Chapter 7 - Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven

The tires squealed as they turned hard into Comerick's driveway. Sandy felt like squealing, too, but not in a delighted, giggly way like on Effel nights.
Her mother was busy adding the perfect amount of cherry red lipstick onto her puckered lips. Sandy imagined those cartoons where women have overly big lips and they pull out a lipstick tube, run it over their puffy lips one time, and have a flawless appearance. A vague idea of a smile twitched across Sandy's lips. Her mother could not do it right in one quick swipe. She re-did her makeup every time she was near a mirror. No doubt she wanted to be like those cartoon ladies.
The vague idea quickly faded as the car stopped and Sandy looked up at the tall, gray building. It looked like a castle. Like an evil tyrant's castle. Sandy's heart sped up. She got out of the car and stood, feeling immensely small next to the slightly crooked school. The building's title was twisted over the wooden doors in spindly, uninviting black lettering. Sandy's mother looked even less excited than Sandy. Like she was watching a bad horror film, Sandy saw herself, with a fearless-looking cover over her real emotions, walking up to the door and grasping the ornate gargoyle-head knocker. She let it bang down on the mahogany with a thunk that sent chills down her spine.
She looked back at her mother as if saying, 'Alright, stop joking now and take me back. You can't really go through with this', but Mrs. Rockwell, with a heart as hard as her last name, pushed her daughter through the doors. They slammed behind her with a final sound and she cringed and looked upon the main hall of Comerick's for the first, and most definitely not last, time.
> Sandy found her schedule in the pile on the table by the door and looked at it in confusion.
Sandy Rockwell
1st Period: Poetry Analysis - Mr. Rickman
2nd Period: Science on hair - Mrs. Franks
3rd Period: Gym - Mr. McKaine
LUNCH BREAK
4th Period: History of music - Mr. Williams
5th Period: Symphony - Mr. Williams
BREAK
6th Period: Home Ec. -Mr. Keenlie
7th Period: Helping you and your ability - Mrs. Reese
It was the wierdest schedule she'd ever seen! And where the heck was Poetry Analysis? Sandy tapped a girl who was walking briskly by on the shoulder.
"Er, hello. Do you know where-?"
"Down the hall to the left, it's my first class, too, so you can follow me!" The brunette girl said politely. Sandy stared at her, mouth open. The girl's fudge brown eyes widened suddenly.
"Sorry!" She muttered, looking down quickly. Sandy was dumbstruck, but then she recovered herself.
"Er, then... Shall we go?"
"Yeah, I'm Lizzie by the way. You have a nice name."
"Um? What the heck?" Sandy was majorly confused now.
"Sorry, I got stuck in Cormerick's because I read minds. I try not to, but sometimes thought are so loud and hard to ignore. And then sometimes I mistake them for things that have been said." Lizzie apologized quickly.
"Oh. Does everyone here have a wierd ability?" Sandy said, trying to get used to the fact that she really was in a school for the endowed.
"No, most don't actually. They just are really good at something creative, like poetry, for example. Or music. Or they're really smart. Stuff like that. Then there are the people with wierd abilitys. Like me."
"And me." Sandy added glumly.
They had reached the poetry classroom. Sandy walked in and chose a seat in the back by someone very tall.
"Hi."
Sandy turned, it was the tall guy. "Uh, hi."
He looked like he wanted to say something else, but at that moment the teacher walked into the room.
"Hello everybody! I see we have someone new, why don't you stand up and introduce yourself?"
Sandy stood up, "Hi I'm Sandy Rockwell."
She sat back down quickly.
"Hello Sandy!" Said the teacher, "I am Mr.Rickman."
The boy sitting beside Sandy smirked. Sandy shot him a look, and the smirk vanished.
"Well why don't we get started. Anne Marie, I think you have today's poem."
A very blonde girl stood up.
"Time never stops
It keeps going on
Until we die."
The guy beside he started smirking again, but this time Sandy didn't do anything because she was too busy trying not to burst out laughing herself.
"She's here for drama." Said the tall guy.
