LAST TIME: We were introduced to the first member of the Slayuhz*, Erika, and her family. We learned that she was having weird dreams, and her senses and her strength were getting stronger. We were introduced to Erika's best beds, Holly and Jim. We also met Holly's mom and brothers. At the end of the episode she stopped a " horribly disfigured guy" from hurting a woman.
SLAYUHZ* Episode Two: First Day*
The Dream!! Again! Erika twisted and tuned on her bed trying to escape it. But she knew she would not be able to until the dream had run its course. The blond woman fighting, the red haired woman with the magic, the blond man in the light, the chasm, then the dream stopped, but it's hold was not over. Suddenly there was a rush of sounds and images. Wait, sounds? This was the first time there had ever been sounds in her dream. The terrifying rush of images suddenly stopped.
The dream showed her a public place with people all over, a bus or train station, maybe. Then the dream zeroed in on an African American girl standing in a ticket line. She was wearing a blue spaghetti strap top, a black trench coat and black jeans. She also had a duffle bag over one shoulder. Why was the dream showing this to her? Just then the ticket lady said, "Jesse Marx?" The African American girl stepped out of line and went to the desk. Then the dream was over.
Gasping, as if she had been drowning, Erika sat up in bed. Then with a groan she flopped back down. Five straight weeks of little sleep was really taking its toll on her. There were bags under her eyes, and she went by most days in a daze. She really needed some sleep!! With another groan she checked the clock: 2:03.
After sleeping on and off for hours her alarm clock rang. *Great* Erika thought, *Hardly any sleep and it's thuh first day off school.* Grumpily she climbed out of bed to go stand in front of her closet to decide what to wear. Finally she decided on a white flowing top with long loose sleeves. Her pants were an awesome baby blue leather. Erika had had to save and buy these herself because they were so expensive. (Not that her parents couldn't have afforded them, but they liked to teach her to reach her goals.) Before she left her room she grabbed a white corduroy jacket.
Erika's school was only a block away, so Erika, Holly, and Jim would meet at the corner of the street and walk to school together. Seeing her buds waiting for her Erika sped up.
"COOL pants, Eri" Holly said
"Hey, guys," Erika said with more cheer than she felt. Of course none of her friends were fooled.
"Geez, Eri, you look like crap!" Jim exclaimed. Had it been anyone but Jim she would have punched him. But Jim always said what he thought, so she didn't do too much.
"I love yuh, too, Jim."
"I know."
"As much as I hate to break up this love fest," Holly sneered, "We need to get going or we will be late for our first day of school."
"Yeah, let's get walkin'!" Erika smiled, walking always made her feel better.
"So," Erika continued to talk," Looks like yuh haven't given up your punkish style yet."
"That makes about an entire month you've kept one look," Jim added.
"Well, punkish works for my image."
Holly was kinda the patron saint of all nerds, geeks, and anyone else who needed protection from the popular bully type kids at school. If anyone was givin' kids trouble Holly would punch 'em. She wasn't any special fighter, but she had a wicked right hook. If a bully was bullying and saw Holly coming they made profuse apologies to the kid they had been harassing, then ran very fast in the opposite direction.
Just because she was keeping the same image didn't mean that she kept the same hair color. It was blue this week and the tips of the spikes were a neon green. It would clash on anyone else, but Holly had this special something that made it work. Maybe it was the fact she would beat up anyone who teased her about it. She was wearing one of those green t-shirts with the red and black rock-and-roll stars on it. The sleeves were ripped like normal. She had a spiked bracelet on her left wrist that was the same kind as the belt holding up her sagging jeans.
"If you keep punkish-ing your hair like that, it's gonnuh fall out," Erika commented.
"Naw, I have a killer conditioner," Holly went on to say, "You can't even tell."
"It's not a good conditioner, but a good gel that matters," Jim said running his hand through his own gelled locks.
*Same 'ole Jim* Erika thought. He was wearing what he normally wore, simple jeans and a t-shirt.
"Dude, what planet are you from?" Holly asked incredulously, "If gel does anything at all to your hair it only damages it more. A gel can't help your hair."
The three friends stopped at a corner to wait for a car, and Jim checked his watch.
"I don't think we're going to make it." He said.
"So, then when thuh cauh goes by...RUN" Erika squealed as she raced past her friends.
"Hey, no fair!" Holly yelled at her. Then she and Jim took off after her.
SLAYUHZ*
A few minutes later Erika breezed into the office to collect her schedule, and she was hardly breathing hard. Five minutes later, though, when Jim and Holly caught up with her in their first chem class, they were out of breath. Before Erika could ask why they were breathing hard the teacher started to talk.
"Hello, class, my name is Mr. Harold," The teacher had a dry, raspy voice. He was a balding man of about sixty, in a white lab coat.
"This is your first chem class. In this class you will work with and understand the workings of chemicals. So I think it would help if we review what makes up chemicals." He reached above his head and pulled on a string to reveal the periodic table of elements. After going over the more common elements, he assigned them a chapter to read, and told them the person who memorized the most number of elements would receive the first extra credit of the year.
When the jocks heard this they immediately opened the books and scanned the table over and over again. Since they were jocks they would need all the extra credit they could get. When the bell rang a few people jumped.
"Well, that was cool of Mr. Harold to assign some extra credit on the first day!" Jim said on the way to his next class.
"Yeah," Holly said before the three friends separated, "But I think it was mostly for the jocks benefit."
Erika only laughed her agreement as they went to their separate classes.
Jim's next class was gym. He wasn't like most of the people who weren't jocks and hated the class, he really didn't have an opinion on it either way. They didn't even do anything anyway. The teacher's name was Mrs. Tanner. She explained that she was pretty easy-going, and if you were feeling bad she would understand. But you had to have a note from the doctor or a parent. Any other excuse for non participation would earn you a zero for the day.
Jim could tell he would like this teacher. She was fair, but wasn't a push over like some teachers. She also wasn't a commando type like most highschool gym coaches. Mrs. Tanner seemed to genuinely like teaching, and also to like students. That was a good combo in any teacher.
*Just my luck* thought Erika as she saw her next class was history. She didn't really have any complaints against history in general, but she had a hard time memorizing dates and facts and memorizing dates and facts was what most teachers in history had you do. Holly was way better at that kind of stuff than her. *Oh, well, lets get this over with.*
It turned at the history teacher, Mr. Bell, was really cool. He didn't make you memorize all that many dates and he told you the facts the way they happened, in a story format. Having the lessons told to you in away that wasn't just reading out of a history book really helped Erika. When she left the class, she actually remembered more than half of what was said. * I think I'm gonnuh like Mr. Bell* Erika thought with a smile.
Holly walked into her classroom just as the bell rang, only narrowly missing a tardy. The teacher crossly told her to take a seat. Looking around and idly walking up and down rows til she found an empty seat next to an African American girl with bleached blond hair.
The class she was in was reading. The teacher told them to expect to give out two book reports each semester. Also they would be reading the "Classic Novels" and taking notes and vocabulary words from them for their year end test.
After the first five minutes Holly started to zone.
SLAYUHZ*
When the bell rang at the end of the class both Holly and the girl next to her got up at the same time, causing a collision.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Holly quickly apologized, "Hey, I don't think I know you."
"No, you wouldn't. I'm new."
"Well, welcome to Brook Falls, I'm Holly Smith."
"My name is Jesse Marx."
{Fin} SLAYUHZ* Ep. Two