I Don't Want To Believe

I'll Take Aliens Over Education

    When the bus finally pulled up, the bus driver got out of her seat to give him a big hug as well, as if she had so desperately missed him.
"Thank god you're back!" she exclaimed, smelling like a strong combination of spearmint gum and cigarettes.
"Ya, thanks." John muttered, trying to push her off of him. Ten seconds into his first day of school and he was already getting strangled by his bus driver.
"Oh we were so worried." She insisted, finally letting John breath and climbing back into her seat.
"Yes well, I'm fine, I'm alive, no need to worry." John muttered. When he got onto the bus he kind of expected someone to start crying in relief, a mob of people all trying to give him a hug or ask what happened. However, only one person came running down the aisle with the speed John had only seen on the soccer field.
"John!" Greg exclaimed, crashing into John with a very forceful hug. John stumbled back for a moment, not used to such a heavy person attack hugging him.
"Greg..." John muttered, having no choice but to wrap his arms around his best friend.
"My god John, I thought you were dead, don't ever do that to us again." Greg insisted over John's shoulder.
"This is starting to get weird." John decided, patting his friend's back awkwardly. Greg straightened up, clearing his throat and nodding.
"Ya, just friends, don't worry guys." He assured with a smile. John just laughed, if only Greg knew what John had been up to. They headed back up to their seats, dropping their backpacks into it before sitting down. Greg seemed overcome with emotion, staring at John as if he had just returned from the dead. Technically, he pretty much had, or at least escaped death.
"It is so good to see you." Greg decided.
"Ya, I know, I'm great." John agreed with a small laugh.
"No, I thought you were dead, those missing signs, what happened?" Greg asked. John sighed, looking around and wondering if he were allowed to tell Greg his tragic story. But then again, he didn't want to lose Sherlock's trust, and at the moment that was a bit more important than telling Greg about his extraterrestrial experience.
"I'm sorry, but I can't tell you. I know that's annoying, kind of like a soap opera, but I still, it's personal." John shrugged. Greg lowered his voice a little bit, looking worried.
"You weren't like, kidnapped were you?" he asked.
"No, nothing like that, it was just...you know, stuff." John muttered. How in the world was he going to play this off? He didn't want everyone to think he got kidnapped, and he most certainly didn't want people to think he was being abducted by aliens, so what to say? Surprise trip to Cuba?
"Alright, stuff, cool. Will you tell me later?" Greg asked.
"I can't, I'm sorry, I can't." John insisted.
"Therapist's orders?" Greg muttered. John just slapped him in the arm.
"I don't have a therapist." He snapped.
"You should get one; traumatic experiences are best handled with someone else, not internally." Greg suggested.
"How very helpful Greg, I'll keep that in mind." John snapped. Greg smiled proudly, as if happy to do a good deed that day.
"Man, we thought you were dead, prepared to have a school wide candle lit ceremony and everything." Greg shrugged.
"People actually missed me?" John asked in surprise.
"Well, ya, you're like one of the best soccer players here, and you'd be surprised. Mary came up to me in tears, saying how she was so sad that you were gone and if she could only talk to you one more time..." Greg sighed.
"Mary, Mary Morstan?" John asked. She was only the most popular girl in school, and a guilty crush of John's before he met Sherlock.
"Oh ya, I suggest you go to her straight away, get a back from the dead kiss." Greg suggested. John just shrugged, thinking of what Sherlock would say if John kissed some human girl.
"No, I've, um...I don't think that would be appropriate. Using people's grief against them." John shrugged.
"What happened to you, did you get all holy now? Did you go to some ninja place on the mountains and lean to fight and find inner peace? Are we suddenly going to have some vigilante flying everywhere and beating up bad guys? Because that would be cool." Greg decided.
"First of all, no, and second of all, what use would a vigilante be here? Beat up all the non-believers?" John laughed.
"You know, bank robbers and stuff, the local drug dealers." Greg shrugged.
"How would you know about the local drug dealers? I didn't even know we had a local drug dealer." John insisted. Greg shrugged innocently.
