"Now, where was I? Ahh yes. As I was saying prior to the interruption, my name is Ms. Andrew's," my mother spoke in an authoritative tone. After my father died, my mother began using her maiden name again; another piece of her desperation to rid her life of the pain of his loss. "Mr. Martin will be out for the next few weeks due to an injury sustained over the holiday weekend. And no, I will not elaborate further. I will be teaching this class until he has recovered enough to return."
This didn't come as a surprise to many. Mr. Martin was notorious for going on weekend adventures, many of them dangerous. Rock climbing, sky diving, he was a regular dare Devil, and needless to say this wasn't the first time in the 3 years I'd been at Westchester High that Mr. Martin had to take a "sudden leave of absence" due to one of these injuries.
"Now, please open your books to page 143."
The rest of the class dragged on like slow, methodical torture. We spent first hour reviewing over the previous week's chapters and discussing the repercussions of the beginning of the English Witch trials in the 15th century. My mother made a point to call on me for answers at every possible opportunity, demanding my participation in the discussion. Mr. Martin was usually content with allowing me to sit quietly in the back of the class; my mother obviously wasn't going to let me slide so easily.
As the hands of the wall clock slowly approached 9:10 AM and my pending release from first period, I tried to gather my books as inconspicuously as possible in hopes to escape the class room with the stampede that always preceded the bell. My muscles grew tense with each passing tick of the second hand. As the bell rang and the thunderous shuffling of feet began, my mother's voice boomed out over the classroom.
"EXCUSE ME!" She cleared her throat as her back straightened "The BELL does not release you, I do." The class stood frozen is surprise. Mr. Martin was always eager to get us out of his classroom to get a few minutes of respite before the next rowdy group of students came bursting through the doors. "You are dismissed. Except for you Ms Summit, don't think I forgot about you young lady."
I should've known she would be expecting me to escape to avoid any possible confirmation of her as my mother. She had substituted at my high-school a few times over the years, but I had never been unlucky enough to have her in one of my classes, let alone for an unforeseen amount of time. I was ridiculed enough for being the strange quiet outsider that kept to herself, the last thing I needed was to be turned into a pariah because my mother worked at the school in any fashion.
As the room cleared of all other student, my mother squared her shoulders, crossing her arms disapprovingly across her chest.
"Ainsley, ALL I asked of you this morning was to DRAG yourself out of bed, and make it to school ON. TIME. I don't understand what is so difficult about that for you."
"Well to be honest, I was a little out of it this morning. I haven't been sleeping" I replied, keeping my voice calm and level.
"From what I hear, you sleep fine in many of your other classes. Perhaps if you stayed conscious during school, you could sleep at night!" She snapped, the irritation in her voice growing more evident with every word.
"Why does it matter? I have B's or higher in ever subject, all of my assignments are turned in in time. You didn't even tell me you'd be subbing for one of my classes!"I pointed out in a futile attempt to take the attention away from myself.
" I am the parent and I am not required to report my comings and going's to you, Ainsley. I am not the one in hot water here you are! Now what the hell is going on with you?" The cadence In Her voice was rising, growing louder and more furious. Surely the next group of students would come clamoring in any moment to try to figure out what was going on just inside.
"I don't understand what the problem is! I could be doing a lot worse! Yeah, I miss some school from time to time. But it's not like I'm out causing trouble. I spend most of my time at home. When I DO go anywhere, it's with Kate or June. I don't even break curfew! Why does it matter if I sleep through a few classes?" I blew out a hot breath of air in a huff. The first few students were beginning to trickle in to the classroom.
"Get to your next class." My mother said, clearing her throat. "This is by no means finished, young lady. We will continue this discussion at home." Without another word, a slung my bag over my shoulder and headed for the door. Kate and June waited just outside the door for me.
Kate's eyes grew wide with apology, and before I could stop her she was talking a thousand mile a minute. "Oh my god Ainsley, I am so sorry. I had no idea that Mr. Martin was going to be out to let, and when I didn't see you before first period I just knew I had to stall. But then it was your mom...I mean I tried, I really did! But sh-..."
