Chapter 2

The halls of Arcadia Bay Elementary were a hive of activity and a wall of noise that was hard to sort through. Hope felt herself get bombarded from all sides by it and the crush of bodies, the stink of sweat from the boys playing soccer outside and the the girls whose parents had doused them in too much perfume before school. It was enough to make her want to start sneezing instantly. Most of those girls were from families who'd moved to Arcadia Bay from other states once homes started being rebuilt. They had no respect for the place or the people in it who'd been through hell and rebuilt the town and their lives up from nothing. They'd just moved to a quiet little fishing town because a freshly built home had been offered to them on a plate. Even at only seven years old, Hope was well aware of that. And she hated them.

Mercifully, the only person she ever looked forward to seeing during the day was there in an instant. Wordlessly, he unfolded his spare set of earphones and held them out to her. She clamped them over her ears and revelled in the feeling of the sound around her being dampened to a more bearable level. Since the two headsets were connected through Bluetooth, they were able to talk to one another like it was a radio and hear each other without the cacophony interfering.

"Thanks, Connor." Hope said, adjusting the headset. "I'm gonna ask my parents for a set of these."

"They're the ones you're settling in with now, right?" Connor asked. Hope nodded carefully, trying not to shake the headphones off. "Hang onto those for a bit." Connor told her. The talking range is precisely five point eight-seven-two-one metres but they still do a good job of blocking sound when we're apart. And I can give you the charging lead tomorrow. Focus on getting settled in properly before asking for some yourself. I can tell you like them since you're calling them your parents."

"They don't know I'm calling them that." Hope told him. "They're the first ones who actually called me what I wanted them to. Other than you, anyway."

"It's what you want to be called." Connor shrugged. "I don't get what's wrong with Rain, but that's not for me to get. And if you ever want to tell me, that's your choice."

"Why do you sound like an adult?" Hope mused. "On second thought, forget that. You actually know what you're talking about." Most people would have laughed at that, but Connor didn't crack a smile. He usually didn't. He wasn't the joking sort. That was fine. Hope had never had too much to smile about either. And she liked how matter-of-fact he was.

"I don't see why most adults can't work it out for themselves." Connor shrugged again, adjusting his headset. "It's not that hard! If you want to be called something different, that's what they should call you."

"Well I'm glad you think so." They both easily registered the noise behind them and turned to see a black man with a bald head and a definite gut paunch standing there with his arms folded and a stern expression on his age-lined face. "That means I get to call you both late. If you look, you'd see that everyone's lined up and ready to head to class." Hope looked. Sure enough, everyone else was lined up outside the classroom. Some of them were suppressing giggles. Others weren't bothering to try. She could also hear the word 'freaks' getting tossed around a lot. She could feel her fists clenching at her sides. That was when she felt Connor's hand clamp onto her arm and she turned to face him.

"I know when you're getting stressed. Your eyes change colour." That caught her off guard. Of all the things she expected him to pick up on, that wasn't it. And since she hadn't been able to see in colour at all before getting her glasses, that was something she herself had no way of knowing. But Connor had never lied to her. She didn't even think he was capable of it. Or if he was, it was probably something he wouldn't see the point in bothering with. And somehow, the revelation was enough to make her forget her anger. With that, she turned back to the man and forced herself to stay calm.

"Sorry, Mr Wells. We lost track of time." With that, she gestured for Connor to follow her and headed towards the back of the class. Now that things were quieter, she pulled down the headphones and let them hang around her neck. That way she was ready to grab them again if she needed. Everyone started to file in with Wells checking them off on the register as they went. Just as Hope was about to head in, Wells stopped her.

"I intend to have a word with you after class." Without fear, she looked up and stared straight into his eyes just as Chloe had taught her to.

"Max and Chloe say hi." The effect was nothing short of electric. Sweat instantly broke out on Wells' brow as Hope saw the pieces knit together in his head. He knew what she was saying. If he ever had to ring her parents, he'd get Chloe Caulfield Price on the other end of the phone. She didn't know what history the two of them had, but it seemed to be working. At his 'move along' gesture, she headed inside and took her usual seat next to Connor. They'd worked out a way to work well together using the headphones in paired discussions and each others' presence allowing them to focus when doing individual work. The teachers were fine with it since it worked for them.

Having smoothed himself out, Wells entered the room and finished wiping the sweat off his bald head and stood at the front of the room. Hope knew some of his history. He used to teach at a place Chloe had called Blackhell. She had no idea why it was called that but it didn't sound nice. It was little wonder he'd gone after a different job. Trying to act like what she'd said hadn't shaken him, he stood as tall as he could and addressed the class.

"Okay, so welcome to second grade. I'll keep this brief. My name is Mr Wells for those of you who don't know it. I'll put it up on the board to help you keep it in your mind. Now I know that many of you are nervous, but I find that the best way to overcome that is to jump in feet first. With that in mind, today will be pretty easy. I just want to see where you're all at. First lesson is English. I'll keep it incredibly simple. I want you all to write me a poem. You have half an hour to come up with something you're happy with. It can be as long or short as you want provided it lets me know that you've at least put some effort into it. Time starts once I've handed a sheet of paper to everyone." With that, he grabbed a stack of lined paper from a drawer and started passing a sheet to each person. Once he'd handed them all out, he sat down at his own desk and grabbed a water bottle from under the desk.

