Chapter 1: High School

Just a street away from Brooklin High were two elementary schools. One was Catholic, the other public. Closer to the Catholic school was Ashburn road. Exiting from Carnwith Drive was a two-direction arrow sign, letting drivers know what kind of road Ashburn was. Just behind this sign was an open field full of clumps of dirt and not much else. The only thing of note were the sunrays that gave light to the gloomy sight.

From a far away distance, a dark spot in the clouds was growing. Getting closer and closer to the sign. As the creature flapped its wings, it became apparent that it was none other than a common turkey vulture. Dirt brushed off the ground as he glided to the sign, covering the road just ahead. He landed effortlessly, though his feathers looked ruffled and riddled with dust.

He sat and watched something ahead of him. Staring with a look of hunger and concentration. Had anyone been around to observe this scavenger, not even they would make him flinch. His body moved but his head stayed still as he repositioned himself on the sign. Immediately after he did that, he began to preen himself. Plucking out feathers that were bent and out of place under his right wing.

As they fell to the ground, the wind picked up. And with the chill blowing on his now exposed skin, he spread his wings and slowly took off into the sky. The feathers he had plucked out began following the wind away, but only some remained. Unable to unlodge themselves from the wood of a roadside memorial, just in front of the sign. On it was the image of a six-year-old girl.

The vulture flew against the light wind, flapping his large wings only occasionally. Outside the catholic school was a horde of children playing freely. The bell hadn't rung yet, which meant they were greeting each other and socializing before another day of school. He circled the area beneath, wondering if anyone or thing might've been stepped on a little too hard. But there was nothing edible there yet.

After a few more circles, and points from some of the children below, he flapped his wings and headed off up the street. The wind pushed him off to the right a bit but it didn't matter, at least now he was just above the middle of the street. Patrolling every bit of pavement and grass he glided by. With no roadkill or any small animals venturing too far into the street, the vulture lost interest in the endless line of pavement. Now he focused on whatever lied ahead.

The public school? No. The high school? Yes. There was always a treat or two in the yard. A mouse with broken bones or an injured bird that was too exhausted to take flight. Either or, both were on their deathbed. Both were exceptions to an early start.

Not giving the public elementary school any mind, he dived down only a bit to gain speed. With a few flaps of his wings, he was soaring elegantly toward Brooklin High. While the school's grounds were swarming with hormone-riddled teenagers, he noticed a dead chipmunk just in front of the school sign. Even with all the body odour and perfume, the smell of a dead carcass called louder to him than a cat in heat. It was a fresh carcass too…

It didn't matter, fresh or not, it was a quick snack. He discontinued his circling and landed directly on the school's sign, flapping his wings just before doing so. One of the students noticed this and took out his phone to record, zooming in on the vulture's red head. As it lowered its long and narrow neck, a noise startled it. Still leaning down, the vulture looked straight ahead of it.

A tiny rock came hurling toward him! It pinged off the sign, just missing the bird's pink feet as he took back off into the sky with a distressed screech! The student let out a short sigh and stopped recording, heading back into the crowd. In the hands of a short 5'5 girl was a black slingshot with thick yellow rubber bands. She ran up to the sign and readied her slingshot once more. The girl grabbed another rock from her pocket and aimed at the flying vulture… releasing the rubber with a whip through the air.

It snapped at the vulture's right wing! The bird fumbled through the air, screeching as he struggled to regain his composure. Thankfully, one mere rock wasn't enough, he shook off the pain in less than a minute and flapped his wings as fast as he could.

"Fucking scavenger!" The girl yelled to the injured bird.

Chuckling as she stuffed her slingshot back into her pocket, other students looked at the sophomore with disgust. Though, none of them did anything about it. School was about to start, and they'd rather not deal with a child before being stuck in a school with her. The girl took out her pocket mirror and began picking at her teeth. Removing pieces of soft cereal stuck in there, without a care about those watching.

Finally, the bell rang loudly. Everyone was mentally prepared for another day, heading into the doors with their first-period binders ready. The girl, however, rolled her eyes and shut her red pocket mirror with a loud snap. She didn't have a problem with socializing, but she did have a problem learning. She hated it with a burning passion.

Brooklin High wasn't anything fancy but it also wasn't anything awful either. While it seemed like a pretty standard high school, it didn't look too bad from within. Long halls, a clean interior, well-organized classrooms and a second floor accompanied by an elevator. On the outside, it was pretty average with four entrances, a cafeteria that extends its tables outside by the north entrance, and portables by the southwest entrance. All in all, most parents liked the look of the school and so did their children. But it wasn't the school itself that was the issue, it was the students within it.

