Chapter 13
“Now, I’m passing out a packet of all of the things we are going to cover during this year. On this paper, you will find a variety of titles. This could be novels, short stories, or videos. We will be studying them all, and we are going to start today. Would each person in the back of the room get enough books for your row and pass them out?” Holidee sat in her desk like a zombie. School had officially started one hour, forty-two minutes, and fifteen seconds ago. She was in her English class, and she was in the back row. She didn’t mind the back row, though. She could almost always get away with taking naps or dozing off, but not in English. Oh no! The teacher walked around the room like a vulture circling her prey. She waited and fed on any student who so much as rested their head on their hand. Everyone had to sit upright in his or her chair. It was a gruesome fifty minutes.
Holidee slowly stood up and walked to the back of the room. She picked up four books. Then she walked back to her row and passed them out one by one. Once she sat down, the teacher started talking again.
“Open your books to the first chapter. We will read the first chapter aloud, and the second chapter will be your homework for tonight.” Everyone groaned. Homework on the first day back. Now that was torture. It was evil. “Uh…Ms. Galygin, would you begin?” Holidee looked blankly down at the page. Then she began groggily reading.
“A throng of bearded men, in sad-colored garments, and gray, steeple-crowned hats, intermixed with women, some wearing hoods and others bareheaded, was assembled in front of a wooden edifice, the door of which was heavily timbered with oak, and studded with iron spikes.”
“Thank you. Matthew, would you continue, please?”
“The founders of a new colony, whatever Utopia of human virtue and happiness they might originally project, have invariably recognized it among their earliest practical necessities to allot a portion of the virgin soil as a cemetery, and another portion as the site of a prison. In accordance with this rule, it may safely be assumed that…” Holidee’s mind drifted. She thought about the ocean and how trapped she felt inside these walls. She thought about Zeke and Tom and wondered if they would keep their promise. She thought about Micrip at home and Mer and Crix working. She thought about lunch and how disgusting it would taste. But most of all, she thought about her next class. For once, she was excited about her next class. Not only was it an advanced biology class, but it also was taught by none other than, Crix himself. Holidee smiled to herself when she thought about calling him Mr. Jublemaker. It would sound so weird to her.
“Ms. Galygin! And what do you think is so funny about prison?” Holidee brought her mind back to class.
“Uh…”
“I’m waiting.” What a noisome limacine.
“Well, Ms. Walkter,” she said, tauntingly. “I, my self, find prisons very…convenient. I mean where else can you live, eat, and go to the bathroom all in one room? And it’s free. Just imagine what life would be like if we based our living conditions off of prisons. There would be no electricity bills, cuz you could light your house with a candle. Your plumbing bill would be lower than the price of gas. You wouldn’t have to wait in line to go to the bathroom, because there would be no door to wait behind. You wouldn’t have to worry about staying clean, cuz the vapors from your pee would gather in the air that you breathe. We would cut down on space, which would ultimately cut down on junk we have that we don’t use, which would also lower the amount of trash that piles up whoknowswhere. More foreigners, or aliens as they are officially known, could populate here. We would be an even more diverse country, and we’d be known for our distinct smell instead of the pollution we create. So, I guess it is kinda funny when you think about. Here we are giving money to the government who uses our money to house criminals, rapists, murderers, thieves, con men or women, druggies, addicts, and the list goes on. And then when they get out, if they do, they do the same things they did before, but now, they have a better mind set. They can eat, sleep, and live for free. They don’t have to pay to live, when here we are, paying to live, breathe, learn, work, worship, drive, relax, etc.” Ms. Walkter stared at Holidee in shock. Holidee was impressed with herself. Wow. Where did that come from? She was sick of being pushed around and thought of as unimportant. She was just as important as any other kid in this school, if not more. If this was any other day, Ms. Walkter would have sent Holidee to the office. She was too shocked, though, to say or do anything. All of the kids in that class stared at her too. Five minutes ticked by. Then ten. Holidee was getting annoyed. She tapped her finger and then finally got up out of her seat. “If you’re just going to stare at me, then I might as well leave. I’m obviously a distraction to the rest of the class and I’m sure as heck not learning anything. So, I’ll see you all tomorrow. Good day.” She flung her backpack over one shoulder and walked out of the classroom without one second glance. She knew exactly where to go. She walked outside and headed for the third building on her left, the science building. She walked to the first door and opened it. The classroom was empty. She walked into the odd-smelling room and sat down at a table. She set her book bag down on the floor after she took out the book they were reading in her previous class. She flipped it open to the first chapter and finished reading. She began reading the second chapter, but then threw the book down on the table.
