Playing God

“So let me guess, yellow eyes roaches or big purple dinosaurs?” A familiar voice says to me. I pick my head up from my hands to see Teddy sitting next to me on the cold tile of the girl’s locker room floor. His silver eyes are hidden from me as his curly blond hair falls around his face but I recognized the smile enough to know that he is more amused then concerned. Which is normal. Teddy never worried about anything.

I smile sheepishly “Give me some credit. I do have a better imagination then that. Mr. Benson as a puss ridden demon trying to eat the flesh from my face piece by piece while I’m still alive.” I reply as matter of fact. Even though I pretend not to care the memory of my latest hallucination is burning in my mind. Teddy raises an eyebrow at me and I know I haven’t fooled him with my false indifference. That doesn’t stop him though. Earth shattering laughter explodes out of his mouth.

“You’re kidding me right! Mr. Benson? He is the nicest guy in this God forsaken town. Maybe even the planet. Wasn’t he the one who single handedly feed all the homeless people on Thanksgiving Day because the homeless shelter didn’t have enough volunteers that year?” I nod my head confirming the story. “When did this one happen?” The amusement in Teddy’s voice did nothing to calm my nerves. Sometimes, no matter how hard you try you just cant get certain things out of your head.

“ Right in the middle of class.’ I said with a sigh, all false bravado gone. “ The entire class room was dripping blood. And I mean everything. The desks, the walls, even the other students who appeared to be dead had blood oozing out of there bodies. When I screamed everything went back to normal.” Teddy’s whole body is shacking with laughter. I will never understand his sense of humor. “The worst part was Mr. Benson didn’t say anything after I rejoined reality. He just handed me a pass with that I’m-so-sorry look and let me leave. I hate that look.”

“ Man! I’m so mad I missed it!” Teddy exclaimed.

“ You’re a great friend Teddy you know that.” I say sarcastically even though I really mean it. Teddy is my best friend. Ever since I arrived here, a little over nine months ago, we have been inseparable. Teddy is the type of person who is never afraid to tell me how it is. He takes it upon himself to let me know I’m being crazy and that I look like crap and should try looking like a girl once in a while.

“ I know. That’s why you keep me around.” He replies with a giant heart filled smile. The best part about my Teddy is that even when his optimism gets the best of me and I try to avoid him, I cant. He just shows up, at my front door, in my bed, on my desk, he always there and has the same I-love-being-alive-life-is-good smile. I hate it but I can’t resist it. “So what’s the plan for the rest of the day? I’m assuming going back to class isn’t and option.”

“ You assumed right. I was thinking of putting in a few extra hours at Louie’s,” I grimaced at the thought but work is work.

“ Good for you girl. Get those extra hours. Bring home the bacon!” There is that optimism again. I was about to reply with a sold punch a in the arm that I knew wouldn’t hurt him but would make me feel better when suddenly I hear the back door to the locker room open and then slam shut. O Crap! This is just my luck!

The locker room is very small and with only a few rows of lockers between the back door and the door that leads to the gym, I have nowhere to hide. I’ve been caught. Soft voice echo off the walls and grow slightly louder as they come close.

Please don’t let it be Mrs. Mason. Oh please don’t let it be Mrs. Mason! I chanted to myself.

Mrs. Mason is the schools gym teacher and she already hates me for kicking a basketball that somehow ended up breaking her nose. I chant harder as the voices grow louder but seeing as I’m in the gym locker room my chances that Mrs. Mason wont be leading the calvary aren’t go great.

The people here At South Point High are very strict and ditching class is defiantly something that doesn’t go over well. I sit still readying myself for whatever punishment hiding out in the locker room will bring me when I finally see them. A relieved breath breaks from my lungs. Mrs. Mason hasn’t come to destroy my life instead it’s a group of five boys. I recognize them as what some students call “the Pack”.

I don’t know why they are called that. I guess they sort of look wild. They certainly don’t fit the mold of proper small town society. The first two that move past me are extremely skinny. Both are wearing skintight outfits consisting of all black that enhance their slight forms. It is obvious that they are twins because they look completely identical except that one brother has black spikes sticking out around his head while the other has chin length black hair plastered to his head. The next boy’s outfit is much the same as the other two but an assortment of chains and jewelry litter his body. Though to call him a boy would be and understatement. He looks more like a pro wrestler then any teenage boy I know, all muscle. His long Blue/Black hair falls just past his shoulder blades

The following two boys are the strangest of the “pack” members mainly because they don’t look like they belong to anything other then rich society. The first is wearing a neat black button up top with black dress shoes and slacks. His dark hair, not black but a dark brown like the color of coffee is cut short. There is something about the way he walks past me that just screams “I Have Power.” The last boy is the most fascinating of them all. Although he is also following the all black dress code in slacks, a t-shirt and a vest, the oddest thing about him is that his hair is blond and looks just likes Teddy’s the way it curls down around his face. I look back at Teddy to compare them and find that he isn’t sitting next to me. I wonder when he got away?

The group of boys seemed not to have noticed me as they stock past me. I did my best to stay invisible. I pushed my clavicle length, ironically black, hair around my shoulders and allowed my bangs to fall in my face. If they weren’t going to notice me, that’s fine, I sure as hell wasn’t going to notice them. I kept my head down and waited to hear the locker room door close but am surprised when I feel a hand on my shoulder instead.

I gasp a little when I find that the boy with the coffee colored hair is kneeling down in front of me. His dark eyes are level with mine and he is smiling in a way that makes me completely uncomfortable. Its reminds me of the way a jackal might look at his victim the moment before it slash their throat opem with its teeth. His eyes are a deep penetrating black that unnerve me even more. I push his hand off my shoulder but it doesn’t do much good. The moment his hand leaves me shoulder he uses it to push my bangs out of my face. I shiver and look past him to see the rest of his pack are staring down at me. I see something in the blond boys intense green eyes before his face goes totally blanks. Pleasure I think it was. He was enjoying seeing me like this.

I smack the other boy’s hand ways and get up to leave the locker room. A quite laughter echoes off the walls. I am almost to the door when a rough hand grips tightly around my wrist and pulls me to a halt. I turn back and see that it’s the big one with the long blue-black hair that has me. One of the twins whispers something to the other. I couldn’t understand what he had said but I sounded like something like “ Finally” The pack is stocking deathly toward the brute and me. He presses me against the door and slides his other hand up my arms and leaves it to rest against my neck. He is standing so close to me that I can see that his eyes are so black that I cant make out a pupil. “ No one smacks away Williams hand if it is freely given.” He almost hisses at me.

“ Get the Hell off of me!” I scream in his face and to my utter surprise he lets go. I scramble out the door and make a mad dash across the gym. I spare a glance behind me to find that no one is following me. It wasn’t until I was safely away from them that I realized that they intended to hurt me. Running harder now I find myself at my old multi colored mustang in no time. I climb in to find Teddy in the passenger seat. “ What happened to you?” I yell at him as a sob breaks in my throat.

“ Whoa! Max look at me! What happened, did you get expelled or something?” There was real concern on his face now. “ When I heard the door open I bolted.”

“ No. They weren’t teachers. Lets just go.”

Maybe what I thought happened didn’t really happen. I said to myself. I started the engine and sped home as fast as I could not slowing down until I nearly crash through my garage door. Only then did I allow myself I deep breath to calm my erratic nerves. O what a day! First evil Mr. Benson and then psycho killers in the locker room, someone must hate me.

“So I guess your not going to work today huh?” Teddy asked in as innocent a tone as he could muster but it didn’t save him from my wrath.

“ I really wish you were real so that I could kill you. Now go away!” And with those words he disappeared.