Ellen Keith
Secrets Within The Halls…
Secrets Within The Halls…
Valued Acer Customer
12/28/2009
My dad drove me to school with the windows up. The radio was blasting just because I didn't want to talk to him.
"I wish you would step back from that ledge my friend….." I looked out the window and tuned out the music which I was not in the mood for. I wish I was back home in the sunny, hot, clear weather of California. With all my friends and family and in my school, with my books that we had to read for school…
"Hello??" my dad screamed over the music bringing me out of my stupor. I turned down the music that was now a different song that I was not familiar with.
"What? What is it?" I asked as I glared at him.
"Hey don't you be mad at me. I told you a thousand times we had to move to Indiana because of the promotion. It's a lot more money Sid. We weren't doing so well and now, I can afford to buy you things, your mother things, your brother things. I know it seems like the end of the world now but, trust me it's not" he looked at me with pleading eyes and a desperate smile on his face.
Ugh, not that face!! It was the one way he could always make me feel bad for him, usually it was the other way around, you know, the kids with their puppy dog faces, but Roger Moore picked up this trick when he was about 8 and never decided to stop. "Fine okay, okay, I'm not mad. But I will not ever fall for that face ever again!!" he smiled and looked away. We both knew that wasn't true.
"Alright princess, we're here." He had called me princess ever since I could remember. I got out of the car and he rolled down the window.
"Dad, I'm 16, I think it's time you start calling me by my real name."
"Okay then, Sidney, have a lovely day." He had a huge smile on his face.
"Ugh, you knew what I meant you jerk."
"Ahahaha, bye Sid!" He yelled as he pulled away in our new HONDA.
I walked into my new homeroom. 134. The short, fat, balding man must have been my new homeroom teacher, and the gazing big-eyed 16 year olds my class mates. Wow, I thought, this will be a long year.
Mr. Watson came up to me, wheezing just from walking across the room. "Hello!" he practically screamed at me, "Class, this is Sidney Moore!" he was now yelling at the class.
"Sid." I said quietly.
"What was that?? I'm a little hard of hearing you'll have to speak up!!" he wheezed at me. Oh great, I thought, he's deaf too.
"SID!! I LIKE TO BE CALLED SID!!" I screamed right in his little pink ear. He pulled out a handkerchief and wiped the beads of sweat off of his forehead.
"Oh! Class this is Sid!!" he yelled at them. "Say hello!" oh no.
"Hi Sid!!" 19 16 year olds screamed at me.
"Oh, uh, hi…" I said back. Now I was just looking for a seat to get to before…
"Sid came all the way from California!! Isn't that exciting??" Wow he's annoying, I was thinking.
"Yes, Mr. Watson!" the class shouted back in unison. Wow they were good at that.
"Aha, yeah… can I, just take my seat?" I said. I could feel my cheeks begin to get warmer and warmer.
"Oh yes, of course, of course!" The fat man shouted at me.
"Thank you…" I whispered he didn't hear me; he was on a mission to get back to his desk without passing out.
The rest of the day was pretty much just like that, got up in front of the class, said where I was from, all that good stuff that made my cheeks get as red as a tomato.
I walked into the lunch room looking for somewhere to sit. Oh no, no empty seats. Then this short little thing came up to me.
"Hi! I'm Mikaela!! I heard that you just moved here from California?" that sounded like it should have been a statement but she clearly meant for it to sound like a question.
Oh wow she's loud I was thinking as I said "Uh, yeah, I'm Sid. Just came from Cali." Her light brown hair almost looked red as it bounced up and down as she walked across the room to bring me to her table. There were just two other girls there and one boy.
The first girl had a long face, high cheekbones, and almond shaped eyes. Her mahogany colored hair was hanging down to an inch past her collarbone in waves with lighter brown highlights. Wow she was pretty, I thought to myself as I was walking over. The other girl had a rounder face; she looked a little taller than the other. She had frizzy blond hair pulled up into a messy bun. The boy was much taller than the other two. He also had high cheekbones and that same mahogany colored hair as the first girl, but his was all messy and he looked like he just rolled out of bed. But that look worked for him.
"Guys this is Sid." Mikaela said as she pushed me in front of them so they could examine me. "Sid this is Ellen," she pointed to the first girl, "Jade," she pointed to the second girl, "and Robert." She smiled as she went over to Robert and sat down in his lap.