“This is so stupid!” She then spotted a device that teetered with a blue liquid in it, sloshing back and forth. It reminded Holidee of the ocean. She walked closer to it and sat down right in front of it. She watched it with desire and fascination. She closed her eyes and remembered the ocean. She remembered the warmth of its touch. She remembered the smell of its comfort. It was her home, and she missed it already.
“Holidee?” She opened her eyes and turned to face Crix. “What’re you doing here? Don’t you have class?” To lie or not to lie. She hopped down off of the stool. She walked up to him and hugged him. She breathed in the cologne that lingered about him. He looked down at her. “Is everything alright?” She let go of him.
“Yeah. I just needed to see a familiar face.” She turned and looked back at the wave-making thingamajig.
“Miss the ocean, do ya?” He touched her arm, so that she would turn around to face him. “C’mere. Why don’t you help me set up for my next class?”
“I’m here next period.”
“I know, and boy do I have a surprise for you!” Holidee smiled.
“Okay, but do I have to call you Mr. Jublemaker?” Crix laughed.
“You can call me whatever you want…when we’re not in class. Otherwise, yes, you have to call me Mr. Jublemaker when you’re in class. Sorry. Rules are rules. Now, c’mon.” He led her into his office to pick up some things. He thrust a box into Holidee’s arms, picked up another box and then led her outside. Outside? Awesome!
“So…what’s in this box?”
“You’ll see.” They continued walking across the green grass. “Okay. You can set it down right here.” Holidee dropped the box. Crix set down the box he was carrying and sat down. “Why don’t you go back to the classroom and, when the whole class is there, lead them here?”
“Okay. Be back soon.” Holidee walked to the classroom and sat on a table. She looked at the clock. There’s still ten minutes before the bell rings. She took out her book and forced herself to read. The minutes ticked by and in no time the bell rang. Holidee put the book away and waited for her classmates to enter the classroom. She wondered who would be in her advanced biology class. They have to love biology, and they have to be really good students. She also wondered if there would be any Oceains in her class. Kids started to filter into the room. She watched each one as they walked through the door. The first few were the kids who hated to be late. Then next came a tripod of girls. They laughed at some secret that only they knew. Two boys walked in next. They were jocks on the football team. More kids slowly came. Holidee saw only one person who looked like they could be an Oceain, and she had very pale eyes, which made
Holidee wonder if she knew of her heritage at all. The bell rang. Now Holidee had to get the class’ attention. This outta be good.
“Excuse me? Um…could you be a little quieter? Excuse me?” No one was listening. No one cared. Everyone was talking loudly and ignoring Holidee. Then two more kids walked into the classroom. Stragglers. Holidee looked up and saw who they were. The Hakeber twins. Everyone knew who they were. When it came to academics, they were at the top of the class. When it came to the hottest girl and hottest guy, they came pretty darn close. When it came to troublemakers and schemers, they beat out everyone. They rarely got in trouble because they rarely got caught. They aced every test, including the SAT and ACT. They had broken just about every rule, including the unwritten one about cliques. They were the smartest of the smart. They were the slyest of the sly. They always looked good, no matter what the weather was like. They were loved, respected, and idolized by everyone at the school. Rip and Rebekah Hakeber. The two most popular kids at school had just walked into Holidee’s biology class. No way would they listen to her. No way. They walked into the room. Rip high-fived the other two football players, and Rebekah joined the chatty girls. Rip then turned and looked at Holidee. He looked at me! He looked at me? That’s when Holidee noticed it. His eyes. They were silver gray. They were silver gray. He must be part Oceain! I’d say about a fourth, if not more! Wow. Who would’ve thought? Holidee smiled as the dark brown haired boy turned back to his friends. I’d better get them rounded up. Oh, boy. “Uh…excuse me? Can I have your attention? Everyone? Could you quiet down? Please?” No use. No more Ms. Nice Girl. Holidee hopped off of the desk and walked to the chalkboard. Rip and Rebekah turned their heads to see what Holidee was doing. Holidee picked up a piece of chalk. Then she pressed as hard as she could against the chalkboard to make a high-pitched screeching sound. Everyone immediately stopped talking and covered their ears. Rip and Rebekah were the only ones not to cover their ears. They just simply smiled. Once Holidee stopped, everyone looked at her. “Class is outside. I’m here to take you there. C’mon.” She grabbed her backpack and headed out the door. Rip and Rebekah did the same and followed. Then, once Rip and Rebekah headed for the door, everyone else followed. Holidee led them to the little hill Crix was sitting on. He was reading a thin book. Once he saw them approaching, he shut the book and smiled.
“Got ‘em all here okay, Holidee?” Holidee nodded and set her stuff down. “In two minutes, I’ll start class. Take a seat close enough to hear.” Holidee sat down on the soft grass and watched an ant struggle over a stick.
