Nightmares

Chapter 2

James walked around the barren streets of Willowdale, a small town a few hours from where the young boy was raised. There was a bitter wind that whistled through the sleeping city, an unpleasant wake up call for those unfortunate enough to be caught outside in the dreary early fall of the desolate town.

He was headed to the Willowdale middle school, which he dreaded since he didn't have many friends. Actually he didn't have any friends, but he was fine with that. Better to be unnoticed than to be overly popular. Well that's what he thought anyway. The road wasn't very busy, since it was still early in the morning and it was a small town. The pavement was worn down,  and he could tell that it hadn't been repaved in a long time. As he walked down the sidewalk, James barely paid attention to anyone else when they crossed his path, deeply entranced by his own thoughts. He tried to walk very slowly hoping to be late for his first class, but sadly he hadn't walk slow enough. The school was just too close to his new house. Looming in front of him sat the school, with its boring brick walls and tiny lockers.

James walked through the front doors and he had all eyes on him, his peers watching him with judging looks. He was wearing his favourite sweater, blue with a white wave on it and some dark ripped jeans. Though he didn't think people were staring at him because of his clothes. There were a couple of nice faces but he mostly ignored everyone, keeping his eyes down, and trying to stay out of the way. He hoped nobody would notice him and would just ignore him, but he was the centre of attention like he kind of expected.

"Hey!" said a voice behind him. "I'm Adam!" He seemed very excited to make his acquaintance.

"Hi." James replied back tentatively. Not wanting to say anything to already embarrass himself in front of the school.

"Can I walk with you?" Adam asked quickly, and jumped next to James, tugging him along before James could protest.

James and Adam were now walking down the front hallway while everyone stared at them. Adam had dark, curly hair that perfectly framed his face. He was slightly tanned and had many freckles all over his face, with piercing, bright green eyes. Adam was wearing a white Panic! At The Disco t-shirt and plain blue jeans, with simple black runners. The whole look was impeccable, a perfect balance.

"What's your name?" Adam asked with interest.

"James." The quiet boy responded quietly.

"No, like your full name." Adam said with a small laugh, as if James' shyness was amusing to him.

"James Angelo." He said, trying to keep his answers small and minimal.  So far it was working.

"You aren't much of a talker, are you?" Adam said with a grin. Adam was right, James tried to be as silent as he could be, only talking when necessary, like when answering a question if a teacher happened to call on him.

James' first class was Math, oh how fun. He slept through most of it, luckily the teacher didn't call him up for the whole 'This is James, he's new...' . Math class was boring, as expected. Next was Science, something he's actually good at. In the hallway, Adam met up with him, and they figured out that they had science together, so they walked to the room side by side. This time the teacher awkwardly asked him to the front of the small classroom to introduce himself.

"Um... I'm James Angelo, and I moved here from Bluemallow." James kept his answer short, desperate to return to the safety of his desk.

"Would you like to share anything else?" the teacher said cautiously.

"No, not really." James mumbled. The rest of the class laughed even though it wasn't supposed to be funny.

"Well then, I'm Mr. Williams, I'll talk to you after class about catching up and the rules, all that good stuff." Mr. Williams said to James. " Okay, let's get started!" Mr. Williams said to the whole class, and James rushed to his seat. The rest of the morning went by faster than James expected. He had two classes in the morning and then lunch.