That Fateful Day

"Come on Jason! Wake up!" Jason's mother yelled from the bottom of the stairs, waking Jason from his slumber. He opened a blurry eye to look at the clock. The bright red numbers flashed angrily. He groaned and rolled over.

"Jason!" she shrieked.

"It's only six!" He told her loudly.

"Your new school starts at 8:15." Was her reply. It took a while to sink into Jason's sleep numbed brain.

"When!?" He croaked. Only nerds wake up that early to go to school. He thought to himself. Jason's father banged on his door.

"Up!" He ordered. Jason threw off his blankets and got dressed. He dragged himself into the bathroom and turned on the light. Jason glared at his reflection. What he saw was an innocent looking 12 year old when he was supposed to see a mature looking 14 year old. He sighed. Innocent isn't that bad, but looking like I'm thirteen is. He thought. His blue eyes were a light angelic blue, and he had almost yellow blonde hair. He glared at his reflection. It glared back at him. His hair was laying flat on his head, or, half was. The other half was sticking out half-hazard. He wetted and styled his hair, and added the final touch. Gel. He stumbled out of the bathroom and fell down the stairs. His mother glanced at the knot of arms and legs in concern.

"Toast?" she offered.

"Sure." he grumbled as he carefully stood up. Tripping into the kitchen he added, "With butter." He collapsed into a chair, now safe from... himself. Mrs. Stralka (his mother) placed a small plate in front of him with two slices of whole wheat toast, with butter, on it. Jason crunched on it, loudly, and slowly.

"Hurry up Jace!" She urged. "Your car pool will be here soon, and you need to let Raider in." Jason finished his toast, and placed his plate into the sink. Now that he was more alert, he could make the dangerous journey across the living room. Wondering how a living room could be dangerous? Nothing, except the strange creature that inhabited it.

In the darkest corner of the room was a wooden pen. Within it -

"Raaaarrr..."

- was Lief. Luckily, he was to busy gnawing on one of the post's that held him prisoner to notice Jason. To be sure, Jason tip-toed across the living room, to the door leading to the backyard. He winced as it creaked open, but Lief continued gnawing. Raider bounded in, with loud happy barks. Raider was a Golden Retriever, just out of his puppy hood. He was too new to the family to know the living room was the 'quiet room'. He began to run around in small, dizzying circles. Lief watched him, his small chubby hand clenching the posts. Jason was too busy watching Raider to notice Lief pick up a small squeaky toy. Suddenly, it flew through the air, and hit Jason in the eye. the toy let out an agonized squeak before it fell to the ground. Jason turned to glare at Leif, who was now chortling and clapping his hands in delight. That Terror just gave me a black eye! He thought darkly. His eye throbbed, and he could feel it start to swell.

Lief was 2½ years old, and in those two short years he has earned the title Terror Tot. The door bell rang, and scared Lief. He retreated to the darkness of the pen. Jason held a hand over his eye as he answered it. A girl was standing there, with short brown hair and brown eyes specked with green.

"Aren't you ready yet?" She asked. Jason stared.

"Why are you here!? Who are you!?" He demanded.

"Oh. I'm Rachel. I'm your carpool." She said sticking out her hand. Jason took his hand off his eye and shook it. She blinked when she saw the black eye, but said nothing. Jason grabbed his backpack from the kitchen and yelled

"Mommm! I'm off!" and with that, he was out the door, to start his first day of school at Northern Lights.

The ride there took shorter then he thought. Before he knew it, Rachel was bounding out of the car, saying hello to friends she hadn't seen over the summer.

"Thanks for the ride." He told Mrs. Nickels, the driver, (and also Rachel's mother) and stepped out. One of the girls Rachel was talking to, noticed Jason right away.

"Who's that?" He heard her ask. Rachel turned to Jason and grinned.

"This is Jason Stralka. He carpools with me." She said, gesturing for Jason to come. "That's Angela." She said, pointing to the girl that saw Jason first. She had really light blonde hair, and cold blue eyes. The girl on the other side of Rachel had black hair pulled into a ponytail, with a little curly-q hanging down just in front of her ear. Her eyes were a deep chocolate brown, and her skin a creamy sort of brown. "That's Takara." Rachel said pointing at the curly-q girl.

"Hey bro." Takara said. Jason grinned.

"Yo." He answered. Takara smiled back. Takara turned suddenly and hissed in Rachel's ear,

"He's here!" and pointed to a boy stepping out of a red car, with blonde highlights on the top of his head. That was all Jason could see.

"Who's here?" Rachel asked, confused.

"He is here!" Takara answered, adding more emphasis on he.

"Ooooh..." Rachel said in understanding. Takara covered her eyes, acting embarrassed.