Oh, they were a couple. I could see that, they look pretty into each other. I was thinking as she snuggled into his lap and then leaned back into his chest.
"Oh get a room," Ellen said as she pretended to through up. Huh? I thought, maybe she likes him, or an old boyfriend? I asked myself.
"Oh shut up Ellen. You know you love it. You're the one who got us together." Robert said as he hugged Mikaela in a huge bear hug.
"Can't….. BREATH!!!" Mikaela screamed as she pretended to pass out in his arms.
"Ahah, okay, yeah I love it now stop killing each other so Sid can sit down. Come on, you can sit between me and Jade, it's a war zone over there." She smiled as Mikaela broke off a piece of bread from her sandwich and threw it directly at Ellen's face.
Ellen scooted over to make room for me and I sat down. "You know, you and Robert look a lot alike." I said to Ellen.
"Ahahaha, you know, we get that a lot!" Robert said then he burst out laughing.
"Ahah, Robert, don't be a jerk. We're twins." Ellen said then smiled at me.
Wow, twins, I've never known twins my age. I thought as they were all laughing. "Oh Sid, you don't have a lunch, we'd hate to starve you on your first day, come on, I'll help you." Ellen said as she got up and then waited for me to join her. Wow she's really nice, I thought as I got up.
"Okay, um, how much is it?" I asked as I searched my pockets for a couple of bucks.
"It's three fifty, but don't worry, I got this one, think of it as your welcoming gift." She smiled and started walking towards the lunch line, expecting me to follow.
We got to the line and then I asked, "So, what did Robert mean about you getting them together?"
"Oh, well in eighth grade Mikaela was desperately in love with Robert and I suspected that he too liked her." She moved up in the line. "So at the last dance of the year I told Robert that Mikaela was in love with him, and just as I suspected, he really liked her too. So he asked her to dance for the last slow song and right when it was about to end, he asked her out. Then she of course said yes and right when the song ended he leaned in and kissed her." She paused for a moment reminiscing, then snapped out of it and turned back to me. "And they've been together ever since." She smiled and then turned to pay for my lunch.
"Thank you so much for this." I said as we started to walk back. "Like, not just for the lunch, for talking to me and letting me sit with you." I could feel my cheeks begin to get warm.
"Oh, no problem, I know what it's like to be at a new place with no friends. And don't be offended if Jade doesn't talk to you for a while, she's just really shy around strangers. And you know Mikaela, she's really um, well, loud. But I love her like a sister." She smiled again and we were almost back to the table now. "You know, I get vibes from people, and I can tell that I'm going to like you." Now we were back at the table and we were sitting down again.
Wow, I thought, I really like this girl. Robert and Mikaela were just sitting next to each other now because they were eating lunch. I looked down at my pizza, chips, and diet coke. I grabbed my pizza and started nibbling at it. I realized that I wasn't that hungry after all. I looked over at Jade, she wasn't eating anything. I picked up my bag of chips and held them out toward her as a piece offering. She smiled tentatively and shook her head side to side to tell me thanks but no thanks.
Jade turned and started talking to Mikaela, I think about me, and Ellen leaned in to whisper something in my ear, "Don't take it personally," she whispered, "She never eats at lunch, she won't tell us why, she just always says she's not hungry. Personally, I think it's a hunger strike, but I'm not sure against whom." She leaned back, shrugged, and took a bite of her pizza.
After a while the bell rung and everyone slowly started to get up. "What class do you have next?" Mikaela asked me.
"Hmm," I looked at my schedule, "biology." I said then turned back to face her.
"Hey that's what me and Jade have!" Mikaela practically screamed at me. Ellen got her books together and stood up. Mikaela started talking my ear off then as Ellen was walking away with Robert she turned back and gave me a sympathetic look, then laughed and started talking to Robert again.
"So how was California?" Jade asked quietly. Mikaela stopped talking at once and gave her a surprising look.
"Um, it was great actually, especially since I love surfing. I'm guessing that you guys don't catch to many waves out here huh?" I asked.
"Ahaha, no, we've never been surfing in our whole entire lives!!" Mikaela laughed out loud. "So anyways, there's an extra chair at our table if you want to sit with us?" Again she did that that thing where she turned a statement into a question.
"Of course I'll sit with you guys. You are my friends, aren't you?" I asked a little nervous of what they might say.
