9 8/26: First Period - Khalil Castle

8:36 A.M.

When Ali, Chan, & I were at breakfast, Ali gave me my breakfast that she bought for us. Even though I ate it all, I still couldn't erase the thought out of my mind about this drug shit. I think Chan could tell I was thinking about it since she knows, & she practically knows just about every facial expression I make.

Now I'm sitting in my first period, American Literature. The teacher, Mr. Richards, is explaining to us what we're gonna do for the semester, along with the syllabus & rules, & whatever else he says. Most people I see in this class have their phones out under the desk, and so do I. Only the total nerds in this class don't. Probably don't even have a phone yet. Anyway, I happen to be texting Chan-hee about all of this mess I'm going through when another notification comes to my phone.

Unknown: Make sure you sell those drugs today. I expect at least $100 in total when I ask for a pickup.

$100?! Is he fucking nuts?! Just what kind of person does he think I am? It's already bad enough I'm being forced to do it.

Me: How much do I sell each for?

If that's the amount I'm supposed to have, I at least have to know how much each piece of weed cost. I text the new details to Chan-hee as I wait for the next message to arrive from this mysterious ass person.

Chan-hee: WTF? Seriously? Who IS this person?

I wish I knew. At that moment, an idea came to mind.

Me: Hey dude. Don't u have a hacker girl? U can ask her to ask hack this kind of mess, right?

The message from 'unknown' came. I looked up first at the board & teacher. This is usually the time they called on a student to answer a question. "Sean Miller," Mr. Richards calls on from his attendance sheet. Everybody turns their heads to him, who happens to be sitting to my right at the next desk. Sean is my best friend, apart from Alixandria & Chan-hee. We're both football players for our school, but I'm the star quarterback. Even though he's jealous of that, we still get along well. We hang out whenever we can on the weekends, but we mostly see each other when it comes to the football field & the practices and games we play.

Sean looks up from his phone to Mr. Richards' face and says huh. "Name one of the things we're going to learn in American Literature this semester," he says. Easy. I could name five from the top of my head. Even if I am on my phone, I can still hear. Somehow, I don't just tune out the world when I'm stuck in my world of technology. I heard just about everything he said. 'We're going to learn about the influence of our environment, question the role of certain individuals in the society, read some novels from the American literary canon along with numerous short stories, poems, & essays. You will also take responsibility for class discussions & give presentations telling about the life & other works of key literary figures.' Besides, I have to be smart, unless I don't want to play sports anymore and then fuck up my life from there.

Sean gives a blank look, not knowing what to say. I raise my hand, and everyone soon has their attention on me. "Mr... Castle. You have an answer?" Mr. Richards says, notifying me.

"Yeah. One of the things you said we would learn about is the influence of our environment." I say with no hesitation. Some people look surprised that I even said it, others just turn back and face the teacher. "Well, Mr. Castle. Good job. That will count as extra credit towards today's first assignment," he says as the class groans at his last comment. He turns around to go to his desk & I smile to myself before checking my phone again, going to my convo with Chan-hee first.

Chan-hee: Yeah! Ur right. I'll ask her but it'll cost ya.

Dammit, Chan. Her & her ways, I swear. If she does this, she'll come up with the craziest shit to do. And that's whether if I'm capable to do it or not.

Me: Fine. Tell me what it is.

As I wait for my assignment to be passed to me by Mr. Richards, I feel my phone vibrate again in my hand. I ignore it, though, and slip it under my left thigh to hide it. The paper finally gets to my desk, and I see there a bunch of multiple-choice questions. I turn it on the back of it, which provides about 3 more multiple-choice ones & a short answer question. The instructions of the paper on the front say that it's only to see what you know about American Literature. Any wrong answers won't be penalized against us either.

I quickly answer everything on it in less than 2 minutes with no faltering. I'm not sure whether to raise my hand or just go up to give it to him, so I let it sit there and just take out my phone. I still let it be hidden under my desk just in case. The time on my phone says 8:56 now, meaning we have about 10 more minutes left in the class. I check the notification on my phone from when it came earlier and see it's from the unknown person.

Unknown: Sell for $5 apiece.

$5? If I sell at that amount, then that's 25 people I have to go to reach the requested amount he wants. 'Fuck my life,' I say in my mind. "Ok, people. Time's up. Pass your papers up to the front of the row for me to collect. Anyone who doesn't turn theirs in is an automatic zero," Mr. Richards says when he gets up from his desk. A girl in front of me turns around to get my paper. It's not just any girl, however, when I look at her more.

It's Savanah Crimson, my supposed girlfriend.

I didn't even know she was in this class, but then again I'm not surprised she is. Knowing her she probably worked her way to be in this same class with me. Her half-back length crimson red hair is flowing out in waves. The makeup on her face is kind of heavy, but just enough to make herself seem beautiful to the other boys. "Mind giving me your paper, babe?" she says in a soft voice.

"Yeah," I say back to her, almost in a sad tone. I hand her my paper and quickly turn back to my phone to see if Chan texted back yet. She has, but before I can check it, someone taps my desk. I look up, staring almost into Savanah's ocean blue eyes. "Who ya texting?" she asks me curiously.

"Oh, just one of the boys. Checking to see who's joining the football team for this year." I lie to her.

She looks at me with a skeptical look, but then...

"Yeah, we'll know if any freshmen are joining when the team is decided. We'll rough 'em up when it's practice time," Sean puts in. Savanah turns her head to him, then back to me, & gives me an 'ok' before turning back around.

I mouth out a 'thank you' to Sean, who in return just mouths out 'no problem'.

Chan-hee: I need a new piece of gossip for my blog. Got anything for me?

Damn, out of all the things she could get me to do, she asks for this. I turn to Sean & ask him if he's heard anything new about the people here. "Yeah, see the boy upfront with the glasses?

I look to the front in the same row Sean's in. Who I see is the back of a white boy's head with brown hair. You can tell it's parted mostly to the left side. I nod back to Sean and he tells me, "yeah, I heard from some other boy that he's still a virgin & he's in 11th grade. I think he said his name was Brian Miller."

"Ok, thanks. That's one new piece of gossip for Chan-hee's blog," I say to him.

Sean gives me a slight smile before I turn back to my phone. I text the new information I learned to Chan-hee, & in another few seconds, she texts me back a thumbs up. I check the time on my phone: 9:07 A.M.

Everyone starts packing up their stuff as Mr. Richards starts passing out our homework. As soon as he finishes, the bell rings. He tells us that we should have this ready to turn as soon as we walk into his classroom in the morning. As I walk down the hall to my next class, 3D Animation, all the voices around me are just as loud as it can be, even though everybody knows that we only have about 5 minutes to get to the next class. I get to locker 322 to exchange out a book for a new notebook. When I close it, the face that I've already seen once today but can't stand to look at anymore is standing beside it, red hair and all. "Hey, babe."

"Hi, Savanah. Need something?"

"Oh no. I just wanted to see me before I got to my next class," she says to me with a smile on her face.

"Well, you've seen me. I gotta go."

I give her a kiss on the left side of her face & walk off to my next class, not wanting to deal with her much longer. As I walk, I think back to Chan-hee saying she would get her hacker girl to figure out who's texting me about this drug shit. I really hope that girl figures out who this person is. That way I can find them myself & fuck him up.