"Saw right through you and your wicked powers of persuasion?" I wiggled my eyebrows at her as I posed the question.
"Yeah, basically!" She laughed. "I will never know how she sniffs me out so easily."
"It's a gift really." June chimed in. "When we were kids, Ainsley and I could never get away with anything. She always knew exactly what we were up to. Sometimes even before we did. It was the weirdest thing."
June, Kate, and I continued to walk in tandem to second period of the day. The three us shared nearly identical schedules, only separated from one another for periods 3 and 7. The rest of the day, we remained practically conjoined at the hip.
Second period was Study hall. I usually spent second period either completing homework that should have been done the night prior, or asleep. Ben Kaiser over saw the few study halls held throughout the day when he wasn't making his female students uncomfortable during gym class. He had never done anything that anyone knew of, he just said things about some of his underaged students that raised a few red flags coming from a 45 year old married man. I was unlucky enough to have him for both Study hall AND 7th period gym and Mr. Kaiser was a major motivation for my usual opting to skip the shower in the locker room and wait until I was home to get cleaned up. He gave me the absolute creeps.
Today was a "sleep" kinda day for study hall, and Kaiser typically didn't give anyone much grief as long as they were quiet. I felt as though I ran a marathon in my sleep the night prior. The weather outside was gloomy; the sky painted various shades of grey. We had just celebrated Labor Day and It was unseasonably cold for being early September. I had spent the holiday catching up on any upcoming assignment to avoid some of my mother's wrath. While I was regularly late, and spent a bit more time in detention these days, the one thing that saved me from being shipped to a boarding school was that my GPA remained intact. I quickly settled into my desk at the back of the classroom, placing my book bag on the desk as a make shit pillow and using my hoodie to block out the fluorescent lights for my 1hour-power-nap. It wasn't long before I felt myself being pulled under by my exhaustion.
**************************************************
I found myself back in the graveyard. But something about it was different this time. It was no longer shrouded in darkness, but rather the sky was a swirling mass of grey clouds and a thick mist hung in the air. The mist no longer appeared to be alive, and the scent of blood and death no longer soured the air; instead replaced by the aroma of damp earth. In the distance I could hear faint, muffled whispers that glided on the wind with a hushed urgency.
My feet began moving towards the sound of the hissing voices of their own volition, as if being pulled forward by some unseen force. Through the mist, two obscured hooded figures came into view amongst the dilapidated headstones Just close enough to make out their words, I listened in with keen interest.
"Have we found her yet?" One of the figures hissed.
"No sire,"The second figure kneeled before the other, head bowed low in subservience. "It appears as though her powers have not yet been awakened. This makes it m-"
"I did NOT ask for excuses. The girls powers should have been awakened years ago at this point" he spat the words at the kneeled figure with so much force I thought it may knock him off his feet. "There must be another explanation for why she cannot be found! Perhaps...your incompetence is to blame?"
"No sire, I swear to you, the most powerful in our group are focusing all their efforts on finding her. We will find her, we just need more time."
The first figure kneeled slowly, pulling the other figures face up til their eyes met. "Look...faster." The words he spoke oozed with the implied threat of 'or else'. The intensity in his hushed voice sent a shiver down my spine. Every cell in my body told me to run; run until my lungs burned and my muscles ached, but I was frozen where I stood. I could not will myself to move, not matter how my mind screamed at me to do so.
It was then that I was spun around 180 degrees to meet a pair of bright green eyes that burned with an urgent intensity. He only spoke two words.
"Wake up."
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I shot up straight in my desk with an audible gasp. Sweat beaded on my brow and upper lip and my heart hammered in my ears. My eyes darted frantically around the room, taking in my surroundings. It took me a moment to realize I was in my classroom. My sudden shock back to reality had drawn unwanted attention. Several students stared at me in confusion, others giggled and tittered amongst themselves as Mr. Kaiser glared on in disapproval, likely due to the disruption I had just caused. June and Kate looked on with mixed expressions of concern and confusion. With a huff, I settled back into my desk for the remainder of the period.
Maybe my mom had a point...what the hell was wrong with me?