Harrison
XXIX
I groaned. The dinner party had been lame! I don’t know what Mum was so scared about! I mean the guy was short, with curly blond hair and a pot belly! So, not so intimidating or important. He had amber eyes, that looked at me as if regarding trash. I had to bite down the retort that came to my mouth.
But that was two days ago, now it was the day of the Awards Ceremony! I was happy for an unexpected, yet expected reason: I wasn’t winning any prizes, except for math, yet it was the last day of school!
I reluctantly placed a buttoned blue shirt and jeans on. I wore my Nikes. I made a worthless attempt to comb my hair; it only made my hair poofy.
I went downstairs and helped myself to some ready-made pancakes. I squirted on honey and chocolate sauce.
My sister came racing down. She wore a gold dress that came up to her knees. On her feet she wore a pair of black sandals. Her hair was tied up in a ponytail, with curls hanging off her face.
Tessa was especially excited today. Not only did she love summer, but she was winning a prize in math and french. I was slightly jealous.
She ate a light breakfast of fruit and milk. She claimed she didn’t want to puke on stage. It was true. Tessa puked when she was happy. That girl is weird!
Mum came down in a bathrobe. She took hold of our faces and squeezed our cheeks. She leaned in to kiss us. “Eurgh! mum!” I complained, pushing her face away.
“My little babies are all grown up,” she said. Tears sparkled in her eyes. “I’m so happy!”
“Thanks, mummy!” Tessa said, reaching in to peck mum’s cheek.
I finished my pancakes, wiped my mouth and went upstairs. I pressed the button impatiently. The elevator was stuck on my floor. I watched, while tapping my feet, as the letters went from ‘A’ to ‘2’ to ‘1’ to ‘G’. I instantly went in the elevator.
Just as the doors were closing, Tessa came zooming out of nowhere. She pressed the button (she knew I wouldn’t open the door voluntarily), and stepped inside.
I watched the buttons change from ‘G’ to ‘1’ to ‘2’. The elevator dinged, and the doors opened. Tessa got out.
I tapped my knee, bored, as I waited to go up the extra floor.
The ding signified the end of my long wait. I quickly grabbed my bag from my room-but it was too late. The elevator was already going down to the ground floor. I wasn’t in the mood to wait again, so I decided to take the stairs.
I sprinted down, two feet at a time, but decided to keep my hand on the banister. I felt that at the speed I was going I would fall over myself, and end up rolling down the staircase. I made it to the bottom floor in five minutes. Not bad.
I waited for the bus, on the curb, a few minutes away from my house. I hated getting to school in the family car. I prefered the liveliness of the school bus. Of course, at first everyone was deathly silent when I entered the bus for the first time. But a few weeks later, the noise had gone back to normal.
The bus pulled up a few minutes late. I got in quickly-the driver looked like he was in a bad mood, and I didn’t want to ruin the day.
After stopping four more times, the bus finally made it’s way towards campus. I felt like I had the day my life changed. That horrible Monday that changed my life. I remembered my happiness that day. I felt it today too. I don’t know why.
It was as if someone briefly inhabited my body and forced it to be happy. Nothing could change my mood. Not the storm clouds gathering in the sky, not the sound of birds flapping their wings in a desperate attempt to escape the rain, not even the nervous chatter of the students. Nope, nothing could ruin my mood.
We all take our appropriate seats. Award-winning students at the front, the rest at the back. No matter where we were seated it was all in alphabetical order.
I gave Jake a thumbs-up from my seat behind him. He smiles weirdly. Carly sits a few seats away from him, and every now and then, his eyes flash over to her. I smirk.
Darryl is seated at the very edge of the second row. The ‘g’ last names should have sat there, but because of his many awards, he had to sit at the edge to make it easier to collect his prizes.
Soon, the seats were all filled in, with the parents standing at the back, most held cameras or phones.
After a few minutes, Mrs Kaminski came on stage. She tapped the microphone a bit, “Testing…One...Two… Welcome! Parents, teachers, students, family and friends! Welcome to this year’s Award Ceremony!” She paused to allow the applause to die down a bit. “As I’m sure you all know, today is a day we have chosen to award the students whom have out beaten the rest. These students, I hope, have taken their study time and doubled it. Or you’re like Darryl and came first with half of it!” The audience laughed. “I don’t want to bore you to death before the awards, so here’s to our eighth grade winners!” The audience applauded.
Ms Roberts, the eighth grade representative teacher, walked onto stage. She took out some cards, and grabbed the microphone. “First place prize in Grade Eight, first math prize, first English prize, first history prize, first geography prize, first…”
She went on like that for a while.
Darryl had walked up on stage, and was waiting for her to finish.
A little kid with bright green eyes and curly hair kept on cheering and yelling and clapping, every time Darryl got a new prize.
I tuned out.
Then Ms Roberts mentioned something extra, “...And, because of his superior performance, Darryl had also been awarded to skip ninth grade! He will go straight to tenth grade!”
