I DON'T WANT TO MOVE OUT

"Hey! Psst psst!" Someone hissed behind trying to get his attention. He ignored at first and put all his attention on the teacher who was standing in front of the class, pointing her fingers at the large map which hung by the side of the whiteboard.

Miss Maryanne Hampton was his Geography teacher. She was one of the best teachers they had in Darkota High School and every student she taught could attest to that. She had a very unique way of explaining things to the students which helped to make the lessons stick to their brains. She was also smartly dressed all the time and wore large rimmed glasses too.

"So by the left of this map, you would see the little town situated..." She said, gesturing to the map. The class had become quiet, listening with rapt attention. The only noise he could hear was that of the person behind him trying to get him to look back by all means. He battled with himself whether to look back or not. He eventually decided to succumb. As he turned to see who has been calling him, lo and behold, he saw a mischievously grinning Jones Hardy in the middle of his two pals, Tom and Brandon. Tom had his middle finger raised up, gesturing directly at Jason. The three of them let out a muffled laughter while covering their mouths with their hands. A disappointed Jason slowly turned back to face front. He sighed deeply with a frown on. Those three friends had taken it upon themselves to always taunt and bully him just because he was left-handed. And maybe because he was a quiet lad too.

He looked by his side to see his seatmate, Carrie Thompson slowly dozing off with her mouth slightly ajar and her pen gradually falling off her hand.

"Arggh!" He grunted within him. "Not again this time".

He wondered why he always ended up with her as a seatmate. Can't he just be in the midst of bright pals like Phillip and the rest? And to worsen the situation, Carrie began to snore, reminding him of the way his grandfather always did when he was still alive.

"What is that noise?" Miss Hampton had asked, jolting him out of his thoughts. "Carrie Thompson, wake up this instant!" She ordered furiously. Carrie flung open her eyes at the sound of her voice and raised her head up immediately. Her glasses that was almost falling off her eyes finally fell to the floor and cracked. A thin trail of saliva hung by the side of her mouth. She rubbed her eyes with her handkerchief and looked up, only to find a furry-faced Miss Maryanne and whole class staring at her. She became shy at the realisation of what had happened and could not keep her gaze up anymore. Within spilt seconds, the entire class burst out in laughter.

The class went on after that. Jason looked up at the wall clock hanging next to a science chart on the wall and saw that it was thirty minutes after one. Dismissal time was almost drawing near.

***

George Peters had dropped his phone on the table and was staring at the cup of coffee right in front of him, releasing steam into the air. Hannie had gotten a mop and was drying up the floor that was wet with the spilled water from the kettle. George seemed to have lost appetite for the coffee which was serving as a brunch. He was not much of an eater though.

"I think the only solution is to get an antidote for him, because certainly there are things we can't control. And we do not know when exactly the curse would begin to take its toll on him". George said, raising the cup reluctantly to his mouth to take a sip as he watched his wife coming to sit in front of him.

"Yes, exactly. I do not want to lose my only baby boy". She sniffed. "I don't want the world to laugh at him and call him strange. Please George, anything you can do to save him, please do". She continued, her eyes glistening with tears.

"Hey, Hannie! Enough with the tears already. Just calm down. Everything is going to be fine. Getting the antidote is a very difficult task but I will surely do my best for our son". George promised sincerely.

"Please do. I have already lost two babies before him. I do not want to lose him". She pleads again, this time the tears had begun rolling down her cheeks. Immediately, there was a knock on the door and George rushed to see who it was.

As he opened the door, a worn out looking Jason stood at the door with his bagpack one the ground.

"Hello son! Come on in!" George greeted. "How are you doing? You look so tired. How was school today?" George kept asking.

"Everything is fine, dad!" Jason returned, dragging his feet and his bag on the floor. He stopped dead in his tracks immediately he saw his mother's sad face.

"Hey mom! What is wrong?" He began to advance towards his mother.

"Son, let her be. She's just a bit stressed out". George defended, stopping him in his tracks.

"Go and change your clothes!" He ordered. Jason reversed his steps immediately and began climbing the stairs.

"Honey!" George called out to his wife who had tried to put up a happy face.

"The lawyer sent me a text this morning. The rent has been increased. I think we need to start planning to move out because we can't afford the rent anymore". George said. Hannie's face remained bland. It was as if she knew it would come to this stage.

"No dad! I don't want to move out. I do not want to go to some new place". Jason lashed out from the staircase.

"I thought I asked you to go and change?" He asked angrily to a now sulking Jason.