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Alright, I've rewritten this whole chapter. I hope this is refreshing compared to the crap I had up before. :) I hope you enjoy. Please review.
Chapter 1
Sam stared at the half-eaten sandwich on the table in front of her. She wasn’t hungry anymore…she didn’t feel like eating it…she didn’t feel like looking at it… She grabbed the sandwich and threw it into the garbage can beside her.
Sam wiped the crumbs off her hands and sighed. She was tired of doing the same thing everyday. Go to school, go to first through fourth periods, go to the cafeteria, sit at the same table, eat the same homemade sandwich, go to periods five through seven, go home, etc.
“Are you okay, Sam?” Terry asked timidly from across the table. Sam looked up and frowned at her friend.
“Yeah, I’m just… tired…” she sighed and looked away.
Candy chuckled from beside Terry. “I know you’re just saying that to get out of telling us what’s really bothering you.”
Sam put her head in her hands. “Why can’t I have friends who don’t care?” she groaned into her hands.
Candy laughed lightly. “Because, you got us instead.”
Sam looked at Candy and rolled her eyes at her. She looked away and ran a hand through her hair. Her eyes wandered around the cafeteria, in hopes that she would find something interesting.
She noticed nothing special going on in the cafeteria, as always. Everything was the same as it always was. Everybody was doing the same thing as they always did… Oh wait! Look! Josh is buying lunch today! He always brings his lunch! The world might just explode! Sam rolled her eyes.
“Sam… Sam… Hello?” Candy waved a hand in front of Sam’s face. “Anyone in there?”
“Oh, sorry. What?” Sam said, pulling herself back into reality. She blinked a few times and looked at her friends.
“Are you gonna tell us what’s bothering you? I’ve been trying to get your attention for like, five minutes now.” Candy said. Sam stared into Candy’s bright green eyes for a second in thought.
“Um…well… I’m just tired of doing everything the same way everyday…” she finally said. She attempted a smile, but it came out as a grimace.
Candy rolled her eyes. “That’s what you were trying to avoid saying to us?” She asked incredulously.
Terry shook her head at her food and continued eating. Sam noticed a small smile on the girl’s lips, though.
Sam chuckled. “Yeah, that’s all.” She rubbed the back of her neck and leaned back in her chair. She looked around the table and said to herself, “I’m hungry.”
XXX
Sam walked into her fifth period class and sighed to herself. She didn’t like Algebra… she didn’t like it any more than she’d liked it when her parents found out about her English teacher and her… The memory of that day flashed across her mind, but she quickly shoved it away and continued to her seat.
The second she sat down her back suddenly exploded in such pain that Sam couldn’t move. She gasped as the pain took her breath away. She gripped the edges of her desk so tightly that her hands turned white. She tried to keep her expression blank and her appearance normal, but Mr. Reed apparently noticed anyway as he looked over the top of his thick glasses and said, “Is something wrong, Samantha?”
The pain started to reside so Sam was able to reply, without too much trouble, “It was nothing… I just… bumped my knee on … my desk leg…” She sat up straight and took a few slow breaths.
As she dug through her bag for her binder Mr. Reed drawled on about the lesson. She set her binder on her desk and squinted at her notebook paper. She sighed to herself. Now I’m too exhausted to take notes…She rested her head on her arms on top of her binder and closed her eyes.
XXX
“Before we clean up, please write down the homework.” Mr. Reed turned to the chalkboard and started to write as he spoke, “Page 134, one through—” The bell suddenly rang and cut off his voice.
Students jumped out of their seats and rushed for the door. A desk was even knocked over, waking Sam up.
Sam jerked awake and looked around the room. “Crap,” she whispered to herself. She quickly shoved her binder in her backpack and hurried after the other students.
Sam groggily hurried across the school toward the gym. She walked into the locker room and almost tripped over the threshold of the door. She walked to her locker and put her bag down.
Other girls were already in the room changing into their gym clothes. Sam opened her locker and pulled her gym clothes out and threw them behind her. She rubbed her face and stood in front of her open locker for a second, trying to wake up.
“Hey,” a voice called from behind her. Sam lowered her hands from her face and looked over shoulder.
“Hey,” she replied to Candy with a half-hearted smile.
“What are we doing in math?” Candy asked casually as she turned the dial on her locker, just like she always did.
“I wouldn’t know, I fell asleep…” Sam told her with a smile to herself as she pulled her pants off and stepped into her gym shorts.
Candy turned and looked at Sam as she pulled her gym shirt over head. “Again? You’re gonna fail that class. You barely passed last semester.”
Sam rolled her eyes and pulled her shirt off. She grabbed her pants off the floor and turned to stuff her clothes into her locker.
“Oh, my God…” she heard Candy say suddenly. Sam didn’t really like the sound of her voice.
She turned and looked at Candy. “What? What’s… wrong?” A cold shiver ran down Sam’s spine as she looked at Candy’s expression. Candy looked horrified... like when Sam had laughed so strangely when she’d heard about a death on the news. Sam shuddered at the thought. She didn’t know why she’d laughed, but she couldn’t help it… For some reason hearing about that gruesome death had filled her with joy… Sam shook the thought away with another shudder.
“Th-there’s…s-something…” Candy forced out. Her behavior was beginning to frighten Sam. What did she see? What did I do?
“Candy, what’s wrong?” Sam whispered, putting her hands on Candy’s shoulders. Sam almost gasped when she felt Candy’s body shaking.
“We have to get you to the nurse, Sam,” Candy squeaked in her terrified voice.
