Disclaimer: I wish, but I own nothing but Hazel, Matt, Harriet and Emily. At first I wasn't going to continue this, but you guys convinced me. I'm introducing Loki slowly into the story line, and you'll see a lot more of him next chapter.
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! Hazel's alarm clock sounded loudly (very loudly). She groaned loudly as she lay on her bed. Covering her head with a pillow before fumbling with the buttons on the top of her Mario alarm clock for at least a minute before finally finding the one that shut off the beeping. It had become so loud that Zane, her cat, tried to claw it into submission.
He was looking pretty pleased with himself when the alarm finally stopped.
Think you stopped the alarm now do you? Thought Hazel, way too asleep too actually bother with talking.
"Ugh,"she groaned before she rolled out of her bed. Literally. Rolled out of it. She somehow managed to forget almost on a daily basis that her bed was not even with the floor. She stood up again unusually quick with the impression that someone was watching her.
Looking around self-consciously, Hazel came to the conclusion, that no one was around she knew of to see her but her cat.
This impression, that someone was watching her, had been happening increasingly often ever since she had found that weird looking necklace a month ago. Hazel wondered if someone had put one of those little high-tech cameras on the necklace to spy on whoever found it.
No, she thought to herself, that's ridiculous, though if somebody had put a camera on it, it would have been the FBI (Federal Buro of Idiocy). That would be interesting though, I wonder how someone could even make a camera that small, I mean, I know they make them I just don't know how-.
Her meaningless thoughts were interrupted when Zane started to bat at her pajama leg with his front paws, signaling that he was ready for her to feed him. "O.k., you big hotshot,"answered Hazel, yawning, "I guess I could get you some breakfast, and then me some too." She then walked sleepily down the hallway and down the stairs to their rustic, log cabin like kitchen.
She swiped a can of A Cats Delight from a lower cupboard and scraped it into Zane's food dish and then re-filled his water dish while he had his breakfast. "And now for me,"Hazel announced, clapping her hands together, "what shall it be this morning? A bagel perhaps? Or maybe frozen French toast? How could I ever choose? They all sound so good!"She declared sarcastically, pretending to be a morning person, which she was not. "Eh, I guess I'll have a bagel, I too lazy this morning to put anything in the toaster."
So she grabbed a pre-cut bagel from the pantry and spread some strawberry cream cheese on it. Slapping both halves together again to make a sandwich, Hazel bit into it with straight white teeth. She grabbed a glass from a cupboard, poured in milk and added an ice cube.
Sitting at the mahogany breakfast table, Hazel thought, wow, this is such a healthy breakfast I'm surprised that I'm not six feet tall right now, as she looked at the bagel sandwich and glass of milk. Oh, well, and dismissing the thought, she wolfed down the bagel, washing it down with great gulps of milk before hurrying of to the shower.
Hazel took a quick shower and then dried her hair and hurriedly pulled on a sweatshirt that had 'oh sorry, did you say something? I was too busy ignoring you' on its front and a pair of jeans before saying good-bye to Zane, grabbing her backpack and Spanish book and running out the door and down the hill to catch the bus before it left without her.
Once on the bus she sat down at her normal seat, in front of her best friend Emily Kerford. And speaking of Emily, "hey Hazel!"She called out as Hazel approached her seat, "how was your weekend?"
"Eh, good, good, can't really complain, I ate, slept, lived. All the basics. How about you?"
"Pretty much the same,"answered Emily, "though at least I showered."
"Ha ha, very funny,"answered Hazel with a grin on her face. "So, you ready for that killer test 's giving us?"
"Aww wait, you mean that that test was today?" Emily grimaced.
"Ya, unfortunately for all of us students," came Hazel's reply,
"Did you study?"
"Me? Study? Ha! As if I'd sink so low."scoffed Emily in reply.
"At least she's our only test today,"continued Hazel, "all the other teachers know better than too test us on Mondays, everybody's so tired, they wouldn't notice if there was a wild grizzly bear sitting at one of the desks."
"True, true,"answered Emily. The two girls continued to discuss scenarios of chaos in the classrooms, many involving missing teachers.
Emily and Hazel walked lethargically off of the bus behind a crowd of other kids discussing their weekend and how evil it was that they had to go to school on Mondays.
"So,"said Emily, "what is that Calculus test on anyways?"
"I'm not completely sure,"pondered Hazel, "though I think it has something too do with finding the derivative and normal line."
"Oh, good,"answered Emily, relieved, "I thought it was over something hard, like tangents or something."
"Nope!"replied Hazel, "just boring old lines and graphs. Ya know I'm beginning to wonder what we'll ever use this stuff for. I mean, sure they say we HAVE to know it and all, but when will we ever really use it?"
"So true,"came Emily's forlorn reply. "When will we ever have to know to graph (9, 4), (5, -3) on an x-axis in our lives?"
