Gregor was asleep, and woke with a start around 5:30 am. He had started to have more night mares of falling, ever since he had lost Ares. He was afraid of no one being there to catch him, no one to trust when Ares or Luxa was gone. He eventually got back to sleep again with more dreading night-mares.
Gregor and his family had decided not to move to Virginia. They had all agreed, mainly because Gregor refused to go. He was in love, and he could dare not be separated from the one person he trusted in with all his heart. Although his opportunities were so close, his chance of being with Luxa again were far from reality.
It was Gregor's first day back at school since he had been home from the underland. He had to get everything cleared up with the police – their story was that he had gone missing. Most of Gregor's days were trying to hide scars or make up excuses for the ones that were impossible to hide.
Gregor woke up at 7:30 dripping in sweat and panting, as always. He tried to go back to sleep, but he couldn't. The only thing that could calm was the dusty picture of him and Luxa sitting on the shelf. He quickly grabbed it and hugged it. He just sat there, looking down at the picture, with a blank and depressing look on his face. He heard someone from outside the door. He put the picture under his pillow and pretended to be asleep.
When it sounded like someone was right outside his door, he used his echolocation skills to figure out who it was. It was his young sister, Lizzie.
Lizzie came in and sat on Gregor's bed. Gregor pretended to wake up, but that only worried Lizzie.
"Oh, I am sorry Gregor," she said looking at him with a sorry expression on her face.
"Liz, it's okay. You don't need to feel bad. I was pretending to sleep, anyway," he said, trying to make her feel better. "So is anyone else up yet?"
"Mom is. She's making pancakes since today is our first day of school," Lizzie replied. He nodded. "Mom says you have to be super careful at school, Gregor. You can't just go out of control every time someone gets on your slightest nerves." Lizzie said worriedly.
He knew what she meant. Since Gregor was a rager, his emotions were super sensitive and he could start punching someone if they called Gregor an idiot. Gregor had no idea what he was in for, he didn't think of it as that big a deal.
"I'll be fine," he said, although really, he was scared. He could not control himself of his anger, even when he was around his family.
With that, Lizzie walked out of the room when their mother called for her.
Gregor got dressed for school. He wore a pair of tan khaki shorts and a dark maroon sweat shirt. Gregor liked dark colors; they reminded him of the underland. He wore a pair of shoed Mrs. Cormaci had given him. "Just in case, dear," she would always say when she was giving him something of value.
Gregor fixed his hair and went to brush his teeth. There was a cockroach on the window sill. "What you want?" he asked the cockroach. Gregor never killed any cockroach because he never knew which one was Temp or which one was a random roach. Boots came running in the bathroom with her pajamas on. Sure enough, she was yelling, "Temp! You hear? Tempie!"
She came in and stood on the toilet. She reached for the cockroach and it crawled onto her finger. She made a series of clicking and giggling noises to it. "Temp came to visit!" Boots said cheerfully.
Gregor laughed and picked up Boots for a hug. "So, you excited for the first day of day care?" he asked her. She nodded and put the roach back on the window sill. Then she ran out yelling, "Pancakes!"
Gregor sighed and shook his head. He left to go eat breakfast. "Bye, Temp," he said. The roach clicked and scurried into a shadow.
"Good morning!" his mom said in an enthusiastic voice. Gregor just nodded. "Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed…" she remarked.
"No, mom, I just didn't get much sleep." But really, that was not the problem. Gregor didn't even want to think about going into the seventh grade or starting a new life without Luxa.
Gregor's mom nodded, trying to believe Gregor. He sighed and sat down at the dining room table.
Gregor's mom served him, Boots, and Lizzie each two pancakes with butter and syrup. "Thanks, mom," Gregor said.
Gregor was hungry from all the tossing and turning he had done in his sleep. He had a huge appetite. Gregor didn't even have to worry about trying to eat healthy. He was the most athletic kid in school. He had muscles that were way too big for an average seventh grader, and had a six pack of abs. Gregor knew that a lot of girls went absolutely crazy for him, including his friend, Angelina, but Gregor could not return the favor to any of his lovers but Luxa.
Once everyone was finished eating, Gregor grabbed his back pack, and Lizzie and Boots did the same. Mrs. Cormaci was taking them to school, since Gregor's mom had to be at work ten minutes before they had to leave for school. Gregor's dad was a science teacher for a school that started at like 6:30, so he definitely couldn't take the kids to school.
"Bye, everyone!" their mom announced, kissing everyone on the fore-head. She got a picture of the three of them together with her phone and headed out the door saying, "Don't forget what we talked about, Gregor."
They waved goodbye one last time. About ten minutes later, Mrs. Cormaci came to get them. They drove Boots to day care first, and then Lizzie to her elementary school. And finally, Gregor got to his school. Once Gregor was the only one in the car, Mrs. Cormaci broke the silence. "Gregor, you know your family is counting on you. You cannot get any of your 'powers' or whatever get in the way of you staying at a school without getting suspended," she said. Gregor sighed.
"I know, Mrs. Cormaci. And also, it's called being a rager, I don't have any sort of powers," he said smiling. Mrs. Cormaci laughed.
"My bad," she said giggling.
He finally got dropped off in front of his school. "Be good!" she yelled out the window as Gregor waved goodbye.
He walked into school and went into the cafeteria. He sat at the seat that had been saved for him; next to Angelina and Larry. All of the people greeted him with either a "hello," or "sup." Gregor seemed to notice that Angelina seemed very shy around him. He tried to talk to her, but she seemed to blush every time he asked her a question. "So how has your summer been?" Gregor asked Larry.
"Okay. It was pretty boring, all we did was go to the pool," Larry had said. Gregor nodded. Gregor saw a new kid walk in the cafeteria. He was big; much larger than Gregor. He looked like the perfect definition of a bully. He walked over to Larry.
"Hey, you punk, you gonna get out of my seat?" he asked. Gregor was confused, mainly because the kid had just gotten there and was already picking on someone.
Larry looked confused also. "Uhm, excuse me, but he was sitting there," Gregor added. Gregor could feel his rager sensation tingling inside of him.
"Hah, pretty polite one over here, right?" the kid said to two other ids that were standing behind him. They chuckled and Gregor stood up. What happened next was a blur. All Gregor remembered was punching the bully in the face and yelling. When the part was over, the Principle had already walked in and was looking disappointedly at Gregor. The kid that was probably two times the size of Gregor was on the ground, nose bleeding and eye blackened. Gregor gasped at what he had done.
Mr. Foy, Gregor's Principle, was already motioning for Gregor to come out of the cafeteria. Everyone was looking at him by now, Larry was trying to say "Uhh, thanks?"
Gregor grabbed his backpack and headed for the office.
"Gregor, you know we have a strict policy of self-defense. This was not self-defense, it was an act of immature on which you have provoked this incident," Mr. Foy said. Gregor felt ashamed.
"Listen, Gregor. You are off with a clean slate this year. This is just going to eventually get to a tally list and will be unacceptable. Now only since this is your first day, you will not get suspended. You will have after school detention for an hour then after you may explain to your parents what happened," Mr. Foy said.
Gregor swallowed hard and knew that the chances of him being able to go back to the underland were down to nothing.
