Small Unknown

The boy’s locker room silence ended as the tired and sweaty boys entered loud and rowdy from gym. The boys could hardly breathe as the bad odor of perspiration from their block and last block’s odor fused together. The broking air conditioner made things worse as the boys complained about the heat.

“Yo man, what are you doing tonight?” asked Rey as he got dress beside of Carol.

I don’t know, I might go to the movies . . . or I might chill at home.” answered Carol. Carol took his plain white tee filled with holes off and shot it in to the big trash can next to the PowerAde drink machine a couple of feet away from him. “Why you ask?”

Rey pulled out his books from his gym locker and put them on the floor in front of it. “I just worried if you wanted to come hang out with me, Steve, and Cas tonight.” said Rey. With an odd look on Rey’s face, Rey looked over at the trash can and said “Why you throw away your shirt?”

“The shirt got like 40 million holes in it.” answered Carol exaggerating as he opened his gym locker.

“The shirt only got a couple of holes in it.” said Rey. “You suppose to wear messed up shirts or shorts to gym.”

“I know but I just don’t like wearing shirts with holes in them.” said Carol.

“Carol!” yelled Mike, a classmate from his next block walked towards him putting his shirt on. Carol took his books out of his locker and turned to look at Mike. “Did you do that vocab homework in English?”

“Yep...you?” asked Carol.

“Naw man, can I copy yours right quick?” asked Mike.

“Yeah sure.” answered Carol. Carol put the books down on the floor and took
out his English notebook. “I hope I put it in here instead of my history notebook.” Carol flipped a few pages in his notebook, found the homework, and handed it to Mike.

“Thanks.” said Mike.

“THAT JUNK WAS HARD!” said Carol stressing his homework.

“I know that’s why I never do her homework.” laughed Mike as he walked away.

The loud and rowdiness of the locker room turned two notches down as a boy walked in. The boy was 16, but he looked 30. His hair was so long that it covers half of his back and almost covered his eyes. The hair was black as crayola crayon and his eyes seemed to look as if he has no emotions. He looked like he weighted 300 pounds and his body filled with muscles.

“Donavan...right? Come in my office.” said the gym teacher as he greeted the boy. The boy went in the office that was inside the locker room and closed the door.

“How many people you think he killed?” said Rey joking around.

“That dude looks crazy.” said a guy that walked by Rey and Carol.

“He just came here yesterday.” said Carol. “He’s a foreign exchange student from some small country (which I never heard of) called Norakane in Europe.”

“You talked to him?” asked Rey.

“Naw, Mrs. Joe told me.” answered Carol. “I seen him walk down the history hall with Mrs. Stone the guidance counselor.”

The door of the office opened up and the boy walked out carrying a brown bag headed towards the gym lockers. The bell rung and the boys in the locker room hurried out.

“Man you don’t even have your shoes and shirt on. Hurry up before you get tardy.” said Rey as he finished tying his shoes and headed out the of the locker room. Soon after Rey left, the locker became quiet and the only people that was left in the locker room was Carol and Donavan.

“Is this gym locker number 17?”asked Donavan with a strong European accent. Carol looked at him very afraid and took a deep breath.

“Yep right next to mine.” said Carol trying to be friendly as he sat on the floor putting his shoes on.

“Thank you very much.” said Donavan as he opened his locker.

Carol stood up. “Hi my name is Carol.” said carol as he greeted Donavan with a handshake. “Welcome.”

“Thank you.” said Donavan as he smiled and shook Carol’s hand. “My name is Donavan and I come from Norakane, it’s in Europe.”

“Nice.” said Carol. “Why did you come to America?”

“It was a dream for me to come here.” said Donavan. “My uncle and I had to come here because my parents died in the civil war in my country and diseases plague cities.”

“Am sorry for your lost.” said Carol.

“Thank you.” said Donavan. “My aunt died from a disease that people never heard of before. I didn’t see her die, but my aunt’s boyfriend did. He said that the disease just ate her body not long after she got it.”

“Where she get it?” asked Carol.

“Nobody knows.” said Donavan.

“Well I hope good things happen to you here.” said Carol.

“I hope so.” smiled Donavan.

“I see your getting use to American stuff.” said Carol as he saw Donavan took out of his bag a stick of Axe deodorant and put it on the bench in the front of their lockers. “I got the same one too.” Carol took his bag out of his locker and pulled out his Axe deodorant and put it beside of Donavan’s.

“I love Axe.” said Donavan. “That one, Axe Essences is my favorite.”

“Really?!” said Carol surprised. “That’s my...” Warning bell interrupted. “Warning bell already?! That’s just great... well nice meeting you.” Without thinking, Carol accidentally grabbed Donavan’s deodorant, put it on, and threw it in his bag. “I bet the ladies here will love ya.” Then Carol put his shirt on, grabbed his things and headed out the door.

