The Shadow Kids CHAPTER ONE
Okay so when I was 13 I wrote a book called The Shadow Kids. Hope you likey :) and don't worry they all die for a reason :)
Chapter One: Batman and the Rope
For something as delicate as life can be shattered, like my glass heart thrown at stone.
The beginning of three boys’ new life started on exactly the day of October 13th, 2010. The scene is Tawn Private Boarding School, first period.
Shan Desmon, Jeff Hardee, and Trey Almont sat at down on the ever-fading leather seats in the library. Each boy had their own distinct look. Shan had hair scraggly as gnarled roots, orange hair escaping his scalp in every direction. Combed down, it would just reach his jaw, but he never took the time in the morning to run a brush through it. After all, he woke up so late; he barely even had time to grab a cereal bar on his way out the door to catch the bus. Shan’s eyes were scarred into the brains of anyone who met him. They were two green orbs hiding behind a blanket of orange hair. They sparkled almost every second of the day, because Shan was a normally chipper fellow. He always made sure to match his sweaters, his favorite clothes, with his eyes. Mom always told him to because otherwise the Harry Potter glasses he wore would look silly. On his ring finger, Shan always drew the symbols 5R. Five Rebels. All though he was classified as a “nerd”, Shan knew how to have a great time.
Yes, Shan is a nerd.
Jeff Hardee was a totally different story.
Wherever Jeff was, there was a rebellious mood. Jeff’s hair was short and spiky, a black mass on his scalp. He originally had baby blue eyes, but ever since he got his amber colored contacts, they were a shimmering yellow. With Jeff’s pale skin, the girls swooned over him, thinking he was a vampire straight out of the Twilight novels. He may have been mysterious and dark, but Jeff was no lovey-dovey thousand year old guy trying to hook up with an 18 year old and feuding with werewolves. No. Jeff was a rebel, a punk if you will. His clothing style was categorized as “Goth”, though. Black was the only color he ever donned. Black My Chemical Romance tee shirt, black skinny jeans with chains hooked to the belt loops, black Edward Scissorhands hoodie, black boots, and black fingerless gloves. Heck if it was possible, he would have been a shadow.
Yes, Jeff is a Goth.
But Trey was something else.
Trey DeMarrick moved to the small town Tawn almost four months ago, but was still adjusting. In those four months, Trey had managed to be the captain of the rugby team, go out with the hottest cheerleader in history, and still get A’s and B’s. During class, he was a clown, joking around with the others and making everyone laugh. The teachers loved him, the students adored him, and even the headmaster got him out of trouble. No surprise that every cheerleader drooled over him, what with his short blonde hair, hazel eyes, muscle, pearly white teeth, and boyish charm. He was irresistible!
Yes, Trey is a jock.
But somehow, the three boys defied the “rules of society” to become best friends. They all hung out at Jeff’s house every day after school and on the weekends. Probably because Jeff’s mom loved the fact that her son, who had been neglected in society and made an outcast in school, had friends. At school, they were mocked for hanging out with the people they did. Trey would get laughed at by the guys, all saying that “Goths, nerds, and jocks were three different species” and “jocks don’t mingle with the dorks and creepy kids.”
Ah, but what did they know? They probably only got to know their own “species”
“Hey, Jeff. I’ve gotta run. Let’s group at lunch, your place as always.”
Trey gave Jeff a fist bump and followed Shan from the library, heading to his first free period. Shan’s first period was gym, his least favorite class. Jeff had a free hour because he didn’t take three extra classes like Shan did, and Trey had chemistry…oh, joy.
Jeff smiled to himself and got up, heading over to the checkout counter. Mrs. Freely, the little old librarian who treated Jeff like her son, smiled widely and rested her weary elbows on the counter. “Jeffery! I see you’ve finished those books you checked out only yesterday!” she beamed, eyeing up the mountain of eight books Jeff had in his arms. “Yeah, I personally liked Vladimir Todd the best though. I’m into that stuff,” he laughed. She chuckled along and reached out for the books and checked them back in. Jeff was a regular at the library. He spent all his free time there, helping out Mrs. Freely with the organizing of books and putting new bar codes on the spines of the books whose stickers had been peeled to heck. The biggest upside to living at the library was he got to read the new books first. “Do you have any new books you think I’d like?” Jeff asked, popping up onto his tippy toes and peering over her shoulder to the ‘New Book’ rack. Sure enough, there was the entire Batman comic book series, right there on the shelf. And, they were all stickered, so they were ready to be taken.
