Chapter 02

         After lunch, I had Math with Mr. Oathwait� Many students hate him, you see, not only is he our math teacher but he�s also our Vice-Principal and detention teacher� He teaches math so strictly, he only accepts work done in pencil, has to be done his way, and bla, bla, bla. Sure, that may not sound too bad, but what bugs me is that he always looks mad. He also signs homework everyday, no exceptions, even the weekends, holidays and when you�re sick.

            I was glad to be out that class, but not with the homework he assigned us; three page and almost 30 questions on each� As I was walking to locker, I heard many people spreading the word about Kayleigh and Jermey. Like I say before, you can�t keep any secrets in this school. When I got to my locker, I saw Kayleigh at her locker; hers and mines are right beside each other. She looked mad.

            Kayleigh was holding a note. �Not again�� she said under her breath, later crumpling the note with the hand that was holding it.  �It�s not one of those notes again, is it?� I asked. Kayleigh looked at me sadly, �Ya�� Ever since Kayleigh came to High School, she�s been receiving notes in her locker. These weren�t love notes, more of a threat note. It would contain things like �I�ll Kill you if you don�t keep your mouth shut.� And �I�ll hurt you very bad, one of these days.� Kayleigh showed these notes to the teacher and they didn�t do much. She has no clue of who�s sending here all these notes, maybe because a lot of people hate her. But she never shows anyone the letter, but we all know she telling the truth.

            The warning bell just went and I had English at the other end of the school! I grabbed my books and started to go towards English, the halls were very busy now. I would expect people to bump into me a lot and slow me down as well, but to my surprise they didn�t. It was as if they were all dodging me, avoiding contact with me. I didn�t care, as long as I make it to English, that�s fine by me. I made it to English just as the bell rang, no late slip for me.

            English was my last period and it went by fast, only because Mrs. Dave let us work on a project due next week. I was done the projects days ago, for it was a simple poem about you, now how easy can it be? So I passed my time reading my book, only because none of my friends were in my class� But before you know it, I was out of there and on the bus. The bus ride home is about a half an hour, pretty long because my house is only 3 roads down from the school.

            I like listening to the conversations on the bus, although I never talk. They don�t even know me, but I know them. Like Mac is one person who always starts the arguments; they�re almost always on sex, war, hatred, and stuff like that. From his topics you can tell what personality he has there, but even though he talks trash, he�s funny. Connor is someone who takes the side of Mac and they both argue a lot, too. Mac keeps saying that Connor is a �tall freak�, and Connor is always saying that Mac is a �Foghorn Mac�. How these started are unknown to me. But I do know that Connor is probably called a �tall freak� because he�s unimaginably tall, around 6�10�! And Mac is probably called �Foghorn Mac� because when he talks, the whole bus could hear. The Bus Diver even said to him that his voice was much like a foghorn, maybe that where it came from...

           Hannah and her older Calla hardly come on the bus, Calla drives all the time, but sometimes Hannah comes on the bus. Mac, David and Connor keep argue who gets Hannah tonight. You see they like her and find her sexy or something like that. I know that David and Hannah went out once, but I don�t know about Mac and Connor...  Steve is mostly on, whenever he�s not talking to either Mac, Connor, or David, he�s as quite as a mouse.

           Jennifer, Josie, Renee, and David are my next-door neighbors. They hardly come on the bus, because Jennifer and Renee can drive, so they drive the others to school. Tim Bell and his older brother Chris Bell are usually quiet, but than again, arguing with Mac something beats listen to their CD players� As you can see, Mac is the troublemaker on the bus.

           Tonight conversation was as usual, the war with Iraq... ��and did you hear about the statue of Saddam Hussein?� �Which one? There are a lot of statues of him in Iraq, you know?� said Chris in a mockery voice. �I saw on news, where the army was taking one down by pushing it over, and an another where they blew it up with bombs.� Said Tim laughing as he said this. �This morning on the news, I saw the army shot a missile or something at a statue and blew up his crotch!� Said Conner in his no-expression voice. Jennifer, Renee, Josie, and David weren�t on. Neither was Hannah.

