Imagine (4 page)

"
It wasn’t his fault; I'm just so clumsy that I tripped over my own two feet, who told you?"

I notice a spark of
 mischief in Chelsey’s eyes; Eddie glances over at her and confirms my suspicion. I guess I know what they were talking about walking to and from the car now. All four of us crack up and that sets the tone for the rest of the night. We have a great time at The White Swan, all teasing each other. The food is divine too, I order the Chicken Cordon Bleu with potato croquettes. The chicken just melts in my mouth.

After a wonderful dinner, the boys even paid for our meals so Chelsey and I insist that we pay for our movie tickets. We walk over
to the movie theater. It doesn’t have stadium seating; instead there are sofas to sit in. Awesome! The surround sound is great too, the theater is packed, but we have great seats and are able to enjoy the movie in comfort. Keagan has his arm around me the whole time.

The movie is about a boy that finds out that he is the son of
 Poseidon, a Greek god. I love mythology, I'm actually taking a class at Dalton Academy about mythology and I'm completely fascinated by the storyline.

It
is over all too soon though and we climb back into the car, all the while talking about our favorite parts of the movie and how good the special effects were. Eddie drives us home and as Chelsey and I are getting out of the car Keagan leans over and kisses me on the cheek, to a soundtrack of whoops and hollers from the front of the car.

IV

imagine if zombies were real

M
onday morning comes around all too quickly, as always. I spent all of my Sunday doing homework and cleaning my room. When my alarm clock goes off at 5:30 am I just do not want to move. It’s not even light outside but since I slept in after our date and didn’t run at all yesterday I roll out of bed and get myself ready.

I throw on my usual running gear and head out the door.
 There is already some hustle and bustle outside, with people trying to meet project deadlines and others in different sports uniforms, getting ready for the morning part of their training. Dalton Academy is known nationally for its tennis and track teams. Many students on those teams end up receiving scholarships to the best colleges in the country. I can only dream of going to college, before I came here it had never even crossed my mind. Now that I think about it, I realize that I had no idea what my future may hold, unlike Chelsey and Keagan. Seeing a guidance counsellor would be a good first step. I put it on my mental to do list and start my run.  

The air is cr
isp and cool again. The well-worn running path that I usually take leads me around part of the garden and behind the dorms before heading off into the woods, which is my favorite part. This morning I am listing to Linkin’ Park, the music is really getting me in the mood to run.

I am about to take of when someone taps me on the shou
lder. I let out a little squeal and turn around to slug my attacker in the face. I only miss him because of his cat-like reflexes as he ducks to avoid my swing. I am sure glad that I missed, I could have ruined our little romance while it was still in its infancy. Keagan straightens up from his crouch and leans in towards me. I hold my breath, half expecting another kiss but I am disappointed when all he does is remove my earphone. 

"Easy there slugger! I thought that you might want some company this
morning; maybe I can protect you from the big bad wolf. But apparently you do not need any protection at all, you little spit fire. You could seriously hurt someone with an arm like that" He says as he squeezes my bicep with a wink. 

"I'm surprised to see you out here, I was expecting you to already be done by now and be getting ready to go to school."
I tell him. I can’t help but check him out as we talk.

He looks
great; once again, he is in loose fitting running shorts that show of his toned calf muscles. Best of all though, he isn’t wearing a shirt. I am dumbstruck, so to stop anything embarrassing from happening I take off. 

He easily catches up with me and instead of jogging next to me, the show-off, decides to run backwards in front of me. "I guess I said something wrong
back there. I really enjoyed Saturday night. I would love to get to know you better and three miles seems like the perfect opportunity to do just that. I looked for you yesterday morning, but you weren’t around.”

"I enjoy your company too, good sir. Plus, it’s always nice having a ru
nning partner. Especially in this darkness with all of these trees, they just pop out of nowhere!" 

"What …
"

Before Keagan can finish the question I accelerate and gently shove him sideways into a tall redwood. When I see him dramatically crashing and performing a forward roll before starting to get up and pretending to cry I c
an’t help but stop and start laughing. Keagan smirks at me and points to his bicep. 

