Y2K part 8 Children of the Night...School
Ding Ding
The final bell rang, echoing the sweet sounds of freedom down the hallways.
I slung my backpack over one shoulder and walked out of my English 2B class with my brain half-fried and stomach half-empty. English was already difficult for me. Then they had to add the classical stylings of Shakespeare.
Ugh!
What's the point?
Although I must admit that it worked with the Leonardo DiCaprio version of Romeo and Juliet. I don't know if it was the guns, the soundtrack, or the modern setting, but it worked. Still, that alone didn't make me want to talk like that.
The school buses had already left, only leaving a faint smell of diesel in the air. Most of the students had already cleared out, except those of us who had to stick around.
For me, it was the first night of night school. There was no point in me going home, so I had to find something to do for the next few hours before the classes started.
I made my way to the courtyard to sit at our beloved piece of paradise. It felt...lonely. No bantering. No random bursts of laughter or people goofing off.
It was just me sprawled out and lying across the table, looking up at the sky with the sun hovering low over the Franklin Mountains.
The sound of clacking rifles and orders being barked broke the silence of my moment of solitude. It was the armed drill team.
I sat up grumpily and watched them from a distance.
Rifles were spinning in tight formation while being commandeered by some upperclassmen acting like a drill sergeant with a sugar rush.
Among the ones in formation was Kenny. His chest puffed, and his chin held high like he was hot shit. And on the other side of where they were practicing was the unarmed drill team, led by Heather.
You could spot that curly red hair a mile away like a bullseye on a dartboard.
I shook my head at both of them. I really thought I knew the guy. Now I'm just hoping he gets smacked in the face with his own rifle.
After a while, the clatter and cadence started to blend, and I got bored. I got up and wandered around campus like some lost soul, cutting through back halls, skipping over cracked pavement, kicking loose rocks just to hear them clink.
Eventually, I made my way to the south wing, where there were vending machines still humming away. With whatever money I had left for the day, I bought myself a Dr.Pepper and some Flamin' Hot Cheetos.
I leaned back into the machines and munched on those spicy, savory chips. The small flight of stairs in that little hall has always caught my attention. They were just begging to be used for stunts.
Looking around to see if anybody was around, I put my book bag and snacks down by the machines. I made my way up the flight and looked around again. Nobody was around, and it was all clear.
I needed to feel something, anything, something that said I wasn't just stuck.
I quickly ran up those stairs with the intent to try something new. The handrail in the middle looked perfect to vault over.
There was a moment of hesitation in my running start, but I went ahead and followed through with the jump. I felt one of my feet hook the rail in the middle of the jump.
Before I could react, my side was hitting the ground hard, knocking the wind completely out of me.
I quickly got up and started to dust myself in hopes nobody —
"Hey. Finally! Someone I know."
Great. Betty. Perfect time to see me being a jackass
I was still and just stared at her awkwardly. "Did...you see anything?"
"No," Betty giggled. "Was I supposed to?"
"Nope." I shook my head and walked off casually like I didn't just eat the floor, even though I still had dust marks on my clothes.
"You're in night school?" I asked curiously.
She sighed deeply. "Yeah. I have to retake an English class because of my attendance issues. Long story."
"Fair enough." I shrugged. "Were you just hanging around the whole time waiting like I've been?"
"I was at the library until the librarian had to close. It got boring quickly after that." Betty said, following me.
I nodded. "I found that out, too. Only I've been walking all over the place."
Betty's face dulled. "It's too quiet. It gets creepy."
"Mhmm. That doesn't surprise me." I added. "They say this school is haunted."
"You're kidding?" Betty became skeptical.
"I'm actually serious. I didn't believe some of the stories, but apparently, weird shit happens at night. Random noises, shadow figures." I gestured.
Betty put her hand on her hip and stared in disbelief.
"What? You don't believe me?" I looked at her, dumbfounded.
She shook her head slowly.
"Okay. I'll humor you." I adjusted myself. "What do you know about this school?"
"Not a lot, actually," Betty answered as she pursed her lips.
"Perfect!" I said enthusiastically. "I will personally give you a tour. We got like an hour till class."
Betty shrugged and sighed. She followed me around while I led the way like some unhinged tour guide.
"While this school itself is not even 100 years old, this used to be sacred indigenous land. Way before Texas became part of the United States, way before this belonged to Mexico, and before the Spanish colonized these parts. It was said that the Spanish built a mission around here in the 1600s. The native people did not like that and cursed those who defaced these lands." I shrugged. "I don't know about that stuff. That's just whatever they talk about in history class and urban legends."
Betty smirked and rolled her eyes.
"I can tell you what is true." I paused to face her. "You know that bell tower up front?
"Yeah." She answered. "Someone tried to sell me a ticket to go there."
I gawked. "Did you buy one?"
"No." Betty scoffed. " I'm not stupid."
"Good. That part's fake, but there are legends about that tower."
Betty shook her head. She was probably tuning me out by now.
"Back in the 50s or 60s, a girl jumped out of the bell tower and died. People say they still see images of her, and sometimes you can see shadows moving around in there at night."
Betty stopped and stared, now becoming pale in the face. "Someone else told me the same thing."
"Because it's true." I clarified. "My friend Lilly and I found the ladder to get up there while skipping public speaking. It's in the theater room, all chained up with lots of locks."
"Wait! I didn't realize there was a theater here?" Betty said, puzzled.
"It's a joke of a theater. It's really small." I added and shook my head.
"That explains why I haven't seen it." She said. "The one back home is huge."
"Want to see it? I need to grab my jacket, and it's on the way."
She shrugged. "Sure."
As we continued to head there, I remembered something I had learned in English class.
"Oh. Get this. You see that room right there." I pointed it out. "It's part of the home economics class. There's a whole antique dining room and bathroom, complete with an iron-claw bathtub."
