Lights Out (Book 1): The Crash Read online

  The Crash

  Lights Out, Volume 1

  Sarah Cal

  Published by Sarah Cal, 2018.

  This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

  THE CRASH

  First edition. August 6, 2018.

  Copyright © 2018 Sarah Cal.

  Written by Sarah Cal.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 1

  School was annoying, even when she was the one standing at the front.

  Emma was rethinking a lot of life choices, and not for the first time. In fact, she thought of it often and wondered why she'd thought it would be a good idea to become a teacher, and a high school teacher at that.

  "Now, if you would all just pay attention..."

  She threw the words out there, not expecting much, and sighed because nothing changed anyway. It was a particularly trying class, one of the hardest in a long time. Usually, she could get at least one or two, or they would hide better, but that wasn’t even the case.

  "Please turn to page fifteen in your textbooks," she tried again, but got nothing.

  Still, she couldn’t just stop teaching. So she went on. If anyone caught even part of the lessons, she could take it and—well, not be happy, but at the very least content. She couldn’t even blame them, she remembered what it was like, being a teenager. Few cared about school, really, she just happened to be among the few, and even she had been impatient for high school to be over.

  She was attempting to teach the freshmen about the importance of grammar, but they were all preoccupied with passing notes and giggling among one another. It was pretty common, actually, which was why she disliked sitting in first year classes, especially so close to the beginning of the school year.

  These kids were fresh from junior high and still thinking like kids, in their mind school wasn’t so important. That, or they were thinking they could breeze through it like they did junior high. They didn’t know yet that the grades they came out with would pretty much determine their futures. It wasn’t her job to tell them, and would they care about that anyway, even if she did?

  Usually she would do something, at least discourage them from such blatant disrespect, but she was tired. She had a specific job description; go in, teach her class, then leave. She was giving them all the materials they would need for their tests, once they came up. If they didn’t take advantage of it and failed, well... she couldn’t say it wasn’t entirely her problem, since as the teacher, if her students failed she would be held accountable, but she couldn’t even care about it just then.

  Emma was just that tired.

  When the bell rang, it felt like she hadn't gotten anywhere, or made any progress. It was likely true, but she couldn’t help feeling partly relieved to be done with the day. But largely, she just felt dissatisfied.

  "Do you kids know the meaning of discipline? Because if you don’t I'm going to introduce you to it," she threatened, but their laughter drowned out her voice.

  Not that any of them heard her, or if they did, they didn’t seem to care. They were too busy running for the door, about as eager as she was to get out of the room. She knew her attempts at punishment were futile. These kids didn’t take her seriously, and they likely wouldn’t any time soon. She let herself sigh when the last one was out the door and felt a heavy weight settle on her shoulders. Not that she was dying to punish them, anyway. It would be best in the long run, but then she'd have to put up with her students pretending to pay attention while secretly hating on her. She didn’t think she could survive having pranks thrown her way, not again, no matter how weak or seemingly harmless.

  Emma gathered her own things so she could leave. It was her last class of the day, thankfully, so she had no reason to stick around. She'd collected assignments and a short quiz, though, so she had too much on her hands, literally, and she could only curse herself for the miscalculation. She could have asked one of the students, she'd done it before, but she had a fear of freshmen while they were still so green. It left her anxious at the start of every school year, since she taught freshman English.

  She struggled to carry her paperwork out to the car, feeling ridiculous as she tried to juggle everything in her arms with her jacket and the strap of her bag slipping off every now and then. The heels of her shoes weren’t helping, but then she'd been in a rush in the morning and ended up a pair with longer heels than she liked for standing around and teaching. She could only curse herself for the mistake.

  Then a kid rushed past her and made her drop it all. It could have been by accident, or not, but she unbalanced and watched everything fall to the ground. There wasn’t much of a breeze to blow the numerous papers too far, so small mercies. Still, she felt the weight on her shoulders grow heavier, knowing she'd have to pick them all up, but wishing for a second that she could just leave it all and go home. Only to sigh, because she knew that would be irresponsible.

  She might not like her job, but she needed it.

  Close to tears, Emma bent down to pick up her things, grabbing for the papers first before they could flutter away. Her feet ached in her shoes and in her frustration, she wished she could toss them off and lob them at the kid that did this and didn’t even bother to help, though she hadn't even seen who it was.

  Dammit!

  "Hey!"

  Chase, a friend and fellow teacher rushed over to her. She looked up, startled, to see someone else kneeling beside her to help her out. She was surprised, and could only gape at him for a moment. He looked up and winked as he grabbed papers in his hands. She just felt surprised at the nice gesture, Emma couldn’t remember the last time someone had stopped to think about her.

  "What?"

  She blinked. "Um..."

