BLOODLINE Episode 7 by Ironkurtain

BLOODLINE Episode 7 by Ironkurtain

The four of them got down from the car and the youngest waved at the driver as the car rolled away. They immediately split up and joined the other students that are heading towards the school main building and classroom blocks.

Eric made his way towards the building with suzanne walking beside him. He had earlier asked her to help him locate the senior students classroom block; using the “doctor’s medicine” excuse. That was his best option to avoid raising any suspicion among the other two even though they cared less about him. Besides it will be strange for a final year senior student to be walking around the school and asking other students how to locate his classroom.

“I hope you don’t mind walking beside me”, he asked suzanne when he noticed the constant stares and glances he is getting from some of the other students.

“No it’s okay. The whole school heard about the news of your disappearance”, she said. “They are all surprised to see you again.

“How much big of a news was it?”.

“Quite big……it was broadcasted on t.v because dad thought someone might come forward with some information about your whereabout”.

“Okay”, Eric murmured and looked at Alex’s school uniform he is wearing. “I can’t believe i will go through this bullsh!t for a month or even more”, he murmured inaudibly.

“Huh?”, Suzanne looked at him

“Oh it’s nothing”.

“Okay”.

Eric then looked around the school that has the sign that says “ROCK VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL”, and knew that he is in the school for the rich and well to do families in Easthill. The buildings around him looked handsome and pristine with a beautifully made and well trimmed hedges and lawn. The school atmosphere is very relaxing and conducive to learning. Most of the students arrive in expensive cars driven by family chauffeur and walk around with alot of effortless grace.

“There…..”, suzanne pointed at the four storey building on their right. “That is the classroom block for the senior students. The final year students classrooms are on the fourth floor”.

“Okay”, Eric looked at the building and it’s entrance door.

“That one is for the junior students”, Suzanne pointed at another building at their left that look similar to the one at right. “I will see you during lunch break”, Suzanne then chorused and went over to a group junior female students gesturing at her. They all entered the junior student’s building together.

Eric remained where Suzanne left him and stared at the crowd of students in their white and brown uniform with brown jacket, trooping into both buildings. He stole quick glances at the senior students that walk past him; both the males and females.

It felt kind of odd to him, especially being someone who attended and graduated from an only boys school. The girls caught his attention more because most of them were very pretty. The next that walked by seems to be more prettier than the other; like they were walking past him in an ascending order of beauty.

“Hey Alex!”.

Eric saw an over-excited nerdy looking boy approaching him. He seem to have appeared from the crowd of students entering the senior classroom building. He is quite small and his immaculate and well ironed uniform looks a little too big for him.

“Oh my God, how are you doing?”, the boy asked with a nerdy smile and Eric saw his dental braces. He looked 16 or 17 years of age.

Eric said nothing as he stood towering over the boy with small frame body and stared at him. The nerd looking boy’s smile slowly faded away as they kept staring at each other without saying a word.

“Alex, it is me…..chris, your best friend”, the boy finally said when the staring became uncomfortably long.

“Oh yes….. am sorry”, Eric began trying to act like he had being thinking of his name. “I know but i was trying to remember your name. Am taking this medications so somehow i forget things like people’s names”, Eric hoped he was puting up a good performance. “The doctors said it is the side effects”.

“Oh really?, am sorry?”, Chris said pitifully. “Anyway come let’s go in. I will show you all that we have been taught when you weren’t around”, he gestured at Eric and both of them headed towards the entrance of the building with other students.

As they walked in, some of the students looked at Eric and whispered among themselves. Some of the boys looked at him with ridicule while the girls giggled, Though some smiled and nodded at him. Eric kept a straight face as he followed chris who incessantly talked about all that had happened since Alex vanished.

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After wiping the dust off the desk and chair with a piece of rag given to him by chris, Eric lifted the desk lid and placed the notebooks and textbooks he got from Alex’s locker, inside the desk compartment. As usual, he had used his medication story to make chris help him locate the student lockers and which desk in the class that belonged to Alex.

Chris was more than willing to help out and also told him how things worked in the school in case if his “medical condition” make him to forget. Eric got all the info about the school and was also really glad that Alex was a science class student. He too was a science student in high school.

In the class some students saw him and said nothing while a few asked him how he was doing and the reason for him going missing. To which his answer was not being able to remember what happened or anything. Chris also let them know that he was taking some medications that had side effects.

“Are you sure you can cope with school work while taking that medication?”, Chris asked as he sat on his desk chair, holding a pen and a notebook.

“I think i can…..and i also have you to help me out”, Eric replied with a faint smile.

