A Sea of Darkness

Disclaimer: See previous page

Rating: PG

Archive: Sure, email first

A/N: My very first Fanfic.

*****

Chapter Four: It's a principle

 My life officially sucks. I'm hopeless. This is hopeless. It's completely insane.

I am not a happy camper.

Here's what's up: It's four in the morning. I've spent the last hour with my head in the toilet. I'm tired as hell. I have school tomorrow. Today. The sun is rising. It's sort of foggy or smoggy and the sky is grayish blue. A bird is singing and I want to shoot it for being so loud. Abby has the flu, darling, and Abby is going to have a breakdown if you don't shut up. I swear, I'm going to loose it. Mom's gone. I hate her. I will never be like her.

I had to tell Eric what's up. I told him Mom went to a 'friends' house. I am so thankful he believed me and didn't ask anymore questions.

So now I have to worry about what the heck I'm going to tell him when she isn't home in a week.

I'm dead.

And I'm thirteen. I'm moody. This is so very depressing, I think sanity left an hour ago.

And guess what? There's no milk! And no bread! Somebody shoot me now, please.

I'm lonely. I'm always alone. I always have to do things by myself. Friends? Me? I've never used a sentence with the two words before. People are a little frightened by my, uh, ability to show my temper. I need anger management. So very depressing.

I want to wallow my sorrows away by watching the TV. Normal people do it like that, but I can't. I can't concentrate for more than six seconds.

Plus, the sun is much more entertaining. It is, really.

I sort of space out for the next four hours. Next thing I know, I'm sitting at the kitchen table, banging my head on the surface. I think I'll break the table and then use the glass to weld myself a new Mom. Or cut my wrists and plead for forgiveness. Or see how long it takes for me to hit one of the birds. My bet is four seconds.

I'm muttering some stuff. In my sleep-deprived stage, I don't really know what. Thinking about sleeping makes me tired. I put my head on my arms for one minute. The next, Heeeeeeere's Eric!

I'm paranoid.

I'm tired.

I have bad language.

Children, that equals one surprised brother and one angry sister.

"Abby?"

"Muummphsst."

"Uh, we have to go to school, right?"

I say the 'S' word and jump up.

I think the fridge is broken. I'm stuck behind the fridge. The stuff in the fridge is going to be inedible stuff if I don't fix this. The problem is, I'm not a repairman. I'm a child. Actually, no, under the circumstances, I'm an adult.

I experimentally fiddle around with the motor. No dice.

Now my head is inside the fridge. I'm looking for food. I don't know what to eat. There's no bread, no milk, no eggs. I think we are banned from the store. There's no food.

My new idea is that we move out to the country and raise food. Oh, but look, we've got school today. I'll move next week.

The best I can come up with is fruit. I start cutting up an apple. I somehow cut my finger too. Now the only person who would want this apple would be a vampire. I think my neighbor's a vampire.

Eric comes to investigate my cursing. He manages to step on my foot.

I yelp. He looks at me strangely.

Remember that glass from that plate? Yeah. I stepped on it. My foot hurts. A lot. If you've ever had glass in your foot, you know what I mean. If you haven't, pretend you know what I mean.

Hobbling away, I grab a new apple and start again. Upon turning around, I notice that the vampire apple is gone. Great. My little brother is a vampire.

Now I'm realizing it's too late to be thinking about vampires. I'm late for school. So is Eric, obliviously. Grabbing the apple, my bookbag and Eric all in one movement, I'm out the door in three seconds. In my head, I'm screaming that I have to walk four blocks to school. My foot is bleeding. I'm multitasking. I'm chocking on apple, limping and swearing all at once. Taa Daa!

I wonder how I can be up at four in the morning and still be late for school.

I'm suddenly realizing that apple was not good on a sick stomach.

Thank you slow clock at school. I manage to slip into the classroom before the bell rings. No matter what people say, they still can't mark me as late. Ha ha.

But I think I'm going to die at school. I have the flu; I really shouldn't be at school. My plan is to infect as many as I can before school ends.

The teacher is talking about math homework. I'm realizing right now that I didn't do my math homework. Now I need an excuse. Oh, I have one!

The teacher frowns at me and asks where my homework is. I tell her my brother accidentally took it. She rolls her eyes and tells me to get it quick. She doesn't see the unfinished homework in my pocket. As soon as I'm out, I pick a corner in the empty hallway and finish in record time. After all, it was just math. Easy. Then I walk back into the room and hand it in.

"That was fast." The teacher tells me.

"I couldn't wait to get back to class and start science." I tell her. I am banished back to my desk. Which means two steps backwards and one to the middle.

I told you the teachers don't like me.

'Blah blah blah science blah blah blah hmm, I wonder how much Molly's shoes cost. Probably more than the rent on my apartment. Blah blah blah Abby. Abby. Abby!'

Oops. I was not thinking about science again. I was erasing the pencil marks on my desk and generally being an idiot. I'm never going to remember that the teachers hate me. So of course, she calls on me, expecting to use her 'you've got detention' look and make me look like a further fool. Too bad it's impossible.

"A bioluminescent light source is light which comes from an animal which has certain chemicals in its body that supply energy for light." I say nonchalantly.

"Uh..right." The teacher says. Abby: 262, Teachers: 0. 

Did I ever say that I was good at science?

I think I'm invisible. I wish I was invisible. If I wish it hard enough, just maybe my wish will come true.

Alas, it doesn't happen that way for me. I seem to draw attention to myself. God knows how.

It's lunch time, and I think that I'm going to be sick. Good old flu knows when to make me completely miserable. I'm sitting here, trying my best to drone out the noise and concentrate on the fact that they waxed the floors.

