THE JOINING: The Cycle of the Shards Book One
Chapter 9

The second hand refused to move in any manner that resembled a regular second. Part of the problem was that Kyle refused to take his eyes off of it. For a period he had tried to ignore it but refusing to watch a pot will also not cause it to boil any faster, and combined with that was the frustration of not knowing, and hoping that when he finally looked back that the time would have miraculously jumped ahead an minute, an hour, something that would move him towards the inevitable fate. The wait was all there was, and it had consumed him.

Currently in math, the teacher had called on him a number of times with some inane word problem or something involving the current location of the letter x. If he had been feeling sarcastic he would have replied that it was right there and further questions were unnecessary, but today he just had a blank face as the teacher gave up and moved on to the old fallback: worksheets. He had filled out a couple questions more-or-less correctly, but his full attention was still on the clock. Every slow tick brought him closer and closer to Science class, which brought him into contact with a few of Brian Boyd’s cronies, though not Brian himself, fortunately. He didn’t share any classes with the bully, which would have been its own special kind of hell.

Even then, it was the period after science that he both dreaded and could not wait for. At lunch time they were left to their own devices, and he knew that, unless something had happened to him before hand, Brian would be there, and regardless of teachers or other classmates he knew that nothing was going to stop the confrontation. And then the aftermath, no matter what took place, how would that effect the rest of the day? The rest of school? His father? Shanna? He looked at the second hand crossing the 12 number, sighed, and continued his worksheet.

It felt like hours, but in fact was only a few more minutes before the bell rang, and Kyle felt his stomach drop. He picked up his feet and forced himself to move out of the classroom. He wanted to move faster. The faster he moved, the faster he could get into his seat and not have to risk running into any of Brian’s friends. But curiously his legs refused to move any faster, like they were being weighed down by the fear and dread that was rapidly taking over the rest of his body. If it was already this bad, he thought, what was it going to be like when lunchtime hit?

As though his body had been trying to tell him that there was an imminent confrontation, Kyle rounded the corner to the hallway and ran straight into Brian himself, who had been standing in the hallway talking with the very same friends that Kyle was hoping to avoid: A rather dopey looking boy by the name of Travis who had only just avoided being put into remedial learning, and a tough looking girl, Melissa. While his underlings grinned at him, Brian looked down at Kyle. Kyle, for his part, was terrified, but still met his gaze. He decided that whatever was going to happen, was going to happen, and there was nothing he could do for it but to face it with courage. At least now he wasn’t going to have to wait another period.

They both heard the clearing of a throat, and turned and saw Mr. Phelps, his arms folded. “Is there a problem, gentlemen?”

Both muttered. “No.”

“Cause I could just get you both right back to the office, I hear it’s even nicer today than yesterday.”

“No.”

“Then I suggest you two,” He Pointed at Melissa and Travis. “Get into the room before the bell rings, and you,” He stared straight at Brian. “Go wherever it is that you go.”

Melissa and Travis muttered quietly to each other as they moved off, and Brian held his stare with Kyle a moment longer. “Lunch.” It was not a command, or a part of conversation. It was both a warning and a promise. Then he moved off as well, disappearing into a rush of students trying to both get to their lockers and their classes before the bell ended the free time. Kyle was about to move when he realized Mr. Phelps was still standing there looking at him, and also that he was not commanded to go anywhere. Phelps walked up to him.

“Kyle, wait a moment.” As much as he had been hoping that the situation with Brian would pass, involving a teacher was not something he was willing to do. It seemed silly, but he did have his pride, and hiding behind anyone of any kind of authority instead of solving the problem himself was just going to be a one way ticket to future problems. So he stood, somewhat defiant, waiting for Phelps to say what he had to say.

“Kyle, I know you’ve had a rough day. Hell, I know you aren’t having an easy time with Brian. But you’re smart, you can’t just let these guys run over you. Is there anything you want to tell me? Anything going on that I should know about?”

Kyle knew all to well about the policies of the school, and he knew that any punishment that Brian would get would most likely also be visited upon himself. Adding to that was, unless Brian was expelled, he would just come back and the problems would start all over again. Mr. Phelps was nicer than most of the teachers, owing to the rumor that he really had his sights set higher at a college position or a more specialized area in astronomy, but thus far had been stuck teaching a bunch of kids that really didn’t want to be there and had little to no interest in the sciences. Regardless of how nice he seemed, there was no good result that would come from sharing his problems. So he stood his ground. “Sorry Mr. Phelps, nothing at all.”

Mr. Phelps appraised him silently, and looked slightly disappointed. Kyle had been one of the ones that he thought might do something interesting, and instead to him it looked like he might become just another statistic, trudging through school and then later life. But, there was nothing else he could do. The bell rang, reminding him that he had twenty-five other students to teach, and there was no time to deal with the one. Maybe there’d be another chance later to have a real conversation with the boy. “All right, c’mon, lets get in there.”

The two walked into the classroom, Kyle first. Phelps closed the door behind him and marched up the separation between the desks, and took a left to where his own desk and the chalkboard were. To the right was the lone window looking out on the day, and a pencil sharpener, which Phelps long had thought should have been moved as more than one student would lose themselves in imagining themselves outside instead of quickly sharpening and returning to their seat. Today being a especially nice day considering the season, the window was open, letting in a small breeze. Kyle sat in his chair, sighing. The dread and fear in his gut were still there, and were still intensifying. Trying to ignore the glances and giggles from both Melissa and Travis as they whispered to each other, he tried to concentrate on what it was that Mr. Phelps was saying, but it kept getting lost on the what ifs and the strain of the day. He glanced out the window, trying to imagine he was anywhere and anyplace but here, or just plain someone else.