"You gave me an Owie” he says between pretend sobs.
“The only way to make the hurt go away is by kissing it." Flexing his muscles and pointing to a little smudge that looks more like dirt then blood. I don't even think that he has a scratch there. But I go along with it and lightly touch my lips to his arm. His skin is soft and smooth while the muscles underneath are rock hard.

“There, there all better. Now come on you wuss, keep up.” I say as I head off again, shaking my head,
making him chase me. The remainder of the run we flirt outrageously with each other and talk about our classes before arriving back at my starting point.

"What are your plans for lunch
today Trish?” he asks as we warm down.

"I always have lunch with Chelsey in the cafeteria. You and Eddie should join us."
 

Keagan takes a step towards me and gives me a light peck on the cheek whispering in my ear, "I would like that a lot!"
 

Butterflies and Goosebumps appear all at once.

I glance at my watch to hide them and notice that it is already 6:20, which means that we only have forty minutes to get ready before classes start.

"We better hurry,
we might miss the start of class" I yell at him while running up the stairs to my room.

I take a
swift shower, dress and grab breakfast in record time. I arrive in Mrs. Z’s, classroom about twenty seconds before the bell rings.

Mrs. Z teaches my favorite lesson,
Witchcraft and Wizardry. I think I like the class so much because of her, the way she teaches, it really makes things come alive in my head. I slide into my seat with a sigh of relief and can’t wait to find out what we are going to talk about today.

One of the
things I really like about this place is the variety in classes that they offer here and most of the ones that I am taking I can get college credit for too. 

I bet most people have never taken a single class on witc
hcraft, simply dismissing it as fictional.
But we have talked about some things that make you stop and think, for example last
 Tuesday Mrs. Z tried to convince us all that Zombies are in fact real. She said that there is something called The Solanum Virus. It is found in some beetroots and potatoes. Supposedly, the virus begins transforming the body from human into a zombie once the infected vegetable is eaten. It basically slowly eats away at the brain, causing all bodily functions to cease, all traces of personality, individualism and your ability to speak to disappear. Your soul is essentially lost forever.

Zombies
have only one need; to feed. Their meal of choice: humans. One bite can pass on the virus and if you aren’t completely eaten you become a zombie too
. Once Mrs. Z explained how the whole process worked she opened it up to the class to discuss whether they thought zombies could exist. This caused some heated debate. But at the end of the class I have to say that I still thought the idea was preposterous.

It’s amazing what we learn in this class. I wonder what
 todays' lesson will bring.
I look around at my peers. The girl from the hallway, Kristina, is in this class with me. She catches my eye and gives me a little wave. I return the gesture and for my efforts get rewarded with a friendly smile. Mrs. Z starts her class right on time. She is a little different to most of the other teachers I have ever known, as you might expect. Just like her class I guess.

Starting with her wardrobe,
 she wears long flowing robes, almost like a monk. Today’s is dark green. She has her hair up in a hair tie of the same color too.

After saying good morning to us all she just walks up to the chalkboard and without a word begins to write the words ‘Witches Vs Warlocks’ as she writes
her sleeve falls, revealing a plethora of
bracelets, in every color. They go all the way up to her elbow. The sunlight that streams though the window reflects off of them, making them glimmer.

Once finished writing she begins to speak "Class, this week’s assignment is a group task." This has everyone tal
king, immediately asking friends to be in their group. This is a first for this class, we usually work individually. What am I going to do?

Mrs. Z stands on her desk to get our attention over all
of the noise (it works) and says "Choose a group of four, two of you will argue why witches are more powerful and the other two will debate why warlocks are
 stronger. You have all week to do all of your research, use any material that is available to you. This may include movies, books, of course the internet. We will have the presentations on Friday. Once you have selected your groups you are free to leave to do your research, just ensure that you check back with me each day. I will be here in my room if you have any questions or need help with anything at all."

