Chapter 12

The bell rang and I let out a sigh of relief as I again bolted out through the door of homeroom. Like always we pushed and shoved our way into the hallway. It was kind of a ritual now for the class. At the first sign of the bell we were already half way out the door. Nobody ever stayed behind besides Kristina, but we didn’t count her because it was an unstated fact that she was out of her mind.

I could tell that our constant escapes hurt Mrs. Wolfe, but she was starting to get used to it. Most of the time we didn’t even wait for her to finish her sentence. When the bell rang everyone grabbed their stuff and ran.

Our class was usually the first one out in the hallway trying to get as far from the classroom as possible. The other teachers and students seemed to assume that Mrs. Wolfe was just nice enough to let us out a little early so we would have lots of time to make it to our next period, but this time my friends were waiting in front of the door along with a large crowd of students and teachers. It was as if they were waiting to watch our escape from the classroom.

“What’s going on here?” The principal boomed, narrowing her eyes on our class. We all stared at her in confusion while she circled around us into the room, where Mrs. Wolfe was still talking rapidly to Kristina and the few people who were still stuck in the room. Any other time I would feel bad for them, but now I wished I was in their place.

“N-Noth-Nothing-g.” The class stammered in fear.

“Why has the class already left when their teacher was still instructing?” She asked us, locking eyes with every pair she could find. To this none of us had a reasonable answer. We just started in silence hoping we wouldn’t be in too much trouble.

“I have heard many complaints about this class leaving the room before the bell and was going to investigate for myself, but as I see the class has just been very disrespectful to their teacher.  Mrs. Wolfe, what class where you teaching? Was this your homeroom period by any chance?” She questioned and I could sense a long rant coming on, while all the teachers and students had smug looks on in the background. Of course they would love to watch any other class and teacher get in trouble. It was enjoyable to watch, not live through.

“Yes this was my homeroom.” Mrs. Wolfe answered forcefully not giving the principal a chance to overpower her. They stared into each other’s eyes, neither one of them lowering their gaze. Everyone stared at them in wonder, trying to figure out the outcome between them.

“I bet five dollar that the principal will give in!” One of the kids bet with the other one.

“I’ll bet you ten dollars that Mrs. Wolfe will be kicked out!” The other one fired back. At the sound of this the principal looked in their direction, losing the staring contest. Mrs. Wolfe smiled at them.

“Ah, well let’s hope they all mature soon enough to where you’ll be able to explain things. After that we all know these things won’t happen anymore.” She answered causing the whole class to exchange looks of confusion and Kristina to smirk like a maniac who knew a secret we didn’t.

“You are all dismissed!” The principal commanded as she flicked her hand in the air and turned to discuss something with Mrs. Wolfe. At the sight of her gesture we started to bound out even more eager to escape than before, though we stopped as the teachers started fighting.

“What?! How can they just get away with this?” One of the teachers asked the principal. Her face was burning red and was a funny sight.

“You’re going easy on them. We’ve always known you’ve been too tolerant with her!” The other one accused pointing at Mrs. Wolfe.

“I’ll do what I decide to do!” The principal answered harshly closing the scene. At these words all the teachers left, leaving us alone to deal with our friends. I couldn’t wait.

“You’re allowed to go now!” The principal smiled at us as she realized that we were still standing there. We nodded at her and she began to walk off before she turned back to us. “We’ll see each other later!”

Too afraid to object we all nodded and headed off.

Slowly I walked over to my friends wondering what kind of attack they would choose and what their reaction would be.

“You’re in that homeroom?!” Abby screamed.

“Yeah, why?” I answered cautiously. Abby was already mad, I didn’t want to make her blow up on me to top it off.

“Umm—I don’t know how to put this nicely…” Abby started.

“Tell me!” I urged her, wanting to know.

“We knew something was up but this… You’re in the homeroom for crazies!” Shawn replied for her scowling at me.

“That’s not what they told us!” I snapped back, already starting to have enough of them, and the fight hadn’t even started.

