It was March sixth, the day before my birthday, and I had to go to school. I thought I should’ve gotten the whole week off because it was coming up. In my book birthdays should’ve be counted as holidays. All of them. Then I would never have to go to school again. I thought this week was going to be dull. No, it would be worse than dull, it would suck.
I looked out of the window of my upstairs bedroom. It had rained the night before. Shallow, mirror like puddles were scattered everywhere. The sky was gray and dreary; the sun was blocked by formless billowing clouds. No one was outside singing, playing, or dancing. This was not helping me feel better about my week. I felt about as shallow as the puddles.
“Drake you’re gonna miss the bus!” My dad shouted up the stairs. I hated it when he did that. He acted like I didn’t have an alarm clock in my room.
“I know, I know,” I mumbled, mostly to myself. I slipped on some new shoes I had bought the day before. They weren’t broken in, so they hurt like heck. I ignored the squeezing pain; anything to look cool right? Anything to get ahead of the game.
I skipped down the stairs, and headed straight for the door, trying to skip having to talk to my dad before I left.
“Drake,” he caught me before I opened the door.
“Yes, father?” I said in the fakest sweet voice I could muster. I turned to face him. He was handsome, tall, well built, and had smile that would make most women (including my mother) keel over in adoration. His hair had gray streaks and he usually wore glasses in front of his piercing blue eyes. As I said before, women loved him, but one thing that could be a bit…distracting was a large pink and fleshy burn mark that stretched from his neck down to his bare chest. I had gotten used to it over the years, but some people couldn’t help but stare and wonder. My dad directed movies in Hollywood (where we lived) and had written a couple of bestselling books in his lifetime. He would often space-out and become quiet in the middle of the day; that’s when you knew he was thinking of another story to conjure up.
I never would have guessed his actual line of work, or my mother’s at that. As far as I knew, my father was Daniel Seraph a big-time director/writer, and my mother was Shara Seraph a lawyer, off on some business trip in Alaska. To sum it all up; I was completely unaware of my parent’s “real” lives.
“You’re forgetting your lunch.” My dad handed me a brown sack, probably filled with some fruits and vegetables. I wasn’t going to eat it. I was going to ditch school and eat at a restaurant with my friends like I always did. “I won’t be here when you get home. I’m headed for San Francisco for a two day shoot. You’re going to have to hold down the fort,” He gave me a friendly pat on the shoulder, “Have a good day at school.”
Don’t count on it. I thought to myself. “Thanks Dan, I will.” I gave him a forged smile and headed out the door. The bus was waiting at the corner.
I stepped on the bus and took a seat in the back by my best friend Corey. “Yo,” was all that he had to say, and then he turned his attention back to the cute blonde sitting next to him. I took one last look at my house before the bus took off. My dad was watching me through a window, staring oddly. He gave a smile that had a hint of…mischief? That was weird. He closed the blinds slowly.
I remember thinking at that moment that if anyone was an alien in my family, it was my dad. And in a way I was right.
Usually school was great. I was counted among the famous. Nerds cringed, and girls swooned as I walked down the hallways. On most days I would feel as if I owned the place. On most days. Today was different, and I decided to play it off like nothing was wrong. I laughed on the outside and moaned, “Why do I have to be here,” on the inside. I even tried to flirt a little, but that wasn’t cheering me up much.
“Hey, you.” Two slender arms slung around my neck as I was “chatting” with two girls. Oh yeah, I had a girlfriend, I still forget that. I turned around to look into two beautiful hazel eyes.
“Hey, how’s it goin’?” I put on a sham smile for the fifth or sixth time that day. Her name was Anna, and she really was… beautiful. She had her brunette hair tied back in a ponytail. She was wearing the red skirt and white top that I loved, o’ so much. Anna was almost always happy, and when she wasn’t…let’s just say it was best to avoid her during those times. I liked her, but I didn’t really get her. Anyways, she was cute and nice most of the time. Some considered her the most attractive girl in the school. I could stand her. Anything to get ahead of the game.
“So, I was thinking maybe we could throw a party for you tomorrow. Invite a couple of close friends and hang out.” She still had her arms around my neck and was talking in a perfectly sweet voice. I think she could sense I wasn’t very happy and was trying to cheer me up. It was almost working.
“Party? On a Thursday? That’s…weird.” She took her arms from around my neck, and suddenly I regretted questioning her. Thankfully she wasn’t mad, yet.
“I know it’s not the perfect vision of a party, but I thought it’d do until the weekend. Is that okay?” I saw that she was trying to remain collected.
“Sure, that’d be cool.” I lied. One more thing to add to my faults; I was spoiled like royalty, so nothing was “really” cool unless it was top-notch.
Anna walked away without anything else to say. I sighed and headed for my next class; Language Arts. I hated it more than any other class; which is kind of ironic since I’m writing this now and love it. Who woulda’ thunk it? I walked into the classroom late, again.
“Late again Mr. Seraph.” The teacher, a small stout man with a bald spot and a scraggly beard, marked something down on a paper. “Why are you always late?” He spoke so everyone could hear. So did I.
I took a seat in the back and said, “I don’t think that’s a very interesting question. I got one. Why are you always early?” Quiet chuckles went throughout the room, a couple of smirks could be seen here and there. Even on a bad day I wasn’t short on smart-aleck remarks. He ignored me and continued with whatever he had been doing before I had walked in.