Everyone started talking at once. Jake turned to me, and I shrugged. This was news to me.
“Everyone! Everyone, please settle down.”
Even with that it took a while for us to shut up.
Ms Roberts looked relieved. “Thank you.” She looked confused, as if she’d forgotten what she was saying. “Oh yes, give him a round of applause please!” Darryl bowed slightly to accept his many gold medals. He had a lot. The applause was subdued, except for Carly, Jake and I. And the green-eyed kid. Who was he?
But by then, Ms Robert was on to her next person. Carly got the silver medal. Second in the grade. Second in English. Second in almost everything. Except math! She came third in that.
Once again I tuned out. I clapped as Jake got his first in P.E. and Overall Best Athlete award. He didn’t get medals-he got trophies. I was next.
“And second in Math, Harrison White.” The audience clapped politely as I made my way up. Ms Roberts put on a faux smile as she placed the silver medal over my head. She rattled off some more names and awards, finishing with honor roll. “-and Max Greeney! Thank you all for coming to this year’s Award Ceremony! Have a great summer, and I hope to see you all in the fall!” Everyone applauded, as people rushed off to their parents, dragging their friends with them. Smiles were smiled. Pictures were taking. Medals were counted. I saw Darryl with the little boy and some lady with extravagant coloured hair. I waved at him. But he didn’t see; his attention was on the little boy. Jake, however, saw my wave, he walked over, dragging Carly with him. We smiled for some pictures, then the adults left us alone to talk amongst ourselves.
“Thank goodness that’s all over,” Jake said. His trophies were taken by his parents. “That news about Darryl. That was pretty surprising, huh?”
“Sorry about that.” We turned to find Darryl standing behind us. He rubbed his arm awkwardly. “It was supposed to be a secret.”
“It was. A big one,” Carly said. “But it’s alright.”
“Thanks,” he said, relieved.
“No prob,” she responded. We walked towards the school. We decided to pass by our lockers. For old times sake.
“Man, I might actually miss Middle School!” Jake said. We turned to him, surprised. “What?”
“Nothing,” I said, smirking.
“Hmm!” he said, stalking off.
But before he could get too far, Darryl asked,
“Hey! Jake, what’s that on your locker?”
“Huh?” he responded. He walked towards his locker. A piece of paper was stuck on it. It read,
If you wish to see your loved ones again, meet me in the basement.
-The Shadow
We turned to each other. “This isn’t good,” said Carly.
“Wait, you know about the Shadow too?” I asked.
“Yep.” Jake and Carly chorused. They looked at each other in surprise. I was shocked.
“Nope,” added Darryl, “Who is he?”
“Okay then, what does he look like?” I asked, ignoring Darryl. Jake rattled off about his dark eyes, and cloak, etc.
“Hold up, people!” said Darryl, “I still don’t know who we’re talking about!”
“Well,” Jake began, “This evil dude who always wears black and has weird eyes is trying to-”
“We’re wasting time!” Carly interrupted. “We need to see what he wants,”
“Agreed,” Jake said.
“Okay,” I said.
We looked at Darryl, “I’m ready,” he said, firmly.
“Let’s do this!” Carly said.
We marched around for a while. Lost. We finally stumbled across a door labeled: Basement. Hazard! Generator! We looked at each other. We nodded and opened the door.
It was dark inside. I held up a hand of fire and peered inside. There was nothing there. I shrugged at the others, and marched in. Carly made a tiny electrical ball, and carefully wielded ice around it. I tossed a fireball at Jake, and, after some stumbling, he secured it in a force field.
We walked in.
Something whizzed passed us. We all turned in fright. I bit back a gulp. The thing sped past us again. Then we heard someone laughing. It wasn’t an evil guy kind of laugh, but it was enough to spook us out. We moved forward. Someone sat on the floor. His back was to us. He wore a blue button-down shirt, and brown skinny jeans.
“Hello?” I asked.
“Hello, Harrison,” he said. “Hey Carly, hi Jake, good afternoon Darryl,”
“Who are you?” Carly said, bravely.
“I am the Shadow. The Dark One. Or, as Jake called me once, The Shadowman.” he turned. His blond, curly hair had strands of black in it, his amber eyes had black and green laced through it. He was light turned dark. “Or, you could call me by my human name,” He said human, as if it were a piece of moldy cheese. He said it like Jake said ‘book’. “My name is Bobby Huntlington. I’m shocked Harrison. You don’t recognize me? I am shocked. Truly shocked! After all, you met up with my father just the other night.”
“Wait,” I said, surprised. “Fatty was your father?”
“Tsk. Yes, Fatty was my father. You don’t see the family resemblance?”
“No, not real- Well, kinda, yeah. You have the same hair. And eyes. Minus the black and green, obvious-”
“Forget about Fatty and I. Instead focus on them!”
The Super 4 : Dark Death Page 28