Chapter One - The Teacher And The Shed

 

�" CHAPTER 1 �"

 

The Teacher and the Shed

 

 

                “What do we have next?” Paul asked his friend Reece.

                “Science I think,” Reece, Paul and their friend Jessica sat in the classroom ‘V1’ with their form class at the back of the room, on the right column. Reece was 13, and had styled orange-red hair, Paul was 14 and had short-ish natural brown hair and blue eyes, Jessica was 13 like Reece and had long layered brown hair that she usually wore in a pony-tail and had hazel eyes. E.S.S was a strange and boring subject, very boring especially to the fact that there teacher, Mr. Lacerna was as boring as watching grass grows, and that he always left the room for no apparent reason.

                “What’s the time?” Paul asked, Jess reached in her pocket and pulled out her pink cell phone.

                “10:13, two minutes to go!” She said in a joking tone. They shut their ring binders and put them in their bags, awaiting the bell to ring to signify their departure to the next class. Mr. Lacerna walked back in looking grouchy and boring, then sat at his desk ant continued working on his laptop which he abruptly left in the first place.

                “What do we have next?” said Katharine, one of Reece’s very close friends that was sitting in front of him.

                “Science,”

                “Science,” she told her friend Laura who was sitting next to her.

                At last the bell rang, and everybody stood up, pushed their chairs in, and waited like Mr. Lacerna would have told them to.

                “All right, stand up behind your chairs,” he said in his monotone although everyone already had. “Thankyou Tyson, Mel, Jennifer, Alice, Lizzie, Kara…” he said individually to the class as they exited the door into the hallway where ‘V1, V2, V3 and the AV Theatre’ were, the out to the concrete courtyards where hundred of students were walking towards their next class.

                Reece and Jess were walking when Paul caught up to them being released from class last.

                “God I hate Mr. Lacerna,” Paul said.

                “Why?” Jess asked.

                “Oh, he just an idiot, picks on me because im slower at reading than everyone else, I still get the work done!”

                “Just tell him what’s up,” said Jess raising her fists, they laughed.

                “REECE!” One of Reece’s best friends Rosie was walking up to him singing silently to her iPod.

                “Hey, hey, hey!” Reece replied.

                “Can’t nobody, Can’t nobody, hold us down! Whatta you doin’?”

                “Science, just escaped Mr. Lacerna,”

                “Uhg, I got him next for history, -yawn-”

                “Have fun! I’ll see you at interval? Is Freya here?” She gave him thumbs up and walked to the classroom that he had just come from.

                Once at their science class, (M4) they lined up outside and waited for Miss. Stevens their science teacher. They took out their science books and pencil cases while she was writing the day’s lesson on the board.

                “Okay, line up,” She said when she came out although the class already was lined up, “Come in, and sit down.” The class entered, put their bags in the bag racks and sat at a table in the lab. Miss. Stevens walked up to the board and tapped it with her whiteboard marker. “Head that up in you books,” the writing on the board said ‘Earth Science’ they were starting a new topic. The class wrote in their books the title, Reece was sitting next to Katharine on his left, then Jess on his right, and Paul next to her at the oblong table.

                “Reece, what’s the date?” Katharine whispered to Reece.

                “18^th,” he replied checking the calendar on his cell phone. Katharine headed down in her book ‘18^th November 2010’ and then ‘Earth Science’ as did Reece, Jess and Paul.

                “Okay, Earth Science, We will be looking at the anatomy of the planet, other planets in our Solar System, and that sort of stuff,” she stopped talking and looked at something on her laptop, peering through her glasses, twiddling the Whiteboard marker in her hand, “So, first thing, is layers. Who knows what Earth’s layers are? Yes, Bonnie.”

                “Isn’t it the crust, and the core or something?” Bonnie said, two tables down from Paul.

                “Those are two of them, but who knows how many there are?” nobody put their hands up, obviously oblivious to the answer, “There are 4, Crust, mantle, outer core and inner core-” Miss. Stevens kept talking about the layers and what each layer contained. Katharine was writing on a piece of paper and then secretly slid it across the table top to Reece, saying:

 

‘Bro, I’m so tired. I was up till like, 2am on Facebook’

 

                Reece checked to see if Miss. Stevens was watching or not, then replied.

 

‘Doing what? I can never go on for that long, I go on after school and that’s about it’

 

                He slid it across the table and waited for Katharine to read it, she began writing, and then slid it over to Reece again.

