Madness at Millard: Day Five

My fifth day at Millard High may have been one of my more important days for only one reason, which I'll recount later.

The day started with a ride on the bus, and it seemed like half of the kids on the bus had come down with a case of the sniffles from walking home in the rain. [or in Belinda's case, running around in circles shouting "It's raining! It's raaaaaaaaaining!"]


"Bless you." Dominick said in response to Leslie's huge sneeze which seemingly rattled the bus.

"Ugh... thanks." He said, laying his head on the window beside him.

Emette made his way onto the bus and a great deal of the students quaked in fear at the sight of him but Leslie didn't peel his eyes off the window.

Emette leered at the students and went to sit in the back.

The rest of the ride was largely uneventful, save for the bus breaking down, prompting us to have to go to school for the remaining mile on the Middle school's bus, a fight between Zoey--and a Spanish girl who was dressed awful revealing, Graciela, over the former taking Blanky's spot next to Dominick [I swear, I haven't seen her far from Dominick's side unless he's either of them are sick] and Leslie bumping his head on the bus's doorframe.

The first class of the day was Computers, and our assignment was to make a presentation on an animal that had gone extinct. Everybody seemed to be really wracking their brains for an animal, but I immediately set to typing about the Tasmanian tiger, as I had facts about them stored in my head from the many times I played a game with one with my friend Anna. Leslie was working a bit of his southern charm on Sky it seemed, and Dominick was the victim of [the first of very many] copying from the odd British-Indian fellow in class.

The bell rung for art class, and that particular class was just horrible.

"Okay class, today's assignment is to paint a Picasso painting! If you don't know what a Picasso  looks like, come up to the front desk and take a look at one of his paintings that I just happen to have in the classroom!" Miss Cedella, the art teacher and lunch lady said.

"A painting in the style of Picasso or a copy of a Picasso?" I asked, with a hand raised.

"In the style of Picasso." Cedella said.

"I can do that!" Zoey said, then proceeded to scribble on a piece of paper and present it to the class. "See?" That was the first blow.

"That looks like it could pass for a real Picasso." Drew said. There's the second.

 "Really?" Sandy asked.

"Of course. Picasso's paintings were nothing special because anyone can do one. Even a four year old." And there was the third.

I stood up, angry. "I cannot believe you are comparing Picasso to four year old! His art was not just scribbles, he used a certain type of surrealism and way of visioning things!" I shouted. Of course my opening my mouth came with consequences.

SMASH!

Emette apparently thought my speech deserved getting a canvas smashed over my head.

All eyes were on me as the wet paint spread thickly and sloppily on the canvas dripped down my face and the canvas hang around my neck like an impromptu necklace. They continued staring at me for several moments before finally breaking into laughter unanimously. 

I felt my face get hot with embarrassment before running out of the classroom, crying behind the trashcan I had hid behind the day previously, after discarding the damned canvas. It was just like middle school all over again.

"Aeolos?" May asked. Crouching down to the floor to see eye to eye with me.

"W-what?" I sniffled, wiping away some tears and paint which was dripping dangerously close to my mouth.

"Are you okay?" She asked.

"No..."

"What's wrong?" I thought it was obvious.

"My head hurts... and my pride hurts. I can't go back in there."

"It's okay, I think everyone stopped laughing in there." May said, but I could hear the sound of laughter from the room across the hall.

A fresh batch of tears welled up in my eyes and I sobbed into my knees.

"Please don't cry, Aeolos..." May said. "Come back to class."

"Fine..." I mumbled, then went to sit in my seat, which I immediately regretted. The class either looked at me still laughing, or with pity, including Dominick and Leslie.

"Maybe you guys should stop laughing! You're making him feel bad!" May squeaked, but it somehow got the laughing crowd to stop.

After that nothing happened save for a paint fight starting prompting Miss Cedella to quit until the bell rang, and Dominick gaining a 'stalker' not unlike Blanky's.

The next class was English, most of which has escaped my mind but Blanky gained another 'stalker' and said stalker made a spectacle of himself by reading out of the wrong book dramatically. Soon after that was over the bell rang for lunch.

