“Oh my goodness! Sweetie, what happened?” mum asked, with an unconvincing look of surprise on her face.
Jade was hyperventilating madly as her mouth trembled open to speak.
“I – I – I don’t know! I had a nightmare…and then I woke up…AND MY ROOM WAS DESTROYED –”
Jaden and I merely sneered underneath our hands in the background, trying as hard as possible to conceal our minuscule laughter. Jade maliciously turned her head to us.
We lowered our hands and sucked in our lips as she stared at us malevolently through her long wilting hair.
“You!” she snarled at me.
“What are you talking about? I didn’t do any of this,” I said, choking on my laughter.
“What, you think just because your sunburn has healed you’re allowed to do what you want?!” she snapped.
“Oh, so it was sunburn, and actually it has healed – how did you know?” Strange, I didn’t mention anything to her about it. Jaden couldn’t control himself and finally he spewed out a loud belly laugh. Jade jumped out of bed and her hand flew straight to Jaden’s neck, holding him in a choking grasp. She slid him up the wall and his feet lifted off of the ground.
“WOAH, WOAH! JADE, CHILL! We were just joking. Calm down,” Jade blinked, as if stepping out of a delusional trance, and dropped Jaden, leaving him to crash with a thud. He massaged his throat as Jade backed away slowly.
“Sorry,” she mumbled.
“What’s wrong with you? How did you do that? You, like – lifted me off the ground!” Jaden growled.
“Watch it! Just because I spared you once doesn’t mean I won’t do it again.” Mum licked her lips and blinked frequently. Jade sighed deeply and stroked her hair back.
“I’ve got a headache,” she muttered underneath her breath.
“You three honestly need to stop bickering. Jade, I’m sorry about the mess in your room; I’ll try and get it fixed, but Jojo and her mum will be here in a couple of minutes. So, in the meantime, go and get ready for school,” mum ordered sharply yet trying to keep her cool. She then walked out of the room in a suspicious hurry. I couldn’t help but think that our mother was very shady these days. But why? What was she hiding? Again, when it came to women in my family, only God knew. Jaden and I trudged out, still bottling our laughter as Jade narrowed her eyes at us.
At the sound of two loud honks, we rushed downstairs.
“Take care, honey,” mum said kissing me on the cheek as I hesitated and struggled.
“Did you take your sunscreen? I don’t want that really bad sunburn surfacing again,” mum said, babying me.
“Mum, the sunburn’s healed.”
“But you never –”
“Yes I took it.” Mum gave me another unwanted kiss on the cheek and she tried to adjust my haystack of frizzy hair. I resisted and stepped out with my siblings. A roomy silver car was parked in front of the house and the back window rolled down abruptly. A fourteen-year-old girl’s head popped out. The glow of sunlight seemed to perfectly touch her smooth mocha skin and her eyes were large and innocent above her button nose. She beamed a rather radiant, heart-warming smile. Her head of thick, back-length, straightened, dark brown hair (that seemed to naturally have dark red tints in the sunlight) framed her perfectly shaped mixed-race face.
“Hey! Get in!” The girl called out with a light giggle. Her accent wasn’t necessarily common – more of a very formal English one but pronounced certain words in an American way. Mum trotted out classically with the clicks of her heels following her. Jade, Jaden and I trudged into the car.
“Hey, Jojo,” Jade said, giving her best friend a peck on the cheek as we slid inside. Mum walked to the front seat window and waited as it slid down.
“Morning, Anne,” mum said, beaming at the young woman that got out of the driver’s seat to speak to her. Anne had glowing skin that was a tad more bronze than her daughter’s. Jojo resembled her a lot when it came to her face. Her hair was kept in a sharp up-do and she had the same sense of fashion as mum: dressing ridiculously out of place (as if they were models) for unthinkably casual events such as grocery shopping.
“How’s Tantrus?” mum continued.
“He’s fine. Lina, how are they holding out? You know, the change.” Mum winced and quickly glanced back at us – but I saw that when nobody else did.
