Resident Evil: Epidemic - 1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Whispers

I always hated it here. Raccoon City. More like Shit-hole City. Just your average cookie cutter town in middle America with cookie cutter houses and cookie cutter people with cookie cutter jobs. The problem with a town like this? It’s so fucking boring. Nothing ever happens around here. Sure, there’s the occasional accident, some drunk kid from Raccoon High flips his car and wraps it around a tree. Sure it’s a tragedy, but not too horrifying in the grand scheme of things. Ah well. I guess that’s the way the cookie crumbles.

The funny thing about a town like this is, when there’s nothing to complain about, when everything is hunky-freakin’-dory, people make up shit to complain about. You see it all the time, a wife gossiping about what “what’s-her-name” down the block is doing with the mailman. Or the pool boy. Or whoever. Old man Jenkins complaining about kids on his lawn, as if ONE kid’s shoes are gonna hurt anything. Or how about the Housewives Club consoling Mrs. Johnson because her son Kieran is gay. What an outrageous thing for her son to put her through.

That’s me. I’m now a freakin' gossip topic for a bunch of ladies who have nothing better to do. And an outrageous one at that. You know, god forbid I should lead my own life. But, like I said before, it doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. I’m fifteen, in the “best years” of my life, and I’m going to enjoy them, damnit.

My life doesn’t suck too bad at the moment though. Home life is pretty annoying, but school is alright. I’m out to my school, and aside from the occasional bloody lip or nose, things haven’t been too bad. I’m kind of feminine, so of course I’m always a target for a well placed derogatory name, but it’s not so bad. Just annoying. I can’t really help it, it’s just the way I am. There’s a GSA at my school, so bigotry isn’t in high supply. In fact, most of the school sees bigots for what they are: assholes.

So yea, that’s me. As of right now, I’m heading to my third class of the day, the third week of school. My teacher is a pretty cool dude, Mr. Bosley, but we all just call him the Boss.

“What’s up, Boss?” I asked as I walked in. A minute late.

“You’re late again, Mr. Johnson. You know, if an attendance monitor saw you walk in, I’d have to mark you tardy,” he said.

“That’s why I’m grateful none saw me,” I said with a smile. He shook his head and started to take attendance.

After he was done, he noted that six people were absent today. “Strange, that’s two more than yesterday.”

Becky Reilley rose her hand and batted her eyelashes flirtatiously, “Its that flu outbreak, its getting worse. I heard they might cancel school if it keeps going like this.” God, I hate her. Always trying to flirt her way to get ahead.

“Not likely. There’d have to be an awfully large number of cases in order to do that. Like, a third of the school,” Boss replied.

“..Well that’s what I heard,” she said a bit deflated.

“How many so far have called in sick?” Lucas Thomas asked timidly. He’s so cute, I don’t know why he’s so shy. I just wanna snuggle with him all day long. Night too. And he’s gay, or at least curious. Comes to GSA meetings, but shyly stays in the back the whole time.

“I don’t really know, but it isn't that widespread. We all just have to make sure to wash our hands a lot more, and keep drinking lots of fluids,” Boss said. “The doctors on the news said it was only a minor flu outbreak, but we should take precautions to keep our immune systems healthy.”

After a few more minutes of chatting about the flu, he started class. At least it was English, not math. In English you can sleep through without falling too far behind. When the bell rang, startling some of us over-achievers into the waking world, Mr. Bosley didn’t give us a homework assignment. Figured it would have no point, with so many absences.

On to lunch. My favorite part of the day. You see, while I said before that I don’t really get hassled too much, and I’m generally pretty happy, I still don’t have any friends. Oh well.

I entered the cafeteria and went to the lunch line. I’d been too lazy this morning to fix anything to take, so poison…er…I mean school food it is. I grabbed a “walking taco,” which is basically a bag of Doritos with some greasy meat, shredded cheese and sour cream thrown in. I know what you’re thinking, but it really was my best choice. Even if I did half expect it to live up to its name and start “walking.” At the end of the line I grabbed a coke (at least they can’t screw that up too bad).

I paid, and noticed the normal lunch lady was out today. Kinda makes me feel bad for everyone who ate school lunch yesterday. I walked over to my jammin’ table, the one with “LOSERS” carved elegantly in the center. Someone needs to tell these people how to count, because I count only one “LOSER”.

