Bringing Back the Past
Chapter 2
Anna made it to the high school at the exact moment the bus pulled up outside the big double doors, surprisingly on time. Although the bike was obviously much slower than the bus, the bus still had made several stops after Anna’s, and so the two evened. Sounded like some whacked problem out of her Math Magic! packet due at the end of each month. Forget it.
The guy once again straddled the bike and she jumped off and onto the sidewalk. She could see Madeline, Jesse, and Elise waiting for her only about fifty yards away, over by the steps. The were watching, probably whispering to each other too.
“Thanks,” Anna told the stranger. A small part of her, okay, a big part of her, wanted to ask who he was. She hadn’t seen him around town before, and besides, what kind of person offered for strangers a ride to school on the handle bars of their bicycle. Before she could continue, he nodded at her, kind of chin-tilted up nod, and turned, heading back down the street, past the elementary school , and back onto the main road.
Anna watched him go, and then, remembering her friends who were still standing and gaping over by the sidewalk started to walk towards the school. At that moment, the first bell rang and Madeline and Jesse hurried into the school. Elise waited until Anna reached the steps, and they both took them two at a time into the school building.
Anna had forgotten how hard it was raining outside until she was standing just inside the big double doors, right across from the big blue block letters on the opposite wall spelling out RESPECT. Words like that were painted all over the walls of the school, constant reminders of the high school faculty’s constant efforts to “make the town a better place”, apparently having failed so far in Anna’s opinion.
“Anna, come on!” Elise tugged at the sleeve of her jacket, putting all the emphasize on the last syllable of the name.
“Coming,” Anna retorted, following Elise’s lead, she too putting the second syllable. They’re shoes squeaked across the tile floors as they quickly charged towards C Wing, where most of the freshmen classes, took place, realizing that the halls were rapidly emptying. The two of them turned the corner and had no sooner stepped through the door frame when the second bell rang.
“Close call, girls?” Mr. Bridges was standing at his desks, grade book in front of him, red pen in hand, scanning the aisles for empty desks. Looking up at the chalk board, Anna quickly saw that her day was about to go down hill. The board read “Test on Chapter 6” under the “To-Do To-Day” list on the upper left hand corner, a title that apparently struck Mr. Bridges as pretty funny.
“Elise? Elise!” Anna hissed across the aisle. “Did you study for this?”
“Yeah, for almost an hour last night. You?” she asked. Anna sighed and shook her head. There was no doubt her mind that Elise could ace this test without having studied at all. But Anna... not so much.
“Clear your desks, students! It’s test time!” Mr. Bridges called. He was an extremely tall man with the type of glasses one might’ve been able to find twenty years ago, and he always wore a tie with patterns of pi symbols or triangles and squares. A typical mathematical nerd, Anna thought.
She slid her books off her desk as requested and let them hit the floor with a loud slap. Mr. Bridge snapped his head up and met her gaze, but went back to passing out tests to the front row of students. When he reached Anna, he silently placed the test on her desk and moved on. She grabbed the paper and slid it closer.
1. What is the intercepted arc of angle QRS?
Had they even covered this yet? Anna snuck a peak over at Elise, who was frantically scribbling down answers. She obviously knew the material that was being covered. Thanks to Anna’s lack of studying, this was going to be quite a long geometry period. There wasn’t any point in wasting anymore of the time she was definitely going to need, so she got to work on the first question.
By the end of the hour, Anna was ready to get out of there, fried brain and all. As soon as the bell rang, she was out of her seat and practically out the door before anyone else had even packed up their books.
Anna followed through the rest of the day in a daze. She still recalled that morning’s events and somewhere in the back of her mind a wheel was turning, trying to process everything... the bike, the bus, the rain. It all seemed like it could’ve been two days ago, until Elise almost plowed her over at her locker after school.
“Hola chica,” said Elise as she dropped her backpack on the floor next to Anna and pressed her back up against the adjacent locker, sliding down it to obtain a crouched position on the floor, “Commo estas?”
“Lisey, you don’t even take Spanish, and you really don’t speak it,” Anna protested. Elise got up as Anna slammed her locker door shut and, backpacks slung over their shoulders, the headed towards the double doors at the far end of the hall. No way was Anna going to miss the bus ride home too. From the other end of the corridor, a voice called out.
“Anna! Elise! Hey guys, hold up why don’t you?” They turned. Jesse was trotting down the hall towards them. They slowed down just enough for him to catch them by the time they reached the door.
