Raven Feathers

Chapter Three

At the moment, my goal was the office. The front room was painted a warming yellow with a large painting of a wolf, the school's mascot. There was a single long white counter that stretched the length of the room, and there was only enter and exit from behind the counter. Sitting in front of one of the computers on the counter was an elderly woman with large round glasses. She looked up at me and gave a small smile. “Can I help you, dear?” she asked, kindly.

I found myself smiling shyly as I approached the counter. “I'm new today. I came to pick up my schedule.” I said.

The woman nodded, almost to herself. Her eyes fell back onto the computer screen, and she taped away at the machine for a few seconds. “Miss Adele Summers? It's right on this file.” she said as the printer next to her came to life suddenly. A piece of paper came out, and she held it out to me. “There was a single issue when transferring your classes. This school district doesn't offer a creative writing class, and there were no other open classes.”

“So I have an empty class?” I wondered taking the paper. At the very top was my name with my student number next to it. It also told my homeroom teacher directly after it.

“Not exactly.” she sighed. “We have to fill in a credit for you to graduate so for fifth hour you will be the teachers' aid for your third hour art teacher.”

I frowned, and sure enough in the fifth hour slot was 'teacher aid: Mr. Mercier'. “What do I do as a teachers' aid?” I asked, looking back at the woman.

“For normal teachers, they would show you haw the classroom works through hands experience. Aids usually work while the teacher is teaching, and they can check papers for the teacher, too. The thing is, fifth hour is Mr. Mercier's prep hour, and Mr. Mercier is- how can I say this gently? Mr. Mercier is the school's most eccentric teacher. He doesn't go about teaching the same way as other teachers, and if you were to see him, he doesn't look like a teacher.” she huffed. “He looks more like your every day delinquent, but I really shouldn't be complaining because he is a teacher after all.”

With her words, a seed of doubt was planted in my head. I really didn't want to be any teacher's aid, much less the strangest teacher in the school. Already, a picture of short man with bleached blond hair and tattoos yelling 'screw the system' was forming in my mind. “Oh.” I sighed, forcing a smile. “This should be a learning experience then.”

She returned my forced smile. “One last thing, your homeroom teacher will give you a locker. Have a good day at school, Ms. Summers.”

“Thank you.” I said, nodding the slightest. With new schedule in hand, I entered the hallway once more to find more people crowding the narrow structures. They were gathered in clusters and not moving. Basically, they were giant road blocks, and the people rushing to their classes had to move to conform. It felt like plunging into water when I began weaving my way through the people, and I didn't know why I felt so cornered as if I were being watched. My previous school had three times the number of students, but I never had the same feeling of being spied on before.

I buried my irrational worries for the moment and glanced at my classes. My first class was advanced placement physics in 'D' hall. Luckily for me, each hall had its letter clearly above each hall. 'D' hall was right across from the math 'C' hall. 'A' and 'B' hall were language and social science, respectively. Making mental notes, I looked for my first class, and of course, it had to be at the very end of the hall.

Inside the classroom, there were only a handful of students, and the teacher was standing at the board. The teacher was an old man with a beard that could be tucked into his belt. I frowned as I introduced myself and received everything I needed for the class. I was forced to sit in the center of the classroom, but no one bothered talking to me until a blond guy plopped down in the seat next to me.