Chances of Surviving Cartoons Chapter 1

School...

The work that a child has to do, takes place at school. So yes, it will make you ticked, happy, hopeful, dedicated, miserable, stressed, crazy, relieved, and sometimes suicidal. Yet, it is preparation for life after your parents kick you out. School not only advances your education, but it teaches you that your "Mommy" is not always going to be around to do your homework and buy your living needs (like your so called necessary stash of gum). You have to pull your own weight sooner or later. None of my classmates are able to get this little factor screwed far enough in their skulls to stay. So here I am, with a bunch of idiot classmates, who still have their parents brush their teeth for them. They will not shut up about how that one girl is such a sleaze, or that big shopping trip, or about that time when all of our jocks locked my friend in his locker and forgot him there. Why they did it I do not know but Johnny stayed in that locker for almost two days. A janitor found him in the locker tied up with a pair of socks shoved in his mouth. The locker was said to have reeked of waste. Johnny never did come back from therapy.

The day after Johnny was discovered; all of the equipment for the football team disappeared mysteriously. The worst part of the disappearance is that a recent bet was made against a neighboring school. Both of their football teams would compete against each other one week before the end of school. The winning team is allowed to go to the other's school, and give the entire student body one hundred reasons why they are pathetic and weak. The losing team had to go to all of the popular hangouts wearing only their girlfriend's cheerleading outfits, nothing else. Five days before the big game; all of the necessary equipment was stolen, after four days of searching for it, it reappeared back in the storage room. Unfortunately, the equipment smelled as if it came from the wastes of a thousand upset stomachs. Not wanting to wear short skirts; they washed everything. The smell didn't lessen at all, but they still went to the game, reek and all. They won the game by a landslide, only one fifth of the people who came, actually stayed. I watched everything though, the game and the audience's faces.

I didn't do it though, why would I? I wouldn't do this as an act of revenge for what they did to my friend Johnny, or for all of the times they bullied me. Never would I ever; break into school in the middle of the night using the keys that I "borrowed" from the janitor. I didn't load all of their equipment in the back of my van and drive off. I couldn't possibly ask Jake (who isn't Johnny's older brother who doesn't want in on the revenge) who owned a pet shop to give me all of the wastes that the animals made and lock it all in a couple of air sealed bins. I would rather die than soak all of the equipment in waste and leave it there for four days (my only neighbors were three blocks away so they couldn't complain about the smell). I also would never load it all back in the van and go back to school in the middle of the night to dump all of the equipment at the entrance then drive off. I never wore a mask and gloves so I couldn't be identified by the cameras. I would never do any of this, unless I was an absolute genius. Then stupidity overtook that bit of intelligence when I realized that I couldn't get the rank out of my van. It was all worth it though. That one game was never spoken of ever again.

Now it is the last day of school and I am glaring at the clock. I swear that clock is doing everything possible in its little gears to make my life an apocalyptic mess. I switched my gaze to the window. I watched the rain pour down savagely in the forest beside our school. Every minute or two a flash of lightning would illuminate the forest with an almost blinding white light. Following shortly after that a vicious bang of thunder will come making some of the girls in class squeak in a girly manner then laugh at themselves. I myself will jump a bit at the loud clap of thunder, I admit it, but thunderstorms are a favorite of mine when it comes to weather. I actually prefer violent ones, they're actually quite calming. Another streak of lightning lit up and then one right after that, then another one, then another one, and then another one. Bolts of lightning were starting to strike every three seconds and the speed was slowly increasing. The rest of the class started to get quite after realizing something wasn't right. They all gazed through the window silently, watching the lightning flash at the speed of Morse code. Then I saw something, no someone, moving outside. I could only see the figure at every flash of light, though. They would walk a bit forwards then stop and take a step back. Judging by the structure and height of their body; he's probably a guy. He kept one looking around frantically. He reminded me of a lost kid in a fair who just realized his parents aren't behind him anymore. After another great crash of thunder; he ran off in fright. His running was uncoordinated and clumsy, almost as if he was blind. He ended up tripping and stumbling deeper and deeper into the forest, until I could no longer see him.

The rapid flashes of lightning started to die down a bit after he ran off, the rain didn't lighten up after that though. The class then started to chatter away again; talking about instead the strange weather the incident that just happened. I continued to stare out the window. That guy is going to get mugged. He will be knocked out with a bowling pin then mugged. I will discover his body when I walk home from school. I will freak out and go into temporary shock. Then Julia will have to deal with me being a nervous wreck for about two weeks.

Julia.

She left with the teacher to get something from the office about ten minutes ago; she should be back by now. She must have been kidnapped.

"Serene, how long is your dad going to be gone again?"

Or not

I turned to see my friend sitting in the desk next to mine, looking at me. Where did she come from? How did she even get in here? I didn't hear the door open (yes it was closed and it still is). I guess it will be just another one of life's great mysteries. What a strange friend, with her fuzzy brown hair, dark brown eyes, and T-shirt with Karl and Arma. And will not stop looking at me until I answer.

"My dad's trip will last about 3 months." I replied. My dad won a one hundred day cruise trip around the world for two. So he and his girlfriend are going to be having fun while I stay at home. He isn't a bad dad; he just doesn't like revolving his entire life around his daughter. He usually leaves me alone every summer to do something with his girlfriend. I don't mind actually, it's nice to have the house to myself.

"When will they be leaving?" Julia asked me.

"Last Thursday." I said with a sigh.

"Oh," Julia said. "Well, I just wanted to say that I won't be able to come to your place this weekend."

Oh, well that's nice.

"My parents came to school telling me that the family is going on a three week trip to Australia," She continued. "They wanted me to leave school early so I could start packing. I only came back to class to give you something." She fished around in her pocket and pulled out a necklace. I was basically a thin metal chain. On the end was a charm of a little black raven with red eyes. It looked like Arma.

"Happy early birthday!" She cheered. Some of the classmates looked at her strangely.

"I love it man." I said happily. I saw this in a store. I wanted to buy it but I had no cash. Now I have it for free... SUCCESS!

"Well I hafta go," She stated as she picked up her backpack "Bye."

"Julia," I said as I put on the necklace. "If you die on your trip; I will summon your soul from heaven back to earth, and beat it up." She laughed at my threat slash joke and left. I sighed and stared at the clock.

That clock moved backwards. I am so serious it did. Happily it didn't matter because the bell rang.

FREEDOM!

I grabbed my backpack and put it on, but despite my desperation to leave I went and opened the window. The rain was still pouring hard but there was no more lightning. I reached out and let my hands fill with water before splashing it one my face. I sat on the windowsill and let the cool air blast my back. I watched all my classmates leave. I was about to leave my little windowsill until I noticed that the door was blocked.

By Jocks

Specifically the football team

More specifically; a very angry football team

And they were glaring at me