Y2K part 8 Children of the night...school
Ding Ding
The final bell rang, echoing the sweet sounds of freedom down the hallways— for those who didn't have to stick around.
Not me. It's first night of night school.
I slung my backpack over one shoulder and walked out of my English 2B class with my brain half fried and stomach half empty.
English was already difficult for me, then they had to add the classical stylings of Shakespeare, ugh.
What's the point?
Although I do have to admit— it somehow worked with the Leo DiCaprio version of Romeo and Juliet. Maybe it was the guns. Or the soundtrack and setting. Still didn't make me want to talk like that.
The school buses were already gone—only leaving a faint smell of diesel in the air.
Most of the students had already cleared out but the few like myself that had after school obligations—whether voluntary or mandatory.
I made my way to the courtyard to sit at our beloved piece of paradise-the plastic coated picnic table we called the island.
It felt— lonely.
No bantering.
No random bursts of laughter or people goofing off.
Just me sprawled out across the table looking up at the sky with the sun hovering just over the summit of the Franklin mountains.
There was really no point in going home so I'll just lay here and wait til class.
The sound of clacking rifles and orders being barked broke the silence of my moment of solitude. It was the armed drill team.
I sat up grumpily and watched them from a distance.
Rifles were spinning in tight formation while being commandeered by some upperclassmen acting like a drill sergeant with a sugar rush.
Among the ones in formation was Kenny. His chest puffed and chin held high like he was hot shit. And on the other side of where the armed drill team was practicing was the unarmed drill team-led by Heather.
You could spot that curly red hair a mile away like a bullseye on a dartboard.
I shook my head at both of them. I really thought I knew the guy. Now I'm just hoping he gets smacked in the face with his own rifle.
After a while, the clatter and cadence started to blend together, and I got bored. I wandered around campus like a ghost—cutting through back halls, skipping over cracked pavement, kicking loose rocks just to hear them clink.
Eventually, I made my way to the south wing where there were vending machines still humming away. With whatever I had left for the day, I bought a Dr.Pepper and some hot fries.
I leaned back into the machines and munched on those spicy and savory chips. The small flight of stairs in that little hall have always caught my attention.
They were just begging to be used for stunts.
Looking around to see if anybody was around, I put my book bag and snacks down. I made my way up the flight and looked around again, still nobody around.
It's been a long time since I've done an aerial flip off of stairs as I used to do them all the time in elementary school and a few times in middle school.
My signature trick.
With a running start, I pushed off at the ledge of the top step. Time felt like it slowed down for that moment as my face was staring directly at steps below. My body followed through while my legs swung into the air to where I wanted to land like a cartwheel with no hands.
With my heart still racing, my feet hit the ground and felt the impact of my body landing.
"Holy shit. I still got it." I clapped and cheered in excitement.
I quickly ran up those stairs with the intent to try something new. The hand rail in the middle looked perfect to vault over.
There was a moment of hesitation on my running start but went ahead and followed through with the jump. I felt one of my feet hook the rail in the middle of the jump. Before I could react, my side was hitting the ground hard—knocking the wind completely out of me.
I quickly got up and started to dust myself in hopes nobody —
"Hey. Finally! Someone I know."
(Great. Betty. Perfect timing to see me being a jackass)
Frozen in place, I just stared at her awkwardly.
"Did...you see anything?"
"No. Was I supposed to?" Betty giggled.
I shook my head and walked to get my stuff like nothing happened. Except for the fact I still had some dust marks on my clothes.
"You're in night school?" I asked casually.
She sighed deeply. "Yeah. I have to retake an English class because of attendance issues. Long story."
"Fair enough. So were you just hanging around the whole time waiting like I've been?" I was getting curious. I started to walk towards the stairwell.
"I was at the library until the librarian had to close. It got boring quick." Betty said following me.
"I found that out too. Only I've been walking all over the place."
"It's too quiet. It gets creepy."
"Mhmm. That doesn't surprise me. They say this school is haunted."
"You're kidding"
"I'm actually serious. I didn't believe some of the stories but apparently weird shit happens at night. Random noises, shadow figures."
Betty put her hand on her hip and stared in disbelief.
"What? You don't believe me?"
She shook her head slowly.
"Okay. I'll humor you. What do you know about this school?"
"Not a lot, actually."
"Perfect. I will personally give you a tour. We got like an hour till class"
"While this school itself is only 100 years old this year, this used to be sacred indigenous land. Way before Texas became part of United States, way before this belonged to Mexico, and before the Spanish colonized these parts. It was said the Spanish built a mission around here in the 1600s. The native people did not like that and cursed those that defaced these lands." I shrugged. "I don't about that stuff. That's just whatever they talk about in history class and urban legends."
Betty rolled her eyes.
"I can tell you what is true. You know that bell tower upfront?
"Yeah. Someone tried to sell me a ticket to go there."
"Did you buy one?
"No. I'm not stupid."
"Good. That parts fake—but there's legends about that tower.
Betty shook her head. She was probably tuning me out.
"Back in the 50s or 60s, some girl jumped from there and died. People say they still see images of her and sometimes you can see shadows moving around up there at night."
Betty stopped and stared. "Someone else told me the same thing."
"Because it's true. When Lilly and I were in public speaking, we actually found the ladder to get up there. It's all chained up with lots of locks. It's in the theater room."
"Wait. Where is the theater room? I didn't realize there was one.
"It's a joke of a theater. It's really small."
