Chapter 2: My Teacher Almost Had Me For Lunch

I should have known my day would be full of monsters.

The quiet halls of the school building were an obvious tell that I came to school early. Well, early enough that I wouldn't get caught in the flow of students that come just in time. As I made my way to the second-floor hallway with Sebastian, I walked into my second-period class noticing my classmates hanging out in the room. I dropped my stuff in my locker, happy to know I wouldn't have to lug around an annoying heavy bag all day.
I proceeded up the stairs making way to my first-period class. Of course, something or someone had to ruin my perfectly normal day by being themselves, and that would be my worst nightmare.
It's no surprise she's not married yet, a monster like her. She is a pale sickly looking woman, with gray and black, long, greasy hair. Her usual do be up a tight bun on the top of her head, begging to be released. My natural poofy/wavy long hair couldn't stand to be in a bun for more than three hours. I couldn't understand why she would do that to herself.
You could see her stiff frame walking to her first-period class. Her cold dark eyes lingered on my blue and green eyes. By the time she walked near me, I could see her mouth move to talk to me in her very bothersome voice.
"Hello, I hope you had a good night sleep for today's test," she said with a rough voice. Her voice sounded like her esophagus were made of sandpaper rubbing against each other every time she talked. You would think she smoked a lot during her teen years, but I just couldn't see with her strict like self, smoking a cigarette. "Nope," mumbled Sebastian.
I punched his arm and looked back at. From the side of my view, I could see a pained look on Sebastian's face as he rubbed his arm. That's what you deserve for outing me Seb I thought bitterly.
"We both know the reason you're asking me is that you know I did not sleep well, my question is why even ask? If you already know," I said easily.
Her greasy eyebrow raised with a question, wondering if I was really that brash or I didn't care. If I'm being honest, it was both.
With her irritating look and her frustrated silence I took it as my time to leave, I dutifully left Ms. Walsh and walked quickly to class with Sebastian at my side. As we walked away I could feel 's death-like glare at my back. It gave me an uneasy feeling almost like the one I had before when walking away from my fight with Millennium. Oh, how could I forget the annoying cyclops that bothered me for the longest time. "Well, that was great. Another encounter with death herself," I said loudly making sure Ms. Walsh could hear me over all the voices and heavy footsteps of the other students walking to class. It felt good knowing I made the last jab in mine and Ms. Walsh's conversation.

"It's not that bad Penny," Sebastian said.
"Not that bad? I have her two periods straight during the fifth and sixth period. Those are the worst periods in the day. Every kid is too hyper and can't stay still. Then she ends up screaming at us for two periods straight," I say ranting.

The rest of the day was not normal. I went to class. Nothing attacked me, which was great, but I knew something was coming. I was in the quiet, right before the storm. If I'm being honest I really do like a good storm. The adrenaline rush causes a sensation like little light bulbs are going off not only in your head but all over your body and it's truly remarkable. My first three periods were the best. I had science first, with Mr. Marten, which I excelled at. The second and third I have my English/history teacher Mr. Brunner.
Mr. Brunner was this middle age guy, that was surprisingly cool, he sat in a wheelchair and he is disabled waist down and always has a little half smile like he was thinking of a found memory either it is sad or happy or a combination of both I wouldn't know. His salt and pepper hair and stubble of the same color framing his half smile complemented his old eyes that seemed to know more than he would like, at least his eyes warmed up next to his smile wrinkles from years of laughter. With teachers like, it came with great merit if you were extremely disliked by the man. It was simply unbelievable if you weren't just a student to the man or a child he liked and took great interest in. So, of course, there is no one in the school hates for it is simply inconceivable. Though I personally think the person is out there somewhere, for all I know could hate his father, but, who knows? I guess I'm just lucky enough to be one of the students he takes great interest in.