“OH MY GOSH PLEASE CAN I PLEASE CHECK OUT THE WHOLE SERIES PLEASE PRETTY PLEASE WITH A CHERRY ON TOP?” Jeff shouted, realizing that he was in the library and slapped his hands over his mouth. Being the cool old lady she was, Mrs. Freely just burst out guffawing, patting Jeff on the back and turning behind the counter to get the stack of 13 comic books for the eager boy. “Well I’ll be! Good old Batman. He first came out when I was a little girl. Of course, never read them as a child, but now that the norm has changed. I love them!”
Jeff nodded and watched as Mrs. Freely slid the barcode over the red laser scanner and placed each in a neat stack inside the little plastic bag used to carry them in. “Hope you like them, Jeffery!” she chimed, beaming as Jeff ran off to the lounge chairs to dig into the world of superheroes and bad guys.
Little did Jeff know, someone was looking at him, staring intently at the back of his head. Mrs. Freely headed back to her office before she could see the figure stalking up quietly behind her favorite student. The person growled, smirking when the boy reading comic books sat clueless. “TIME TO DIE!” the figure yelled, attacking Jeff’s back with enough force to fling him off the chair and onto the carpet. Jeff squeaked and covered his face with both hands in a weak attempt to shield himself from the attacker. Jeff yelled “PLEASE DON’T HURT ME!”
“Dude, you’re such a girl!”
Billie, a friend of Jeff’s, doubled over and clutched his stomach, the pain from laughing too hard almost enough to make him cringe. “You should’ve seen your face! You were all like…”
Billie put on a mask of fake shock and held it for as long as he could until he broke down again. Jeff punched Billie in the arm, hard enough to hurt slightly. “DUDE! Not cool! We’re in a library, I might remind you. The library is my zone, man! You can’t just get all up in my grill just ‘cause you feel like it. That crap won’t fly with me, dog.”
Jeff’s friend looked at him like he was from Mars. “What’s with the gangster talk?” he asked. Jeff just shrugged his shoulders and smiled. “I don’t know. Just felt like it. But I do know one thing, though.”
“And what is that?”
“I’M BLOODY BATMAN!!!!”
And with that little proclamation, Jeff stood up on the chair and held his unzipped sweatshirt out like a cape.
Oh, Jeff, always the jokester.
A loud “SHH!” came from the direction of the librarian’s office, and the boys quieted. In a mocking tone, Billie teased, “Great plan, Batman.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In the gym, Shan was groaning, clearly annoyed by his slouched stance, tapping foot, and rolling eyes. Ms. Mimi, the gym teacher (if you could call her one), was chatting away on her cell phone. “And so Brad was all like ‘I love you baby,’ and I was like ‘OH EM EFF GEE REALLY?’ It was so ROMANTIC!”
Most of the class was sitting there, laughing and listening to the whole fiasco with only minor interest. While it was funny, that meant that gym would be held up longer after class, which Shan didn’t like happening. Apparently what’s been going on recently in the soap opera of Heather Mimi’s life was Brad. Shan overheard Mimi talking about how Brad had “rippling muscles that are going to pop out of his shirt” and “macho man-ness.” Quite frankly, it was sickening. Puke-worthy, actually.
By the time Mimi was saying “UGH! GTG girly, class time,” it was already 10 minutes passed the start of class. With the best happy face she could muster, Ms. Mimi smiled and said “hello, class! Today, we are doing the obstacle course! Everyone to the front of the line, and go!” The smallest and weakest girl in the class, Jeanne Polar, shot her hand up in the air and waved it around with great enthusiasm. “Yes, Jeanne?” “What are we supposed to do?” Jeanne squeaked, eyeing up the climbing rope with a look of dread. No one liked the climbing rope. It was like a math test, long periods of time sitting in the school’s church and listening to Father Drake ramble, or a run in with Brutal Barb, the school bully…hated.
