The First Day (Eric)
Chapter One: The Morning
Eric Westerfield woke up with a serious headache. It may have been caused by the amount of video games he had played the day before or perhaps it was the stress of going back to school. As he thought of the day before the pain only got worse. Despite the fact that he knew his mother wouldn’t let him skip the first day of school he attempted to whine his way out.
"Mom!" Eric whined, "Do I have to go to school today?"
"Yes! Now get out of bed, you're going to be late!" replied his Mom in a stern manner.
His mother’s tone was an indication that she was not to be messed with. Eric quickly rushed out of bed and prepared for his first day at Robert Neville High School. This was Eric’s freshman year, he wasn’t excited.
"Have a nice first day!" said Eric's mom as he opened the door. Closing the door, Eric walked over to his bus stop at the end of the cul de sac. He sat down on a bench and waited for the bus to come. The bus slowly turned the corner into the cul de sac.
"Wait up!" Eric's friend, Scott Carter, was sprinting from his house to the bus stop. Eric, chuckled a little as he got on the bus. Barely making the bus, Scott sat down right next to Eric.
“Hey Scott, how’s it going?” Eric said as he moved his backpack to accommodate his friend.
“Tired, stayed up all night playing the new CoD, need sleep” Scott whined.
Soon Eric saw the school; it was a rather tall building with a modern design. The school looked more like a mall than a school to Eric. The outside was all white with windows and the top of the school was a giant skylight. He’d never been inside so he didn’t really know what it looked like but he was sure it looked as modern on the inside as it did on the outside. The school looked much different than his decrepit middle school with its failing roof and torn floorboards.
Eric got off the bus and immediately bumped into someone.
“Watch where you’re going!” said a voice. The tone was more joking than harsh but it was way too early in the morning for Eric to recognize that.
“S-sorry,” stammered Eric as he started to walk away with his head down.
“Dude, relax” said the voice as he put his hand on Eric’s shoulder, Eric looked up and saw John, his older brother. “It’s just me.”
“Hey John!” Eric said excitedly as he let his hair get ruffled, “How’d you get here faster than the bus?”
“Um, something called a car,” John said as he walked with his brother towards the freshman orientation.
“You have a car?” As if on cue John’s girlfriend, Elizabeth, drove past the entrance.
“Oh, she gave you a ride?” Eric asked.
“Yeah, I know you don’t like her sister but try to be nice to her.” John said pleadingly. Eric realized that John almost never asked him for a favor. This must have been really important for John.
“I’ll try,” Eric said hesitantly.
“Thanks!” said John brightly, “I’ve got to go, see ya later.” John sprinted off through the hallways. Guess he’s late for an early bird class Eric thought as he walked towards the auditorium. The school was exactly like what Eric thought it was going to be like. The entire inside of the school was mainly white except for a few bulletin boards. It really did look like a mall, there were 4 stories and each of the floors had a separation that allowed students to look down at the lower floors but no escalators. Eric managed to find his way to the auditorium after asking a total of 3 teachers and about 6 students. Inside he saw that it was really full in the back. All of the “cool” kids were sitting there. Eric looked around and sat down near his friend Scott, who was asleep. As he looked around he saw that the little cliques had already formed. He started to talk to some guy behind him about the new CoD game. Suddenly the lights in the auditorium dimmed.
“Hello,” said the speaker in an overly friendly voice, .Eric looked towards the stage and saw a nicely dressed, young teacher.
“My name is Ms. Winchester, and I’ll be showing you around the school,” said the teacher as she started to talk about the statistics of the school using a power point. He looked around again, most of the girls didn’t seem to be paying attention but the guys were spellbound. They weren’t looking at the power point though. As the dimmed lights and the almost monotonous voice of Ms. Winchester echoed throughout the room, Eric quickly fell asleep. What seemed like seconds later, he was woken up by a rather hard shove.
"Come on Eric, we're going! I told you Scott couldn’t be trusted,” said a voice as Eric was pulled to his feet. He looked towards his kidnapper, his gaze was returned by a pair of clear blue eyes with eyebrows raised.
"Eric, come on! We're getting left behind,” The girl said again as she tugged Eric to move.
"Yeah, I'm coming" Eric said, almost tripping over his feet as he regained his senses from his short nap. Eric rubbed his eyes; he didn't recognize the girl in front of him. She had long brown hair, and was standing with her hands on her hips; she didn’t look to happy. She wore a rather long dress. Eric started to move, following the girl who was almost jogging to keep up with the group.
“Thanks for waking me up. What’s your name and how do you know mine?” He asked as he jogged alongside her. The girl stopped.
“Eric Westerfield, how do you not remember me?!” The girl said as she stood in front of Eric, looking straight into his eyes. Realization flashed into Eric’s eyes while anger was evident in hers. Eric was looking into the eyes of his old friend Marissa Donovan.
“Oh, hey, Marissa. I didn't recognize you. Did you get a haircut?” Eric said awkwardly as he realized that this was his childhood friend he was talking to. Scoffing, Marissa turned around and walked towards the group of students crowding around. He looked at her again; it seemed that she had totally changed her style over the summer. The long dress she wore didn’t seem to fit her, neither did her long hair.
“And this is the cafeteria; this is where you will go during lunch, and nowhere else.” Said Ms. Winchester as she walked backwards, introducing the school to the freshman, with help from a select few seniors The school tour seemed to take forever and the way Ms. Winchester had tried to make it interesting, through little jokes, only seemed to make it take longer. The tour took them all around the school, and back, ending at the cafeteria. The freshmen were instructed to eat lunch, giving them a feel of what a normal day would be like.
"Eric, over here!" Scott called out. Eric hurried over with his lunch tray filled with burgers and fries. Eric walked over to the table joining Scott and a still upset Marissa. Suddenly a scream erupted from the middle of the room, piercing the calm of the lunch room. As Eric looked towards the scream he saw a man in bloodied clothes standing near a broken window. A girl lay fallen on the ground. The end had begun.