That’s pretty much how the rest of the day went for me. I walked in late to most classes; drifted off into a nap in biology lab and history; and smart-alacked my way through math. I wasn’t usually so lazy, in fact I was a straight A student. Something about that day seemed so dark, so pointless; and I was letting it drag me down. I thought that lunch might raise my spirits.
But then it was lunchtime and something weird happened.
Me, Anna, Corey, and his new lady friend all headed over to lunch at The Drive In. It was a burger joint around the corner from the school. We would casually leave school and come back like nothing had happened, right? We always did that. But nooo, something weird had to happen the day before my birthday.
Corey was walking ahead of me and Anna, with his dark skinned arm slung around Blondie’s shoulders; he would order the food from his cousin that worked at the place, and probably get a sweet deal. But as he walked up to the glass doors he stopped suddenly, dead in his tracks. I looked to see why he had stopped and cursed under my breath. Principle Hatchet was looking at us through the windows inviting us in to take a seat with him. There would be no escaping this.
Corey looked at me, waiting for me to make a decision. “Who made me ring leader all of a sudden?” Then all three of them were looking at me. “Crap. Fine then, we go in.”
We all took a seat around Mr. Hatchet and I noticed he had another boy with him. He looked a lot like Mr. Hatchet himself and was around my age, he had red hair, sharp green eyes, and a naturally imposing demeanor. I guessed he was Hatchet’s son, Little Hatchet. I had never seen him at school before, though.
“So, what are you kids doing off schools grounds?” He said it casually, not interrogatingly.
No one else spoke; I guessed I was still in charge. “Uh…just grabbing a bite to eat. Those school lunches can get disgustingly repetitive, you know?” I was going to try and reason my way out of this situation. It was a long shot, but it didn’t hurt to try, right?
“I understand Drake. My son, Derek here,” he gave his son a pat on the back, “is allergic to dairy. Today is pizza for lunch if you didn’t know, so I decided we’d go out to eat. It’s a fine surprise finding you here.”
Derek offered me a friendly smile; he didn’t seem all that bad, but he was still the principles son. In my book, that was as lame as being the teacher’s pet.
“Yah, surprise!” I said sarcastically. Maybe I could get a laugh or two out of him.
He laughed for a second, then his smile dropped dead and his face went serious. “You and I both know that what you’re doing here is against school policy, Mr. Drake. I could have you suspended.”
For some odd reason that sounded like kind of good solution; at least I wouldn’t have to go to school. But then I remembered that Anna and Corey would get suspended too. “I’ll make a deal with you though,” Principal Hatchet caught me by surprise. What could we possibly have that he wanted? “Derek doesn’t…know many people around the school, if you catch my drift. He just transferred from another school.”
So that’s why I had never seen him before. He looked sort of embarrassed that his dad was doing this. He twiddled with his thumbs and scratched his head, trying to avoid our eyes. I felt sympathy towards him.
Hatchet continued, “I know how popular you are around the school Drake. Maybe you could show him the ropes, give’em a good lay of the school grounds. I don’t know, you might even end up being friends.” Which I guessed translated into non sweet-talk as, “Be friends with my son or I suspend you!”
I wasn’t all that opposed to his “deal”, his son didn’t look all that bad. I knew there was really no choice for me, but I would not hang around anyone who was considered a teacher’s pet. I was picky that way.
“Okay, I’ll be your son’s friend; make him popular if that’s what he wants. On one occasion,” I leaned in close and Hatchet smirked, it seemed as if he liked the way I thought. “He’s not your son,” Hatchet raised his eyebrows in inquiry, “Or at least no one will refer to him as your son. He would seem to close to a teacher’s pet; just doesn’t fit with us.” I could see Derek’s mouth moving and thought he was going to say something, but he didn’t. I noticed that he hadn’t had a say in any of this. Poor guy.
“It’s a deal then.” Hatchet gave me a firm handshake, which I tried to match, but he was stronger. My dad always told me you could judge a man by his handshake, and I believed him. It was probably one of the only things I had ever listened to him about. “Just remember that none of this ever happened. Even forget about my favor; it’s nothing really.”
I wanted to say, “What favor?” so badly, but held my tongue.
We walked away with the principles son after that. None of us said a word. There was an overall awkward feeling for the rest of the day. Derek followed me around; I introduced him to a couple of people, and showed him where everything was. We took P.E. together and he did, like, one hundred push-ups without breaking much of a sweat. In general, he really wasn’t that bad of a guy; I don’t know how much more I could emphasize that. He was mostly quite, pretty athletic, and not at all as imposing as I thought he would be.
Of course he still didn’t make me feel any better. At the end of the day I was ready to go home, plop onto the couch, and watch some TV. It was a bit relieving that I wouldn’t have somebody following me everywhere, at least until tomorrow.
Oh, but I forgot that nothing went right on that day, silly me.
I said my goodbyes to Corey, gave my hugs to Anna, and was headed for home. I decided I would walk home today; big mistake. As I walked out of the parking-lot a silver convertible pulled up in front of me.
And guess who was in the car.
“Hey, Drakester,” I hated stupid nicknames like that, and I still do, but the principal could call me whatever he wanted while he had me blackmailed. Right about then I felt a genuine sense of detestation towards him. “My son has nothing to do today, so I was thinking you guys could hang out at your house.”
Derek got out of the car hesitantly; he took his back-pack and put it on. He looked about as annoyed as I was at the whole situation. Before I could say a word about it, Hatchet sped away in his convertible, burning lots of rubber in the process. The day was just getting better and better.
