Chapter 5: Michael Farris
"You want to run that by me again? Is this some kind of practical joke? Because it's not funny." I glared at my dad…or my step dad. If they were right or telling the truth I wouldn't feel comfortable with calling him Dad any more.
"Hayden, this is not your real father, I know it was wrong to not tell you, but you would have never remembered your real father." She said and then she gulped. "Your real father died when you were one year old. His name was Michael Ferris. I didn't tell you because you never really knew him, but we decided it was time."
"Brian, is that true?" I could feel the pain inside my voice.
"Yes it- wait, you called me Brian. I'm still your dad Hayden." He looked displeased.
"Yeah, my step Dad. It doesn't feel right calling you Dad, so I'll just settle with Brian." Now I was hurt that they hadn't told me.
My Mom looked even more upset. Deep down I guess I always knew I wasn't related to him. I didn't look like him; he had dark brown hair which was almost black. My mother and I had light brown hair-hers was more blonde then brown though. We had green eyes, and his were dark brown. I felt so stupid I didn't find out earlier.
Why didn't they tell me, I know I wouldn't have remembered him, but it was my dad they had no right not to tell me.
Now I was more angry then surprised. I couldn't help the frustration and new hatred towards Brian. He had been pretending to be my real father all my life, and now I find out when I'm a sophomore in high school. That isn't right I should have been told as soon as I understood English, about fourteen years ago.
"Hayden? Are you okay?" My mom said her voice cracked when she spoke. I didn't want to be here anymore, and luckily I had a good reason to leave.
"I have to go to school." Was all I said, I tried to hide the frustration in my voice, but I don't think I fooled anyone. I could feel the hot new tears that streamed my face. I half ran and half walked out the front door. As soon as I was away I would feel better.
I walked to school much faster than I ever had. I was so confused, and I was so mad. Part of me wanted it to be a dream, but I knew that I had to except reality.
When I got to the school grounds I slowed down. I saw Jess's car was already here, she must have called my mom, and my mom must have said I was walking and didn't need a ride today.
I breathed in and out, and thought about Brian and all of our differences. I thought of what my real Father might have looked like. I thought of the name Michael, I did like that name. As I thought, I lost track of where I was. I almost ran into a wall, but someone reached out and pulled me out of the way.
It was Jess. "You know you really should pay attention to where you are going." She laughed; she always found my clumsiness funny, and my ability to not know where I was going.
"So, what's new?" What a horrible question to ask because now I had no choice, but to tell her what I have recently found out. I took a deep breath and I almost forgot to let it out.
"Brian isn't my real father." I mumbled it so low Jess couldn't hear.
"Sorry, I didn't catch what you said." She said as she leaned closer.
I sighed. "Jess, I found out that my Dad died when I was one, his name was Michael Farris, and the dad I have now is my step dad. And my mom never told me because she knew I would never remember my real dad, and now I hate Brian, and I don't want to go back home. I thought it was a dream, but it's not. And I don't understand why they wouldn't tell me, I'm not even sure if it's real!" As I went on and on I talked faster.
She just stared at me in disbelief. Then she put her arm on my shoulder to stop me from talking any further.
"Hayden, are you serious?" She gazed deep in my eyes. She looked just as confused as I felt.
"Yes…I mean…I just." I couldn't find the right words to say. This was the first time I had really had trouble with telling someone my feelings. I wasn't the kind of person who expresses their feelings all the time. I was the opposite.
I hadn't noticed I was crying, again, until Jess wiped of my face. How embarrassing, I was crying at school. I quickly shook my face. I decided I would cry later, when I was by myself. I cleared my throat.
"Jess, we should get to class." She nodded and started to walk with me to class. Jess had first period English and seventh period gym with me. Karen had third period Algebra, fourth period Biology, and eighth period French with me. The periods I had by myself were second which was band, and sixth which was History. We all had fifth together because that was lunch.
I hoped today would be long because I didn't want to go back home.
When we arrived in English, class hadn't started yet. We sat in our usual seats, in the back of the class. We sat and talked about my "situation". Then our teacher, Mr. Calden, walked in. He ordered the classes attention.
Today we went over the book we were reading by Jack London. The Sea Wolf, I didn't really care much for the book, but it wasn't that bad. We talked about how Jack uses his life's experiences to write his book. English went by fast, which meant that the whole day might go by fast.
I didn't like that idea.
We strutted out of class and through the halls. I was off to band, and Jess was off to Choir, which was right next to the Band room. Usually I would be scared to go to Band because I had Band with Marshall, but today I was too sidetracked to even care.
We said our goodbyes and I walked into the Band room. I went to go get my trumpet from my locker and then I sat back down. I had a moment where I felt the pain, but I then I didn't feel it. I thought maybe it was in my head, that there was no pain. Though that made no sense because this was the usual time I felt it.
