MIA: Teen-Assassin

Chapter 1

The day was like any normal day. Zach had woken up alone at home. He got himself dressed and caught the bus to school. The bus ride was a long ride. He lived on the other side of town. The road to school was insanely bumpy and the bus ride high school was never any fun.
The back of the bus was crowded by the popular kids. There were the cheerleaders, including the head cheerleader Maria Caree. Maria had to be the hottest girl in the sophomore class at Leoran High school. Bright blond hair, dreamy eyes, long legs, and big breasts. You couldn't get the guys' eyes off of her. Her boyfriend was a senior and had his own car. The only time she ever took the bus to school was when he was skipping.
Then you had the jocks. Both the girl and guy athletes sat in the back seats of the bus. There was Jack Leanir, the high school quarterback and the fastest runner on the track team. Then you had his best friend Jon Ziare. Jon was taller than anyone you would ever see and could play any sport better than anyone. He played soccer, basketball, and baseball for the school.
Up in front was the nerds and the Goths. They didn't get along with the popular kids and that's why they sat up front. Zach wasn't part of any of these groups. Actually Zach's group of friends could probably only be characterized by the others. They weren't super smart or super athletes. They weren't popular but they weren't unpopular either. They were in between.
Nick Cherishe had been Zach's best friends since kindergarden. Along with Bert Siares and Chris Kathary. Tim Finner, Kathy Alacia, and Alice Porsia joined the group later on. They were one close group of friends.
Nick was the tallest of the group and Zach's best friend. Nick had black hair; he had it spiked in the front. He normally wore collared button shirts and jeans. He loved playing sports but he wasn't really good at many of them. He was the reason Kathy was part of the group.
Kathy moved from Oklahoma to Leoran in fifth grade and Nick became very good friends with her. She had brown hair and she was just a little shorter than Nick. She was definitely pretty and Nick asked her out in eighth grade. She sadi yes and they are still together now.
Bert and Chris had been neighbors since they were born. Bert was African American and wore his hair in dreadlocks. Chrsi was white with curly dirty blond hair. They had met Nick and Zach in Kindergarden and the four had been inseparable ever since.
Tim joined the group freshman year. He was, as all the popular kids called him, a pipsqueak. He was the shortest of the group. He had moved from Florida and Bert didn't want him to be sitting all alone at lunch. He invited him over and they became close friends.
Then you had Alice, Zach's girl friend. Zach and Alice had met in church when they were in second grade. They use to hide from their parents after church so that they could talk. Their parents got so use to it that they began waiting in the cars for them. Then Alice ended up in Zach's class in third grade and they became really good friends. Zach asked her out freshman year. She was a couple inches smaller than Zach. She had brown hair which was almost always in two braids that reached her shoulders. In Zach's eyes she was gorgeous.
Zach had his hair buzzed short. He hated jeans and couldn't stand collared shirts. However, he loved dragons and almost every single one of his T-shirts had a dragon on it somewhere. He looked out the window at the high school. It was two stories high. Not exactly a large school and the school population wasn't all that big either.
The bus pulled up to the school and dropped the kids off at the main entrance. Zach was the last one off.
Zach walked into the school. Everywhere you looked you saw kids running, standing, and walking in the halls. Little Alex was picking up his books off the floor. A couple of the popular kids were laughing at him.
"Zach, over here!" Kathy yelled. The others where already crowded around his locker. He was always the last one to school. That's why they always met at his locker. He ran over to them.
"If I have to listen to her one more time I'm gonna hit her," Tim said. He was staring at Kate Hamming. She was always giving Tim a hard time.
"What she do this time?" Zach asked taking his bag off of his back and placing it on the floor beside him.
"She stole my essay," said Tim. "It's due first period."
"You should chase after her and get it," Zach said. He opened up his locker and pulled out his math book. The book was falling apart. There were atleast twenty pages that were no longer in the binding.
"I will," said Tim. "In a bit. She wouldn't give it back to me even if I were to catch her."
"There is only ten minutes till the bell rings," said Alice. Alice always had her watch set to the bell. She could count down till the very second the bell would ring.
"Then I'll be late," said Tim. "It's only Mr. Healey."
"Yeah, and he won't kill you," Bert said sarcastically.
"He like's me," said Tim.
