight before me. I wanted to turn around and walk right out of there. Only, I didn't. Instead I took a deep breath and walked towards the empty seat.

"May I join you?" I tried to keep as calm as I could as I asked him. He looked up at me slowly, to my surprise he waved for me to go ahead. I sat quickly, hoping that this change of behaviour was possibly permanent. We sat there silently. I looked around the room trying to count how many other students were in this class.

By the time the teacher had arrived in the room, I had managed to count at least two hundred other classmates. "Good morning everyone, my name is Mr. Strangely." I had to hold on to the urge to begin laughing. The teacher's voice reminded me of the croak of a toad. "Good morning Mr. Strangely." The rest of the class chorused. I sat at my desk, with my head down, trying to stifle the laughter.

"Mr. O'Brian," His voice startled me. I glanced up at him in shock, how did he know my name? "Please pay attention, class is beginning." I nodded, surprised that I had been recognized by a teacher so quickly. Then again, it might be possible that Miss. Wilson had given all the teacher's a note about me before I started class. "Who can tell me the name of the first king of England?"

Mr. Strangely began to drone, walking through the classroom, holding the history textbook up to his face. I sighed, and put my head back down upon my desk. History had always been my worst subject, even when I was younger. I had never been infatuated by the call of historical events. On the other hand, I was more into the sciences and math. Only, after my incident with the beast that had changed me I had lost all interesting in any sort of subject.

"Mr. O'Brian, wake up!" I was pulled back into reality with a snap as Mr. Strangely clapped his hands really loudly. I looked around, feeling heat rise up into my face. Around me laughter echoed out. The loudest laugh of all came from Marcus though. I felt anger slowly wash over me, this was not good. I needed to get out of there. Laughter roared about me, before I knew what I was doing I had jumped out of my seat, pushed past my teacher and raced for the exit.

"Mr. O'Brian, get back here!" Mr. Strangely's voiced cried out over the roars of laughter. I needed to get away from them. I burst out of the classroom and into the main hallway. Since classes were still in session I found myself at an advantage, I could run all the way back to my room without getting caught. I began to bolt down the hall. Behind me, I could now hear the shouts of Mr. Strangely. He wasn't going to let me leave without a fight. "You need to get back to class now, young man!" He screamed.

In all honesty, I knew that there was no way that I was going to go back. I knew that I had only been there for a day, and yes, my mum would be so proud if I got a proper education, but I was not interested in suffering for an entire year at this so far, posh and sincerely rude school. I managed to get as far as the spiral staircase when out of the blue. Miss. Wilson appeared in front of me. She looked absolutely furious. "You are ignoring the rules, get back to class."

Her tone of voice was much less inviting then yesterday. I came to a halt in front of her. "What on earth, Tobias, you have only been here for less than forty-eight hours and here you are trying to make a bolt for it!" I kept silent, not wishing to invoke any type of problem where she called my mother. "When your mother and I talked she said that you were eager to go back to learning." She was playing the guilt card now. I felt a twist in my stomach, she was right.

I sighed, "Yes ma'am." By now my entire class was watching our confrontation. Mr. Strangely was also watching me with interested eyes. I knew that by now everyone had the wrong impression of me. That was only going to make things worse. Miss. Wilson had now noticed that we had an audience, she frowned, "All of you back to class, Mr. Strangely I think that Tobias will call it a day." I could hear Mr. Strangely mutter disappointedly to himself as the group shuffled back to class.

Miss. Wilson looked back down at me, "Now, go up to your room, I will make sure that they send lunch and dinner up to you." I didn't even try to argue, instead I turned face and walked to the spiral staircase and headed up to my bedroom...