Chris smiled and felt important. He said, “Dont worry…….what are friends for”.

“Wow!…….who do we have here?”, a boy chorused as he walked into the classroom. He was tall and quite big with a cold look in his eyes. He was flanked by three other boys who weren’t as big as he was. One of them was quite short and acted tough from the way he walked.

“Boy…..how are you doing?”, the big boy asked Eric, rubbing his head coarsely. “I heard you came back to school so i wanted to see for myself if it is true”, the big boy continued, still rubbing Eric’s head with a condescending look on his face.

Eric ignored the boy while resisting the urge to grab the hand and snap his wrist. Some of the students around there were tensed while others sniggered.

“Greg……you know he is not feeling well”, Chris began with a stammer. “He is under some kind of medication….please”.

The boy turned his attention to Chris and sneered at him.

“Hey rat-face, have you forgotten what you suppose to say whenever you see me?”, he asked Chris.

“Good morning……”, Chris murmured and said something else inaudibly.

“Good morning….what?”, the boy bent towards chris with his head cocked.

“Good morning big brother”.

“Good boy”, the boy said with a smile and straighten up. Then he looked at Eric. “So Alex my boy, i will see you later because we have alot to discuss so make sure you come to our usual spot”, the boy said and left with his friends and went over to a beautiful girl sitting at the front of the class.

Eric remained silent and stared at them. For the first time he wished that his good friend, Stanley, was there with him. This was the kind of situation he always wished for; for some fools to come act tough infront of him so that he could body slam the individuals and knock spines out of place.

“Good morning big brother”, he said and looked at Chris. “What does that suppose to mean?, he asked.

“It means i don’t want to have my skull caved in till i finish the school certificate examination and get the hell out of here”, Chris answered.

“And graduate as someone who being known to be pissed on by everybody”, Eric added.

“Oh well…… i don’t allow those things to bother me at all”, Chris said.

“Really?, and how long do you think you will live like this before you will look back at your life and regret living like this?”,

Chris was a little bit irritated. He said, “Am sorry to say this but am not the one who is rumoured to have run away from home because Greg had threatened and told to never come to this school”.

“And you believed it?”, Eric asked and suddenly realized that he was being more of Eric than Alex. Years of putting bullies in their position seem to make it difficult for him to play the one being bullied.

“I didn’t say i believed it but look at the size of that guy and look at me”, Chris gestured at his small frame with his hands. “My chances against him always equals to zero, no matter how you calculate it”.

Eric laughed at what Chris said while Chris gave him the “go ahead and laugh at me” look.

“Well you have to know that it is not the biggest guys that are the toughest and baddest people”, Eric then said. “It is those small and quiet ones. The silent and sitting in a corner kind of guys. Those are the ones you really need to be scared of because they are the ones plotting people’s death. They always seem quiet and harmless. But when they explode, they are the loudest”.

Chris smiled at what Eric said despite the fact that he was surprised to hear the person he had know for over five years talk like that

“Dude you sound kind of strange……what happened to you?”, he asked. “Did you like spend two weeks getting lessons on violence?”.

“Maybe”.

“Well violence is not always the answer. There are other ways of sorting things out with Greg and his crew”.

“Like how?”.

“Well…….talk to them,try to reason with them or try being their friend”.

“Did it work out for you……i mean….for us?”.

Chris pursed his lips and shrugged

“Anyway i agree with what you said”, Eric said with a nod. “But you have to know that violence always sends the message across like nothing else. You could talk to them or even try being their friend and still end up being disregarded and disrespected. But the one thing that will make them take you serious and understand how you feel, especially in a situation you just can’t get away from…….is violence”, he continued.

Chris was abit scared at what Eric said to him. But he still wants to know how violence settles situation from his own point of view.

“So…..how will violence do that”, he asked.

“Okay……”, Eric began as he shifted his weight on his seat “…….Let’s just say you got really tired of their bullsh!ts and life in general. Then you kill the big one. You cut his head off and kick it down the hallway. It will instill fear in his friends because what you did is extreme and extraordinary. And the mere mention of your name will give them waking nightmares, why?, the action is new to them and unlike anything they have ever seen…..”.

Chris stared at Eric with his mouth open. He was visibly shaken by those words and sitting next to the person whom he had always seen as his best friend kind of made him feel unsafe.

“…….in the end no one will ever mess with you because they have seen or heard what you did and they don’t want it happening to them”, Eric continued.

The girl whom Greg had being talking to suddenly got up from her desk and angrily walked out of the classroom. Eric stared at her as she left. She was muttering under her breath as she did so. Chris avoided doing so because he had glanced at Greg and saw that he doesn’t look happy at all.