“Hey, hey, hey – I saw that. Why did you look back at us?”
“Aden, sweetheart, what are you talking about?” she asked as she usually did, pretending she never knew what was going on around her.
“When you were talking to Anne you looked back at us curiously. I’m not five, ‘Ma’.” Mum was in doubt and she was losing her composure.
“Aden, you’re being delusional, darling. Just forget about it,” mum grew a phoney cheek to cheek smile.
“But I distinctively saw –”
“Just…forget about it!” Mum was scowling. At that point I could’ve sworn her icy-blue eyes lightened as she clenched her jaws. She heightened her eyelids and did nothing but stare at me for the next three seconds. With mum, that was the warning she would give any of us when we dared to try and embarrass her or question her authority. I quickly understood the message and dropped the issue. I nonchalantly shook my head and sunk back into my cushiony seat, feeling relaxed and trying not to think about all these adults’ businesses and secrets. None of the others seemed to have been paying attention. Mum took a long blink and looked back at Anne.
“Sorry about that,” she apologised. Anne leaned closer to her.
“If I were you, I’d ease up on the telepathy. You wouldn’t want to interfere with her radius…you know, now that one of them is going to become a telepath as well,” Anne whispered.
“Tell me about it,” mum scoffed, brushing her long, springy, flaxen coils of hair behind her.
“I’ll extend your greetings to Tantrus,” Anne responded with a warm grin, strutting back to the car, sliding into the front seat and driving off.
It was about fifteen minutes into the car journey. Whilst Anne was busy driving, Jade and Jojo conversed undertone, Jaden read, and I had my head pressed against the window with earphones wedged into my ears.
“Jaden, I just remembered did you do the book report Miss Strottman gave us?” asked Jojo.
My eyes suddenly flew open, wider than they already were. Although I had my earphones in, nothing could prevent me from hearing that dreadful phrase.
“Book report? Wha–what book report?” I asked in hesitation and fright.
“You know, the report on ‘Great Expectations’ by Charles Dickens – wonderful novelist. You did do it, didn’t you?” Jojo giggled undertone.
“No, I didn’t! Oh my goodness, Miss Strottman’s going to have my head for starters and then devour my lungs for the main course and then finish of my intestines for dessert. What am I going to do?” I asked, my guts unfolding in my stomach. Nothing could prevent my downfall, I was finished. You see, Miss Strottman was the dinosaur of our school. Beware, I don’t mean Barney, no. He’s at least bearable. She was the classy – yet horribly intolerable – hag of a teacher that honestly made your insides squirm every time you had the great misfortune of accidentally locking eye contact with her. Makes sense since half of the student population get a bad case of diarrhoea after her wrath.
“Well, I guess we could always turn home and get it?” Jojo suggested unsurely.
“We can’t go home and get it because there’s nothing to get! I haven’t done it,” I panicked, panting crazily until it turned into hyperventilation.
“And mum wonders why I tried to flush you down the toilet when you were three,” Jade spoke indifferently, rolling her eyes.
“It’s not my fault, I was too busy studying for that Biology practical for Mr Leery’s test yesterday –”
“– If your definition of revision is watching MTV, South Park and playing Xbox all day whilst calling me every half an hour to ask what I had learnt so far, then yeah, you really wer
e. Stupid little teapot you are, Aden,” Jaden automatically spoke with his head buried in his book.
“I think hell just froze over,” I exaggerated. “What am I going to do?” Jade sighed and rolled her eyes out of infuriation.
“Stop inflating. She’s not going to kill you. Just make up a reliable excuse.” At that point Jaden, Jojo and I looked at Jade with eyes of disbelieving surprise.
“You’ve never been in Miss Strottman’s class…have you?” Jojo stated.
“Actually –”
“That didn’t require an answer,” Jojo put her hand up to Jade. “But she’s got a point, you’re smart. Make up an excuse. I dunno; maybe your file was deleted off of the computer.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” I courageously agreed.
