Into the Aether_Part One(10)

“You’re not real...” she said, spots now forming in her field of vision. The creature pressed harder on her. Lara tried to breathe, but the pressure on her torso was too much. Darkness crept into her vision; her head felt light. The face of the creature stopped shifting. It looked at her appraisingly before recognition filled its face. Lara felt the tendril start to loosen as she was slowly lowered.

Lara watched below as Greg grabbed a chair. He ran at the thing, throwing the chair into the black mass. The creature caught it in midair, and with two of its tendrils, it ripped the chair apart. It then struck Greg with such force that he was catapulted into the adjacent wall.

At that instant, both Greg and Lara awoke. Greg fell out of his chair, while Lara screamed loudly. The class started snickering.

“What’s going on back there?” asked Mr. Smythe. Lara took in her surroundings, looking around the room frantically. Greg stood up quickly, diverting the attention to him.

“Sorry, Mr. Smythe,” he said, sweat beading on his forehead.

“I want to see you both in the hallway. Now.”

Lara and Greg looked at each other. They both walked cautiously toward the door.

“Freak!” yelled out one of the other students, which was followed by a round of laughter. Lara made a rude hand gesture at them.

Smythe turned on his heel to face them. “Listen, I will not have you two disrupting my class. I don’t know what games you two are playing,” he said, holding his finger out, pointing alternately at Lara and Greg, “but I will not be party to it.” Smythe’s round face was turning red and tomato-like.

The pair looked at each other before Lara responded, “Yes, sir.” Smythe looked at them for a few more moments. Lara got the impression he was trying to compose himself.

“Go back inside.” The two of them walked back into the classroom, which had broken into a dull roar of voices.

“We need to talk,” Greg said.

“Uh, yeah,” she responded sarcastically, taking her seat.





Three





Lara looked at the brightly colored drinks in the soda machine. She pressed the button for Diet Coke, and with a thump, a bottle was ejected from the machine. It launched itself between Lara’s legs and skittered across the floor. She let out a pfft and chased after it, catching up to it as it rolled over to a small group of giggling girls. One of them bent down and picked it up. Oh, here we go, she thought.

“Are you looking for this, freak?” asked the girl. Lara recognized her immediately as Courtney Rathbone. Courtney was part of the popular clique, the one every high school somehow manages to have. In fact, she was the leader. She had achieved this success by being both wealthy and cruel in equal measure.

Courtney tossed the bottle from one hand to the other.

“What was with this morning?” she asked, laughing. Her gaze moved to the other girls with an expression that said Can you believe that?

“I just fell asleep,” Lara said, her eyes drifting downward.

“Uh-huh,” Courtney responded with another annoying laugh. “What’s between you and Greg?” Her eyes moved beyond Lara.

Turning around, Lara saw Greg walking out of the cafe-chapa-torium, a plastic bag in one hand, a backpack in the other. He was wearing tattered blue jeans, a dark hooded sweatshirt, and a vintage t-shirt with ‘Blue Oyster Cult’ written on it.

“Nothing,” Lara replied sheepishly.

“Are you trying to, like, convert him?”

“Courtney!” said one of the girls, before they all broke into giggles.

“What?” she responded, pretending to be appalled. “I’m just saying that if he’s not into girls, then Lara must be one of those transgendered people. Why else would he be interested?”

“I’m not a guy!” Lara responded, anger now edging her voice.

“So you were trying to straighten him out. How were you trying to do it?” she asked, giving Lara an exaggerated wink.

“I wasn’t doing anything. We were sleeping,” Lara replied, flustered.

“Together?”

“At the same time, yes.”

“In the middle of class? What a slut!” Courtney said, almost yelling.

Some students walking by stopped to see what was happening.

Lara felt her hands shake in anger. She could feel her eyes welling. Don’t cry, don’t cry, Lara told herself. “We were not sleeping together, we both fell asleep at the same time,” she replied back, trying to keep her voice calm.

“So, what you’re saying is that you and fruit loops over there both ‘fell asleep’ in class, and then he fell out of his chair after you let out a scream.”

“Yes,” Lara replied. Courtney chortled.

“Or were you two playing in the back, and he took things a bit too far?”

Lara’s face went red as a tear ran down her cheek.

“Oh look, ladies, she’s all embarrassed about it,” Courtney said to the group, which was now accumulating more students.

“Hey, guys, what’s up?” Greg said, now standing beside Lara.

The group of girls looked at Greg and broke into fresh laughter.

“Umm, what?” he asked.

“C’mon, girls, let’s get away from the slut and the rapist,” Courtney said, tossing the bottle of Diet Coke to Greg. She turned her back on the pair and walked down the hallway, her lackeys in tow. The students who had stopped looked almost disappointed that a fight hadn’t broken out.