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Monday, August 19th
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Evangeline seemed like the type of person you would expect from looking at her appearance. Rich, popular, snobby, and quite the opposite of a class president. Not only did she manage to annoy the literal fuck out of me the first minute we meet, but she also managed to already give me the impression that she doesn't care about anyone else other than herself.
Her friends are annoying as well and just her presence is beginning to give me a headache. The only thing people care about at this school is appearance, popularity, and parties. I fucking hate this stupid rich town and I fucking hate everyone in it.
I decided to ditch the rest of the school day and go home. I know both of my parents are still at work and they will get mad at me when they realize that I came home early. Once the assembly was about to start when lunch was over, I decided to make my way out of the auditorium and towards the bleachers where the field was empty.
Before I could even step foot out of the building and make my exit, she appeared.
"I hope you're not thinking of leaving before the assembly starts," she says with her hands on her hips. She gives me an annoyed look as she stares at me. She reminds me of a chihuahua that tries to act like a big scary pitbull, but instead just shakes and barks.
I blink at her and her face grows irritated by the second. "Are you just going to keep ignoring me?"
That's always the response I get when I don't answer. Still I never give in.
"Whatever," she says with a sigh, "go ahead and leave if you want." She rolls her eyes and marches away from me, heading towards the crowd of students entering the auditorium. I take one last look around before I slip out of the building.
I can smell the freedom once the scent of the fresh cut grass hits my senses and the hot summer sun glared down at me. The field was empty and the gates near the bleachers opened up to the road near the back of the school. It was the perfect way to ditch school.
I knew it would be too early to get home now so venturing out and finding out more about this dumb town seemed like a better idea. Once I got past the large football field and bleachers, I came across the small path leading to the gates with the door.
'Fuck', I thought when I saw the chain around the gate with a lock. I observed the fence and realized that I could easily climb over them. I threw my backpack over the other side and started climbing the fence. I got over just as easy it was to climb up and I landed on the ground with no problem. I took one last look around to see if anyone was watching or following me and I began my exploration.
I grabbed my backpack and took off the silly blazer that this school makes us wear. I slung it over my shoulder along with my backpack and started walking the opposite way of the neighborhood.
I passed by fancy apartment buildings, small expensive coffee shops, and parks where nannies are overlooking the kids instead of the actual parents. I shake my head as I continue to walk until I feel like I could turn around and go into another route.
A large dark building that resembled a prison was surrounded by a black chain link fence with barbed wire at the top and security guards posted outside, which caught my attention. 'Hollow Grove Institute—School for the Troubled.'
The school in question looked exactly like a prison and if it wasn't for the sign, then I would think otherwise. The windows had bars outside to prevent escapes and the doors had an extra layer of fencing outside for extra precaution. I wondered what kind of students went to this "school". Murderers no doubt.
Just when I felt like there was nothing cool about this boring, stuck up town, I came across a sign for the neighboring town—Florence. The town was quite a drastic change to Hollow Grove. The grass was not greener, in fact it was dry and yellow. The houses were broken down, the paint had been chipped away on the wooden fences, and windows had been boarded up. That's when I knew that it was not my territory to cross over.
Before I was about to cross the street and turn around and head home, a record store caught my eye. It would be risky to go and continue through the unknown town, but what harm could be done if I'm not an actual threat?
I make my way over to the small red building with all kinds of posters hung on the windows, luring potential music lovers inside. As I open the door, the immediate blasting of a Cannibal Corpse song echoes throughout the store. It was loud in here and it smelled like pot. I noticed two employees hanging out behind the counter where they held all sorts of stickers and shirts hung up on the wall, displaying their designs.
"Welcome!" A girl with bright neon green hair shouts over the drumming of the music. I nod in acknowledgement and gravitate towards the milk crates filled with all sorts of vinyls.
The crates were separated by genres and in alphabetical order so it wasn't hard to find the death metal category.