“This seat taken?” Holidee looked up to see Rip standing over her. Holidee stuttered.
“Uh…yes. I mean no. No, it’s not taken.” Rip laughed and sat down.
“Hey! Bek! Come sit!” Then Rebekah walked over and sat down on the other side of Holidee. What is going on? Holidee looked from one twin to the other. “So, it’s Holidee, right?”
“Uh…yeah.”
“Cool. I’m Rip and this is Rebekah.”
“You can call me Bekah.”
“Uh…hi. I’m Holidee, like you said.” Stupid! “So, I didn’t know you were taking advanced bio.”
“Yeah! We love biology! Best thing ever! Besides the ocean of course.” Holidee smiled. “But you know that, don’t you?” Holidee stopped smiling.
“What? Huh?”
“C’mon, you don’t have to play dumb. Everyone knows about you. You’re Holidee Galygin. Last Pureblood Oceain. Last hope for our race.” Our. He said our.
“Yeah, but how do you-“
“Like he said. Everyone knows who you are. At least, everyone of the Oceain race.”
“Oh. Wow.” Then one of the football players came over and sat down beside Rip.
“We’ll continue our conversation later.” Rip turned toward the linebackers. “Hey guys. Hey, I want you to meet someone. Guys, this is Holidee. Holidee, this is Kyle and Nick.” They said hi. “We play football together.”
“Yeah. I know.”
“Alright class! Let’s get settled down.” Everyone got quiet and looked at Crix.
“I heard this Mr. Jublemaker really knows what he’s doing.” Kyle whispered.
“Of course he does.” Holidee interrupted. The boys and Rebekah looked at her. “I…uh…I kinda know him.”
“Kinda?” Bekah looked at Holidee questioningly. Kyle and Nick lost interest in the conversation and went back to listening to Crix.
“Well,” Holidee lowered her voice. “He’s my Guardian.”
“You’re-“
“Shh!”
“Sorry. Your Guardian? Whoa. Wait. You know who your Guardian is?”
“Yeah. ‘Cuz he’s the one who is teaching me everything about…well, you know.”
“Yeah, but isn’t there someone else who can?”
“No. My godmother isn’t an Oceain. But her and Crix got married over the summer. It’s pretty cool.”
“Crix?”
“Oops. Sorry. I’m not supposed to call him that at school.” Holidee laughed. “Mr. Jublemaker.” Rip and Rebekah smiled.
“That’s awesome.” They turned their attention back to Crix.
“Okay, today, I will pass out something to each and every one of you. It is a notebook. A journal. You will carry it with you everywhere you go. It will come to class everyday. It will leave class everyday. You will not only take notes in this notebook, but you will collect specimens and anything that you feel important. I will explain in a moment. Holidee, would you come help me please?” Without waiting for an answer, Crix started to open one of the boxes. Holidee got up and helped him. He handed her a stack of books and she gave one to each student. Each journal was a different color. Each journal was a different size and shape. Each one unique. Crix took out on last journal and handed it to Holidee, smiling. It was the color of the ocean. Blues and greens mixed together like the rolling waves. Six words were written very small along the waves. ‘Believe in Hope. Hope to Believe.’ Holidee looked up at Crix who smiled back at her.
“Okay class. Now, open to the first page in your notebook.” Holidee walked back to the twins and sat down. They smiled at each other when they saw the colors and the words on Holidee’s journal. “Now, you will date every entry you make. You need to have at least three entries per week. At the end of school year, I will collect them. I will read them. I will evaluate them. I will grade them. They do not have to be accurate. They do, however, have to be supported with a very strong opinion and facts. This is advanced biology. So I don’t want anything that a two year old could write. I will expect your thoughts, opinions, and feelings. I want your mind and spirit. Don’t think of this as an assignment. Think of it as documentation. You are observing the world around you. You are the writer and scientist. You are the teacher.”
“This assignment sounds pretty cool.”
“Yeah. And fun. This cannot be the whole thing. No way. It’s too easy and…well…fun.”
“All you are going to do today is walk around and write anything and collect anything that you find interesting. I’m here to help you if you have any questions. Don’t wander too far.” Everyone stood up. Most of them stayed in small pods. Rip, Rebekah, and Holidee stuck together and sat down under a tree. Holidee could tell they weren’t too worried about the assignment at the moment.
“So,” Rip started after they sat down and pretended to examine a leaf. “What’s it like?”
“What’s what like?” Rebekah looked at her.
“Being you.”
“What do you mean?”
