"The Book of what?" Kelly asked.
"The Book of Shadows."
"I'll try and find out what it means, in the meantime you still need to try and figure out what the dreams mean."
"I think Sterch already told me what the dream means."
"I don't understand what you mean."
"Sterch told me too much in that dream, he told me his entire plot, and now I can't ignore it. No dream is that specific, Sterch is plotting something and whatever it is it involves the Book of Shadows."
"Jimmy, Sterch can't be plotting anything, he's dead."
"Then how else do you explain this dream, guilt doesn't cause someone to dream that someone tells them specific details of a plot to kill you."
"He never specifically said he was going to kill…"Jimmy cut her off.
"What do you call bringing my demise? Sterch wasn't one to mince words."
"That is true."
"So are you going to agree with me and help me out?"
"I'll look up the Book of Shadows but I'm not agreeing that it's some plot by Sterch."
"Good enough for me. Bye."
"Bye"
The two hung up.
Feeling curious Jimmy decided to try and do some research himself.
He got on his computer and entered in the Book of Shadows into a search drive.
No results, he hadn't expected any, from how Sterch had talked about it, it didn't sound like a very common item.
He wished he knew a better place to look but for now he decided to leave that up to Kelly.
Jimmy tried to think of what to do, he couldn't go to sleep or else Sterch would haunt him, and he couldn't risk exposing himself to Sterch.
"What's the matter Jimmy?"
"How many times do I have to tell you to shut up before you listen?"
"Your friend won't find anything about the book."
"You'd be surprised what my friends can do."
"Do you honestly think I would take any chances in my plan, I've thought this all out."
Jimmy ignored the voice, deciding that if he didn't respond Sterch would have nothing to say.
He changed into his pajamas and gotten into bed, if fate decided to put him into Sterch's hands he would be ready.
He slowly went to sleep, for once his mind felt calm, whether or not that was a good thing or a bad thing.
The next morning Jimmy woke up to his mom. He was glad there was no Sterch keeping him awake all night. Then he remembered today was the first day of school.
"Are you ready for your first day of school?" She asked.
"I'm ready mom." He said rolling out of bed.
He quickly got dressed and went downstairs for breakfast. He grabbed something to eat and walked out the door.
He got to the bus stop, waiting there were Carl and Sheen.
"Hey Jimmy." Sheen said.
"Hey Sheen. Hey Carl." Jimmy said.
"So how have you been Jim?" Carl asked. "I barely talked to you all summer."
"Yeah well I had summer school for almost a month to make up for flunking 9th grade."
"Yeah, those were the worst four weeks of my life."
"But Sheen you've had to go to summer school every year since kindergarten, you think you would be used to it by now."
"You would think that but I keep flunking anyway."
Then the bus pulled up and the door opened.
He three got on the bus; they sat down with Samantha, David, Kelly, and Sora.
"Did you find anything about the book?" Jimmy asked Kelly.
"No, it doesn't seem like any source has even heard of it, the closest thing they had was the Book of Shadow Arts and that just turned out to be about some crappy role-playing game."
"What are you two talking about?" David asked.
Jimmy explained about the dream to David.
"I've never heard of any Book of Shadows, but the whole dream sounds weird."
"Yeah, the dreams only seem to get weirder."
Then the bus arrived at school.
Everyone stood up and with much groaning got off the bus.
Once they got off the bus the whole area around them went silent everyone staring at Jimmy.
Then tiny whispers could be heard, people talking to their friends behind their hands.
"The rumors never stop do they?" Jimmy asked Cindy.
"Well you have to admit they have no reason to stop, you never dispelled any rumors."
"Oh yeah, except that I didn't mean to bust that party, and that I had been innocent the whole time."
"Okay, other than that."
"Yeah but does that matter, they've had the whole summer can't they think of anything better to talk about."
"Oh well best to let them just decide out the rumors themselves; I don't really care, like I don't have more important things to do than just to discuss what happened on that building, as if I don't dream about I enough."
They walked past the all the groups of people walking straight into school.
Once in the school they were met with the same silence then whispering.
"Wow it's just like last year only now like me instead of hating me."
"Yeah, but are you sure it's any better."
"That's what I asked myself at the end of last year."
Jimmy split from the group and went to his locker.
Around the locker were several freshmen all waiting for him.
"Hello." He said to them.
"Hi Jimmy." One of them said to him.
"So what are you doing here?" He asked them.
"We…we wanted to know if all the stories about you are true."
"Which ones?"
"Did you really knock a guy off a building?"
"Yeah I did."
"And did you really bust an end of summer party?"
"Yeah," He got an idea. "But if you really want to know you should ask Kelly Lincoln, she was there."
"Really!"
"Yeah."
"Let's go." One of them said.
"See you Jimmy." Another said.
"Yep."
They ran off in a group.
Jimmy opened his locker and took out his books; he then headed off to class.