"Hi, welcome in!" I heard in the background of another employee yelling over the loud music.
"Vinyls are buy one and get the other half off," the girl with the bright neon hair says beside me, to which I didn't even notice she had appeared next to me. Her large septum nose piercing caught my eye. It made her look like a bull, but other than that, she was quite cute. Her bright green hair made her blue eyes stand out.
I nod and continue to rummage through the selections. "I'm surprised that you attend Hollow Grove Academy. Usually those kids make fun of people like us," she says with a chuckle as she eyes the school's crest embroidered on the blazer, "I thought you would be in the institute."
I shake my head.
"You must be new then," she says, "I would've seen you around town or at least to one of the underground concerts."
I nod.
"Not much of a talker, huh?"
I shake my head again. "Got it," she nods. "I'll leave you to it then," she says as she turns around.
I place my hand on her shoulder, but pull away as she turns back around. I sigh and pull out my phone. I quickly type in my response and show her the screen. She gives me a curious look before looking at my phone.
I'm mute.
"No worries," she smiles, "is there anything you're looking for? We have more stuff in the back."
Mortician
She looks at the screen with a wide grin. "Follow me." She begins to lead us towards the back of the store where the entrance to the employee area is at. "I actually keep these back here since they're so rare."
She pulls out a couple of vinyls from different bands that rarely release physical copies of their albums, one being a Mortician vinyl.
"There were only 100 of these made and we were lucky to get three of them in stock," she says. She hands me the plastic wrapped vinyl, "it includes a poster too."
I nod and give her a smile. "Were you looking to buy something else too?"
I shake my head and she leads us back to the register. She starts ringing me up for the vinyl when I see a smile appear on her face. "Would it be okay if we exchanged numbers? There's actually a small underground concert with similar bands near the old warehouse. People use it for raves and concerts and it's this weekend," she says, "would you want to come?"
Sure :)
She rips a piece of receipt paper from the thermal printer and writes down her number. "I'm Siouxsie by the way."
Ambrose.
I typed on the screen. She slides the receipt over to me along with the new vinyl. "I'll see you around Ambrose," she says with a grin, "and don't forget to add me to your contacts."
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When I got home from the record store my parents didn't have a clue that I had skipped the last classes. They managed to get home an hour after I did and during dinner, there were no further questions about my day. My parents knew better than to ask me questions about what goes on at school since I would either shake my head or shrug at their questions.
The way we would communicate was mostly through sign language and that was what they thought was easiest. I would also have a whiteboard next to me to give them my answers when I didn't feel like signing to them. Sometimes my expressions were enough rather than signed words.
Due to the fact that I had skipped my last classes and the ones that I attended didn't leave any assignments, I decided to go out onto the balcony that's connected to my room. It overlooks the entire backyard and I can also look into the neighbor's backyard.
The sun was already setting and I watch as Ms. Class President is outside by her large pool going over some documents while her maid brings out a tray of drinks and snacks. I roll my eyes.
"Were you able to find out more about that event?" I hear Evangeline ask her maid.
"I did and I also found out who was attending," I hear the maid's Russian accent slip through her words.
I got closer over to the railing of the balcony to listen in on whatever they were talking about.
"Good, I have to look into the list of attendants and make sure it's none of the students at my school," Evangeline says, "I can't have them representing our school and making a fool out of themselves. All of the donors would back out and not fund all of the senior activities."
"What's so bad about this rock concert on Saturday?" the maid asks.
Is she talking about the underground band that Siouxie told me about? How would she even know about that?
"It's taking place in an illegal location at the outskirts of the town. Secondly, there's going to be drugs and alcohol in a room full of minors," Evangeline says, "if one of our students gets into an accident because of what they did at that concert, our school would be in big trouble. All because of those kids from the institute."
"That sounds very serious Ms. Evangeline," the maid says with a nod of her head.
"It is," Evangeline responds, "and I will be making an announcement about it tomorrow morning with the head of the school."
