Something Wicked This Way Comes

Chapter 1 - Confusion

Sweat slowly dripped from his pores and onto the ground. The poor abused dirt just accepted the small drops, allowing the boy to bend over, slightly gripping unto his pants that we ripped and shredded from events prior.

The boy’s breath was hoarse and I gulped knowing the pain and suffering he’s been through as well as the heart ache. Even though I knew and had my suspicions, it wasn’t enough for him—nothing is or was—and I had to accept that no matter how much it hurt me.

The boy’s breath has eased up and by now I knew he heard me. His broken gaze settled on me and I flinched from the intensity.

“Is it over?” he asked me. I licked my dry and cracked lips and nodded. I wasn’t sure if he believed me or not but he said nothing. The boy just led his light brown eyes to the view of the stars. His eyes blinked—probably from how much it has endured—and he moved on his back, slipping his bruised arms under his head.

“I’m glad,” he said quietly. “I’m glad.”

Even though he couldn’t see me, I nodded softly, eyeing the tear that fell from his eyes—
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“Ms. Andrew, if you’re not going to pay attention in my class then I advise you to either get out or pay a visit to the principal’s office!” said my math teacher. I snapped out of it of my daydream and jerked back in my seat. The action didn’t go unnoticed because then the whole class eyed me. I blinked and looked Mr. Lopez. The poor man looked like he was going to explode and my eyes widened in fear.

“S-Sorry Sir, I just had something on my mind…it won’t happen again…” I said. The bald man just rolled his eyes, knowing how false the statement was and narrowed his eyes.

“You and I both know how wishful that statement is, Ms. Martinez…” I said. I shrugged my shoulders lightly, letting him know that I agreed with him.

“Eh, it was worth a try.”

Mr. Lopez rolled his eyes for the second time and looked at something on my direction. I lifted my eyebrows in confusion. What was he looking at?

“So, instead of paying attention to class, you write notes, hmm?” the man glowered and walked towards my desk. If it wasn’t for his poor excuse for swagger I would have discovered the writing on my desk but his horrible foot work distracted me. Mr. Martinez snatched the paper from my wooden desk and I noticed that there was indeed a neat yet written on piece of paper on it.

‘Crap how did that get there?’ I thought to myself, nervously. I didn’t remember writing something. I thought back to earlier when I actually listened to him but I didn’t see myself writing something at all.

My teeth found my lip and bit gently on it. Did someone send my note? My theories swarmed within my head but they were answered—well kind of—as the math teacher spoke.

“Ms. Martinez, meet me after class please.” He said—well demanded—of me. I sighed loudly and slumped in my seat. I didn’t say anything. The teacher took this as a ‘yes’ and walked back to his desk. He placed the paper upon it and looked back at the math covered board.

“So, e equals 2.71828 and you can use this to…” and he continued the sentence in his monotone voice. I huffed, slumping deeper into the plastic seat, enduring this for another hour.

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As soon as the bell rang for the class to end, I jumped out my seat running the door. Of course, something had to stop and that something was Mr. Lopez.

“Ms. Martinez, aren’t you forgetting something?” said the man. My shoulders sagged and stepped aside to let all the hungry students go by. When the last one ran out, I glared at the door before once again stepping through it. I walked to my doom and faced the bald man.

Mr. Lopez scowled at my uneager body and shuffled papers throughout his desk. The metal desk moaned and groaned as the man slowly gathered and straightened quizzes that he decided would be right to give out in the middle of class.

I licked my lips before looking back a few minutes earlier when I had the stupid packet in front of me. I mean, I didn’t suck at math—I was good at it actually—I just didn’t like it. Who wanted to look at numbers and equation that we probably wouldn’t use in the future? Not me, and I wasn’t all too thrilled that this idiot in front me thought I would.

Mr. Lopez seemed to finish doing whatever he thought deemed important and glanced at me. This seemed to end my inner whining I raised an eyebrow expectantly at him. My sharp nailed tapped my black jeans and my mouth fell into a thin line.

“Look, Mr. Lopez, just like all the other lucky students, I’m hungry and I would really appreciate if you started to tell me why you held me—”

Mr. Lopez held a hand to stop me. “Katarina, you are one of my best students but you are slipping…” started the man. I bit the inside of my cheek as I heard the famous, ‘you can do better’ speeches. “You literally have one the highest grades in my class yet you choose to ignore class and write stories.” He finished.

I raised an eyebrow, “Wait, what are you talking about?” I asked. Honestly, I had no idea what he where he was going with this. I wasn’t writing anything. I was daydreaming! Where did he come up with this one?

The man gripped a piece of paper from his currently organized desk and placed it in front of me. “Katarina, I’m pretty sure that I can spot a story when I read one…”

My confused self looked at the paper. He was right. This was a story. I just didn’t know how it got on my desk, “Well, this may be a story, I just didn’t right it.” I claimed. The math teacher let out an irritated breath. Wait, why was he irritated? I was the one being held from lunch!

“How can you lie to me Katarina? I saw you writing in front of me!”He screamed slightly. He shook his head in annoyance, “You know what, I’m hungry, and don’t need to deal with this. You have a detention tomorrow after school.” He said, tiredly. His hands went through his none existent hair and he grabbed his blue lunch pouch from the floor.

I’m pretty sure my mouth hit the floor, “Wait, how can you do that?” I screamed. “I didn’t write it!” Mr. Lopez ignored me and slipped out the room the room.

“Don’t forget to show up to detention, Ms. Martinez.” He yelled before slipping into the teacher’s lounge.