“Hey Jess,” Anna said, acknowledging his presence, which was more than could be said for Elise. “You bussing home today?” Jesse really didn’t live too far away from the school, a mile tops, and he could always just walk if he chose to.
“Sure,” he said just as the got to the curb. The three of them climbed into the bus and Anna and Elise sat in their usual seat, third seat from the back, right side. Jesse slid into the one across from them.
“Anything exciting happen today?” Elise asked.
“Nope,” Jesse and Anna said, their voices synchronized.
“Tell me about it,” said Elise. “I was bored to tears in history and English. Like literally.”
“When are you not bored in history?” Jesse shot at her.
“I don’t know,” Elise moaned, apparently too tired to fight back. “Probably never.” They rode the rest of the ride in silence. The bus was quiet for the most part. Most of the kids had their headphones in or were getting an early start on weekend homework. Anna just stared out the window.
Jesse got of first, then Elise, and by the time the bus finally pulled up outside Anna’s house, there was barely anyone else on the bus. The rain had stopped and, with clouds overhead, Anna walked the rest of the way back home.
No one was there, and she had to use her key to get in and, seeing as she had forgotten her key back inside the house during the mad dash to the bus this morning, she had to take the one from the potted plant next to the door. Not under the potted plant, but actually buried into the soil. Mom said everyone else put theirs under the welcome mat or the potted plant and who would bother to dig into the plant to get their house key anyway? Anna said if someone wanted to break into their house bad enough, they’d dig through a little soil to find the key.
The house, of course, was quiet. Anna shoved the key back into the pot and shut the door behind her. Her backpack made a surprisingly loud and echoing thud as it landed just inside the door. Anna looked at it and picked it up again, realizing that Mom was just going to make her come down and get it later, and brought it upstairs to her room, dropping it just inside the door there instead. She flipped open her laptop sitting on the desk and pushed the power button. The computer made a little beeping noise in response and the screen lit up blue.
Seeing the apple on the lid of the laptop had made her hungry, Anna thought, even though the apple was no where near real looking. She went back down the stairs, sliding down the bannister the first half, and giving up on her stunt the second half. She crossed over to the kitchen and climbed up onto the counter in order to reach the cabinets above. There she found a box of half-eaten Oreo cookies and a jar of peanut butter. Sure. Anna took out a knife, spread the peanut butter onto three of the cookies, poured herself a glass of milk, and headed back up the stairs. The log in screen was now showing. Anna clicked on her icon, the only one present and typed in her password. As soon as her desktop appeared, a little box popped up in the corner of the screen too.
StuckonSk8ing: hey
Jesse. Anna typed a response back and clicked send.
PurplePolkaDotz: hey back
StuckonSk8ing: whats up?
PurplePolkaDotz: nothing
PurplePolkaDotz: u?
StuckonSk8ing: same
StuckonSk8ing: mmm got a question for u though
PurplePolkaDotz: ask away
StuckonSk8ing: howd u get to school today?
StuckonSk8ing: like i saw u with some guy
PurplePolkaDotz: oh
PurplePolkaDotz: that was nothing
StuckonSk8ing: oh
StuckonSk8ing: who was it?
PurplePolkaDotz: idk
StuckonSk8ing: huh? u dunno?
PurplePolkaDotz: right
StuckonSk8ing: then whyd u come with him?
PurplePolkaDotz: idk i was late
StuckonSk8ing: so? he was a stranger!
PurplePolkaDotz: i know but still nothing happened
Monkeymania has entered the room.
Monkeymania: hola
PurplePolkaDotz: enough with the spanish
Monkeymania: whatcha talkin bout?
StuckonSk8ing: that guy who picked anna up 4 school today
Monkeymania: yeah who was it?
PurplePolkaDotz: idk
Monkeymania: reeeeeeallly?
PurplePolkaDotz: yeah
Monkeymania: he was cuuuuute
PurplePolkaDotz: yeah
StuckonSk8ing: what the heck?
Monkeymania: we’re girls jess
Monkeymania: deal with it
Monkeymania: why? r u jealous
StuckonSk8ing: no way
PurplePolkaDotz: thanks so much
StuckonSk8ing: i didnt mean it that way
Monkeymania: then how did u mean it?
Monkeymania: huh?
PurplePolkaDotz: stop it u 2
StuckonSk8ing: g2g see u
StuckonSk8ing has left the room.
Monkeymania: weirdo
PurplePolkaDotz: awww leave him alone
Monkeymania: sure sure
Monkeymania: so who was the guy?
