Manipulation High

Chapter 11: visitors

George POV.

The sound of the bell made me let out a relieved sigh, slamming shut my book. It was my second day and only the second week of the school year and I was already stressed. I carried my Science book through the crowds and to my locker by the gym.

I took my time putting stuff away and making sure it was looking neat, since I knew that there would be a crowd if I tried to walk out quickly and I couldn’t be bothered with more of these people. When I finally deemed my locker neat enough I slammed the door shut and began walking off, since Karl was right about the fact it smells of BO by Thursday, today.

A large group of students were all gone from the hallways, only leaving a few kids who had after school clubs or were talking to teachers. I ignored them all as I stepped out into the sunlight of the early afternoon, still being warm from the memory of Summer. There were groups of students milling around outside waiting for school buses or their parents.

I had looked at a map of the area a couple of times on Tuesday night, the night before I started, and had learnt the way home so I could walk. I’d walked home yesterday and was about to start walking again when I noticed my mothers blue car parked along the street. She and my dad had been working overnight so I hadn’t seen them since they dropped me off at school yesterday.

A dorky grin appeared on my face as I ran over to the car and climbed into the passenger seat opposite her. I barely had time to put my seatbelt on when she wrapped her arms around me in an awkward hug. “Georgie! How was school?” She asked enthusiastically. “How was your first day yesterday? I was so sad I couldn’t ask when you got home from school.”

“School was fine Mum.” I told her, “and I made a couple of friends. However yesterday something weird happened…” I was about to tell her about how I got detention with two others but neither of them remembered it, but then thought it would make me sound crazy. “...the popular kids invited me to sit with them at lunch.” I said instead.

“Really?” She cheered excitedly, “I told you you’d make all of the cool kids want to be friends with you! Florida is going to be your big break! My little boy will be the coolest kid in the whole state!”
“Mum… can we go?” I asked, feeling awkward at how long we’d been parked here.

“Oh of course.” She nodded, “by the way as a celebration for your first day going well, we will get take out tonight! You can choose what to get.” This wasn’t a surprise. My parents always let me choose dinner whatever night I started a new school, it was like a tradition.

She continued to ask me questions the whole drive home. ‘What classes do you have?’ or ‘Are your teachers nice?’ or ‘Have you joined any school clubs yet?’ Or even ‘Have you seen any cute boys or girls yet?’

I had tried and given up on telling her and Dad that I don’t want to join clubs or get any cute boys or girls because we always end up moving and I leave everything behind. It was what always happened, but they said that they were never planning on moving whenever I said that, however that didn’t help when they had to move a lot for work, and I had to go with them.

The car pulled into our driveway and she stepped out and walked towards the front door. We’d moved into a quiet neighbourhood which had a lot of families living in it. My parents told me to go introduce myself to some of the other teenagers living around the area but I couldn’t be bothered because of the previously mentioned moving.

I took a moment longer than she did because I had to grab my bag and some groceries that my mother had left sitting in the car. When I went inside and put the bag of food on the kitchen counter and began emptying the contents. A cartoon of eggs, some fresh fruit, some cooking ingredients, and a cheap toothbrush.

My mother was in the kitchen with another bag of groceries she was emptying. Once I finished she told me to finish unpacking the stuff in my room. “I want to put the boxes away or get rid of them,” she told me, “and I can’t do that because most of yours are still stacked up in your bedroom.”

I nodded and walked through the hallway to my bedroom. It was a decent sized room. One of the walls was a light blue with the head of my bed pressed up against it. On the right of my bed was a bedside table, and a desk. On the left size was a stack of boxes, all of which were either completely empty or half empty.

Instead of unpacking some more boxes like my mother told me to, I went over to one labelled ‘personal’ and began looking through it until I found my Nintendo switch. Then I sat down on the bed and began playing whatever game was already open.

After a few minutes there was a knock on my door, I glanced away from the screen but didn’t move as I heard my mothers voice. “George, open the door, you have some friends over to visit.” She said, and that immediately confused me since I had a couple of friends (two friends, Karl and Wilbur) but I didn’t tell either of them my address.

Or maybe I had and I’d forgotten, because I’d apparently forgotten the fact I had somehow gotten detention yesterday with Wilbur and Clay. Or maybe I was just crazy. I turned my Nintendo off and stood up, walking towards the door. When I opened it I saw my mother standing there along with two teenagers whom I recognised.

The shorter of the two was Sapnap, someone Karl had introduced me to, he also shared a couple of classes with me. The taller of the pair I knew better, Clay, and he was smiling at me, although I didn’t smile back. My mother turned to the pair of them.

“So you boys obviously all know each other, and Sapnap and Clay you two are welcome to stay for dinner, but now I’ll go and leave you to catch up.” She said happily, and the pair thanked her politely before walking into my room.

“This place is nice.” Sapnap complimented as he looked around my room, which wasn’t actually that flash. Clay nodded in agreement with the ravenette without saying anything.
“Thanks.” I just muttered as I sat down on the edge of my bed. “How do you two know where I live? Did you follow me home?”

“Sapnap lives next door and we saw you.” the blond explained while still looking around at my room and everything in it. “So how long ago did you move here?” He went on to ask.
I shrugged. “About a week ago. We took a couple of days to just get settled in before my parents started work and I started school.”

“Why are all of your boxes not unpacked if you’ve been here a week?” Sapnap asked, pointing to the boxes beside my bed.
“Because I never see any point.” I stated, “my parents move often so I’ve given up on unpacking everything, since we usually have to move a couple months later. It sucks really.”

Both of them listened to what I said, and I sighed. “Do you guys want to do anything?” I asked, deciding that even though they had come into my room without permission I’d try to be nice.
Sapnap nodded, although I saw Clay doing something else. He had pulled that small book out of his pocket, the one that he had been writing in yesterday.

I watched as he wrote something in it, but didn’t really care what he did. After a minute I looked away and walked over to the boxes, one of them was labelled ‘electronics’ and had everything from my alarm clock to my gaming console, which is what I wanted at the moment. It wasn’t the most modern of its kind, but it was fine.

Sapnap walked over and helped me start to set it up on my tv, and Clay continued writing in his pocketbook for a moment before he shut it and came over to join us.
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1455 words.