13

I woke up at seven AM to get ready for school. I was absolutely dreading today, and the maximum teasing from my fellow school peers I imagined. On top of that, I was anxiously waiting for one PM to strike, because of the note I found on my favourite teddy bear.

I got dressed, packed my bag ,and made my way downstairs to sit at the table for breakfast. Dad made me a full English; eggs, bacon, sausages, beans, mushrooms, and toast. I was living the dream right at this moment.

“How am I supposed to eat all this before school?!” I squealed with excitement before diving into the sausages. “I’ve seen you demolish a burger, fries, and a whole pizza within five minutes. I’m sure you can manage,” Dad said, and chuckled lightly.

After about 20 minutes of us both talking and eating our delicious meals, I looked at the kitchen clock.

It was stopped at one PM.

“Dad… why is that clock stopped at one PM?” I asked.

Dad turned to the clock with a puzzled look on his face.

“Oh, I hadn’t noticed. Must’ve stopped working yesterday, and neither of us saw. I’ll have a look at it when we get home later. We need to get going, so you won’t be late for school.”

His face had gone a little white, and he was hurrying to get out of the house, but I didn’t question anything. We scrambled into the car, bag on my lap, and we were silent throughout the journey. It was a 15-minute drive to school.

We briefly stopped in the car park for me to get out, and Dad leaned over in his seat to give me a kiss goodbye on the cheek. “Try not to let anyone get to you today just because it’s your 13th birthday. Hope you have a good day, I love you,” He said.

“Thanks dad, I love you too,” I replied and closed the door.

I didn’t turn around, but I could feel him watching me through the car window before driving off.

Hour 1: 9 AM–10 AM.

First class of the day—History. We were studying the Victorian era, and it was super interesting to me so I couldn’t wait to get started. I sat down at my desk in the back corner next to the window, and took out my books.

“Welcome, class.” My teacher Mr. Featherstone strode in, and slammed his belongings on his desk. “Hope you’re ready to do some learning today. Now I know you’re all desperately waiting to continue with the Victorian era, but we are putting that on hold for today.”

There were murmurs around the room.

“I’ve been asked today to teach you about cults throughout history; don’t ask me why.” Mr. Featherstone rolled his eyes and sighed, “Oh, and before I forget, it’s Alana’s birthday today. Class, sing happy birthday to her!”

I slowly slid down my chair whilst everyone turned around to look at me. “Who would want to sing happy birthday to Unlucky Alana?” Roscoe called out from the front. I disliked Roscoe the most; he teased me more than anyone.

“Play nice, Roscoe,” Mr. Featherstone said sternly, and softly started to sing. My peers groaned and monotonously joined in as I sheepishly stared at my desk, so I didn’t make any eye contact. “… happy birthday dear Alana, happy birthday to you!” It felt never-ending.

“Alright, back to learning now. Look at the board, please.”

The class turned to watch Mr. Featherstone as he started writing notes about cults for us to jot down in our own notebooks. We learned how sadistic, and scary some of them could be, and how they would die for something they strongly believed in.

Hour 2: 10 AM–11 AM.

This class was English. Nothing of note here.

Hour 3: 11 AM–12 PM.

P.E. My most dreaded lesson. It was freezing outside; my fingers had turned blue. We usually had to be in pairs or groups, and nobody ever picked me. I got forced to be with my partners, and we ended up failing all the time, because they refused to work with me. A lot of the time it was my own fault, being clumsy and all. I’d hit balls too hard so that they flew over fences and never got returned, or when running I would constantly trip up and injure myself, and would have to sit out. The school nurse got sick of seeing my face all the time.

“Alana, you’re partners with Roscoe today,” Ms. Harrison announced whilst looking at all of us huddled together.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, then turned around to see Roscoe smirking behind me.

“Oh, this’ll be fun,” I heard him mutter.

He confidently walked over to me and gave me a slight shove.

“How’s your birthday going, Unlucky Alana? What’s your birthday wish? To have one friend that isn’t imaginary?” Roscoe cackled, and pushed me again, harder this time.

I stood my ground, but felt tears welling up in my eyes.