            �Life as an army man�� daydreamed Mac, staring out into nothing. �Yeah man, I�d be their best man, I�d shoot every Iraqi down with miles away from me!� Said Connor with a smile on his face. �Why shoot them? When you could bomb them!?� Laughed Mac, looking all evil. �If you bomb them, that might set off a chain reaction with the bombs they hid away.� Said Steve from lonely corner of the bus. �So? What do we care?! I say it�s fine as long as all the Iraqis are dead in end.� Mac nodding his head looking satisfied about himself.

            As soon as we left the high school we went right across the road to the elementary school. Our bus from our high school also picks up the kids from the elementary school. I find it very annoying.

           As the kids were getting on the bus, the high school kids were quieting, who would want to talk when the younger kids are on. Soon, it was nothing but the voices of the younger ages. I get very tired on the bus and fall asleep; I occasionally open my eyes to make sure where we are so I don�t miss my stop.

           We dropped off the Bells first, Tim, Chris and their younger brother. As we started to ride off, I notice that there were less people on the bus as there should be. Something made me look at the window, a sound of some kind. I looked back and there was no one on the bus.

           I mean there was NO ONE on, not even the bus driver. The bus was still going, stopping at the places it should, opening and closing the door. But no one got out. I looked around me and found that I was the only one on the bus. I sat down and closed my eyes and hoped that everything will go back to normal. Hoping that everything was a dream or something. But when I opened my eyes, everything was the not back to normal but stayed empty.

          I looked at the seat beside mines and notice that someone was there, a boy of my age. He looked at me and smiled. I was scared as ever; I mean my heart was beating so hard that I could have sworn that it was going to burst out. I mean when a bus is driving on it�s own, stopping at ever place and the door opening and closing, that�s one thing. But seeing a boy that you never seen before are sitting in a sit that was empty one minuet ago is another thing.

           �Soon...� that was all the boy said before everything was back to the normal life. I looked at the seat and the boy was not there. I sigh in relief, that was something I don�t want to happen again. I looked out the window and saw the seat behind me and the boy, and hear someone whisper in my ear �Soon...� I quickly turned and looked back at the seat and it was still empty. I was scared but I just thought of it as a dream of some sort. That was all I needed to know, and all that was needed to calm me.

          As I was getting off, I could help but to think of the dream I had. I was thinking of how the door would open and close all by its self. The nightmares I would be getting from that...

          My house was big compared to other people down the road; I was out in the country so it had a lot of space. My family hated the city and we all preferred to live out in the country. This place was ideal to our dreams; it had lots of open space, with a forest out front of our property. And it has a lot houses down the road, it even has its own garage and a hairdresser. I�m sure that in time, this road will become a little village.

           My brothers, would always get home before I. Their school is just a road ahead of ours. My mother is a housewife, so she�s always home. My father though is a truck driver, and is home every weekend. I don�t mind, because I have a great time whenever papa�s here. I call him �papa� because he�s a Quebec-born, meaning he�s French, and doesn�t like to be called �dad�, like an English father. We can talk to him in English, but he likes tradition, hence the word �papa�.

           As soon as I walked in the house, you can see my brother on the computer and probably on the Internet. My younger brother on the other hand is probably downstairs playing a game. My mother in the kitchen making supper; we eat early.

          I walked in the kitchen and sat on the stool. �So how�s school, today?� my mom asked. �The day was quiet a day...� I explained her about Kayleigh and Jeremy. You see, she hardly gets out of the house. So I tell things that happened at school, she likes the gossip. I told her the whole day, but left out the incident on the bus. She likes things like that, you know, the paranormal. But something made me not want to tell her.

           My brothers Kevin and Eric are quite the normal brothers they should be, annoying. Kevin is one year younger than I, but Eric is five years younger. They�re still in elementary, but next year Kevin is coming to my school.

           We torment each other, that�s our nature. Brothers and sisters have always tormented each other when they�re young, but grow to love each other, as they are older. It�s not the TV shows, where the family is one big happy family. Where the brothers and sisters are complimenting each other, or actual doing what they are told all the time. I�ve never seen one family like that in real life.

           Brothers and sisters are always arguing, sometimes things like �I hate you!� or �I wish you would just go away!� Many people have said this before �You can�t live with them and you can�t live without them� Who knew that would have meaning...

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