Black Jester: Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I stood at the foot of Diablo High, looking quietly onto the large beige buildings looming ahead of me. I groaned inwardly, cursing the school in my head. Why was summer vacation only three months? Freshmen like me need more time to unwind and just relax. I didn’t even have enough time to go on a vacation. I could almost hear what a mom would have said- “That’s because all you do is play video games over summer.”

My friends-ahem- friend, thinks I’m crazy for actually wanting someone to tell me what to do. I couldn’t disagree more. It must be nice to have people to provide for you, and work to make sure you have enough food, or a roof to cover your head.

I don’t really know what happened with my parents. The daycare told me that I had been left on the doorstep, with a note saying my name.

Hah! Not. What do you think this is? A fairytale? My parents dumped me on the front step with nothing other than a little blanket. The second I got old enough, I left the orphanage and used the minimal amount of schooling they had given me to secure myself a place in Diablo High. The deal was that they wouldn’t charge me tuition as long as I kept all my grades above a B.

So, my wonderful summer vacation was spent mowing the lawn and taking care of an old man’s house in return for being able to stay in one of the rooms. I mow the lawns for the neighborhood in order to buy food and clothes, so all in all, it isn’t such a bad deal.

A boy bumped into me as he hurried past, startling me out of my reverie. I hoped the English class didn’t have an essay for what we did over summer- I don’t think my classmates would be interested in the intricate ways of mowing lawns.

A bell rang out, announcing the five minute warning before class started. I glanced quickly at my schedule.

Period 1:Geography Room 100

Period 2: Math Room 201

Period 3: Physical Education-Boys Room Gym

Period 4: Free Period Room 250

Period 5:English Room 166

Period 6: Elective review- Temporary period, will be changed this week Room Meet at Lunch Hall

“Room 100. Where would that be?” I wondered out loud, and hurried into the nearest building.

I bumped into a large man standing in the center of the hall. He rolled his eyes.

“What room are you looking for?”

I grinned sheepishly. “Room 100”

He pointed at the building across from the one I was in. “Just go through the doors and turn right, It’s the first one.”

I thanked him and ran into the other building. I turned right at the hallway, and my eyes landed on a little plate with the words “Room 100” Printed neatly on it.

I threw the door open and lunged into the nearest open desk just as the bell rung.

The whole class stared at me, including the teacher. One boy chuckled.

“Nice save.”

The teacher rolled her eyes. “There’s always that one bad fish, isn’t there?”

A boy opened his mouth to answer, but he was immediately pieced by a dagger. From her eyes, that is. She glared at him until his mouth closed, and her glare instantly turned back into a smile.

“Welcome to Geography. Today, we’ll take this class period to get to know each other. Find out the names of the people sitting on your left and right, and what they did over summer. You’ll be graded on your ability to remember what they told you.”

I groaned inwardly. This was the very thing I had been hoping to avoid. Thanks, Murphy. I turned slowly to the girl on my left. Her lower jaw moved rapidly as she chewed on gum. She was blathering to her friend about clothes and cute dogs.

I cleared my throat. “Ah, excuse me?”

She looked quickly over at me. “Ugh. What do you want?” She droned the last word on for almost two seconds.

“We’re supposed to find out each other’s names and what we did over summer.” I replied.

“Ugh. Do we have to?” She drawled.

I sighed. “Yes.”

“Ugh. My name’s Jess. ‘Kay? I went ta’ Hawaii.”

I nodded. “I’m Sean. I…played video games.” I lied.

She turned back to her conversation, and I looked at the boy next to me. He was easily double my size, and I stared in surprise at him. I wasn’t the tallest kid in the class, but I was nowhere near the shortest. The kid next to me was a giant!

He grunted. “John. I went surfing.”

“Sean. I played video games.” I replied.

“That’s more than enough time! Please be quiet like good children!” The teacher called.

I rolled my eyes. “Kill me now.” I whispered to John.

A tiny snort came out of his nose.

“Since nobody was sitting next to me, I’ll introduce myself. My name is Ms. Millens, and I spent this summer at Lake Tahoe.”

She pointed at a boy at the far left of the front row. “You, go first. Who are you, and who is the young man on your right, and what did he do over summer?”

“I’m Billy. The dude sitting on my right is Leo. He went on a cruise.”

Ms. Millens nodded. “Now, Leo. You go.”

“The person on my left is Billy, and he went to texas. The girl on my right, and her name is Jess, and she went to Hawaii.”

Jess smacked her lips. “The person on my right is Sebastian, and he played video games.”

I sighed. “It’s Sean.”

The teacher glared at me, as if angry at me for telling someone how to pronounce my own name.

“The person on my right is John, and he went surfing.” I said.

The rest of the class was the same, and I nearly jumped for joy when the bell rang.

I bolted out of the classroom before the teacher could say anything, and followed little paper signs someone had placed on the hallways for freshmen.

