I woke up. That was a surprise. I had a headache. That wasn’t. Need to get home. There’s a vehicle at home, can use it to get to hospital. I stood up and was instantly hit with a wave of dizziness. I let myself fall back on the bed. I groaned a little and tried rising a little more slowly this time. I was in a room with several beds. Rose and Leah were occupying other beds. Someone had apparently beaten them within an inch of their lives. They were covered in blood though Leah at the very least didn’t seem to have any broken bones. Both were unconscious. I started limping toward the door. “Where do you think you’re going” boomed a thunderous voice. “I need medical attention” I stated pinly. “That can wait” said the mysterious voice. “I took a head injury. With all due respect no it bloody well can’t” I snapped back. “This takes precedence” said the voice. And in spite of everything I knew about head injuries, suddenly none of it seemed as important as this stranger’s whims.

  I sat on the bed, head still pounding. “Fine, what do you want?” I said. “I would have you tell me what happened in the gymnasium today” said the voice. “Rose picked me up with telekinesis, smashed my head into the gymnasium wall and then strangled me into unconsciousness” I said. “Telekinesis isn’t real” the voice chuckled. “I suppose it isn’t. Well I suppose she must have done so with her bare hands then” I conceded. “What makes you so sure Rose was involved at all. Perhaps you just slipped on the volleyball court and hit your head and then imagined you couldn’t breathe” he remarked. “She insulted my friend and I was rude to her in turn. She lost her temper. The ball was never even in py.” I snapped back.

  “What, Mr. Cooper? Why would you want to be friends with a little creep like him anyway” the voice chuckled. The throbbing in my head became worse. “If you ever speak about her like that in my presence again, they’ll rule you natural causes.” I said, so coldly it might literally have effected the temperature of the room. “Fair enough, fair enough. Your probably better off forgetting about him though. He’d probably make a poor friend.” the voice said pcatingly. That I had no argument for. I’d never had a friend who hadn’t let me down before and Alice was not likely to be the first.

  “I do have one other question though” the voice stated. “Would you happen to know why everyone in the entire gymnasium decided to drop what they were doing and attack my daughter and miss Raine here” he said, gesturing to Rose and Leah. “Well sir, if I had to guess I’d say it had something to do with Rose’s tendency to crack people’s heads against walls and or strangle them. What goes around comes around as they say” I said with a smirk. “Is that all you know?” Rose’s father asked. “What? You think I somehow forced the other students to attack her?” I let out a dismissive chuckle of my own. “No, your daughter must have been terrorizing the other students for years and her bad karma finally caught up to her and that’s all there is to it” I said, smiling maliciously.

  Apparently he believed me because he then dropped the subject. “Regardless, you shouldn’t come back here. You and your parents should find somewhere else to live. You’re clearly miserable at this school, and more than a little unsafe. Why don’t you let your parents know how miserable you are? I’m sure they’d be amenable to moving you somewhere you’d be less miserable” he said, not unkindly. “I’ll take that under consideration. Now if you’ll excuse me I need to go to hospital” I said. “Oh I’m sure its not so bad” he chuckled. That idea cshed with my common sense hard enough to promote him to threat. “Get out of my way” I snapped. He stepped aside and I departed that pce.

  I met a cute blonde girl at the gate of the school who was for some reason holding my book bag, gym bag and skateboard. “Thanks” I said, accepting them. “So which way is your house?” she asked, giddily hopping from one foot to another. I frowned. “I’m sorry, who are you?” I asked. She defted like the retive value of the Dolr. “I’m… I’m…”. She was on the verge of tears and couldn’t seem to get the words out. “Whoa there, its okay. Look, I took a head injury today so I’m sorry if my memories are a little fuzzy. But I’ll be happy to have you fill me in on exactly what happened today when I return to school. So don’t cry”. This did little to console her and tears began streaming down her face.

  “You won’t… you won’t return to school!” she sobbed. “Of course I will” I replied. “I just need to go to hospital for a few days to make sure I don’t Nex Benedict. Okay?” I said sweetly. My vision was starting to swim a bit. That couldn’t be good. “But you won’t. You’ll go away and then you’ll decide you hate this pce and then you’ll never come back!” she sobbed. “I’ve hated every school I’ve ever been in, this one isn’t special” I chuckled. “Look, I promise I’ll be back, assuming I’m alive in a few days which is getting less likely by the minute” I said. “You promised we could hang out at your house after school” she pouted. “I don’t remember that but I can easily believe it happened” I chuckled. “Rain check, I promise”.

  And then I pushed her aside and hopped on my skateboard and beelined for my home like my life depended on it.

  The drive to the hospital was scary and miserable. My stay was pretty mediocre. They tried to send me home without checking me out of course but I can be very persuasive. I drifted in and out of conscience but I didn’t ftline or anything. I stayed 3 days. I checked out once the headache cleared and stayed gone for a couple of hours. I also stopped by the physiotherapy b and had them give me a once over. Not like I pnned on paying for any of it anyway. Then I walked myself out the front door of the hospital and booked it into the night.

  The drive home felt weird. For the life of me I couldn’t remember why it was so important I be living in that specific town. Sure it was the absolute st pce on earth my sperm donor would think to visit, but there was to be fair no conceivable reason he’d visit Chicago Illinois either, and that had the advantage of high schools that would give me a nationally recognised diploma. The school was horrible… but all schools are horrible, that one wasn’t special. Its not like I had any friends in that little podunk town… right?

  But why did I want to move away so bad? The desire felt out of pce, especially after all the time I spent arranging to move there. What was motivating that feeling? And, as if acknowledging that it made no sense were a charm to seal evil, the feeling abated and did not return. Which was very very worrying on its own.