Dangerous Dementions by Virginia Lang (suggested reading .TXT) 📖

voice warily cut through the silence outstretching the space around us. My poor Uncle; I wondered if he was just as worried as I right now about me being sucked into that tornado parade of students and faculty.

My stomach suddenly gave a small lurch, my grip tightening on the strap of my bag. “I think I’m going to revisit breakfast soon.” I replied as a sudden wave of nausea hit me once again. I really didn’t want to go, but I knew I had no other choice. I had to finish school. I needed to get the credits if I had any intention of attending college. Besides, Mark’s done so much for me with so little knowledge on how to go about raising a teenager and running life with another person in his space… I just couldn’t let him down. So I took a breath of the warm air in the cruiser and then stepped out into the whirlpool of chaos.

III.

The halls of Portland high were ridiculous; it was absolute chaos amidst many other things. Who knew this day could go from unnerving and crazy to worse than worse. It was outright troublesome. Kids were lined up against the locker walls with less room in the actual hallway itself. Like the gates of hell opened and poured out a mass amount of people and shoving them all in a worse cell, called a school. I didn’t know how close to truth I was.

I pushed my way through the crowd of students; they seemed to be making an attempt to consume me the deeper within the depths of the school hallway I got. I felt like I was being sucked into a vortex. Stupid vortex of sweaty, perfume drenched, arrogant looking people. The sudden feeling of being stared at by a piercing gaze caused me to dip into the first door to my right. As soon as I closed the door I noticed an odd assortment of bottles and rags and boxes.

Great. I just landed myself in a maintenance closet. I waited in there, leaning against the door until I heard the bustling out in the hall slowly begin to fade. A buzzing sounded out in the halls and I supposed it was the first bell. I was just about to open the door when it flung open, leaving me stumbling out into the bright hallway.

“Oh!” I bit my lip, a wave of embarrassment flushed through me as the janitor looked down at me, his brows turned down. “I-I’m sorry, I was…”

The mans thin lips turned up in a welcoming smile which for an odd reason seemed to calm my nerves and out of instinct I returned it. He seemed to understand without me saying anything and he gave me a curt nod. “First day.” I said a bit nervously, still embarrassed about being found hiding in the closet. I moved myself around his space and moved further out into the hall giving him one more smile before I hurriedly made my way down to find the office.

The office was pretty much three of the ones back in Syracuse; there was a large waiting area for students, separated by a stand for what looked like magazines. As I sat down and waited for the secretary to be done with the other student she was speaking too, I reached down and grabbed one of the magazines. Education weekly. Hmm, well wasn’t that a read. I flipped through it absently, not really paying any attention to it, as I was busy trying to strain to listen to the conversation ahead of me. The secretary was speaking to the student, a boy, not as tall as most but a fairly good size for any high school male, with deep sandy brown hair. He was sporting a black woolen coat with black gloves and two types of plaid scarves followed by tan slacks and what I could only describe as what looked like black Dockers, or whatever those type of shoes were that rich kids wore.

For a moment I thought I saw a mild red cloud surrounding him but hadn’t the chance to observe it any further for the boy turned his gaze towards me and I quickly pretended to be deep in the magazine I had still opened across my lap. I held my gaze to the same page intently until I heard the woman behind the desk ask if she could assist me. I set the magazine back down on the small table and stood up with my back around me shoulder. The boy was no longer in the office and I took a deep breath as I moved towards the counter. A sudden chill ran up my spine as I stepped where the boy had just been. As if I had just stepped into one of the winter storms we had back home.

“Can I help ye’ miss?”

“Yes, I’m new here and I don’t know where I’m supposed to go.” I said dumbly. I was a lost cause, really. In a place like this I was an ant trying not to be squished by the big bad feet moving around carrying the large beings trying to step on you or worse kill you with their deadly ‘spray in a bottle’.

“Are ye’ miss Tanner?”

“Hmm? Oh, yes, Charlene Tanner.” I said absently as I finally looked up to take in the woman’s appearance up close. She was a fare-skinned woman, probably in her upper twenties. Messes of dark mahogany curls were pinned up terribly neat atop her small-framed head. She was rather delicate looking, long womanly fingers gracing perfect wrists and a very proportioned body. The only major flaw I could find was a small scar tracing lightly over the small delicate nap of her neck. I wouldn’t have noticed it had she not moved her face to her right, putting it planning out for me to make out. My brow furrowed a bit and I had to tear my eyes away when she turned back to me, a friendly smile gracing her pink lips. She seemed to be a very humble soul. Much like my father…I felt my chest tighten slightly and I grabbed onto the side of the counter tightly.