I ate quietly, not really paying too much attention to what was going on around me. I don’t really look around the cafeteria too much when I eat. I hear all the other kids laughing about this or that, asking if they went to so-and-so’s party.

I glanced up and looked over to the far corner of the room. Noticed Lucas Thomas had a table of friends. There he was, sitting with Tyler Prescott and Ashley Sullivan, the President and Vice-President of the GSA. Huh, that really shows how pathetic I am. Even the “outcasts” want nothing to do with me.

He glanced over at me, “Oh shit!” I said to myself. I know he caught me staring. I looked back down at my food and tried to act normal, as if it hadn’t happened. About five minutes later, I glanced back up. He was watching me. He had an adorable confused look on his face. Then he mouthed, “Gotcha,” and went back to his conversation with Tyler. I did what I normally do in tense situations. I ran. You know that whole “fight or flight” response? Mine’s permanently set on “flight.” See, I don’t deal with people. Like, at all.

Since lunch was almost over, I decided to head to my next class. The teacher wouldn’t be there, but at least I could sit by the door and calm down for a while. Why did I have to stare at him? Now of course he’s going to think I'm weird. Or, weirder. Now my chances with him, slim as they were before, were about three notches past none. Every day, I just go in there, eat, and leave. Why did I have to pick today to gaze dreamily at him?

I was shocked out of my musings by the bell. I grabbed my books and stood up, patiently waiting for the teacher. It wasn’t really normal for him to be this late. He was usually back before the bell rang. The two minute warning sounded. Maybe he’s out today too, I thought as I saw Lucas heading my way.

Crap…can’t really run now. I’m already at my class. He paused for a second in front of me, “See you at Dove,” he said. “Dove Club” was the cheesy nickname for our GSA that Ashley decided on. “Y-yeah,” was my eloquent reply. He smiled a touch shyly and walked on.

What the hell was that? He’s not supposed to…act even cuter now! He’s supposed to be weirded out by me! Arg! I’ll never figure out teenaged boys!

A balding fat guy stopped at the door to my class. Great, he looks like a real barrel of laughs. He unlocked the door and the few of us that had gathered around the door headed in. I took my seat and waited for Mr. Dumpty, or whatever his name is, to take attendance. Nine absences. Strange. That’s almost half the class.

“My name is Mr. Porter, and I’m your substitute for today,” Duh, dumbass. “Mr. Hoover is out today.” Duh again. “Let’s get started by going over yesterday’s homework, I believe it was on the Pythagorean Theorem?” Why does math have to suck so much?

When the bell finally rang, I bolted out the door. I had a couple of classes, then on to Dove. When the final bell rang for the day, I went to my locker and gathered what papers I needed and headed off to Mrs. Rubinstein’s room. I headed in, after taking note of a piece of paper covering the sign that said, “Dove Club GSA!” I took a seat by myself near the left side of the room. Tyler was there, talking in hushed tones to Mrs. Ruby. He stopped when he saw me, and gave me a long, measuring look.

I’d had enough shit for now. “What? Do I have something in my teeth? Some kinda giant African Homo-Eating Beetle on my face? What is it?” I asked testily.

“Nothing, Kieran,” he said in a fake wounded tone.

A few minutes later he started the club. Everyone was here, except for Lucas. “As you probably noticed, we had to cover up the sign outside. Someone decided to change the name of our club to ‘Dove Club FAGS’ without authorization,” he said with a half smile. “It never ceases to amaze me how civilized these people can be.”

This elicited a chuckle out of the crowd of about twenty-five students. “On to business though. We still have a sign up for the R.C. Soup Kitchen, so we need volunteers. Ashley and I will be there, so come on, it’ll be fun.”

He went on for a while about activities that were planned, funding and the like. “Okay, with the boring crap out of the way, lets talk. What do you guys wanna talk about? It’s an open topic.”

“How about movies? Anyone seen any good ones lately?” A blond boy asked. Just then, Lucas came rushing into the room, out of breath and shivering. His hair and T-shirt were soaked.

“S-sorry I’m l-late,” he said timidly. He glanced over and locked eyes with me. He blushed, and looked away.

