First day of School

[Travis Rha]

Travis was in the office waiting for his schedule at his new high school. It was a big school, the only high school in town. He looked around the office at all the posters most of them were inspirational quotes. "Travis, Travis Rha?" Looking over at the receptionist, "Yep that's me." He stood up and walked over to her desk.

She handed him his schedule, "We have a student coming up to show you your classes and give you a tour of the campus." He took his schedule and glanced over it and nodded his head. He then headed back to the bench to sit and wait for the student to come get him.

He really didn't want to be here at school but it was better than being stuck in the house with his crazy aunt. It was the second week of school so things were still a little crazy in the office. Travis' aunt didn't talk about his parent and every time he brought it up she would change the subject so after the first week he stopped bringing it up.

But it didn't stop him from watching the news from his home town to see if they were ever found. He didn't know what was worse the thought of them being dead or just missing.

[Oliver Evans]

Where was it? Only the second week of school and Ollie was pretty sure he'd done something stupid and left one of his books back at the place he shared with his unlikely guardian. All he had to do was like text the guy or something but Ollie wasn't even sure he was awake at this point. Ollie rode a bike to the high school every morning and it was his main mode of transportation all over the small Oregon town. That meant he wasn't sitting around constantly relying on Ivar. Truthfully, there were full days where he and Ivar didn't even cross paths in real life, only contacting each other through terse text exchanges. Like... if Ivar was bringing somebody home or something, then Ollie knew better than to go home.

When he pulled at one of his textbooks, it loosened one that had been crammed in the crack behind the locker door, bringing a heavy math textbook crashing down on his foot. Letting out a curse under his breath, Ollie quickly bent down to pick it up. It was the one he'd been looking for. He stuffed it into his grey backpack and zipped it closed before slinging it over his shoulder. Just as he closed the locker door, Mrs. Pepperidge came clicking down the hall in her dark heels.

"Ollie, hun," she said with a smile. "We have a new student that we'd like you to shadow today."

Ollie blinked, then tightened his grasp on his backpack strap.

"Okay...?" There was a slight edge of a question in his tone, because Ollie wasn't exactly headed toward valedictorian or anything. He was just a freshman, a new kid in this high school... even if everybody here had been with him in the only junior high in town, too.

"He's a freshman," Mrs. Pepperidge said in an encouraging tone as she nodded toward the office down the hall. "Just like you."

"All right. I won't be marked tardy, will I?"

"It's already been arranged," she said as she walked with him down the hall. "Actually, the two of you share a lot of classes so it's just convenient."

Ah. The real reason. Not because Ollie was Kid of the Year.

When he entered the office, there was a few kids waiting around in the office, but it was the Asian kid that the school's counselor pointed to. "Travis," she said to the other boy. "This is Oliver. He'll be showing you around today."

"Hey," Ollie said by way of greeting. "You can call me Ollie." Oliver sounded so stuffy and old.

[Travis Rha]

"Hey," Travis said casually as he stood up he was ready to get out of the office and get his day started. He tossed his backpack over a shoulder and slid his other arm in. He looked down at his schedule then, "So I guess I have math with Mr. Jones first period room 45."

This was his first year of high school and it was in a shit hole town and he knew no one he barely knew the lady he was staying with. This was the worst, he had a life, he had friends, he had his parents and that is all gone now. The social workers treated him like a child as if he couldn't understand what they were talking about when he was in the room.

He was a paycheck for this aunt she didn't want him and he didn't want to be with her. But the state forced him here and had no say. He could take care of himself if the gave him the check he would get a place and take care of himself he wasn't a baby he didn't need adult supervision.

"So what is there to do around here?" 

[Oliver Evans]

"Me too."

So they weren't kidding when they said they had similar schedules. Ollie had memorized his own schedule by now, since it was the second week of school but he still leaned forward slightly to get a look at the schedule that Travis held. Yeah, pretty similar. Well, they were both just Freshman, right? So that made sense. They even had PE together. Ollie's least favorite class, if he was honest. He wondered how Travis felt about it.

As Ollie directed Travis out of the office and down the hall toward the stairs that led up to the math classrooms, he raised his brows slightly. Then he looked over at Travis.

"What do you mean? Around here in the school or Hazleton in general?"

[Travis Rha]

"Cool," they had the same first period. This school was a very large it had multiple floors it was like one of those schools you see on the scary movies. He was sure the students had stories about ghosts in the boiler room or the closed off a wing due to an accident.

The headed up the stair and when Ollie, "Both," he laughed. "I have been going crazy being cooped up in my crazy aunt's house."  She took him to downtown once to get groceries but other than that he just wandered the area around her house. There was a park about a block away be there was no one there his age so he ended up leaving.

"What do you do for fun?"

Ollie was the first kid he talked to since he had gotten to Hazleton and he didn't seem half bad. Now if they had some of the same things in common. Travis was not a trouble maker back home but he had a good life he had no reason to act out. He was going to push with his aunt to see how far he could get before she was done with him and sent him away.

He wondered where he would go after this. He really just wanted to find his parents he was sure they were still alive.

