Dawn Hollow

IX

The empty halls surrounded him in its shiny, almost unbelievable gleam when he moved down the hallway. Each wall was almost like a mirror, which kept startling him every time he looked over and saw his own reflection. All made sounds were repeated back to him, much louder and frightening than others. And despite him being as careful as he physically thought he could be, he could not help his body but cringe at the squeaks and squeals the cleats on his feet would make, and that was the scariest sound of all. But there was no time to look back as he dashed to the locker room with a quick movement.

Baseball practice had ended somewhat earlier than usual since it appeared to look like it would pour down molten rain any second, so the team decided to head out early. And that's more or less what Noah was doing at this very moment as he carried his duffel bag across his chest with his bat in one hand and his uniform's hat in the other. Seeing as he had his free period right after morning practice, the routine would then bring him to the locker rooms next to the gym for a quick shower before barely being late for his next class. Not so much that Noah cared if he was late or not. More so, his report card couldn't afford a lower grade or another detention.

His feet got him to the gym locker room, though with about 15 minutes on the clock. Not his best time, but then again, not his worst. With his time crunch being the forefront in his mind, he threw his bag and equipment on the changing bench. He grabbed his phone and set a timer. Putting on some music to whatever the hell would play, he got his towel before, finally removing only his shirt while turning the shower water up to piping hot until it would have whistled if it was a kettle.

The particular music choice was a new song by The Black Eyed Peas, one of his first favorite things since moving to America so many years in the past. He remembered moving. It wasn't like at the time he hadn't done it before, but more so, he had never driven that far before. Especially to somewhere so new. It was a scary idea at first; even his brother wasn't so keen on it. Their parents had decided to move after their mother had returned from a business trip to the states and couldn't stop boasting about it. And even though in his young mind it seemed like it only had taken a few days to make that choice, it was a hard-thought-out three months before the boxes were packed and the option was set. He could still remember how cool everyone in his class thought he was moving overseas. Not to mention all the rumors and warnings they would tell him about "The Goatman" and "Bigfoot," and other things he still wasn't sure were real or not. But Noah hadn't ever looked back. Despite missing his old friends and family, the new life he had started was better than he could've ever imagined.

His phone angrily vibrated on the bench outside the thin shower curtain and awoke him from his sleepy shower thoughts. He let some of the final drops of hot water pour onto his face to wash away any leftover drowsiness and shut off the water, taking his other hand to grab his towel to get himself dry enough to slip the shorts on afterward. His pores released hot steam from his skin, fogging up the mirror he was quickly doing his caramel locks in. Finally, it slicked back to a burning angle that cooled the rest of his scalp down in an oddly satisfying way.

As that finished, the boy returned to where all his personal items were waiting for him. Set up in front of his stuff was a line of mirrors and sinks. Behind all of that were the lockers, more specifically, his own. There weren't that many lockers in the room, but enough for him to have his lucky locker number of 101, which treated him well throughout the years. It was the locker number he continued to carry over from middle school. To his sides, otherwise known as 100 and 102, were memories of PJ and Joseph. He loved having both of them there during his PE because they made it much more fun. However, PJ finished his credits early and opted out of gym class, making Noah's heart pound with less fondness. He didn't like not having him around, but he still had his twin for PE, which was still lovely.