The Power Within

Chapter 2

I wake to the sound of a fist pounding on the opposite side of my door, followed by Scott yelling through the oak, "Let's go El, you have 15 minutes to be downstairs or I'm not driving you to school."

"Common Scott, give me 5 more minutes of sleep." I throw my pillow at the door and roll to face the opposite direction. With the stupid nightmares of needles and freezing chambers, I was not in the mood to go to school today. I hear a slight creak give from my door and the shuffle of feet slide across my floor, followed by a shadow looming over me.

"I said, you have 15 minutes. And if you don't get up, this ice-cold glass of water will magically find its way all over you." I glance over at his smug smile and sigh in agreement. I hoist myself put from under my covers and swing my legs off the side of my bed.

"Better dress to impress El, you look like death just rose and came back to life," chuckling to himself, Scott begins to leave my room, but not before I could whomp him over the head with my other pillow. Slamming my door shut behind him, I look over to my mirror and wince. Do I really look like that? Shaking my head, I walk over to my closet and start to pick out an outfit for today.

I settle on slightly ripper black jeans, a basic white tee and my signature green army jacket, pairing it with black combats that were studded with silver spikes. I applied some light make up, to make me look less like death, and brushed the knots out of my hair. Since it looks nice outside, I decided to wear my hair down but remembered to add a hair tie to my wrist in case I got too hot (#1 Girl Rule: Always have a spare hair-tie. You never know when you'll need one). Checking myself out one last time in the mirror, I smile and head out of my room and downstairs.

"Mornin' El, breakfast is in the microwave." Grant, our den father was sitting at the kitchen table munching on a piece of toast and reading the morning paper, while our den mother, Katie, preps lunches for the day. I pull my breakfast out of the microwave and plopped down next to Grant at the table.

"Anything interesting happen lately?" I question.

"You know, the usually political junk of Donald Trump vs Hilary Clinton, oh and some kid burning his house down and is saying that the fire came from his hands. Complete nuts I tell ya."

"Coming out of his hands you say? That's almost the 10th kid this year to report strange behaviour like that." I glance up at him, but he doesn't seem too concerned with it.

"It's all the video games that kids seem to be playing with these days. Kids should be reading more, not learning how to kill zombies in 300 different ways. They probably don't even realize they are doing it, thinking they are in some kind of 'virtual reality simulator'" Grunting, he continues munching on his piece of toast.

Looking at the clock, I swear under my breath as I just realized how late it was. Scott was going to kill me. Jumping up from my chair, I threw my plate into the sink, said goodbye to Grant and Katie, and dash out the door. There, sitting in the driveway on his phone, is Scott, looking pissed off as usual. I swing open the passenger door and plop in next to him. He continues talking into the phone as he pulled out of the driveway and sped off down the road.

"Ya man, it's going to be sh!t compared to our old school... I can't believe that they decided to change the boundaries in our last year of school...Ya, I'm dropping her off and then getting to my school."

"Wait. What do you mean you are dropping me off and then going to your school? Are we not going to the same school?" Curiosity and panic got to the better of me.

Scott rolled his eyes, said something about how I should have already known and hung up shortly after. "Well, ya. Didn't Katie and Grant tell you? I'm to drop you off at this school for smart kids, while I'm going to the school down the road. You're to text me when you are done so I can drive both of us home."

"Oh, well they must have forgotten to tell me. But, I won't know anyone, what am I suppose to do?" Panic began to set in as I realized I would be all alone to face this school. Before it was always Scott and me, but now I was alone. With no one to rely on.

"Hey, El-Bell, calm down. It's going to be alright. Just strike up a conversation with the first person that you meet. It won't be as bad as you think it is." His comforting words put me somewhat at ease, but I still had a slight edge of panic as we pulled up to the front doors of the school.

"Don't forget to text me if anything goes wrong, got it?" His brown eyes look up at me, the big brother vibe of concern spreads across them.

"Got it," I nod. And with that, I descended up the front stairs, but before I yanked open the doors, I turned around and waved goodbye to Scott. Once he knew I was alright, he sped out of the lot and off to his school.

I wander through the hallways until I was able to locate the main office. The door opened with a squeak, obvious that it needed some attention brought to it. There was no one else in the office beside the women sitting behind the counter. I walked up to the desk to get a better look at the women. She was a middle-aged woman who had curly, fire red hair and eyes like a serpent. I cleared my throat so she knew I was there.

"Yesssssss..." Even the way she talked made me question if she was human.

"Oh, um yes. My..um name is...ah, Eloise." She punched my name into the computer and ran off to the printer to gather up what she just printed.

"Ah, here you are. You have science first, but everyone is in the gym for the first day of school assembly. Here is your schedule and map of the school. Go down the hall, turn right till you to see the door labelled gym." And with that, she was back on her computer clicking away.

I caught my breath finally and started heading down the long corridor towards the gym. I reached the door and I could hear people talking on the other side, probably the students or something. As I reached for the handle I noticed my hand started shaking and little jolts of electricity fly out of my fingertips. Thinking it was just my nerves playing a trick on my eyes, I grabbed the handle and open the door only to be greeted by hundreds of eyes watching me.