Jerrard Colton's Story

A slight yawn escaped from Jerrard as he walked into the classroom, a hand tucked into a pocket of his faded blue jeans while the other scratch at the back of his head. Another new start, another first day of school, it all seemed rather...mocking. He stood to the side of the doorway, looking around the classroom with a plain face. He wondered what it was like to be as carefree as them.

Well, let the game begin. Jerrard sighed, walking further into the classroom.

As he stepped across the front of the room he eyed Amy Rogers, already at her seat reading some magazine. He could probably guess at the content, she tended to have a limited number of interest. Seeing as how last year had gone, he though it not a bad idea to sit with her again. Crossing the floor he passed right by Annie Barnes and Rhapsody, glancing at both of them with a slight nod hello as he moved toward his seat.

Aisha and Carissa's conversation did not go unnoticed, and Jerrard made a mental note to make sure he logged what he'd overheard.

He fell into the chair with another tired yawn before putting an elbow on the table to lean on his cheek.

"So," he said aloud as he looked at his neighbor. "How was your time off Amy?"

Amy looked up from her magazine -to give Jerrard a cursory glance. "Good enough, I suppose." she replied, "My aunt bought me a new bike, so that was pretty sweet." She paused, examining him for a moment. "You? And... you alright? You look shattered as hell."

"Shattered?" Jerrard repeated in detached monotone, shaking his head afterward. "Not really. I'm just fine. Just wondering how this year is gonna go."

With a quiet sigh he glanced up at the clock, wondering when classes were going to finally start.

"I wonder if we're gonna have to do all that first day stuff." He mused aloud. "You know, tell the class what you did over break and that kinda gibberish."

"Ms Cortez doesn't tend to go for that bullshit. As homeroom teachers go, she's pretty alright. She's laid back until you get on her bad side." Amy replied, clearly willing to take Jerrard's word that he was fine at face value. "I imagine there'll be a little bit of bullshit in most classes, though. Orientation stuff for new students, evaluation stuff. There'll be sports tryouts... eh, a lot of it shoots over my head anyway. At least it's easy."

(oops, sorry Architect, tagged Jerrard and Amy by mistake)

"Oh my god, so, I was looking up online some wiccan ways I could protect my house, and I found a ritual that involved ladybugs. So I bought some ladybugs online, and I thought they'd send me like, a jar with a dozen or so in, right? No, they sent like, this bag with hundreds of them in. And I opened it up to try and get a few out, and oh god they went everywhere." Lily shuddered, "It was horrible, there were ladybugs all over my bedroom, the bathroom, everywhere!"

The redhead shook her head, "My mum had to call an exterminator, and I mean, I totally hate taking lives but holy shit, there were so many. We had to stay with a relative for three whole days because the house was totally infested. Ick. Apart from that it was all rather boring, I mean, I helped Amy with some research a few times - that was fun, she was doing a project all about vampires and werewolves and demons! Particularly demons. I never realised she was interested in that sort of thing, like, I love all that mythology and fairy tale stuff, but I never thought she was the sort for it!"

She grinned, "Don't worry, I didn't say anything I shouldn't." she added quietly, giggling.

"Yeah it is pretty easy, it just gets a bit...tiring, listening to the same things over and over again. I mean it's not like anyone's changed anything about themselves over the summer....well excluding Drake over there, but I'm sure that's just some image change attempt or some such."

Jerrard yawned quietly, covering his mouth with a fist before resting his head on his forearms atop the desk.

"Give me a nudge when things get lively will you? I didn't get a chance to sleep too much last night."

Nathan gave Kayin a look of confusion as the boy continued to shuffle closer, shifting uncomfortably in his seat. "Don't know why you've suddenly decided to start talking to me, but whatever." he muttered, folding his arms and shrinking down into his seat. "And don't care about all the meaningless goings on of everyone else. It's all pointless anyway. Looks and drama and sad excuses for relationships."

Clearly, Nathan was a veritable ray of sunshine.

Just a few moments later, the rest of the class started to file in, surrounding - of course - Cynthia Ward. The blonde-haired girl walked with the confidence of someone who knew they were important, knew that people hung on their every word, and knew that they were untouchable.

