Resident Evil: Epidemic - 3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

::The Gathering Winds::

I woke up, and glanced at the alarm clock that had apparently been blaring for a while. I had been having a dream, and thought my alarm was the ringing of the damned phone. In the dream I picked it up, but it wouldn’t stop ringing. Horrifying, I know.

Anyway, it was 6:45. I had about fifteen minutes to get to school. I jumped out of bed, decided to skip the shower, (hey, I was clean enough!) and threw on some clothes. I put on a tight black shirt that has this shiny, shimmering quality to it, and shows off my slim figure, a blue button down shirt that I left unbuttoned over that, and a pair of nice jeans that show off my butt really well. Hey, I said I was gay, didn’t I? I raced downstairs and put on my black “Vans” shoes. I know they’re skater shoes, but I don’t care. Call me a poser.

My mom had already left, so I just ran out the door and locked up. I now had about ten minutes. I didn’t live that far from school, so I just ran. I ran hard, too. I made it to the school in about eight minutes, and to my first class, “Advanced Art Techniques”, just as the final bell rang. I slumped down into my seat at the table and tried to catch my breath. My hip was on fire from the exertion, but the pain was subsiding.

“Are you alright?” Mr. Lawrence asked.

“I’m fine,” I said in between gasps for air.

“Do you need a drink of water?” he asked with concern.

“No thanks, I’ll be alright,” I gasped. I have this thing about drinking unfiltered water. It’s not the taste so much, it’s just a mental thing. If I know its unfiltered, I gag. Reflex. Well, the taste of the school’s drinking fountain water is pretty nasty too. Tastes like licking a rusty pipe. Gross.

He started the class. We worked on our projects, mine nearly completed. He raved about how well it was coming along and I blushed, never liking compliments. After about twenty minutes, I became aware of a new person at our table. I looked up and saw the red-headed boy from the GSA. The one that judged me.

He smiled at me, and I rolled my eyes and looked down at my work. I never even noticed he was in this class before.

“What do you want?” I asked irritably.

“Nothing, just wanted to say sorry about yesterday. I hadn’t realized I was doing the same thing people do to me,” he explained. I gave him a sideways glance.

“Well, it doesn’t really matter to me, it just pissed me off. But if it helps to clear your conscience, I’ll let it go,” I said, slightly less irritably, and not really making eye contact with him. I just wished he would go away.

When he started to talk again, I realized I wasn’t going to get my wish.

“No, I really am sorry. I’m not just doing this to clear my conscience.”

“Whatever dude, I believe you,” I said, still not looking at him, wishing even harder for him to go away.

“You don’t believe me,” he said. A statement, not a question.

“I just said I did!” I said a little heatedly.

“But you didn’t mean it,” he stated. Again, not a question.

I looked up at him finally. “Just how the hell would you know?”

“You wouldn’t make eye contact,” he said. “It felt like you wanted me to leave. Do you want me to leave?”

YES my mind screamed. “Do what you want,” my mouth said. I don’t really do confrontation. And I hate hurting people’s feelings.

“What are you working on?” he asked. He leaned forward (he was sitting across the table from me) and looked at my work. “Wow! That’s like incredible!”

I looked back into his eyes. He looked sincere. I blushed, the whole compliment thing. “It’s nothing special,” I said.

“Bullshit,” he said. “I like the way it’s slightly backlit, giving the character a ‘glowing’ look.” He looked for a long moment at the figure.

He looked back up at me, then down at the figure, then up at me with a slightly mischievous smile. “You know, he kinda looks like…Lucas…” he said.

I quickly looked down. Damn! It totally looks like Lucas! And it doesn’t help I made him look like a freaking knight in shining armor. I looked back up at him with wide eyes.

He was barely containing the giggles. When he saw the look on my face, he lost it.

When he regained control, he said, “Kieran, you just made my week. That’s the funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time.”

When he said my name, I realized I had no idea what his name is. “Umm…you never told me your name,” I said.

He laughed again. “It’s Dan. So am I still a horrible person?” he asked with a smile.

“Nah,” I said. “Maybe unsavory, but I wouldn’t say horrible.”

The bell rang and we parted ways. As I approached my locker, I saw Lucas waiting for me. I quickly put my drawing of “Shining Knight Lucas” in my art portfolio.

