The Waiting Room

Chapter 1- Bloody Red Truck

His fist pounded on his desk in anger. My heart raced and I looked around the room to see that everyone looked startled. The girl in front of him paled and stammered,

"I-I'm s-so sorry, s-sir," the teacher glared at her and snatched the piece of paper out of her hands.

"You didn't have time to do your assignment?" he asked, mocking her words. The girl shook her head rapidly,

"No, sir. I-I mean yes, sir. I-I mean-" she trembled as she spoke, but Mr. Gremelis cut her off.

"Peyton, I know Phaedra's style of writing when I see it."

I immediately blanched when he said my name. He glanced over at me and his face hardened. I looked over at my best friend, and I regretted writing her stupid essay.

Peyton normally did her homework at the last minute, but her uncle had an unexpected heart attack and her mother had forced her and her brother to go visit Uncle Corwin. She had texted me that she had no time to write it and to ask if I could help her. There may or not have been some bribery in that text...

"Phaedra, please explain why you did her homework," our English teacher asked. Then he added, "Which counts a large percent for the overall average of this trimester."  My heart raced and my hands turned cold. I was almost a perfect student and I really didn't want a detention.

"W-Well sir. You see her uncle had medical issues and she needed to be there..."

Needless to say, my hopes of continuing my clean record plummeted down as Mr. Gremelis handed me the detention slip.

As the bell rang, the teacher announced to us that we all needed to study and receive punishment, so we had a test tomorrow.  Oh how I hated Mr. Gremelis.

As Peyton and I exited the class, she turned to me. Her face was still white and her eyes were filled with guilt, fear, and anger.

"I'm really sorry, Phay. I shouldn't have asked you to-" she started but I rolled my eyes and cut her off.

"It's just a detention, Peyton. It's not Hell," I lied. I tried to act smooth about all of this but inside I was regretting ever having placed a finger over that keyboard. Peyton, oblivious to my internal emotions, smirked up at me.

"Oh well, I don't know with Mr. Gremlin and all..." I laughed lightly at our nickname to our devil of a teacher.

The rest of the day had passed smoothly until I got home.

I trudged up the stairs, and slammed my bedroom door shut. I dumped my backpack on the floor and plopped on my beanbag chair. I groaned as I realized I still had to study for that stupid English test.

Well, it wasn't very stupid as I read through the chapter.

"Oh come on!" I shouted to no one in particular. I massaged my temples as I started getting a headache. I felt stress bubbling up to the surface and I tried hard to keep it down. I felt anxious about the test tomorrow, but I kept on studying.

What if I didn't pass the test? I really didn't have that much time to study. The test would probably count for a large portion of our grade. My heart accelerated faster. I rubbed my hands together, but I kept reading.

Suddenly, Sydney burst into my room. My younger sister looked at me. With her blonde hair and blue eyes, she looked nothing like me. When she saw me, she grinned, and took my arm.

“Come on, Phay! There’s this really cool ice cream place that just opened up.” I laughed lightly, and was about to tell her I didn’t exactly have time for that, when I saw the look on her face. It was a mixture of excitement and pleading, as she knew she couldn’t go there by herself.   I had to go with her. I rolled my eyes, and got off my bed,

“Race you to the door!”  she giggled and took off. I quickly closed my book and ran after her.

***

I licked my coffee flavored ice cream and looked over at Sydney as she devoured her mint chocolate chip ice cream. I laughed a little at the concentration she held for that ice cream. She walked a little faster to keep up with me, and so I slowed my pace a little. We stopped and waited at the crosswalk, so Sydney took advantage of that and told me about her day.

“But I hate Leonard! Today he told me that my hair looked like it went through the washing machine and got bleached.” She frowned as if she was remembering that. I held in a laugh as I looked at her cute face. The light turned green and we began walking.

“Hecate told me to back off and that she liked him and that Leonard would never love me and-“

Just then I heard roaring, I glanced to the side and I saw a car was speeding and was only a foot away from us. I screamed and pushed Sydney away. It all happened so fast that I didn’t even notice the giant red truck as it slammed into me.