“I think you can figure it out on your own.”
And with that, Ms. Mimi blew the whistle and went back to abusing the keypad on her cell phone. Shan sighed and followed the line of his classmates. The first obstacle was the monkey bars. Mandy Fuglestad was the first to lead the troop, but failed miserably. Her arms were too long and her body was too large, so she made it to the second bar before dropping like a rock in water. After her, the others got the hang of it. Literally. Person after person swung down the bars and made it to the next roadblock, the teeter totter. Shan grinned madly, almost like an insane scientist, and took the first hanging cylinder in his hand. So far, so good! He praised himself. On he went through, finishing the monkey bars, teeter totter, pit of lava (stepping stones on a red mat) and the rock wall. But…oh, no! Look ahead! THE CLIMBING ROPE. Benny Davito was being taken to the nurse’s office after falling onto the mat below the terrifying rope and getting a bloody nose from landing wrong. No one ever made it to the top, and Shan wasn’t planning on trying to be the first.
When Brutal Barb came up behind him, Shan had no clue. “You gonna climb, wimpy?” she sniggered; congratulating herself on a “nerd well scared” as he visibly swallowed his tongue. To Shan’s rotten luck, the climbing rope seemed to be the only escape from the brute known as Brutal Barb Bigmore. To Barb’s shock, “Stupid Shan” actually started to ascend the infamous rope, hand reaching above hand to pull his tiny frame up. I’m doing it! I’m doing it! YES!
Upward Shan climbed, his hands burning from the coarse rope they were clinging to. Only feet away from him, Shan saw the platform that signaled the top of the rope. “HOLY CRAP!” someone yelled, pointing up at Shan and causing a scene. “He’s gonna make it to the top!”
Of course, the rest of the gym stopped and swarmed the mat below, looking up at the spectacle. This was legendary! “I don’t think so, dweeb!” Barb growled, and clasped the rope. The whole thing shook like a leaf as she climbed, her fat frame wiggling up the rope, causing Shan to squeak out his protests. “Barb! Stop! I’m going to fall!”
But bent on rage, Barb didn’t hear him. She kept after him, losing her hold sometimes and slipping down a few inches. At those times, the gym would fill with “ooh” and “oh no!”
Shan was touching the platform now, just feeling the blue fuzzy cover of it when his foot was caught in a vice. “GOT YOU NOW, SHANNY!” Barb squealed in delight, tugging sharply. Shan kicked her in the face, making Barb roar and slid down to the bottom of the rope. “MY HANDS! MY BEAUTIFUL HANDS!” she rolled around on the mat. The mob was looking down on her and scrambled out of the way when the howling monster ran to Ms. Mimi. “LOOK WHAT THE BRAT DID TO MY HANDS!”
Ms. Mimi paid no attention to the crying child, but told her to shut up and go away. Barb huffed out of the gym, throwing her hands in the air and yelling “CURSE THIS BLOODY SCHOOL AND ALL WHO INHABIT IT!”
By the time that Barb was gone; the assembly left the rope and went off to do their own things. Shan sighed in relief and tried to think of the best way to inch his way down without plummeting to his untimely death. Why did the person who invented this bloody form of torture not make an easier way to get down? The only choice was to shimmy himself down, hopefully reuniting his feet with the floorboards. After taking a deep breath, Shan began his decent. Slowly but surely, he wrapped his legs around the thin bundle of fibers and scooted towards the earth. Almost there, almost…
He lost his grip.
Like a stone, he tumbled down, the air screaming in his ears. All thoughts flew to the back of his mind, buried under the blinking sign in his brain that reminded himself that he wasn’t holding the rope anymore. The mat was too far right for him to land on, so he braced himself for full impact with the gym floor. As said floor was rushing to meet his face, Shan muttered the words “stupid hands” with his last breath, his body suddenly collapsing to the ground. As his eyes started to close, Shan could hear the terrified screams of his classmates just realizing what happened. And, somewhere off in what seemed like the distance, he swore he could hear a woman’s voice saying “What’s everyone so freaked out about?”
And that was the end of Shan Desmon.