the Fragment Chronicles: Katherine [Rewriting] ⊸

Chapter Two : Keith Summers

Walter trotted down the high school corridors as fast as he could without getting as many weird looks as usual, he was always late to first period. He readjusted his satchel strap and continued at a steady pace.

          "Morning, Mr. K," two young girls waved and greeted him simultaneously.

          "Hello, Cassandra, Harmony," he replied before turning down a hallway to meet a small crowd of tired teenagers, huddled around his classroom door. "Sorry I'm late," Walter spoke, retrieving his keys from his trench-coat pocket to unlock the door.

          He flipped the light switch and the children piled into their seats as Walter approached his desk and shrugged off his coat and satchel. Taking his laptop out of his bag, he hooked it up to the projector hanging from the ceiling. His fingers skimmed against the cursor and the light illuminated; he entered the nine-lettered password and opened a PowerPoint that showed up onto the projector screen.

          He grabbed the remote and walked up to the podium, looking at his students who were divided up into four separate sections.

          Walter zoned out while they wrote down their warm-up in their binders; he was staring at the grungy kid in the back of the classroom who had his head rested in the palm of his hand, staring back, not doing his work.

          "First to answer the question correctly — "Walter paused when several hands shot up into the air. He scanned the pairs of eyes and faces full of angst, acne, and morning dreariness. "Mr. Woodall," he projected, calling on the grungy kid in the back of the room.

          The boy lifted his head from his desk, blinking slowly and taking his time figuring out what was going on. He rubbed his eyes together, "What was the question?"

          "Which censored book have you and your tablemates agreed to vote on reading for this upcoming unit?" Walter asked him.

          "Um ... "He glanced at the other two people sitting across from him; Henry Beauchamp and Andromeda Tsige. "What unit is that?"

          A collection of groans and murmurs roared from the students on the other side of the room.

          "Science Fiction and Fantasy," Walter answered.

          "Oh, um — Harry Potter." He answered without a second thought.

          "And why has your table chosen that particular series, Mr. Woodall?"

          "Well that's why you divided us up right?" He asked Walter. "You gave us that test to give us our Houses; why else would I be with these two, when we both know I'm a Slytherin?"

          Walter squinted his eyes, "Good observation, Sean. Twenty points will be awarded to Slytherin."

          "We've know we're gonna read Harry Potter for weeks now," a student interrupted as Walter was making a note to add points to Slytherin. Walter never liked her. "And his House gets twenty points for knowing that? He barely shows up to class — "

          "Exactly, Ms. Humphrey," Walter interjected the fiery redhead. "Sean barely shows up to class, so the fact that he actually knows the answer to the question when an average student who doesn't show up to class half of the time wouldn't know, awards his House twenty points."

          All eyes were on Walter.

          "Ten points will be deducted from Hufflepuff — "the Hufflepuff table scoffed and glared at Walter. "... for interrupting and being a bit over my tolerance for ignorance this early in the morning. Anyone wanna add to what Ms. Humphrey was saying?" No one spoke up. "Good. Now, onto the lesson."