Change in Life

Chapter 2. School

Waking up to the screeching drawl of his alarm clock at five in the morning, Blake forced open his eyes, knowing, disappointingly, the day was a school day. Even though it was a Friday, he still wished his mother would come in and say that he could have the day off. But that was rarely the case nowadays, unlike when he was younger and simply coaching and sneezing a few times was enough to convince her. This was the last year of his secondary schooling. Every line and every equation had to be soaked in if he had any chance when the final test came.

However, he felt there was no point in going to school today. All today consisted of were English, maths, and woodwork. All taking one hour and forty minutes each to get through. Since it was the last day of the school week all the students did, much to the disapproval of the teachers and especially since the previous day had been a public holiday, was talk and screw around. Notes were taken of course, but no work was actually done. No real effort was made by either student or teacher. There was only one thing this day contained that Blake was pleased about: it was a casual dress day. The standard dress uniforms went out the window for one glorious day.

Pulling the covers over his head, he reached for his alarm clock and flailed, push it off the bedside table in his attempt to shut it off. The snooze button hit the floor first and turned itself off as it settled upside-down. Blake quickly closed his eyes and soon slipped back to sleep. despite trying his best to keep his eyes open. Before long, he heard the soft metal clang of the doorknob turning. He prepared for the worst and grabbed onto as much blanket as possible in a panicked frenzy.

Within a few seconds, he could hear the sound of heavy paw-falls of Cleo and Shadow. The creaking of the stairs sounded like they were going to crumble at the next stomp. And then he held his breath involuntarily as the tremendous weight of both dogs landing on top of him. The canine's paws dug and scratched at where they thought his head was, trying to get the covers off him to lick his face. Blake ended up letting go. Otherwise the dogs would rip his covers to shreds. The giants soon made their way around the loose cover of blanket and got to Blake. Pushing his way out from the dog sandwich, he got to his feet as quickly as he could. Once he was up the dogs got off the bed and chased each other back down stairs, seeming to forget about him.

The lights were on in the house, for it was still dark outside. Blake hated getting up early, especially when the sun wasn't even up yet. No one should have to get up this early. It felt immoral. A basic violation of human rights. Stumbling down stairs and over to the bathroom, Blake took his morning shower. Allowing the boiling hot water to run over his body, he finally began to wake up and at the same time, think of what the day would bring.

Blake never had many friends at school, but the ones that he did have were not really like him, yet he still kept them close. They were all pretty good at the subjects they had and they were all considered "nerds". They were all complacent with there life choice and didn't feel any need to change who they were to radiate ad greater circle of friends. with all this in play, Blake guessed that was why he stayed close to them. they were comfortable. Something Blake still struggled to grasp.

It only seemed like two minutes in the shower, but it was longer than he thought as he soon found out. Blake thought he must have fell asleep under the massaging water, for thudding loud rapped on the door broke him out of his stupor. He knew it must have been fifteen minutes at least and his mother was getting mad that he was wasting all the hot water. Turning the taps off, he shook most of the water off his now red body, got out of the shower and dried off.

With his fresh clothes on, Blake walked into the lounge room past his mother, threw himself onto the couch and began to relax, praying to anything listening that something would come along to knock him out for the afternoon. Dozing, he begrudgingly held back temptations to fall asleep as the fireplace in the lounge room crackled with freshly lit logs on this cold autumn morning. But this serenity was short lived, as he heard the sound of a horn from outside.