Today was nothing but second guessing every feeling I felt, everything I heard, and every movement I saw. Because I wasn't sure if they were real.
I shot a quick glance at Marshall, he was staring at me, he looked happy. I didn't really understand his expression so I turned back around, bracing myself for when the pain would come.
It never came. How strange. I thought that it was one of those moments where I just didn't notice it. I had no other explanation, so I went with that one.
As Band went by I got even more nervous. Why didn't the pain come? I realized that I should be happy and not concerned, so I stopped thinking about it. Then the bell rang. This day was going fast. Usually it went slow when I wanted it to go fast.
I met up with Karen after she and Jess came out of Choir. Apparently Jess had told Karen about everything. I wasn't surprised.
"Are you serious? He's not your real dad? Wow, I would have never guessed. Who was your real dad? Do you know where he is?" She couldn't help herself from asking questions, she kept the questions going, even when we had already gotten to Algebra.
"Karen! Slow down." We sat in the middle closest to the side windows, and I explained everything to her.
She listened attentively and was just as interested as Jess was. Then when the bell rang we stopped talking. As Mrs. Dee, my youngest teacher, explained different ways to solve the equation we were working on.
I was staring at the notes I had just taken, and then I noticed that my notes had nothing to do with math. I wrote down some words that I couldn't even understand. They just looked like letters put together. I stared at them some more, then I recognized one of them.
It said Iellato, if I wasn't mistaken that was the word that was on the black box in my basement. Then my name interrupted my thoughts.
"Hayden, answer the question." My teacher stared at me, waiting for an answer. I didn't hear the question, so I looked at Karen. She held her paper so I could see what it said. It had said, the Pythagoras Theorem.
"The Pythagoras Theorem." I answered sheepishly, it sounded like a question. I wasn't sure if that was right. She frowned, no doubt she saw Karen give me the answer, but she let it go.
"Yes, that is correct." She turned to the board and started writing down an equation. The rest of Algebra went by with my mind in the clouds. Then Karen tapped my shoulder.
"Hayden, the bell rang. We need to go to Biology." I slowly got up, I hadn't heard the bell. So me and Karen walked to Biology, and as we were walking we happened to walk past Jess. She was smiling and seemed a little over excited.
"Hey Jess. Um, is there a reason why you seem like you're going to bounce off the walls?" I could tell she was happy I had asked that. Then I noticed that if we talked anymore then we would be late for class. "Oh, sorry Jess, but we have like two minutes to get to class. Tell me at lunch, ok?"
She sighed and then nodded and hurried to class. Me and Karen walked into Biology and saw something no one wanted to see.
"Ugh, you've got to be kidding me!" I groaned.
Karen just sat down at her assigned seat-this was one of the only classes that we had assigned seats in. Once she sat down she banged her head against the table.
I went to go sit at my seat, which was, of course, conveniently located at the front of the class. Just then Jack Nill walked in, my lab partner who happens to know nothing about science, and makes me do all the work.
Then, Mr. Barns walked in. The nightmare was about to begin, his first sentence said it all.
"Today class, we will be dissecting frogs." He said it with a tint of humor in his voice. We all knew he would say it because we saw the dead frogs in a bin, in the front of the class room.
I could hear the whole class groan together. Mr. Barns ignored us and went on with how we were supposed to dissect the frog. He also talked about what we were supposed to look at. "Okay, let's begin." We could tell he liked to make us do things that we don't particularly care for.
Then I turned to Jack. "Are you going to work today or not?" I really wished he would work today. I didn't want to have to do all the dissecting.
"No, I think I'll just let you do it." He said as he started drawing on his binder. Great, he wasn't going to help me.
So, I slowly leaned towards the dead frog that was lying on our table. It looked a white shade of green. Its eyes were closed and I felt bad for it. Then I took the small scalpel, and made a small incision on the belly. I almost made myself sick. Then, when I got through the tough part, it was time to take notes on the organs we saw.
As I saw the organs in the body it seemed as though they were moving. I gagged. They were red and white and smelled horrific. I put on my gloves and began to write down notes on my badly beaten up notebook.
Then it was time to remove them, and I closed my eyes the whole time.
As I went through the lab Jack had only sat in his chair, leaning over, and copying my notes.
"Hayden, next time write bigger." He snorted.
"Well maybe I would write bigger if you actually helped me out, like you're supposed to." I retorted.
"Never mind, I'm fine with looking off of your small hand writing." He said as he sat back in his seat.
After Biology was done, I felt like I could go to the nurse's office at any moment. Poor frogs.
Once Karen and I started to walk to the cafeteria, I had remembered that Jess would be waiting anxiously to tell me something.
"So, what did you think of Bio?" Karen asked curiously.
