Chapter 2

The finished second Chapter of a Text to Save the World! I hope you enjoy it! :] sideways smiley face
 Chapter 2
 After a night of restless tossing and turning in bed, I woke up bleary eyed and yawning.  I was in no mood to go to my school. As I walked [nearly tripped] downstairs, I was still thinking about Hope and Notch. How did they know me? Where did Hope "live"?  How did they meet? All these questions and more rumbled throughout my head as I slowly consumed my brown sugar and blackberry oatmeal. Mom was busily getting my backpack and attacking my hair.
  " Honey, what did you do to your hair? Did you sleep in a windstorm?"
 I was too sleepy to answer back, so I settled for shaking my head.
  " No... well, your backpack has your homework in it, HOPEFULLY finished... and your lunch is packed." I got to run. I'll meet you after school. I love you!"
 
  Mom raced off and I nearly choked on my oatmeal. HOMEWORK! I didn't do it! My teacher would be so mad! So, as I grabbed my bag, I took out my binder and found my homework paper. Yes! It was my Latin homework!  Piece of cake, I thought. I jotted down all the answers, and stuffed it back into my cluttered bag.

 Then I zoomed upstairs, changed, brushed my teeth and came back downstairs. Soon I was on the little sidewalk heading to my school, bag slung over my shoulder, and that odd phone in my hand. It wasn't new, certianly, but it wasn't old either. It was like... in between. I checked the owner's name on it. It could be anybody's phone, I guess.  It could be Notch's... yeah, that kind of makes sense. Oh snap, It couldn't be him. If this was his phone, the name on the top of the text would be the owner of the other phone. Unless he had two phones... never mind. What about Hope? She gave the phone to me. She could have given me her old model, and she could buy herself a newer one... or Notch could have bought a new phone for her, I thought I finally decided to stop shooting ideas down and actually read the dumb name. It was Hope Riley's phone. I suppose I saw that coming. It made sense, at least.   I checked her recent texts. Notch was there, and a few people I didn't know. She hadn't  texted those few that were unknown in a long time. So this might really be solid proof that Hope teamed up with Notch. Or was forced to. I mean, Notch didn't sound like that cool guy from the end of the block. More like that gentleman in the house right next to yours, and whose belongings are all antiques.

 Anyway, I was still fiddling around on the phone when I arrived at school. [I don't live very far from it.] The bell rang, and everyone rushed inside, talking and pushing, so much so that I almost dropped the phone. Soon I was racing down the hall to my first class; Math. In my haste to get inside and not be late, I still had the phone in my hand. As my notebooks and test papers went inside my desk, so did the phone, and class started.

  I always dread Math as my first class, because it sends me into a sleepy trance from our strict teacher- Miss. Cumber. From this trance like state, I can almost be 100% sure I am going to get a C on my next assignment. Today, we were still studying percents, my worse aspect in Algebra. Last time, my test came back as a D; a fail. I groaned inside my head. I was just dying, hoping I could be put out of my misery when...BEEP. I jumped a little in my seat. I stared around the room, hoping to see where the sound was coming from, as were my peers. BEEP. This time I knew where the sound was coming from. My desk. No, please no... I thought, but to no avail. As I looked inside, the phone was displaying-NEW TEXT MESSAGE. Mrs. Cumber and her hawk-like-eyes  pierced the room, searching for where the source of the sound was. Her eyes lay upon my desk. She walked over to me and I keep thinking... I am SO doomed... then, she talked straight to me, and there was no trace of drone-like quality now.

 " What do you have in your desk, Flicker? [No matter what, she always called me by my full name.] Something you wished to hide from us, hm?"
 She leaned in close, and I sould smell her peppermint toothpaste.
" Hand it over...now!"

  I grabbed my phone and gave it to her, but not willingly. Mrs. Cumber wasn't  as strict about cellphones in class, but she had a nasty habit of reading the message aloud, or answering the call. I had a funny feeling this was NOT a message I wanted read aloud. Just as she was going to read, the intercom sounded,

 " Flicker Peterson to the principal's office, I repeat, Flicker to the principal's office. Thank you."

 I couldn't belive it. I was free! I jumped up, grabbed my bag and quickly said a good-bye to my teacher [ who by the way, looked like a fish out of water when I left. Ha! I tore down the hall, and heard a few teachers screech," No running in the hallway!"

  Good -bye, Miss Cumber, I thought as I reached the principal's office. I was panting really hard, so I put my hands on my knees and took deep breaths. Once I could breathe properly, I realized I knew the voice in the office, but I couldn't belive it. I put my ear in the lock and listened.

 " Yes, Flicker has a family emergency, and he has to go right away."
 " Yeah, our Grandma just died. He really loved her a lot. We are going to California to attend her funeral."
Yep, I knew that voice. Hope Riley.
 " We will be back next week. Thank you, bye."

 Before I got slammed by the door, I jumped out of the way, and Hope came striding out- followed by a tall guy I didn't know. Hope looked pretty much the same; just some different clothes, and her hair was tied in a ponytail,  neatly washed and brushed. The man looked like a Secret Service agent who had retired, [ because he wasn't with the President of course], though he didn't seem to know he had. His hair was dark brown, kind of a mahogany. It was a bit long,  going only to the nape of his neck, and it was rather flat- but it looked all right. I couldn't tell you what his eyes looked like, because I couldn't see them myself. [ He had his shades on. Classy.] The man leaned over and grabbed my arm and steered me out me out of the school doors, all the while saying things like...