Today was a dim and cloudy day. It was only the first period and it already felt like everything was dragging on. Students were talkative within the halls, as expected, but there were more students that looked tired and slow than usual. You could argue that with the recent passing of summer vacation, the first month had finally gotten to them in the second one. And it was probably just that. It was the beginning of October but there were still hot days to get through. Today, however, was the first one with a slight chill in the air.

To complement the chill was a small gust of wind that occasionally blew through the air, causing goosebumps to appear on whoever felt it. Students shivered as they made their way into the school, going from cool air to decently warm air. Halls filled with students, becoming cramped quicker than most would be comfortable with. Some teachers greeted the passing students while others were in just as much of a rush as them. The vice principal looked at the crowd with a focus in her eye. As if she was expecting to see someone out of the hundred students.

On the other side of the school was the person she was looking for. Melissa Novak. Melissa was a pretty well-performing student. The occasional A and average B, but she was as popular as ever. Often joining clubs and being elected as the head runner of each club. Most teachers are impressed by her representation of their school, winning competitions and setting a good example to teenagers who were interested in attending Brooklin High. Current students of Brooklin High knew exactly who she really was though.

An insulting rub-it-in with little remorse for struggling students. Often mocking students who just wanted to get through the day without being reminded how long it will take for it to end. How their struggle would only get worse with each passing grade. It was this very reason people tried to stay out of her way and treated her with respect when getting in her way was inevitable. Unfortunately for others, respect wasn't automatically granted to them. It was judgement that greeted them whenever they passed by popular students with an attitude.

As one can guess, this was Melissa in print. Wearing an open white sweater, she strutted through the halls without moving out of the way for others. That was their job, not hers. With her head up high and her eyes glued to the madness of the crowd in front of her, she rolled her eyes at the passing freshmen. New faces annoyed her. It meant less people who knew her and more people to bash the message in their heads.

Melissa turned into a classroom and immediately took a seat in the middle row of desks.

"Mel."

"Tom."

Next to her was a boy similar in age. He was 5 '10 while she was 5' 8, both knew each other since kindergarten. It was grade A friendship between these two but one of them was carrying the other in this class.

"You got it done?" Thomas asked.

"Why else would I be here? So yes. If you're wrong we're both losing this mark."

"I can manage. Can't say the same for you."

"Can we talk about something other than math-"

"We're in math class, retard."

"Okay well fuck you too then."

Thomas unlocked his phone and leaned over to her,

"Cole hit a fucking deer last night. He might be late for lunch today, fucking prick…"

"Don't pretend like you give a shit about that thing."

"I meant him. The idiot is going to postpone everything… again."

"You're acting like he ever plans anything out. That goes to you and me. The others don't do jack shit."

"Ya, but he comes up with the suggestions and we expand upon it. It's tomorrow, we can't just dick around and come up with something on the spot."

"We absolutely could do that. If he doesn't make it, that's on him, not us." Melissa opened her binder and slid it over to her friend,

"Take a look at this for me and make sure it looks decent enough."

"I thought you didn't want to talk about math?"

"Just look at it!"

With a sigh, Thomas angled her binder properly. Opening it as he glanced at the clock by the door. Moving his eyes to the binder, he ran them down each page, looking over each check mark, circle and percentage. Once he found the sheet he was looking for, he slowly read over everything she had copied down from him. One problem looked a bit weird, so he opened his phone and compared her sheet to the document he had sent her. Just as he had thought, it was indeed wrong.

"You might want to look over question thirteen…"

"Figures." Melissa pulled her binder back and took Thomas' phone to compare the answers.

"Oh, come on! I'm five numbers off! Goddamn it, out of every question it had to be the longest one." Melissa took out her pencil and almost immediately began erasing her answer.

"Woah woah woah, hey," Thomas snatched the pencil from her hand.

"What the fuck???"

"Leave it."

"What do you mean, 'lEaVe it'??? Class starts in less than a minute!"

"Exactly, dumbass! He's going to walk in and see you writing! Now let's take a minute to sit and think about this… specifically his perspective. First of all, he's judgemental as hell. So, he's going to assume you either didn't finish the question or you're doodling on your sheet. At which point he'll call you out in front of the class and call you lazy or something stupid like that."

"Okay, but I'm clearly fixing my answer. It's not like I'm writing ingredients to mustard gas or doodling the blueprints of each classroom."

"I get that, but actually listen to me when I say to look at it from his slanted-eyed perspective."

A bell rang throughout the school, letting the students know that the break was over. Period one was about to start. Almost instantly, in stepped their math teacher, Mr. Li Wang. Right on time as usual. Melissa rolled her brown eyes and looked over to her friend. He smiled and shrugged, nudging the binder back over to her.

