Jesse
Following Mrs Dodds out of the silent hall and it to a long corridor, she lead me through it and then back into the main part of the school searching for an empty room. After what seemed like forever, she stopped and peered into a classroom on her left, she gestured me in and glanced up and down the hallway. I'm getting a really bad vibe from this.
I entered the classroom and the scent of caffeine hit me like a tidal wave, and just when I was beginning to think my nausea was getting a bit better. The room itself was well decorated with boards full of colour and maths equations. A small desk for the teacher sat abandoned in the corner with a laptop on top of it, humming quietly to itself.
I pulled out a chair from the nearest desk and gratefully collapsed onto it. I exhaled heavily and put my head in my hands, trying to wish away the dull aches that surrounded me. You ever had one those really sick days where you just constantly throw up? Yeah, it was a little like that.
I heard the door close and I looked up to see Mrs Dodds eyeing me suspiciously. Then she did something that really freaked me out. She sniffed, and not like the small sniff you do when you have cold. I mean a huge intake of air through her little cheese grater nostrils, almost as if she were trying to catch the scent of some delicious cooking really far away.
"Umm, Mrs Dodds… are you okay?"
She walked slowly to the right, not breaking eye contact for a second. "Who are you?" She demanded.
"Err, Jesse Nyström."
"No! Who are you really?" She repeated, her voice gradually raising.
"Jesse… Björn Nyström?" I said prudently.
"Don't play games with me boy! I know you're not one of them," She gestured toward the door, implying the school.
"With all due respect Mrs, what on earth are you talking about?" I questioned in disbelief.
She darted forwards briskly- faster than I thought possible for her- and glowered down at me with dark fiery eyes. On any normal occasion I would've jumped out of my skin but I was too tired to move right now and could only stare straight back at her.
"You know exactly what I'm talking about. You don't smell like anyone I've met before but let me assure you, if you have come here to do harm to someone then you have made a great mistake. Anything so much as a toe out of line and I won't hesitate to-"
Suddenly the door opened and in marched two men in shirts and ties. They were: the principal Mr McKinney, a fairly tall balding man in his late forties who vaguely resembled a young Terry Bradshaw, and Mr Vargas, an average looking guy with short dark hair and a sombre look in his eyes. He was head of faculty in the school.
Mrs Dodds and I both just froze in place; looking like the worst excuse for an acted interrogation scene. Unlike Mrs Dodds I was extremely happy to see the two of them, although I was bound for punishment, it seemed a much better option than anything Mrs Dodds was going to bestow upon me.
"It's okay Alice, we'll take it from here." Said Mr Vargas flatly. "You can go back to your classroom now."
Mrs Dodds straightened up and adjusted her leather jacket, she took one last glare at me without either of the two men seeing and glided out of the room. I stayed rooted to the chair still in shock of what had just happened.
"Now then Mr Nyström," Started the principal, Mr McKinney. "I understand from just leaving the sports hall that you were not the one who started the fight. Your reaction however is far from unpunishable. Mark has been sent to hospital with a neck sprain because of your actions."
A mountain of guilt engulfed me, I didn't realise I had sent him to the hospital, I didn't even mean to punch him that hard. Did I?
I sat there, completely tuned out of what the principal was saying, staring into space and contemplating what had happened. This wasn't the first time I had sent someone to the hospital but it was the first I had committed intentionally. I started getting a bit frantic, wondering if Mark was okay.
"Since this is only the second day back as well, we're certainly not going to expel you however we are going to take you out of the rest of your lessons," Mr Vargas was saying "In which time you will be serving detention. You will also be excluded from school tomorrow."
Mr McKinney stepped in. "Mr Nyström are you even listening to us?"
"Yeah I am," I said looking up at them. "Is Mark going to be okay?"
"I certainly hope so." Replied Mr McKinney, I sighed and hung my head. He was a kind man and didn't usually like dishing out punishments but this was of course part of job. We were fairly well acquainted after being in this situation more often than not.