Angry and confused, I slipped on my black backpack and hurried to the lunchroom. I only had about fifteen minutes left because of the stupid adult. I reached the giant doors and opened them. Immediately, everyone stopped what they were doing and I rolled my eyes.

You could say that I was popular. I was a cheerleader (surprise!) but not the captain. I didn’t have that football boyfriend or make-up that covered my face. My friends weren’t girls who slept with everyone and talked behind my back. I wasn’t that stereotype people instantly judged me as.

Nah, I was just a girl who wore colorful clothes and a little bit of my make-up. My boyfriend was an average guy who loved and supported me to no end and my friends always had my back. In fact, they were practically sisters to me.

All in all, I was a nice girl who wanted to take on the world. Like I said, average right?

I ran into the empty lunch line grabbing pepperoni pizza, a small salad and a slice of pineapple. Oh, and did I mention that I loved pineapple too? I reached for a bottle of apple juice and stood in front of the cash register. The lady in front eyed my food and tapped on a couple of buttons.

“Three-fifty,” she stated. I nodded and took out my hello kitty wallet. I placed my lunch on the small metal tray and snatched three dollars and fifty cents from the plastic. I handed it lady and she stared at before nodding silently and placing it into the cash register. I took this as my time to leave and speed walked to my table.

As soon as I reached the crowded table, my friend bombarded me with questions.

“I heard you had to stay after class?”

“What happened?”

“Since when did you daydream?”

I rolled my dark grey eyes and answered the first question asked by Cindy. She was one of my best friends. She was also the cheerleading captain. “Yeah,” I said then took a bite of my pizza. The taste of cheese, pepperoni, and grease met my taste buds and I took another bite, chewing quickly. “For some reason he thought I was writing in his class…”

Cindy scrunched up her nose, “Ugh, he really irritates my button!” she said. I stopped eating my pizza, leaving only the crust and looked up at her.

“Did, you really just say, ‘irritates my button’?” I shot her an ‘are you serious’ look. She shrugged and sipped some water I just noticed was right in front of her.

My other friends, Danny, Shana, Lorena, Ted, and other people busted out laughing. I silently chuckled with them and Cindy blushed. She pushed some of the light brown hair from her eyes and pouted, “What? I can’t try out some phrases?”

We all shook our heads. Ted wrapped an arm around her and squeezed her warmly, “Babe, it’s not that we don’t like them—”

“We just think that their funny and weird,” finished Shana who interrupted Ted. Shana was the feisty redhead who wasn’t afraid to say what needed. I looked across the table to her and noticed nothing in front of her but orange juice. Shana said she was on a diet but I knew that everything she wasn’t eating now; she would make up for at dinner.

Lorena decided to butt in and grinned, “Yeah, girl, Shay-shay is right.” Lorena used the nickname for Shana. “You do come up with some weird stuff. Remember that time when Ted saw a dead bird on the ground? You shouted, ‘what the bloody sugar-coated rabbits is that?!’” we all laughed at the memory. Shana was absolutely right. We were walking to the park one day and suddenly we all heard the creepy and weird sentence.

I smiled and ate my pineapple before chugging down my apple juice. I glanced up and looked around the cafeteria. It was almost empty. Mostly everyone was gone except a few students who were probably held up like me. I continued to look around and spotted a boy just sitting at an empty table. He was alone. If he was eating or something the scene wouldn’t have been strange but he was just sitting there staring at the white table surface.

I cocked my head to the right to see if I was wrong but I wasn’t. I didn’t see anything else at the table. Before I can turn my gaze back to my friends, the boy suddenly looked up, locking his gaze with mine. I gasped in surprise but couldn’t turn away.

My breathing sped up and I mouth opened slightly. The boy eyes completely captured mine and there was nothing I can do about it.

The air shifted quickly into a thick atmosphere and I found myself closing off everything but the boy. His eyes just eyed mine and he opened his mouth. His full and dark lips uttered a few words but I couldn’t make them out. I narrowed my eyes, trying to figure them out but before I could, the boys looked away, releasing me from his hold.

I looked away also and let out a deep breath. What was that? I shook my head silently. I couldn’t begin to comprehend was just transpired only moments ago. I shook my again.

“Kat?”
My head shot up. I recognized the voice and spotted Danny, my boyfriend, looking at me. His dirty blond hair was gelled out into small spikes and a black shirt clung to his upper body. He looked at me questionably.

“Kat, are you ok?” he asked hesitantly. His light blue eyes widened.

I licked my dry lips, “Yeah, babe, why?” I asked.

Danny stared at me for a bit before answering, “Well, for one, I have been calling you for us to go to class…” I looked around the table and noticed it empty. It seemed like all our friends left.

I swallowed. “Oh, I was just…thinking about Mr. Lopez sorry.” I lied. “I was trying to figure why he thought I was writing in his class when I wasn’t.”

Danny looked like he didn’t believe me but thankfully let it go. He opened his mouth to say something before stopping. His eyes narrowed in concentration. After a few moments, he looked up at me and cocked his head. “Sorry to tell you this babe, but you were writing in his class…” with that, he grabbed my tray and walked over to the trash can, dumping it in. As he flung my backpack over his shoulders, I couldn’t help but think.

I didn’t remember writing at all. Even though the paper Mr. Lopez showed me had writing in my handwriting, I honestly couldn’t remember moving my hands to write anything…

As Brandon and I went to out next class, he grabbed my hands, instantly making me forget about the strange events.