The Mediator

Chapter 4

I couldn't sleep. I lay in my bed staring at the ceiling for the longest time. It had to be after midnight by now. I closed my eyes and concentrated on thinking of nothing. It must have worked because I knew I couldn't possibly be awake for what I was seeing now.

Although I couldn't see much because it was too dark; almost pitch black. I did see an older man sitting behind a desk. He looked like a business man, very professional. He had his eyes squeezed shut and his fingers were on his temples. "Are you sure?" the man behind the desk asked furiously, but I could tell he was trying quite hard to sound calm.

"Well, I'm not positive." A voice responded from somewhere in the darkness. I couldn't see who had spoken. I could only see the older man.

The older man's eyes flashed open and he slammed his fist hard onto the desk. "Damn it!"

A different voice spoke now. "Isn't it better this way?" the voice asked innocently.

"No!" The man behind the desk bellowed as he lifted his hand from the desk and covered his eyes. He looked like he was in pain.

"What do we do, then?" The second voice asked eagerly.

"We wait." The man replied impatiently.

I woke up, the next morning, completely confused by what I had just dreamt of. I narrowed it down to watching too many of those mobster movies. When I finished mulling over what could have caused my strange dream I looked over at the clock on my nightstand. I had over slept. "Shoot!" I exclaimed as I jumped to my feet. I rushed like mad to get dressed. I ran down the stairs, snatched my backpack, and dashed out the door to my car.

When I got to the school lot I was surprised to see a few close spaces. I parked as close to the school as I could manage. I wasn't dreading leaving my car so much now; I wouldn't have to walk far in the cold today. Under better circumstances, that alone would have made my day.

We had a sub in calculus, so naturally we spent the entire hour doing busy work. I thought about ditching chemistry; we were doing some sort of lab that required fire and chemicals. Unfortunately I'm the person who would manage to do that one little thing wrong and cause an explosion.

When I got to chemistry, I talked to my lab partner Justin for a few minutes before the bell rang. Hailey had a huge crush on him, so every now and then I put in a good word on her behalf. I was beginning to think he was interested in her as well because he asked me about her a lot these days.

The bell rang and Mr. Doyle began class with the promising command of, "Please work with your lab partner and complete today's experiment. The directions are on the board and the supplies are on the back counter," He pointed to the back of the room as he spoke.

I turned around to look at all the supplies and then my stomach dropped.

"No-o." I complained to myself as I turned around and put my head down on the table.

Justin sounded concerned when he spoke, "What's wrong?"

I didn't answer.

Justin's hand was on my shoulder now, shaking me gently. "Cassie?"

I sat up and looked at Justin; he looked nervous. "It's nothing." I said a little too harshly.

Justin took his hand off my shoulder. "You sure?" He asked as he looked behind us to see if he could spot what I was reacting to.

I nodded miserably.

He stood up, and said, "I'll get the supplies," then he headed for the back of the room.