Chapter 2

A Dose of Weirdness

I was looking up at the TV in the main lobby, it was advertising some kind of "I" day on Wednesday the 30th. That wasn't why I was looking at it though. I wanted to know the date, but since today was also a Wednesday and the date shown was a week from now, I figured that some simple math would suffice.

Yup, today is the 23rd, and it's been almost a month since school started back up. During that time, I've fallen back into the boring loop that is my high school life. The only thing worth noting is that little run in I had. Speaking of which, I haven't seen that girl around school. I wonder what she's been up to.

"Yeah, 'cause it's any of my business."

I turned and headed back to class before any teachers could come along and get me in trouble.

Since the computer lab is closed on Wednesdays, I spent my lunch break in the library trying to work on my stories. Yes, I'm a writer, but most of my stories don't end up going anywhere. The ones that do go somewhere take forever to write because of all the little things that need to go into them.

For example: "I was in the driver's seat of my red 1981 Ford Thunderbird, heading up Fraser St. I occasionally glanced at the buildings as I made my way along the tired streets of Metro Vancouver: a Canadian city sprawling with houses, businesses, skyscrapers, parks, and fast food joints.

Some song called 'Here for a Good Time' was playing on the radio. I was a big fan of the band that wrote it, but I didn't like this particular song. So I pried a hand off the steering wheel and reached for the radio to switch the station.

"Don't even think about it." I looked over at the passenger seat where my sister Samantha was sitting. She was reading a book. Looking at her reminded me of our mother. Sam was like a clone of her, but with subtle differences like eye colour and hair style.

"Why?" I questioned, "Do you like his song?"

"Obviously," Sam answered with a trace of irritation in her voice.

"Somebody's cranky," I teased as I placed my hand back on the wheel.

"Yeah well, I wasn't planning on being dragged out of bed at six in the morning," she complained.

"And I wasn't planning on driving you to school," I said back.

"It's not my fault I don't know where my school is!" she shot back.

"And maybe if you bothered to ask, you would know," I calmly answered."

That alone took me two days to write and I'm just gonna end up scraping it. I packed up when the bell rang for third period.

Finals were coming up, so you can imagine what was on everyone's mind. However, while everyone was thinking about studying, I was thinking about the five days off and how I'd screwed up in math class. A 60.2% isn't bad when I think about it, but when you've got a math exam first thing Monday morning and you haven't even touch your textbook, you might as well kiss that passing grade goodbye.

I was looking forward to the weekend, though. My plan was to go check out the Vancouver Flea Market before hanging out with an old friend of mine named Andrew. Then, my family was gonna go eat at the Old Spaghetti Factory in New West and see a movie. Like I said, I was looking forward to the weekend, but when Saturday finally came around, my plans fell apart. First, Andrew called me up to say that we couldn't hang out; his parents needed him to help unpack from a recent move. Then it took us forever to get to Vancouver because the traffic was backed up on 10th. It turned out that some guy's car had stalled right before the Kingsway intersection.

By the time we drove past Metrotown, the flea market was already closed. That was another thing off the list.

After we ate, we simply went home. No movie, no nothing. Some weekend, huh?

The most of my Sunday was spent watching anime on my computer. I can't remember which one I was watching, though I'm pretty sure it was 'A Certain Magical Index.' Never mind, that's off topic. Eventually, I got off my ass, grabbed my math textbook and went up to my room to at least try to study. I was ready to quit not long after starting. I mean, how was I supposed to read an entire textbook in a few hours? I flipped through the pages, trying to relearn what my class had done the past few months, and then I found my answer. Apparently, there's a two page section after each chapter that serves as a study guide. Suddenly, studying for the exam didn't seem so hard.

I walked out of the small gym around noon the next day. I had just finished writing my exam, and I was feeling good. To top it off, I had the rest of the day off. Even the sun was shining, which is something you don't usually see in late January.

The walk home was as boring as usual; at least it was boring to a point. When I walk home, I take a short cut down the nature tails. The tails tend to flood a lot in the winter months, but today they were dry as a bone.

I was walking down the main path when I saw a teenage girl. She was a little ways ahead of me and was headed in the same direction as I was. She looked strangely familiar. I didn't usually see people on the trails, and when I did, they mostly consisted of adults walking their dogs and elderly people going for a stroll. I shrugged it off at first, thinking that I clearly wasn't the only teen around who used this path as a short cut, but the route she choose became incredibly uncanny. First, she took a right at the duck pond. Then, an immediate left, and through the elderly centre parking lot. It had to be a coincidence.

I was half-way through said parking lot when I realized why she looked familiar. Shoulder length black hair, the way she walked like she wasn't aware of her surroundings, hell, she was even wearing the same black hoody with the weird spiral design on it. It was her, and knowing that, I had the sudden urge to talk to her. I started running. She was crossing the street, if I ran fast enough I could cross before the light changed. No such luck. I had to wait for the light to change again. I waited a few seconds before hitting the cross-walk button. Usually when I did this, the light changed right away, but not today. The traffic light stayed a solid green as cars drove through the intersection. I watched as the girl slowly walked out of view.

"Work damn it!" I hit the button a few more times but it did nothing.

I was across the street from the elementary school. The girl was gone; it was almost like she had evaporated. Maybe she went into the school. No, she couldn't have. They kick you out if you're not a student there. Besides, I would have seen her walk up to the main doors.

As if to add insult, the traffic light turned red and the crossing sign displayed a white walking figure. I crossed and continued walking home. It wasn't much farther.

I turned onto my street. I could see my house and my brother's old car parked in the driveway. As I got closer, I noticed someone was walking down the driveway. I couldn't quite tell who it was but-

-she's wearing a black hoody.

I stopped dead in my tracks. It was her. It was the girl I ran into at school, the one who I had just seen. She had walked down the remainder of the driveway and was now standing on the road in front of my house. She was staring at it. I needed to talk to her. I needed to know why she was standing in front of my house.

"Hey!" I started running toward her, "Hey you!" She turned her head in my direction. We held eye contact for a couple of seconds before she darted in the other direction. "Wait!" She ran behind the hedges separating my front yard from that of my neighbour's. I raced for them, and became dumbfounded when I reached them.

She was gone. It was just like before, almost like she had evaporated. There was no way to escape like that without being seen, especially when there's a house wall blocking your way. "What the hell is going on?"