Like Puppets, Dancing on Strings (Shaker High School Abduction)
Isaac Grayson yawned loudly as he stretched his arms high above his head. Early mornings weren't typically his thing, and today was no exception. His blue eyes blinked lazily as he scanned the empty school bus. He had made it a point to get here early today, despite having stayed up for most of the night, if for no other reason than to claim the coveted back of the bus seat. As he slumped down into the seat, resting his head on his olive-colored dufflebag and propping his legs up so he sprawled completely across the seat, he couldn't help but grin sheepishly at the fact that he'd somehow managed to claim it. Now, he could nap on the way to the campgrounds they were visiting for another boring over-the-weekend class field trip.
And, if he was lucky, maybe he could nap through the field trip as well.
Ike's thoughts were promptly interrupted by the chatter of students. He propped himself up on his elbow in a lazy attempt to see outside the windows of the bus. Much to his dismay, the remainder of Mr. Witz's Biology class was quickly forming a crowd in front of the bus. Noises ranging from the excited chatter of several schoolgirls to ringing cell phones to someone's entirely-too-loud car stereo assaulted his ears, causing Ike to sigh quietly. He propped himself up slightly, using his dufflebag as a pillow against the side of the bus. He rested his head against the cold glass of the bus window, smashing his ponytail against it in the process, and intently watched the door as the bus began to fill with students.
The first to lumber into the bus was a fairly unmistakable student, mostly due to the horrible-looking blonde mullet he'd had for as long as Ike could remember - and Ike had gone to grade school with him. Todd Jackson was the personal punching bag of many, and by the looks of it, someone had exercised that right very recently. It wasn't uncommon to see Todd black, blue, and bloody - typically due to shooting his mouth off to the wrong people - and today was no exception to that. As the tall, lanky student sauntered in, Ike couldn't help but notice his crooked nose and a big black shiner around his left eye. Ike frowned slightly. Todd might have been a bit of a redneck... perhaps more than a bit of a redneck, and he might have had problems knowing when to stop talking, but no one deserved to be beaten up constantly. Ike's eyes met with Todd's dark brown ones momentarily and Todd squinted at him before taking a seat three rows in front of him and propping his muddy boots up on the back of the seat in front of him.
A short, mousy figure with shaggy black hair poked her head through the door next - Elizabeth Quincy. As far as looks went, Elizabeth was completely unremarkable in every form - her hair, which stopped near the bottom of her large ears, was a curly, frizzy, and unkempt looking mess of black which extended down to her overly thin, straight eyebrows in the front. Her eyes were dark, sunken-looking, and always devoid of makeup. Combined with her pointed nose, thin lips, and pale skin, she was far from a looker. Ike didn't know her well. She kept to herself and didn't seem to have many friends. When he did see her around, she always had her nose buried in a book and looked like she was off in a daydream. He supposed it wasn't that surprising - real life, for her, probably wasn't very interesting. Elizabeth sat near the front of the bus, nervously smoothing her knee-length black skirt and tugging on her gray sweater sleeves.
The other set of twins in their class - the identical ones - entered next. Kevin and Brennan Edwards looked so similar that it was often impossible to tell them apart, but the two boys were as different as night and day. Kevin was popular, athletic, and smart - someone his female classmates often referred to as the "total package". Ike played basketball with Kevin on occasion, and there was nothing bad to be said about the guy. His brother, on the other hand... Brennan might have looked similar to Kevin - same brownish-blonde hair, though instead of the spiked look his brother wore, Brennan often combed his down in the front, same blue eyes, same defined features, even the same braces - however, personality-wise, Brennan was Kevin's polar opposite. He hung out with the popular crowd, though everyone, Brennan included, knew that it was solely because he was Kevin's brother. Brennan was moody and oftentimes seemed angry and distant. Maybe that was from the constant pressure of his twin brother being better at quite literally everything. Brennan was no athlete by any means, and his grades were nothing short of atrocious. It wasn't all that uncommon to hear that he'd been expelled for smoking in the bathrooms or spray-painting on the walls again.
