Deans Daughter

chapter 3

I walk into math and take a seat at my desk. It's only me and a few other kids in the room so far. Mrs.Harrison isn't even in the room yet. The desks are arranged in pods of four. At mine It's me, two irrelevant guys and my best (and only) friend Raylen. Karah and Jenna are in this class too. Well Karah was in this class.

Eventually kids begin to file in and sit at their desks. Raylen finally come in and we start talking, nothing important just a conversation. Then soon, a substitute teacher walks in. I don't recognize him. Gosh! What is up with today, three people I've never seen. The substitute walks in and takes a seat at the desk. A bunch of kids moved because they know they won't get in trouble. So now it's just me and Ray at the tables. A couple minutes pass and the bell rings, the substitute gets up an does the standard sub thing and writes his name on the board.

"Hello class" He starts. "I am Mr.Colton, you can call me Mr.C if thats easier." He says writing directions on the board. "Ok, here are the directions, read them, we will go over them when I'm done passing out paper." I read the directions so I know what I'm doing before he explains it.

'Hello class, today's assignment is to create your name using numbers. I will hand out a sheet of white paper and you are to creatively display your name (only your first please!) Examples a=1 b=2 c=3 and all the way to z. If you don't get it ask me!'

This is kind of dumb. We're in middle school and there're having us write numbers to our name? I guess I don't care that much, I mean if it's an easy class period I'm down. He finished passing out the paper and goes over the directions. It's pretty easy to get so no one has and questions about it. I'm actually kind of excited! I mean I'm not good at art, but I don't mind having freedom to be artistically creative. Ray is super good at art, hers is going to look great! I can already say that.

I grab out a piece of filler paper and start to figure out my name in letters. E is 5, m's are 13 so 13,13. Then a is just 1. So my number name. Is 5,13,13,1. That's easy. Wait. I stare in shock at the numbers. "That's really weird." I mumble. My stomach has dropped, I lift up my sleeve to look at my arm. Yep these are the number that were written in blood on the wall by Karah. This is a coincidence! It.. it has to be! Right, I mean I didn't kill her. But why would these letter be on the wall! I'm probably over thinking it. This is definitely a misunderstanding. I continue my project and talk to Ray, I keep my sleeve down so no one sees the numbers. What if those guys think I killed her!

The bell is about to ring but before we go Mr.C comes around to collect our papers (for our math teacher I guess). He looks at mine and smiles, "this one is really good! Emma, right?" He asks. "Yeah, thanks. I think I did ok." I say sheepishly. Truth is I do think I did only ok. I'm not jealous, but Rays was amazing! She such a good artist.

The rest of the day went normal, the final bell rings and I head outside to my bus. The bus is either the best or worst part of school. Jenna rides my bus and sometimes she likes to sit close to me so I can hear what they say about me or she's lazy and just sits in the back with her friends.

I see my bus and climb up the stairs. I go to an empty seat and sit down. I don't know (well, like) anyone on the bus so I usually sit by myself, but I'm ok with that. Silence is good sometimes, it's can be... calming. I pull out a book and start to hear whispers. Today the bus is going to be the worst part of my day.

"Emma?" I hear about three girls whispering my name over and over again. "Ptsss." They continue. I ignore them, if they get a reaction they'll never stop. "One girl taps me on the shoulder. "Emma come on!" She says in a louder whisper. I keep my eyes focused on my book. Then one of the girls took it. I turn around irritated. Putting my knees on the bus seat and turn to face the girls and to my surprise. Jenna is not one of the girls calling me. The girl who grabbed my book isn't doing anything with it. Just holding it. She even has her finger marking the page I was at. What are they doing?

"Emma? Have you seen Jenna?" Did they really just ask me about her? "No." I say reaching for my book, but she pulls it away just far enough for me to not reach it. Then she starts to talk. "We were talking earlier and she promised to be on the bus, she's not answering her phone or our texts either. Are you sure you didn't see her?" They seem genuinely concerned. I kinda feel bad. "No, I haven't seen her. Last time I saw her was in math, but that was at the beginning of the day." I say with empathy. "Ok" the one with my book responds sadly. She hands me back my book and the girls slouch in their seats and talk. I slouch in my seat and continue to read.

I wonder what happened to Jenna, why isn't she on the bus? It's not like to her to not answer her phone. She like addicted to that. All I know is that some weird stuff went on today, I guess tomorrow can't be any worse.

So 'Emma' could be a translation for 5,13,13,1!

Where's Jenna? Could it actually get worse?

Who knows! :)

Toodles! <3