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The 'Bug Room' at the Topeka Zoo was especially full today. For some reason Highland Park had decided to take all the freshmen to the zoo for a field trip. The purpose was unknown. A group of students buzzed with excitement and joked about the bugs in the room. One particular student sat at the fake diner table. She stared nervously at the faux roach sitting atop the pile of plastic doughnuts. "Helena, come look at the spiders!" A voice told her as she was ripped from her thoughts...and seat.
Next thing Helena knew she was was staring into a wall of spider cages next to her sun shine-y friend, Samora. The girl in the yellow hoodie scanned over the cages with her brown eyes, a smile spread on her face. She suddenly stopped on a particular cage. "Hey, where's the rose-knee?" She asked, smiling dropping into a look of confusion. Helena looked to the same cage to find it empty. In her confusion she didn't feel the missing tarantula crawling up her back and onto her shoulder.
"Maybe they took it out or something." Helena tried to explain. "I hope it didn't die." Samora said. "Yeah." Helena agreed as she reached out to the cage. The sudden movement startled the spider, causing it to panic and bite her. A sharp pain seared into her shoulder.
She cried out in pain, muffling the sound with her hand. "Oh my God, are you ok??" Samora asked her, worry written in her expression. The tarantula sprang down Helena's body and nested into the left pocket of her blue hoodie. "Do you want to tell a teacher?" Samora continued, concerned for her friend. Helena waved her off and scratched her shoulder. "No, I'm fine. It's just itchy now." She assured. The teacher told everyone to exit the room to take a look at the hippos. Helena looked back to the empty cage as she stepped out the door.
Later that day, when Helena had finally made it home, she lay on her bed. Her head was fuzzy and throbbing. The lights felt like they were burning her eyeballs. The noise from the heater beside her seemed a thousand times louder. It felt as though she had deep-throated a cactus and spent 24 hours working every muscle in her body. To make a long story short, she felt like shit.
Her phone buzzed beside her. It took way more effort than it should haver to lift the device into seeing-range.
'How's the shoulder?'
Helena smiled weakly at the screen. What a good friend Samora was.
'Fine. Think I'm sick now tho. Feels like I'm gonna die' She texted back. She flopped her arm back onto the bed. God, everything hurt.
Helena sat there staring at the ceiling for God only knows how long. She was ripped out of her current state by the sound of the basement door slamming open. She didn't flinch. She couldn't.
Angry steps stomped down the stairs. Her mother walked up to the step up. "Helena, why didn't you answer me?" She asked sternly. Helena slowly turned her head. "You were calling me?" She asked in a hoarse voice. She shivered. It suddenly felt very cold in the basement to her. Her mother looked at her sweaty, paler than usual face. "Helena honey, are you sick?" She asked her tone changing to concern. "I think so." She whispered. "Well, dinner is done. Do think you can eat it?" The smell of the food wafted through the open door from the kitchen. It smelled amazing, but instead of Helena's mouth watering it threatened to spill over with something else. She shot up and ran to the lone toilet in the basement. Throwing open the lid she upchucked everything she'd eaten during the day, and then some. When the bile quit trying to force its way up her throat she slumped down and everything went black.
When Helena woke up the next day she was in her bed. Strangely enough she couldn't remember what had happened the night before. She turned her phone screen on. 6:21 greeted her in white over her lockscreen of a certain RK800. Shit. She supposed she'd have to skip her shower in order to ready in time to leave for the bus. She sighed in agitation and went to put her phone down. She lifted her hand only to find the device was still there, only her fingers weren't curled around it. "What the fuck?" She muttered to herself as she attempted to set it on the bed again. No luck. Helena began to panic. This wasn't good. She tried to pry the phone off with her other hand only for that one to become stuck as well. Shit shit shit. She stood up and drug her sheet with her. Her foot caught on the sheet knocking her on her ass. As she lay there she felt tears beginning to prick her eyes. Whatever was happening she needed to calm the fuck down and sort it out. She blinked back the tears and took a few deep breaths. The phone slipped from her hand and the sheet fell from her hips and foot. Thank the Lord and Jesus Christ above.
She quickly slipped her pajama shirt off and slipped on her bralette. She stuck her legs in pants. Upon pulling them up she found the cuffs weren't sitting at the bottoms of her ankles. Instead they rested above them, exposing the tops of her socked feet. "That's weird, my pants fit better.." She mumbled. She didn't put any more thought into it as she buckled her belt, threw on a long sleeve shirt and rolled her pants cuffs down until the pant legs were completely unrolled.
She grabbed her over the shoulder bag and slipped on her shoes. Giving her cat, Oreo, her goodbye hug and kiss she dashed out the side door.