Chapter.1
Stress and Infliction

High school never failed to wear my mind down. From nights I relentlessly think about my grades, and others, I seem to completely avoid. There's always something waiting for me there. It could be associated with someone I could continue to dislike further. Such as my teacher Ms. James. I don’t even have to be in the room to get into trouble.

Her blackish brown eyes seem to wander around in sight of trouble. she lives off of our misery and is the vampire of my life. Always breathing down my neck waiting to catch a glimpse to humiliate me. Her long, skinny body stiffens as the sound of a cough disturbs the silence. Knuckles, pale as a ghost pat away on her desk. I just attempt to ignore the painful rhythm. Yet it’s all worth to see the gorgeous Kaitlin Borkowski. Short and fair, she continues to sway boys into her grasp, but I was never one she would find suitable.She always seems lost in the classes. Sits in the back, minding her own business, but someone always sher seems to interrupt her silence.
“Mr. Pierce…”

My head whips forward to only be looked down of by Ms. James. “I would appreciate it if you could keep your head forward and not on Ms. Borkowski, can that be accomplished?”

I hear the whole room erupt with their silent whispers and giggles. I can feel the heat rise from my chest to my face. It’s an overpowering feeling that continues to be a great regret of me. First, my body sweats from the heat. Then i’m red like a raspberry.All blushed of embarrassment. Yet what's worst of all… I shake. Such names I get called because of this embarrassing act. “Quakey Iden” or “Iden the Earthquake” just have no irrelevant meaning to each other. I look up at my teacher slowly, “Yes.. m’ am.” I don’t even to want to imagine Kaitlin’s face right now, I might just crumble.

I retreat into my sweater slowly, like a turtle too scared to come out of his shell. I try to ignore constant whispers of the classroom as I sit there completely helpless.

The bell rings and I rush out the door faster than everyone else. I get around to my bus outside the school.
“Yo, Iden!” It’s my friend Alec who's a junior in our high school. We’re friends, we have been since the beginning of the year, its just hard for me to be around him because of how discluded I am from his group. “You doing anything after school?” He messes with his thermos in his hand, opening and closing the lid multiple times.
“Uh no, I don’t think so.” I check my phone for any messages, seeing I had none I shut it off.
“You should stay after with me, I got something.” He smiles a little while his friends seem to busy to notice I was there.
“Uhm alright, i’ll text my parents real quickly.”I sent a quick message, “Staying after for homework.” A few seconds later I received a message.”
“Okay, stay safe.” I click my phone off again.

“Yah I can stay after.” Alec nods in approval.
“Alright, hey guys, i’m gonna go to the woods with Iden. I’ll meet you later at Jenn’s.” His friends all wave him off and he motions me to follow. We walk to the back of the school into the patch of woods.
“Alec is this necessary?” I call out.
“Yah dude I have to show you this.” He bounds into the woods with a joyful skip. I had no idea what there was to be so excited about, even the fact he wanted to show me. He continues to skip down a dirt path for another minute looks back at me and stops.

“Alright!” He drops his backpack off his shoulders onto the ground, and starts to dig around pulling binders and books out of his bag. While hes rummaging around, I look up into the trees. Noticing all the vibrant colors of fall descend down to the ground. Sadly, the grey day and sky made so many of these beautiful things depressing.
“How have you been buddy?” I hear Alec call out, still in search of what the surprise is.

“Oh, you know, stressed. I was only embarrassed in front of everyone today.” I shove my hands in my pockets and sit down on a nearby stump.
“Ms. James?” He says still looking around.
“Yeah..” I hate how everyday I stress going into that classroom, only to know that this embarrassment happens too often. Should be an expectation by now.
“YES!” Alec jumps up with this little bottle in his hand. A clear bottle with a clasp lid and inside, a green herb.
“Alec.. What is that?” I say pointing.
“Haha! You’ll see my friend.” He takes out a pipe and puts the green herb into the cup at the end of the pipe.
Alec, I can’t. I’m in sports and do you know what they would do if I smoked that?!?” He takes out a lighter from his back pocket, puts the pipe up to his mouth, and lit the drug on fire. He inhales with a wisp of air, holds, and exhales softly a large puff of smoke. He extends his arms with pipe and lighter in hand.
“Dude, just try it.” I hesitate. I reachout, stop, then grab the pipe and lighter. I put the pipe in my mouth, light it up, and inhale. Immediately my throat and lungs are burning. I hack trying to get the burn to go away. Alec reaches down and hands me a water to wash it down.