"Well, I almost gagged…no never mind, I think I did gag. How about you?" I answered with a disgusted tone to my voice.
"I was pretty much the same as you, but John did all the dissecting for me. He likes stuff like that." She replied happily.
Lucky her, I had to dissect it and remove the organs. While my partner sat there watching and copping my notes.
Just as we walked in the cafeteria, Jess met up with us. She was bouncing with excitement. She tugged on my shoulder and sat me down at our usual table.
"You will never guess what happened!" She wanted to go on, but she restrained herself.
"What!" I said, I tried to sound excited, but I don't think she bought it.
"Eric Johnson asked me out!" She practically screamed it.
Wow, I felt happy for her. Jess was the most popular out of Karen, Jess, and me. Eric Johnson was nice I guess, but he was quiet. I wonder what convinced him to speak up.
"That's great Jess! Where are you going and when?" She looked pleased at my reaction and barely took a breath between her words.
She explained to me that they were going to go see a movie, but hadn't decided on which movie they would see. She had also said he had asked her in Spanish class.
Then the bell rang and we got up to get our food, then we went back to our table. Jess waved to Eric once in awhile. Karen didn't seem too excited for Jess, she was probably just jealous.
Then while we were talking someone joined us. It was Marshall, just what I needed.
"In Band, you didn't get hurt did you? You looked like you didn't get hurt." He asked and commented happily.
"No, what was all that? Are you finally going to leave me alone?" He didn't answer, once I had said 'no' he looked pleased and then left.
"What was that for?" Karen asked.
"You know, I don't really know. It's better to ignore him." I replied, I sort of muttered it.
"Okay." Was all she said. Then we ate in silence. Once we had finished, I was off to History, another period by myself.
We were currently learning about the Indian and French War. It was something I had already knew in my sleep, it was an easy topic. When I had gotten there I saw class was about to start. I sat in the back. I usually sat in the back because if I sat in the front I attracted more attention than needed.
Today Mr. Walker came in late as usual. We had watched a film on how the French strategized. It was all pretty boring. History came and went quickly and I realized it was already time for seventh period, which was probably my worst subject, Gym. It really wasn't considered a subject, but I thought of it like one.
There were really only two things I was good at in Gym. Those were faking an injury and watching my team play.
I was also pretty good at shooting baskets, but since I rarely ever got the ball I just watched. So when I had walked in to the Gym-after I had changed into my shorts and a T-shirt- I was relieved to see basketballs out.
I saw Jess talking to Eric in the corner. This would be annoying; I forgot I had Eric was in my class. Now who would pass me the ball if Jess was going to be distracted?
I walked over to Jess and Eric.
"Hey Jess…Eric." He smiled; I guess he didn't know I knew his name.
"Eric, this is my best friend, Hayden. And Hayden you already know Eric." She acted very eccentric, more so than usual. Then Mr. Hardnic walked in and got the class to split into four teams.
I wasn't with Jess or Eric, so my team probably wouldn't pass to me. We started shooting hoops as a warm-up. I tried to show off to my team as much as I could to higher my chances of being passed to. It must have worked because when we started playing they passed me the ball.
They weren't totally convinced that I could dribble as well as I could shoot, so I only got the ball when I was close enough to shoot. At the end of the game I had made a total of ten points for my team.
This was defiantly new, I had now earned respect. I knew that they wouldn't pass to me when we moved onto the next sport though.
I tried to snag Jess away from Eric, but that was an epic failure. Then when we had to change I talked to her and when we got out she ran to Eric, I don't think she even heard me talking to her.
I gave up on Jess and walked to French, meeting Karen halfway.
French was something I absolutely positively sucked at. I had hoped, when I picked French over Spanish, that I would be good at it. I was wrong. I didn't get any of it, how to pronounce it or how to remember what I had learned.
Mrs. Dayton taught everything so fast, I could barely keep up. Karen was really good so she frequently helped me out-even though Karen was mostly good at every subject. She was the smart one of us three.
We walked into the class room and sat down; this was the other class we had assigned seats in.
"Good morning class." She said in her bitter tone.
Another thing I hated was she barely spoke French in class, so how were we supposed to learn? She went on how we would have a French test later this week, and we were supposed to study. I quickly lost my mind to my thoughts, until I was interrupted.
"Bridget. Hello? Bridget, come back to Earth." I stared at her in disbelief. She was tapping her foot. Oh, I had forgotten I had a French name, I always forget.
"Oh. Sorry Mrs. Dayton." I apologized, but she went right back to teaching.
I sat in the middle of the class room next to a girl named Christina. She was nice, but rarely talked to me.
The rest of class dragged on and when the final bell rang, I took all the time I needed to get my stuff together. I was in no rush to go home.
