Delaware was different. It wasn't that he'd never lived on the coast before, no, it just hadn't been like this. The air was less salty, and certainly drier in Delaware. Chad the mantis shrimp stood outside the doors of his transfer school, Harbored High School. He took a deep breath of the new Delaware air and tried to will his shrimp legs to walk inside the school. But he couldn't. He stood there. And stood there. Voices and images washed over him in waves.
"I can't believe you've done this!"
"He's dead!"
Chad shook himself. Another breath. Finally, he scuttled inside the school.
The halls were painted a deep blue, and the lockers were grey. There was a banner of what looked like a cartoon pirate, an old man in a yellow rain coat with a hook for a hand. The school smelled of sweat and something else Chad couldn't quite place. Cheese? Clams? Hard to say. He looked around, his eyes swiveling. None of the other students seemed to have noticed him yet. Good.
"You should have stayed a shrimp egg."
He shivered as yet another voice washed over him, reminding him of Marine High School, before the Incident....and afterwards.
For the third time this morning his mind replayed the recent past. Replayed the reason for his transfer to Harbored High. Replayed his-
He was abruptly stopped in his memories by the sensation of someone running into him.
A girl. She was on one knee on the tan tiled floor, scooping up strewn pages and books she had dropped when she ran into Chad.
He stooped to help her, extending one rounded fist to scoop a pile of dropped pencils together. He handed them over.
"I'm really sorry, I wasn't paying any attention at all," the girl said, running her eyes over his exoskeleton. "You look new, I'm Shellby."
"I'm Chad," he said, but he was thinking much more than that. Looking at this girl, Shellby, he felt like he didn't want to punch for the first time in his life. He felt...
He realized he had been silently staring at her.
She laughed somewhat nervously, breaking the silence, "I'm going to be late, see you later, Chad."
Chad watched her walk away, her blonde pony tail swinging slightly with her hips. He blinked for a minute after she was gone, clearing his mind, then went to find his first class, Home Ec.
VOUS LISEZ
Diary of a Shrimpy Kid
Roman pour AdolescentsA mantis shrimp is forced to transfer to a human high school after the Incident and falls in love with a human girl. Will their love last? Will he clear his name? Will he thrive in his new school? NOT A JOKE, SERIOUS PROJECT, OC DO NOT STEAL New cha...