I opened the door to the math class, and peeked inside. My eyes scanned the room, and instantly latched onto the one person I never thought I would find.

It was Jenna! I had met her in elementary school where we had become friends, and had loved her since 6th grade. I stared in surprise for a moment, before I snapped out of it.

I slipped into the room, sitting down next to her. Jenna looked up from the book she was reading at me. “Oh, Sean! We’re in the same math class!”

I rolled my eyes. “Sherlock would want you as his sidekick.”

She smirked, and punched me in the arm. I winced, and rubbed it. “Oi, watch it. Not all of us are pro fighters.”

She sighed. “Not all of us are wimps either.”

The math teacher cleared his throat. “Excuse me, but please do not touch another student.”

We both grimaced at him, but I took my math book out and opened it to the page on the board.

The math class couldn’t have been more boring. Normally, math was one of my favorite subjects, but the teacher, Mr. Parker, spoke like a robot and looked like a pear. I was in the midst of imagining what a fruit salad would look like with him in it when the bell rang, causing me to hurl my hurl my book into the air. I snatched it before it hit the ground, and Mr. Parker gave me an angry look.

Kids started to stand up to leave, and he cleared his throat. “Ahem, the bell does not dismiss you. I do.”

“Then what’s the bell for?” A boy responded.

“You can go now!” He said, completely ignoring him.

The class charged out of the room, sending several unfortunate kids tumbling to the floor.

Jenna and I burst out of the mob, and hurried out of the building to the outside.

“That was really boring.” Jenna sighed.

I smirked. “I’m pretty sure Mr. Parker is a pear that turned into a human.”

Jenna laughed. “What’s your next class?”

“I’ve got PE. What about you?”

“I’ve got my Free Period next. I’ll see you at lunch then?”

I grinned. “Yeah.”

She spun, and walked away. A heavy hand landed on my shoulder. My head snapped around to see John.

“She’s a cute one. Heh, she’s barely a quarter of my size!”

I glared at him, and he smirked.

“You have PE next?” He asked.

I nodded. “That’s cool. I don’t.”

I frowned. He shrugged at me, and walked away. I headed towards the Gym, following the little white directors. I was intercepted from my path to the Gym by a lanky man with dusty brown hair.

“Yo! You must be Mr. Shatter?”

I grimaced. “Please just call me Sean. Are you the P.E. teacher?”

“That I am, yo! There was a slight mix-up in the schedule, and it said “Gym” instead of “Locker room”. Just head down this hallway, and you’ll see it. Ya’ got that?”

He pointed down a hallway to our left. I shrugged, pulling my backpack higher up on my shoulder. The teachers here were nut jobs.

The locker room wasn’t anything special, but it was a bit nicer than the one I had in Junior High. There were several other kids already there, wandering aimlessly around the locker room. I dropped my backpack onto the floor with a thump, and sat down on top of it.

A bell rang, signaling the start of class, and the P.E. teacher burst through the doors. He practically skidded to a stop in front of the teeming mass of kids, before throwing a large sheathe of white papers into the air.

“Yo! You need to bring one of these to you parents or guardians- It’s your uniform paper. I was gonna give ‘em to ya’ at the end of class, but I wanted to make an entrance.”

A kid in the back of the class chuckled. “You aren’t supposed to tell us that.”

The coach shrugged. “Ya’ll can call me Mr. Bob.”

Several kids, including myself, had to restrain a laugh. One boy carefully raised his hand.

“Excuse me, Mr…Bob, but aren’t you supposed to use your last name after Mr.?”

Mr. Bob nodded cheerfully. “Yes, what of it?”

The boy’s mouth flapped for a moment, and then snapped shut. Mr. Bob shrugged.

“If you happen to have money on you right now, ya’ can buy yourself your uniform now. If ya’ don’t, play catch with someone for today. I’ve got stuff to do.”

He spun on his heel, and walked into the little removed section that the coaches have. The class stared mutely at him for a while, and he returned our stare. A minute passed, a little ball of crumpled flyer paper sailed across the room. Instantly, everyone burst into action, scrunching up the flyers and hurling them at each other.

My stomach rumbled loudly, but was thankfully drowned out by the laughs echoing around the room. When was lunch again?

I stood up, and carefully made my way to Mr. Bob, and cleared my throat.

“What is it?” He asked.

“Ah, I was just wondering when lunch was.”

“That’s my favorite period! It’s right after 3rd period, which is this one. Have ya’ ever gone off campus for lunch?”

I shook my head. “No. This will be my first time. Do you have any recommendations?”

I mentally slapped myself. Who asks the crazy dude where to go for lunch? He’d probably end up sending me to a Ballet school instead of a restaurant or snack shop.

A smirk flashed across his face quickly, morphing smoothly back into his apparently normal lopsided grin.