Of the two, Brennan Edwards was definitely the bad egg. Surprisingly enough, Kevin seemed all but oblivious to his brother's true nature. Or maybe he simply ignored it. Ike contemplated it for a moment, wondering if he would simply turn a blind eye to behavior of that sort from his own fraternal twin sister. Both Edwards brothers took a seat in the middle of the bus, with Kevin taking the inside seat. Kevin peered out the window, seemingly searching for more of his friends, while Brennan grabbed his MP3 player and slipped two small, button-sized headphones into his ears.
A shrill cackle and flood of high-pitched chatter suddenly filled the bus, causing Ike to squint lightly. Kera and Kayla Harris paraded in the bus, followed by their entourage of Kaylee Thomas, Jaclyn Frost, and Aaliyah McGee. The Harris sisters were the "mean girls" of Shaker High, and for good reason. Kera was the older of the two, and had a reputation of being more than a little easy. She was a pretty girl, with chin-length blonde hair that was always styled and curled at the edges, and blue eyes that seemed to entrance more than a few members of the Shaker student population. Her makeup was always done in hues of pinks and light blues, completed with bright pink lip gloss. Although she was a beautiful girl on the outside, Kera made it a point to pick on any and everyone she thought to be beneath her - this included most of the female students attending Shaker, along with many of the boys. He'd heard rumors about how her favorite hobbies included sleeping with other girls' boyfriends, enticing football players to shove nerds into lockers... oh, and biting the heads off of kittens. Somehow, Ike didn't believe that last part.
Kayla Harris had followed in her big sister's footsteps, although it was easy to tell at a glance that of the two, Kera was the mastermind. Kayla seemed a little dimwitted, although most people didn't seem to notice her lack of intelligence. Most people didn't seem to notice anything beyond her appearance, in fact. Kayla was exceptionally attractive - arguably the prettier of the two sisters - with shoulder-length slightly wavy blonde hair and big blue eyes. Something about her facial proportions made her look more than a year younger than Kera. In fact, her facial structure seemed somewhat childish, underneath the thick makeup. Kayla was thin and somewhat flat-chested, though she made up for this with legs that seemed to go on for days. When it came to her personality, Ike wasn't sure what to make of Kayla. She didn't seem an outwardly spiteful person like her sister, though she did plenty of cruel things. All in all, Kayla just seemed like Kera's prime minion and biggest pawn. In a way, it was a little sad.
When it came to the remainder of the "popular girls", Jaclyn, Aaliyah, and Kaylee really weren't so bad. In fact, Kaylee sung for a local band, played guitar, and, at least in Ike's opinion, seemed like a pretty cool girl. She had a very unique sense of fashion, and it wasn't uncommon to see her in ensembles consisting of plaid pants and ties. Her hair seemed to constantly be dyed a plethora of different colors, although lately she'd seemed to have settled on a brilliant purple with matching colored contacts and lens-less rectangle glasses. She was nice and very friendly - the polar opposite of the Harris girls in every way. Ike never quite understood how the group had become friends.
Then again, he could say the same for Jaclyn and Aaliyah. He didn't know much about either of them. Jaclyn seemed kind of cold and stubborn... like the kind of person who always knows what she wants and how to get it. Aaliyah was the nurse's aid and seemed to be an exceptionally nice, caring person. They entered the bus behind the other three girls, and the group spread themselves out across two rows of seats before resuming their overly-loud chatter.
