Ch 17. High School Ritual: Are You Paying Attention? (SepSceneWriMo)

Four high school students encounter an evil spirit. Thoroughly cliched and hopelessly derivative.

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Vanessa left Chad’s place kicking herself. Why did she waste her time following Chad when she should have stalked the two losers?

She wasn’t worried about the Chad situation. At first she thought that his enjoying his new life was a setback. But then she realized, all that means is that he has more to lose again. So she was going to ignore him for a minute while she figured out what to rip away from that kid with the greasy hair.

The first two sacrifices were so easy—but his dreams were impossible to figure out. There was a cliff he kept jumping off, and a river he kept drowning in. Why couldn’t he just have a smelly rodent?

The next morning, she got to class early and loitered outside the room, pretending to put on makeup. The green-haired freak got there first. She looked worried—good. Vanessa snapped her compact shut, followed her in, and took the seat directly behind her. She banked on their sitting together again when she saw the girl put her bag on the seat next to her.

Sure as shit, the other freak came in and dropped right into the seat that the girl was gesturing to. Perfect.

The bell rang and the teacher shut the door.

“I have an announcement to make. You may or may not notice that Chadworth isn’t here today. Well, Chadworth isn’t here because he is taking a college course across town. Perhaps that should be an inspiration for all of you.”

She sat up straighter. Perfect.

Vanessa had never paid attention to the petty little dramas of people like those two freaks before. Now she had to do the nasty act of watching them.

He edged his seat closer to the girl and they shared the book. Okay, he has no books as usual, she thought. So books aren’t his thing. Cross that off the list.

The teacher was reading and he gestured to the book. The green-haired freak turned around and locked eyes with Vanessa, who waggled her fingers in a friendly little wave. The girl whispered something to the guy who turned as well. Vanessa’s smirk faded. He looked like a zombie.

How dare they turn around and look at her! Don’t they know that she’s up here, and they’re down there—?

Focus, Vanessa, focus! Rat—scholarship—scholarship—rat. What was it gonna take to destroy him? Garlic and a wooden stake?

The teacher asked, “What does the poet mean when he says, “Eyes I dare not meet in dreams, in death’s dream kingdom—”

Look at them, reading the book. She wanted to rip that stupid little monkey keychain off her backpack. Oo—now they’re whispering. Vanessa inched her desk up.

Of course that girl would raise her hand! Look at her green hair and her flabby arm, flapping all over the place! I’d take her to the hairdresser myself, Vanessa thought, if I wasn’t sure I’d die of embarrassment standing next to her—

Oo! Now she’s telling him to talk—he’s raising his hand—he’s gonna say something, here it comes—ew, look at his arm, his’s flabby too! And so pasty! God they better not reproduce. That power the spirit promised better be worth having to look at that—

The bell rang. Vanessa missed everything he said .Back to square one. Fuck.