Differences in Personality

Footsteps echoed throughout the old wooden floors spanning the three story house. Five pairs of feet ran back and forth between the second and third floors, gathering their belongings for school.

“Time’s almost up.” A young woman brought a steaming mug to her lips, which slightly fogged her glasses. “We’re going to be late you know.”

She sat atop a polished wooden counter on the first floor, complete with a register and rows of bookshelves spanning the rest of the floor.

The footsteps continued along with the slight creaking of the floorboards.

“Maybe if your dumbass woke us up on time, we wouldn’t have this problem!” a clear male voice shouted down from the second floor.

The woman below heard someone’s hand slap across and the footsteps cease immediately.

“Shut up! What if Charlotte hears you?!” A deeper voice came from the second floor.

“She… she won’t wake up unless, unless she gets up by herself.” A softer, raspier voice joined the fray.

“Stay out of our conversation,” the deeper voice spat. “This is not a place for a weak and ignorant bitch to join in.”

One pair of footsteps picked back up before coming to a halt.

“That’s enough!” a new voice demanded. “On the off chance she does wake up, what would she think if she saw this?”

“You’re always getting in the way of our fun!” the clear voice yelled savagely. “Why can’t you just be like Hazel and stay out of everything!”

The woman downstairs giggled and shifted herself off the counter as she heard footsteps come down the stairs.

“I am truly flattered by that compliment,” she said.

A short girl came down the stairs as she planted her feet on the floor and walked right past Hazel.

“Good morning, my dear Isla.” Hazel set her now empty mug down on the counter. “Which one are you today?”

She ignored the comment entirely.

“I’m, I’m leaving since I won’t be forced to, forced to walk out with you fools today.” She pushed the dark wooden door open, letting the biting winter breeze flow into the house. Isla stepped outside, letting the door shut slowly behind her.

Hazel noted her actions and smiled slyly.

The fighting on the second floor continued, slowly getting louder as time passed. Four voices talked over one another in angry whispers.

“Time’s ticking,” she called upstairs.

The voices stopped abruptly as they heard her calm voice gloss over their own.

A muscular male forcefully pushed his way downstairs and rammed the door open as he rushed outside, ignoring Hazel’s presence completely.

“Those imbeciles!” His deep voice muttered. “They think they can make me late.”

The remaining three came down the stairs in a hurry. The larger one pushed the other two back to get ahead out the door.

“I’m going to tell Charlotte that you’re going to be late!” He called as he ran out the door.

Hazel watched as everyone hurried out of the house, she waited a few seconds before picking up her backpack and a piece of paper from the counter, silently following everyone.

From the back of the line, she watched the other five all spread out in the order they left. They were all slowed by the snowfall from the previous night but the six of them still tried their best to get to school on time.

“Gray?” One of the shorter boys asked. “Do you think I did I good job controlling the situation this morning?”

Gray bit his lip and looked to the side before answering. His eyes darted around to try and find the best answer.

“I think that Hazel… might’ve controlled it better,” he slowly said. “But of course you still did really good in my opinion. No one can really control those two and Isla is a whole different can of worms.”

The other boy gave a short laugh.

“I suppose that’s true.”

“Oliver, how do you do so well with stepping into a conflict without a second thought?” Gray asked. He looked down at the ground and played with his fingers. “I always feel like I think too much before doing something.”

He put his hand on Gray’s shoulder.

“I’ve told you a million times, you’re fine with how you do things,” Oliver reassured him.

“I know, I know.” He waved Oliver’s hand off his shoulder. “I just always feel so helpless when I see you go in and fix something immediately.”

Oliver looked down at his watch, his eyes widened at the time presented on the face.

“Speaking of helpless, we’re going to be helpless… never mind, that would’ve been a bad joke. We need to pick up our pace more!”

The two of them dragged their boots through the snow even harder as they stumbled over thick patches of snow.

“Jasper!” Oliver shouted as they approached him. “If you don’t run, you’re going to be late too!”

“Don’t tell me what to do,” he snarled.

Without saying anything more, Gray and Oliver passed him in a hurry.

A few seconds later, Jasper ran past them and began to catch up to Everett who was trying not to dirty his school uniform.

“You peasant!” Everett shouted as the snow in Jasper’s path erupted up and spilled onto his clothes.

He brushed it off while fixing his hair with his other hand before he ran after Jasper to punish his behavior.

“Come and get me if you can you stupid, idiotic, oaf!” He taunted Everett.

…

Jasper arrived to the school first with just a minute to spare. Everett followed close behind with his outstretched hands close to hurting Jasper.

“Good morning, sir!” he greeted the school’s guard politely. “I’m nervous because that man seems to be trying to hurt me.”

The guard looked where Jasper pointed. Everett halted his rampage and lowered his arms to make it seem like he wasn’t doing anything wrong. He took a loose strand of his hair and played around, trying to get it in the right place.

“It looks like you were worried for nothing,” the guard said.

“Sorry ‘bout that.” Jasper forced a toothy grin across his face. “I must’ve just been seeing things.”