I felt relaxed all the sudden, like a heavy weight has been lifted from my body and I felt like I could fly. I reach out for the pipe and and Alec hands it to me smiling.
   

   Lights
    Inhales
     Holds
      Cough, and pass

We did this back and forth for about 10 minutes. I couldn’t believe the change. I remember the extravagant feeling of adrenaline run through me. I hear the melodious sound of “What I Know” by Parachute fill this empty forest. Alec and I, hand in hand, waltz to the fast upbeat song. Not even 10 seconds or even 40 and we were on the ground.Alec starts to make leaf angels and rolls around in the damp dirt. As he rolled away, I staggered up and followed his body. I skip and jump like Mario and make elephant noises at Alec as he lays in the dirt still.
I check my phone with some sense of reality that I had.

3:05 no… 4:05 then back to 3:05, my eyes changed. “HAHA, Alec you gotta come see this.” Alec, laying pathetically on the ground, twitches to life and attempts to stand.
“Mmmf, what do you want?” He stumbles and leans against a tree.

“What does this say?” Staggering I show him the phone, while he squints at the screen.

“Uhhh, 3:05.” He says confidently. I nearly drop to the ground as I rush for my bag.
“Where you goin?” He says arms raised in question.
“Dude, I almost forgot I have basketball.” I sling my bag on my shoulders.

“Wait, wait, you’ll need this.” He hands me a stick of gum and I don’t hesitate to ask what for. I shove all of it in my mouth.
“ Dude… You forgot to unwrap it.” Alec chuckles and covers his mouth with his hand. I continue to chew on it, tasting the fruity… no paper… Wait fruity gum.

“ Thanks.” I felt a whole lot better compared to what I felt earlier this afternoon. “ NOTHING CAN BRING ME DOWN ALEC!” I bounded towards the school in the same merrily skip as Alec had when we entered the forest.

As I entered the school, and was about to open the boys locker room door, my friend Toby walked by.
“Hey Iden, you ready for tryouts?”

“YEAH, COMPLETELY READY!” He stares at me weirdly for a second and continues to walk towards the gym. I got into the locker room, changed,and rushed out.

“ 3:11 common Iden.” I say hushed to myself. I got on the court just in time everyone was lined up, and stretched out. It was hard to hide just how happy I was, and how stress free i felt, because I couldn’t help but smile like an idiot.

I came home, showered, did my homework, and went off to bed. I’m pretty sure I ruined tryouts for myself because I couldn’t take anything seriously. I layed in my bed, wide awake.
    10:45
     10:46
      10:47
I heard a buzz from the other room. I sat up in my bed and looked at the crack in my door that was half closed. I wanted to make sure my parents were off in bed so it was safe to check what the buzz was. I look out the crack and darkness surrounds my livingroom. even further down my house I can see the bathroom lit by a small night light for my little sister.

“Neeeeeeeeeyaaaaaaah” I cringe as my door creaks open with this scratching clicking grind against the metal clasps that have held this door for more than my 15 years. I wait for he shouts of my parent telling me to go back to bed, but since nothing breaks the awkward silence, I move towards my phone. I pick up my phone and click it on. A new number had texted my
“ Hey, you still up?” I text back
“Yah, I’ve been up. Who is this?” I stand there awkwardly waiting for a response. Few seconds later my phone buzzes on.
“ That doesn’t matter right now.”

“Uhm, okay. What do you want?” I reply quickly.

“Do you want to be my partner in Ms. James class? I’m having a rough time understanding the project.”
“Yeah uh sure. But can I know who this is first?” I hear a creak come from my parents room. I run as fast and as silently as I can to my bathroom and shut the door. My phone buzzes
“It’s Kaitlin.”