He'd barely noticed Sheryl Bodine and Meggan Gage slip in over the Harris sisters' grand entrance. Ike didn't know much about Meggan other than that she and Sheryl were close friends. Sheryl, he considered a friend himself. She was a pretty girl, though nowhere near the same caliber of attractive as, say, Aaliyah McGee or either of the Harris sisters. When it came to social crowds, Sheryl was a bit of a floater. She was most well-known for her artwork - in fact, she had headed the project for the new mural recently painted in Shaker High's music building. The thought of that made Ike grin. He'd put a lot of time and effort in on that project himself. Sheryl's cool blue eyes met his for a moment and she flashed him a smile and a slight wave. Ike offered a sleepy grin in return. Rather than moving to the back of the bus to sit with him, however, Sheryl took a seat across from the nervous-looking Elizabeth Quincy, with Meggan following in tow.
The bus was starting to fill at a much faster pace now, and Ike caught glimpses of several of the jocks flooded onto the bus. Jimmy Newton, Ryan Lawrence, Zach Stone, Nick Hawke, and Lorenzo Salas all slipped in at once. All five boys were close friends and seemed almost inseparable. It had been like that since grade school. They'd played sports together since they were old enough to walk, and, unsurprisingly, had remained close friends and competitive rivals up until this point in high school. That was about all Ike knew regarding them. Jimmy was one of the students that had helped on the music building's mural, which wasn't something that many people had expected. From what little Ike had talked with him, he seemed like a good guy. Then again, these were the same boys who used students like Todd Jackson as a human punching bag, so saying they were all "nice people" was... probably an inaccurate statement, Ike mused.
He couldn't help but think that one of the group was missing, though. The tall, broad-shouldered figure walked in behind them, lightly running his hand through his messily layered dark brown hair. Dustin Jennings - though he'd gone by D.J. for several years now - looked like he'd just rolled out of bed, although that seemed to be his style, and, thus far, it had worked well for him. While he'd always palled around with the group of jocks who had entered the bus just prior, he'd always spent a lot of time with the petite brunette that followed behind him, tugging on his sleeve and laughing about something. It was no secret that D.J. and Rachael Williams were very close. As far as Ike could remember, they always had been. It wasn't uncommon for people to make the assumption that the two were dating, although they'd always reminded Ike more of siblings.
Rachael was, in essence, one of the guys. She'd hung out with D.J. since grade school and, by association, had been friends with Jimmy, Ryan, Zach, Nick, and Lorenzo. To be "just one of the guys", Rachael was a highly attractive girl, rivaling even the most popular girls in Shaker in terms of looks. Her dark brown, caramel highlighted hair always fell loosely down to her mid-back, and something about her dark, smokey eye makeup seemed to make her light green eyes pop. One thing that Rachael boasted over the Harris sisters was a near flawless, "padding in all the right places" hourglass figure. So maybe Ike had had a crush on her in the past... it wasn't all that uncommon, although now that he thought about it, it was weird that she seemed to eternally be single. He pondered for a moment why this was before losing interest and fixating his eyes back on the open bus door.
The majority of his class had filtered in by now, but a few faces were still missing. Ike blinked. He'd have completely missed the childish physique of Emily Brewer if not for the overly large green velvet bow protruding from the top of her head. Emily reminded him a lot of Elizabeth in that she was quiet and mousy, though he didn't recall her spending a lot of time reading like Elizabeth. Then again, he couldn't recall having ever noticed her outside of class... or inside of class, for that matter. She quietly took a seat by herself at the front of the bus.
Andrew Steele and Lilly Sterling entered the bus together a few minutes later. They hadn't been dating long, but they made a nice couple. Andrew wasn't an overly outstandish type of guy. He was tall and athletic, with blonde, crew-cut hair and blue eyes. Lilly was the more eye-catching of the two, with long red hair and pretty blue-green eyes. He didn't know either of them well, though he seemed to remember having heard Lilly play the piano on occasion.
Greg Rin slunk in behind the couple, keeping his head down and his eyes on the ground. Greg was a weird sort of guy - a military brat, if Ike recalled correctly, though the lanky body, pale skin, thick glasses, and dense acne were dead-giveaways that he didn't exactly share the same traits as his Army Sergeant father. He wasn't a social kid, and seemed like the type that stayed in his room playing video games all day long. And speaking of playing video games all day...