“What the hell happened to you?” Tyler asked.

“Long s-story,” he said. “Just s-some assholes. Don’t make a big d-deal out of it.”

He turned and started walking to his usual spot in the room. Then, paused, and started heading my way. “This seat t-taken?” he whispered nervously when he got to the seat next to mine.

“No one’s sitting there,” I said indifferently. In reality, I was having a slight nervous breakdown. There were like ten other desks around me, and he chose the one right next to mine.

He sat there in relative silence. He laughed at Tyler and Ashley’s stupid jokes, but otherwise he was quiet. I looked over and noticed he was still shivering. I took my coat and draped it over his shoulders.

“Hey, what are you d-doing?” he asked, a bit shocked.

“You were cold,” I said, as if it explained everything. I went back to listening to the discussion, but realized just about everyone was looking at me.

Ashley smiled and said, “Awww! That was cute!”

Everyone chuckled while Lucas and I turned like thirty shades of red. I hate blushing, especially since I’m Irish.

“Shut up,” I mumbled. Everyone laughed again, but returned to the discussion.

“Thanks…” Lucas whispered, with the hint of a smile.”

I noticed a couple of boys in the back of the room whispering to eachother. I could just barely make out what they were saying.

“Yeah, I hate flamey guys like Kieran too. Gives us all a bad name,” a tall, red-headed boy said. Damnit, I fucking hate that shit. Even gays judge me before they know me.

I turned and glared daggers at the boy. I made sure he knew I heard him. He kind of blushed and shrugged his shoulders. I shook my head and turned away. I’d had just about enough.

“Does anyone else have anything they want to talk about?” Tyler asked.

“I do,” I said in a slightly heated voice. “Prejudice.”

Tyler looked over at Ashley, who shrugged. “Okay, what about it?”

“People seem to think that since im always so ‘shits and giggles,’ I don’t feel the pain of it. I do. I know I’m effeminate, and I really can’t help it. I’m sorry if my simply existing makes life harder for people. Can’t really help that either,” I said. Everyone went silent.

“Well, we as a group need to try and look past people’s prejudice. Try not to show them they’ve hurt you, and hold your head up high,” Tyler said, with an air of superiority.

“You all are guilty of it too,” I said. Now I really had everyone’s attention. “I’m serious. Look around. Every single one of you talk about how prejudice is wrong and how people need to be more open. That’s all fine and dandy. I’ll still be eating lunch by myself tomorrow. None of you want to sit with the homo. Hell, I’m not even welcome at the GSA table!”

“Now, wait a minute, no one ever said-” Tyler started, but I cut him off.

“That’s right, no one ever says that. But if I were to walk over to your table and sit down, the first thing that you would do is look at me funny. Then you’d look over your shoulder to see if anyone saw me. You’re such a hipocrite!” I stormed out of the room. It had gotten a little too thick with bullshit.

I got about halfway down the hall before I heard the footsteps following me.

“Tyler, you can save it. I don’t want to hear anything you have to say,” I said without turning.

“I’m s-sorry,” Lucas said. “You…uh…left your j-jacket.”

I turned and looked into his eyes. He was tense, almost as if he was waiting for me to strike. He held out my jacket with his left hand, and I noticed some bruising on his forearm.

“Are you alright? Still cold?” I asked, concerned.

“N-no, just…I stutter when I get n-nervous,” he explained. He was always stuttering, I thought. Seeing the look on my face, he said, “I’m nervous a lot…”

I chuckled. I reached for the jacket, my fingers brushing against his smooth palm. He inhaled sharply. “Thanks,” I said.

He turned away, his shoulders slumped slightly.

“Hey, Lucas?” I called when he got a few meters away from me.

“Yeah?” he asked.

I tossed my jacket back to him. “Bring it back to me tomorrow, I don’t need it tonight.”

His whole expression brightened. He smiled a dazzling smile at me. “Sure,” he said, and walked away.

I went back to my locker, noticed that someone badly drew a penis and what I’m assuming is supposed to be my mouth sucking on it. My lips aren’t that big though. I grabbed the math journal I had forgotten and went out the side entrance to wait on the Activities Bus. Yeah, this is going to be one strange year.