After Class Hours

Chapter One – James

“James…”

A jet-black haired boy moved in his sleep, pulling his covers closer to him. He deliberately ignored the person calling him. He needed more minutes… hours even.

“James…”

He buried his head deeper into his pillow. Piss off, he wanted to say but was too sleepy to reply or even say anything.

“James!”

His covers were pulled back and cursed under his breath.

“Fuck off, Raven,” he growled at his sister.

Raven Deveraux rolled her eyes and slapped her brother’s arm in attempt to get him out of bed. Her attempts unfortunately showed no sign of success.

“Damn it, James! It’s seven-thirty! You have less than half an hour to get ready for school and give me a ride… and if you don’t come out of there once I count to ten—I will be calling Mother!” she exclaimed, shaking James once more. Raven then proceeded to count to ten.

James, on the other hand, continued to ignore his little sister’s threat on calling their mother and dug himself cozily into his pillow.

“Six… seven… eight… nine…” Raven sighed. “TEN!” She quickly swung the door open, cleared her throat and…

“MOTHER!”

Footsteps came running up the stairs and in a few moments, a curly haired middle aged woman appeared at the door.

“He’s still not up?” Margaret Deveraux asked her 13 year old daughter.

Raven shook her head, and Margaret raised an eyebrow. She was not pleased.

“All right, Raven, help me with this.” Margaret placed her hands under the bed and Raven did the same on the other side.

“One, two—lift!”

James was caught off guard and fell in a heap on the floor and before her had the time to react—his bed fell on top of him as well.

“ALRIGHT! I’M UP! GEEZ!” he exclaimed, pushing the mattress off of him and stood up.

Raven and Margaret grinned.

“Glad you decided t6o join the land of the living, James,” Margaret said, ruffling her son’s black hair.

James rolled his eyes and pulled away from her. “Cut it out, Mum.”

“Just get dressed, or we’ll be late for school!” Raven said, her arms crossed as she stomped out of the room. Margaret followed suit, giving him a look that said, “Move now or you’re dead.”

With a sigh, James put his mattress back on the bed frame and yawned. He ran his hand through his jet-black hair. His pale blue eyes looked tired and he was.

He yawned again.

“Hurry up!” Raven cried from downstairs, impatience in her voice.

“I’ll be right down in five minutes! Keep your pants on!” he shouted back, grabbing a pair of jeans and a shirt from the floor.

“This is going to be long day,” he murmured under his breath as he grabbed his car keys and bag from his desk.

He ran downstairs.

---

“I told you we’d be late… but no—did you even listen to me?!” Raven said, glaring at her brother as they sat inside the principal’s office of their school.

“You have got to stop being so anal, Raven! You’re fricking thirteen years old, you don’t have a job and you’re making a huge fuss about something as pointless as being late!” James retorted, scowling, “You won’t die from being late you know. Everyone does it!”

“It’s going to be in my permanent record! I have a clean record, James. Absolutely spotless until my eighteen year old brother decides to splash red ink to it!”

“Perfectionist.”

“Couch Potato.”

“You know that’s not true.”

“Yes it is considering you’ve become one ever since Dad died and Freya dumped you.”

James didn’t answer and Raven immediately felt bad for saying such things. It wasn’t James’ fault if he started acting that way—Raven knew he had been hurt and he hasn’t really gotten over everything that’s happened the past year.

Things have changed ever since their dad had died of leukemia and that bitch of a girlfriend he went out with cheated on him and dumped him the same day their father died. It wasn’t James’ fault if those things had happened and she knew she shouldn’t be blaming him for something as pathetic as this.

“Sorry James.”

“It’s okay, kid,” he said, smiling. His eyes told another story though. Raven gave him a small smile back. She decided against telling him that she knew he was lying.

“I guess I am being too anal.”

“Yeah, and I’ve been pretty lazy these days.”

They smiled at each other again and clapped hands. “Deveraux to the end,” they said in unison—just like they would always do after they have a disagreement.

Mr. Collins, their principal, then entered the room. He was a middle aged man with graying hairs on his head.

He looked at Raven first.

“Raven, I’m going to let you off the hook for now since this is your first time to be late,” he said, smiling at her. Raven heaved a sigh of relief.

Then Mr. Collins turned to face James and frowned. “But you, James,” he sighed, “I’m sorry but I’ve got to give you detention for this one—this has been the fourth time this week you’ve been late.

James shrugged. He expected that he’d get detention this was nothing new.

“In addition to detention after class until next Friday, you will be helping our janitor, Mr. Reynolds with his duties,” he finished, looking at James.

Okay, that was new. James looked taken back.

“Help Mr. Reynolds?” he repeated, confused. Mr. Collins nodded.

“Until Mr. Reynolds says you’ve become responsible enough—you will be helping him with his duties until the end of this term.” Mr. Collins fixed his glasses, a serious look on his face.

Ah, damn, James thought, slumping in his seat. Raven nudged him and gave him a look.

He sighed. “Alright, I’ll help Mr. Reynolds out.”

Mr. Collins smiled and clapped his hands. “It’s settled then—now, go to your classes. I don’t want you two to be late for your second period class.”

As they left the principal’s office, James couldn’t help but the dread the time after class.

“I was right,” he murmured, “this is going to be a very long day.”

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Author’s Notes: Hey, guys, this is a new story I got when I was hanging out with little cousin’s last week. Hopefully you liked this first chapter. I’m just beginning to introduce to you the main characters of the story. The next chapter will feature the leading lady… :)

Please help me out and read and review!