Chapter Four
Evan dressed in Jeff’s clothes and messed with his hair, again, before heading down the stairs. He grabbed his pack and hugged his mother. Evan walked to school at a leisurely pace. He left early enough that he could take time to think about the new school year. How he would act and what he would say. He thought about girls, and wondered if any would notice him. He thought about Jeff and how he wasn’t around to help with any of this, like he was supposed to. He couldn’t help but feel a little abandoned. He was a little wary of school. What if the kids didn’t like the way he dressed. Jeff was supposed to be standing by his side. The two of them were invincible, but alone. Well, alone Evan felt not so secure. He slowed his pace down a little more. There was no rush to get school early, he only needed to get there on time. Evan finally arrived at Deerborne High School with only five minutes left before the bell. The buses still sat parked in the loading zone, and groups of teenagers all seemed preoccupied already. He walked fairly undetected into the school and headed to his Homeroom classroom. He wasn’t the first person in the class either. Two girls sat on the far right front talking to each other. They took no notice of him, then the bell rang. Students poured into the classroom, and the tardy bell rang. The teacher entered from the side door holding a cardboard box. The dull buzzing of the student’s conversations hushed. The man smiled briefly, it was a forced smile. “We are doing something new this year. With the influx of new students being bussed in from Studemont High, they want to be able to keep track of who you are. So, I am going to be handing out your Student I.D. badges.” The tall, thin man walked to the desk and set the box down. “Keep these I.D.s on you and visible at all times.” The man held up an identification card attached to a thick navy blue nylon ribbon. The teacher placed it over his neck and showed the students how they were to wear it. Jennifer Enind came up to Evan in the hallway after Homeroom was over. “What do you think about this?” She turned her card over and pointed to a small bulge at the bottom center of the card. “It’s a tracking device.” she whispered as she moved closer to him. “Did you hear them say how we have to drop them off at Homeroom before we go home each day?” she looked around to see if anyone was eavesdropping. “They say it’s so we wont take them home and loose them, or forget to bring them back. But it’s really because they don’t want us to take them home and show our parents.” She moved away and dangled her card in the air. “I’m taking mine home. I’ll just say I forgot to drop it off. It’s a new thing, they will believe me.” “I’m sure lots of kids will do that anyway, just because they forget.” Evan assured her and rushed off to his first class.Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141