"People talk, you know?" he asked.
"No, I don't know. You've gotten even more annoying." John decided.
"I'm just happy to see you. Coach will too, we lost both of our games, Mike was reduced to tears when he had to play your position." Greg pointed out.
"Really, Mike not perfecting everything? Interesting." John decided with a satisfied smile. Was that bad? The bus pulled up in front of the school, and John had to admit, as terrible as that place was, he was happy to be back. Whenever he looked up, he saw all of the heads of all the kids in front of him looking back, watching to see if he would either blow up or start freaking out or something interesting. When John looked some of them were decent enough to look away, but some kept staring, their eyes peering over the top of their bus seats as if he were the most interesting tragic hero imaginable. Finally when the doors opened John was herded into the school by Greg, who was making sure John got his space. To his surprise, everyone seemed absolutely stunned that he was alive, wooing over him, exclaiming how much they missed him, asking what happened. As much as he loved the attention and that these people actually noticed he was gone, it was already getting kind of annoying.
"Give him space guys, come on, he's a ninja now." Greg insisted, pushing away a gaggle of freshman that were crowded around John's locker. They all squealed and scurried away, as if being approached by an upperclassman was terrifying.
"My god they're annoying." Greg decided.
"As are you." John pointed out. Greg shrugged, leaning against the locker and watching John unpack his things.
"But I'm allowed to be annoying, you knew I was annoying and befriended me anyway. They're only paying attention to you because now you've got a tragic backstory." Greg pointed out.
"I don't have a tragic...shut up!" John insisted, stuffing his lunch box into his locker and slamming it rather forcefully.
"Sorry John, I speak the truth." Greg insisted. "Sometimes the truth hurts."
"You are literally the most annoying thing to ever walk this earth." John decided, but Greg just smiled.
"Good to have you back John. It was lonely, with you being dead and all, my only friend really." Greg shrugged.
"Well I missed you too." John agreed. "I missed everything about this stupid place."
"Ya well, have fun in bio, do you need me to escort you there or something, because I'm going the completely opposite way." Greg insisted. John just laughed, shaking his head.
"Hopefully I'll just be another face in the crowd." He shrugged.
"I doubt that mate." Greg assured, clapping John on the shoulder one more time before turning off and going to his class. John sighed, turning and walking through the crowd. Some people looked at him a bit oddly, others goggled at him as if they were seeing a ghost, and a lot of them approached him, asking him what had happened or how he was handling it or how he got back. John ignored them all, even his teammates were now just a part of the wall, he didn't want to talk to anyone because he didn't know how to answer their questions without telling them the truth. And if Sherlock found out that he was spreading it around the school that he was abducted (which no one would believe anyway), then worse things would be coming his way. Besides, he didn't want to break Sherlock's heart, not when he was just able to mend whatever damage had been done before. John walked into the class, expecting his teacher to jump for joy or something; instead he just looked up from his desk with boredom.
"You have a lot of makeup work to do Mr. Watson." He decided. Typical. John sank into his chair while the teacher put together all the worksheets, packets, tests, study guides, pretty much anything you could think of into a large folder.
"Nearly two weeks of missed work, no warning, no excused absence, that's very irresponsible." He decided, dropping the folder (Which was nearly as thick as John's forearm) onto the desk with a bang.
"Wait...I was kidnapped." John pointed out, thinking his teacher ought to know.
"Nice try Mr. Watson, you still have to make up the work." The teacher insisted.
"Wait, no, I'm not lying, I was really kidnaped, like there were signs up and everything." John pointed out.
"It's true sir, we all thought he was dead!" pitched in a kid from the back. John gave them a thankful smile.
"Didn't you hear about the candle ceremony we were going to have?" another chimed in.
"See?" John insisted. His teacher straightened up a bit, adjusting his glasses with a sort of nod.
"Well then, welcome back. I'll give you a week to get this finished." He decided, moving back over his desk. "Notebooks out!" he called. John groaned, flipping through what had to be fifty pages of worksheets, only from one class. If bio had been bad, John couldn't even imagine how trigonometry was going to go, however he did have a slightly more empathetic teacher. So, when he was done learning about things he didn't even know existed in biology he was shuffled away to trig with Greg, who was already waiting at his desk for when John showed up.