 " How was Math today, son? Was Mrs. Cumber a pain in the neck like usual?"

 I just stared up at him like he had grown an extra head. Son? I was not his son. My Dad is in the Army, you see.  He is a general, so he's always at the Army base. He never comes to visit me because his job is so important. Sometimes I get angry because when the Army men come back from base, I look around, but my dad isn't there. Other times I feel proud that he has such and important position. All I knew, was that this guy was NOT my dad.

 Finally we reached the car, and all I can say is that I LOVE IT! It was a huge Hummer, jet-black and oh so cool. The windows were grey, made for seeing out, not in. On the top, a long array of lights were placed, used for really dark nights when you are alone on the long strech  of road. [ If you weren't alone, you would blind the person coming on the side of the lane. I am almost positive that that would happen.  In the end, lots of disater and choas would insue.] It's headlights were also big. It was the best car I have ever seen. Hope stopped when she reached it, but I was looking at every inch of that car, looking for the maker's symbol. I was going to tell my mom about this car, and tell her to get one. I want it! When I gave up on the search for the symbol that wasn't there, I turned to Hope.

 " Who made this beautiful car?" I asked.
 " It was specially made for us." Hope replied.

 I had a feeling she wasn't going to elaborate, so I stopped with the questions and tried the door handle. Locked. I asked Hope," Do you have the keys?"

 " No. Mr. Notch always keeps them."
 " Wait, wait, wait. So that guy you were with was NOTCH!?"
 "... I shouldn't have said that."
 " No, but I am glad you did."
 " I bet you are."
[ There was a long pause.]
 " So... how did you meet Notch?"
 " That is classified information."
 " Yeah... right..."
 " What? It is! You can't just know everything when you first come with us!"
 "What do you mean?"
 " ...you didn't hear anything."
 " So how come I heard it?"
 " Urgh!"


 Hope crossed her arms and glared at me for a second before she turned towards the school and looked at the front doors, proably half expecting Notch to come out and exclaim," Nope, this isn't the kid we wanted. This boy is too annoying." She was talking to me as though I was just an odd kid to be ignored.  Well, I 've dealt with people like that before. The people who considered Flicker to be beneath their notice. Huh. I guess you're wondering why these people did this. I might as well tell you.

  Like I said before, my Dad is in the Army. At first, kids would ask me questions about him like... "What rank is your Dad?" "What is his name?" " Was he in a war?" Stuff like that. But after a while, they weren't interested, and they discovered what I was like. I'm sort of shy, not very outspoken or anything like that. I also have learned 4  languages: Latin, French, Hebrew and Greek. I guess I'm pretty smart too, because I get A's and B's. My classmates must think that I am a teacher's pet. [Which is not true by the way.]  I can also be a history nerd. I love learning about Greeks and Romans, Isrealites and French. Ask me a question about these people and I can usually answer it. In the end, I became Flick the Oddball, or The History Nerd, or Flicker the Shy Guy. Take your pick.

 At last, Notch came back. I was still kind of shocked that this guy was Notch. I was expecting a Barty Crouch like character. [ President Fantasy, I will remove that later, but I had to put it in. It was so funny!] You know, toothbrush mustache, if you break the rules, you are dead, that sort of person. I mean, Notch kind of looked cool, almost. If you considered Secret Service to be cool.  As we got in the car, I realized Hope didn't get in the front seat. She must have not had the power to go there, and to sit by " Mr. Notch". No matter the circumstances, I was not going to Hope's level and calling him "Mr. Notch." I would never do that and if by accident I did, I would be so ashamed of myself I would change my name to Larry and live the rest of my days as an old hermit.

 When we got inside the car, I had a million questions. The first came out as," Are you really Notch?"

  Slowly, he nodded. Another question flew out of my mouth," How did you two team up?"

 Notch didn't respond. I had feeling there was only so much I could ask of him. Hope then leaned forward and whispered,"You are lucky. When he first met me, I didn't get anything out of him."

 I noticed that her tone wasn't so friendly. More like... where is a word when I need it... jealous. That's it. Jealous. I couldn't believe it. Did she want to be me, getting one silly question answered? Getting whisked away from torture, but not knowing why? Hmph. I wasn't going to argue. I decided to do what I usually do in cars; read. I took out my Greek vocabulary book and practiced the words in my head. I was so interested in my book that I didn't realize that Hope was reading over my shoulder until she spoke.

 " What does that word mean?'' she asked me, her voice no longer jealous. I jumped a little at the sound of her voice.
 " It means " peace." Oh, and that one means " war". Oh, and you have to know this one! It means..."

 From there we went, me teaching her Greek, and she following along. It helped me get over the never-ending car ride. By the time we stopped [hopefully not by a red light] she had devolped quite a nack for learning Greek. She told me in the car ride she already knew Latin, and I was heartened. Finally, something in common between us! So just as I was about to tell her the word for "hope", her name, the car gave a jerk and Notch got out, still silent. Hope got out right after him. I opened my car door, about to ask another question I wanted to tell Notch, but words failed me as I beheld the warehouse.
-Tiger