The Reckless Never Die

By Wesley Watkins

In a generation where caring the least is the only way not to get hurt, a teenage girl realizes that her lack of care proves to be rather destructive.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jan 14, 2018
• ISBN: 9781387516131

Book preview

The Reckless Never Die

The Reckless Never Die

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by Wesley Watkins

Copyright © 2017 by Wesley Watkins

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.

First Printing: 2018

ISBN: 978-1-387-51613-1

Chapter 1

7:02 AM

Wake up!

Ugh.

James, wake up!

Five more minutes…

No! Get up!

James’s mom flickered the light switch rapidly before slamming the door and walking back into the kitchen to finish preparing breakfast for James and his younger brother. As James laid in bed staring up at the fast-spinning ceiling fan hovering above him, he realized the day he had been dreading for the past three months had finally arrived: the first day of senior year. Since the age of three, James had attended a small school in his local area called The Ransed School for Boys. However, at the end of his junior year, the school announced it would be shutting down after three female faculty members were found guilty of sleeping with seven younger students, secretly filming each of the engagements, and sharing the videos on a hidden student-teacher porn site. The entire incident was something the likes of which James’s small town in Theodore, Alabama, had never experienced. Consequently, his tiny class of six was forced to find a new school to attend their senior year. Four of his classmates transferred to a nearby public school, and one simply chose to drop out. James, however, would be attending the most prestigious school in the entire county: Independence Academy.

I just don’t know, complained James, plopping down at the oval-shaped table in their country-styled kitchen for breakfast and reaching for the pan filled with scrambled eggs. I don’t know anyone there. And they’re all geniuses. I just don’t think I’ll fit in…

You probably won’t, stupid, his younger brother mocked, standing up from the table and walking towards the counter at the other end of the kitchen to grab his backpack.

Shut up and get in the car, his mom exclaimed, scolding his younger brother. Look, James. You’re a smart kid. So, I know you’re not dumb enough to think those preppy kids are going to be smarter than you.

Although what his mom said made no sense, James nodded his head and uttered, Whatever you say…

During the summer, if James had anywhere to go in the mornings, he would always try to be the first person to leave the house because the last person to leave had the responsibility of locking the large, steel gate at the driveway that guarded their house. However, on that day, James happily allowed his mother and younger brother to leave before him. He then spent the next fifteen minutes lying on the living room sofa, wrestling the loud voice in his head begging him to stay home. After playing out various scenarios and contemplating the consequences, he concluded it was most likely not in his best interest to skip the first day of school. He collapsed into his car and drove down the driveway, and as he climbed out to lock the gate, he heard the sound of a robin singing from the neighbor’s large oak tree. After locking the gate, he spent a few seconds admiring the bird’s song and then climbed back into his car and headed towards Independence.

Driving through the school’s parking lot was nerve-racking. Students were scattered everywhere and walking in all directions, the same way ants do when their anthill has been kicked or blown away. James drove slowly through the parking lot until he found an open spot in the far back corner. However, as soon as he started driving toward the parking spot, another student pulled into it before him, causing James to have to drive around the entire parking lot two more times before finding another empty spot. Once James was parked, he noticed a few students staying in their vehicles instead of walking across the street to the school, and he decided to mimic them. He sat in his car, listening to music and dreading every minute that led him closer to the beginning of school. Starting a new school is a hard-enough task in itself, but not knowing anyone at the school makes it twice as difficult. Suddenly, a few minutes before the bell was supposed to ring, he watched as every student in the parking lot exited their vehicles in unison and began walking toward the school as if it were something they had rehearsed a hundred times over during the summer. Following suit, James turned off the radio, grabbed his backpack, and joined the mob of the students.

However, James didn’t remain a part of the mob for long. As he walked shoulder to shoulder with the other students across the empty street to the large, three-story school building, he glanced at his right hand where he had written his class schedule. As the other students continued to march through the tightly-packed hallway, James broke off from the crowd and started searching for his homeroom class. He began to regret faking a cold on the day he and his parents were supposed to walk around to his classes and visit his teachers because finding Room 222 proved to be a challenge. After walking around the entire school at least three times, he finally came across a room with 222 written in white paint above the door. Astonishingly, James was the first person to arrive – even though he was five minutes late. He attempted to open the door, but the handle refused to turn. He then peeked through the small rectangular window in the door only to see several empty desks. It was apparent James was supposed to be somewhere else at that moment, but he ultimately decided to stand outside the room by himself and wait for the other students to show up. Room 222 was adjacent to the parking lot, and James’s car was in plain sight. He knew he could easily run back across the street and stay in his car for the remainder of the day without a single person even knowing he was gone. Nevertheless, he remained standing in the same position with his feet planted so firmly on the ground that not even a group of football players dressed in full pads sprinting towards him at max speed could make him budge.

Ten minutes later, to James’s relief, a group of four sharply dressed students began walking in his direction. They obviously had to have seen James standing outside of the room but paid him essentially no mind as they approached laughing in perfect harmony. One of the students attempted to open the door and then reported back to others that the room was locked. James stood across from the other students listening to their elaborate conversations among themselves for several minutes before an older woman came rushing down the sidewalk with a coffee in one hand and a set of keys in the other. After unlocking the door and walking inside towards her desk at the front of the class, she noticed an unfamiliar student walking into the room.

