Ensorcellors: The Tales of Encrest

[ETOEB1//07//] Temporarily Ordinary

Chapter 07

Temporary Ordinary

Carter's POV:

"Have you come across Lincoln? It looks like he wasn't here last night," Mom said after sipping her caramel latte.

I made my way to the table where Sandra and Ricky were having breakfast.

"He never even said goodbye. If he was leaving or anything, he should have let us know."

We turn our heads toward each other with a serious and thoughtful look, as if we were transmitting signals or messages that we could only understand.

It was like our minds were united during these moments. We saw what happened yesterday evening.

"What have you three been up to?" Mom got skeptical. She placed her cup of coffee at the table, then began to narrow her eyes, and her gaze appeared to sting.

"It's nothing, mom," Ricky did his best to act normal, but I could see his nose begin to sweat as he replied.

"Are you sure? It sounds like you're not telling me anything."

Mom was already suspicious of us. She constricted her eyes and gave us a suspicious glare but despite all that, I seemed to smell some food burning.

"Mom!" Sandra turned around all of a sudden. She drew Mom's attention with her alert call as she pointed her index finger inside the kitchen as the oven and pan were expelling fumes of ash grey smoke.

"Your baked quiche is burning!" Sandra cried out in panic. Mother immediately ran toward the burnt food and Sandra helped her clean up the mess.

We were supposed to eat what Mom made before going to school, but Mom seemed to forget to turn off the stove and oven dial.

Ricky heard the horn and saw that the bus came to get us to take us to school. Ricky ran out of the house and left us, giving a reply "Goodbye!".

"Bye, Mum." Sandra and I embraced her.

As we got on the bus, we looked behind the window and saw Mother waving her hand. We also waved back.

The bus engine then began to operate when the bus driver switched on his car keys and began to drive.

***

I stood next to the bus, facing in the opposite direction from school. The bus had black and yellow stripes on it. I was able to see the looks in my eyes, the reflection, revealing how my face forms an expression.

My hands were tucked into the sleeve pockets of my worn pink jacket, the hood was covering my messy orange hair, and I started plugging my earphones in, listening to some Japanese-pop music to subdue my anxiety attacks.

From the reflection, I could see Sandra from behind, standing on the facade of the school, and she seemed to notice my demeanor. I saw her come towards me. She caressed my back and said, "You'll be fine, Carter."

Her arms made their way around me, then asked me "Let's go?" as her two eyebrows made her forehead wrinkled. She was expecting a reply.

I took plenty of air and exhaled all the tension that was enveloping. I started walking along with Sandra. She came with me to bolster my confidence.

Ricky, by contrast, was across the building. An establishment for preschoolers.

As we walked along the hallway, there were a number of students, dense like sardines, barricaded in the corridor.

It was never my plan to rush into these students like zombies invading some sort of human for valuable cerebral enjoyment.

It was Sandra's idea in the first place. I had no choice except to go through them.

So we barged ourselves right through to cross to the other side of the hallway where there weren't many students hanging around.

Today is the first day of school. It's normal for students to squabble." Sandra stated her opinion.

A few minutes later, from walking along the aisle, we stopped as we found the exact room number we had been looking for from the registration forms we were holding.

Room no. 111.

"Well, I guess this is it, Carter. I'll see you later!" And she left me at the door of my class.

As soon as I opened the door, some of the students were bustling around the room like children from kindergarten.

In the classroom, there was quite a bit of in-distry. Some of the seats were not lined up proportionately in their respective locations.

There were wrinkled papers and origami on the floor. The board was filled with doodles and chalk sketches.

A typical classroom, most people would say.

Their annoying voices gradually faded as I entered the classroom. Everyone looked at me like I was a celebrity walking down the aisle.

My eyes were searching for a vacant seat to occupy. There was one empty seat on the far end corner near the window. I took a seat and lowered my belongings to the floor.

Everyone seemed to know each other already. While I was just sitting at the edge, enjoying listening to the music. This was more than a way out of reality, blocking their faces out of my sight. I wasn't in a mood for conversation.

Besides, as a typical introvert guy who doesn't want to initiate conversations, I just want some time alone. Some sense of peace.

"Hey, isn't he the new kid who lives in the spooky haunted house!?" One unknown guy asked next to his seatmate.

"Have you read or even watched a glimpse of 'Miss Perigrine's home for peculiar children?' That mansion was known to be the real home of the lost children!" The girl next to the guy who was asking, asserted her view and impression of the mansion we were currently living in.

"The former owner of the house must have been kidnapped by some of those strange creatures who, according to the rumors, resided in the manor and took her to their world! That new kid might be the next one to disappear!" The guy replied back in a whispering manner.

"I wonder why they decided to move into the scary old house?" Another guy interrupted their conversation.

The same thing I have in mind, dude!

If only I could go back in time and persuade mom not to leave, I would.

These were some of the gossip I heard from my classmates. Their voices were low, but I could hear them talking about things, about me. Even while I was listening to music.

Generating an idea that does not even make sense. That's not even true.

How did they know we were living in a manor?

My classmates turned out to be our stalkers, huh?

It's been how many minutes since I've been in this class, I couldn't even stand a chance to wait for my first subject, and I already wanted to leave.