Surviving Highschool.

Chapter 1

This is a story that a friend of mine and I started together, but we stopped writing it. Tell us what you think, and if you want us to continue.

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Climbing out of my bedroom window, I was-once again-grateful that we owned a one-story house. I shivered when the wind blew harshly, whipping my hair around my face, and I nearly fell. Suddenly, the sound of loud, thudding footsteps came from the hallway, and stopped at my door; which opened slightly. A crack of light peeked in through the open door and spilled into my heavily darkened room, due to it being at least half-past eleven. 

I was sincerely hoping that the old pillows-and-tape-recorder trick would work. I froze and waited impatiently, my heartbeat accelerated, and my hands started to sweat. ‘Hurry up!’ I thought miserably. ‘I’m freezing my ass off here!’  I was glad that it was just as dark outside, as it was in my bedroom, especially since the streetlights were broken due to recent vandalism and we didn’t have floodlights. But unfortunately even though I was mostly inside, the wind didn’t seem to like me.                              

I had my right leg over the windowsill and both my hands grasping the cold bricks, on the outside of the house, and the rest of me was trying to block the window, in case he realised it was open. (For some strange reason, I wasn’t aloud to have it open at night. Worse, I wasn’t meant to be half way out of it, at night either. Not that it being during the day would have made much difference. But technically, it had never been covered in the”house rules” taped to the kitchen wall…so I’m taking my chances). But finally, after what seemed like forever, I heard a faint ‘click’ as the door shut. I sighed with relief, instantly regretting it and spinning my head towards the door to make sure my dad wasn’t standing outside the door waiting for any sign of movement. 

 Nothing. That was a good sign. I continued making my escape, and felt extremely relieved when I realized I could feel the ground. I planted my right foot firmly on the ground, and swung my left leg over the sill and into. . . my mothers most prized rose garden.      

Uh-oh. If there was anything that my mother loved more than me, which surprisingly enough was a lot, it was her roses. ‘I am SO, going to get it later!’ I looked down at my feet in horror, and gulped. I could blame on a made up stray animal, I suppose. Nah, she’d never believe me.’ With that I bent down and tried unsuccessfully to restore the roses to their former glory, then padded quietly and quickly to the front gate. It’s a fairly tall gate, taller than me anyway, and that was kind of saying something. The fence itself was at least another half a meter taller than the gate, so I decided to not even try it. I needed a small overturned box to climb the fence, but ended up getting stuck; it seemed like everything was against me today.

In this context, there are two types of ‘stuck’. The kind where you can easily wriggle your way out of without injury, and the stuck where you actually feel like a bird in a cage. This was the latter. I froze as I heard a slight moaning, then a creak, and something gave out beneath me. ‘Damn it,’ I thought. ‘Stupid fence, don’t break!’ 

It broke. Well, at least now I could move! In the position I was in, the wire at the top of the fence was digging into my stomach, and the only possible way down was to grab hold of the fence with both hands, flip my entire body over and try to land on my feet. 

I tried and failed miserably, instead of landing on my feet, like planned, my head hit the side of the fence with a loud CLUNK, which caused me to flip and fall straight on my back. I sat up and stayed there for a minute. “Well,” I mused. “Brightside is; I got over the fence, downside: my butts’ gonna hurt for at least a week.”     

I tried to get back up, but slipped on gravel and fell right back down again. ‘This can’t POSSIBLY get any worse!’ But, as usual, I was wrong.

I looked up just as I heard laughing, and a figure stepped out from the shadows, clapping. I had absolutely no idea who he was, but that didn’t surprise me; I didn’t know many people. He was laughing really hard, and looked like he wasn’t even making an effort to stop. Eventually he controlled himself, and walked over to where I was. “What on earth are you doing?” he asked; with a smile in his voice. I didn’t even need to think about my answer, because I had my story all planned out. Or so I thought. “I’m going to the 24-hour deli, just down the road.” I replied calmly. Not that I actually was, but he didn’t know that. “You mean the 24-hour deli that has been closed for over 25 years?” He asked the question, but it seemed like more of a statement at the time. So much for my story all planned out. I didn’t know the deli was closed, but I could definitely not let him know that. “Yeah, that deli.” Was all I said? “Uh-huh,” he mused, disbelievingly. “Why would you want to go down there when it’s closed?”

I eyed him suspiciously. Not sure as to why he would want to know. “To break something.” I said simply. “O-k-a-y. What are you going to break? It’s been closed for 25years or so, there would be nothing left to break.”  

I laughed nervously, and scratched the back of my head, “Well, actually I hadn’t really thought about that, I’m honestly just hoping, that it doesn’t have a working security system.” 

“It doesn’t, I know. Trust me, I’ve been there recently. Mind if I accompany you?”

 “What?”               

 “Accompany. It means-”                                                              

“I know what it means, why the hell are you speaking like that?”

He raised an eyebrow, at that. “It’s proper English.” “Ok, let’s make a deal. You can come with me if you stop speaking like that, and start speaking modern language. . . . No, scratch that. Speak NORMALLY.” He raised his hands defensively. “Alright, alright, I get your point. And I would be delighted to accompany you.” I gave him a glare so hard; I think he did a double take. “Sorry.” We walked in silence, down the long darkened path, until we reached the deli. We stared at the gloomy, aged looking building sizing it up, as it were. He looked at me, seemingly questioning my plan to get in. I hadn’t decided that yet. I decided to just make it up. I stepped towards a window, with a fairly heavy rock, to smash it. But my newfound ‘acquaintance,’ stopped me, and used the door. “. . . And uh, how long ago is recently?” referring back to our earlier conversation. He just smiled, winked at me, and gestured for me to go first. It was pretty dark inside so I grabbed my pocket torch, which I always kept on a keychain attached to my belt buckle. I shivered slightly, realizing that of all things to forget, I forgot to wear a jacket.

What’s-his-name must have seen me, somehow, because he offered me his jacket. I was about to say ‘no,’ when a really severe gust of wind, seemed to blow right through the walls and head straight for me. I looked up at him and accepted with a sheepish grin. “Thanks.” I turned back to the room. “Wow, you were right, there really isn’t much here.” I sighed, disappointed. “Well, I think there is some stuff we can break down the back. . .”

And sure enough there was. We broke and vandalized as many things as possible. To name a few, there were chairs, tables, the back door, some of the windows and even the cash register (which I was surprised to find still in good condition [Before I got to it that is]).  I actually found it very relaxing. My unknown companion joined me, but about halfway through just stopped, stood there and watched me with amused smile spread evenly from ear to ear across his face. Eventually I got a little tired, and my hands now covered in splinters, and we decided to leave. As soon as we ended up back at my residence, he, being such the ‘gentleman,’ offered to help me over the fence, and did, and even helped me securely get back in my window. When I turned around to offer my thanks, he was gone. Then, I realized I still had his jacket.