“C’mon. Don’t things just come to you? You’re like the most powerful Oceain. You can do everything. You’re ‘the hope of the people’. Our people, at least. I mean, we can only do little things right now. Nothing big. What about you?” Holidee thought about it for a moment. She put life back into Crix. She saved Zeke, twice. She saved a few hundred animals.
“Nothing big, really.”
“I bet you’re just saying that.??
? Holidee smiled. The three of them stopped talking for a while and started on their assignment. The minutes ticked by.
“Alright, class. The bell’s gonna ring in about five minutes. Pack up your stuff and I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“So, Holidee, what class do you have next?”
“Uh, hang on. Let me check.” Holidee pulled out her schedule. “Huh. I have pre-cal next.”
“Pre-cal, huh? Have fun with that. I have weight lifting and Bek, here, has…journalism, right?”
“Yeah. Then what do you have.” Holidee looked down at her schedule again.
“Lunch.”
“Cool. Same here. Why don’t you sit with us at lunch. We usually eat in A lunchroom.” The bell rang. “See ya then!” Rip and Rebekah walked in opposite directions. Holidee looked down at her schedule and then headed for E building.
“Holidee! Hey, Holidee! Over here!” Holidee turned and saw Rip waving her over to a table packed with jocks, cheerleaders, and other popular kids. Holidee could see she didn’t belong, but Rip kept waving her over. She walked toward their table. Rip and Rebekah parted so that Holidee could sit down. “Hey. We were beginning to think you weren’t coming.”
“Sorry. I had to get homework for pre-cal.”
“Homework already? Wow. Who’s your teacher?”
“Ms. Calberkin.”
“Ew. Sorry. Tough luck. No one likes her.” Holidee looked around at everyone sitting at the table. They were all looking at her. “Oh! I’m sorry. Everyone, this is Holidee. Holidee, this is…well, everyone.” Rip laughed. Everyone was still staring at her.
“Uh, hi?”
“Its cool, guys.” Holidee could tell not every one of them believed him. Holidee just wished she could turn herself invisible.
Ten minutes later, Rip, Rebekah, and Holidee were walking down the hall to their next class.
“Well, that could have gone better.” Rip was referring to lunch. Holidee laughed.
“Yeah.” A pause. “They think I’m really weird.”
“But you are weird.” Holidee looked at Rebekah.
“Yeah.” Rip agreed. Rip saw Holidee’s expression change. He smiled. “Hey. Just remember. It’s your true friends who stand by your side, even though you’re weird.” Holidee looked at him.
“So…does that mean we’re friends?” Rip and Rebekah looked at each other and smiled.
“Yeah. I guess it does.”
“Well, you know what I’m gonna do? I’m gonna go home and sleep.” Another football player shook his head.
“No way. Not me. Not in this beautiful weather.”
“Hey. I didn’t say where I was going to go to sleep. Maybe I’ll sleep outside in the sunshine.” The group of guys laughed. There were about eighteen of them. It was around two-thirty in the afternoon. The bell for the end of the first day of school had rung twenty minutes earlier.
“Hey, why don’t we all go play a little football?”
“Hey, I think Mark has football fever.” The guys laughed.
“Nah. Really. What do ya think?”
“Sounds good to me.” Others agreed. “Whaddaya think Zeke?”
“Sure. A little football never hurt anybody.” Everyone laughed.
“Not you maybe.” Zeke laughed.
“What do you think, Tom?”
“Sounds fun.”
“Alright then. Let’s head for the field!” They all cheered. Zeke and Tom laughed. Then Zeke spotted someone. Someone with ocean blue eyes. She was walking in the opposite direction as them. Tom saw Zeke starring and turned to see who or what it was. He smiled. Zeke, without turning his head, tapped Tom on the shoulder. Tom shook his head.
“Hey, uh, guys? I’ll, uh, catch up with ya in a little bit.” They all turned to look at Zeke, but he had already left the pack.
“Hey. Wait up.” Holidee turned and saw Zeke running her way. Holidee stopped.
“Hey.”
“Hey.” He stopped to catch his breath. “You walking home?”
“Yeah. I always do. I only live a few blocks that way.”
“Oh. Can I walk with you?”
“But you don’t live this way.” Pause. “Do you?”
“No, but…” Holidee started walking again, and Zeke followed. “…I want to walk with you.” Man, that was cheesy. “I don’t know. Maybe I can walk you home everyday. That way we can catch up on things since we don’t have class together.” Holidee thought about it.
“Okay.”
“So how was your first day of school?”
“Pretty good. Yours?”
“Alright.” Holidee looked at him. “It was boring compared to the summer I had.” Holidee laughed.
“I bet.” The two of them talked all the way to Holidee’s house. Then, after Zeke said good-bye, he headed for the football field.