The pudgy figure who quietly entered after Greg was much the same. Jorge Villegas was another strange, quiet kid. He was supposedly some sort of prodigy at some MMO or another, but there was little to be said for his social skills. He stuttered when he talked, and was often picked on by the other students. Jorge immediately took a seat in the still near-empty front of the bus, putting his backpack next to him as to avoid any sort of awkward social interaction.
The remaining few students shuffled in one after another - Rita Preston first; the shy, awkward librarian's assistant; followed by Will Manchester, a somewhat outcasted student who had just moved to Latham from London, England last year; then Patrick Grey, the quiet, studious baseball player. Christie Hawthorne, resident Goth girl, sauntered in behind Patrick, followed closely by punk rocker Ash Roberts and Ike's own fraternal twin sister, Chloe. Ash nodded at Ike and flopped down in the seat nearest him, while Chloe gave him a sarcastic smirk and sat down opposite Ash.
"Why, dear brother, are you actually on time for a school function? Surely we're making history at this very moment," Chloe teased, her lips pursed in an attempt to disguise a smile.
"Oh, you're oh so funny and clever!" Ike retorted, pausing a moment for dramatic effect, "Oh wait..."
Chloe scowled slightly and shot Ike a dirty look before playfully punching him in the leg. None of the three had noticed the short, balding figure that had entered the bus and ordered the doors shut until a loud, shrill whistle pierced the air and echoed through the bus. The chatter stopped, for the most part, and Mr. Witz, a pudgy man in his mid-40s, smiled from ear to ear.
"Well now!" Witz exclaimed with a wide grin, "What a great turnout we had! Guess it helps that this was mandatory, eh?" He paused for a moment to laugh at his own joke and let out a loud snort before blushing slightly and continuing, "So, uh, as you all know, this is my Bio class's annual trip. We do this every year... get together, have some fun at the campgrounds, and learn about nature in a more hands-on environment."
"Oh, I'll learn some hands-on biology!" one of the students - Ike couldn't discern which - retorted under his breath, receiving a few laughs and a cold glare from Mr. Witz in return.
"That is anatomy, Mr. Salas. If you ever paid attention, you might be able to distinguish the difference," Mr. Witz responded with a sigh, "And we'll have no anatomy lessons of any sort on this trip, boys and girls. We'll be staying at the grounds overnight, with boys and girls in separate cabins." As he continued talking, Mr. Witz motioned for the bus driver to start the bus, "So we'll be heading out now. Mind your manners and remember that just one bad egg could ruin this trip for everyone, so encourage your peers to behave!"
"Oh, that'd be such a shame," Lorenzo chimed in again. He grinned stupidly as Mr. Witz shot him another dirty look and took a seat at the very front of the bus.
"Somehow..." Chloe started in a quiet voice, "I get this feeling that this trip is going to be anything but orderly."
"With these fools?" Ash smirked, "How could you expect anything to be... what was it? Orderly? It's gonna be a damn disaster... and personally, I'd suggest you get in on the fun."
A wide smile spread across Ash's face, and it was apparent from looking at him that he, among others, had some very interesting ideas of how to make this class trip as disorderly as possible. Chloe sighed quietly and turned her gaze toward the window. It was an unusually cold day for being the middle of June, which had prompted many students to bring sweaters, jackets, and scarves, but the bright, cheerful sun shining through a cloudless blue sky was deceptive of that fact. Chloe gazed at the passing scenery as the bus headed out of town - nothing particularly interesting, mostly just houses, trees, and the occasional person mowing the lawn or getting the paper - and she quickly felt herself drifting into a deep sleep. Unbenowst to her, she wasn't the only student on the bus that suddenly found it unbearably hard to stay alert. In fact, within moments, the entirety of the school bus faded off into a deep, dark slumber. The driver of the bus frowned slightly and placed a gas mask over his face.
"Poor kids got no idea..." he mumbled, sighing quietly under his breath.