“Sure I do! It’s just a block or two down from here. It’s a nice little place called Abel’s Kitchen. They aren’t too pricy, and they have discounts for students!”

I nodded my thanks, and walked back to my backpack. The other students were still having a paper- hurling war, and flyers were littered across the room. I picked up the nearest one, and looked for the prices.

“Ah, there it is. $10 for both the top and bottom, along with an extra payment of your soul.”

I smirked. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who had looked into the papers, because someone started showing other kids around the classroom. One boy faked a seizure, collapsing onto the floor and twitching.

Someone threw a textbook at him, and it bounced off of his stomach, causing him to make a strangled sound. I sighed. The first day of school was always a waste of time. I didn’t know why I had thought high school would have been any different; it was virtually the same.

I pushed my backpack out a little, and laid my head against it. Instantly, the bell rang, and people quickly changed course from looking for ammo to charging blindly for the door. I scrambled out of the way, and grabbed my backpack.

I joined the rush of kids exiting the building, hoping to find Jenna. I had enough money to secure a reasonably nice lunch at any small restaurant, so I hoped that Mr. Bob had a good taste.

I skidded to a stop as my eyes spotted Jenna walking with a tall boy, laughing animatedly. I grimaced. It was hard to keep reminding myself that we were just friends, nothing more. I turned quickly, and strode away from the school grounds.

I hurried down a road, walking blindly in an attempt to distance myself from the school. After a few minutes, I froze. I had been heading to Abel’s Kitchen…but Mr. Bob had never actually told me where it was! He had just said it was about 2 blocks from the school.

I cursed, and looked around. I didn’t know the area too well. There was a man in a heavy trench coat walking casually towards me, and I quickly turned down a side street. The last thing I wanted was to get mugged.

I lowered my eyes to the ground, and quickly jogged forward. I bumped against something, and fell back onto my behind. I looked up to see a bundled figure in a heavy trench coat. I scrambled backwards, and jumped to my feet.

“I’m sorry!” I yelled, and sprinted away from him. How had he gotten in front of me?

I bumped into something again, and stared back up at the trench coat. Cold sweat trickled down my face.

“…How?”

I couldn’t see the figures face, but I could have sworn his mouth twisted into a grin.

He reached down, and unzipped his coat, throwing it off. It hit the ground, and burst into a little puff of flames.

The figure pulled off his large hat, and hurled it away. It too disappeared into a little ball of quiet fire.

I opened my mouth to scream for help, but something slammed into my throat. My breath blasted out of me. My hands reached up, and wrapped themselves around a dark red pole jutting out of the ground. I slowly followed it up to my neck, and felt desperately for any blood.

When I found none, I opened my mouth to scream again, but nothing came out. The figure pulled its hood down, and a shadowy face loomed before me. All I could easily make out was a shining white smile all too big for the person’s face.

I scrambled backward, and my back bumped into a wall. The pole was still pressed against my neck uncomfortably, sending pulses of pain through my body. A flame travled up the figures body, and swirled around its head before disappearing.

I forced my mouth open.

“What…a-a-are y-you?”

The figure seemed surprised.

“Just give me your money.” It said in a slippery voice.

Despite the situation, a hoarse laugh managed to escape my throat. It wanted money? A monster with a pitch black shadowy face and no eyes, that threw flaming clothes of doom, wanted a no-name high schooler’s money?

“Y-you’re not a m-mugger, m-more like a d-d-demon!”

The figure hissed, and a circle of fire expanded around its feet.

“You can see me?”

I chuckled inside my head. This thing wasn’t the smartest, that was for sure.

With a hiss, the figure lifted it’s right arm, exposing the arm of a skeleton with dark wreaths of flame dancing across it like a transparent skin.

It plunged it downwards, into my chest, and a searing pain blasted into my body. This time, I did manage a full scream, and my body arched against the fire pulsing through my veins.

Suddenly, a flash of white lit up the alley, and another figure in a white cloak popped into view. Through my fading vision, I could easily tell this one looked like a human. It was a middle aged man, with a small beard. He was holding a thin sword that seemed to glow with light.

Suddenly, he was standing next to us. The shadowy figure screeched, and two diagonal slashes appeared across it’s chest. It burst into a pillar of flame, and disappeared.

I gaped at the man. “A-are you an angel?”

He ignored me, and sheathed his sword. He held his hand out in front of him, and gold specks began to form a staff. They sharpened at the top, turning into a shining gold spear.

“Mortal, by your exposure to the Unnatural, you have lost your life. You may choose to pass on to the afterworlds- whichever you may end up in- or remain here on earth.”

I was gonna die? Aw shucks. This sound’s cliché, but I wasn’t ready to die yet.

“Save…me!” I moaned pathetically.

The angle dude shrugged, and slammed his spear down into my midriff. The world flashed white, and then everything disappeared.