We arrived at school. Jade opened the door and we descended from the car. I found the minuscule strength to push my fears aside and stood boldly. Well, that was until I saw the face of my teacher patrolling the grounds, herding the children inside as the bell rang deafeningly.
Suddenly, I tried to hurl myself back into the car but the others were pulling me back out. I was struggling as hard as I could. Jade was merely standing aside, clicking the soles of her Converses whilst studying the physique of her manicure as Jojo and Jaden were struggling to get me out of the car. My sister had finally had enough of me wasting her precious time.
“Move!” she exclaimed
I was about to slide right in until she grabbed a hold of my rucksack and pulled me out brutally. I fell onto the ground with a loud thump. I scowled and winced as I found the strength to get up.
“You okay, A.J.?” Jade asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” I stood up as if I was in no pain at all. Actually I really wasn’t in pain. It was sheer exaggeration.
“This is why I do gymnastics,” Jade added. Miss Strottman looked back at my face and I flinched.
“Are you guys okay?” Jade asked.
I let out a lengthy exhale and clamped my eyes shut. I felt my heartbeat grow stronger and tougher, almost about to jump out of my chest and skip on its merry way. But keeping my eyes closed was helping me forget about it.
Suddenly, through the shivering cold that wafted in the atmosphere under these sub-zero conditions, the sun’s heat ripped through the sky and intensified. Nearly everyone put their hands over their eyes, seeking comforting shade.
“Aden, are you okay?” Jojo asked, pressing her hand gently on my back. At that swift instance, the sun disappeared and the temperature cooled. I opened my eyes briefly and my heartbeat slowed down.
“Yeah, fine. Why?” Jojo looked up at the sky and then at me curiously.
“What is it?” I continued. Jojo shook her head.
“Just…never mind.”
The bell was rung again and we noticed we were meant to be in class. But instead of people going in, people were coming out. The junior boys were running out with footballs and splitting themselves into teams whilst the junior girls were occupying themselves with their skipping ropes. The high-schoolers were all packed in different groups, talking and laughing loudly.
“Bit early for break, isn’t it?” Jaden asked, perplexed.
“Oh snap,” Jojo muttered to herself. She ground her teeth together and exhaled nervously. As I looked around the car park, something else caught my attention.
“Hey, Jojo, did your mum leave by any chance?”
“I ‘dunno’, why?” she replied.
“Well, maybe because she’s not here anymore.” We looked around the car park; cars were here but they all belonged to the teachers – Anne wasn’t there. We thought we’d have noticed her leaving, given that she was parked right next to us.
“Things are really becoming odd,” Jade stated stressfully. We advanced further into the playground, clutching the handles of our bags with a strange air of nervousness and timidity.
The skies started swelling with different shades of grey clouds and the sun was lost behind them. It was palpably clear it would rain any minute. We stepped onto the playground together when a boy ran to us. He was shorter than Jaden and I (I doubt many people were close to my height), had blond hair and braces that were oddly reflective. He was probably my only friend; Nicholas.
“How come you guys are so late?” he asked in his Scottish accent.
“A polite hello would suffice,” I mumbled.
“Oh, don’t you even talk of politeness,” Jaden quickly countered underneath his breath. Jade rolled her eyes at our complacency and responded Nicholas’ question.
“What are you talking about, Nick? It’s –” she paused and glanced at her watch. Instantly, her assertiveness and certainty vanished; you could see it in her face. She was lost and confused, with a tangled mind that couldn’t exactly interpret what she was seeing.
“– that’s funny. It says here that it’s ten-fifteen but it should be about seven fifty-five…shouldn’t it?” Jaden and Jade stared at each other in confusion and angst. None of us felt up to date with any of this. Nicholas grinned and chuckled, his braces throwing off bright reflections.
“Well, that’s probably because it is ten-fifteen!” he responded light-heartedly.
We looked at each other, suddenly feeling isolated from everyone else – abnormal, if you will.
“I have to finish a report. I’ll catch you later,” Nicholas uttered, but his voice was so faint to us; we weren’t paying attention to what he was saying.
“It can’t be, can it?” Jaden asked.
