I have one week from today to get ready for Halloween. My notebook is strewn with sketches, ideas, and all my plans for the entre night. It looks more like creative throw up, but that’s just the way my mind works. A giant jumble of thoughts that are brought together to form a bigger picture that only I can read and interpret.
I sigh, and try to make the best of my almost illegible notes.
Last year the doctor had stamped this huge label on my head and called it ADHD. The foot bouncing, the constant need to move, my ‘immaturity’ and my emotional rollercoaster of raging teenage hormones (I would argue that I’m just passionate but science disagrees) all jumbled in a brain that sometimes preferred hyperbole over reality. I shrugged to myself. My ability to hyper focus came in handy sometimes, but only for things I actually liked. Go figure.
The teacher droned on mechanically in the class and I pulled my face away from my notebook as my brain began to space out, following a different thought until I wasn’t really thinking at all.
Mr. Robot-o our teacher whirrs as he stiffly draws out the next problem in some weird robot language. Our teachers name isn’t really Mr. Robot-o (Even though I think it should be) it’s really Mr. Burrell, but his greying strawberry hair and square face makes him look more like a robot. Besides what normal human being teaches math? It’s the language of confusion and pain.
Sandy raises her hand with the answer and I roll my eyes. She gives a very seductive smile to the closest boy and he shoves her the answers as I quickly look back down at my jumbled notebook. It wouldn’t surprise me if she was a vampire too.
Our school is infested.
With one last eye roll for good measure, I drown out the rest of the world around me.
I flip the page and begin to write down the evidence I have so far proving Eve is part of the undead.
1. She doesn’t like garlic.
2. She think’s Julian had a nice neck (???)
3. Since when were her eyes so blue?!
4. She doesn’t eat lunch.
5. She suddenly has the courage and guts of an army general.
My goal is to get to ten before I start trying anything drastic, unless of course I find some kind of incriminating evidence before. Then I can just call her out on it.
“Isabelle…earth to Isabelle!” The teacher calls out sharply as I snap out of my head and back into reality. I put my pencil down and stare blankly ahead.
“Yes.” I say as I try to make sense of the new markings strew across the white board.
“How do I solve for the missing angle?” Mr. Burrell asks pointing his chalk at me like it’s some kind of deadly laser charged and ready to fire at will. I can feel it piercing through my brain, burning a hole straight through my mind and back into the kid behind me.
My cheeks flush red.
“Uhh….” I say giving him a brain dead look. Much how I would imagine a zombie looking at another zombie as they realize they have consumed all the humans on the earth and there’s no more brains left to eat.
A kind of painful, confused and stupid look.
“Well perhaps you would know if you took your attention off that notebook and put it to good use watching all the examples on the board. Bring it up here, you can get it back when class is over.” He drones on in his robot voice.
I scratch my dark brown hair and pull at a stray bang that has found its way over my eyes (A nervous habit).
With slow and careful steps I maneuver my way through strewn backpacks, up to the front of the classroom where set my prized notebook on Mr. Robot-o’s desk with apprehension and distaste.
“Now go sit back down.” He say’s beginning to thumb through my inked pages full of upchucked thoughts. I really hope he finds the page with a drawing of a stupid looking robot with his name underneath.
A movement catches my eye outside the door and I catch Eve passing by through the window. My eyes narrow and I wonder what she’s doing out of class.
She used to hate leaving class. I know this because she once sat through a bloody nose trying to write down notes from a class one year. Her grades and attendance were the most important things to her.
Hmmm….
Maybe a bathroom break? Everyone needs to go sometime.
Or…
I start to bounce back and fourth on my legs, trying to make it appear that mother nature was calling and I better answer soon.
“I really gotta pee! May I be excused?!” I ask jumping up and down for good measure.
“Be quick.” The teacher grumbles.
Faster then a running rhinoceros I grab the bathroom pass and the pen and then make a beeline for the door. Half of the students are surprised at my outburst while the other half begin to whisper and laugh. Before anyone else get out so much as another giggle I dash out the door and press myself up against the wall, cautiously peeking out into the hallway.
Eve is just reaching the end of the hallway, so far unaware of my presence.
I wait for her to turn the corner before I make my move.
Holding my breath I run from my hiding spot, down the hall and peer around the corner looking for any sign of her. I blink and stand up straight, no longer caring about stealth.
What the…Where the heck did she go?
I should have known it wouldn’t be so easy.
The hallway is completely empty all the way down. Not even the sound of Eve’s footsteps echo off the bland and rather dirty off white walls and lockers.
“What are you doing out of class?”
I nearly jump out of my skin and straight to the afterlife.
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