PurplePolkaDotz: i said idk
Monkeymania: u really dont know?
PurplePolkaDotz: nope
Monkeymania: way 2 go
The guy once again straddled the bike and she jumped off and onto the sidewalk. She could see Madeline, Jesse, and Elise waiting for her only about fifty yards away, over by the steps. The were watching, probably whispering to each other too.
“Thanks,” Anna told the stranger. A small part of her, okay, a big part of her, wanted to ask who he was. She hadn’t seen him around town before, and besides, what kind of person offered for strangers a ride to school on the handle bars of their bicycle. Before she could continue, he nodded at her, kind of chin-tilted up nod, and turned, heading back down the street, past the elementary school , and back onto the main road.
Anna watched him go, and then, remembering her friends who were still standing and gaping over by the sidewalk started to walk towards the school. At that moment, the first bell rang and Madeline and Jesse hurried into the school. Elise waited until Anna reached the steps, and they both took them two at a time into the school building.
Anna had forgotten how hard it was raining outside until she was standing just inside the big double doors, right across from the big blue block letters on the opposite wall spelling out RESPECT. Words like that were painted all over the walls of the school, constant reminders of the high school faculty’s constant efforts to “make the town a better place”, apparently having failed so far in Anna’s opinion.
“Anna, come on!” Elise tugged at the sleeve of her jacket, putting all the emphasize on the last syllable of the name.
“Coming,” Anna retorted, following Elise’s lead, she too putting the second syllable. They’re shoes squeaked across the tile floors as they quickly charged towards C Wing, where most of the freshmen classes, took place, realizing that the halls were rapidly emptying. The two of them turned the corner and had no sooner stepped through the door frame when the second bell rang.
“Close call, girls?” Mr. Bridges was standing at his desks, grade book in front of him, red pen in hand, scanning the aisles for empty desks. Looking up at the chalk board, Anna quickly saw that her day was about to go down hill. The board read “Test on Chapter 6” under the “To-Do To-Day” list on the upper left hand corner, a title that apparently struck Mr. Bridges as pretty funny.
“Elise? Elise!” Anna hissed across the aisle. “Did you study for this?”
“Yeah, for almost an hour last night. You?” she asked. Anna sighed and shook her head. There was no doubt her mind that Elise could ace this test without having studied at all. But Anna... not so much.
“Clear your desks, students! It’s test time!” Mr. Bridges called. He was an extremely tall man with the type of glasses one might’ve been able to find twenty years ago, and he always wore a tie with patterns of pi symbols or triangles and squares. A typical mathematical nerd, Anna thought.
She slid her books off her desk as requested and let them hit the floor with a loud slap. Mr. Bridge snapped his head up and met her gaze, but went back to passing out tests to the front row of students. When he reached Anna, he silently placed the test on her desk and moved on. She grabbed the paper and slid it closer.
1. What is the intercepted arc of angle QRS?
Had they even covered this yet? Anna snuck a peak over at Elise, who was frantically scribbling down answers. She obviously knew the material that was being covered. Thanks to Anna’s lack of studying, this was going to be quite a long geometry period. There wasn’t any point in wasting anymore of the time she was definitely going to need, so she got to work on the first question.
By the end of the hour, Anna was ready to get out of there, fried brain and all. As soon as the bell rang, she was out of her seat and practically out the door before anyone else had even packed up their books.
Anna followed through the rest of the day in a daze. She still recalled that morning’s events and somewhere in the back of her mind a wheel was turning, trying to process everything... the bike, the bus, the rain. It all seemed like it could’ve been two days ago, until Elise almost plowed her over at her locker after school.
“Hola chica,” said Elise as she dropped her backpack on the floor next to Anna and pressed her back up against the adjacent locker, sliding down it to obtain a crouched position on the floor, “Commo estas?”
“Lisey, you don’t even take Spanish, and you really don’t speak it,” Anna protested. Elise got up as Anna slammed her locker door shut and, backpacks slung over their shoulders, the headed towards the double doors at the far end of the hall. No way was Anna going to miss the bus ride home too. From the other end of the corridor, a voice called out.
“Anna! Elise! Hey guys, hold up why don’t you?” They turned. Jesse was trotting down the hall towards them. They slowed down just enough for him to catch them by the time they reached the door.
“Hey Jess,” Anna said, acknowledging his presence, which was more than could be said for Elise. “You bussing home today?” Jesse really didn’t live too far away from the school, a mile tops, and he could always just walk if he chose to.
