Lydia sat very still and quiet in her English language arts classroom, trying her best to focus, yet she could almost feel the stare of the boy behind her.
Finn Gray was a tall, athletic, but lanky boy, in Lydia’s language arts and math classes. Something about that boy bothered Lydia. Maybe it was the icy gaze of his bright blue eyes or simply the fact that he seemed so careless, but whatever it was, Lydia nearly despised it.
Opposite to Finn, Lydia was short for her age and quite fit, but not very active. Her hair cascading over her shoulders to just above her waistline. Feeling as if she was being taunted, she turned to Finn.
“Is something the matter?” she hissed at him. The small smirk that appeared on his gaunt face made her want to run away, but she stood her ground.
Before Finn could respond, the teacher, Mrs. Allen, a small, angry woman no one seemed to like, said, “Ms. Hayes, do you have a question, maybe something you’d like to share with the class?”
“No, ma’am,” Lydia mumbled as she turned back around, not knowing what had gotten into her. The rest of the class giggled, surprised to see the usually quiet and obedient girl misbehaving. Paige rolled her eyes and shook her head on the other side of the room. Mrs. Allen sighed and continued the lesson.
Lydia’s mind began to drift to the book that sat in her bag. She spent most of her time in the library, so why had she never noticed it before? She had recalled it sitting upon the non-fiction books, too, instead of the social studies shelves. And what was such an old book doing in the school library? It looked like it was going to fall apart. She had so many questions about the book, so she decided she’d asked the librarian later, since she had read just about all of the books in the library. Suddenly, Mrs. Allen got a phone call and announced an independent reading time until she got back, and scurried out of the room.
As the rest of the class stood up and ran to their friends, Lydia pulled out the book, which had The Stories of Our Ancestors printed on its hard cover, and thought about how funny it was that they were told to read when she started thinking about the book. She flipped through the pages, looking for a story that she might find interesting.
“I still can’t believe you actually managed to lift that book.” Lydia jumped. Paige stood behind her peeking over her shoulder.
“Y-yeah, me too.” Lydia chuckled awkwardly. Paige flipped her hair and smirked at the book.
“I didn’t know you were into this kinda stuff, Lyd.” Paige squinted at the page.
“I’ve never really been one for myths, but, well, here I am. I don’t know - I guess it sort of ‘called’ to me, you know?” Lydia shrugged and continued to flip through the book.
Paige laughed, “Jeez, Lyd, you sure are weird.” She pulled up a chair and pointed to a picture on the page Lydia was on. “Damn. I recognize her!’ She snickered.
Lydia looked at the paper, an old shield with a painting of Medusa’s screaming, severed head sat in the corner of the page. It was captioned “‘Head of Medusa’ Caravaggio, 1598”. She looked back up at Paige with a puzzled look. “Uh, yeah, it's Medusa, everyone knows Medusa.”
Paige sighed and pointed to one of the 5 girls standing in a circle laughing and gossiping in the back of the classroom with another laugh.
“Oh-” Lydia covered her mouth to hide her laughter. She was so glad to have Paige, she never knew why Paige chose her over the other “popular” girls in Silver Oak, but it delighted her. The two continued to joke and laugh at the weird photos and illustrations.
They went on for a few minutes, skimming through almost every chapter in the book, when the fire alarm went off. Mrs. Allen still wasn’t in the room, and no one knew if it was a drill or not.
The other language arts teacher, Mr. Den, walked into the room with his class close behind him, all with nervous looks on their faces. “This is not a drill, students.” He said as calmly as he could. “Mrs. Allen must still be busy - come with me, quickly and quietly, please.”
The whole class collected their belongings and gathered behind Mr. Den’s class in a rush. Mr. Den was usually very serious and a no-nonsense teacher, so with the added tension of a fire, the noisy boys and chatter-box girls were scared quiet. Lydia was glued to Paige, who muttered gentle calmings to her.
“It’s going to be okay.” and “I’m sure it’s nothing serious.” she said. Lydia wasn’t convinced. Her mind darted from the possibilities. She couldn’t imagine a building she spent so much of her time in falling to the ground. What Mr. Den said made it even worse. She was filled with nervous anticipation as they briskly made their way out of the school.
As the classes reached their assigned spot outside of the school, Mrs. Allen ran up and thanked Mr. Den for handling the class. The two teachers began to count the students. Lydia watched as her calm expression became slightly frantic. She held up a red slip. They were missing someone.
“Who are you missing?” an assistant principal called from down the block.
Mrs. Allen quickly analyzed the class again before responding, “Finn Gray.”
Of course, Lydia thought to herself. Of course it was him. What a totally unpredictable turn of events. She got tense again. She scanned the school and the other classes, hoping he was at least outside of the school. A small puff of smoke, barely visible, had begun to rise from the top of the school.
Luckily, just as Lydia looked toward the door they exited from, Finn shoved the door open and ran out. A red stain surrounding a tear in his gray sweatshirt was easily visible on his left arm. The blood ran down his hand and was splattered all over his face and clothes.
Lydia spotted Paige’s eyes widening from the corner of her eye. “Holy shit! He looks like he just ran into a goddamn bear!” Paige gasped.
“A fire can’t cause that, especially with such little smoke.” Lydia quavered. She was shaking. She watched an assistant principal and another teacher meet him halfway. He began shouting about something, she could barely hear, but he seemed serious, worried, scared, even. “What’s he saying?” she whispered to Paige.
“I think he said something about…” she squinted, trying to read their lips, “There’s something in the school? It looks like he's saying there’s no fire, just..um..a lot of fog?” She shook her head. “This is too weird.”
Lydia nodded in agreement. They continued to watch as Finn was escorted to the ambulance that had just arrived. A few fire trucks followed it, and firefighters quickly extended the hose and ladder and began to put out the invisible flames.
The two waited as the buses pulled up and the teachers filed in the students. They did everything they could to keep their minds off of the incident, but nothing really worked. Lydia noticed, after a while, a certain unexpected look in Paige's face whenever their minds drifted, a sort of mix between anger and being nervous. She had never seen Paige look either way, but she decided not to bring it up...not today, at least.
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