The Beginning of the End by Lorana Hoopes (readict txt) 📕

Katie popped a chip in her mouth and chewed. When her mouth was clear, she picked up the conversation again. “I suppose that’s possible, but I feel like the school should have said something about it. And what’s with these substitute teachers they hired? They’re so…” she shuddered, “impersonal. One of the things I loved about going here was that the teachers seemed to care. The new ones feel cold.”

Cold was a good word. Everything felt so odd this year, but cold definitely summed up the subs well.

“But I didn’t do anything.” The loud, protesting voice grabbed the girls’ attention, and they turned to see Connor facing off with Mr. Dagon. Connor was one of those kids who spent a lot of time in the principal’s office - not usually for anything major, but he had a way of not following the rules just enough to get in trouble. Usually, it was for being late or mouthing off in class. Lily wondered what it was this time.

“You will come with me or you won’t be returning tomorrow.” Mr. Dagon’s low voice held the note of authority that seemed to sober Connor. With a roll of his eyes, Connor followed the new teacher out of the lunch room and toward the office.

“Can he do that?” Katie asked. “Kick him out of school for not coming with him?”

Lily shrugged. She didn’t even know what Connor had done this time. The buzz in the lunch room was loud, but not so loud that the students hadn’t heard the exchange. However, there had been no disruption beforehand, which made her wonder exactly what Connor was in trouble for. “I don’t know, but I don’t plan on finding out for myself. Maybe he didn’t do a good job cleaning the desks this morning.”

After mouthing off the other day, Mr. Dagon had required Connor to clean the desks every day for the next two weeks. Lily had never been a troublemaker, but it appeared toeing the line would be more important than ever this year. Spending extra time with Mr. Dagon was about the worst punishment she could imagine.

The bell rang a few minutes later, and with a sigh, she replaced her mask before gathering up her trash to throw it away. Just three more hours, she told herself, but three hours felt like a lifetime.

When the final bell rang, relief flooded her body. She could not wait to get out of this building, rip the mask off, and breathe in fresh air. Could she really do this for the rest of the year? Another hundred and fifty plus days?

“Hey, did you see Connor after lunch?” Katie asked as she met up with Lily outside the classroom door.

Lily shook her head. “No, why?”

“I don’t know. He was just acting really weird.”

Lily lifted an eyebrow at Katie. “Connor is often weird. I’m afraid you’ll have to be more specific.”

Katie glanced around as if afraid of someone overhearing her words. “You know how he got called out by Mr. Dagon at lunch?”

Lily nodded as the girls continued toward their lockers. Katie’s eyes darted around again. Though not generally a nervous person, Katie’s behavior was turning Lily into one at the moment. Suddenly, she felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise as if someone was watching them. Lily’s eyes darted around as well, but she saw no one.

Katie scanned the area one more time before continuing. Her voice was barely above a whisper this time though and Lily had to strain to discern the words from behind her mask. “Well, when he came into last period, he was all weird, like spacey or something. His eyes were kind of glazed over, and he just sat there quietly and did what he was told.”

Okay, that was more than a little weird. Connor wasn’t a “bad” kid, but he was definitely not the type of student who sat and did what he was told in class. His name was usually uttered no fewer than five times along with the words “focus” or “get to work.” For him to actually do that without reminders was odd.

Lily opened her locker and exchanged the no-longer needed books for her backpack. “Well, maybe he got in enough trouble for whatever he did that he decided to focus.”

Katie leaned up against the lockers and folded her arms. “Maybe, but something about the whole thing bothers me.”

Lily had no argument there. The first few weeks of Senior year might be in the books but it was certainly the weirdest start of school she’d ever had. “Yeah.” She shut the locker, and the two headed toward the front entrance. “You want to get together later?”

“Sure, I can swing by after dinner.”

“Okay, sounds good.”

Twenty minutes later, Lily pulled into the driveway of her house. She grabbed her mask from the seat where she’d thrown it, determined to now wash it daily.

During all of their required vaccine research, Lily had stumbled across an old article that stated the majority of the deaths of 1918 had come not from the flu but from bacterial pneumonia after the fact. Bacterial pneumonia that had sprouted on the masks the people had been forced to wear.

This knowledge made Lily hate the masks even more, and a part of her feared she might be damaging her lungs by wearing one all day. However, she was determined to try and get a quality education, so if that meant washing it every day to keep the bacteria at bay, she would do that. In addition, she had begun taking Vitamin D and Zinc after Gabe and Raven recommended them.

“How was school today?” Her mother asked as she entered the kitchen. She sat at the table, her laptop open in front of her.

“It was interesting.” Lily dropped her bag by the chair before heading to the pantry to find a snack.

“What do you mean interesting?”

Grabbing a packet of fruit snacks from the shelf, Lily tore