"Ms. Caspian do you know the answer to this question?"
" uh... yes...um, what was the question?" I heard snickers in the back and heard people saying: "Penny not paying attention, the world is ending."
"The question was, what was the effects of the statue of Athena being stolen from the Parthenon by the Romans."
"The effects were that the Greeks and Romans ended up hating each other. They both thought one was better than the other. Over generation's, during the ancient times, the Greeks and Romans had many wars. Many of these wars were born from the Romans act of thievery," I said with confidence.
"Correct,"
"Right. The Romans and the Greeks prior to the statue being stolen did not like each other. They had a history of a war that made the Roman nation grow stronger and leave many beliefs of the Greeks behind."
*RING* The bell rang for the beginning of fourth-period lunch."Tonight's homework is chapter six of your Eastern Hemisphere Textbook." Mr. Brunner rushed to say.
All the six grade classes raced their way down the steep, crowded staircase. I'm first out the door. Don't get me wrong I love history and English but this girl has to eat. I'm the first in the cafeteria, even the kids on the first floor are not even there yet and I came from the third floor.
As soon I get in the cafeteria I walk swiftly to one of the round lunch tables where most of my friends sit and eat with me. I take out my lunch from the bag Sebastian gave me for school since I don't have my own. You know, living on the streets don't give you time to buy things, but I don't even have money. His parents supply me with the stuff I need (go figure, his parents are paralyzed leg down too, weird right). Sebastian is lucky to have parents that are still together and love each other. As I take out my food I look around the cafeteria walls. There amazing painted murals surround me showing faces of African American activist and influential people in American history and the names of prior students who helped paint the colorful mural. I eat the lunch his parents prepare me. It was cookies shaped like suns because summer is coming soon; his parents know I like to correlate events and the things I eat together (it's weird, I know, but don't judge me). I also had a tomato sandwich and a bottle of water. A chill ran down my back. It came like a crashing wave on my senses. At that exact time, my friends Sebastian and Julianna Hunt ( Julia or Jewels for short) come running through the cafeteria doors arguing who got their first.
"I got here before you Seb."
"First off don't *gasp* call me Seb and *gasp* my crutches got *gasp* through the door before you *gasp* Jewels," Sebastian said out of breath.
"No, my hair got through the door before you Seb, right Penny... Penny!" she said, by the shock of me being there before both of them.
"Actually I got through the door before both of you because when you guys walked in I was already at the table eating my cookies," I said with a smirk upon my face. "So, both of you have to give me three dollars each, so, pay up."
"How do you always get down here first?" Jewels said, disappointed in herself while taking out her money.
"I think it's because I'm so amazing," I said jokingly. "Ha, ha, ha, really funny," Julia said sarcastically.
"Fine, you win this time Penny," said Seb "My name is not Penny!"
"Oh, sorry," Jewels said with fake innocents.
"UGH, your so annoying Julia!"
"You know you love me, Penny."
"I seriously wonder how I do."
Sometimes I have to seriously contemplate how I and Julianna became friends, we're so different. Well... it could be because she also has an absent father and Jada Mathew makes fun of us for that. So, what I don't have a dad? I can handle myself. Unlike her, she has to depend on her minions to help her with everything. She is a bossy, annoying, wannabe barbie who needs to get serious lessons on proper behavior. With her square jaw, crow like eyes, crooked nose, and messy dull blonde hair; she was a world-class jerk.
"So, what do you have for lunch Julia?" I asked "Nothing much just apple slices and-." she replied.
"Eww! I hate apples." I complained. The thought of apples make me sick, how Julia and Sebastian can stomach them is beyond me.
"Well, I love them,"Sebastian said adoringly.
"And two apple sauces," Julia said.
"I love applesauce," I said. I know what you're thinking I hate raw apples but love applesauce. It's weird, I know.
"I also have a turkey sandwich and gummy bears." I absolutely love gummy bears. Before I ran away from home my mom would always buy me gummy bears. It brings back fond memories of when I still lived with her.
As people started filling in the cafeteria I started to feel the same cooling chill from earlier. In the far right corner of the room I saw Ms. Walsh talking to the PTA (parent-teacher association), they were supervising the lunchroom. For once in my life, this has to be the first time I ever saw Ms. Walsh nice to someone. Her kind smiles and soft laughter terrified me. From my seat, It looked like she was telling them they should go and have an early lunch and that she should leave the kids with her. I was silently praying that the PTA members would stay, but to my despair, they left like no one cared. Oh, but I cared, so much. From the looks they had on their faces they were more than happy to leave the kids to her supervision. "What do you think that's all about?" Julia asked to my left while eating her apple.
"I honestly don't have a clue, but I don't like it."
"Why?' Asked Julia.
"Well what I mean, is that she is probably going to give us a quiet lunch and give us work to do. She seriously has problems. I wouldn't put it beneath her to do it. Also, what is the purpose of lunch if not to eat and enjoy ourselves."
"Do you remember where Seb went?" I asked "Ya, he said something about needing to go ask Mr. Brunner something about the homework."
Her comment started stirring a memory I remember him saying something about history. It felt hard to remember little things about Seb. It felt like someone was trying to force thoughts and memories in my head. I tried to push against the feeling in my head, it felt like someone was trying to put me to sleep. Across from me Julia also looked like she had the same feeling. She looked like she was falling into a trance. Her eyes were getting dim like she was daydreaming.
Julia slowly got out of her seat taking my hand saying we should go to the third floor. I didn't question her motive as to why but I felt faint and exhausted. I felt this energy roll off of Julia. It was as if I was swimming in molasses.
As we kept walking, the urge to lay down on the floor and go to sleep grew stronger. Everyone around us was starting to look like wild animals and other odd things. I swear I saw this couple in our school turn into Emperor Penguins, the boy was making loving noises for his girlfriend. Truly a scarring moment for my young mind. On the other side of the hall, this 8th-grade girl shrank until she was the size of a toddler her mature face changed and morphed to fit the proportions of a four-year-old. At first, she looked scared and then this huge grin spread over her innocent face. She ran down the hall screaming and running, she also pulled a lollipop of a boy who started to turn into a walking candy store. His body parts were made of every candy you could think of. People seemed to notice how delicious he looked and they started to surround him. It was a good thing that boy was on the track team.

Julia and I continued onward through the school hallways. When we reached the third floor we took a direct turn and we walked right into 's classroom. The mere thought of entering into that classroom brought me out of my stupor Inside you could see all the adults on the floor morphing into all kinds of animals. I think I saw turn into a bear; poor lady.
Mrs. Walsh was not in her room but it looked like the teachers were trapped inside.
Julia kept trying to drag me to the classroom but I pulled away. I was definitely not going to let her go to that room so, I started to drag her. I went to the other side of the hallway and made a turn to the right. It was hard to fight off the longing to follow Julia to the other room but I kept on going. I saw Mr. Brunner's room on the right side where we turned.
As we got closer to the door I realized this was the one place that seemed calm and serene. Something was out of place though, in the center of the classroom was and Sebastian, but they looked like barn animals waist down. Mind you I perfectly knew what centaur and satyr were I just was in shock in seeing my best friend as a half animal. But, I also felt extremely lied to.