She could not be serious. What is she thinking?
Just as I thought she would be bluffing with her tactics, she came up on the school's intercom this morning just before first period, and voiced out her concerns about the events this weekend.
"Don't fall for the peer pressure from non Hollow Grove Academy students, and if you are approached by students of the institute, do not hesitate to ask for help," Evangeline's voice trailed through the school's hallways and classrooms.
"Thank you Evangeline," Mr. Vince, the head of the school, jumps onto the intercom. "As your senior class president says, please be cautious of all events taking place this weekend and do not indulge into dangerous activities."
A couple of students snicker and whisper about their plans for this weekend. Most of them are still attending all of the parties taking place, regardless if students from the institute show up. It was no one else's business but the students whether they decide if they want to go out and party or not.
A few minutes after the morning announcements are finished, Evangeline comes into the class and sits down next to me. She gives me a fake smile of her own and greets me. "Good morning Ambrose."
I don't bother to look at her as she greets me and I write down the notes that were up on the board.
"I don't know why I even bother," I hear her mutter to herself.
I want to laugh but I bite back the urge to do so and continue to focus on the lecture. I hear a small commotion next to me as Evangeline is digging through her entire bag for a pencil. She pulls out papers, notebooks, and personal belongings as she shakes her bag upside down for a writing tool.
I shake my head and roll my eyes as I reach into my backpack for an extra pencil. I offer the pencil to her and she stops what she's doing. She stares at the pencil for like a good couple of seconds before she looks at me in shock. A small grin appears on her face before she takes the pencil from my hand.
"Thanks," she says in a low voice. She begins to put back all of her stuff into the bag one by one, and then starts writing in her notebook after she's all done.
"Okay so now you can work with the person next to you for the last five questions," Mrs. Kendrick announces as she puts down her expo marker on the desk.
The classroom erupts with conversations floating about the problems and I just continue to work on my own. I obviously wasn't going to talk to her until I felt tapping on my shoulder.
"What did you get for the second question?" I hear Evangeline's voice. I sigh and turn to look at her.
She's got a small pout on her lips and her brows are slightly furrowed in frustration. "I don't get it. I usually understand the concept, but I just don't get this one."
I bring the paper closer to her and she reads my work. I could see her looking at all of the steps I calculated and understanding what I did. She copies my work down and looks back up at me.
"Thanks, but how did you do this?"
I look down at the equation and start pointing out the steps and where I got the numbers from. I use a mixture of arrows and circles to make it as easy as possible to understand even though I'm not uttering a single word to her.
When I finish, I realize that she's not even looking at my paper, she's staring at me.
"Thanks," she says quietly. I nod and take my paper back onto my own desk.
For the duration of the class, she doesn't ask any more questions and proceeds to just do the work on her own. I'm surprised at her quietness for a second. Usually she tends to talk or say something and is a bit predictable.
When the bell rang and it was time to head to literature together, she pulled me aside, catching me off guard.
"Is there a reason why you're not speaking to me?" She asks with her arms crossed over her chest. "Seems like you were chatty with the girl at the record store."
My eyes widened and the words she just spewed out. How does she know about the record store? Did she...did she follow me?
I furrow my brows and take the pen and clipboard she's holding along with her books.
Did you follow me?
She looks at me confused when she sees me scribbling on the paper, and then reads it when I shoved the clipboard back onto her hands.
"No, I didn't follow you. Tiffany did and she told me everything about what those kids were planning," she says, her face turning red. "And why are you writing? Can you not talk?"
My silence answers her questions. Her expression softens and then realization hits her. "Oh, you can't."
I shake my head and brush past her shoulder as I make my way to class. The perks of being mute was that I could easily give someone the silent treatment without even trying. I could hear her calling out to me as she chased after me, but I didn't budge.
It's only been a day since I met her and there was no chance in hell that I would listen to her, let alone befriend as someone as shallow as her.