I AM Working on It lol

Thanks for the feedback :) I've been busy adding a little more to what should become Chapter 1 of Infected (btw Jane, yes it was meant to be two people talking, like the radio shows you hear in the morning). If you haven't noticed, I am notoriously bad with commas, as in using them too much lol. If you catch a mistake, by all means, let me know :) Speaking about that, if something sounds awkward or out of place, I probably left something out (the downside of editing yourself is that you WILL miss things lol). Anyways, here's the fruit of my labor last night (It's more like a rewritten Chapter 1 so bear with me)

Chapter 1
It rained that day. Hard. Nathan felt each drop crash on his hood as he walked, dotting its gray color with darker shades of gray. He was cold, tired, and sore. It had been another drunk night for his father. Nathan had restrained himself from retaliating against his father, and his body had suffered for it. At least he was able to avoid being hit in the face. Any other bruise or evidence of the fights with his father were easily hidden under the shelter of his gray hooded sweatshirt and outlet jeans. In particular, there was this nagging pain in his right shoulder, probably from when his father threw him up against the wall. His right shoulder took the brunt of the force. Well, it’s not like he did much at school anyways.

Nathan walked up to the door to his classroom and just barely dodged the door as it swung violently towards him, threatening to come loose from its rusty hinges. After watching his life flash before his eyes in an instant, Nathan was greeted with the usual glare from his teacher. She eyed holes into his back as he took his seat in the back corner.

Class didn’t interest Nathan today. It rarely did. He was still pretty tired from last night. He amazed himself making it to school. He fell asleep, as usual, knowing no one would bother to wake him. Only the bell would dare do him that favor in this place.

They all hate me anyways. Why am I even here?

Her face popped up in his head, as if saying, “Good morning!”

A smirk graced his exhausted face.

Oh yeah. How could I forget about her?

Nathan looked at the clock, counting down the minutes until his last class, the only class he even slightly cared about, and that was only because she was in that class. So for now, he would sleep. Not only because he was tired, but because it made the time go by that much quicker.
Every now and then the bell would wake him, and he would groggily rise from his seat and move on to the next classroom, occasionally trudging up a set or two of stairs. Others walked around him, but he was too drowsy to notice. But his muscles remembered the routine, and managed to get him to each class, more or less.

Finally the time came. Nathan was wide awake from the anticipation. He knew he would only get an hour or so with her, but that was all he needed to make each and every day worth it. He hurried to the classroom, not in a rush, but fast enough to get him there early, but not too early. He arrived with perfect timing, he wasn’t the first or even tenth in the classroom, but he wasn’t the last either. Nathan steadily walked to his seat in the back corner.

Five minutes passed before she made it to class. But she was not alone. She entered the classroom with five of her friends almost huddled around her. They moved as one, and somehow made it past the door and into their seats. She sat in the back corner, opposite of Nathan. Although her obnoxious friend blocked his view from time to time, this view over weighed the inconvenience.

Her hair was a soft, light brown color, an almost totally opposite shade of Nathan’s devilish dark brown hair. While hers fell gently down to the middle of her back, Nathan’s stopped just short of his eyebrows. Today she had tied it into a ponytail. Jason had just left his alone. It was not like he could do much with it. Certainly not after last night and this morning. He had no time to worry about little things like this. But then again, his gray hood covered all aspects of his hair, so it didn’t matter in the end.

She flashed a glance his way, and he was caught off guard, his hazel eyes gazing into hers. It was only for a moment though, as she returned her attention to the conversation with her friend, who was giddy from the excitement of something that Nathan held no interest in.

He didn’t know what to think of her glance his way, even if it was for less than a second. Was she interested in him? Could she be interested in him? Or was she just taking in the surroundings, checking the room with her curiosity? But Nathan resolved it to be the latter, maybe even a random glance, like the one when you look away to think of something else to say in a conversation.

“Alright class, let’s get started. Today we shall be reading Shakespeare,” the teacher announced as everyone groaned at the sound of the name.

“Quite your whining. This is part of the curriculum, which means it WILL be on the final,” the teacher lazily scolded while still slashing the chalkboard with chalk.

Nathan couldn’t help but steal another look at her.

Sarah huh? Wouldn’t it be nice is she was my.....nah, she’d never be with a guy like me.

She flipped her hair casually, but to Nathan it was all but casual. More like the whole world stopped to watch her. More like Nathan’s heart skipped a beat just for her.

He spent the whole class like this. Oblivious to everything except Sarah. Even if the teacher scolded him for not paying attention, he didn’t notice until the teacher kicked the leg of his desk, interrupting Nathan’s peaceful watch.

None of the teachers cared too much for Nathan, and this one was no exception. He would have loved to hit Nathan over the head with, but school rules prohibited such actions. So he just let Nathan be for now and walked back towards the front of the class, all the while continuing his lecture. Right now, he was just satisfied that he had interrupted Nathan in whatever he had been doing. It was his own small compensation for wasting his time on such a hopeless student.

The bell gave Nathan a rude awakening to reality. The truth was Sarah probably didn’t even know of his existence. He watched her leave, along with his dreams and wishes. Then he rushed out of the classroom to avoid the teacher after school hours.

Nathan couldn’t avoid going back home. He hated it, but he had no money on him. Home was really the only place he could get food and sometimes, sleep. So he flipped his hood over his head and backtracked his way through the pouring rain.

He cut across the lawn to the door, and felt the water invade his sneakers.

That wasn’t the smartest thing I’ve done.

Nathan shut the door behind him, but kept his hand on the doorknob. Something was missing. There was an ache in his chest. Nathan could only wonder what it was. His stomach growled.

Guess I better get some food...

Nathan sneakers squeaked every step to the fridge, leaving a gleaming trail of who-knows-where-it-came-from water on the auburn tiles that characterized the kitchen floor.