"Come on then, you'll be spending the rest of your day in reception." Mr Vargas told me.
"The entirety of it?" I asked.
"Well, you'll get lunch of course but other than that yes."
I groaned and stood up wearily stretching but pulled back after my stomach violently disagreed with me. Coughing ferociously, I fell into a crouch clutching my stomach which felt like it was digesting itself. The two men turned from me to each other.
"Best get him to the nurse's office John." Said Vargas quickly.
They both hoisted me up and we left the room, heading to the nurse's office. When we got there they more or less left me there and told the nurse they would be back. Our nurse was a nice petite lady who was probably in her late forties, she had dirty blonde hair and small defined features.
She told me to sit on a desk and did some measuring stuff that I was didn't really pay attention to. After a while, she moved toward a cabinet at the back of the room which unlike the rest of the school, was fairly old looking and not as pristine. She took out a small brown bottle of liquid and unscrewed the lid, she took out a spoon and gave the two to me and told me to take three spoonfuls.
Sometime after doing so, my stomach began to settle and not devour itself. The nurse smiled at me and took the bottle and spoon out of my hand, her green eyes gleaming.
"Feeling any better?" She asked me kindly.
"Loads, thanks a lot."
"No need to thank me, it's what I do." She dismissed. "Now if Mark's friend told me correctly, you took a kick to your genitals, a punch to the temple and a kick in the stomach?"
"Something like that." I grumbled, not really wanting to be reminded of it.
"And you're sure you're not feeling any other aches or anything?"
"Not really, no." She looked a little surprised at this. "Was mark in here?" I asked, eager to learn his condition.
"Don't fret, I'm sure he will be fine. He is very capable hands right now." That relieved me somewhat but didn't quite take off the encompassing sense of guilt. I made note to visit him in the hospital and apologise.
After filling out some paperwork on her desk, a knock came from the door and Mr McKinney walked in. He ushered me out and took me to reception which was next to the nurse's office. We entered and both knew the drill of holding your breath upon entry to reception. This didn't prepare us for the substantial amount of perfume that bombarded our senses.
Half gagging, we walked past Melissa the receptionist, she was a large woman with scraggly hair and a bad smoking habit.
"Back again so soon are we Jesse?" She asked me.
"Unfortunately." I muttered back. I've been here enough times to be welcomed back with her usual yellowish grin of crooked teeth.
The principal led me to a door behind the desk and opened it. Inside was a small room which was quite bare of any furnishing, there were three chairs and a coffee table in the middle. There was a plant in the left corner of the room and a window, covered by blinds that had a view of the parking lot. A water tank with cups sat solemnly on the right of the room.
"I'm going to leave you in here for the rest of the day, I'll make sure the teachers get you your work and feel free to leave at lunch. Just make sure you come back." Said Mr McKinney, he smiled sympathetically and closed the door.
The next hour was probably the slowest of my life. The clock seemed to deliberately travel at a snail's pace, not seeming to care about my boredom. Melissa came in with some maths work for me but I really didn't feel like doing it, so it just ended up a page of half-hearted scrawls.
Eventually the lunch bell went and I hurried out of the stuffy room, realising that I was starved. I entered the lunch hall and moved into the line for school meals, towering above the people in front of me. The hall was much smaller than the sports hall but still quite large, it had a wood panel floor with brick walls dotted with big windows.
"Hey Jesse, where were you last lesson?" Called a voice behind me. I turned to see Trey walking up to me, a worried expression on his face.
"McKinney locked me up in reception and I can't come in tomorrow."
"Damn… Well it's a much more lenient punishment than I thought they'd give you." A stated.
"I guess so." I sighed.
As the line reached the service, it split, some people moving toward the vegetarian option. As it did, we ended up next to Percy who was talking to the lady at the counter and gesturing to the bowl of pasta she was holding out to him.