“I was here this morning waiting for you,” he said. He had my jacket draped over his arm. The way the light was hitting him slightly from behind made him look strikingly like the drawing.

I smiled. “I was running late, and barely made it to class on time,” I explained. “How was math? Was that sub still there?”

He cocked his head to the side and gave me a strange look. “How’d you know I had math first period?”

I had to think fast. I couldn’t say, ‘I saw you leaving the class before, and stared at your butt all the way down the hallway.’ Something about that just screams creepy stalker.

“I saw you doing math homework in English before. I just assumed you had it first period,” I said lamely.

He accepted it, although there was still question in his eyes. “Yeah, the balding guy was still there. I need to get going, though. My Social Psychology teacher hates me.”

“Mrs. Ruby?” I asked, confused. She doesn’t hate anyone. She’d probably give Hitler the benefit of the doubt.

“No, Coach Reynolds took over that class for her. The school board thought they should put his ‘expertise’ to good use,” he said. “Just because you have a degree, doesn’t mean you should use it. I haven’t learned a thing! All he ever does is talk about football.”

“Ouch, that sucks. Well, good luck! I’m off to Government with Mr. Macy,” I said. As we parted ways, I idly noticed he wasn’t stuttering. Is he getting more comfortable around me?

We still had a bit of time before class, so I stopped off to answer the call of nature. You ever wonder why they call it that? Does mother nature have a pee fetish? Things that make you go “hmmm.”

I walked in, did my business, and washed my hands. Bobby Gibson, the boy who outed me, walked in. The worst thing was, he was still gorgeous. He’d worked out a lot, sculpting his body with weight machines until he looked like a greek god. I wasn’t really into the ‘muscled’ look, but he pulled it off well. He’d been playing football since eighth grade, and it showed. But the devilish sneer on his face made him look inhuman.

“What’s up, sissy? Looking for some penis to suck?” he said. Well, what he actually said was, ‘What’th up, thithy? Looking for thome penith to thuck?’, but I’ll translate. My lisp is not that bad!

“Leave me alone Bobby,” I said.

He got an evil look on his face, and said, “Pansy faggots like you have to call me sir!” he grabbed me around the throat, spun me around, and pushed me against the wall, face against the cold tile. The wall felt grimy, but that was the last thing on my mind. “What do you have to say for yourself?” he sreamed.

“I’m sorry!” I struggled, but his grip was like iron.

“I’m sorry WHO?” he screamed again, twisting my arm savagely.

“SIR!” I screamed through the pain. “I’m sorry SIR!” his grip loosened slightly.

“Good. Now, suck my cock,” he said in a mocking tone. I heard a ‘zip’ sound, and started to panic.

He started to push my head down, when I heard a ‘packing’ sound, not unlike the sound it makes when you slam some meat down on the counter. His grip loosened completely, and he stumbled away from me.

“What the fuck is going on here?” Dan screamed at Bobby.

“None of your damn-” before he could finish Dan kicked him in the nuts. His dick, which was sticking out of his pants, turned purple. He grabbed his crotch and moaned in pain.

Dan pulled me out of the bathroom and down the hall. “Are you alright?” he asked.

“Yeah, just a little shaken up. Thank you so much! He was going to make me…” I shuddered.

“I know, I heard everything. I fucking hate the bastard, Coach Reynolds needs to kick him off the team,” he said. I remembered that Dan was on the football team. Receiver or something? I don’t know. He could have been a goalie for all I knew about football.

“You need to get a pass or anything?” he asked.

“Nah, it’ll be ok. My class is just down there,” I said, pointing down the hall. I shook my head, trying to clear it. I was still a bit shaky.

“Alright, see you later,” he said. Have I just made a friend? Is that what that feels like?

I walked into my government class just in time. Mr. Macy didn’t look too well. He was sweating like a pig, which was usually comical looking on him since he had to be about four hundred pounds, but he just didn’t look right. He told us to get out our books and to read from wherever we left off from. This was also weird, seeing that he was a bit of a perfectionist.

All throughout class he kept muttering to himself. He kept scratching himself in various places, mainly on the arms and neck. I heard him say “Itchy…” a number of times. About halfway through class, he ripped open his bag lunch and pulled out a huge meat filled sandwich. The wrapper said it was from ‘Jill’s Sandwiches,’ a place in the mall.

