Chapter 3: Scratch That Itch
Serena was sitting on her bed starting at Mina, who was painting her nails on the bed opposite Serena.
"Do you know what he made me do," Serena cried, outraged.
"What?" Mina asked.
"Mr. Shields made me clap a whole box of erasers, can you believe that?" Serena whined, but there was an evil spark in her eyes which Mina caught.
"What did you do?" Mina asked, dreading her answer.
"Nothing to serious, I just put chalk dust in the map," Serena shrugged.
Mina quirked her brows, "Serena, you have to stop pulling pranks on the teachers, I with you on other students but teachers are a no, no, I don't want to get kicked out," Mina whined.
Serena rolled her eyes, "He deserved it; do you know what he said to me afterwards?"
"What?" Mina sounded board.
"He asked if I wanted him to tutor me in History," Serena air quote when she said 'tutor'
Mina's eyes widen and her mouth dropped open, "He didn't"
Serena nodded folding her arms across her chest. Hearing the door open both girls turned to see their roommate Lita strolling in with a plate in her right hand.
"Thought you guys might be hungry," Lita said, placing the plate of cookies on Serena's bed.
"You know Lita, it is your cooking that keeps me from pulling a prank on you," Serena sighed, wolfing down two cookies.
"I know, why do you think I keep baking," Lita laughed.
"Lita, you're just in time, Serena was telling me that Mr. Shields wants to tutor her," Mina winked, grabbing a cookie for herself before Serena ate them all.
"Really, so what did you say?" Lita smirked.
"I told him I would rather be tutored by Mr. Chambers than him," Serena said, using her sweet voice.
Both Mina and Lita mouth dropped open before Lita fell back on the bed gasping in laughter.
"You do know that Mr. Chambers is a woman?" Lita laughed, clutching her gut.
"What, no. It's not true," Serena cried, shocked marred her face.
"Yep, Amara Chambers is a lesbian, she likes it when her students call Mister and she is currently tutoring Michelle Waters," Lita gossiped.
"No way, no wonder Michelle is always getting in trouble with our English teacher," Serena laughed. "To bad I am not a lesbian. Mr. Chambers is hot."
"So what are you going to do now that Mr. Shields wants to tutor you," Mina asked, getting back on topic.
"You'll see, you still got the map of the old tunnels underneath the school," Serena said smiling.
Lita and Mina both groaned, knowing that they would not be getting a wink of sleep tonight.
Serena slowly walked down the semi-lit corridor with two turned off flashlights in her hands. She made sure to peek around every corner that she came to; she didn't want to run into one of the night monitors. Sweat broke out on her brow when she heard footsteps slowly walking ahead of her, she could not make out the figure yet so she knew she had not been spotted. Serena dived into one of the classrooms and hid behind the door. The footsteps drew closer and closer until they stopped just outside the classroom.
"No movements here," A female voice said. Serena could hear the crackle of the walkie-talkies.
Muffled words blared from the walkie-talkie but Serena could not make out what they were saying, but the monitor did because the footsteps continued n down the hall. Serena waited a minute or two and slowly peek her head out, seeing no one she headed on her way. She slowly crept to the cafeteria and made her way into the kitchen. Darkness flooded her vision, making her turn on one of the flashlights. Pots and pans lined the wall and two huge sinks laid behind the massive stove. She slowly crept to the prep table and pushed it aside revealing a trap door.
"God I love when they build new building on top of old buildings," Serena sighed, lifting up the trapdoor. She climbed down a latter and her feet got soaked when she reached the bottom. The room that she had entered was filled with water and stank of mold.
"Gross," Serena plug her nose, "The things I do for a prank."
Serena splashed in the water as she walked over to a desk on the left side of the room, taking out a bag that she stashed there for pranks outside the school.
Serena had discovered these old passageways when she was doing a history report on the school, it seemed that the old school was burned in a fire in the eight-hundreds and instead of cleaning up the mess they just built right over top of it, leaving uncharted corridors not seen in the blue prints, Serena had to dig up the old blue from the other building to find these corridors, that would lead her off school property without the monitors seeing her. For this mission she needed to be off school grounds, because it was forbidden for the teachers to live on campus. Serena didn't know why it was forbidden, but she really didn't care. The teachers lived in one room cabins a mile down from the school and further down there were three or four farms lurking about.
Serena had to admit that she loved that the school was located in the country and far away from other people, but she did miss the mall.
Strapping her bag onto her back she splashed her way down the long corridor, turning at the first right, and continued on. Sounds of rodents scurrying about made Serena shudder, she hate rodents of every kind, but she was determine to see this prank through. Making another left she came to the door and was happy when she opened up the door and the smell of fresh air overrode the smell of mold. Stepping outside Serena made her way to the dirt road to her right and started to walk, switching on her other flashlight. The road was dark and there was no moon to light the sky, dark clouds blocked any light the small stars might have brought, but Serena didn't care, she had her flashlights and knew her way, this was not the first time she had snuck out of 'Moonlight Academy For Young Girls'.
Serena slowly crept up to the cabin on the left and peeked in through the window, her eyes was greeted with the living room. A small TV sat in the far corner and a couch opposite it. There was a recliner chair lying against the south wall and end tables on each side of the couch. Seeing no one in the room Serena traced her hands around the window to see if there was as security system, she smiled, there was not. She tried to life the window but it was locked tight. Shrugging her shoulders she moved onto the door and jiggled the handle, that too was locked, but that didn't stop Serena. She flung down her bag and took out her picks and started on the lock.