"Shut up, I'm already trying not to laugh!"
The girl, Anne Marie sat down, looking very satisfied.
Mr. Rickman looked delighted, "That is a wonderful poem Anne Marie!"
The rest of class was spent analyzing Anne Marie's poem. At the end of class Mr. Rickman closed up by saying, "Tomorrow's poem, Sandy! Why not you?"
Sandy was struck dumb. She turned to the tall guy in alarm.
"I have to write a poem?" She asked incredulously.
"Can't be as bad as Anne Marie's. Well gotta fly." And he was gone.
Sandy picked up her books and trudged on to the next class, Science on hair.
---
The whole day passed as strangely as the first hour. Sandy thought the school was really loopy already, and then she went to last hour, helping you and your ability.
When Sandy walked into the room, she saw some people that she recognized, but Lizzie was the most familiar, so Sandy sat next to her.
"Hello again!" Said Lizzie brightly.
"Hey, what do we do in this class?"
"It's basically a study hall for all the people with 'special abilities'" Lizzie explained.
"Like the wierd stuff?"
"Yeah."
Just then the tall guy waltzed in. He looked surprised to see Sandy for a moment, the he came over to her.
"Hey I didn't know you were a wierdo."
"Ditto for you." Sandy replied sarcatically. The guy didn't catch it.
"What'd'ya do?" He asked with a smile.
Sandy made a face, "Supposedly I'm an elemental, that's what I was told this morning when they shipped me off."
He looked impressed, "Whoa. That's cool."
"And you?" Sandy asked.
Just then a mean looking senior walked in and said in a short, pinched way, "Hello everyone. This is Sandy, she's new here, be nice. Now, let's get to our work."
Sandy didn't like the way the woman said 'new here' as if it were a crime, but she took a seat anyways, between tall guy and Lizzie. She opened her binder to begin her homework. Without really thinking about it, she began to write;
Life is a loan
It's taken away
Life isn't owned
Not any day
Sandy stared at her paper, amazed at her newfound ability.What the heck was going on?
She mouthed the words of her poem one more time, and then shoved it in her pocket. The senior woman began to drone on about responsible power and training or something like that. Sandy couldn't tell, because Lizzie's voice was drilling in her head. Sandy turned quickly to tell Lizzie not to talk so loudly, but the girl's lips weren't moving. Lizzie looked pointedly at Sandy's forehead and then gestured for her to turn around.
Sandy obeyed and stared at her desk. She wasn't sure she liked having Lizzie in her thoughts.
"Sandy, will you be staying on weekends?" Lizzie's voice sounded clear in her mind.
"No? Why would I want to stay here longer?"
"But it's really cool on weekends! You get to pick which classes you want for the day! I'm going to get something like Alchemy. I want to be able to get a good job when I get out of Cormerick's."
"A job?" Sandy thought numbly, "Like...we have to be freaky forever?"
"Well, yeah..." Lizzie replied. "We're here to learn how...you could get a normal job if you want, I guess, but not everything's as bad as Cormerick's in the supernatural world."
"I dunno." Sandy thought. A weekend with her angry parents and a brooding Charlie?
... Well, that was her own fault, anyway. ...
Or a weekend of whatever classes she wanted?
Of course, Lizzie heard her thoughts and Sandy pictured her smiling. "I'll tell you which teachers are nice and we can discuss jobs and the skills they need. You're an elemental, Sandy, it would be criminal not to work for the unnatural community!" Lizzie coaxed.
"Lizzie, I believe you may be over-enthusiastic about this whole thing, but...I'll try it some time. Alchemy sounds like fun."
Lizzie was about to reply when a ruler came smacking down on Sandy's desk. She jumped in surprise, not at the ruler, but at the fact that no one was holding the other end. The teacher glared at her from across the room and Sandy quickly buried her head in her homework. The ruler floated back to its desk in a contented looking way. Sandy tried not to stare too much, because the other kids didn't seem to see anything out of the ordinary.
This was one class she would not be taking any more than she had to.

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