 

‘I completely understand now how people can get addicted, I really want to go on right now, but gotta listen to Miss. Stevens talk about Earth or something,’

 

                They wrote pointless messages to each other while Miss. Stevens went on about something that they couldn’t be bothered listening to. It was 10.41, ’34 minutes to go!’ Reece wrote to Katharine, while she was writing, Reece looked out the window behind him. He saw the handrails that were on the deck that they stand on to come into science every lesson, the side view of another classroom across from them, a steep, grass covered back from behind them, and on the very top of the hill was a small shed, Reece saw somebody he never would have expected to see at that moment, Mr. Lacerna walked into Reece’s eye view, looked around, then entered the Shed, and disappeared. Why Mr. Lacerna was in the shed Reece did not know, but he sure wanted to.

                Katharine slid the note back to Reece.

 

‘OMG! Yay, can’t wait, I’m so bored, she’s still talking about the planet or something, everyone else looks really bored too.’

 

                Indeed Miss. Stevens was still talking about the planet and had not noticed that Reece and Katharine were passing noted to each other, but she did look out the window a lot, Reece wondered if she wondered about Mr. Lacerna too, Reece had to write it down on the paper for Katharine to read.

 

‘Oi, I just seen Mr. Lacerna on the bank behind me walk into that little shed? Miss. Stevens keeps looking out the window, I wonder if she seen him? He would have looked normal if he hadn’t of looked around before he walked in,’

 

                Reece slid it to Katharine and as she read it she turned around to look out the window, then finished reading and wrote a note.

 

‘Ae? That’s so random, he’s so dodgy, and I wonder if all of the other teachers think he is too? What would he want to go into that shed for? There’s like nothing in it, and it’s crammed up,’

 

‘Have you been inside it before?’  Reece replied.

 

‘Only once, on my detention we had to get stuff out for Miss. King, it smell’s REALLY bad too,’

 

                “Okay! Now, copy what I’ve written on the board,” Said Miss. Stevens, “You can talk quietly but don’t get too loud.” Katharine slid the piece of paper inside her black pencil case and leaned over to Reece.

                “Why would he be going in there?” Katharine asked.

                “I wonder too, look!” Reece pointed towards Miss. Stevens, she was looking out the window again, while typing a text on her phone.

                “I reckon she’s curious why he is up there too,” Reece said.

                “She might be looking at something else?”

                “Like what? There’s nothing exciting out there,”

                “True,” She looked out the window as Miss. Stevens stopped.

                “Has everybody got it in their books?” She asked loudly, Reece had realised that him and Katharine had not even started copying the diagram on the board, so they did very quickly and said ‘Yes’.

                The bell rang at last and everybody stood up to leave.

                “HANG ON!” Miss. Stevens yelled, you still all have one minute you owe me from yesterday,” Everybody groaned and went back to their chairs, she started timing, occasionally glancing out he window in which both Reece and Katharine looked whenever she did, “Okay, leave quietly please,” she said very quietly, which the class did not as the loud scraping of chairs and hurry to get their bags was loud enough, Reece glanced out the window and saw the door open, Mr. Lacerna came marching out, shut the door and locked it, then walked out of sight. Miss. Stevens was not in the classroom at the time; no doubt she would have been looking if she were.

                “What do we have next?” Paul asked Reece.

                “Interval, then Maths.”

                “Okay,” and they walked out of M Block, around the corner, through the pathway that was in-between B Block and the staff room, through the gap by C Block, and straight forward to the canteen.

                “Oh, I’m going this way,” Paul said pointing to another stone courtyard where a few cars were parked and was in-between D Block and the office’s entrance.

                “Okay, cya.” And they parted ways. Reece walked through the mob of students to the inside part of the canteen that smelt completely like deep-fried chips and people, to one of the small round table where Rosie was sitting, waiting for him and Freya.

                “Hey, hey. Where’s Freya?” Reece said.

                “Dunno, coming soon, I saw her this morning.”

                ‘How was History with the Lac-dog,”

                “Fun actually,”

                “Why’s that?”

                “’Cause he left at the beginning and came back like, a minute after the bell rang,” And Reece knew exactly why.

                “Yeah, I saw him.”

                “Really? Where?”

                “I was in M4 and he went into that little shed thing that’s up by the tennis courts?” She nodded, “Yeah, he went in and didn’t come back out until the bell rang.”

                “Are you serious? Random!”

                “What’s random?” Said Freya, she was standing behind Reece with a funny smile; she had her domo backpack on, her nose ring, and had her bowl-cut blonde hair straight and combed. She sat down and eased into the conversation. “So, what’s random?”

                “Lac-dog-”

                “Uhg, Ew, he smells like B.O,” Rosie shivered and closed her eyes.

                “Are you buying anything?” Reece asked her.

                “Na, I haven’t got any money left,” and pulled a pretend sad face.

                “I thought you get paid on Thursdays?”

                “Yea, but I left my wallet at home as well.”

                “Guts,” Freya reached for her back and pulled out a Japanese book, she turned it to the back, (which is their front) and started deciphering the symbols and saying them under her breathe.