“Well, we don’t know this for sure either…” Chris spoke up.

“So where’d you get the idea?” I questioned them, looking at Ryan and Hannah, the two people who couldn’t stand to lie.

“I’m not getting involved in this!” Hannah cleared. “Sure, Ash has an awkward homeroom, let’s keep in mind that there is probably a reason for it though. Yes, it’s strange that she was put in the class, and not ours, but she’s still our friend.”

“You’re talking her side.” Shawn spat at her.

“I’m not taking anyone’s side.” Hannah replied calmly and stepped back.

“Well, before you make yourself so sure about that, just think about it. Ashley could be a totally different person then what she has showed us so far. If we think about it, she could be anyone or anything. It’s not hard to pretend to be someone else than you are these days!” Abby told Hannah who shot me a wary look. It was clear that Abby had a point. She was always good at arguing and turning things to look best from her point of view.

“She could be some creature who has to meet up with her alien boss during homeroom to let him/her know what she’s gotten out of us.” Ryan finally spoke up, causing all of us to turn and stare at him.

“Look! She’s starting to make us lose our minds too!” Shawn declared. “And I don’t want to be friends with someone who doesn’t even know what’s going on in their lives. Ashley please try figuring things out!”

“Let’s not say things like that!” Chris told him scowling. “If anything just give us an explanation of what that class is! The whole school knows you don’t just have a normal homeroom period.”

“I know the class is weird! We don’t even talk to each other! Heck, we don’t even know each other’s names and it’s been 3 weeks since the beginning of school!” I finally screamed at them.

“Exactly! You yourself came to us on the first day, wanting to trade out. Then your teacher wouldn’t let you, and if you don’t talk in the class then you clearly don’t do what we do!” Abby confirmed proudly, like she had started solving some mystery case.

“Since then we just keep hearing about how you guys make it into the hallway faster than any human could, how the silence in your class is larger than at night and how you guys move about as much as a stone does during the period.” Shawn added.

“It’s true. Everyone who’s in that class has been acting weird lately.” Abby nodded.

“Even Hannah and I noticed something was wrong with the class and this period we’re on the other side of school, a whole level above you!” Chris told me, aggravated.

“Why can’t you guys understand that she’s an alien?” Ryan spoke up again, causing everyone to groan.

“What is up with you Ryan? You’re worse than Ashley!” Abby fussed.

“Alright, alright! I’ll stop!” He laughed winking at me. At the sight of this I smiled.

“Ryan focus on the problem!” Shawn told him.

“Oh, come on! Why do you care so much? It’s just a class!” I fussed.

“Maybe to you it’s just a class, but clearly it’s more than that! Something is wrong and we want to find out what it is!” Abby told me, getting angry.

“Oh, that reminds me. Why did the principal tell you guys that you would see each other later?” Ryan asked, actually being more serious.

“How should I know?” I asked him back confused.

“Well you’re kind of in the class.” He replied just as confused as I was.

“Yeah, but I told you guys we didn’t talk.” I told him.

“Mrs. Wolfe didn’t say anything about it either?” Chris questioned.

“Nope, not a single word.” I confirmed.

“The more we find out about that class, the deeper the mystery gets.” Abby declared.

“I don’t care about the mystery, I want to know what that class is, and what Ash is doing in it.” Shawn told her. “I can’t help but be suspicious that something is happening that we don’t know about, but Ashley does.”

Hannah and I were about to reply when the bell rang and everyone headed off in different directions.

“We will get to the bottom of this!” Shawn screamed at me and Hannah who had started off towards the Biology room with me.

“Do whatever you want!” I screamed back at him before entering into the classroom, and having to sit through an hour of doom.

“Don’t worry! Everything will work out!” Hannah whispered to me as we took our seats. “I trust you! You are my best friend. You would tell me if something was up right?” She asked me and I nodded as the feeling of guilt took over. I should tell her if I was going to be a good best friend, but I couldn’t let myself end up on public display if she freaked out. This was just going to have to be a secret that I kept to myself.

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