Daemonophobia; The Fear of Demons

~|| Tuesday Morning ||~

This morning, I woke up and instantly regretted ever having heard of sleep. My head feels like gravity is trying to drag it down the core of the earth. My eyelids weight a ton. Each.

The alarm clock crows at me, blaring out with its obscenities. I slam down on it and sit up in bed. My hand automatically rakes through my pillow hair.

I stumble around my room, getting ready for school. Pulling a pair of deep red skinny jean on seems like the most physically taxing thing ever. Lifting the Grey low-neck T-shirt over my head is worst.

Gee, I amsuch a morning person... Arrrrg

I manages to stay up right as I go down the stairs. Mikey and Mrs. Hale, both bright eyed as ever, have learned to be silent in the morning, avoiding the worst of my mood. Mikey pushes a cup of tea towards me as I crawl up onto the barstool.

"Morning." he says, deadpanning it.

I nod to him and mumble what could be reserved as a greeting. I slowly drink my tea. It warms me slowly, waking me.

"The bus'll be here in ... four minutes." Mrs. Hale says, " I hope I don't have to hand you your lunches."

By now, I'm awake enough to appreciate the joke without snarling at life in general. Mikey hands me a muffin from the tin and takes one for himself.

"Come on, Sleepy pants." He tugs at the hem of my shirt. "We don't want to miss the bus, do we?"

He gives me a sweet little smile, brimming with the over excitement of someone who knows it's annoying. I follow him out the door and to the bus stop at the corner.

I stifle a yawn and cover it up by taking a bite of muffin. Mikey giggles. He's been around me long enough to know my yawn hiding ways.

"The necklace looks good." He says out of the blue, watching the bus turn the corner. My fingers trace the edge of the black pendent, and I look at him, "Thanks. That's random"

He just shrugs and steps up into the bus, moving silently to the back. I follow, sliding onto the seat. Oh, joy. Second day and I've already got a seat for the rest of the year.

Today, I watch the bus fill. People shuffle in and more or less collapse into the seats. My pale eye, burning blue, tracks them. My green eye follows, as though the activity is too much for its tired grasp to clutch.

Well, that was poetic. James hops onto the bus and smiles down the rows at me. I return with a timid version.

He sets himself in the seat in front of me and Mabel slides in next to him. He twists and faces me. When I look up at him, my bangs fall over my pale blue eye. I don't bother brushing them away.

"Hiya." He says. I just nod and take a bite of muffin. Mabel turns in her seat and gives me a look.

Oh thank you. 'cause all I needed this morning was alook. Please go back to grabbing at James' attention. It'll leave me to eat in peace.

"James. James." Mabel demand his attention. They turn away and I take a bite of muffin, staring at it and then closing my eyes, trying to clear my head.

"Hey. Gry." Mikey taps my foot with his. I slowly lift my eyes to look at him. When he's sure I'm looking he forms his hands into a heart, smiling ever so slightly.

It makes me smile, lifting my mood instantly. I put the muffin on my lap and return the gesture. Mikey smiles and goes back to looking out the window.

By now the bus has lurched to a halt and the kids in the front are piling out. James and Mabel, Mikey and I all leave the bus and amble in the direction our classes.

I almost skip up the stairs and stop at the door of my math class. I drop my bag at my feet and tear little bits off the muffin and nibble at them.

"Morning,"

"Sure is, Danny." I don't look up, but I know it's him.

"Good morning?" He ventures, asking.

I look up at him. He's not wearing his hat today and his hair falls over his face, causing him to toss his bangs out of his eyes. He raises an eyebrow, re-asking the question with his eyes.

"It's an okay morning. I guess." I shrug before nibbling on my breakfast.

Danny smirks and lifts his shoulders in a small, silent laugh. He leans against the wall next to me, and after a bit, I look up at him. He's got his headphones in and is staring out the window across the narrow-ish hall.

His eyes shift and look at mine, then flick down to the quarter of untouched muffin left and then back to my face. I hold it out to him and he takes it, nodding his thanks. I brush the crumbs off my hands and the first bell rings.

Gry's survival guide to freshmen year: Give them muffins.

We go to class and start going over the chapter that I had read last night. After that the day kinda just passes.

After my other classes, I walk into Art and sit next to James. Ms. Moon is handing out first assignment. A self portrait, done in pencil on a larger than average sheet of paper.

"We are doing this first, and at the end of the year, we'll do a second self-portrait in pencil and set them side by side." Ms. Moon says as she passes out the paper, which is mounted on boards to make the drawing smooth. She also asks for James to hand out pencils, as another student is instructed to pass out mirrors.

I align the two pencils side by side, and the eraser next to that. I flick a glace around the room. I roll my eyes at all the different poses people are doing.

Some of the guys are flexing and some of the girls are pouting their lips, trying to imitate models in magazines. Other are going with much simpler 'sit-there-and-stare-at-yourself' looks. One or two seem more at ease, finding a middle ground between overdoing it and blank stares.

My eyes look at the mirror, darting across the planes and angles of my face and shoulders. I twist a little in my chair, turning my shoulder in and look straight ahead at the mirror. My face softens when I find a perfect portrait to sketch.

The hard pencil graphs out the proportions in light lines. The room is silent, except for the instrumental music in the speakers which flows through the room among the scratching of pencils and eraser against paper.

I block out the room, focusing on my paper and my reflection. On the paper, lines start to connect but don't take on life, yet.

"Class, the bell will ring soon for lunch. If you wish, you can stay or you may pack up now."Ms. Moon pierces into my daze.

I sigh and look at my sketch. One last line...there. Done for now. I cover it with a protective sheet of paper and stand to put it away in my shelf.

When I go back to my desk to pick up my bag, James looks content to stay. He looks up and his eyes go wide as he realizes that everyone is packing up. He hops up and quickly returns from putting away his sketch.

The bells rings and the class moves out into the halls. The streams of people are overcast with black wisps. The knots in my stomach grow and throb, pounding at my insides. I try to look at the floor and avoid the red gleaming eyes.

My steps quicken, and I barely make it out the side door into the courtyard. I see Mikey setting down his bag, and race over to him. My messenger bag flops to the ground as I bury my face in Mikey's shoulder, breathing a sigh of relief.

"Are they bad today, Gry?" He whispers softly, wrapping his arms around me. My answer is a simple nod. I hear footsteps behind us and I know James has caught up to me. Mikey holds up his hand, greeting James.

I softly pull away and sink down into the grass, pulling my lunch from my messenger bag. The other join me, and soon Mabel finds her way out to us and immediately pulls James into a conversation.

Come on, Danny. Where are you? Please come... My eyes flick up and around. No Daniel. I sigh and go back to my sandwich.

Mikey sits across from me, spread out in the sunlight and reading his book around his mac and cheese. He is so intent on his book, he'll miss his mouth with his fork. Each time he does it he looks surprised. It makes me smile softly.

Slam

The jolt from the door makes me looks up. I smile when I see who it is. Danny stands with his lunch, looking a little lost. He doesn't have trouble finding me though. His eyes looked pained when he looks at the rest of my group.

Behind me, James goes silent.