Don’t think about that now, that’s not what he’d want.

“Miss? Miss Tanner are ye’ ill?” The woman has a very different accent I noticed then. I hadn’t picked up on it before... it was faintly foreign; I felt like I’d heard it once before.

“Miss Tanner!” I suddenly looked up at the woman and then down at my hands. My knuckles were white, and I had the counter in a death grip. But that wasn’t the worst part, as I lifted my hands away from the counter I noticed my fingers left a faint dent in the wood. Confused and a little embarrassed I glanced up at the woman, wondering if she too was staring at my odd occurrence of strength lodged into the woodwork of the high top desk she ran. However her eyes were plastered to my face, looking at me with concern.

“I’m sorry, what were you saying?” I tried to turn any possible conversion towards what just occurred away. I did not feel like trying to explain something I myself did not understand. She seemed to take note of that in my quivering tone and immediately began blustering over papers. She explained about a map of the school in case I got myself lost, along with my class schedule for this semester and a list of the books I needed checked out at the library.

“If ye’ need anything miss, doona be hesitatin’ in stopping by my desk.” She smiled at me with warmth, as like the janitor had. It calmed my nerves once more and I felt a quiet form of relaxation wash over me causing me to smile at her as well.

“Thank you…” I lingered in my response for it dawned on me I did not know her name. But her smile seemed to just grow even more and she placed her hand over mine for a brief second in a friendly and comforting gesture, which I welcomed. She must be a very family orientated person.

“The names Gwen. Gwendolyn McKleellan.” McKleellan…I’d heard that name before, but where? “Ye’ best be getting to class miss, ya doona wantin to be missin anything on ye’r first day!” She bustled me out of the office with a smile and determination and I found myself in the hallways of the school once again.


My entire body felt weak as I stepped into the first classroom on my list. Thankfully, as I entered, the teacher didn’t make a fuss about my being new and I found my seat in the back row. This was Economics class. Like I needed anymore about the subject in my brain however I didn’t fuss about my subjects for some I hadn’t learned yet but had been wanting too. It paid off being an AP student sometimes. Though I’m beginning to believe those who are blind to the world around them and get locked into only their work like mom, become androgynous, neutral to all of life beside them. They depend on only themselves and their instinct to do the same routine over and over again. It’s depressing, and sad.

So AP student or not, I need to make sure my life doesn’t ever turn into living at work, ignoring my life, and succumbing to depression. I was already feeling a bit depressed, but it was just the bitterness I felt from being away from home, moms pain mixed with my own, and missing dad.

The entire day went by faster than I expected. I didn’t talk to anyone unless I needed too, I had all my assignments written out and placed on separate pages in the notebook and I now sat in the lunchroom, which actually had a back patio area that went into a courtyard where most people were sitting. I took the small bag of cereal I had grabbed at Mark’s earlier this morning and walked outside. The place really was big…

Among the many things I was comparing in this school to my own back home, this was one of the ones that could outdo probably every school in Syracuse. There weren’t many besides the daycare and minor younger schoolyards. There was large pottery planters scattering some of the closest parts of the courtyard, scattered around them were a good amount of chattering students. The trees weren’t as brilliant as I would have thought though; a few were but by the far side of the courtyard one of the trees looked almost dead. Sad and dead…

Surrounding the square planter were a few students, and for an instant I caught sight of the boy from the office, however my eyes were more fixated on the strange looking cloud surrounding a few of them; Odd reds and almost…black? My brows knitted together as one of them turned towards me, the one from the office. His eyes locked with mine, like he knew

what I was seeing, like he knew I was looking at them, or through them. Or maybe that’s just how I was feeling. Did he have to stare at me like that? It caused a shiver to travel up my spine.

“Charlie Tanner.” I yanked my gaze away from the cold intense stare and gladly turned my eyes towards Connor who was now standing beside me. Today he was dressed differently than at the bookstore days ago. He was sporting a very plain dark gray sweater with an odd blue colored shirt and