“Relationship speed bumps huh?”, Eric murmured at Chris and jerked his head at the girl’s direction.

“Dude…….seriously what is wrong with you?!”, Chris suddenly asked in annoyance and carefully glanced at Greg to see if he had noticed Eric’s gesture.

“Wow……what is the matter”, Eric was surprised by the outburst.

“I mean……you are really acting strange or is it also one of the side effects of your medicine?. Before you always avoid anything that have to do with Greg like a plague. Now you are talking about cutting his head off and other strange stuff”, Chris spoke in a low and nervous tone of voice, glancing around to be sure that none of the students sitting around them heard what he said.

“And you are staring at his girl when you know that he literally manhandled one boy for doing so……..oh i forgot, you weren’t there because it was Greg who scared you away from this school……so what if he catches you looking a her?, am sure his wrath will be shared between you and me. That is what i don’t want”, he continued.

Then Chris picked up a textbook and told Eric that he wants to go to the library with a rather uninviting voice.

********************************************

Eric watch Chris walk out of the classroom after Greg and his friends left. He thought about what chris had said to him for a while and shrugged. Sometimes he can’t help with the way he talks, Eric thought to himself and brought out a text book. Glancing at the digital clock illuminating in his cell phone, he wondered why the teachers are not teaching.

He rest his elbows on the desk after opening the book and monitored the students and the activities going on in the classroom. It’s friday and all them seems to be in a good mood because of tomorrow; just like during his high school years. And they are probably talking about how they will spend their weekend or the places they will go, alone or with their partner.

Then Eric asked the plumpy female student standing near him why there are no teachers giving lecture. She gave him a funny look and told him that all the teachers were having a staff meeting. It is friday and the teachers always have meeting on fridays. He thanked her and continue monitoring the classroom.

“Hi Alex”.

Eric look to his side and saw the girl Greg had earlier been talking to.

“Hi……….”, he responded curiously with a slightly furrowed eyebrow as he stared at her.

She is strikingly beautiful. Her very light skin and curly golden brown hair that was neatly packed behind her head showed that she is biracial. European and African. And spoke with a British accent. Her uniform is a little bit loose fit but it still showed a body that will make boys fantasize. Eric could see the reason Greg always goes “wild rhino” on any boy that looks at her for too long. She is one of those rare breed of beauty. Those created when God was in the very best mood.

The girl put out her hand and Eric unwillingly shook it and wondered if she really know the kind of conflagration that will happen if Greg happens to step inside the classroom.

“Can i sit?”, she asked and sat down on chris desk before Eric could give an answer. “So how are u doing?”, she asked.

“Oh…….am…….well, okay and still recovering”, her hazel coloured eyes staring at him seem to make it difficult to find words. “I am taking this medication that make me forget things, including names……”. His is now getting real tired of using that line. “……so u wouldn’t mind if i ask what’s your name?”. He asked.

“Lisa”, she answered. “You wouldn’t know my name because we didn’t get to know each other”.

“Okay”.

“I was in this school for like two weeks before you stop attending. Then i heard the rumours that you were missing”.

“Yep……and that it was your boyfriend that scared me away”.

“Greg is not my boyfriend”, Lisa corrected. “I don’t know why everybody is saying that”.

“Really?……..well i was told not to even look at you because there is a growing list of boys getting pulverized for doing so”, Eric said. “So if you are not his girlfriend like you said, why the……..the reign of terror?”, he asked.

“Scare tactics i guess”, Lisa replied, laughing at what he said. “Since he cannot be my boyfriend, he is preventing any other boy in this school from doing so”. Lisa smiled. “As if i came to this school to look for boys”.

Then Lisa leaned abit closer to Eric and looked at the book he was reading.

“Chemistry…….”, she began and look at Eric. “My least least favourite subject”.

“Really?…..why is that?”, he asked.

“Am really having a hard time learning all the chemical equations and formula”, Lisa shook her head. “The periodic tables of the elements and all that”.

“Well you have to put alot of interest in it”, Eric said. “And alot of time”.

“Am doing so but still perform bad at it”.

“Maybe you need a better teacher then”.

“Maybe….”, Lisa looked at the book and then back to Eric. “Will you teach me?”, she asked.

“Teach you?……”, Eric asked thoughtfully. He was beginning to notice the uncomfortable stares from the the prying eyes of some students. Some with envy and some with a condescending sneer. “……ok i will teach you if you insist”, he said to her.

Lisa smiled as she got a little more closer to Eric as he took out a pen and a notebook.

BLOODLINE Episode 7
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