[Oliver Evans]

Crazy aunt? Ollie looked at Travis with a touch of trepidation. Was she really crazy or was that just his perception? There was a lot of weird things in Hazleton that a new kid like Travis wouldn't know about. Was Travis' aunt one of them? Or was she just as new as Travis? Or did she tell him about Hazleton and that was what made Travis think she was crazy--since he came from elsewhere...?

Ollie tugged on his backpack straps. His smile was rueful. Somehow, he doubted a guy like Travis was going to find what Ollie did for fun... amusing.

"I read a lot. I like science and Ivar... er, my guardian, he got me this lab kit thing..."

God, he knew he sounded like a right nerd now. He shrugged it off.

"Why? What do you like doing?"

[Travis Rha]

Travis had a half smile on his face he could have pinned Ollie for a reader. Science was always fun it is pretty intriguing, not all the reading but the experiments. "I like to skate board," he shrugged his shoulders not sure what else to say. "But science is cool." 

They made it up the stairs and Travis continued to follow Ollie. "Anywhere to go after school?" He needed to make friends and he wasn't going to do that by staying home. Back home he and his friends would go to McDonald's after school and get a soda and hang out in the parking lot and wait for the Jr's and Seniors to come by. He was slowly moving up to hanging with the older kids.

But Travis would never know now that he has to go to this stupid shit hole school. He was an out cast here. No one knew him or thought he was cool. He wasn't even sure what kids here thought was cool.

He turned to Ollie with exsitment, "I am sure there is some old abanded place that is haunted here. What you say to take me? After school?"

This town had a lot of old houses and buildings that fit the card. Plus Travis didn't scare easy he was some what of a hero back home. He lasted the longest at the old Miller plantation no one has beat his record of staying all night.

[Oliver Evans]

"Heh."

He could have pegged Travis for a skateboarder. He just had that look about him. As for the question about what to do after school, Ollie shrugged his shoulders. The thing was, Ollie sort of traveled around town whenever he didn't want to go home. If things were weird... he had to steer clear. And then there was the whole... sickness. Ollie had no idea what it was or why it happened or why he felt better when he curiously peeked at the nasty stuff on Ivar's computer but... He assumed it was just a guy thing. People always made jokes about guys their age not being able to get their heads out of the gutter.

"You want to go looking for spooks?" Ollie asked, somewhat incredulous. "Well, take your pick because there's like a hundred different places like that in town. Ever been to a super old graveyard before?"

[Travis Rha]

Travis shrugged his shoulders he wasn't looking for the spooks he just thought for sure they had one in this spooky town but guess they had many. "Naw, I never have we should go after school. I mean that's if you want too."

"There's not much to do at my place, I'm not sure how much more I can take of Aunt No." He let out a low sigh. "I really think she is like 100 years old and she likes to tell the same stories over and over"

Travis face could say it all, he dreaded the company of his Aunt No. The internet was what was keeping him alive.

[Oliver Evans]

"You'll like it. Lots of places to... er. Ollie off of."

Then he slid his gaze sidelong at Travis, trying to decide it Aunt No was a joke name for somebody who said no all the time or whether it was an ethnic name. There were a lot of people of mixed ethnicities in Hazleton so... He didn't want to be a jerk. There was no hint in what Travis said about her, though. Nothing about how she never let him go anywhere. Just stories.

"Scary stories?"

[Travis Rha]

"I guess to some people they would be scary. But she is old and crazy and says she's a witch." He chuckled. "I mean she would have to be one to still be alive." He joked. Travis didn't believe in ghosts and witches. But he did believe is Aunt No to but crazy and losing her mind.

He wondered how the state could award someone so loony custody of a teenage boy. This was not thought out too well, the start was failing big time and they gave no fucks.

Travis continued to joke,"Do you think she put a tracking spell on me?" He wiggled his fingers mysteriously, with wide eyes.

"I don't scare easy, kid."

[Oliver Evans]

"You laugh about it now," Ollie said, raising his brows slightly. "But there's a lot of weird stuff in Hazleton. And, your aunt's not the only one who thinks she's a witch. They have whole covens and stuff. They even have meetings in the town hall on Fridays. Weird, right?"

[Travis Rha]

Travis busted out laughing Ollie looks so serious when he said that, "Your joking right?"

"Right?" Studying Ollie.

[Oliver Evans]

Travis laughed but that was because he had no idea. He really had no idea. Ollie was betting that Travis' aunt was actually what she said she was or she at least thought she was. Ollie didn't know any witches at the moment so he couldn't say for sure what they were capable of doing. He just knew people in Hazleton believed in them to the point that they even consulted one on the weather and the news sometimes. It was surreal.

"Nope," he said. "This place is big time into the whole witch thing."

[Travis Rha]

He had to be joking but Ollie didn't seem to be joking, Travis was trying to wrap his head around it. If Aunt No is what she said she is... would that make me one?

No! Never! He couldn't be a witch, why was he even thinking this? Maybe he is crazy like his aunt?

"So?" he said slowly, "If she is one, what would that make me?"

Surely Ollie had a good answer for this too.