Hope didn't need to think. There was a poem from when she was in the care home that Alison told her once. It had stuck in her head so heavily that she remembered it by heart. Connor clearly had no idea what to do. He wasn't the best at using his imagination since he very much lived in the real world and relied on facts. She wished she could help him, but this was clearly a solo exercise. As much as she hated it, she had to let him fly solo on this one. She was done in hardly any time at all and sat back, pulling up her headphones and tuning them to a soundtrack with a long foreign name. Connor had shown it to her and called it 'Mute Charge'. It was like a specifically tuned frequency of white noise that made it feel like she was in a bubble of silence. She and Connor both loved it. The whole time, she made sure to keep an eye on Mr Wells. If he got up, that would mean time was up.

Eventually, she saw the signal she was looking for as Mr Wells got up. She reluctantly pulled her headphones back down around her neck and rejoined the rest of the world as everyone else put their pens down with various mixes of frustration and relief. She could instantly tell who'd done a good job and who hadn't. Unfortunately, Connor was definitely on the wrong half of that statistic.

"Well, I hope you all had fun writing those poems." Mr Wells said as he hooked his thumbs into his belt loops. If he thought it made him look thinner, he was wrong. "Would anyone like to have a go at reading them? I need at least four volunteers or I'll start picking on people. Deciding there was no harm, Hope raised her hand. Seeing that she had her hand up, one of the girls who'd called her a freak put hers up too, determined not to be outdone. That inspired three more people to put their hands up too. "Excellent." Wells didn't crack a smile. "Hope Callows. Your hand went up first. Stand up, speak clearly and take your time." Hope nodded and got up, picking up her sheet of paper and facing him.

"When the moon hangs full and high,

Children stare and wonder why.

But greater evil stalks the halls,

To eat them up with bones and all.

It drags them down, begins to chew,

Until there is no residue.

And when they try to run and hide,

The hunt begins and stokes its pride.

Stay where you are and hold your ground,

Even when its calls resound.

Stare it down when it draws near,

And pray it doesn't smell your fear."

Hope finished and looked up at the rest of the class. Mr Wells' expression was neutral, but sweat had broken out on his head again. The rest of the class were staring at her. Some looked in disbelief and others had looks of absolute terror in their eyes.

"That's just creepy." It was the girl who'd called her a freak earlier that had spoken, but her voice had less strength to it. She certainly wasn't as sure of herself now.

"How old are you?" Mr Wells asked.

"Seven." Hope told him. "I'll be eight in October."

"Well I must say, that was amazingly in-depth and profound for someone your age." Mr Wells commented. "I dare say you didn't make that up yourself. May I ask where you heard that?"

"It was one of the women who used to care for me." Hope replied. "She used to love that poem. She often told it to me like it was a bedtime story." Mr Wells looked shocked at that.

"I think you're maybe a bit young to be knowing poems of that nature." He scratched at the top of his head with a definite nervousness, sauntering back over to his desk and taking a drink from his water bottle to calm himself down. What was up with him? "I might have to have a word with Max and Chloe regarding this. The fact she was telling you something like that as a bedtime story is slightly disturbing." With that, he moved on to the girl who'd called her a freak. She was still looking back at Hope with a slight nervousness and Hope was perfectly content to meet her gaze evenly. "Alesha?" Mr Wells tried to get the girl's attention but she didn't register his voice. "Alesha!" The girl finally realised and looked around at him as Hope sat herself back down. "Would you care to read your poem now?"

Alesha started reading. Hope tried her best. So did the rest of the class. But it was useless. In the end, she subtly pulled up her earphones and re-engaged the Mute Charge track again. It was too much of an effort not to cringe otherwise. After her, the other three went. For Hope, even the Mute Charge track was unfortunately incapable of entirely muting everything. There was still some sound filtering through as everyone else read out poems about the noises animals make, their favourite video game (which was actually a full-blown essay written by one kid who didn't understand the concept of poetry) or something to do with their family. In the end, Mr Wells was standing at the head of the class pinching the bridge of his nose and struggling to hold in the longest sigh of his life.

"Well this has been truly eye-opening. Only one of you knew how to write a poem from beginning to end while sticking to one cohesive style or theme. Even if I do disapprove of the subject matter. Now I need to step out for a few minutes. I'll be right back, so I'm going to give you all a Math worksheet since it's about time we moved onto the next lesson. I expect you to all be working when I come back."

Author's Note: So Hope's first day in her new class isn't going well. One lesson in and she's already managing to stand out from the crowd. Hopefully everyone's enjoying the story so far. I thought it would be fun to bring back an old character and see how he might have changed after the storm. As for how things are going to go from here, you'll have to wait until Friday to find that out. See you guys in the next chapter.