3

Ch. 3

 I'm almost positive hell has frozen over and the devil was in their huddling and trying to warm his pointed tail and goat horns. I'm walking inside the bookstore and the temperature isn't much different. The thermometer in my house read that it was only eighteen degrees outside. I had jeans over sweatpants, three layers of tank-tops, two sweaters, a thin and thick coat, ear muffs, gloves and even wool underwear. Let's face it, I just don't have the kind if body fat that would help me generate heat.

 Hey, maybe I'll become so frozen that my body will be preserved and fossilized and shown in museums in the future. Or they'll find a way to bring me back to life from my frozen body. Or I could become a zombie. Wonder what that's like.

 I didn't see Sheila but I saw the jacket that I had given her yesterday folded neatly on the cashier's desk where I sat most of the day. It smelled of cigarette smoke and beer, but I still smiled. She really wasn't that bad of a person to work for.

 "You're five minutes late!" I hear her screech from her office. "Do that or leave the shop without permission again and you're fired!"

 I take that back. She's a slave driving b***h.

 I made an annoyed sound and sat down on the creaky stool, the seat cold. The book that I was reading yesterday was still there and I picked it back up from where I left off.

 After the part where the character has to live in the real world, he's learning basic things like cooking and washing clothes. And then he meets his one true love!

 And so it continues. Suddenly my mind wanders off, wondering if this would be how I will spend the rest of my life. The same, monotonous, black and white existence until I die. Then I realized it was pointless to wonder. My life would never change because I'm Gray. And Grays don't ever change. They might change to different shades, but they could never become a different color and becoming a Golden would be out if the question.

 I gave up on my book along with the expectancy that people would come into the run down book shop. I spent the rest of the day doodling in my notebook, squishing people's heads by pinching my fingers together while closing one eye, and listening to Sheila snore in her office. 

 When it was time to go home, I poked my head into her office and gagged at the smell. I don't know how she managed it, but it was even worse than yesterday. And I mean "worse" as in, can't walk through the room without knocking a pile of trash and glass bottles over. I sighed in exasperation, dragged Sheila's unconscious, boney a*s out of the way and started hauling all sorts of s**t into trash bags. 

 All the while, I had no idea that I was being watched.

 Later that day, I went to the store to buy something that was edible to put in my small fridge. There weren't a lot of people in the small grocery store and I was looking to buy some bread when I felt someone staring at me from behind. Sometimes my paranoia was handy at times and others times it was annoying.

 For a while, I walked around the place and I physically felt the person following me. Sneakily, I darted through the aisles and ended up in the candy isle marching towards the stalker. None other than the annoying Golden girl from yesterday.

 Lindsey wore a nice green coat with dark skinny jeans and boots. A small pocket notebook and pencil in hand and she was looking around frantically for me. Annoyed, I snuck up behind her, lifted my foot, and kicked her in the back, nearly sending her the white tiled floor.

 She winced as she hit the floor and glared up at me. "What the hell was that for?"

 In answer, I just rolled my eyes and walked past her. They were having a two for one sale on InstaRice. Rice to me is like drugs to a druggie. Irresistible. Lindsey just sighed at my lack of response and just came up behind me to look at my shoulder. I just shoved my basket full of food into her arms and started loading up on boxes of InstaRice. 

 I might as well make use of her since she's here. She gave me a look but didn't say anything. I think that since I don't talk, she must think that she shouldn't talk either. Fine bye me. One less gnat buzzing around my ear. 

 Speaking of gnats, I needed to clean out all the moldy stuff in the fridge at home. They were starting to collect bugs...

 My mind was completely in a different world so I didn't hear Lindsey talking until she was waving a hand in front of my face. 

 "Hello? Earth to Hannah. Did you even hear what I just said?"

 I blinked at her and she sighed in exasperation. 

 "I was SAYING that Peter's psychology teacher wants you to come to our school to sign some papers for the project. Can you come tomorrow?" She asked, crossing her arms across her chest. 

 I shrugged.

 She narrowed her eyes. "If you don't come, we won't pay you."

 My eyes nearly crossed at the sheer annoyance that I was feeling. F*****g Goldens. Maybe this whole thing would be too much effort. Interacting with Goldens on a daily basis might have me banging my head against a wall trying to kill myself. If I did take on the project, they would just keep on threatening that they wouldn't pay me if I didn't comply with them. A f*****g lab rat under their microscopic gaze. 

 "It was nice of you to pick up your boss's room." Said a voice over my shoulder. I nearly dropped my boxes of rice I was holding in my arms. 

 Peter was standing behind me with his stoic face and all of his Golden glory. 

 I paled as his words sank into me. He was watching me? And I didn't know it. I nearly started hyperventilating. What of they saw all of my secrets and I wasn't aware of it? I couldn't do this. I swear I'm already starting to get gray hairs from all the stress that has happened in only two days. 

 He held out two fifty dollar bills to me and I just stared at it in shock and then back to him. 

 "This is just half of it. I'll pay you the rest once we're done with the project." He explained. 

 Well f**k a duck. I'm screwed.