"Ya," sighed Hazel. Then a lull of silence snaked into their conversation as they dodged, and pushed, and 'excuse me'd' their way through the hallway and down the stairs. They stopped for a second and the crowd of mixed high-schooler's parted around them and went down the monotonous long hallway with its dim lighting and dull colors.
"I can't believe they actually put a Math Class in this hallway; it's already so dreary and depressing it makes you want to commit suicide,"monotoned Emily while waving her hand, "the math is just adding to that atmosphere. I'm surprised that nobody's splashed a bucket of orange paint all over it or something."
"Ya,"added Hazel, adjusting her backpack, "I think that should be a project for Art Club. To add some life to this barren waste land of attempted learning."
"That would be a very interesting project," agreed Emily, "but sadly, that's also the reason why Dr. Manca hasn't approved of it, because it would be so good for our morale, we might start to prank him again."
"Ya,"said Hazel, "he couldn't have that, but remember the time when James and Ariel switched out his hair gel for hot pink dye?"
"And he walked around for half the day before he realized it?"Added Emily.
"Ya!"Laughed Hazel, "that was hilarious!"Their loud laughs earned them several stares and temporary silence in the hall around them. "Lets get to class before we're late," said Hazel glumly when she saw the time on the clock over their heads.
"Oh crud!"Emily exclaimed when she saw the time as well; " would kill us if we were late on a test day!"
The two juniors practically ran down the hallways that were almost cleared. They slid into their seats just as the bell rang. The girls both sighed in relief.
"Quiet class!"Yelled , achieving immediate silence over the class of conversing sophomores. "Talking is something to be done in the hallway. Not in my class. Now take out a pencil and a sheet of paper; I'm going to pass your tests out. And I expect silence for the remainder of the period."Then she passed out the test and went and sat down at her desk offering a smoldering glare for any who looked at her.
Just looking at the test made Hazel feel depressed. Aw man, she thought, why does she have to give us a three-page test on a Monday? It just isn't right. Oh well, I mise as well get started on this monster. It's not going to do itself. No matter how much I would like it to. So she picked up her pencil and started on problem one.
But what she didn't know as she struggled with the problems was that someone really was watching her.
"Not much longer now," the god whispered quietly to himself chuckling, "not much longer."
"So, how do you think you did on the test?"Asked Emily to Hazel.
"Well, I think I did well, but then again, you can never really tell. I've thought that I'd gotten a perfect score before, and then I got my test back and I had gotten a C-." Said Hazel, "How do you think you did?"
"I think I did okay, but I'd be surprised if I got a higher score than a B."
After that the day flew by for Hazel. Emily's chatter fell meaninglessly on her ears, and she could barely keep up with what she was saying. Where she would usually add a witty remark, she just said 'Ya' or 'cool'. She was too wrapped up in her own thoughts to really pay attention in class.
Even in art, which was her favorite. And in orchestra where she would usually be completely absorbed in the music as a section leader should be, she didn't even hear her own playing, or remember to reprimand the rest of the section with her 'scary face' when a blaring error was played.
It was like there was something she was forgetting, something important.
She just couldn't let it go. It felt like she had it several times but then just as she was about to remember what it was, it slipped away again leaving her grasping at thin air.
Before she knew it, she was running down a well-worn path away from her house. She didn't even remember when school had ended, or riding the bus home, or changing clothes. Aside from the algebra II test that morning, she couldn't remember a single thing she had done that day.
This is odd, she thought to herself as she continued to run along the trail and up a hill, I'm usually not the most observant person, and sometimes I can't remember walking to class, but that's two minutes. And I just spaced out for over six hours. Can't remember ever doing that before. Six hours. Wow that's a long time. After that, she just ran for a while without thinking until she came up to the old gnarled oak tree where she had woken up a week ago in the rain. She stopped for a moment at its roots and took the necklace that she had found there from around her neck.
She turned it in the light of the sun behind her back, making the dark emerald sparkle in the sunrays. Oh, where did you come from? She thought, frustrated, who do you belong to? Is it that man I saw? Is he your owner? And if he were, why on earth would he leave something as precious as you just lying around? He didn't lose you, I know that much at least, or he would have come back to look for you since then. "Oh, who is your owner?"She said aloud, growing more and more frustrated. "If only I knew. Oh great, look at me, I'm reduced to talking to a necklace. This is pathetic. I better just keep running."
So she continued on with her run, being chewed up inside with curiosity the whole way. She couldn't help but think about the necklace. It was almost a relief to her when her feet finally brought her home again. Usually at this point, she changed, took a shower and watched TV. But today for some reason she just couldn't. She just had to go back. But no! No! She wouldn't give in today. Hazel would stay inside if she had to drop Zane in a vat of toxic waste and then make him tie her down. She would stay inside. So she crashed onto the couch and gritted her teeth.
Though she did not know it, at that same moment a slightly battered black car pulled up to her long driveway and began the assent. When it came to the top, a man of medium height with slicked-back black hair and a neat yellow pinstriped suit stepped out and walked to the door. Showtime, he thought, fixing his collar.