Author's Note and Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to the characters and etc from The Faculty, nor do I own the rights to the titles of any of Stephen King's books. Thanks to everyone who helped get a category for The Faculty here at fanfiction.net - finally!
Chapter 1: The Long Walk (1979)
The bus isn't really that bad.
What am I talking about? It is that bad. At least by sitting in the front you don't breathe in all the smoke coming from the back. The bus is a real P.O.S., but I know that that is definitely not just exhaust fumes.
Of course, in the front, you have to sit surrounded by losers who want you to take pictures of the cows in the pasture that are procreating by the side of the road. We have plenty of cows in Ohio. And the bus gets stopped at every traffic light on the way to school.
But I'm not one of them. I'm just the geek with the camera.
I'm a different kind of loser.
Every day starts just like this. And now I leave the hell of the bus for something worse.
But anyway, enough complaining...
Oh, hey. There's Delilah. I swear she holds her little meetings right near where I get off the bus just to tease me.
I wish I could get a couple more nice candids of her, but she'd kill me if I tried. Anyway, I think my camera needs a new -
Whack!
Yeah. I really needed to be elbowed in the face this morning.
Damnit - and now there's the nosebleed. As always.
What else were you expecting, Casey?
I hate how this is constituting as a normal day so far. I've seen worse days, so I guess I should could consider myself lucky. It's another sunny day in Hell.
"Go fuck your mom, dickhead!" I yelled after the dumbass that was responsible. Except it kind of came out as a pathetic, "Sorry. My fault."
Damnit. I hate those assholes.
"Crash and burn, Casey."
Hey, Stokely. Love you, too. At least she noticed, though. In an odd way, it was kind of nice of her to say something. She cared enough to notice. Life is screwed up. Especially mine.
Especially now.
I've barely stood up and those jocks - those jerks - are back.
"Casey, Casey, Casey..."
"Yeah, Dick?"
"Wrong answer, Casey. You know that's not my name."
"But it fits your personality perfectly." I muttered, looking off to the side.
He laughed. "Cocky today, are we? You know we can't have that Casey. We can't have you walking around thinking you have bigger balls than me. We'll just have to fix your little misconception."
His thugs agreed, so they grabbed me and carried me by my arms and legs to my fate. It was going to be the dumpster today, wasn't it?
I tried to look where they were taking me, but I was worrying about my camera more than myself - if part of it fell off in the dumpster like it did last week...
Okay, they're really taking their time in dragging out today's punishment. Did they forget what they were doing? Morons, we're still in the courtyard. And don't you realize that you need to go around the flagpole?
"One! Two!"
Shit. Casey's a little slow on the uptake today.
"No, not the pole!"
Thirty miles an hour into a flagpole.
Crotch-first.
Twice.
...Let's just say that my nuts really hurt.
"Are you okay, Casey?"
She almost sounded scared to ask.
And who was that? Oh, that girl from English. I catch her looking at me out of the corner of my eye all the time. Sometimes she catches me looking at her.
She got up the courage to ask again. "Casey, are you okay?"
"No." My voice sort of cracked, but I tried not to whine.
"Can I... help at all?"
I shook my head, still looking really pathetic, rolled up in a ball on the grass. She didn't know what else to say, so she left. She looked like she had wanted to say something or do something else, I think, and I kind of wished she would have.
Oh well. Get your ass up, Casey.
God, I can't walk.
But somehow I've managed to get to the closest bathroom.
I can hardly stand - I have to lean in the corner of the stall.
My nose is bleeding even worse now.
I guess there's a reason God gave us two hands. What a sight: my fingers shoved up my nose along with several lengths of one-ply; My other hand is checking for any long-term damage to my manhood. I should have known what they meant when they wanted to make sure their balls were bigger than mine.
But I think I'm okay.
I could hear Zeke on the other side of the stall conducting business, so I couldn't go out in the middle of that and disrupt the transaction. And I couldn't go out in public with my nose still gushing.
I closed my eyes for a moment with the sudden feeling that the word of the day was definitely going to be "fuck".
The blood kept running without showing any signs of letting up.
"Fuck."
The bell for first period rang.
Fuck.
