6:20 A.M.
"This early morning shit has got to go." Kevin Connell said amidst several yawns. "I think I still have some buzz left over from last night."
"Shouldn't have drank so much, at least you didn't get taken to jail." Eddie Nailon remarked with a smirk, thinking about his unfortunate friend Victor. Even though a few of them were going on the early morning field trip the next day, there was no breaking the traditional Friday night keg party. Whether it be in the woods, behind the school or in someone else's house, it didn't really matter to them. The only thing they did know was that it was going to happen, except for some cases when it was pouring out. Sometimes the cops would come and break it up, and last night happened to be one of those nights.
Kevin laughed at the comment, taking his faded black New York Yankees cap off to scratch the back of his head, ruffling up his thick brown hair so that it stood out some in the back. Placing the cap back on, his weary eyes would take another look around the room, getting a glimpse of all the faces that would be accompanying them on the trip.
"So is Vic the only one missing?" A voice off to the right of the boys chimed in, a loud cackling sound following the question. David Torrance, regarded as the voice of the group, had just arrived in the gymnasium, wearing the same clothes that he had on last night. At least he had put on some cologne.
"Yeah, Greg's taking a piss and God only knows if Vic's gonna even make it." Eddie replied after slapping hands with David, who would then move his hand up to cover a yawn. This, of course, had a rippled effect, and also caused Kevin and to yawn, while Eddie turned away to hide his. David laughed a little bit again, taking some time to check out the girls who would be joining them on this trip.
All together, there were forty-one seniors from two classes who would be going, plus three of the teachers. One of the physics classes couldn't even go on the trip, due to poor overall grades and just generally being assholes. The three teachers were Mr. White, the school's only physics teacher and a pretty decent guy. A majority of the students seemed to think he was alright, so he might have been one of the few teachers in the school who were hardly ever given a hard time. He rarely gave homework, and most of his classes were experiments that he often demonstrated first, so they were also somewhat tolerable.
The other science teacher on the trip was Ms. Grayson, a young teacher in her late twenties who was probably one of the prettiest teachers at the school. She was a straight arrow though it seemed, and even though she might have been hot, her chemistry classes were just simply boring. The only time it was any fun would be if one of the students did something stupid. There was one occasion were a note was intercepted from Greg who had gotten it from David. She asked for Greg to read the note out loud in front of the class, which caused one of the more memorable lines in James J. Merrill High School history. When Greg stood up, trying to hold in his own laughter and read the words, "I want to fuck Ms. Grayson," the entire class lost it for a good five minutes straight. Ms. Grayson knew the hand writing was David's though, so Greg didn't get into trouble, and neither did David really. So ever since then, David tried to avoid eye contact with the young teacher.
And then of course, there was the other teacher, Mrs. Randleman. Mrs. Randleman was the exact opposite of Mr. White, for the fact that ninety percent of the students hated her. She was a mean woman in her early sixties, with this awful black dye job set against mostly pale skin. She was one of the school's two vice principals, and had given out more detention that probably anyone on the planet. It was not uncommon for her to give detention to more than twenty people at once if she felt necessary, even for a small thing such as a food fight at lunch. Kevin and Victor had once gotten detention for two weeks after they had a mock fight in the middle of the lunch line. Most of the people around them knew they were just kidding around, because the two of them had gotten into many joking skirmishes in the past. But when Wretched Randleman had saw them, she grabbed Kevin by his shirt collar and screamed into his ear. It didn't help matters that Victor called her a bitch, so they were forced to spend the next two weeks in the library for one hour after school.
"Man, why the fuck does this bitch have to come with us? To make sure that we're not having too much fun or something?" David asked, motioning towards the elderly woman who was sitting on a blue plastic chair near the door to the locker rooms. Just then, Gregory Yang emerged from the bathroom, lightly slapping David on the back of his neck.
"Where's Vic?" Greg asked, leaning up against the side of the bleachers.
"Down at fourth precinct still probably. Might have been a good idea for him to not write his own name in graffiti on that wall last night." Eddie nodded his head slightly, his fingers rolling a slender cigarette back and forth until he finally perched it on top of his right ear.
"I can't believe that, he wrote 'Victor' on the wall?" Greg chuckled, asking the question because he really didn't know. Greg left the earliest, probably because he didn't drink too much and he was smart enough to know that he would have to wake up early the next morning.
"No, he didn't write 'Victor'. He wrote, 'Victor Hendricks was here bitch!' on the side of that blue and white garage." Eddie replied, drawing a laugh out of the group, including a slightly feminine laugh off to the right. They turned their heads to see that Jenn Sciotta was approaching them, which was somewhat of a surprise. Jenn and Eddie had hooked up on a few occasions during the weekends, but didn't really talk that much during school hours. Jenn was one of the more popular girls in the school, and the group of boys were somewhere on the fringes. Everyone knew them, most people liked them, but they weren't totally there in the minds of senior clique. Mainly because none of them played team sports, even though Eddie and Victor were decent athletes.