 Don't you dare take the money, Hannah, I told myself. You can't do this experiment.

 But what else will I do to pass the time?

 Uh-oh. Answering my inner voices is not a good sign. Yet another reason why I shouldn't do this. 

 Before I knew it, my fingers had already touched the green paper and I sighed in defeat. Whatever happens, happens. I'll admit that I'm not the nicest person but I wouldn't do something half way or just run away with the money. 

 I turned back to Lindsey and took my notebook out to ask what time I should be at the school. Her answering grin was the smile that the Grinch always got every Christmas. 

 I needed to start looking for a sturdy wall to begin bashing my head against. 

 But before that, I really did need to clean out my fridge at home.

 I stood outside of Lincoln High school in the freezing winter air. My legs were shaking but they weren't from the cold. It wasnt as if the building was intimidating, but my feet were like anchors that wouldn't let me move one step.

 It was already past the time that school was over but some students still lingered. I never understood why they would want to stay at school longer. Of course, a small nerdy girl that was supposes to be in middle school didn't really have any reason to stay. 

 Well, they were staring at me and they had a good reason to. I've been standing in front of the door for ten minutes, not moving. I just stared at the door as if it were the entrance to hell. It might as well be since this would be the first step to my grave. 

 I steeled my nerves and shut my eyes tightly. I took a deep breath. With my notebook and pen in one hand, I opened the door and stepped inside the school. I cracked open one eye and let out the breath I was holding. 

 Huh. That was kind of anticlimactic. I don't know what I was expecting. Demon teachers with snakes as rulers? Poison apples with worms dripping all over it? Zombie janitors?

 No, it was just a regular school. 

 There was a receptionist desk over to my right and I headed that way. Well, from a distance, I couldn't tell, but up close, the desk was huge. It was either built to intimidate visitors or meant for giants. I'd go with the latter and might I say, it was doing a fine job of scaring me.

 Tentatively, I got on my tip toes to slide my notebook across the desk for the lady to see. *Do you know where room 3075 is?*

 The receptionist just looked at me and then frowned, making her wrinkly face look like wax under a burning flame. "Go up those stairs, turn right, up the next flight of stairs, then turn right again at the end of the hallway. The room is in the middle next to a shelf with all the trophies on it. Here's a Visitor's sticker."

 She slapped the sticker onto my hand and I nodded my thanks. Well those were simple directions. And they were actually. I found the room on my first try. 

 The first thing I saw was a skeleton hanging on a rack. Why it was in a psychology room, I'll probably never know. Then I saw all the posters and models of the human brain and some quotes from Gandhi and Confucius and other people. 

 I got distracted by a brain model that was made up entirely of... was that dog hair? Gross. Maybe it was horse hair. It was too thick to be human hair. Alpaca?

 Someone cleared their throat and looked over to see Peter leaning against one of the desks. I waved awkwardly and he did the same. There was an awkward silence. 

 "The teacher sent to go to a teacher's meeting. He'll be here soon." He said, filling the silence. I nodded and we were back to where we started. 

 This was a s****y idea. I shouldn't have come. I think I'm having one of those Disney's Tangled moment where Rapunzel's having conflicted emotions when she leaves her tower. Except, mine is a more depressing situation. I would be happy if I was locked away in a tower. Then I wouldn't have to see any people. 

 The school clock just kept on clicking in the silence. I never remembered school clocks being this annoying before. 

 Like a ghostly apparition, I saw myself sitting in one of those desks, an ugly goose among all the other birds. Being a sophomore at age fourteen never got me any friends. While others were whispering behind the teacher's back and passing notes to each other, I had no choice but to bury myself in my notes.

 Always being left to work alone I'm group projects and doing things by myself. Even back then, I was still gray. But the future I saw myself having contained my life having at least a little color. Even if it wasn't a Golden existence, it wasn't Gray. 

 I wanted to write, writing anything, everything. As long as I had paper and a pencil, some books, and InstaRice, I'd be happy. But that future was noting but a bitter dream now. People got in the way, s**t happened, and my future became unreachable. 

 Man, I'm such a depressing person. This is what school does to me. Or anyone in general. It just sucks the life right out of people. 

 I hadn't realized I was staring at the desk for so long until I heard Peter calling my name, asking if I was alright.

 Stupid question. Of course I wasn't alright. I was having a nostalgic memory that made me want to crawl into a hole. Preferably with a bathroom so I could throw up in there too. 

 For no real reason I grabbed my notebook and slammed it against my face. Peter was looking at me as if I had grown two heads. If I had two heads, would it split my headache in half or would it just double it?

 The classroom door opened and a man walked in carrying a stack of papers. He had walked in backwards since both his hands were full and when he turned around, I made a squeaking noise. I can't remember the last time that I was so shocked that I actually made a noise like that. 

 I slammed my notebook against my face again. Not to wake me up, but to hide myself. Because: oh crap... crap, crap, crapcrapcrap. I'm dead. No, it would be mercy if I was dead. 

 There was no f*****g way it could be him.

 Kale White.