Firestarter

Believe it or not, I actually did go through with the plan. I ran far away where my mom and dad never go and would never think to look and slept behind a hotel that night. I know, it seems pathetic, but rebellion is rebellion. Sometimes you have to stand up for what you believe in via ridiculous means. Think about it; if Rosa Parks would have just moved somewhere else on the bus instead of saying “No, I’m going to sit here.”, where would we be today?

Well, I couldn’t actually sleep. I had an eye open all night out of fear my parents might kidnap me in my sleep and take me back home. There was no way I was going to let that happen. Call me weird, call me paranoid, you can call me anything but “the guy who ran away from home but his parents kidnapped him back.”

So I eventually peeked at the clock on the giant flashing sign on the bank next to me and saw it was 5:22 am. Welp, I’d better start heading to school now.

With a few confusing turns and a couple of street-crossing old ladies I couldn’t say no to (told you I was a nice guy!), I was at school. 6:35 am. I was actually early for once at least.

I walked into the building, and Adeline immediately ran up to me.

“I heard what happened to your house.” Adeline said. “Now do you believe they’re after us?”

“I guess I have to.” I sighed.

“Have your parents decided where you’re going to stay yet? If you want, you can stay at our place for a-”

“No. I’m not involved with my parents anymore.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, I ran away from home.”

“What?!”

Adeline looked outraged. “You mean you just...ran away?!”

“Yeah, it was easy. I used my feet and I walked away from the rubble.”

“Shut up for once in your life and listen to me! You seriously left your parents in their time of need?”

“They’ve never been there for me in my time of need, so why should I be there for them?!”

Just then, Adeline punched me right in the jaw.

“Ow!” I yelled. “I think you broke it.”

“Well, it can’t be as broken as your brain!” Adeline snapped back at him, running away.

By now there were people standing around. Most of them looked confused as to what just happened. A few smirked seeing me get punched by a girl. Bunch of jerks.

Just then, the bell rang, so everyone ran to get to class, me included. I’ve decided I’m not going to bother with Adeline. I can beat the shadow beasts on my own, there is no need for some girl to hold my hand along the way. I can’t believe I even felt sorry for her when she told that sob story! I bet half of it was a lie anyways!

Part of me knew that wasn’t true. You couldn’t make something up like that. And it was wrong to say things like that. But still, I didn’t really care right now. Gotta get to class before that darn bell goes off…

I walked into my homeroom to find that we had a substitute. He had his name down on the board as “Mr. Aishawakeishabonicateishabojaydeltreceandrea”. Maybe he’d be nice?

“Alright, all ya’ll children, sit down before I beat all ya’ll.” Mr. Aisha (what I’m calling him to avoid writing that long name again) said.

Or maybe not.

“Ya’ll have a new student in your class, so ya’ll better be nice and introduce yourselves, or I’ll beat all ya’ll.”

I sighed. Maybe I could stay out of his way. Just had to stay silent…

The new student walked up to the board, a bit nervous. He was a boy - a quite small boy, actually. Almost unbelievable he was in 8th grade, or 13 years old.

“Hello.” The boy said. “My name is Jack Provinski. I’m 11 years old, however I skipped ahead two grades due to my extreme intelligence.”

Ha! I knew he wasn’t 13! Also, “extreme intelligence”? Well, he certainly didn’t belong in this school; there was nobody here but clichés. Jocks, nerds, geeks, and outcasts; he’d be a class all to himself.

“My occupations include hunting shadow beasts, jogging, reading and other such things.”

Wait, what was the first one again?

One kid piped up from the back, “Ha! Reading? What a loser!”

“SIT DOWN.” Mr. Aisha yelled. “Before I pull out my belt and beat-”

“All ya’ll, we get it.” The kid replied sarcastically, sitting back down.

For the rest of the class period, my mind was definitely on other things then whatever homeroom-y stuff we were doing (not like it was going to help me in life in any way), and it was far away from Adeline. I was very interested in the supposed “shadow beast hunter” kid. Maybe he was after the same goal as us? Maybe he’s living in Fantasy Land? Who knows? I want to. I need to know if I’m supposed to save the world or whatever.

This was the kind of interesting I wanted.