Chapter 1 – Part 7

Mr. Stricty returned to his perch at the front of the classroom after he had gathered the papers. He tapped them on his desk to straighten the pile, and then began to flip through them. Noah and I grinned at each other from across the aisle. In one moment it would happen. I saw Mr. Stricty arrive at where my paper was located in the stack, second to last, and then he flipped past it to Noah’s. His brow furrowed for a moment, and he flipped back to mine. He placed the other papers on his desk and held Noah’s up and mine. He looked at them simultaneously, and then lowered them to glare at us.

Chapter 1 – Part 6

The next hour passed without any other incidents, and soon the bus pulled into the school parking lot. We were the first bus to arrive, so the outside was deserted. The driver parked the bus and opened the doors. One by one we all filed out and joined our social groups, of which I had none. So I decided to go to the library and begin the homework due today.

Chapter 1 – Part 5

I could quickly see that they were not amused. One of them shifted slightly to the left. I quickly realized that Trotter was trying to block the bus driver’s view of the proceedings. I didn’t show my surprise or worry; that was the best thing to do when one was ganged up on by six-foot tall seniors. The only question running through my mind was, what do these lowlifes want?

Chapter 1 – Part 4

I arrived back inside our house to find my father preparing a bowl of fruit loops. The small kitchen television was already turned to the local news. Currently they were obsessing over a tree than fell on somebody’s house while they were outside chopping firewood. Irony. I dropped the paper on the kitchen table and headed upstairs to get ready for school.

Chapter 1 – Part 3

“Oh, knock it off, rat face,” I taunted. “We both know you won’t shoot.”

Rat face seemed to agree with me. He slowly lowered the gun, glaring repulsively. His teeth were clenched together, moldy and yellow.

“After you sign up for anger management classes, you should visit a dentist,” I said. Then I turned on a dime and strolled back up to the patio, laughing softly. Behind me I could hear the two men discussing something quietly. Bozos.

Chapter 1 – Part 2

I slid open the door and immediately surveyed the patio with my flashlight. There was nothing to be found on the patio, but I did see moving shadows near a row of bushes. Turning off my flashlight and hoping that the noisemakers hadn’t noticed me, I ducked behind a nearby lawn chair. A few seconds passed, and I scooted over to the grill. The voluminous cover over the grill made it larger, thus giving me more cover. I peeked around the side of the grill, trying to spot the people making the ruckus. The shouting became more defined, and I could definitely hear sounds of a struggle.

Chapter 1 – Part 1

My name is Dempster. Eating cheerios at four in the morning while I wait for the sun to rise doesn’t make me weird. I think that what makes people weird is obsessing over the jokers who might become the most powerful person in the world and then screw everything up, then letting a new round of losers decide to make a change. Or people who make their beds every morning, even though they are going to be sleeping in it later that night. So no, cheerios at four is nothing weird.