“Roscoe, that’s enough!” Ms. Harrison yelled, but he ignored her.

“You’re a freak and nobody likes you,” Roscoe shoved me again, and I stumbled backwards but managed to catch myself.

“Roscoe, stop, please…” I said softly, the tears building up even more.

I also felt some anger starting to burn up inside me.

“What’s that? Speak up, freak!” Roscoe shoved me so hard this time that I fell into a pile of slush on the ground.

“ROSCOE!” Ms. Harrison shouted and started to march over.

“Your mother probably wanted to die, because she couldn’t stand having you as her child!” Roscoe cackled again, and raised an arm to punch me.

What he said made the tears stop, but the rage came out uncontrollably.

“THAT’S IT!” I screamed and grabbed his wrist, then twisted it, and snapped it backwards with a sickening crack.

Roscoe cried out in pain and fell backwards, clutching his arm.

“ALANA! WHAT DID YOU DO?!” Ms. Harrison finally reached us, and knelt down next to him.

“I-I’m sorry… I-I don’t know how I did that…” I stammered and felt my heart racing.

“Alana, we do not tolerate violence in this school. This is a case for suspension. Go to the headmaster’s office while I take Roscoe to the nurse.”

I started panicking. I couldn’t deal with being suspended. Especially on my birthday. This was the worst day ever, and it was only 11:15 AM. I looked up at everyone staring at me in shock and disgust. I turned around, and made my way to Headmaster Davidson’s office.

I knocked on the door.

“Come in,” I heard from a low voice, and I slowly opened the door.

“Alana Summers, right? Have a seat.” Headmaster Davidson looked at me with a cold expression on his face, “I have just been notified that you broke a classmate’s arm, correct? Tell me what happened.”

I explained what happened. When I finished speaking, I noticed I was shaking, and he noticed too. Mr. Davidson was leaning back in his chair, head cocked to one side, and fingers pressed firmly together. There was a long silence. Long enough for me to notice how drafty it was in the room, but no window was open.

He took a deep breath, “I won’t suspend you for today.”

My eyes widened, “You… you won’t? I broke Roscoe’s arm!”

“I know. It was an accident. I’m amazed you managed to do it so swiftly for a young girl. We will sentence you with a different punishment, and deal with Roscoe accordingly. Dismissed,” Mr. Davidson swiveled in his chair to face the window.

For a good few seconds I sat, shocked, with an empty feeling. He’s actually letting me go? No real explanation for his reasoning? I stood up, and walked out the office.

Hour 4: 12 PM–1 PM.

It was lunchtime. I sat in the cafeteria, again in the back of the room. On my own. Everybody was staring at me and whispering. Honestly, it didn’t feel any different to usual. I didn’t really feel like eating, so I was just poking at my sandwich with a fork. I looked out the window behind me. On the other side of the fence outside I saw a figure. I could barely make out any features even though it was broad daylight. They looked just like the man I saw outside my window in the middle of the night. I stared at them. They waved. I waved back.

“Alana…” I heard the voice again. I narrowed my eyes, and stared at them even more intensely. They held their left hand up in a fist, and slowly raised their index finger. I assume it was meant to be a one. Were they trying to remind me about one PM?

“ALANA!” Startled, I turned around. Roscoe was hovering over me, his arm in a sling.

“Alana, I’m sorry for what I said to you. It won’t happen again,” His eyes were red, I'm assuming from a lot of crying since the incident.

His shirt was wrinkled and slightly dirty. Before I could respond, he rushed off. I watched him, and the back of his shirt rode up a little. I saw the bottom of what looked like a fresh slash wound on his back. My head was a little too fuzzy for me to comprehend what was going on. I turned to face the window again, and the figure outside the fence had disappeared.

I got up and left my lunch tray on the table, and walked out of the cafeteria, trying to ignore all the whispering.

It hit one PM. I got into my Geography class, and sat down at my desk amongst more murmurs and staring from classmates.

The lights suddenly went out. I heard a lot of screams, thuds, and then it went quiet. The lights came back on, and I was the only one left in the room. Alive, that is.