Mikaela's big blue eyes lit up and then she hooked her arm though mine and we walked in biology with Jade right behind us. I looked back at Jade and smiled but she didn't notice me. She was giving Mikaela the dirtiest look I've ever seen, it was so full of hatred that I gasped.
Before I could say anything, Mikaela fell to the floor, in what was clearly agony. She was screaming and gasping for air and Jade just stood there, I was frantic, I dove onto the ground and was trying to calm her down .I thought that she was dying, I started hyperventilating, I looked to Jade for some support or to share the panic with but she was just looking at Mikaela with the coldest eyes, they were like ice. Then, slowly, one eyebrow raised one eyebrow and a devilish grin spread across her face. This stunned me to a point where I couldn't move, speak, breath, or blink. Then the teacher came over and picked me up off the floor, and then she went over to the phone very calmly and called the nurse. A moment later the nurse came in, gave her a shot and then left.
A couple seconds went by and then Mikaela just lay there, breathing in and out. When she finally got up, I gave her a horrified look. She gave a tired laugh and then explained, "Sorry about that, did Jade tell you what was going on??" I shook my head from side to side for I couldn't speak. "Oh, well during the summer after eighth grade, me, Robert, Ellen, and Jade were hanging out in a park. Then when me and Ellen were whispering secrets to make Robert upset because we said they were about him, that happened. Then Robert started panicking and injected me with some of his insulin because he's a diabetic so he had some on him. Well, some kind of chemical reaction happened or something because then it just stopped within a couple of seconds it just stopped. It happens every so often and the nurse just injects me because I'm not allowed to carry it around in school." She said this all so matter-of-factly that it stunned me.
"Oh, wow." I said because I didn't know what else to say. "What is it like?" I asked, mostly because I was curious, partly because there was nothing else to say.
"Honestly, it feels like someone is dragging me slowly through a pile of razors that is lit on fire while someone else is peeling my skin off and then snapping my bones."
"Oh my God, do you know what causes it?"
"No, the doctors said they've never seen anything like it before in their whole careers."
"But the insulin, that stops it?" I asked.
"Seems to." She shrugged and then went over to sit at our table. Jade was already over there and they started talking.
Biology went by in a blur. I wasn't really paying attention to anyone. I was thinking about that look that Jade gave Mikaela a split second before whatever that was happened to her. Was it a coincidence? Did she have something to do with it? If she did how was she doing it? All these questions were the only thing on my mind. I didn't even notice that the bell rang until Mikaela started pulling on my sleeve to get me to move.
"Hey, you okay?" Mikaela asked as I started to get up.
"Uh, yeah, I'm just still a little, freaked out is all." I replied. I looked over at jade waiting by the door. She was moving her lips extremely fast as if she were whispering a song. But no words were coming out. As soon as she saw me staring, she stopped immediately. Then she smiled and blushed a little. I smiled back to be polite, and then turned to Mikaela who was talking to me about some new hair care product that was working wonders for her split ends.
"So I got three cases of it because the store was closing and knowing my luck no other store in the world sells it!!" she started laughing and even though I didn't really find it that funny I forced out a laugh to amuse her.
"Oh I know that you just got here and you have to unpack and all that but do you think that you could possibly come to my house tonight? I'm having a party and I would really like it if you could come?" she looked up to me with a pleading face. Wow, I'm going to have to give that a name because she keeps turning statements into questions, I thought to myself as she was staring at me with those big blue eyes.
"Oh, yeah sure, I need to meet these people sooner or later," I gave a genuine smile, "who else will be there?"
"Oh, well let's see…." She was looking at the floor trying to remember who she had invited, "well, basically, everyone. But don't worry I'll show you around." She smiled again and then hooked one arm through mine and the other arm through Jade's and started walking at an extremely fast pace. I turned to talk to her but I could tell that she was deep in thought. Probably planning for the party, so thought it best that I leave her be.
Well, well, well. I thought to myself. Looks like I'll really be able to talk to Jade tonight, I'll ask her some questions and then this will all be straightened out. I smiled to myself in thinking up some of the questions I was going to ask her. This will all be over by tomorrow. I thought slyly. I should have known that things never go so smoothly….
Party time
I stood in front of my mirror with two different tops in my hand, one that was light blue with sleeves and was very form fitting. And one that was navy blue, low cut, and had a fringe type of thing on the bottom. I threw the navy blue one back on my bed onto the huge pile of clothing that didn't seem worthy to wear tonight.