                “You can read those?” Reece asked amazed.

                “Most of them, like that there is ‘KAPOW!” she said moving both her hands like doing a karate chop.

                “What’s it about? The book that is.” Rosie asked.

                “I don’t know I just got it before.” She grabbed the entire front part of the book and quickly flicked through all the pages, showing all the pages for a split second.

                “Where’d you get it from?” Rosie asked, biting on an apple that she pulled out of her bag.

                “Dunno, mum gave it to me this morning, I’ve been trying to figure out what its about,” by the looks of the pictures it was obviously a comic, and a very detailed and intense one at that.

                The canteen was full of the students and their uniforms; the air smelt less like deep fried food and people now that Reece had been sitting in here for a while. Freya was reading the comic again. Rosie was just looking around. Reece felt his right pocket vibrate three times; he pulled out his white cell phone and read:

 

1 New Message:

Katharine

 

Close       Open

 

                 He read:

 

Hey bro, whado we have nxt

 

He replied:

 

Maths, is it in B6 today?

 

            He clicked send and waited about three minutes before his phone vibrated again and he had received another text from Katharine.

 

Im pretty sure ae. cu thn.

               

                He put his phone back in his pocket and waited for either Rosie or Freya to speak, but knew he was going to be the one too.

                “What do you guys have next?” he asked finally.

                “TAF,” Rosie replied swallowing a mouth full of apple.

                “I dunno,” Freya replied after a few moments after Reece asked, “It’s probably�"” but she was cut off by the same thing that Reece’s heart began to beat rapidly about, there was a loud rumble, a soft roaring sound, as the canteen shook side to side. Reece glanced at Rosie, who was holding the edges of the table as it swayed, Freya had taken her attention off of the comic completely, and every single person in the canteen was hushed and shook. The canteen continued to rock, it was about 30 seconds of shaking at the same magnitude; Reece’s eyes were wide as he grabbed the table where Rosie was doing the same. And finally, it stopped; nobody spoke for a few seconds, until the whispers and shaken voices filled the air.

                “Oh my god, was that an earthquake?” Rosie asked shaking.

                “I don’t know,” Freya replied, she opened her mouth to speak but no words came out, the table had shifted a few inches away from where it was originally, a few of the students had sat down on the ground where they were standing shaking.

                “That was pretty big,” Rosie said again, she pulled out her iPod and went onto the Internet.

                “What are you going on?” Reece asked, not realising how weal his voice was.

                “GeoNet, maybe it was felt through Wellington?” She tapped her iPod screen and scrolled down at certain times, Reece saw the reflection of the white Google background on Rosie’s face change to green that was the website she was looking for.

                “Anything on there?”

                “No, Not yet anyways,”

                “How long does it take for them to update it?” Freya asked shifting to see the screen.

                “Last time there was one that I checked it took them about 20 minutes to do it.”

                “I’ll check again later,” The light changed again to blue and white, which was unmistakably Facebook, “Oh, yea I forgot to tell you guys, I’m moving to Australia to live with Leigh.”

                “WHAT?” Reece and Freya said at the same time, they didn’t mean to sound so angry. “When?”

                “I’m going over first on the 17^th of December,”

                “My birthday?” Reece said.

                “Really? Well, yea, I’m coming back before I move though.”

                “When are you moving?”

                “Some time in February,” Reece couldn’t say anything, but he knew Rosie knew that he wasn’t angry, just didn’t want her to move. But before he could ask her about anymore details one of the lady’s who works at the canteen came out and spoke over the crowd.       

                “Everyone go to class now! It’s okay!” Her arms waving above her head, Reece, Rosie and Freya waited for the mad mob of students to leave a clear pathway through the small door, then pack their bags, and headed for 3^rd period, most likely to continue to speak about the strange earthquake.

                “I’ll see you guy’s at lunch,” Rosie said and turned a left from the canteen, Freya took the second left after saying goodbye to Reece, and he walked alone and quickly to B Block.

                He walked up the two stone steps that went into a hallway with three classroom entrances and an entrance for the stairs that went upstairs. His classroom, (B6) had its door wide open and the class would have just entered, as Reece walked in they all looked up and then back down at the conversation that they were having with their friends. Reece took his usual seat at the chair; two rows back from the front to the far left of the class, next to the heater. Jess was sitting in front of him, looking quite disturbed, easy to guess why…

                “Did you�"” She started.

                “Yup, I felt it.” She shook thinking about the memory.

                “Where were you when it came?” Reece asked.

                “In E Block,” she replied, “Everyone went quiet.”

                “Same with the canteen,”

                “Does anyone know how strong it was?”