"Hi Rachel, Hi Takara, Hi Angie." A tall blonde with blue glasses said, passing them. When she passed she suddenly noticed Jason. "Whoa!" she cried, and back tracked. "Hello there." She said. Jason looked questionably at Rachel.

"That's Elizabeth." Rachel explained. "Liz, this is Jason." Elizabeth smiled at Jason.

"Hi." Jason said, then turned to Rachel. "I have to go to the office."

"I know the way!" Elizabeth volunteered.

"I bet you do." Rachel said, glancing at the forest. Elizabeth glared at Rachel.

"Fine. You show him." She said huffily and marched off.

"This way." Rachel said, turning around and walking in the opposite direction Elizabeth went.

"Bye Rach! By Jace." Takara called.

"Bye Rachel, and see you later Jason." Angela said formally. Takara stuck her tongue out at her.

"Bye guys." Rachel said, turning and walking backwards, waving at her friends. They turned a corner and were in front of the school. In front of the cross walk, was a woman holding a Stop sign on a stick and had a florescent orange vest on over her coat.

"Hi Mrs. Warner!" Rachel called. Mrs. Warner waved.

"You know her?" Jason asked.

"Of course. I've been going here since kindergarten." Rachel replied. They stepped into the office. Rachel walked up to the counter, and peered over. She was short, so she had to go onto tip-toe. One of the two secretaries glanced up.

"May I help you Rachel?" she asked. Rachel gestured behind her with her head.

"He needs his schedule and to sign in." Rachel told her. The secretary shifted glance to Jason.

"Your name?" She asked.

"Jason." He answered. She typed rapidly for a second, the used the mouse and clicked on something. She turned to the printer behind here. It printed his schedule and she handed it to Rachel, who in turn handed it to Jason. He glanced at it. On Monday, Tuesday, and Friday, he had,

1rst hour - Band

2nd hour - Pre Algebra

3rd hour - Spanish

4th hour - Language Arts

lunch

5th hour - Social Studies

6th hour - Science

On Wednesday and Thursday everything was the same, except 1st hour was Home room, and 3rd hour was Computer Lab.

Rachel glanced at the schedule.

"Cool. We have the same Science and Language arts. Home room too. Everything else you have with Takara." She said, trying to peer over his shoulder.

"What about Angela?" He asked.

"Every single class with me." Rachell said happily.

"Hmm." Jason said thoughtfully. They slowly made it back to where the 7th and 8th graders stood before and after school. Right when they arrived, the bell rang, and the kids filed inside.

"Could you two help me get around?" Jason asked Rachel and Takara humbly.

"Sure Bro." Takara said.

"Okeday." was Rachel's answer.

"Oke-" Jason started.

"Don't ask." A boy advised with dirty blonde hair and dark brown eyes.

"Quiet you." Rachel told him.

"No! Never surrender!" He cried, and surged ahead. Jason watched the boy leave, quiet puzzled.

"We never have figured out what Joe was, have we?" Rachel asked Takara. They both laughed. "See you later." Rachel said, as she split from Takara and turned into a room. Beside the door it had,

Frau Woofter

Seniõr Denherder

Rachel went to the third row from the far side of the room, and plunked her backpack in the second seat. Elizabeth put her backpack in the seat behind Rachel, and Joe put his across from Elizabeth. Jason decided to put his in front of Rachel.

"Hey!" a girl came walking up, with her hands on her hips. She had short black hair, and blue eyes. She had a black shirt on with a dragon on it.

"You took my seat." She told Jason, pointing at the desk he was sitting at.

"Oh, I'm sorry." He said standing. "I didn't know you had a seating chart." He continued. Rachel laughed.

"We don't. But we all sit in the same places. Whit, sit in front of Joe, please. He's new." Whitney placed her backpack at the front of the row.

"That's not in front of Joe..." Jason began. Then a tall boy with blonde hair moved Joe's backpack up one seat. Joe was out of the classroom, so he couldn't argue. "Oh." Jason said sheepishly. "I thought you said you guys sit in the same places every day." He said, confused.

"We do. Joseph puts his backpack there everyday, and David moves it up one seat everyday. Come on. What locker number are you?" She asked, grabbing her jacket and leading outside. Jason grabbed his jacket, and hurried after her.

"70" He said, reading off of the schedule the secretary gave him.

"Cool!" Rachel exclaimed. "That's right next to mine! I'm 71."

"That's kind of scary." Jason said to himself while leaving his homeroom behind Rachell.

~~

That's the end of Chapter One! Is good? I like Leif. He's a lil Devil, eh? I think I'm going to have fun with the 'Terror Tot'.