Carol dashed through the halls as he tried to make it to class. “Slow down LaDainian Tomlinson.” said Carol’s English teacher sarcastically as she stood next to her classroom door. “You’re going to make it.” Carol slowed down and entered the classroom.

The room was filled with loud chatting and boys having paper ball fights. The girls stood in the corner talking about boys and trying to avoid getting hit by the paper balls. Suddenly, the tardy bell rung and the teacher walked in. “Boys stop throwing paper balls!” ordered the teacher as she stood behind her desk in front of the class. “Am telling you boys if you don’t stop doing that everyday, am going to let the girls have target practice on you.

“Yo man here’s your paper.” said Mike as he handed the paper back to carol sitting down. “Thanks.” The room became quiet as the teacher started her lesson. 15 minutes into the lesson, Carol’s arm pits began to itch. Carol started to rub his arm pits with his arms without trying to make a scene but it just made the itch worser. 20 minutes later, Carol started to have sharp stringing pains in his arm pits; he gave a loud grunt that disrupted the class.

“Carol, are you okay?” asked the teacher.

“Yeah...”said Carol as he tried not to sound like was in pain.

“Well okay.” said the teacher as she continued with her lesson. Five minutes later, the pain got worser and Carol made a louder grunt.

“Do you need to go to the nurse? asked the teacher with concern.

“No, I just need to go to the bathroom.” said Carol as he ran out of the room. As soon as he got in the bathroom, he took his shirt off. Carol lifted both arms up and saw both arm pits covered in a dark red rash with what looked to be green veins going though it. Carol got scared, put his shirt back on, and went to the nurse’s office. Half way to the nurse’s office, a teacher hall monitor stopped him.

“Hey there sir, do you have your hall pass?” asked the hall monitor.

“No... It’s an emergency.” said Carol.

“What teacher did you come from.” asked the hall monitor.

Carol desperate pushed the hall monitor out of the way. “I don’t have time for this!” Carol angrily yelled at the hall monitor as he kept walking. As he took two more steps, Carol suddenly stopped. His body began to feel like it was paralyzed all over and his mouth closed shut. It lasted less than a couple of seconds but then Carol dropped to the floor like a ton of bricks and started to have a seizure.

“CODE YELLOW CODE YELLOW.I have a boy down having a seizure on the main hall I repeat, I have a boy down having a seizure on the main hall.” said the hall monitor as she reported it in the walkie talkie. “I need assistance.” Carol eyes were in the back of his head and foam was coming out of his mouth. As the hall monitor waited for backup, green ooze and blood started to go through Carol’s shirt. “What the?”

“Oh my god!” screamed the nurse as she walked up and saw the ooze eating his shirt and flesh around his arm pits and arms.

“CODE RED CODE RED! Begin lockdown immediately I repeat, begin lockdown immediately! Don’t let any students out of the room! This is very serous!” ordered the hall monitor into her walkie talkie. With her hands shaking, she looked nervously around the hall for students. Donavan turned the corner and saw Carol laying on the ground and the hall monitor looking around. As he looked are harder from the corner, he could see Carol’s flesh eating away.

“No no no...” said Donavan his back on the wall. “But how? Oh my god no, how can this have happened?” Donavan put his hands on his face and panicked. “I thought the doctors cured me over there.” Donavan banged his fits in the wall. “I will not let this happen again. I will not become a government’s lab rat again.” Donavan with rage turned the corner and began to yell at the hall monitor saying “I will not become a government lab rat!” in his native language.

“Sir stay calm!” said the hall monitor.

Donavan ran towards her and pushed her to the ground. He began bashing her head in to the ground. “I am done with torcher and pain!” Donavan yelled. As this happened, two school security officers saw and ran after Donavan. Donavan saw the officers and began to run himself. He tried to knock down people and trash cans as he ran away from the officers. In the corner of Donavan’s left eye, he saw stairs closed off and ran up the stairs. The officers followed behind as they all made it on top of the roof. As the officers made it on top, they saw Donavan standing on the edge of the roof about to jump.

“Young man! Don’t jump!” said one of the officers as he slowly walking over to Donavan.

“Do not come near me!” yelled Donavan at the officers. “Am not going to be your stupid government’s experiment.”

“You’re not going to...” said one of the officers interrupted by Donavan.

“Shut up!” said Donavan. “My government has been trying for years to make super soldiers and I was one of their test subjects! They killed hundreds of people trying to make them but instead, they made killer diseases! Not one of the diseases they created has a cure and...” Donavan began to cry. “Now your country has to deal with the disease and it’s my fault that the boy is dead and I can’t just live with myself.” Donavan jumped and dived head first in to the concrete. The officers ran over, looked over the edge, and saw blood everywhere.