And then he got back up. 

Jake could hear the vibration of his phone on his bedside table, he'd received a voice message from his mother. He ignored it. Then he remembered it was the first day of school that day. Jake spent ages trying to get out of bed and get ready. He looked inside his fridge and it was almost empty. He let out a loud sigh. "Great." 

He grabbed all his stuff and left the house, almost forgetting to lock the door behind him. He grabbed his bike from his front garden and started on his way to school. Close behind him was Nathan, his long time friend who he had lived close to for years. "Hey, where'd you come from?" Jake asked. "My house, duh." Responded Nathan, snarkily. "Shut up." Jake replied jokingly. 

They darted down the wide street, due to the lack of people present. "Wait, i feel like getting something, watch my bike for me?" Nathan got off his bike and jogged down to the convenience store across the road. He came out a few minutes later with two small packets in his hand. He threw one to Jake. "Hey, you like liquorice, right?" Nathan asked. "No, i hate liquorice, you know that." Jake seemed insulted. "Ooooh, my bad. Guess i'll have to eat them myself then!" Nathan replied with a smug look on his face. "You are like, the only person i know who actually likes that crap." Jake looked even more annoyed now. "Weeeelll, you win some, you lose some, i guess." Nathan responded. "Does that saying even apply to this situation?" Jake decided to end the conversation.

They locked their bikes at the rack on the side of the building, then went in through the back entrance, down to the assembly hall. They sat down at the front row of seats in the hall, since they were some of the last to arrive. Mr Malvira, the principal, stood on top of a podium at the front of the room, and made a long drawn out speech, which little paid attention to. After the assembly, the students collected their lesson timetables and left the assembly q

"What do you have first?" Nathan asked. "Let me check, uhhhhh... ugh, english." Jake was better at number oriented subjects like math or physics, than writing based ones. "Well, sucks to suck, i have history!" Nathan retorted. "You say that like history is any better." Jake went up to the second floor, where his english classroom was.

Jake entered the classroom, and his eyes were immediately drawn towards someone. Lily Lucero, who he knew he had practically no chance with. He sat in his designated seat displayed on the projector screen and waited for the class to start. There was no teacher yet. Jake figured that there would already be one here. Then a tall, grey-haired man wearing glasses came through the door, holding a large stack of files.

He placed them all down on his desk, and then went up to the front of the classroom. "Good morning students, please could you all get into your seats? It is all very nice meeting you all, my name is Mr Vols." He wrote down his name on the whiteboard at the front, then grabbed a box of workbooks under his desk. He handed them all out until the box was empty.

The students all wrote their names down on their books and did what Mr Vols instructed them to. Jake suddenly felt a chill down his spine, as if there was some kind of presence looming over him. He turned and looked behind him, but there was nothing there.

Suddenly, it was the end of class. Jake realised that he had fallen asleep. How embarrassing. "Alright, and don't forget to complete the work due next lesson!!" Jake was about to leave the classroom, until... "Jake?

may i speak to you for a moment?" He wasn't sure what this could be for; he assumed he had done nothin wrong yet. "Yes sir?" 

He went over to Mr Vols' desk, looking at him and putting some papers into a plastic folder. When Mr Vols was sure everyone had left the classroom, he started to speak. "Hold out your hand." "What?" Jake replied. "I said, hold out your hand." He did as instructed. Mr Vols looked around as if making sure nobody was watching him. He opened the bottom drawer of his desk and took something out of it. A box. "Now, i want you to hold on to this. Well, not the box itself, but what's inside it." He whispered. Jake was very confused now. A teacher, who he had never met before, was giving him a gift? His mind immediately started turning, thinking of any possible reason for this happening. "Is he mistaking me for someone else?" "Was i really working that well in class?" "Is he-" But all of his scattering thoughts came to a halt, when these words were spoken. "Protect it with your life."

He was stunned. Before he could even ask a question, Mr Vols was gone. The next few classes, Jake was not paying attention at all, he was too focused on Mr Vols' strange request, well that, and the fact that he shares a lot of his classes with Lily. He was so deep in his thoughts, that he didn't notice the pen that had been flying at him from halfway across the classroom.

And once the target had landed, he immediately knew who the culprit was.