End of the First Day

2 minutes before the tardy bell rang. The Dying Man grumbled impatiently and tapped his foot as he watched the Intrusion trying to pick up all his textbooks off the ground.

“Come on, you’re going to make us late.” He said. Not that he really wanted to go to math class, but he didn’t want to have to deal with a teacher whining at him on his first day.

The Intrusion apologized, saying he hadn’t meant to trip and drop his book. He gathered everything up, but only took a few steps before bumping into someone and dropping his books again.

The student Intrusion had run into was slightly taller, with pale grey skin and a shaved head. He growled at Intrusion, and said, “Watch where you’re going, loser.”

“I-I’m sorry….” Intrusion said.

“Not sorry enough.” The other student said. He picked up one of the textbooks. “But you will be.” With an evil grin, he grabbed several pages from inside the book with his long nails, and tore them out.

“Hey!” The Dying Man shouted, stepping between them. “Leave him alone!”

“Or what? You going to cry at me, pizza face?”

The Dying Man punched him in the jaw. The other student stumbled back, and Dying pounced on him, punching again.

“What’s going on here?” Someone shouted. An older student with eyes spread across his body, approached with a determined march.

Before Dying could say anything, the other student started crying, “He attacked me! I was just minding my own business and suddenly he started hitting me!”

“Did he now?” The older student pulled out a slip of paper saying “Hall Monitor,” and displayed it like a badge. “I’m Judgment, Hall Monitor. And you are in big trouble, kid.”

The Dying Man snarled at him. “You’re not a teacher, you can’t do anything to me!”

“No, but I can take you to someone who can!” He grabbed Dying by the ear, and began to pull him away. Before leaving, he asked the other student, “What’s your name, so I can report this?”

“The Rake.”

“Got it. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure  he gets what he deserves.”

The Intrusion tried to speak up in Dying’s defense, but Judgment was already walking away with him. Crestfallen, Intrusion picked up the rest of his books. The Rake gave him a cruel grin and another shove, then walked off as the tardy bell rang.

***

“Hello students, I’m Coach Ferris, your PE instructor. Since this is the first day, we’re going to start off easy. I’ll run you all through a little obstacle course. At the first station, you’ll have to climb the wooden wall, then run through the tires. At the third station you’ll be crawling under the barbed wire; keep your heads down, that’s live ammo they’ll be shooting above you. Fourth station, you will play a children’s trading card game. Don’t worry, it’s just a practice game, so no one’s going to die. Fifth station is the rope swing, and then at the last station you will need to use your kung fu to fight off ninjas. Everyone got that?”

***

The bell had already run by the time the Intrusion made it to Mr. Proxiehunter’s math class. The teacher narrowed his eyes at Intrusion when he came into the class, but showed Intrusion to his seat. As Intrusion sat down, Proxiehunter said to him, “Always be sure to be ready on time. A few minutes can be the difference between life and death.”

“As I was saying,” Proxiehunter continued his lesson to the class, “these are the tools which you must have for this class.” He pointed at a list on the board. “Pencil! Paper! Binder! Textbook! If you forget any of these, I cannot guarantee your safety in this class.”

That declaration was met with silence by the class. Nervously, Intrusion raised his hand. “Um… Mr. Proxiehunter… my textbook was kinda destroyed today….” He showed the professor the torn out pages in his book.

Proxiehunter shook his head angrily, but then walked over to a shelf and pulled out another textbook, which he handed to Intrusion. “You get this one break, but don’t lose your book again. It could save your life!”

Intrusion couldn’t help but ask. “How?”

Mr. Proxiehunter didn’t miss a beat. “If you’re attacked by surprise, you can use it as a shield against knife attacks. It also works as an improvised clubbing weapon.” He opened he book and pointed at several diagrams. “And if you ever find yourself on a plane that is spiraling out of control, you can use this to calculate the trajectory you will need to glide in order to land safely on the ground!”

“I’ll… take your word for it, Mr. Proxiehunter.”

***

Judgment’s grip was unrelenting as he dragged Dying down the hallways. Despite the obvious futility, Dying continued to struggle. “Let go of me, asshole! You’ve made me late to my stupid class!”

“Your class can wait until after you’ve been disciplined for your actions. Ah, there’s the assistant principal. He’ll deal with you.”

A man in a grey trench coat and fedora stood in the hall, his face obscured by his hat’s shadow. Judgment stepped toward him and said, “Excuse me, Mr….”

Suddenly sparks flew off the ceiling lamp above Judgment, and the glass fell, nearly hitting him. In his panic, he let go of Dying, who used the opportunity to run for it.

“Hey! Come back here!” Judgment shouted, chasing after Dying. “You can’t run from me! I’M A HALL MONITOR!”

Ignored by the two, the assistant principal quietly pulled out and checked a pocket watch, and then faded away into the background.

***

The last bell of the day rang, and the students poured out. Within a few minutes, the building was empty, save the remaining faculty. A man with a broom walked through each classroom, followed closely by a large black dog. On a regular day one could expect quite a mess after school was over, but the chaos of the first day was a class of its own. Still, you couldn’t complain The man with the broom scratched his dog behind the ears and whistled a few notes from a favorite Bowie song of his before resuming his work.

Principal Jack watched Mr. Sane and the Black Dog as they tidied up the school building. A reminiscent smile was on his face as he thought back to what had transpired. Ah, the first day of school. Always such a magical time. Full of hope for the year ahead, and potential for all sorts of adventure and dreams. It was one of his favorite moments of the school year.

Jack looked around at the near empty hallways, and sighed. “Bored now.” He snapped his fingers, and time jumped forward. The sun set, the moon rose, it set, and then the sun rose again, all in what felt like seconds.

He snapped his fingers again, and time returned to normal. The smile returned to Jack’s face. The second day of school was also nice, he supposed.