  He rolled his eyes, handing over her hand bag and jacket and taking the papers already in her possession. "Just thought I should remind you I'm here to help—after all we are carpooling together. So get that look off your face."

  She wasn’t sure what face he meant. But after blinking a couple of times, her eyesight went blurry, and she could feel her expression crumple.

  No.

  She didn’t want to cry, not now—not here, of all places. If any of the kids saw they'd just make fun of her for it later. Kids were cruel, after all, she remembered that much from her high school years, even when they simply thought they were having fun. If she'd ever hurt someone so carelessly, and if she had the opportunity, she'd apologize profusely for being such a little shit.

  Chase saw her crying and his expression softened immediately, a hand raising to wipe a tear away. She wouldn’t let more fall, though. It would only worsen the humiliation. Then his hand tapped her chin lightly.

  "Keep your chin up, Emma. I know it's hard but you don’t have to let yourself be so overwhelmed. If you need any help, you can ask for it. No one would think you weak for it."

  She gave a huff of laughter, and it so
unded a little wet, but she swallowed back the lump in her throat.

  No crying.

  Chase Carter was two years older than her, with dark hair, olive skin and green eyes that always seemed to twinkle with hidden laughter. He was fit and muscular, he looked every part the physical instructor at the school. He was also Emma's best friend—nearly her only friend, really, since she hardly talked to the others as much. He was the only bright spot in most of her days, always looking to make her laugh with his good sense of humor, or give her a pick me up when she looked down.

  They finished picking up her stuff and he gave her a hand up. She appreciated the help, but knew he wasn’t entirely correct. There were people that would look down on her if she gave in and broke down, they couldn’t help themselves. But she wouldn’t tell him that.

  "I'm sorry. I just had a difficult day."

  She scoffed internally. What an understatement.

  Another kid ran past, and Emma knew before she even opened her mouth that she was going to shout something immature aimed at them.

  "I didn’t know Ms. Waters and Mr. Carter were in love."

  Emma just rolled her eyes without bothering to turn back. The kid could have been sneering at them instead of making light fun, but she didn’t want to see to know which. Not that she had to, because Chase did.

  "Hey, keep running your mouth and I'm gonna give you bad grades as revenge," he mock threatened, making Emma smile as she heard a light laugh behind them, getting further away.

  He was better at joking with the students than she was. Hell, he was better at a lot of things. She knew if it had been him in that classroom instead of her, he would have gotten the students to behave while getting their respect in the process. He wouldn’t have the kind of problems she did. Of course, he actually loved what he was doing, when it was just a replacement of her dreams for her.

  Of all things about him, she couldn’t understand that. There were times when teaching teenagers actually brought him joy. It helped that he had a positive attitude, and general outlook towards life. Emma envied him that, just a little.

  Chase led the way to the car, unlocking and letting her go in first as he put her paperwork in the backseat with his own smaller workload holding them down, then got in the driver's seat. Finally, they were on their way home, and she couldn’t help feeling relieved, and a little guilty for doing so.

  "So, care to tell me what that was all about?" Chase asked, voice gentle.

  Emma knew he meant her almost breakdown. She didn’t want to talk about it, but if there was someone she trusted to tell about her problems, it was him. He'd helped her out more times than she could count, all to be a good friend, acting offended when she even mentioned paying him back for all of it. Besides, maybe it would help lessen her burden a little, if she could vent about it.

  "I wasn’t in the best place today," she sighed, rolling her head on the headrest to look outside. "I haven't been for a long time, really."

  She caught his glances in her peripheral, but wouldn’t meet his eyes.

  "What does that mean?"

  She sighed again, feeling heavier. "I don’t know, just... I guess my expectations for the job crashed and burned. A while back, I just didn’t want to think about it, and now it's all that I can think about."

  "You had expectations in this job?" he joked, and she cracked another smile, only for it to disappear as she sighed again, suddenly feeling older than her years.

  "It wasn’t anything realistic, I don’t think. I just didn’t expect to be this..." she floundered, waving her hand, only to let it drop in her lap when she couldn’t find the word.

  It wasn’t quite hate, but it was definitely discontent. But that would be stupid to voice out loud, because a lot of people ended up doing what they didn’t like. Complaining would only make her a hypocrite.

  "I just wish I could quit," she said suddenly, turning to look at him. He glanced over and caught her eyes for a moment before turning back to the road. "I can't say I entirely hate it, but I did not see this for my life. I hated high school, so like... why the hell did I think becoming a teacher was even a good idea?" she clenched her fists together, looking down at them in her lap. "But no matter how badly I want to. To just quit and look for whatever other job out there to tide me over. I know I can't because I'm the only source of income for the family."