"Well then," Chris said screwing up his face to sound like Tim's. "Do you mind if I get your bag Mr. Healey?" Chris picked up Tim's bag. "Don't worry Mr. Healey, I'll help you with that." Chris made a funny face and started to walk away with Tim's bag. The others began to laugh.
"Hey," said Tim swiping for his bag. Chris handed him the bag. "I only help him out because it gets me out of English."
"He's right," said Zach. "He's never in English at the start of class."
"Oh, so now Tim's a slacker," said Chris.
"Am not," said Tim. "But, who wants to listen to that old hag talk all day?" Most of them laughed.
"Who do you have for English, again?" Alice asked. She stood there watching the others laugh. She was the only one who had a different English teacher.
"Miss Frienman," Zach said. "She talks without expression."
Tim screwed up his voice so he sounded like an old women and then slowly imitated Miss Frienman. "Hello.class.how.are.you.all?" They all laughed. A tall man walked by the group while they were laughing. He stopped and looked at them. He was tall and old. He had white hair and a long white beard, and he was a tiny bit chubby.
"Mr. Healey," Tim said.
"What is it?" Mr. Healey asked.
"Kate stole my Essay," Tim said.
"Hamming?" Tim nodded to Mr. Healey. "She doesn't sound like one to cheat."
"She didn't copy what I wrote," said Tim. She took my written copy so that I couldn't pass it in. She thinks she is being funny."
"It's true," Bert said. "I watched her take it."
"I'll take care of it," Mr. Healey then turned and walked in the opposite direction from which he had come.
"That was lucky," Zach said turning to Tim.
"Yeah," said Tim.
"Hey, we have study first don't we Zach?" Alice asked. She sounded very happy.
"Yeah we do," said Zach. "And I still have to write that essay for Mr. Healey. I forgot about it."
"You have him last period, don't you?" Kathy asked.
"Yes I do," said Zach. I'm gonna probably do it all in study, though, because the rest of my classes are going to be hell today."
"I know what you mean," Nick said looking at his watch. "And it's about to begin."
"What do we have?" Kathy asked.
"One minute and twenty-one seconds," Alice said.
"Wow, time flies," said Zach.
"Not that fast," said Kathy. "It's still first term." Everyone nodded.
"And he's acting like it's the last day of school," said Bert. He was pointing at Eric Chasten, Class clown. He was doing a handstand in the middle of the hall.
"That's Eric for ya," Nick said. He put his arm around Kathy. "Tim, what are you doing after school?" Nick asked.
"Nothing." Tim said.
"Zach?" Nick looked at Zach.
"Nadda," Zach said.
"Come over my house." Nick said. Just then the bell rang. They all grabbed their bags.
"Sure," Tim said.
"The others going?" Zach asked.
"All but Kathy," Nick said. He turned and kissed Kathy on the cheek. Zach grabbed Alice's hand and they walked to Study class.
Zach and Alice sat down in study.
"What's the Essay on?" Alice asked.
"World War II," zach said. "We have to write about our opinion on if America should have entered earlier than after Pearl Harbor."
"I see," said Alice, "What do you think?"
"I can't decide," said Zach. "There are reasons why we should have and reasons why we shouldn't have. Mr. Healey said that I could write just that."
"Have fun," Alice said. She pulled out a piece of paper and started scribbling.
Zach started to think to himself, "How to start this?" He thought. "World War II was a time of.no.no that wouldn't work. Um, what about Years of war rained down upon Earth known as World War II? That's good." Zach began to write. He finished writing it minutes before the class ended.
"Wow," he said looking at Alice. "That was very difficult."
"You done it?" Alice asked. She now had a book on the table along with paper. "I finished my math a few minutes ago."
"Good," said Zach. "Hey do you know what we are doing after school at Nick's today?"
"Video Games," Alice said. "He got a new one but he won't tell us which one it is."
"Sounds like fun," Zach said.
"It should be," said Alice. The bell rang and everyone else in the class got up and began shuffling out. Zach picked up his bag and got out of his seat. Alice grabbed her book and put the piece of paper inside of it. She shoved it into her bag and stood up.
"I'll see you then," Alice said as they walked out the door.
"Yeah," said Zach. He kissed her and headed for his locker. What Zach didn't know was that this "Normal" day was going to be the worst day of his life.