“How will we do it?” a woman asked. She was green and covered in plants with sticks and twigs in her long brown hair.
“We’ll cut the lights and get people separated,” Joshua began. “We need to separate the Christchild from that Bleak woman and that teacher. Dathan, you keep them locked up and as far away from the Christchild as you can. Eden, it’ll be up to you to grab who you can with your vines so they don’t get in our way. You can also help build a barrier to keep the Child’s protection at bay. Legion will patrol the school for any stragglers we forgot or couldn’t grab. Kill whoever you see. I will grab the Christchild and dispose of her and then that will be the end. No more Christ, no more Child of God,” Joshua said with delight.
Thursday rolled around and Zoe, Vanessa, and Winnie got ready for parent teacher conferences. The first quarter of school had ended a week ago and just about everyone was going to Hyde Park for conferences. Winnie had decent grades but a couple classes could’ve been better. They all arrived at school and went in, they were directed to the massive gymnasium where all of the teachers were sitting, grouped by subject.
“Where do you want to start?” Zoe asked Vanessa.
“Math,” Winnie said and began walking over to the math section where Winnie’s teacher, Ms. Bush, was talking with Ms. Hanson. “Hi, Ms. Bush.”
“Hello, Winnie, are these your parents?”
“Yes, pleased to meet you, Ms. Bush,” Zoe extended her hand. “I’m Zoe.”
“I’m Vanessa,” Vanessa introduced and gave a slight wave.
The three of them sat down and Ms. Bush pulled up Winnie’s information on the computer. “Winnie is a very good student. Sometimes she’s easily distracted but she’s good at math even if she doesn’t want to be,” Ms. Bush chuckled and looked at Winnie over her glasses that were at the edge of her nose. “Has everything been okay at home?”
“Yeah. We think so anyway, why?” Zoe asked.
“A little while ago, Winnie seemed very distraught and quiet. It didn’t seem to affect her schoolwork it just seemed to throw her off balance for a bit.”
“It may have to do with with the death of Heather’s grandma,” Zoe said. “Winnie was the only one in the room and the grandma said some weird things to her. I guess maybe we should’ve notified the school,” Zoe looked at Vanessa.
“I guess so,” Vanessa shrugged.
“Okay. There were just a couple teachers concerned and we wondered. That would be scary to be all alone in a room when someone passes,” Ms. Bush said. “Onto Winnie’s schoolwork,” she said, more upbeat and turned the computer to Zoe and Vanessa.
Zoe and Vanessa went to see all of Winnie’s other teachers and finished their night with Mr. Sullivan. “Winnette is a delight,” Felix said, using Winnie’s full name. “I do think I am her least favorite subject. You would think someone like her would be thrilled with Ancient World History but she’s not having any of it. And it’s because she’s not interested that her grade is a low C.”
“We’ve talked to her about this grade. She turns in the assignments though, right?” Zoe asked.
Felix glanced at his laptop and scrolled through the assignments on the online gradebook. “She does but it looks like she just jots down answers.”
Everyone turned to look at Winnie. “What? I’m just not interested. I’m still passing,” she shrugged.
“You need to try harder, Winnie. You have a C with three more quarters to go,” Zoe said.
“Winnie, I am amazing with history. If you need help come ask me,” Vanessa said.
“All we do is read through the book and take notes,” Winnie said. “I think Ancient HIstory is interesting but Mr. Sullivan makes it boring.”
“Winnie!” Zoe snapped.
Felix laughed. “No, it’s okay. This is my first year, I need constructive criticism. I’m not quite sure what I’m doing yet but I’ll get there. I will take Winnette’s info to heart and see if I can shake things up.”
The gym lights went out as did every other light in and around the building. As first everyone was calm but suddenly everyone started screaming. The screaming got quieter and Zoe was carried away from the gym by someone unknown. The gym got quiet and Zoe was thrown, by herself, somewhere else in the school.
