@caitliniscooler123 thanks for reading!
Mr. Brunner left about an hour later, and he left me with a lot to think about. My mind was no longer on wrestling, because now all I could think about was my father. I guess I never quite grasped the fact that he's a real person. Okay, that sounds weird, but I mean, I've never seen the guy before, and I don't know anything about him. Or I didn't know anything about him. Mr. Brunner had shared countless stories about my dad. Apparently, my dad was one of 6 kids! (Although Mr. Brunner didn't seem fully confident in that number.) I learnt that my dad loves the ocean, and that he was incredibly wealthy, although 'maybe not by your standards.' Those were Mr, Brunner's words, not mine, and I have no idea what he meant.
I felt enlightened by all this information about my father, but I felt as though Mr. Brunner wasn't telling me the whole truth. There were times he would suddenly stop talking mid- sentence, or just stare into space silently for a minute before talking. He also refused to tell me my father's name. At one point I asked him how he was sure I was the kid he was thinking of, and he just said,
"I only needed to be in the same room as up to be sure. You would be hard to hide, and that's why—"
And then he completely backtracked, saying,
"I've never seen anyone with eyes like your father, except for you. If you weren't the right kid, this would be an extraordinary coincidence."
I guess that's a valid explanation, but I was still rather caught up on the part where he said that I'd be hard to hide. What does that even mean?
When he left, I had more questions than ever before, yet had simultaneously never felt more satisfied with the answers I had finally been given. I quickly got ready for bed. It was a lot later than it felt, and I had school tomorrow. Luckily, tomorrow was Friday, so I could look forward to the upcoming weekend.
——————
Friday was— uneventful. Especially considering the fact that the cafeteria water fountain had blown up the day before. Dudley wasn't at school. I figured he was grounded or something, but I didn't know why that would mean he wasn't at school. Maybe his parents were the coddling type who would baby him every time he got in trouble.
I showed up to my first period early. Mrs. Elidave was at her desk putting together a slideshow for the class. There was light classical music playing. When I walked in, she looked up at me and smiled. I immediately smiled back.
"Mr. Jackson, can I speak with you for a second?" She asked, still smiling and beckoning me over. I walked over to her desk, and she pulled a chair out of seemingly nowhere for me to sit on. Once I was seated she started talking.
"So how do you like Smelting's so far?"
"Oh! Uh, yeah. It's alright. I wish I had lasted longer without getting in trouble, but it is what it is."
Mrs. Elidave laughed kindly.
"Right. Thomas told me that this is your sixth school in six years."
I startled, and blinked at her.
"Thomas?"
"Oh, that's Mr. Xaviers first name."
"You guys gossip about students?"
Again she laughed.
"I wouldn't call it gossiping, more like sharing relevant information."
I nodded sagely.
"Teacher gossip. Cool."
She studied me for a moment, before saying,
"My wife, Minerva, she's actually a teacher too!"
"That's super neat," I was one hundred serious, but I was worried I sounded sarcastic. "What does she teach?"
Mrs. Elidave thought for a second, before saying,
"I guess you could say she teaches chemistry."
"You guess?"
"Well, she works at a very selective boarding school in Scotland. It's a rather strange place and it has weird course names, but yeah. Chemistry."
I nodded.
"You must miss her, if she works all the way in Scotland."
Just then, other students started coming on. I watched as Mrs. Elidave put on a metaphorical mask. It was sort of strange watching someone actively change their attitude. I took it as a sign to head over to my seat. As I walked away, she said.
"We'll talk more later, Mr. Jackson."
I nodded and sat down. I felt people staring at me, but tactfully ignored them.
Class was boring. We were still working on sentence structure. I zoned out and before I knew it, the bell rang and people started leaving. I gathered my stuff and followed, catching Mrs. Elidave's eye on my way out.
——————
Mr. Casallas seemed to think the fourth day of school was a good day for a pop quiz. It wasn't a very long quiz- we just had to name the parts of a cell- but that didn't mean it was easy. I struggled very much, but luckily I wasn't the only one. When that was some, we had quite a big chunk of time left, and Mr. Casallas gave us worksheets to fill out while we watched a video about RNA transcription and translation. Somehow I managed to stay awake and finish the worksheet.
When class was over, Piers came over as I gathered my stuff. He stood quietly until I was done, and stayed quiet as we walked out of the classroom. Eventually I was the one to break the silence.
"So, where's Dudley?"
Piers rolled his eyes a bit before answering.
"His mom insisted on keeping him home after he went through such a 'traumatizing experience.'"
I raised my eyebrows.
"The water fountain?"
Piers nodded.
"His family hates anything out of the ordinary. I can't really blame them though. They've had some weird things happen to them."
I gestured for him to elaborate. He obliged.
"Well just last year, we were at the zoo for Dudley's birthday, and the Burmese python somehow got out of it's enclosure. Dudley was standing right next to it when it happened."
"That's crazy! How did it even get out?"
"I have no idea! The glass just disappeared."
I stopped walking, and Piers stopped next to me.
"Woah woah woah wait. The glass just disappeared?"
Piers nodded,
"Yeah, like magic or something."
"Like magic?"
"You don't believe me."
"No no! I definitely do! Believe it or not, that's not actually the weirdest thing I've heard of."
Piers looked interested, and we started walking again. I tried to think of a story to tell, that would be entertaining, but wouldn't make me sound like a psycho.
"Okay, Like a year or two ago, I went on a field trip to an aquarium. Pretty cool trip right?"
Piers nodded, and I continued.
"Right, so we got a cool behind the scenes tour, and part of that included watching a shark feeding. So we're standing on a catwalk above the tank, and suddenly, I trip. Not a big deal, since there are guardrails, but I tried to catch myself, and ended up pulling a lever. Next thing I know, the whole class is in the shark tank. During feeding time."
I smiled at Piers' horrified face, but I wasn't done yet.
"That's not even the weird part! The sharks ignored everyone else in the tank, and swam up to me," I decided to leave out the part where the sharks spoke and instead just said, "and they weren't even being aggressive! Just acting like big water puppies!"
Piers blinked. Then he smiled.
"Water puppies?"
"Yeah, like, you know, all gentle and stuff?"
Piers nodded, and I could tell he was trying to imagine it. He opened hood mouth to say something, but the warning bell rang. I jumped.
"Crap! I have to get to gym!"
Piers laughed at me as I turned and ran.
1300 words! A lot happening here! Very exciting! The story is really starting to pick up!
(Not important, but guess who is taking summer classes for fun? If you guessed me, you're right.)