"-tricoloured pasta should have blue in it." He accepted the bowl and then noticed me next to him. "Jesse, how are you feeling?"
"Alright I guess," I replied. "Thanks for trying to help out back there."
"Hmph, tried is the key word there." He huffed, moving along to pay for the meal.
I took a plate of ravioli and a carton of orange juice and headed to pay for it. Well I say pay, I get free meals since my parents aren't well… around anymore. Percy was waiting for us by the end of the counter, I went up to the woman on the till, she nodded at me knowingly and I passed through without payment.
Unfortunately Percy picked up on this. "Jesse, how come you didn't have to pay?"
"Cause, umm… you know…" I trailed of trying to think of a reasonable explanation. Luckily Trey interrupted us, appearing on my left.
"What's the hold up?" He questioned.
"Actually I think McKinney might want me to be in reception." I stated so I could make my escape. I darted off, out of the hall and away from Percy's intruding questions.
I know what you're thinking, that was pretty stupid but I didn't really know an explanation to that and I just wanted to leave so that felt like the right thing to do at the time.
Back at reception I slowly at my meal and tried to find a way to make the time go faster but to no avail. Pretty soon lunch had ended and I was given more work to do from my next two classes, physics and social studies. I usually enjoy both lessons but being trapped in this room seemed to drain away all aspects of fun.
Finally, the bell that signalled the end of lessons came and I was released from my imprisonment. Hurriedly, I left the school, making sure I avoided Percy. After I reached the bottom of the steps I crossed the road to the elementary school. I was in a bit of a fret at the minute, I needed to go see if Mark was okay at the hospital. I didn't particularly want Percy to see me either.
I stood there outside the gates, looking back and forth. Where has she got to?
Then I felt a light tug on my shirt to right and I turned. Rebecca was standing there idly staring up at me with big worrying grey eyes.
"Hey Jesse-bear, are you okay? You look a really worried." She told me in a nervous tone.
I couldn't help but smile at her gorgeous little face. "Don't worry Becca, I'm fine." I told her.
"Good," She said although not sounding entirely convinced. "It's not nice when you worry."
She grabbed hold of my hand and we started our trek home, I saw Shane across the street walking from school and I waved to get his attention. He rolled his eyes and turned to look at me.
"We might be a little late getting back home." I called.
"Okay, you're never at home most of the time anyway." He retorted and carried on walking. It was true though, I usually had to work at Starbucks to keep up with our rent and everything.
"Jesse, where are we going?" Rebecca asked.
"Do you mind making a quick trip to the hospital with me?"
"No, I've never been to a hospital before." She said with a grin of excitement lighting up her face. "Oh and I've got something for you." She rustled through her bag and produced a picture which she handed to me.
It was well drawn considering she was only ten. The picture was of the three of us; Shane, Rebecca and me all holding hands on top of a hill. Shane was to the left with a grumpy face, I was in the middle and made freakishly tall whilst Rebeca was on the right with a big beam across her drawn self.
I looked at the real Rebecca and she too was smiling, looking up at me expectantly.
"Do you like it?" She asked.
"I love it."
ATTENTION: I'm being a bit indecisive at the moment and I really don't know whose perspective to do next, if you could be so kind as to say who you think I should do in the next chapter that would be really helpful. Thanks :)
Reviewers: 'Jimsdale' It's nice to see that people are excited by this, I honestly thought nobody would review it at all, but then I got you lovely people :P 'The guest quest' I like the names you're coming up with and I hope you like this one! 'hermes child awesomeness' I'm glad you think it is awesome. I feel like I did that fight scene wrong though :L
Don't forget to criticise anything feel needs adjusting, it helps a lot.
Thanks everyone for reading,
Have a beautiful day.
Schönen Tag noch.
Avez-vous une bonne journée.
Miłego dnia.
Abbiate una buona giornata.
Ha en härlig dag.
Que tengan un buen día.
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