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chapter two of Thus Abel Cowered
Hey everyone, here's the second chapter of my book "Thus Abel Cowered". I'd love opinions. (and I know there are a lot of grammatical things that need tweaking.)
Chapter 2
Logan stood outside Annex Elementary with his Batman backpack on and stared at the empty parking lot. All the buses had left no more than three minutes before but it seemed like they had been gone for years. He had been having trouble with his locker for a few days and today it wouldn’t open at all, so he had been late for the bus. There was nothing he could really do about it, so he began the mile-or-so hike home.
Considering that it was early spring, the weather was a bit colder than usual. None of the birds had returned from warmer climates and most people were still at work. The only noise in the strangely silent afternoon was the squeak of Logan’s new sneakers on the pavement as he plodded slowly home. It was a tough hike for a smaller than average ten-year-old but one that Logan had made on previous occasions. There were plenty of times when he knew that Andy would be home and so he delayed the inevitable by purposely missing the bus. That strategy only bought him a little time however, and it just made Andy angry, no matter what the excuse.
Logan knew these incidents involving the other kids were not directly his fault. But what could he possibly say to anybody that would not get him into major amounts of trouble later on. Andy had said that he would find out if Logan told anybody. Andy also told Logan that if he did feel like telling, he should think about how mom and dad would react. He knew how to talk to their parents, he knew what buttons to push that could make them feel certain ways. This was why Andy scared Logan, and this was why Logan had to do whatever Andy said.
A gust of wind pushed Logan from behind as he made his way down River Way. It was a winding road that, regardless of his name, followed the banks of Lake Pemagansett. The Elementary school was directly across the street from the lake but Logan’s house wasn’t near any water at all. He lived on Granite Street, which was near Boulder park. Everything in his neighborhood was named after rocks. The streets were named Granite, Quartz, Obsidian, and some others that Logan could never remember. He found it funny that someone would want to name a whole neighborhood after rocks.
As he rounded the corner from River Way onto Benchmark Road he automatically looked both ways even though he wasn’t crossing the street. Logan turned left and continued on his walk. The only thing that could make the day any worse would be if Andy were home. Regardless of the occasional chill breezes, the sun was now beating down on Logan’s back and he rolled up the sleeves of his shirt to cool down. It didn’t really help. Benchmark was a much busier street than River Way and Logan had to be careful not to walk too close to the road as the minivans and station wagons zipped past on their way to wherever. Logan stuffed his hands into his pockets and felt the envelope in the left. It felt warm and he wanted to just throw it away or give it to Andy. When all the trouble had started at school Andy had been there to get rid of everything. But lately he had been telling Logan that he still had all the notes hidden somewhere and that if Logan told on him he would show the notes to their parents.
That was the scariest thing for Logan. Andy seemed to know his every move before he made them. If Logan was thinking about going to their parents, Andy always knew somehow and would come in and threaten him until he promised not to. It had gotten to be so commonplace for Andy to just barge in that Logan was starting to think that Andy could read minds. He was like a tiger lying in wait until its prey sticks its head out. That’s when the tiger pounces. The prey never knows what hit it, and it never had a chance. At this moment Logan was most definitely feeling like prey. The tiger was out there somewhere and when it saw this note in particular, it was going to pounce.
Andy had been able to get rid of the previous notes from Logan’s teachers with no problem, but this one needed to get to his parents. Principal Calder said she would call if she didn’t hear back and that meant there was no way to get out of trouble. He held the envelope tightly, thinking as hard as he could about what he should do. But he couldn’t think of anything. The only thing he could think of was how mad everyone was going to be at him once they read the note. He was scared and as he reached his neighborhood the feelings of dread seemed to escalate even more. Logan knew it wasn’t going to be an easy night.
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