first chapter:
WHO SAID SCHOOL WAS BORING?
Sara Sidle walked nervously down the corridor of her new school.
‘Yet another one.’ she sighed to herself. Another new town, another new school. Other kids bustled in the corridor, the bell for the first lesson had gone. Sara had just spent the last 15 minutes with the principal, getting her timetable and finding out about the school. She looked down at the timetable now, while trying not to bang into the other kids around her. The timetable told her that she had English in room 25 next. Sara groaned inwardly, English was not one of her best subjects. And she actually had to find room 25 as well. The room to her right was number 41. Sara dug in her pocket and pulled out a map of the school she had been given.
‘Lost?’ questioned a voice.
Sara looked up to see a boy of about her age in front of her. He had messy sandy hair, his brown eyes were sparkling and his grin spread across his face. Sara smiled back, embarrassed.
‘Uh, sort of…..um do you know how to get to room 25? I got English……’
The boy’s face lit up again, ‘Really! Sweet! Me too, hey, I’ll take ya with me!’
Sara laughed, ‘Thanks! I’m Sara Sidle, by the way.’
He nodded, ‘Greg Sanders. Newbie, eh? Where’d you move from?’
‘New York.’
‘The big apple, cool! What brings you to the lovely Las Vegas in the middle of the school year?’
Sara was caught a bit off guard by the question, ‘Umm….I don’t really want to talk about it, is that okay?’
Greg shrugged, ‘Each to his own.’
They stopped in front of room 25.
‘Voila!’ said Greg, ‘Our teacher’s Mrs Glynn if you want to know.’
‘Thanks,’ said Sara and followed him into the classroom.
Inside the room Sara was greeted by a young woman with dark blonde hair. She was slim and looked as though she wanted to be a strict, no-nonsense teacher, but the twinkle in her eye betrayed her.
‘Hello Sara,’ she said, ‘I’m Mrs Glynn.’
‘Hey,’ Sara whispered nervously.
‘Sara, you can sit there next to Greg, you don’t mind, do you?’
Sara smiled and shook her head. She walked to the empty desk to Greg’s right in the second row from the front. She sat down. As Mrs Glynn started the lesson she looked around her. In her estimation there were about 25 kids in the class, approximately 15 of them were girls. Her attention was brought back to Mrs Glynn clapping her hands.
‘Okay,’ she said brightly, ‘So since this lesson is all about description….’
‘It is?’ Sara thought to herself.
‘….we’re going to try an exercise where I will pick two of you and each of you will take turns to describe the other using only ONE word.’
There were a few groans around the class. Sara looked at Greg who grinned then rolled his eyes.
‘So,’ Mrs Glynn continued, ‘We’ll start off with….um….Nick Stokes and….Greg Sanders.’
Greg sighed loudly which earned him a stern look from the teacher. Sara twisted a little in her seat to look at Nick Stokes. He was sitting to Greg’s left, but a row back. He had dark brown hair, he was pretty good looking, and you could tell that he was a jock.
‘So, Nick you go first, then Greg.’
Nick swung slightly on the back legs of his chair, considering his answer. Suddenly he smiled, ‘Got one,’ he spoke with a Texan accent, ‘Freak.’
The class burst into laughter, Nick was getting high-5s from his friends. Greg jumped out of his seat and bowed in front of Nick.
‘As always,’ he grinned.
Mrs Glynn sighed, ‘All right Greg that’s enough. Sit down.’
Greg sat down.
‘So how would you describe Nick, Greg?’ Mrs Glynn asked.
Greg looked up at her and said, dead pan, ‘Gay.’
More laughter erupted from the class. Sara looked over her shoulder to see Nick turn red. She turned round again. Suddenly, and without warning Nick had jumped on top of Greg and was hitting him. A couple of the girls screamed, but most of the kids, especially the boys, were starting up a chant of fight, fight, fight……
The two boys were wrestling about on the floor, Greg getting a few punches in, but since Nick was bigger Greg was underneath him most of the time and receiving most of the punches. Mrs Glynn was shouting at them to stop, but there was nothing she could do. She turned desperately to a girl near her, Lindsay will you go next door and get Mr Taylor please?’
The girl nodded and left the room, returning a moment later with another teacher. He pushed his way through the kids and grabbed each of the boys, who were still on the floor, throwing punches.
‘What the hell do you think you’re doing!’ Mr Taylor shouted at the two boys.
‘He started it sir,’ Greg said. Nick kicked him in the leg. Mr Taylor shook Nick slightly. ‘Quit it,’ he said sternly, ‘Look at yourselves, you’re not savages.’
Nick only had a split lip, but Greg, having taken most of the punches had a cut above his left eye, the makings of a black eye on the same one and his nose was still bleeding freely down his face, dripping onto his shirt.
‘Right,’ Mr Taylor said to Mrs Glynn, ‘I’ll take these two to the nurse and then the principal, if you could look after my class while I’m gone’
‘Thanks,’ she smiled gratefully as they left the room, ‘Alright that’s enough, everyone back into their seats and we’ll continue the lesson’
Everyone sighed, but did as they were told. On his way back to his seat another kid winked at Sara, ‘Welcome to Las Vegas High.’