"That explains why I haven't seen it. The one back home is huge."
"Want to see it? My locker is by there anyways. I need to grab my jacket."
"Sure."
As we continued to head towards there, I quickly remembered something I learned in English class.
"Oh. Get this. You see that room right there." I pointed it out. "It's part of the home economics class. There's a whole antique dining room and bathroom complete with iron claw bathtub.
"O-kay?"
"A few years ago, some movie studio filmed scenes there for Lolita with Jeremy Irons."
"Okay that's pretty cool. But isn't Lolita that one messed up story."
"Yup. My English teacher wasn't very fond of it. It was disrupting her class."
There was some random laughter coming from around the corner to where the theater was.
"What the hell?"
Betty froze beside me.
For a second, I thought it might be the haunted shadows I warned her about.
Nope.
It was worse.
Brittney Spears Baby One More Time started playing.
When we made the turn, we found ourselves witnessing all kinds of ridiculousness.
A group of girls were wearing very frumpy clothes, robber cleaning gloves, some had bandanas on their heads while the others had hair rollers. They were accessorized with over sized sunglasses and feather boas.
They were singing into a feather duster like a microphone and one girl was trying to dance seductively with a broom.
This was all being videoed by some metal head guy with a large camcorder.
As soon as they spotted us, the whole group burst into laughter.
"Danny! Cut! Cut!" The girl that spotted us waved her hands frantically at the Camera man.
Danny fumbled with the camera and stopped the tape.
"What did we just walk into?" Betty was dumbfounded.
"Wait a minute!" I squinted in disbelief. "CC?"
Betty glanced over at me, then to CC.
CC laughed out loud and took off the oversized novelty sunglasses that was covering most her face.
"AND LILLY?" I quickly pointed her out in the hair curlers.
"Hey!" Lilly put down the feather duster she was singing into and casually waved at us like she was not dressed ridiculously.
"Is this where you ran off to?" Betty asked CC.
"It's for Drama club." CC giggled and responded.
Oh shit. I started recognizing the rest of the girls—They're all Lilly's friends. They're all in drama club.
"What exactly is...all this?" I asked.
"We are making a parody video of Brittney's BABY ONE MORE TIME. Only instead of slutty school girls, we're frumpy cleaning ladies." Lilly giggled.
I blinked slowly and looked a the ensemble of their wardrobe and the aesthetic, they nailed the look. I still didn't get the point of the feather boas.
"Okay. That sounds fuckin' hilarious."
I just shook my head and gave CC a look while giggling.
And here I thought night school was going to suck. But if this is what after-hours looks like, maybe I can survive it. Hell, I might even enjoy it.
Betty and I made our way to my locker. When I opened it to grab my leather jacket, she took a peek inside.
There was a few boxes of magic the gathering and pokémon cards, some comic books, Dragon ball Z stickers stuck on the interior of the locker door, a tamagochi, an old Mario doll and my school books.
"You really are dork." She teased.
"Yeah. And I'm proud of it." I giggled as I slung my jacket on.
"Now to ruin my good mood with math."
"Who do you have?"
"Ms. Davies"
"Hey I like her. She's funny."
"Hmm." I thought for a moment.
Maybe she won't be that bad.
Maybe it's just the math part I'm hating and not the teachers.
We went our separate ways to serve our time as punishment for our failures—I mean class.
Sitting in that classroom after our first lessons, I watched the sky through the window go from that twilight to an almost pitch black. I haven't seen my house or been there since 7am that morning.
Walking out to that brisky night sky was very peaceful. I took a deep breath of that small amount of freedom I had until I went home.
Betty had found me sitting at the front ledge waiting for my mom to pick me up.
"Was it that bad?" She asked
"The class? Not really. Ms. Davies is really sarcastic." I giggled. "I don't think she likes me."
Betty giggled as well. She sat there thinking quietly for a moment and looked over at me.
"You like her, don't you?"
"What?" My eyes widened in surprise.
"You like CC!"
"I don't know what you're talking about." I started to blush uncontrollably.
Betty gasped loudly and pointed at my rosy cheeks. "Oh my God. Yes you do. Yes...you...do." she kept prodding at my side making me flinch. "I've seen the way you look at her."
Her poking and prodding had me giggling and trying not to laugh. My head hung low trying not to show the deep redness glowing on my face.
"Okay! Fine! Yes." I swatted her hand away.
"Ha. I knew it." She sat content with her discovery. "Why haven't you asked her out?"
I just shook my head and remained silent.
"Why?"She started to giggle playfully getting ready to poke me again.
"Because I can't!" I snapped. "I...just...can't."
Betty pulled back and stared in surprise by my sudden outburst.
My arms and legs had crossed and I slumped my body.
I just wanted to shut down and be left alone with my thoughts.
I didn't mean to snap. I just… didn't want to say it out loud. Not when it still hurt this much.
Sitting there, I started to realize something Lilly had said — I did roll up like a hedgehog whenever I felt frightened and exposed.
"I'm sorry." I sighed and loosened up a bit. I just kept my head low, only seeing Betty from the corner of my eye.
"It's... okay." Betty sighed. The concerned expression on her face can tell I've been hurt before.
She just sat there beside me, quiet. Not poking, not teasing—just there.
That meant more than I could say.
Maybe night school wasn't so bad.
Maybe tonight didn't fix everything—but for a little while, in this strange, quiet corner of the day, I didn't feel so alone—And that was enough.