"O-kay?"Betty said, confused and wondering if there was more to it.
"A few years ago, some movie studio filmed scenes there for the movie adaptation of Lolita with Jeremy Irons," I added.
"Okay, that's pretty cool. But isn't Lolita that one messed-up story?" Betty grimaced.
"Yup. My English teacher wasn't very fond of it either." I stated. "The film crew was loud and constantly disrupting her class."
There was sudden laughter coming from around the corner to where the theater was.
"What the hell?"
Me and Betty froze in our tracks.
"You heard that, too?" Betty asked, frightened.
For a second, I thought it might be the haunted shadows I warned her about.
Nope.
It was much worse than that.
Brittney Spears' Baby One More Time was playing from a nearby radio.
When we turned that corner, we found ourselves witnessing all types of ridiculous actions going on. A group of girls were wearing frumpy and raggedy clothes with rubber cleaning gloves; some had bandanas on their heads, while others had hair rollers.
They were also accessorized with oversized sunglasses and feather boas. All of them were singing into feather dusters like a microphone while one girl was trying to dance seductively with a broom.
All this was being videoed by some metalhead guy with a large camcorder.
One of the girls spotted us and instantly went red. She frantically waved her hands towards the Cameraman. "Danny! Cut! Cut!"
Danny fumbled around with the camera. The commotion caught the attention of the other girls, who burst into laughter.
"What did we just walk into?" Betty asked, dumbfounded.
I was still trying to process everything I had seen. "Wait a minute!" I squinted in disbelief. "CC?"
Betty glanced over at me, then to CC.
CC laughed out loud and took off the oversized novelty sunglasses that were covering most of her face.
"LILLY?" I gawked and quickly pointed her out in the hair curlers.
"Hey!" Lilly put down the feather duster she was singing into and casually waved at us.
"Is this where you ran off to?" Betty asked CC.
"Yeah. It's for the Drama club." CC giggled and responded.
The more I looked at all of them, the more I started recognizing the rest of the girls; they're all Lilly's friends from the homecoming rally. Were they all in drama club?
"What exactly is...all this?" I asked.
"We're making a parody video of Brittney's BABY ONE MORE TIME. Only instead of slutty school girls, we're frumpy cleaning ladies." Lilly giggled and waved the duster flirtatiously.
"I can't." I shook my head and gave CC and Lilly a look before moving on, regretting I had asked.
And here I thought night school was going to suck. If this is what the after-hours looks like, maybe I can survive it. Hell, I might even enjoy it.
Betty and I made our way to my locker. When I opened it to grab my leather jacket, she took a peek inside. There were a few boxes of Magic: The Gathering and Pokémon cards, some comic books, Dragon Ball Z stickers stuck on the interior of the locker door, a Tamagotchi, an old Mario doll, a ream of printer paper, and my school books.
"You really are a dork." She teased.
"Yeah. And I'm proud of it." I giggled while I slung my jacket on. "Now to ruin my good mood with math."
"Oh. Who do you have?" Betty asked.
"Ms. Davies," I said, not sounding enthusiastic about it.
"Hey, I like her. She's funny." Betty defended her teacher.
I hadn't even met this teacher and was already thinking negatively of her.
Maybe she won't be that bad, and I was just hating the math part. We'll see.
We went our separate ways to serve our time as punishment for our failures. In other words, class.
-----
Sitting in that classroom throughout our first lessons, I watched the sky through the window go from twilight to almost pitch black. It was 9 PM and I hadn't been home since 7 am that morning. The street lights were glowing down the street, and the iconic star on the Franklin mountain illuminated the sky. I took a deep breath of that small amount of freedom walking out to that brisk night sky.
Betty had found me sitting at the front ledge waiting for my mom to pick me up.
"Was it that bad?" She asked
"The class? Not really. Ms. Davies is really sarcastic." I giggled. "I still don't think she likes me."
Betty giggled as well. She sat there thinking quietly for a moment and looked over at me. "You like her, don't you?" She asked.
"What?" My eyes widened in surprise.
"You like CC!" She teased.
"I don't know what you're talking about." I blushed uncontrollably.
Betty gasped loudly and pointed out my rosy cheeks. "Oh my God. Yes, you do. Yes...you...do." She prodded at my side, making me flinch. "I've seen the way you look at her."
"Nu-uh!" I shook my head childishly.
She continued poking and prodding me for more information. It had me giggling and squirming.
Why must my sides be so ticklish?!
My head hung low, trying not to show the deep redness glowing on my face.
"Okay! Fine! Yes." I swatted her hand away.
"Ha. I knew it." She sat content with my confession. "Why haven't you asked her out?"
I just shook my head and remained silent.
"Why?"She started to giggle playfully, getting ready to poke me again.
"Because I can't! Okay!" I snapped.
Betty pulled back and stared in surprise at my sudden outburst.
"I...just...can't," I muttered quietly.
"Oh," Betty said as she rested her hands on her lap.
My arms and legs had crossed, and I slumped my body. I didn't mean to snap or say it out loud, not when it still hurt this much to express myself. I just wanted to shut down and be left alone with my thoughts.
Then, I started to realize something Lilly had said the more I sat there. I did roll up like a hedgehog whenever I felt frightened and exposed. I sighed and loosened up, but kept my head low, only seeing Betty from the corner of my eye.
"I'm sorry."
"It's...okay." Betty sighed.
She could tell I had been hurt before, and just sat there beside me, quiet. Not poking, not teasing, just showing concern.
That meant more than I could say. I didn't feel alone. And that was enough.
Maybe I wasn't ready to tell CC. But telling someone, even just one person, felt like loosening the lid on a jar I'd kept sealed for too long.