Re: Jacien J. Mandrake: Assignment: Infinity
Part 2. Refraction:
Planet Earth: Alhambra High School, Alhambra, California September 2nd 1999 A.D. Old Gregorian Earth Calendar. 7:45AM Pacific Standard Time.
The boy pedaled his vintage huffy beach cruiser for all he was worth. He’d just heard the bell indicating that all students needed to be in their classrooms within the next 5 minutes. The campus had few entrances due to the “closed campus” policy instituted by the school board at the beginning of his freshman year. Of course he knew one or two ways around this but nowhere that he could lock up his bike except the Court of The Moors situated between the more venerable A and B buildings.
Unfortunately his class was on the 3rd floor of the woefully distant C building at the very north end of the campus. Looping the steel wire chain through both wheels he secured his bike to the metal tire rack and dashed off to 1st period.
If I’m late again they’ll call my parents, he thought. It’ll just cause another argument between them and this time it’ll be my fault.
Normally he did his best to disassociate from the constant bickering and barely contained hostility his parents seemed to be increasingly directing at one another. If they were bound and determined to behave like children far be it from him to try and make them see that nor would he ever normally consider himself the cause. Alright so yes, he was the first born and his Birthday wasn’t exactly 9 months from his parent’s anniversary and he was no preemie and he bad at math he may be, he certainly wasn't stupid. He liked to think of himself as mature for his age but grownups would never take him seriously, not until he was one of them.
The heavy text books in his backpack bounced uncomfortably against his lower back as he scurried up the ramp to the brand new, state-of-the-art B building that had also been completed his freshman year. It’s drab cream colored halls and wide, wrap-around balconies practically pulsating with students piling into their classrooms.
Trying his best to navigate through the human maelstrom quickly he barely registered the sound of one of his backpack straps ripping free of its shoddy stitching at the top. Still moving he shucked what he hoped was the offending strap to begin to pull the backpack around his waist to examine the damage when he ran head-long into something very immovable and fell back rather unceremoniously onto his rear end.
The impact must have really knocked the wind out of him more than he realized because an explosion of rainbow colored light bloomed across his vision for the briefest of moments. Must have hit a jock, they only move for someone bigger than them. He thought to himself as he looked up. He was understandably startled to be staring into the stern, bespectacled countenance of his Humanities teacher, Ms. Brock. Ms. Brock was by all accounts a diminutive woman and her small frame and serpent-headed walking stick denoted her obvious physical frailties. So why does it feel like I just ran into Michael Clark Duncan??? he asked himself.
“Ss ssorry Ms. Brock, I was in a hurry and my backpack was breaking and I didn’t loo-“ “Mr. Mandrake,” she said in a voice that both growling and nasally shrill. “I do hope you don’t expect to arrive to your 4th period as tardy as you are obviously are to your first?” At that moment the final bell rang and Jason’s spirits sank. Maybe he could delete the message from the answering machine when he got home before his parents could hear it. “Of course not Ms. Brock, sorry Ms. Brock,” he stammered as he hastily moved past her to what would most likely be another verbal dressing down by Mr. Chow, his 1st period science teacher, of course it would embarrassingly be conducted in front of the entire class. “Why do you always have to be a screw-up all the time, Jason?” he muttered to himself. He couldn’t seem to shake those damn rainbow spots from his vision.
Planet Earth: Alhambra High School, Alhambra, California September 2nd 1999 A.D. Old Gregorian Earth Calendar. 7:45AM Pacific Standard Time.
The boy pedaled his vintage huffy beach cruiser for all he was worth. He’d just heard the bell indicating that all students needed to be in their classrooms within the next 5 minutes. The campus had few entrances due to the “closed campus” policy instituted by the school board at the beginning of his freshman year. Of course he knew one or two ways around this but nowhere that he could lock up his bike except the Court of The Moors situated between the more venerable A and B buildings.
Unfortunately his class was on the 3rd floor of the woefully distant C building at the very north end of the campus. Looping the steel wire chain through both wheels he secured his bike to the metal tire rack and dashed off to 1st period.
If I’m late again they’ll call my parents, he thought. It’ll just cause another argument between them and this time it’ll be my fault.
Normally he did his best to disassociate from the constant bickering and barely contained hostility his parents seemed to be increasingly directing at one another. If they were bound and determined to behave like children far be it from him to try and make them see that nor would he ever normally consider himself the cause. Alright so yes, he was the first born and his Birthday wasn’t exactly 9 months from his parent’s anniversary and he was no preemie and he bad at math he may be, he certainly wasn't stupid. He liked to think of himself as mature for his age but grownups would never take him seriously, not until he was one of them.
The heavy text books in his backpack bounced uncomfortably against his lower back as he scurried up the ramp to the brand new, state-of-the-art B building that had also been completed his freshman year. It’s drab cream colored halls and wide, wrap-around balconies practically pulsating with students piling into their classrooms.
Trying his best to navigate through the human maelstrom quickly he barely registered the sound of one of his backpack straps ripping free of its shoddy stitching at the top. Still moving he shucked what he hoped was the offending strap to begin to pull the backpack around his waist to examine the damage when he ran head-long into something very immovable and fell back rather unceremoniously onto his rear end.
The impact must have really knocked the wind out of him more than he realized because an explosion of rainbow colored light bloomed across his vision for the briefest of moments. Must have hit a jock, they only move for someone bigger than them. He thought to himself as he looked up. He was understandably startled to be staring into the stern, bespectacled countenance of his Humanities teacher, Ms. Brock. Ms. Brock was by all accounts a diminutive woman and her small frame and serpent-headed walking stick denoted her obvious physical frailties. So why does it feel like I just ran into Michael Clark Duncan??? he asked himself.
“Ss ssorry Ms. Brock, I was in a hurry and my backpack was breaking and I didn’t loo-“ “Mr. Mandrake,” she said in a voice that both growling and nasally shrill. “I do hope you don’t expect to arrive to your 4th period as tardy as you are obviously are to your first?” At that moment the final bell rang and Jason’s spirits sank. Maybe he could delete the message from the answering machine when he got home before his parents could hear it. “Of course not Ms. Brock, sorry Ms. Brock,” he stammered as he hastily moved past her to what would most likely be another verbal dressing down by Mr. Chow, his 1st period science teacher, of course it would embarrassingly be conducted in front of the entire class. “Why do you always have to be a screw-up all the time, Jason?” he muttered to himself. He couldn’t seem to shake those damn rainbow spots from his vision.