He was off to Biology class with Mrs. Davis, when he arrived in the classroom there were already many people there; sitting at lab tables in groups chatting about how their summer had been, why they wished they were still in bed, the like, when Jimmy entered the room it went silent, just as he had expected.
He went to the table where, to his surprise David was sitting.
"David, I didn't know you were in my class."
"You never asked my schedule."
"But I thought you'd be in some AP class; the only reason I'm not is because my GPA is in the toilet from last year."
"I thought about it but why would I want to be with a bunch of people who think they're better than everyone else when I could be with a real genius."
"You're too nice to me."
"I mean it, the only thing I hate about my schedule is that I never see Sam all day."
"That's what the high school system is supposed to do, split you up from your friends in a feeble attempt to try and get you to gain new ones."
"It's really stupid, all it does is make you not pay attention and think of all your friends."
"Couldn't agree with you more."
Then the bell rang and Mrs. Davis walked in.
"Quiet down please." She said as the announcements came on.
"Welcome back to another year at Retroville High School!" Principal Walker said. "Tryouts for the football team are on Wednesday in the gym at 3:30, cheerleading tryouts are on Thursday same time and place. We hope you have a wonderful year."
The announcements ended and Mrs. Davis began taking roll, when she reached Jimmy's name she paused.
"Jimmy Neutron," She said slowly as if trying to pronounce each syllable. "We have a celebrity in the class."
A few people snickered but quickly shut up after a glare from Mrs. Davis. She finished the roll and got straight to teaching.
"Can anyone tell what biology is?"
Jimmy raised his hand.
"Yes Mr. Neutron."
"Biology is the study of living things and can also be simply the study of life."
"Congratulations you can read a definition."
A few more people snickered.
"In my class I want more than just memorization, memorization of facts is pointless if you have no idea what they mean or how they apply to the overall subject of biology. Now can anyone take Mr. Neutron's answer and put it in terms of what it means to everyday activities."
David raised his hand.
"Yes Mr. Grayson."
"Biology applies to anything that is alive, or has been alive, like a fly, a decomposing organism, or anyone in this class."
"Congratulations you have accomplished nothing more than Mr. Neutron minus getting on the news at 8."
"Now that we've established that Mr. Neutron and Mr. Grayson have learned how to read a textbook; can anyone else in this room wake up for two seconds to answer my next question?"
Some people took their heads up off the desk to look at Mrs. Davis's glare and they were instantly awake.
The class continued in the same matter of Mrs. Davis criticizing anyone who had the nerve to try and answer a question until the bell rang.
"For tomorrow I want you all to come here with more knowledge than just the ability to mindlessly recite from a textbook." She said as everyone hurried to get out of the room A.S.A.P.
"We always seem to get the crazy teachers don't we?" Jimmy said to David.
"Seems to be." David said. "I'll see you later Jimmy."
The two split up, David heading off to English, and Jimmy, to History.
He walked carefully through the halls trying to avoid people's staring glances.
Once he got to class he looked around for any familiar faces but couldn't find any; he sat down at a desk in the back right corner trying to be inconspicuous.
The bell rang and Mr. Zack walked into the room.
"Settle down class."
Mr. Zack slowly took roll and like Mrs. Davis paused at Jimmy's name, but instead of making any kind of snide remarks he just continued on in his drawling voice.
After finishing he started reading from chapter one in the same slow, drawling voice until the bell finally rang.
As he was walking out of the room Sora walked up to him.
"Hey" She said.
"Hey."
"So how has class been?"
"I seem to have a knack for getting weird teachers. What about you?"
"It's been okay, a lot better than Silver Lake."
"Yeah." Jimmy thought back to his ordeals at Silver Lake. "Heck, I'm even surprised it stayed in operation as long as it did."
"Sterch had money, that was how."
"That would explain it."
"And on the subject of Sterch do you have psychology class?"
"Yeah, next hour. Why?"
"I just had it and you might want to listen."
"I'll remember that."
He walked to class and sat down; a group of girls shifted desks and crowded around him.
"Hi Jimmy."
"Hi, have we met?"
"No, my name is Christine, and I saw you on the news."
"You and the rest of the town."
"Oh," Christine said and backed away.
The other girls were trying to think of what to say when the bell rang.
Jimmy let out a sigh of relief as the girls went back to their desks and Mr. Beck walked in.
"Welcome students to psychology class, I am Mr. Beck, today we will begin studying from Chapter 1 about dreams."
This had to be what Sora was talking about. Jimmy for once was listening intently.
"Dreams are caused when images from the day or from memory are replayed in your head; dreams can often be distorted versions of real life events but they can be twisted to resemble something very unlike the original event."
"This must have been what Sora wanted me to hear."
He kept listening but not as intently as before because he knew what Sora was trying to tell him. She believed, like the others, that he was over exaggerating and these dreams were nothing more than distortions of real life.
Well he knew the dreams were real and that they were trying to tell him something and that was what mattered.
I'll leave it at that. Next chapter will be up soon, so why don't you tell me what you think and send me a review.