Back at the front of the school was Jessica Harris, a ginger-haired girl with beautiful white skin. Her smile could brighten up a room full of soon-to-be deceased elderly. Her lips were a supple pink colour and her eyes were as green as could be. The freckles under her eyes only seemed to add to her beauty, although, they were hardly noticeable. She was only 5'8 with an average body size, but it was slightly on the skinnier side.

People would love to take the time to talk with her but unfortunately, she was a friend of Melissa's. Thankfully, she seemed to be the more friendly one of the bunch. Often greeting people when she stepped into a room, just as she was about to do now.

She stepped into the library and greeted a group of freshmen by the librarian's desk. And without knowing too much about her, they returned the favour. But perhaps it was a good thing she was on the friendlier side than the others as she proceeded to give them another smile. A vibrating sound made its way from her pocket. Jessica pulled out her phone; it was a call from her father.

She took a step behind one of the bookshelves,

"Jessica?"

"I'm in school, can't talk long."

"I know, I know. Do you think you could pick up the girls after school?"

"Mom can't-"

"She's working late again… It's Monday."

"Okay well, I might have to stay a bit longer after school."

"For book club?"

Jessica paused,

"If I'm going to be picking up the girls then I guess not. I need to talk with my friends. We have plans for a party."

"Not at our house, I take it?"

"God no, I'd rather drop dead before I let Sidney and Abbey around them."

"I don't mind the dark-haired boy… what was his name?"

"Thom-"

"Thomas, that's it."

From around the corner was a freshman from the group. A younger boy waved at her with a desire to talk.

"Okay, I'll pick them up but can you call their school and let them know to keep them a bit longer? 10 to 15 minutes maybe?"

"Alright, but don't make it 20."

"Never. Bye, Dad."

"Have a good day, Jess."

And with that, she hung up the phone with a sigh. Every Monday to Wednesday was the same. Her mom would be working her ass off at the company she became hired at only recently. Of course, with good intentions of feeding her family. It was just a pain to hardly see her or entertain her little sisters. She loved them, but she wasn't her mother.

They had things they wanted to say to her that obviously weren't intended for Jessica. There was an effort made, sure, but she needed time to herself throughout the week, not just at the end.

"Hey, saw you walk in. And I've got to say… you've got to be the only girl to greet us these past two months."

Jessica walked up to him and chuckled,

"I take it I'm the only person in general to greet you guys."

"Well, ya. Not many people seem to even notice us."

This boy amused her. He spoke with a lisp and occasionally fixed his large glasses. He was a textbook nerd. A spitting image n' all. Literally.

"Don't think too much of it. People like to keep to themselves here. And it's probably for the best… you need the support." She said before taking a seat at a nearby desk.

"Do I need permission to sit with you?" He joked.

But she looked around before answering which made his smile drop.

"Sure. Just you though."

"Cool." He said as he sat across from her.

"Listen, people in this school can be real assholes-"

"Nothing I'm not familiar with."

"No, I mean really."

Jessica's change in demeanour was more than telling,

"Try to keep to your group and talk to people who would look… like you..."

"That… doesn't hurt as much as you think it should."

"Then it shouldn't be a problem. But there's this girl, Irene. She's in my book club. She seems pretty nice, and keeps to herself… She should be able to fill you in on the people around here. Be like her… keep to yourself if you're not with your group over there."

Both of them turn to the group who are smiling and waving at them.

"You want to meet them? They're pretty cool friends."

"Ya, they seem like it…"

The boy nodded and reached out his hand,

"I'm Manny… but you can call me The Ma-"

"Manny… that's cute. So, Manny… any thoughts on this school so far?"

"It's cool. The people aren't really approachable, y'know, like I said. I saw this pretty cool vulture this morning but that was ruined."

"Don't worry. Things drop dead around here all the time. I'm sure it'll be back." She didn't mean for it to sound weird or threatening but the smile on her face did not help.

Realizing how it might look, she embarrassingly stood up.

"Well, it was certainly nice meeting you, freshman."

"Ya, uh, you too! Thanks for the- advice?"

"No problem!" She stood up with a smile and made her way back to the bookshelf. She took out a book of her choosing and turned to leave.

"Wait!"

She turned back,

"What's your name?"

"Jessica Harris. But please just call me Jessica."

"Okay, Jess. I'll see you around!"

As she was walking away she shouted back,

"Just Jessica!"

She was ashamed to admit that the boy did seem like a nice person to hang out with. It was just a shame that it had to be this school. Her phone vibrated once more in her pocket. Jessica pulled it out to look at the notification. It read,

"Cole finally made it to school. Meet at usual spot inside school. Just before period 2" -Melissa Novak