Chapter 27: The School

Ms. Clare opened the door and walked into the apartment. “Ferral, I’m home.” She called out. She turned into the kitchen where I was sitting at the table reading a new book I got at the library. “Oh there you are,” She said, placing some bags on the counter, “What’re you reading?” “Well, I went to the library earlier and asked the librarian if she had anything interesting so she handed me this booked called Long Live.” She walked over toward me and looked over my shoulder to see the book. “What’s it about?” She asked. “It’s about this poor orphan girl who has a dream to be a part of the royal guard for the king and queen.” I started, “But it turns out, that SHE’S  their long lost daughter who was stolen during this huge war twenty years ago.” Ms. Clare nodded her head, “Sounds interesting. You must be really enjoying it, huh?” “Yep. I’m already about halfway through it.” I placed a bookmark and put the book down. “So, what’s the plan for today?” I asked. “I’m meeting up with Buck for lunch later, so I’m going to be out of the house for a while,” She answered, “I was thinking you could hang out with your friends while I was gone.” “Hmmm, that sounds like a great idea!”

Later that afternoon, Ms. Clare went off to have lunch with Mr. Buck and I was getting ready to head over to the twin's apartment. I called Leona to see if she wanted to train, but she never answered. I bet she’s already in the middle of training her heart out when I called. She’s always trying to get stronger, she’s so cool. I went out through the window and made my way to the twin’s apartment building. When I got there, I knocked on the door and Belle opened it. “Hey, Ferral!” She greeted me, “Come on in.” I nodded and walked inside. “Ezekiel went out to grab some groceries, so it’s just us for a while. He should be back soon though.” “Awesome. So what were you doing before I came?” We sat on the small couch they had in the middle of the living room. “I was just catching up on my favorite show.” I turned to see they had a rather small T.V. that was on. “What’re you watching?” I asked. “It’s this romantic comedy about these two high schoolers who have a budding romance, but can’t express their true feelings because of social standards set at their school,” She explained, “It’s so tragic, but oh it just makes me wish that was me.” I looked at the show, but couldn’t understand what they were saying, then I noticed the closed captions on the bottom that was in English. “What language are these people speaking?” I asked. “Korean,” Belle responded, “But don’t worry, they put subtitles.” As we watched the show, I was rather confused about what was going on, but Belle’s description kinda made things easier to understand. The girl was of a higher class than the boy, but the two really like each other. Simple, but interesting.

We waited for another hour before Ezekiel came through the door. “I hate getting groceries,” He said, “All the good shit is always gone.” He put the bags on the kitchen counter, much like Ms. Clare then he noticed me. “Oh hey, Ferral. What brings you here?” “Hello. Ms. Clare is out with Mr. Buck, so she had the idea of us hanging out.” “Really? Cool, what do ya wanna do?” He asked. “I don’t know, either of you have any ideas?” Ezekiel shook his head, “Nah, nothin’ on my mind.” I looked at Belle who was thinking hard, “Hmm…HEY! I know, there’s an abandoned middle school out by the south edge of the city. I’ve always wanted to go explore it.” Ezekiel and I looked at each other, I shrugged my shoulders while he thought about it more. “I don’t know sis. From what I’ve heard, that school is by the Fulbret Forest. Almost no one goes there.” “Why?” I asked. “Somthin’ about paranormal sightings and monsters lurking that forest.” “Oh come on brother! This is my only chance to go inside of a school and NOT get thrown out for trespassing. PLEEEEASE.” Belle pleaded. “Besides, it’s on the south edge of the city we’d have to take a trolly just to get there.” “I’d say we should go.” I said, “I don’t know much about this “paranorman” stuff, but I think we could handle any monster that’s in that forest.” Belle grinned gleefully hearing my response, while Ezekiel sighed and reluctantly agreed. So, while Belle went to go change I asked Ezekiel if he had seen Leona. When I had come to the apartment building, I knocked on her door to see if she wanted to join us, but no one answered. “I think she left somewhere. I saw her carrying some kind of bag, so I assume she went off to go do something and would be gone for a while.” “Oh, I see.” That was sad to hear, She left somewhere and didn’t say goodbye? Well, I’m sure she’ll be back and the four of us could hang out then.

Once Belle was finished changing, the three of us went off to this abandoned school. This was actually kinda exciting, I had never been gone this far from Ms. Clare’s apartment or been on this trolly thing before. Two new experiences in one day…awesome. “Hey Belle, what are you wearing?” I asked, remembering how when I first got there, she was already dressed. “This? Oh, this is just a school uniform I borrowed from a private school here in Central City.” “If by borrowed you mean stole, then yes, that’s what she did.” Ezekiel said. “Well they wouldn’t hand it for free so I uhh, took one while they weren’t looking.” “Stealing’s wrong, Belle,” I told her, “You should return it.” “I will, I will…..eventually.” When we finally went to the school area, we got off the trolly and headed toward this Fulbret Forest. “Wow, that sure is a lot of forest.” I said when we started getting close. “Yeah, but it has an end.” Ezekiel answered. “It does?” “Yeah, the ocean,” Belle replied, “The entirety of Central City is surrounded by ocean, there’s no other connecting piece of land.” I had never heard that before, interesting. But then….how did I get here? If there’s no other land connected to Central City…..huh, I might have to do research on this. But that’ll be for later.

When we finally reached the start of the forest, there was a large old school sitting on the left side of the forest entrance. We walked inside, and the front door to the school was open. From what I’ve heard schools, restaurants, and stores always lock their doors. When we got inside, we walked through the hallways and entered some of the other rooms. The wooden floors creaked and the air smelled rather bad, some of the windows had been broken too. “Wow, what I wouldn’t give to see this place alive and buzzing with students and teachers.” Belle said as she frolicked through the halls. “This place smells like shit. Looks like shit. Yeah, this is how I imagined school to be like.” Ezekiel added. I had never really thought about school, or even going to one but it would be an interesting experience. Maybe once this whole thing with Dr. Atlas was over, I’ll ask Ms. Clare if I could go to school. As we wandered, I stared out of a broken window and into the forest while the others walked into another classroom. The forest looked dense and you’d easily be able to get lost in there, but it didn’t really look like it would have monsters or anything “paranorman” inside. That is until I heard a noise coming from the forest…it sounded like a person. I looked back to see if Ezekiel or Belle were watching and hopped out of the window and wandered toward the sound. I slowly and carefully made my way toward the sound, it getting louder and louder. It sounded like someone was singing, something I learned from hearing Ms. Clare do it here and there. The voice was a woman’s and when I finally got close enough, there she was…..a beautiful woman singing while picking something from off the trees.