                “We went on GeoNet but it wasn’t on there yet,”

                “That’s so slack,” Reece thought about texting Katharine and seeing if she was okay, but at that moment she entered the door, not doing what she normally does (Texting and listening to music) but walked in plainly and took the free seat next to Reece.

                “Oh my god, that was so scary,” she began, “I was on the field, I think it got the worst.”

                “”Got the worst”?” Reece repeated.

                “Yea, we were sitting on the grass and it raised and lifted in all different directions, it was so scary,”

                “Is it like, ripped?” Jess asked. Katharine stood up and walked to the window on the other side of the room which had a clear view of the field, it didn’t look too different, but didn’t look too much the same, the ground was on random angles and there were lumps in the grass and was no longer flat.

                “It was worse when it was shaking, it moved like really thick water,” Jess’s eyes widened, as did Reece’s.

                “Did any of the building’s crack?” Reece said.

                “I think a window in a class smashed in A Block and the gym, but that’s about it,” After a while of waiting in anticipation, their Maths teacher Miss. Turvin came in.

                “Okay, uh, get your maths books out, and we’ll continue on Calendar and time work in Signpost 8,” she must have been quite shaken herself.

                After maybe, 5 minutes Paul walked through the door, not looking so disturbed.

                “Why are you late?” Miss. Turvin said, although everyone was surprised that she had said that, it was quite obvious why some people may be late.

                “A tree fell over onto the hall and we had to go around,” Paul said taking the spare seat behind Reece. Miss. Turvin nodded and let the class continue although everyone continued to talk.

                “Did you guys feel it?” Paul asked.

                “Of course we did!” Jess replied, “The whole school did!” Paul didn’t reply, but continued to get his books out.

                “I really want to go on that earthquake site,” Katharine said, “I want to see how big it was.”

                “And where it was centred,” Reece said, “What if it was centred like, right underneath the college,”

                “Then it won’t be that big if it was under us, it wasn’t that big�"” Jess said being cut off.

                “But big enough to smash windows and knock over trees,” Paul said.

                “Mmm,” Nobody had anything to say to each other and continued to get on with their work, although it took them a while to do much as their brains where confused, although it was only a simple earthquake, it seemed strange that they kept thinking about it.

                Reece was continuing to his work when something moving in the corner of his eye caught his attention, he turned and looked out the window, it had a good view of the bank that led off to the shed, far to left, (that was blocked out of view by tree’s and buildings) when he saw Mr. Lacerna walking up the bank, it was the second time Mr. Lacerna had been walking up to the shed in that day, although Reece didn’t know for sure that Mr. Lacerna was heading towards the shed, he still had no doubt that it was true. Why? He asked himself several times. What was up there that kept him so interested, other than a mangy old shed? Little did it look very exciting; little did it look like there was much to look forward to inside of it.

                Reece tapped Katharine on the arm and gestured his head to the bank, Katharine turned her head just in time to see Mr. Lacerna disappear from view. She turned her head back to Reece and mouth, ‘He’s going up again?’ Miss. Turvin kept observing the class as Reece and Katharine pretended to work, when Katharine took a clear piece of paper from her bag and began to write on it, and then slid it to Reece like she did in science earlier that morning:

 

‘He’s going up again? Man he must be desperate to get there, what’s in there?’

 

‘I don’t know, but I saw Rosie at interval and she said that he left at the beginning of the period and came back after the bell rang.’

 

 ‘That’s around the same time that we saw him in science?’

 

‘Yes, but he didn’t go to the shed straight away, he was there about 15 minutes after period began.’

 

‘It couldn’t have taken him 15 minutes to walk from his class to the shed?’

 

‘Exactly!’

 

‘But, why are we worrying about what he’s doing? It’s nothing to do with us, nor is it very exciting.’

 

‘Yeah, I suppose your right…’

 

                Reece slid her the message, but she did not reply, which was okay because Reece had nothing else to say, she was right in a certain aspect, why was he worrying so much about the shed? Reece obviously did not know, but was for some bizarre reason, intimidated and curious about it, it felt dodgy, but why did it feel dodgy? Before Reece could think any more Miss. Turvin came over to ask him to show her what he had done so far, distracting him completely…

Reviews

[A.E. Reed]

I like it. It's really mysterious and interesting with what's going on. But, (we all knew this was coming) I had just a little problem with the rate at which you introduced your characters (look whose talking). Lol, I think you dealt out to many characters to fast. It's good to have people to interact with but in this case it confused me (the reader). I know you said in a note before that you do rush into things and that's okay. XD

There were a few mistakes for grammar and punctuation I think but that's okay. Spell check can only go for spelling...

Other than that I would love to read some more of it.

-Alexis XD

P.S. Do you have a summary or synopses made for this story? If so, I'd like to see it. XD