  She had plenty enough qualifications to attempt it, and she was sure she would find a job, eventually. But with the current economy, it was hard to say when, and where would she get money before that? Besides, of all positions she could take, teaching had some permanence, and even if she lost her job, she could get into another school with little fuss. But that wouldn’t exactly help the problem.

  Even if she couldn’t stand her job, she knew she had to, and it was what had carried her forward all this time. Her family needed her. She didn’t mind occasionally going without a meal, but when she had the means to, she wouldn’t let them suffer more than they had to. She was all they had and vice versa, after they lost her parents a while back.

  She could complain and cry all she wanted, but she knew she wasn’t the only one hurting. Breaking down on her own would mean being selfish.

  "Hey," Chase murmured, catching her attention and making her turn to him. His voice was low, serious, and so different from his usually happy personality. "I know it's hard. I can't say I fully understand your situation, you are dealing with things I can't even begin to imagine. But you don’t have to keep it all in. I'm here for you if you ever need anything. And you have to know how I admire you for your hard work. In your position, I would have broken down a lot sooner, believe me. I just can't handle pressure like that."

  Not so surprisingly, Emma felt more than just a bit better. Having Chase around was always good for an ego boost. He was always encouraging her, helping her go on when all she wanted to do was give up. She didn’t believe he wouldn’t be okay in a similar situation, though. He didn’t like too much pressure, but Chase was reliable. He'd run himself to the ground without complaint to help someone else, as he was already doing with her.

  The car slowed down as they got to her house, then parked at the curb. He was out the car before she could stop him, reaching into the back to take her things out for her. She circled around, pulling on her jacket with her bag's strap over her shoulder so she had her arms free to take her things.

  "Thank you, Chase. For... well, everything." There were too many to list them all out, after all.

  He just smiled and leaned closer to give her a kiss on the cheek.

  "Don’t worry about it. It was my pleasure, believe me."

  She gave him a skeptic look, but didn't argue. She held her things tight to her chest with one arm, holding out the other to pull him into a quick hug, reciprocating the kiss on his cheek, and then he was getting into the car and driving away.

  Chapter 2

  Emma stood, watching the car drive off until it was out of sight. She hesitated before going into the house, not really wanting to be home.

  She loved her family, truly, but with the way she was feeling, being home wasn’t going to be helpful for her, or anyone. If school was frustrating, being at home was about twice as much. She wondered if she could call Chase back and do something with him that evening instead. Another reason she'd stuck with school so long, it was another reason to stay away from the usually oppressive atmosphere at home. But she knew she couldn’t just turn back around and leave, knew she had responsibilities to attend to. It wouldn’t be fair to escape, thinking only of herself.

  She sighed and entered the house.

  Almost immediately, she wanted to step outside and pretend to be peaceful a moment longer. The grocery delivery bags were strewn in the hallway, probably from when they were dropped off hours ago. Since she didn’t have the time and no one else left the house, it was necessary. But it was becoming a common occurrence to walk home to find unattended deliveries, and it never grew less annoying.

  Her gr
andmother, Janice was dozing on the couch. She slept more than anything these, but usually she was in her room. Emma didn’t like her being by herself. Even if something happened and she was awake, the possibility that she defend herself was low, but Emma didn’t care about the logistics when it was dangerous either way.

  Emma wondered where her sister could be. She knew Merry would never leave the house alone because of her phobias, though, so she decided it was likely she was in her 'den.' She rolled her eyes, set her things aside to lighten her load. Sure enough, when she went upstairs, she found her sister in her bedroom.

  She was meditating, surrounded by scented candles that made Emma's nose twitch, and her tarot cards laid out in front of her. It was another common sight that never grew less annoying, and she couldn’t help the loud sigh that ruined her sister's concentration, eyes snapping open. She shot a glare at Emma that was returned in kind, only fiercer. She was used to her sister's moods already. If only they would stop.

  Dark eyes glared at her under a dark mane of unkempt hair, bags underlining them. They looked a lot alike, but Merry wasn’t big on looking after herself. Emma had to look in a mirror, make herself presentable for her job, but her sister didn’t have that need and she rarely bothered. Emma considered it a small miracle she occasionally remembered to at least shower on her own. Though Emma would have been glad if Merry looked after their aging grandmother some more, she knew the dynamics when she left home were usually the reverse.

  "You ruined my meditative state."

  Emma just rolled her eyes at the bland accusation, not even the least bit guilty.

  "You've had all day to meditate," she snapped back, a little more harshly than intended, but she wouldn’t take it back. "But since you've stopped for now, anyway, you should come and help with unpacking the groceries."

  Merry crossed her arms over her chest, scowling sullenly as she huffed. "I don’t want to right now, just let me finish what I was doing."