Can I help you? she asked James before he sat down.

A mixture of confusion and nervousness squeezed James so tightly that his face became bloodshot red. The rest of the class turned their attention towards him, which only made him more apprehensive.

I’m in this homeroom, he stammered.

Oh, I didn’t see you at the assembly this morning, she pointed out. I’ll let you off with a warning today, but if it happens again, I’ll have to send you to the office to get a tardy slip.

James sat down at the closest desk he could get to, which turned out to be two desks away from anyone else. Once everyone was settled, old meanie – as James decided to nickname her – started taking attendance.

Sarah?

Present!

Chance?

Always!

Thomas?

You know it!

Blake?

Without a doubt!

James?

Here.

James found it odd that old meanie took roll since she only had five students in her homeroom class, but perhaps it was to enjoy a few seconds of silence because as soon as she finished calling out names, loud conversations sparked all across the room as if her class of five were actually a class of thirty. On multiple occasions, old meanie attempted to quiet the classroom by putting her index finger over her mouth and making a loud, shushing noise, but just like they had done with James, the students paid her no mind and continued chatting amongst themselves. Since James was sitting so far away from the other students, he spent the majority of homeroom attempting to read the abundance of Spanish posters plastered on the walls. When the bell finally rang, it sent each of the students, including James, into a synchronous motion out of the room and towards their first class of the day. As soon as James walked out of the room, he glanced down at the schedule written on his right hand and realized that his first class was Spanish with old meanie. So, he turned right back around into Room 222, smiled at old meanie, and sat at the exact same desk he had sat at during homeroom.

To James’s surprise, old meanie’s class wasn’t as bad as he thought it would be. He and the other seventeen students simply listened to old meanie give a long and incomprehensible lecture in Spanish, and they occasionally nodded their heads to give the impression that they actually understood what she was saying. At the end of class, she went around the room and made everyone introduce themselves in Spanish; luckily, however, the bell rang before it was James’s turn. His second class of the day was calculus where the math teacher/head football coach spent the entire time reminiscing about his college days when he was the third-string quarterback at Texas Tech. Apparently, if he hadn’t injured his knee in practice at the beginning of his sophomore year, he would have been the starting quarterback that year, and probably would have even gone pro… so he said.

When it came time for Break, every student began piling into the cafeteria in a single-file line. James walked to the end of the line and followed the crowd inside where he noticed a table consisting mostly of students from his first two classes. He walked over to the long, white table where everyone stood and waited to be invited into a conversation. However, after a few minutes of silently listening to his classmates share extraordinary stories about their summer, James decided to leave the cafeteria and look for his next class. On the way out, he stopped by the concession counter and bought a Kit Kat. However, it turned out to be a waste because as soon as James walked out of the cafeteria and began taking off the Kit Kat’s wrapper, a teacher noticed him and made him throw it away because there’s no eating outside the cafeteria.

James’s next three classes all followed the exact same pattern; he would walk into a classroom, find a seat in the far back, not speak to anyone, doodle in his notebook, and countdown the minutes until the bell rang. At lunchtime, James walked into the cafeteria carrying his lunch in a plastic Walmart bag, only to find that the table with all his classmates was completely full. He searched for another place to sit only to find that the only table with available seats was with the eighth-graders. He swallowed his pride and sat there momentarily, eating the ham sandwich his mom had prepared for him earlier that morning, until one of the middle-school teachers scolded him for not sitting with people in his own class. He then got up, threw his bag of food in the trash, walked to his car, and stayed there for the remainder of lunch.

When lunchtime was almost over, it took a lot of self-convincing for James to leave his car. He leaned the driver seat back, closed his eyes, and tried to pretend he was somewhere else. However, after only a few seconds, the loud bell from across the street sounded off, bringing him back to reality the same way an alarm clock does when you’re in the middle of a perfect dream. He let his seat back up to its normal position, and as he opened his door, another student in an F-150 swooped into the parking spot beside him, nearly ripping James’s door straight off the hinges. Before the truck even came to a complete stop, a very attractive girl named Madeline, whom James had recognized from his Calculus class earlier in the day, opened the passenger-side door of the truck and accidentally bumped into James as he was getting out of his car. She smiled at him and quickly apologized. However, not long after, the guy driving the truck walked around and shoved James from behind in such a nonchalant way that it was impossible for James to determine if it were done accidentally or intentionally. Either way, James didn’t get upset, but instead used the momentum from the push to plod himself through the parking lot and back across the street to finish out the rest of his day.

When school ended, James was the first person to make it to the parking lot. He jumped into his car and spun the tires as he sped onto the highway. The entire ride home, he thought solely about how his mom was going to respond when he begged her to move him to another school. She would probably say no, so he really needed to sell her on just how awful his day actually was. When he arrived home, his mom was waiting for him in the kitchen.

How was your day, sweetie? she asked, sitting at the table sorting through a mess of paperwork.

James wanted to complain about his day, but after walking in and seeing his mom sorting through ten bibles worth