He wiped the ugly smile off his face as he turned to enter the school.

Just at the same time, Oliver and Gray both got shut out by the gate’s automatic closing system.

“Too slow, bitches!” Jasper shouted.

“Oh gosh.” Gray looked to Oliver nervously. “Charlotte is going to give us a good scolding when we get back.”

Oliver glanced around them to make sure no one was watching.

“No she won’t, come on.” He beckoned Gray to follow him to the side of the school’s outer walls.

“Where are we—”

Oliver put his finger up to silence Gray. He scurried over to a normal looking spot.

“Are you coming or what?”

Gray stood between the gate and Oliver’s position, conflicted about what to do. The guard appeared from around the corner.

He looked back over at Oliver who was still calling him over.

“It’s better than being scolded, it’s better than being scolded, it’s better than being scolded.” Gray whispered repeatedly. He dove over to Oliver’s position.

“Good choice.” He nodded in approval. “This spot has no surveillance cameras. They won’t be able to watch us sneak in.”

Gray brushed his fingers over the brick wall and looked up to the top of it.

“How the heck are we going to get over this thing?”

“Easy peasy.” Oliver bent down and put his hands together low enough for Gray to step on. “You’re going to go up first then pull me over after.”

Gray set his right foot on Oliver’s laced hands.

“Are you sure this is going to be okay?” he asked.

Oliver lifted him up with a grunt.

“Yeah, it’ll be fine. Grab the top of the wall,” he said between heavy breaths. “I can’t hold you much longer.

Gray wrapped his hands around the other side of the wall. He felt Oliver’s hand disconnect from his foot, leaving him with no ground to stand on.

“Hurry, hurry!” Oliver urged him. “The guard is going to come around to inspect any minute now.”

Gray’s legs flailed helplessly as he attempted to pull himself up further.

“I need another push up!” he whispered urgently. “I think I’m going to fall!”

“What are, what are you two doing?” a familiar voice called out from the gate.

“Ah!” Startled, Gray let go of the wall by accident and fell to the ground on his back. “At least the snow cushioned it a little.”

He sat back up as he tried to catch his breath.

“What’s the point, what’s the point in trying to sneak in?” Isla asked coolly. “The security will, will find you anyways.”

Once he caught his breath again, he spoke up.

“We could’ve given it an effort at least. But then you startled me for no reason.”

Oliver put his hand in front of Gray’s mouth to stop him from talking any further.

“Whatever.” She turned back to the closed gate.

The two of them followed her, hoping that three students arriving late together would make the security pity them more.

Right on cue, the guard spotted them waiting at the front.

“What on Earth are you kids doing just standing there?” he asked from the other side of the gate.

He looked past them, noticing movement from the rear.

“Well now who in the hell is this?!”

Hazel leisurely waltzed up to the gate and presented a piece of paper which she pulled from her jacket’s pocket to the guard.

He examined it then grumbled and unlocked the gate.

“Does this note apply to you all as well?”

Before anyone else could speak up, Hazel quickly intervened.

“I do believe this one is only good for me, unfortunately.”

“You.” The guard pointed at Hazel. “Go in and get to class immediately.”

He turned his attention to Isla, Gray, and Oliver,

“You three.” His eyes narrowed. “I will be reporting that you were late to the principal. Get to your classes as soon as you can. And don’t, be, late!”

Gray and Oliver hurried into the building as their fear of the guard made their movements faster while Isla simply wandered into it, going at her own pace.

“-two of them are so annoying.”

“Aren’t those the people you’re always walking to school with?”

Everett, presumably skipping first period with his circle, glared at them as they entered the main hall and scoffed.

“Like I would spend my time mingling with the bottom feeders of this school.”

The two of them decided not to bother with registering his hurtful words as they made it to the fork in the hallway.

“Okay,” Gray waved at Oliver. “See you at lunch.”

“Have fun.” He waved back.

They went in the opposite direction to head to their separate classrooms.

Gray tried to quietly open the classroom door and sneak in without the teacher noticing his presence, but he was not so lucky.

“Mr. Baker.”

He stopped dead in his tracks. The teacher had known it was him without even turning around. Her chalk stopped moving abruptly as she set it down and turned to face him.

“Yes ma’am?”

“Why are you late?”

Gray took his seat on the far right of the classroom and placed his backpack on the ground beside his desk.

“We… we thought today was the beginning of Christmas break,” he announced sheepishly. “I apologize for being late.”

The class filled with stifled laughs. Some students exchanged whispers.

“Was that the case for all your siblings?” she asked strictly.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“You six need to take your senior year more seriously,” she scolded him. “Open your textbook to page 358, quickly. We have already started learning.”

Gray opened the book to a random page and quickly glanced over it. Something about the American military filled the contents with pictures scattered around depicting random images of soldiers and camps.

“Today we will be starting our topic on World War One and its effects on…” her voice drifted off in Gray’s mind as he flopped down into the open book.

“Can I just be called to adventure already?” he thought to himself.