"Hey Abby. Did they put your mom away yet?" Jason Morris asked. I hate him. He's more or less a bully. And like all of them, he was not a very smart one.

"Bite me."

"Can I?"

 I show him how I feel with my fist.

"Oh Abby, you think you're tough?" Yes. I do, in fact. He sort of hits me. Amateur.

"I can't hit you. You're just a girl." He tells me like that's a bad thing.

"You must be afraid." I stare him in the eye.

"I'd just get suspended."

"Like you care."

Jason gives me a death look and was about to say something, when the principal hurried over and told me to come with him. A bunch of the kids did the little 'ooo, you're in trouble' thing. Somebody stuck out their leg. The stupid kid thought I wouldn't see it.

I deliberately step on it, and I heard a very satisfying yelp. Abby: 1908, Rest of the World: 0.

The principal walks too fast. I'm limping and struggling to keep up with him. For some reason we're going outside. I'm getting nervous. The principal doesn't say anything, he just points to the roof of the school. The school is a two floor thing, but in one area, there is this porch thing. And so, the roof part of that is not very high up.

Guess who is standing on the roof? No really, guess.

Eric.

There are two other teachers standing there, plus my principal.

"Get him down. Now." The principal orders. He doesn't really give me a choice.

I wander up to a shouting range and look up. The sun is burning my eyes. I'm going to melt.

"Eric? What are you doing?" I yell up at him. The teachers standing behind me make me nervous. For a moment, I'm tempted to run. I've never ditched school before. But the heat is too hot, so I take the lazy way out and stay rooted to the spot.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" He answers. Aw. He so got that attitude from me.

"Being an idiot." I answer. One of the teachers sniffs and I am reminded that I'm in super big trouble.

"Why are you up there?"

"I'm waiting."

"For who?"

"Mom."

Uh oh. I remember this. I've probably done it before. Kid gets in trouble. Kid's teachers call Mom. Mom comes for delinquent child. The thing is, it won't work this time.

"I'm not getting down until she comes back!"

Gulp. I slowly turn around, keeping my eyes on the ground. Oh, look, Mrs. Jarvis is wearing sandals. Who knew?

"He's being a bit odd. You know, eight year old boy, big imagination. He wants attention."

"You always said lying was wrong, Abby!" Eric shouts at me. I forgot to teach him about the basics of being born to the most dysfunctional family on the face of the planet. Rule one: Lying is good when asked about family

The principal looks at me.

"She left this morning to go to work. He has separation anxiety. He's very touchy about it."

"Really?"

"Yes." I hate the principal. He knows I'm lying. But he's going to make me admit it.

It makes me mad when I realize that Eric pretended to believe me about where Mom went but he didn't actually believe me.

The principal looks at the other teachers with the look of amusement/pity/ 'Wow this kid has a messed up family'.

I push my hair out of my eyes and shift nervously on the ground. The sun…is so…hot…I think I'm loosing it.

"Eric, could you come down now?"

"No!"

For somebody who is used to controlling weird situations, I am really not good at controlling this weird situation.

"Please?"

"Why should I?"

"Because." I state. I have no clue why. He really doesn't have to come down. There's no law anywhere that states that you are not allowed to sit on the roof of your school.

I could have gotten him down easily if there wasn't an audience watching me.

I'm going to have to do the only thing I can think of.

"So long Eric!" I start to back away. "I have to leave now!"

He stares at me. He's too smart. He knows I'm lying. But I still continue to walk away. I just keep my head down and don't look back.

Soon, I hear him get down and follow me. When I turn around the principal is gesturing for me to come with him. I follow, managing to grab onto Eric before he goes anywhere. I drag him behind me.

The school is cooler than outside, but I'm still hot. Perhaps I know what's coming.

I automatically sit down in a chair in front of the principal's desk and push Eric down in the chair beside me. I manage to shoot him a death look. I have that look down to a tee. Combined with my flu-look, the death look really says something.

The principal tells me he wants to 'talk' which means he wants to pry into my life and yell at me. Frankly, I don't really care. I'll just tune it out anyway.

Glancing at the clock, I note it is 2:30, it is principle that the principal can't keep us past 3:00. Heh. Principle, principal.

 Time sure flies when you're stuck outside trying to coax your brother down from the roof. This is a chapter in my life I'm going to remember.

My foot hurts. I'm realizing now that when I was walking away, I made the mistake of walking. I can feel the blood trickle out. Yuck. That's gross.

Oh crap. The principal has been talking and I haven't been listening. I try and tune in.

"…disobeying the rules." Yeah, okay. Blah blah  rules. Like I'm listening to that.

"…phone call home" Uh oh. That gets my attention. The principal sees that.

"Is there a problem, Abby?"

"No."

"Should I call home?"

"No."

The principal looks over at Eric, who is looking at me.

"Mom's at work. You can't reach her. She just got transferred and I don't know her number yet. You could write a note. I'll give it to her."

Yeah, right. Like that will happen.

"No, I think that won't be necessary. However, I am going to call the guidance councilor for you."

"Me?"

"And your brother."

"Why?"

"Just to sort some things out." The principal tells me. I know what he actually means is 'to figure out your home life, declare you freaks and send you to live with somebody else.'

I can't let that happen.

I won't let that happen

Ever.

Even if I have to stay home from school. Even if I have to beg for money. Even if I have to find a new apartment. I'm determined to keep life normal as possible. I am sure I can handle this.

The bell rings. Even to my flu-ridden head, the bell sounds good. I grab Eric and practically shove him out the doorway.

I'm gone before the principal can say 'detention.'