“You guys stay here, I’ll be right back,” Jojo articulated, questionably backing away.
“Wait, where are you going?” Jade quickly asked.
“Don’t worry, just go put your stuff down. I’ll be back,” she answered.
We turned around in desperate need for some answers. It was uncanny enough that Jade’s room was trashed this morning, followed by her nearly choking Jaden to death. We didn’t need Jojo piling onto these abnormalities that were occurring.
But, she was gone. Jojo was nowhere to be seen in the wide and open space behind. Through the progressively cloudy sky, what seemed like glowing emerald embers were what confused me all the more, standing out completely from the dull and grey atmosphere. I assumed they were leaves but I could have sworn these were different; thinner. Plus, they were too thin to be leaves but I couldn’t exactly tell since they were much further away from me.
We walked through the playground in some sort of unawareness whilst people threw us uncomfortable glances. We were still wondering if this was some strange, bizarre joke that the entire school was planning. However absurd and unlikely that may seem, it was the only solution we could come up with.
“I think the best thing to do is just go and put our stuff down before we have our next lesson,” Jaden suggested.
“Seems like the only thing we can do,” I voiced.
We walked through the swinging blue doors to find the halls like they usually were: students walking up and down to their lockers and conversing sometimes so loudly it sounded remotely close to squawking. We were the only ones who looked suspiciously odd, still having our trench coats on and our rucksacks on our backs as we walked up to the cloak room.
“At least this room still hasn’t changed,” Jaden mentioned after an exasperated sigh. Jade went to the girls’ cloak room next door as we entered ours.
Jaden and I went in to hang up our coats on the available hooks before returning outside, hoping to now stand out less. We looked almost exactly alike but extremely out of place. Before we could even head for the playground, the bell had already rung. We hung around the locker rooms waiting for Nicholas to run past as he persistently did.
“Hey. What are you guys lingering around ‘ere’ for?” he asked as he jogged by and finally coming to a halt.
“Waiting for you,” we replied, dull-toned and simultaneously.
“So,” Nicholas started, drinking from his water bottle, “what do you guys need? What do you want?”
“First
off, Miss Strottman’s assignment was due today, yes?” I asked.
“What are you talking about?” Nicholas asked, looking at us as if we were clearly insane.
“What are you talking about?” Jaden retorted loudly, unexpectedly losing his cool and snapping into impatience. I pulled him back and calmed him down as he suddenly straightened himself to his full staggering height that clearly reduced Nick to a mouse whilst Jaden became Goliath.
“Miss Strottman got the sack ages ago. We’re in Miss Georgina Fanwall’s class now. You know this.” Nicholas took another cool sip of water. Jaden and I glanced at each other from the corners of our eyes for a couple of seconds and turned our heads back, only to see Nicholas’ face almost as confused as ours.
“Hang on just a fuzzy moment, Miss Fanwall’s a year ten teacher. So how could we be in her class if we’re only in year nine?” Jaden demanded.
“Ha…you guys are so, so funny. So I’ll tell you what: I’ll go along with your plan. We,” he gesticulated to Jaden, himself and me, “are in year ten, which is exactly why Miss Fanwall’s our teacher. Look,” he showed us a crest on the right side of his blazer, sewn in delicately and mentioning our school’s name in all its splendour. Jaden and I noticed how all the other boys and girls in our year group coincidentally had them as well. But was it a coincidence? It was customary in Cressile that seniors of years ten and eleven have clovers stitched onto their uniforms.
“We’re seniors now! So does that answer all of your eerie questions?” Nicholas sarcastically asked, grinning about what he thought was another harmless joke. On the contrary, this was actually becoming a frustrating matter.
“Ye–”
“No! It doesn’t!” Jaden interrupted me. “Look, we were in school yesterday!” he snapped. He had lost his calm and subconsciously began screaming. Even I couldn’t hold him back now. Heck, I didn’t even think I wanted to. I was becoming equally enraged by all this nonsense.
Preternatural (Worlds & Secrets) Page 5