He took a huge bite of it, nearly devouring the whole thing.

He farted, and said, “Itchy…tasty…” me and a few girls in the class (shut up, I am not a girl) were thoroughly disgusted.

After Government came English. Lucas is in that class. You can’t see it, but I’m smiling. I’d put in one of those tacky little “smilies” using a colon and a parenthesis, but I’m not cool enough for that.

I walked in just in time (I seem to be doing that a lot today. Huh.) and found the Boss sitting at his desk scowling. I looked around the room and noticed what he did. There were nine people in the class, excluding him. That’s over half the class out.

“I’d start a lesson, but what would be the point?” he said. “There’s barely anyone here. This flu is getting scary, people.” He looked around. A few of the remaining students didn’t look well themselves.

Lucas was sitting next to one of them, Josh Richter, but was scooted as far away from him as he could get without falling out of his chair. He had like half a buttcheek in his chair. I had to smile at how cute it looked.

He sneezed, and fell out.

I giggled, along with the rest of the class, but then stopped when I saw the embarrassed look on his face. Mr. Bosley said, “Why don’t you take a seat over there?” he pointed in my direction. My heart started beating fast.

He sat down next to me. I think this time he was actually leaning the other way, closer to me. I started to sweat. “You okay?” I managed to ask.

“Yeah, nothing hurt but my pride. And my butt,” he giggled. Great, now he had me thinking about his butt. I have to stop that. After a few seconds, I realized trying to stop thinking about his butt was actually making me think about it more. My pants felt tighter.

“D-do you wanna…like c-come over after school?” he asked, stuttering nervously. He had a cute shy look on his face.

“I would, but I’m kind of grounded right now,” I said. His face showed the disappointment we both felt. Me and my damn dirty mouth.

After a short while, as the class was having a discussion about the flu and the cannibal attacks, Lucas looked shyly over at me again.

“Well, you c-could tell your mom we have to w-work on our English assignment.” He said.

“We don’t have an assignment,” I said dumbly.

He smiled and said, “So?” I laughed at the mischievous look on his face.

“Ah, I get it. I’m a little slow today,” I said.

“A little?” he giggled.

“Shut up,” I said, feigning hurt. “You want me to try it or not?”

He blushed, and said, “Yeah. What do you wanna do when we get there? I have a pretty good videogame collection…” he trailed off, staring into my eyes.

The bell rang, scaring the bejeezus out of us. We giggled, and started packing up our stuff.

“So I’ll talk to you later then?” he asked.

“Count on it,” I said.

He left, and I finished gathering my things. As I got up, I bumped my hip on the desk and winced in pain. Mr. Bosley came over.

“You alright?” he asked. People keep asking me that. I may look frail, but I’m not a girl, damnit!

“Yeah,” I said a little testily. He backed up to let me through.

“I didn’t mean anything by it,” he said. “You just looked like you were in pain.”

“Yeah,” I said a lot less heatedly this time. “I hurt myself stupidly yesterday. No big deal. Thanks, though.” He nodded, and I left to go to lunch.

I walked into the cafeteria and bought my lunch again. It was another new lunch lady. She tried to short me a dollar. If I keep at it, I’ll be broke before the weekend. Can’t have that, there’s a cool new science fiction movie coming out this weekend. Remake of an old Romero movie, just can’t think of the name.

I went over to my usual table, the one that proudly displays “LOSERS” in finely carved penmanship. I started to eat my greasy cardboard disguised as pizza, when four people plopped down at the table. Tyler, Ashley, Dan, and Lucas. Lucas sat next to me, while the other three were on the opposite side.

“What, am I the Dove Club’s new charity case?” I said in a joking tone with a smile. It was a small smile, but a smile.

Tyler grinned. “Yep. Why else would we be sitting here with you?”

Ashley swatted his arm. “Leave him alone,” she said to him. “We’ve heard some nice things about you,” she said, looking at me. She was obviously talking about something Dan had said.

“And I wanted to see your…artwork,” Tyler said, holding back giggles. I looked over at Dan.

“I’ll fucking kill you,” I said.

Everyone but me and Lucas lost it, nearly falling out of their seats laughing.

When they calmed down, Lucas said, “What’s so funny?” everyone lost it again.

So this is what having friends is like. Can I return them?