"Hey guys. Surprised to see you all made it after last night." She would shoot a wink towards Eddie, who just raised an eyebrow as his eyes followed to see that two more of Jenn's friends were coming over. Kristen Mazlowski and Sandra DeCarro, two of the bitchier girls in the senior class. Jenn, while popular, was pretty nice but these two were just pains in the ass. David would look away, mouthing the word 'bitches' to Greg, who would just shake his head upon their arrival.
"So where's Victor?" Sandra would reply with a sneer, knowing full well what happened. Word of mouth had no doubt spread from Ray or someone else who was there. I mean, there were about ten or fifteen witnesses.
"Isn't it too early for you to be a bitch?" Greg just asked flat out, shrugging his shoulders a bit. He wasn't known for his tact really.
Kristen's jaw dropped but the rest of the guys just laughed. Sandra didn't think it was so funny though, and looked as if she were just about to knock Greg out when Mr. White spoke up.
"Can I have everyone's attention please?!" He shouted across the gym, making sure to get everyone's attention. When they turned around, they would see that a police officer was standing next to him. Some of the kids recognized him as Officer Brandt, a royal pain in the ass that seemingly got off on breaking their balls once a weekend. "I'm going to have to speak with Officer Brandt here in private for a few moments. Don't leave the gym, we're still waiting on six students I believe. We'll wait fifteen more minutes, and if they don't show, well that's their problem. Now if you'll excuse me."
David would throw some mock applause as Mr. White left the room with Brandt, drawing some scattered laughter. When he turned around though, the shouting match between Sandra and Kristen versus Kevin and Greg would begin once more, until it was interrupted yet again by a shout from across the gymnasium.
"Hey Eddie! I heard your boy Victor is taking it up the ass down at the precinct!" The shout came from Ray Hernandez, who was standing with the other football players in the class. One of them gave Ray a high five, who couldn't help but be amused by his own joke.
"Kind of like the time at the Homecoming assembly when I gave it up the ass to your mother in the women's locker room?" Eddie retorted, not even bothering to look up at Ray as he heard the laughter from his own friends, including a chuckle from Jenn. Ray on the other hand, didn't find it so amusing, as he looked as if he wanted to go over there and beat the shit out of Eddie. He didn't dare touch him though, because the principal told him that if he got into one more fight on school property, it would mean expulsion. Eddie knew that, as did mostly everyone who were in an ear shot of gossip.
"Keep talking Eddie, keep fucking talking." Ray said, nodding his head as an arm shot out to grab him on the wrist. Ray jerked back some, then looked over to see that it was Mrs. Randleman. A scowl twisted onto her face as she spoke.
"Did you just use profanity Mr. Hernandez?! How would you and your little gutter mouth like to spend a few days in detention?"
Ray's eyes widened as he shook his head from side to side quickly. "I'm sorry Mrs. Randleman, it won't happen again. It was just a small mistake, I mean, everyone makes mistakes right?"
Somehow, that statement had worked, as Mrs. Randleman loosened her grip on the young man and turned away. Perhaps she was a more forgiving person in the early morning, or maybe what young Ray had said made a little bit of sense to here. Still, she would walk back to her seat against the wall, when suddenly, something caught her attention from the corner of her right eye. If there was one other thing in the world she couldn't tolerate, it was lateness, even if this person was only three minutes late.
"Excuse me young man!" Her hands balled up into fists and jammed against her sides as the young man seemed to stop walking after taking five steps into the doorway. Most of the kids attention was caught once more, but the former Alex Lassiter was too far away for them to see the blood all over his neck and his black t-shirt. Mrs. Randleman took a few steps towards him, then her eyes widened a bit as she would now scurry faster to his side. She had finally seen the gaping neck wound and the cartilage that was sticking out from the side, and when she finally reached him, her hand fell on his shoulder. His head was hanging low so that she couldn't see his face.
"Oh my lord, what happened Alex?" Randleman had inquired, then looked away the very moment when Alex started to raise his head. "Someone call an ambulance! Get that police officer back in here!"
Alex's face was an unhealthy shade of light green, his pupils dilated severely and blood stains all over his neck and the bottom of his jaw. If Mrs. Randleman had turned around in time, she would have seen his face and maybe had a chance to back up a little bit, thinking that maybe he had some kind of disease. But it would soon be too late for her, just like it was too late for many of the other kids, as a group of fifteen of Alex's undead brethren were running at full speed up the ramp that led to the back of the gym. The commotion was overheard by some, including the group of four boys and three girls who were standing near the far wall.
"The fuck is that?" Kevin asked, as his head suddenly jerked around, hearing the final screams of old Wretched Randleman.