Angelic Insanity

Chapter 2: High School

You should already expect this to be disturbing.

Feet heavy with reluctance, I followed Clarissa into the nightmarish madhouse otherwise known as high school.

Shoving myself through the jungle of caffeine-fueled students, I made my way towards my locker at an infuriatingly slow pace. I valiantly persisted in my struggle until I bumped into one of my friends.

Which I do not mean figuratively.

"James," I greeted, tipping my hat.

"Alida," he answered, rubbing his head (which had just slammed into my own rather painfully). "What are you doing swimming against the current?"

I scoffed. "Current!? What current?" I gestured widely to the swarm of rabid adolescents around us. "This, my James, is pandemonium."

"Pandemonium?" he repeated, adjusting the straps of his backpack. "What does that mean, exactly? I thought that was like, a zombie apocalypse thing."

"You may be associating it with the word 'pandemic'," I supposed as I opened my locker to retrieve my books. "I believe the literal meaning is 'abode of all demons'."

His mein twisted into a satisfying mixture of disgust and horror. (Is it bad that I invoke this expression from him on a daily basis?)

Before I could finish enjoying it, another student forcefully jostled into me, sending me sprawling. A curse left my lips. As I struggled to regain my footing, my left boot made hostile contact with a particularly slippery piece of paper, and I landed on my back. Hard.

My ears rang from the impact, and I released a groan. I felt like the victim of a banana peel gag in a cartoon. After a moment of reflection on how deeply I despised life, I pushed myself up from the cheap, imitation marble.

I glanced at James, who seemed inexplicably astounded. Before I could question this, my eyes lowered to where I had just been lying.

...Oh.

I was aware that my impact with the floor had been rough, but perhaps I had underestimated it.

Bewildered, I knelt beside the disturbingly large crater my body had made. The stone cracked and crumbled as if an Alida-shaped wrecking ball had collided with it. How could I have possibly caused that much damage!? I wasn't even injured!

(Not that I'm complaining.)

"Well," stated James, almost objectively. "You seem to have destroyed the floor."

"How did you---"

"I didn't do anything!"

"You massacred innocent fake marble!"

"That's not my fault!"

"Then whose is it!?"

Exasperated, I released a grunt and kicked the nearest locker out of frustration.

It dented.

Then caved.

"Oh my," murmured James. "You do know that the destruction of public property is a potential felony, right?"

I was too concerned with reverently staring at the crushed locker to retaliate.

Engulfed in thought, I was oblivious to the ringing of the bell until James nudged me. "Come on, Clark, let's get to class before anyone realizes that you're Superman."