Chapter 2: Brunch

I caught up with Katie just as she was piling a stack of pancakes on her plate. “Whoa there, you

an
gonna eat all that missy?”
“Just like you are,” she told me, eyeing my own growing pile of pancakes, eggs, and bacon. She

Ch
added some eggs and bacon to her own plate then turned back to me. “So… Who do we sit with? Or
rather, who do you usually sit with?”

n
“Well why don’t I show you,” I motioned to a table occupied by the Wang twins, Boomer, and

so
Dweebs.

rri
“Let’s go,” she answered, flashing a smile.
I’d never seen such a beautiful smile light up anybody’s face before, I thought to myself as we

Ha
wove our way through tables of chattering students towards my friends. I balanced my plate on one
hand and guided Katie with the other, giving her nudges in the right direction. I was glad to see my
By
friends all here, back to school. I locked eyes with Milo and nodded at my right where Katie was walking
beside me over, twirling a fork around and just looking to gorgeous.
y−

When we finally got to the table (I was stopped by six different people before who wanted to
say hi before I could sit down), I pulled out a chair for Katie and plopped into my own seat next to her.
m

“Well, here we are,” I said, to everybody.

e
ad

“Hey Naxxie,” Angel greeted.

“Aww, come on, do you have to call me that still? I’m not the little kid anymore.”
Ac

“I don’t have to… I just like embarrassing you in front of your new girlfriend. After all, you are
the youngest. And aren’t you going to introduce her to us?”
ri

I stuttered, “What the --? Not girlfriend. We’re just going to the ball together. She volunteered
ka

to. It’s not like anybody else offered.”

Hi

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Milo start snickering with an evil smile on his lips. I reached
over and tried to punch him with my left hand. Bad idea, I remembered. In a flash, his right hand came
e

up and blocked the punch, capturing and twisting my arm. I sighed, wondering what had caused me to
Th

do something so stupid. Very annoyed, I pulled my right hand up from under the table and smashed a
roundhouse into his shoulder. More shocked than hurt, he released my hand and started rubbing his
shoulder.
“Oww,” he whined. “What was that for?”
 I just glared at him as he rubbed his shoulder. “You deserved it. Besides, I didn’t even punch you
that hard. It’s not like that time I accidentally shot you. That hurt a lot more, I’m sure.”
Milo shuddered, thinking of what could have happened. I thought about it for a second, and
moved on. I dug into my breakfast, extracting a pancake from the pile and taking chunks off it with my

an
fork. Apparently, Milo got over the thought too, because he picked up a slice of toast and started eating.
I looked over at Katie. She was still chewing on her food. There was a look of ever so slight shock on her

Ch
face, but it disappeared quickly.
“So, everybody, you get your schedules yet?” I asked. They all started talking at once getting

n
louder and louder and until blasted a loud whistle. They all shut up.

so
“We all have home period together… first with Mr. Norton,” Ash noted.

rri
I pulled out my schedule and saw that I did indeed have first period with Norton. I looked over
at Katie’s schedule and saw she had first period with us also. She laughed softly, a tinkling sound, as she

Ha
realized that she had class with all of her new friends first thing in the morning. She noted, “Wow… it
looks like this was almost arranged—,” a pause, “well, what else do you guys have? I’ve got Math, then
By
English, then Science, and History, in that order. Wait, why aren’t the classes separated? Like you know,
geometry, trig, pre-cal… all that.”
y−

“Classes are organized by student grade and the way the teachers think we work with each
m

other. The different “cliques” usually wind up together because they work together best. New students
like you, Katie—,” Silv said.
e
ad

Katie cut her off, “Hold up a second, how come you already know my name?”
“Oh, it’s a small school. We hear things pretty quick, the whole place is like a big family
Ac

sometimes. The only hard part is remembering all the names.”

“Oh… okay. I guess.”
ri

“Yeah, it’s a bit weird for the new kids sometimes. Where was I… right, new students… New
ka

students have their file evaluated by the counselors and they set you up with a group that you would
Hi

work well with. I guess they were right, you got to us before classes even started.”
“Oh,” Katie said. Again. “I guess.”
e

She crunched on a crispy piece of bacon, making a crackling sound. Forks and knives clattered all
Th

around us as people cleaned their plates. Slowly, the tent emptied until ours was the last table occupied.
A bell sounded somewhere, sounding the start of passing period. We got up, stretched, and grabbed our
backpacks and binders and books.
 “Odd lot we are,” I noted as we trooped off to class. “We actually look forward to going to
class."
I heard chuckles and giggles from my friends and new without looking back that they were
grinning stupidly.

an
“Come on Nax, you already knew we were crazy.” I turned back to see who had talked and saw
Jazz catch up with us. She glanced at Katie, who was holding my hand, then gave me a questioning look.

Ch
“Oh right,” I said, answering her unspoken question. “This is Katie, umm, I guess she’s my
girlfriend.”

n
“You guess? She’s standing right next to you, you know? And she seems like a great girl.”

so
I rolled my eyes at her and kept walking. We pushed through the revolving doors into the

rri
Atrium. Something didn’t feel quite right. I didn’t see anybody in the Atrium and there was an eerie
silence in the air. We rode up the escalator to the elevator banks and piled into one.

Ha
“So… Umm, excited for ballroom dance?” Jazz asked, trying to ease the tension. Ballroom was
one of our elective classes this year. A completely random topic, but it was only supposed to ease us up.
By
I didn’t answer her though; I was to tense, wary. Everybody seemed to share my feelings,
because they didn’t answer her either. They had all tensed up and were absently cracking knuckles and
y−

working half-sore muscles. Angel pushed the button for the fifth floor and the elevator started up. The
m

tension crackled in the air, we all kept hoping that nothing would be wrong and we would reach our
destination without a fight. Some sixth sense was screaming at me now, screaming that there was
e
ad

danger around. Whisper quiet, the elevator smoothly glided up. There was a soft ding, and the door slid
open.
Ac

Boy… there was no way on earth to prepare me for what I saw.

ri
ka
Hi
e
Th