Basically Emette stole all of the home-brought lunches and kept them for himself [arguably he needed it, that boy was direly malnourished]. So everyone had to eat from the cafeteria, which wasn't so bad as it was pizza day. Daisy revealed her 'dilemma' of having been in the school for a day and not having met anyone save for 'Raggy and Domino' [Blanky and Dominick. The girl is terrible with names.] and ended up making fast friends with Zoey and by association, Demetri.

The bell rang for Science, which is finally how we come to why this day was so important.

"Alright students! Today we will we working with harmfu--less mutagens. Now partner up and figure out which one of you will be mixing and which will be testing. The 'guinea pig', if you will." Dr. F. said.

There was much clamoring over who would be with who and who would be the 'guinea pig'.

"Do you want to be partners, Drew?" Sandy asked, looking at her cousin with those big violet eyes.

"Uh..." Drew looked over at Zoey, as if uncertain. "Sure."

"... guinea pig?" Dominick echoed the teacher.

"You be the guinea pig!" Blanky shouted in a panicked tone.

"No, you." Dominick replied. "I let you copy my homework all the time so you owe me."

Blanky looked absolutely despondent.

"Wanna be partners? I'll be the guinea pig!" Drew's younger sister, Jess shouted, running up to Blanky.

"Sure!" She replied, popping back up.

"Hey! Then who's going to be my partner?" Dominick asked.

"Eh... you want to be partners, Dominick?" I asked.

"Sure... but who's going to be the guinea pig?" He asked back.

"I guess I will." I said with a shrug.

"Are you sure?" He asked, seeming unsure. He was awful quick to forcing Blanky into it, but I suppose that was because he felt she needed to repay a debt.

"Yes, I'm sure." I said.

"If you say so..." And then the madness began, with everyone beginning to mix up their chemicals and some kids getting mutated. "So... how do we start this?" Dominick asked, nervously looking the chemicals over.

"I don't know, just mix some together..." I said, then Dominick set to mixing chemicals together.

"Okay, uh... try drinking this." Dominick said when finished, pushing the glass toward me. It was a light pink color and it smelled of roses. Surely it couldn't be bad.

"A-alright..." I stuttered, trying to keep calm but failing at it, then taking a swig of it. Dominick looked just as nervous as I might have been for the reaction.

The reaction was that you got infatuated with the first person you saw of the opposite sex,  and the first person I saw? Sandy, who was crouched down petting Demetri who got turned into a cat.

I could hear my heart pounding in my ears, and it seemed as if everyone else in the room disappeared when I set eyes on her. I ran to greet her.

"What the--?! Aeolos, what are you doing?" I heard Dominick say.

"Um, hi?" Sandy said, giving me a nervous look.

I grabbed her hands, pulling her up and gazed into her eyes. "Sandy, mia bella, it's as if Cupid himself has cured my blindness and I'm seeing you for the first time! What a sight for blind eyes!" I babbled.

"Uh... thank you?" She said, smiling a little. I proceeded to kiss her cheeks many, many times.

"A love potion, huh?" Blanky mused.

"It wasn't intentional, I swear!" Dominick said, waving his hands defensively. One would wonder if he did mean to or not.

The students crowded around Dominick for the 'recipe'.

"Sandy, I'm done." Drew said, grabbing Sandy away from me causing me to come to my senses for a moment. "Here. Drink this." He said, holding up a liquid that looked an awful lot like the one Dominick made for me to test.

Sandy just looked at it suspiciously. "Drink it. Now." Drew said. Sandy drank the potion and looked over at me, gaining hearts in her eyes.

"Oh my god, what did you do Drew?" Mandy asked, trying to hold back her laughter.

"Just used the chemicals Dominick used." He replied with a shrug.

What happened to the other students was Daisy gave her brother a mixture of chemicals that made him pass out, Blanky turned her partner Jess invisible, Zoey turned Demetri into a cat, and while Leslie was asleep Daisy had Dylan mix some chemicals so she Dylan could participate. And as far as I heard from other students, someone had tested something on Dominick and Blanky that had them acting really, really weird.

Luckily Lab class was the last class of the day, and I immediately went home thinking of the beautiful blonde that I noticed that day.