I pulled the light blue shirt on and looked at myself. I was wearing a black skirt and black flats along with the blue top. My hair was pulled up into a neat bun with my bangs on either side of my face. My makeup was done pretty well considering I usually don't wear it. I took one more look at myself, deciding that I looked pretty nice, and then walked out my door. In the halls was my nine year old brother, Tommy, laying on his back on the carpet.
"What on Earth are you doing?" I asked as I stopped right in front of him.
He looked up at me. "I'm on a strike. I'm not moving until dad says we're moving back to California." He turned his attention back to the ceiling.
"Tommy, you know good and well that we're not moving back to California, so get up before I get the vacuum and suck you up!" I teased him to try to make him laugh. It worked.
"Ahaha, fine. But I'm still mad at dad!" he stated.
"You and me both brother!" I laughed and ruffled his hair.
I walked down the stairs and saw my mom on the couch, out like a light. Yes! I thought, now she won't bug me with all of her stupid little questions about the party when I get home. I walked into my kitchen and started rummaging through everything to find the keys.
"YES!" I exclaimed when I found them and held them up in the air in triumph. As I turned to walk out the back door, there stood a dark figure, just outside of the glass door. They were just watching me. I froze. My blood turned to ice as it started pumping through my veins three times as fast as it normally does. They didn't run when they saw me, they merely just tilted there head to one side, as a dog does when he is confused.
There was a big lump in my throat, I tried to swallow it down with no success, and then they took a slow step forward, and started to reach for the handle of the door. Now my brain started working in over time. I ran for the phone and dialed 911, screaming my lungs out the whole way so my mother would wake up.
"Hello this is 911 what is your emergency?" the woman asked me through the phone.
"Someone is trying to break into my house!!!!!" I screamed into the phone, by this point my mother and Tommy came running in to see what all the commotion was about.
"Okay maim you have to calm down for me okay? Now, are they in your house right now?"
Why wasn't she sending anyone? I thought to myself. "No, no, there just standing outside my back door but he did reach for the handle."
"Okay are they still there?" she asked calmly.
I whipped my head around expecting to see the dark figure still standing there. "Oh, um, no…. but please still send someone to check the area?" oh no now I'm doing that thing where I turned a statement into a question.
"Of course maim, now please tell me your location."
"131 Wilson street." I whispered into the phone as I realized what might have happened if I hadn't called 911. The image of the dark figure busting through the door and then grabbing me without a sound kept replaying itself in my head.
"Thank you, help is on the way."
"Bye." I said right before I clicked the red button to end the conversation. I put the phone down and then looked at my mother. She looked scared and confused at the same time. She led me into the living room to sit on the couch. Tommy followed.
"Honey, what happened?" she asked as she sat down next to me.
"You didn't see him?" I asked answering her question with a question.
"See who baby?" wow, she really didn't see him, but how could she not have seen him? I asked myself as I was looking at her.
"That guy, he was wearing all black so I couldn't see his face, but I saw him alright. He went to open the door and that's when I started screaming and I dialed 911." I said telling her had happened before you ran in. "I guess he ran away before you saw him. Timmy did you see him??"
"Nope, sorry Sid, I came in after mom." He said as he sat on the other side of me.
"Oh well then, can I still go to the party?" I asked, I really needed to go to this now more than ever because for some reason I thought now that I knew who is was. And I knew that she would be at this party.
"What??? Are you crazy? You just saw someone trying to break into our house!" she practically screamed at me.
I tried dad's puppy dog face on her to see if that would help. It did.
"Fine, fine. But I don't want you out to late okay? Be back here by midnight." YES!! It worked!!
"Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!" I said as I hugged her tightly.
"And if you're not back here by twelve, then I'm calling the army to search for you okay?"
"Ahahahah, okay mom thanks, but, do you think you could walk me to my car??" I asked sheepishly.
"Ahaha, sure sweety." She smiled and pulled me up to walk to the door.
"Wait, what about the police?" I asked thinking I should stay until they get here.
"I'll take care of them, you have fun." She smiled and closed my door softly, waved and walked back into the house.
I was halfway there when all of a sudden a big hand grabbed my throat from the back seat. My fingers tightened on the wheel and my blood turned to ice again.
"I've got you now!" a deep voice whispered in my ear….