Around her, the trio of 'drones' as people called them - Katy, Lana and Marissa - walked like a human shield, separating Cynthia from the masses. As well as them, Andy Lawson and Dave Spinelli walked with their respective girlfriends, though Andy seemed more to be trailing after Cynthia than alongside her. Katy was latched onto Dave's arm like a limpet. Finally, Mei - the one girl of the group who seemed to actually have a mind of her own - picked up the rear, laughing about something with Lana.

The group seated themselves in the center of the room, at the tables that had been left unoccupied for them. Cynthia's eyes scanned the room briefly before she sat, finding Wade's. She met his slippery gaze with her lips pursed with distaste, and nodded her head to him. That was all, and then she sat.

The room continued on in a hubbub of post-summer catching up, before the door swung open once more. The noise quieted down, as the class was expecting their teacher, and then quietened even further then they noticed who it was.

Quietly and without so much as meeting anyone's eyes, Jamie Winters crossed to the empty table at the back of the room and took a seat. She was pale and fragile-looking, but otherwise unchanged from the end of the last year. Of course, everyone had heard the rumours that she had committed suicide over the break. There had been police questioning and everything! And yet, here she was, walking into homeroom as though nothing was wrong.

Lily broke off from her conversation with Alacyn to make her way over - she and Jamie were close friends - and sat beside her. The two began to speak in hushed voices.

It didn't take long for the rest of the room to crescendo again, as people excitedly discussed what had happened.

Amy nudged Jerrard. "Does the walking supposedly-dead count as interesting?" she remarked with a smirk, nodding her head towards Jamie.

At the front of the room, Annie stared after Jamie. "Some people," she muttered finally, rounding back to face the front and Rhapsody. "I bet she started that rumour about suicide just for attention."

If dead returning from their graves was anything new around here it might be.

He almost said it without thinking, but manage to stifle his sarcasm and instead give an unenthusiastic, "Meh." in response. He peeked up over his arms, scanning the faces of the other students with one eye. Everyone seemed pretty shocked, he didn't blame them, under different circumstances he'd probably be pretty stunned, No one seemed to have a conspicuous reaction though, and he lowered his head into his arms once more.

Closing his eyes he filtered his mind. He often pretended to sleep in class in order to listen to the whispers of others.

And with the walking dead, there were bound to be whispers.

Whilst the class continued to murmur about Jamie, the door swung open once more. The arrival of Ms. Cortez didn't immediately hush the students while she crossed over to her desk and placed down several folders. She took a moment to survey the classroom, eyes lingering for a few moments on Jamie - likely for the same reasons as everyone else - before she brought her hands together with a resounding clap!

The hubbub of chatter ceased after a few short moments, and she smiled. "Welcome back, everybody. I hope you all had good summers, got all your excess energy out of your systems, and are ready for a new year of learning!" she declared, each beat of her sentences accompanied by her characteristic gesticulating. "Yes? No? Well, either way, you're stuck here now - you might as well be making the most of it!"

She picked up one of the sheets of paper off her desk. "I just have a few announcements to make, then I'll let you all get back to your socialising - I'm sure you all have a lot to talk about. Ahem... firstly! Sports team tryouts will be taking place over the course of this week. Be sure to talk to the coach about your sport if you want to try out for a team, and remember, just because you were on the team last year doesn't mean you will be this time. Let's see... ah, yes. There will be a whole-school assembly in the main hall on Friday, where the principal will talk about some matters that arose last year and over the summer. Everyone is expected to attend - no excuses without a doctor's note! Finally, you should all have sorted out your timetables online by the deadline last week, but if anybody didn't, you need to see me in my office now."

The hispanic teacher paused, "And I'd like to see Annie, Adrian, Amy and Jamie in my office as well. Annie, you first - come along."

After a moment of surprise, Annie nodded and rose to her feet. She shot Rhapsody and Cody a bemused and slightly irritated glance, then shrugged, before following Ms. Cortez back out of the classroom."

"Well!" Jerrard said somewhat loudly as he raised his head, turning to Amy with an unenthusiastic grin. "Time to get started right? I better get going to class early, always takes me a while to get to classes. See ya later Amy!"

Immediately the young man rose out of his seat, swinging his backpack over his shoulder as he quickly walked towards the door.

Passing by her desk, Jerrard glanced once again to Rhapsody. He neglected to acknowledge Kayin directly though, and turned his head away before he looked too long. Without much more of a delay, he disappeared out the door.

Following Ms. Cortez and Annie from afar.