"There he is! How was bio?" Greg asked.
"You tell me." John groaned, dropping his makeup folder on the desk with a large frown.
"I'm going to guess it was bad?" Greg decided.
"You could say that, ya. He didn't even know I was missing." John sighed.
"Well, I already asked, and Mrs. Spindler isn't going to give you any make up work. She said she was prepared to get a student search party out if that was what it took." Greg pointed out.
"Thank god. But I still don't know anything I'm doing, it has been two weeks." John pointed out.
"Yes well, we'll work around that somehow." Greg insisted. John sighed, sitting at his seat and giving all of the people in the class looks out of the corner of his eye. To his surprise, he saw Mary watching him as well, flipping her long hair over her shoulder as if trying to get him to come over and talk to her. Little did she know John already had a boyfriend and a child and no time for her. Then again, what Greg had said was true, she only liked him now because he was a school hero, battle tested and victorious. She would probably forget about him tomorrow.
"John, so good to see you back." Mrs. Spindler said with a smile.
"Good to be back." John agreed.
"Well, you won't be without some work I'm afraid, although you won't have to make up the projects and tests, you'll be a bit lost if you don't catch up." she said, handing him a pile of papers, held together with a gigantic paper clip.
"Ya, I expected no less." John sighed, taking the papers and flipping through them. It looked more like an enigma than bloody math, but whatever, he'll figure it out eventually. So class droned on as usual, John was lazily tapping his head with his pencil, wishing he could be on a spaceship fighting for his life at the moment, when his phone started to ring. The entire class stopped, and Mrs. Spindler looked a bit annoyed until she saw whose phone it was. Then she seemed to get a little bit more lenient.
"Sorry, got to take this." John muttered, pulling his phone out of his pocket and answering it, very aware that everyone was listening. Might their parents be getting attached by aliens? Was Sherlock being dragged away to be executed, were they closing in on John right now? So many dark possibilities, John almost didn't want to pick it up.
"JOHN! CAN YOU HEAR ME? IS THIS HOW I'M SUPPOSED TO DO IT?" Sherlock screeched. John held the phone away from his ear in pain, messaging his now throbbing ear. Greg looked at him in confusion, obviously everyone had heard that.
"Sherlock shut up, talk normally." John hissed. "I'm in class right now, and I assume everyone can hear."
"Who's Sherlock?" Greg hissed.
"You can go to the bathroom if you want." Mrs. Spindler suggested, not looking very excited to have her class interrupted like this.
"This won't take a moment." John assured, waving her offer away with his hand.
"Well, John, it's hatching. The tube broke, it's coming." Sherlock said, his voice dropping to a whisper.
"Alright, I'm coming." John exclaimed, a wide smile on his face as he hung up. "I have to go." He decided jumping to his feet in triumph.
"What, you can't leave; you need a parent's approval." Mrs. Spindler insisted.
"That was my...cousin, my aunt's about to have a baby, I have to be there." John decided.
"What?" Greg asked, looking extremely confused. This would be easier if Greg stopped being an idiot.
"Sorry, I've got to go!" John insisted, spinning on his heel in excitement before stuffing all of his makeup work into his bag.
"John, you've only just gotten back, I can't let you leave without a parent's permission!" Mrs. Spindler insisted. But John was already rushing to the door, the entire class looking quite flabbergasted as he rushed into the hallway.
"John, get back here!" Mrs. Spindler insisted, but she couldn't keep up in her high heels. She tried to run after him, but soon she stopped, catching her breath and watching as he sprinted down the hall.
"I'm going to be a cousin!" John yelled triumphantly, running to the main doors and pushing through them.
"Young man, where do you think you're going?" called an office worker, too fat to stand and just noticing that there was a boy frolicking out the doors.
"My baby's hatching, I'm going to be a father!" he exclaimed in glee, and with that he took off down the sidewalk, leaving the school and Greg behind.