One thing her uncle Tony used to tell her when she was little and before he went to jail was "If there is one thing in life everyone needs to know, its how to pick locks." He had taught Serena and Mina everything he knew about picking locks from the very basic to computerize; lucky for Serena this was a basic lock and she heard the click within seconds. Smiling Serena let herself into the house. She took off her wet sneakers at the door; she did not want to leave a trail. She tip toed down a small hall and came to the first room. It was his bedroom. Serena eyes glazed over at seeing Mr. Shields sleeping form, his face almost looked angelic when he slept. Soft snores breathed out of his lushes lips and Serena tip toed into the room. She suddenly stopped when Mr. Shields turned over lying on his back, his hair falling into his eyes. Serena breathed a sigh of relief and continued over to his dresser. A huge clock sat on the dresses telling her it was one in the morning. Serena checked to see what time he had set the alarm for and then re-set the alarm to a much later time then normal. Serena glance once more at Mr. Shields sleeping form and for a moment her hand itched to move his ebony hair away from his eyes, but she resisted and headed on into the bathroom that was a little further down the hall. She opened his closet in the bathroom to find many towels. She pulled out a small pouch from her bag and poured the powdery sustains on the towels. Quickly she shut the door and turned to his shower. She grabbed his shampoo and dumped out the liquid before replacing it with peroxide. Serena did her best to contain her giggles and she slowly crept out of the bathroom and headed back down the hall; put her sneakers back on and walked out the door, locking it behind her. Serena breathed deeply loving the feeling that she was receiving. Her adrenalin was spiked to an all time high and she felt giddy. She did not want to turn back yet, so instead of going back to school, she headed further down the road, heading to one of the farms, an idea forming in her mind.
Serena made it back at six in the morning and snuck into bed without the monitors seeing her. She was able to fall asleep with a smile on her lips.
_00_
Darien Shields cracked an eye open as his alarm blared throughout the room. Too tired to get up he tried to hit the snooze, but his hand missed and he slapped the dresser, grumbling he lifted his head and slapped his hand on the alarm and a cry broke through his lips. He did a double take at his alarm clock.
"I could have sworn I set that thing for seven," Darien yelled, jumping out of bed.
It was quarter to nine and he had class in ten minutes. He sprinted from his room and after relieving himself of his morning urine he hopped into the shower and quickly washed his body and shampooed his hair. His scalp started to tingle but he paid no mind as he washed the soap out. Shutting off the water he rushed out of the shower and grabbed a towel from the closet and dried his entire body before wrapping the towel around his waist, going back into his room to change. He dug in his draw until he found his black pants and a blue sweater. He scratched his stomach absentmindedly for a minute or two before tossing the towel on the floor and quickly dressed. He grabbed his keys and ran out the door. Checking his watch he screamed when he had two minute to get to school. He slammed the door and started his car, peeling off down the road, his legs itching up a storm, but he ignored it.
He was late as he charged down the hall, his breaths coming out in small gasps, his lungs burning. Sweat pooled down his face and slithered down his back as he entered his classroom, his face red as he slumped into his chair. Darien took a couple of slow breaths, trying to calm his beating heart; once he regained his composure he turned and stared at all the wide eyes gawking at him in shock. He cleared his throat and sat up straight.
"Good morning class, sorry I am late," Darien put on his teacher's voice.
"Good morning, Mr. Shields," The girls giggled.
"Open your page to one-forty-six please," Mr. Shields said, opening his book.
Again his leg was itching; he placed his left hand down and started to scratch his itch. His eyes scanned the girls and stopped on Serena, she was sitting in her usual spot in the back, but he could tell that she was trying not to fall asleep in class. Her eyes were closing only to be forced open again and he wondered why she was so tired. Again he scratched another itch, but this time it was on the lower part of his back. He hissed through his teeth the itching kept getting worse. Darien quickly got to his feet and tried his best to ignore the itching.
"Okay, so the Greeks and Roman's worshipped the same Gods, but the Roman's changed their nameā¦" His voice trailed off when he noticed that the girls in his class were still giggling. "What's so funny?"
The girls continued to giggle but no one spoke up, but his mind was soon distracted by another intense itch in his neither regain. He hopped from one foot to the other wishing he could scratch his crotch but knew he could not in a room full of girls. Don't scratch, don't scratch, Darien thought as he forced his hand away from his groin, it pained him that he could not scratch. He raked his hand through his hair instead and went over to the blackboard.
"Okay I am going to show you on the map, where Greece and Rome are," Darien said, itching his chest.
Why am I so itchy? Darien thought as he yanked down the map.
Billows of white dust clouded his vision and he inhaled the chalk dust and started to cough violently. White chalk dust coated every part of his body. He felt the chalk within his mouth and had to spit out the white powdery stuff. The class erupted in laughter. Hands applauding the scene and Darien's eyes narrowed into slits, his face redden, but no one could tell under the white dust.
"Class dismissed," Mr. Shields seethed, his voice low and menacing.
The girls filed out clutching their guts and laughing. He saw Serena walk passed him and she winked at him before heading out the door.
"I will get you for this Serena, mark my words," Darien seethed, walking out of the classroom. The itching was becoming to much and he started to do a scratch dance, his hands dancing all over his body trying to relieve the itch that would not go away no matter how hard he itched. He ran into the men's washroom and washed his face and hands and he screamed at the top of his lungs when he looked at himself in the mirror. His hair was no longer ebony but mud brown. He was in such a rush this morning that he never looked in the mirror and now that he did, he could not believe his eyes. The only black that was left was outline all around his head.
"Shit!" Darien cursed, "No wonder the girls were laughing at me."
Just then the itching started getting worse and he could not stop. He quickly took off for the teachers' lounge scratching all the way down the hall. He barged in the office and went straight to his locker where he kept an extra pair of clothes and headed to the shower that was adjacent to the lounge. He quickly showered and was relieved that he no longer itched.
"I know Serena is behind this, but how?" Darien wondered as he redressed in clean itch free clothes.
