Slaves of the Night

Chapter 3 - No Kidding

Slaves of the Night

Chapter 3: No Kidding

  It was raining like cats and dogs—except that that couldn’t really be accurate, no, more like horses and carriages. Water poured from every surface it could get its greedy hands on, soaking everything to the core and leaving a sopping mess of lawn grass and only to be pelted further by sheets of it.

  And I had plenty of time to observe the way it fell; the density of it, whatever term I could think of to define it because practically all I was doing was leaning against the wall in the corner watching it, wishing I knew more words to say about it to keep my mind occupied. I was sitting on top of my desk, like everyone else in the class participating in the game of Mum ball, or in other words, silent dodge ball. What a very productive thing to give seniors to do on the third to last day of their high school careers. It’s not like there was much else left anyway; exams were over and teachers and students alike were eager to taste summer again. It was hot and muggy outside just like every other summer had been already, but it wouldn’t really sink in until school let out that we would finally be free.

  Being in the corner, I was overlooked by most of the class as multitudes of them slowly trickled out of the game as they were tagged out by the ball tossed precariously across the room. It always went down like this, and I would end up being one of the final contestants if not the winner.

  But now as I was gazing out of the window; the easiest target in the whole room to get out, a crash sounded from the other side as a kid lunged off his desk to snatch the ball out of the air. His feeble attempt to catch it failed and he collided with the floor, causing the whole room to burst out of the silence into laughter. It snapped me out of my reverie and I took notice of who was left in the game.

  Well Quinn had already gotten out awhile ago, quietly looking over some papers on her desk not even bothering to look up when the commotion started. She would be one of the few people I would be worried about having good aim at pegging me on the head with the ball of bunched together duct tape. Unfortunately, Tristan, the other person I was worried about was still sitting on top of his own desk with a devilish glint in his eye as he was continually ignored too. He was looking straight at me, causing my cheeks to involuntarily heat up under his gaze, no matter the reason behind it. A story was playing out with the attitude he was radiating, he was planning on getting me out and there was nothing I could do about it.

  Screw the rain, I straightened up from my slouch and gave him a clear message through my now narrowed eyes. Challenge accepted, it was so on. That message must’ve hit some other people too as collateral, and the ball was immediately thrown in my direction now that my cover the corner was blown. Quickly I snatched it out of the air from the clumsy toss, and didn’t waste time before firing it directly in Tristan’s direction. Just as easily he snatched it before it collided with his face and was ready to throw back.

  Let’s just say it didn’t end well. And one of ended up falling off of our desk like the kid earlier, except with more flailing and noise. And that person wasn’t him.

  “I said I was sorry…” Tristan said from right behind me as we escaped from the classroom, his voice was anything but sincere as he couldn’t smother the laughter that hadn’t stopped since I had leaped for the ball and straight into a stack of graded papers yet to be handed out, sending them everywhere.

  “Yeah, whatever, I’m not that angry about it anyway.” I lied with a growl, making my way to the lunch room. My conniving boyfriend of mine was just determined to milk every ounce of humor from this as he could.