Chapter 2:
I hear the rain patter on my window in the car on Monday morning, feeling the dread of returning to school after the relaxing weekend. Watching the rain pour made me feel even sadder. I felt my mother stop the car outside the drop off point. The butterflies rise in my stomach until I feel like puking.
"Ok sweetie, it's time to go to school," I hear my mom try to say comfortingly. I know she's trying to help me, but school was still horrible. But then I saw Rachel coming out of her car, and I ran out of the car.
"Bye Mom, love you!" I tell her loudly. I slam the door and I run inside, trying to avoid the rain. I walk inside right behind Rachel, and I shake my shaggy hair to rid it of the water. I start talking to her about the subs that we are having in basically in every class. "You know how we've been getting all these creepy subs? Like you know how we haven't seen Mrs. Troutman or Mrs. Pewthers for a while? All of the teachers have disappeared, you know?"
"Yeah?" she replied. I could tell that her excitement was growing rapidly.
"Well, I think, that they're monsters." I replied quietly. She sighed loudly, obviously thinking I was messing with her. "What? I'm serious! All of the subs are creepy and weird and scary! Well, if we really are demigods, then it's pretty obvious that monsters would show up. And think about it. These subs come with no warning, they are here for a long amount of time, and whenever they do something creepy, no one notices except me, you, and…" An expression of realization crosses my face.
"What? What's wrong?" Rachel asks as we ascend the stairs slowly.
"I just realized. We're not the only ones who realize when the substitutes do something weird. Whenever the history sub started glaring at me, I looked across the room at me, but I noticed someone else staring at me."
"WHO?!" Rachel basically screamed.
"Michael Boatright."
I walked into first hour alone, and I noticed Michael Boatright sitting at his table in Science next to Noah Samuel. I was sitting next to Sommer Franks and Sam Kelly. Our science substitute, Mr. Portenga, walked into class with a mean expression on his face. I instantly felt scared, angry, irritated, intimidated… you name it. Mr. Portenga was an aging man with salt and pepper hair and he always wore a trench coat. You couldn't say creepy without saying Mr. Portenga. He started talking about nucleotides, and I turned to see Michael staring at me.
I mouthed quickly, "I need to talk to you after class," then turning around, hoping he got the message, I tried to pay attention. But the next time Mr. Portenga turned around, I saw a face that wasn't his. It was all leathery and gross, like a hawk mixed with a bat. It seemed like an hour before he turned around; in reality, about half a second. I spun around to Michael, and by the widened eyes and gaping mouth, I think he saw the thing too. I couldn't wait to tell Rachel.
I walked out of Science with a weird look on my face. I could tell by Michael's look when he saw me.
"What's up that look?" he said, laughing. I looked over at Rachel and I beckoned her over with a wave of my hand. She came over with a quick shuffle and I glanced at Michael.
"Michael and I saw something in Science, something weird with Mr. Portenga. His face morphed and it looked…" I lowered my voice so only Michael and Rachel could hear me, "like a monster."
Michael nodded, and I glanced at the clock above our heads. I wanted to say more, but we had limited time to talk. "How about we meet up at lunch?" I said quickly. I glanced up again and it said about one minute until the bell rang.
Michael and Rachel nodded. I gave Michael a fist bump with an explosion, and I gave Rachel a little look. Who knew what we were getting ourselves into?
It was finally lunchtime, and I walked to Rachel and I's usual table. I noticed Rachel and Michael already sitting there, but they weren't even looking at each other, let alone talking. I walked over to the table with my lunch in hand. When I sat down, I tried to get a conversation out of them.
"Rachel, did you see anything in Mr. Portenga's class?" I asked her quietly. I didn't want to draw attention by yelling questions like that. You know, common sense.
"Actually, I think I noticed someone else in my class. She noticed Mr. Portenga's half second morph. It was Sarah Brown," she responded, slowly dropping her voice continually until it was barely a whisper.
"Ok, well after lunch, Rachel and I are going to History, and then you," I said looking at Michael, "are going to English. What are the subs in those classes?"
"Well," Michael responded, "in English its Mrs. Smith, and in History its Mr. Jones. Mr. Jones didn't morph, but with you, Rachel, and Sarah, It might provoke him. If he really is a monster."
"And guys, we don't really know about these subs really being monsters, I mean, they could just be creepy teachers. We know there is such thing." I said with a little smile on my face. "It could be our overactive imaginations."
"No way! It's way too obvious it's not! We saw a morph with our own eyes! And what if there are more of us in the class, no, the school? We have to keep investigating," Michael said quickly, and a little too loudly.
People started staring at our table, trying to see what Michael was yelling about. I quickly gave them a confused look, a look that said, "What the heck are you staring at?" I glared at Michael. "Keep your voice down," I murmured. "We don't want people to start becoming suspicious." I could've said more, but just then the bell rang. "OK, people we know the plan?"
"Yep, check out the teachers, see if there are any others, and then figure out what is going on," Rachel responded.
"Good. See you guys in Bible class," I dismissed them. We had a mission, and we were going to complete this mission. We needed to know that we weren't going crazy.