Bully (part 6)

Six

PLANETARY SCIENCES WAS THE WORST CLASS! I wasn’t prone to falling asleep in class, but this class couldn’t keep me engaged. It was part the material, and possibly a bigger part, the teacher. Mrs. Epans spoke with a dull monotone through each lecture. She was short, stocky, with a sharp angular haircut that was at the length that allowed her black curtains of hair to cover her ears. She wore big ridiculous glasses that magnified her eyes about five times. She was quite comical to look at, but once the giddiness of that faded, it was hard not to hop on the train to Snoozeville.

“What entities make up the Conglomerate?” Mrs. Epans asked.

I think she expected arms to shoot up into the sky — she looked around. No one moved. Harpoon shared this class with me. He sat next to me because we used to be friends. He had his head resting on crossed arms. Mrs. Epans couldn’t see, but his eyes were closed and he was breathing pretty deeply.

“Mr. Green.” Mrs. Epans called. I was caught off-guard.

“Ah…Yea?” I’d heard the question, but I wasn’t expecting her to call on me. I stumbled through my words. “Um, Nweat, LoDaS, Yineye, and Vivirdrasil.”

“Right.” She smiled, though it didn’t seem like she was truly pleased. I think she thought she was going to catch me daydreaming.

Then Mrs. Epans fell back into her old habits and I felt my mind drifting. I was looking out the window when something caught my attention. Hightide comes every day, twice a day. It wasn’t something new. We all took it for granted. And very rarely does anyone watch it. I mean, tideologists watch them, but I never really stopped to watch the tidewall come ripping through. A light-sounding chime alarm sounded through the intercom. Mrs. Epans didn’t even pause her lecture. The alarm was like second nature.

The school, like almost all buildings on Nweat, were built spherical. The domed structure of the school provided the least amount of resistance to the tidewall as it came rumbling through. The school had its own environment control to keep us breathing and comfortable while the building was underwater during hightide.

Water seeped up out of the ground almost as fast as the tidewall moved towards the window. The rain was torrential now. Just over the siren you could hear the roar of the coming wave. It roared like the force of nature that it was.

There was a whistle to the tidewall today. It sounded like an army of tornados coming. Mrs. Epans stopped talking. The siren filled our ears. It was unprecedented, but the entire class stopped to watch the tidewall make impact on the school. It wasn’t until that moment that I noticed that the blinds were broken in Mrs. Epans classroom. Typically the blinds would be pulled, definitely during the coming of the tidewall to prevent distraction. And Mrs. Epans needed everything to keep the students attention on her. Though we’ve all seen it a thousand times, every student was looking out the window with wide eyes.

The typhoon swallowed the space around the school. The roads were underwater, no one was out there but wall salmon, emerald green and pink fish that rode the tidewall to their spawning grounds. A few mantas that were used as public transportation were tied up to a post just outside the school. They wrapped their wings around each other to brace for the wall — but seemed happier once they were submerged.

The water wrapped around the building like a god’s hand! The seams of the school were checked regularly for leaks. We couldn’t breathe underwater. Breathing underwater was a sign of the Abyss! Fish that were floating on the air moments ago were now swimming underwater upon their spread fins. The school and the rest of the world falling under hightide, was underwater — and would be for the next three hours.

“I’m sorry.” I could barely hear Harpoon say. I forgot that he was sitting right next to me. This makes me look at him, I mean, right at him.

All I saw was one of Sail’s puppets. “Sorry for what?” I replied.

“The way we treat you. It’s not fair. You’re cool. I still consider you a friend.”

“Speak for yourself.” I said.

Silence hung between us, just as awkward as the growing silence between Trench and I that morning. Then Harpoon asked me. “What happened between you guys anyway? You and Sail?”