With this Mrs. Z looks at us expectantly and awaits our choosing of groups.
 I once again look around the room and notice that people are happily chatting with each other. I guess my somewhat anti-social start to life at Dalton Academy might get in my way of completing this assignment. “Hey Trish! Wanna partner up with me? We can school May and Lexi here on why Witches are so much more bad-ass than Warlocks!" Kristina asks me from her seat as she points to two of her friends.

"Sounds great, let’s kick some Warlock butt!" I reply as I pick up my things and
head over to the three girls. We head over towards Mrs. Z to sign up as a team, all four of us giggling.

"Enjoy girls
. You know, the place across the street has some really good caramel lattes if you’re looking for a place to work on your project." She ushers us out of the door and I see her pull a book called World War Z from her desk, the cover has a picture of a zombie on the front. She puts her feet up on her desk and begins to read.

We decide to follow Mrs. Z’s suggestion and head over to Lovin’ a Latte, the little coffee shop
 across the street from the humanities building. It’s the only coffee place on campus but as most of the school is in class, it’s pretty quiet.

I tried the Caramel Latte, Mrs. Z
wasn’t wrong, it was delicious. It perked me up a little too, which helped. We have a great time, I really enjoy being around the three girls. Naturally, the first thing that comes up is me and Keagan. May had seen us holding hands and wanted to know all about it, there was a flurry of questions. I felt like I was being interrogated a little but the general consensus was that Keagan was super-hot. The hour passed by all too easily and by the time we left the coffee shop we hadn’t gotten a single thing done, except for a huge amount of gossip.

The next few classes, Art and English, go by in a flash. May and Kristina were in both classes with me. They made these classes a lot more fun too.

When the lunch bell rings I make my way to the crowded lunch room. Chelsey is already sitting at our usual table. I go through the line; Dalton Academy’s food is actually pretty good. Today’s lunch choices are Grilled lemon seasoned chicken with rice pilaf, peppercorn pork tenderloin with sweet potato fries and a vegetable lasagna with herb and cheese bread. I decide on the pork and sweet potato fries. I love sweet potato fries, ever since I first tried them in San Francisco. Chelsey insisted we take the trip one weekend.

San Francisco, I really like the city. Fisherman’s Wharf is
fantastic; you can see the fishermen bringing in their tasty hauls from the bay that day. The entire city is full of ridiculous streets, including Lombard Street, whose eight hairpin bends make it the windiest street in the world. I got to experience the hills in the city as Chelsey and I decided to go on an adventure to Amoeba Records on Haight Street. I brought a poster for my bedroom advertising a concert by Green Day at the Fillmore in September 2012.

We
 tuckered from Pier One to Pier Forty-nine too, looking in at the seals on Pier 39, we also took a tour of Alcatraz - the world famous island prison. Golden Gate Bridge in the distance the entire time, making the perfect backdrop.

We walked
all day and at the end rewarded ourselves with one of the incredible ice-cream sundaes from Ghirardelli Chocolate factory. It was an incredible day out, I’m so lucky to live so close to such a great city.

"Trish, come on. My food is getting cold" Chelsey calls from her spot at the table. I pay for my food and head over to our t
able. I start telling her about my day as I sit down when I notice that she’s not paying attention to me, but instead is looking over my head. I turn around to see Kristina, Lexi and May standing there clutching their lunch trays. "Mind if we join you guys?” asks Kristina.

I look at Chelsey just to make sure that she does not mind and invite the girls to join us. We are having a blast
, just sitting and talking about all of our classes and teachers when it gets quiet. This time when I turn around Eddie and Keagan are standing there. 

"Are we
 interrupting anything? Have you ladies got enough room for two lost souls searching for a place to sit?" I laugh at Keagan’s silly question and usher him to sit down as Kristina shuffles along a spot to make room for him to sit next to me.

Eddie goes around to the other side and sits
 across from Keagan, next to Chelsey. Then right in-front of everyone. As he sits down Keagan leans towards me and kisses my check once again.

"I enjoyed our run together this morning, mind if I join you from now on?" He asks, taking a bite of his vegetable lasagna.

"I would like that." I manage to tear myself away from his blue eyes and return to my own food and the other people around our table. I really need to control myself around him; I don't want him thinking I'm a creeper.