“Sure,” he said just as the got to the curb. The three of them climbed into the bus and Anna and Elise sat in their usual seat, third seat from the back, right side. Jesse slid into the one across from them.
“Anything exciting happen today?” Elise asked.
“Nope,” Jesse and Anna said, their voices synchronized.
“Tell me about it,” said Elise. “I was bored to tears in history and English. Like literally.”
“When are you not bored in history?” Jesse shot at her.
“I don’t know,” Elise moaned, apparently too tired to fight back. “Probably never.” They rode the rest of the ride in silence. The bus was quiet for the most part. Most of the kids had their headphones in or were getting an early start on weekend homework. Anna just stared out the window.
Jesse got of first, then Elise, and by the time the bus finally pulled up outside Anna’s house, there was barely anyone else on the bus. The rain had stopped and, with clouds overhead, Anna walked the rest of the way back home.
No one was there, and she had to use her key to get in and, seeing as she had forgotten her key back inside the house during the mad dash to the bus this morning, she had to take the one from the potted plant next to the door. Not under the potted plant, but actually buried into the soil. Mom said everyone else put theirs under the welcome mat or the potted plant and who would bother to dig into the plant to get their house key anyway? Anna said if someone wanted to break into their house bad enough, they’d dig through a little soil to find the key.
The house, of course, was quiet. Anna shoved the key back into the pot and shut the door behind her. Her backpack made a surprisingly loud and echoing thud as it landed just inside the door. Anna looked at it and picked it up again, realizing that Mom was just going to make her come down and get it later, and brought it upstairs to her room, dropping it just inside the door there instead. She flipped open her laptop sitting on the desk and pushed the power button. The computer made a little beeping noise in response and the screen lit up blue.
Seeing the apple on the lid of the laptop had made her hungry, Anna thought, even though the apple was no where near real looking. She went back down the stairs, sliding down the bannister the first half, and giving up on her stunt the second half. She crossed over to the kitchen and climbed up onto the counter in order to reach the cabinets above. There she found a box of half-eaten Oreo cookies and a jar of peanut butter. Sure. Anna took out a knife, spread the peanut butter onto three of the cookies, poured herself a glass of milk, and headed back up the stairs. The log in screen was now showing. Anna clicked on her icon, the only one present and typed in her password. As soon as her desktop appeared, a little box popped up in the corner of the screen too.
StuckonSk8ing: hey
Jesse. Anna typed a response back and clicked send.
PurplePolkaDotz: hey back
StuckonSk8ing: whats up?
PurplePolkaDotz: nothing
PurplePolkaDotz: u?
StuckonSk8ing: same
StuckonSk8ing: mmm got a question for u though
PurplePolkaDotz: ask away
StuckonSk8ing: howd u get to school today?
StuckonSk8ing: like i saw u with some guy
PurplePolkaDotz: oh
PurplePolkaDotz: that was nothing
StuckonSk8ing: oh
StuckonSk8ing: who was it?
PurplePolkaDotz: idk
StuckonSk8ing: huh? u dunno?
PurplePolkaDotz: right
StuckonSk8ing: then whyd u come with him?
PurplePolkaDotz: idk i was late
StuckonSk8ing: so? he was a stranger!
PurplePolkaDotz: i know but still nothing happened
Monkeymania has entered the room.
Monkeymania: hola
PurplePolkaDotz: enough with the spanish
Monkeymania: whatcha talkin bout?
StuckonSk8ing: that guy who picked anna up 4 school today
Monkeymania: yeah who was it?
PurplePolkaDotz: idk
Monkeymania: reeeeeeallly?
PurplePolkaDotz: yeah
Monkeymania: he was cuuuuute
PurplePolkaDotz: yeah
StuckonSk8ing: what the heck?
Monkeymania: we’re girls jess
Monkeymania: deal with it
Monkeymania: why? r u jealous
StuckonSk8ing: no way
PurplePolkaDotz: thanks so much
StuckonSk8ing: i didnt mean it that way
Monkeymania: then how did u mean it?
Monkeymania: huh?
PurplePolkaDotz: stop it u 2
StuckonSk8ing: g2g see u
StuckonSk8ing has left the room.
Monkeymania: weirdo
PurplePolkaDotz: awww leave him alone
Monkeymania: sure sure
Monkeymania: so who was the guy?
PurplePolkaDotz: i said idk
Monkeymania: u really dont know?
PurplePolkaDotz: nope
Monkeymania: way 2 go
♠ ♠ ♠
If you read all that, could you please comment? I just want to know if you like it!