"The Crew" Page #7

WARNING: The Following is a Continuing Story Arc, and May End in a Cliffhanger:

Unluckily, however, Art was taught by Ms. Hetrick; the math teacher. As I walked into the room, breathing heavily and sweating at an alarming rate, I looked up to meet the unsatisfied gleam of the teacher. I tried to hide behind the crowd of chatting students the covered the back row(who were awaiting for further instruction from the teacher). Alas, this tactic didn’t work.

“What took you so long? Weren’t you just outside?”

“Umm yeah, I went to the bathroom.”

“For 5 minutes?” she said, as she looked down at her silver watch.

“Yeah, I’d rather not talk about it if you don’t mind,” I said in an overly defensive tone.

“I’m sorry… Class! Prepare for class! We have a fun and interesting project for today.”

I’ll skip to when something fun and interesting happens:

As the final bell rang, disbanding a wave of loud children, I suddenly remembered what Buck had told me.

It had become my mission to make it to the park, eager to find out what Buck meant by “army.” Who were they fighting? Wizards hadn’t been cool since Harry Potter, and even that was ruined when they killed Dobby. Why?! Why Dobby?!

I power walked to the park, increasing speed with every other step that took me closer to Buck. Eventually after about 5 minutes (4 minutes and 48 seconds to be exact) I found myself sprinting in anticipation.

Sweat dripped down my brow (I sweat a lot in this story… California’s a hot state…) when I ran past the breezy January air, stopping for no one… Although there was no one to really stop for; the park was only like 10 minutes away, and not many people live in Cloverdale. I did brush past a 3^rd grader, and looking back at that, I do feel kind of bad about it… Poor little confused 3^rd grader!

At last, I had made it to the park. I leaned against the chain fences that surrounded the park. I was finally there and ready to unveil the vagueness that lead to my curiosity. I looked beyond the fence to look for Buck, only to realize I had rushed all the way to the park, even before Buck had left school.

<LAST PAGE     NEXT PAGE> 

"The Crew" Page #6

WARNING: The Following is a Continuing Story Arc, and May End in a Cliffhanger:

As I waited for the slowest printer I’d ever encountered in my travels, I immediately silenced my impatient tapping of the fingers. There was a noise coming from outside of the classroom. I knew the noise was none other than the loud footsteps of 27 uncivilized 7^th graders.

The bell rang, as my heart heavily beat to the ear ringing sound of the intercom feedback. Damn school grade computers! They never get the time right!

I quickly grabbed the unfinished printed list of ingredients and ran to the back door as fast as I could. The dark room suddenly lit up with the arrival of impatient middleschoolers. I couldn’t make it to the door in time, so I dove under the nearest desk in the front row. The entire computer lab was filled with the loud gossip of 7^th graders in a matter of seconds.

So there I was, surrounded by the loud forces of Satan’s Army (the 7^th graders) with no obvious way out. My heart beat even louder than the irritating chatter of the children around me. Suddenly, the entire class was dead silent. All of the kids took their seats, and I had to make my way to the back door before the teacher got in.

The students quickly rushing to their assigned seats provided a very measly cover for about 3 seconds before I heard the raspy voice of old Ms. Knickerson.

“Sit down and shut up…” croaked the rough voice of the aging teacher.

I couldn’t quite make it to the door in time, so I slyly made my way behind the conveniently placed curtain, which covered the dark room from the shining sun. Finally safe behind the curtain, I quickly hopped out of the opened window and found myself lying on the ground breathing intensely. Out of nowhere, I started hysterically laughing, as the sweat of my intense escape dripped down my forehead. I could’t believe it; I made it out of the classroom without anyone noticing me.

“Who just jumped out of the window?” I heard, coming from the computer lab. With that, I ran as fast as I could to my next class: Art.

<LAST PAGE     NEXT PAGE>