The Snake Queen

Chapter 33

I watched the hands on the clock slowly move. Three minutes 'til midnight. Tick tock tick tock. Time was moving so slow. I swear the closer it got to midnight, the slower time became. Once the clock struck midnight, it was only a matter of time before I met my fate. The problem is I won't know when it'll happen. Neither does Tombutoo. He says I'll know when it's happening at that particular moment.
Nobody's spoken of the incident at prom. It seems like they're all afraid to. They probably think it'll happen again. Everyone's practically walking on eggshells to prevent it from happening again, but I know they're afraid of me. I can smell it. The smell of fear fills the halls at school. They act like nothing happened, but I know what they're feeling deep down.
I looked at the clock. 11:59. Sixty seconds 'til I turn eighteen. Sixty seconds 'til I had to prepare to meet my fate. Sixty seconds 'til my life was over. My childhood is over. If I came back from this, nothing would ever be the same again.
I spent the whole summer preparing for this. All of my things are in order. I was ready. Tombutoo thinks I'm ready. I don't think I'm ready. I don't think I will be ready. How do you prepare for something like this? How do you prepare yourself and the people you love for something like this?"
Three...two...one. Ding ding ding. I'm officially eighteen. My life officially had a countdown. My time's running out. I turned around to see dozens of snakes with eyes on me. I didn't know what to say. I didn't know what to do. They were just there.
"Happy birthday, Mag." Tombutoo told me.
Kill me now.

"You look seriously terrible, Mag." Chelsea acknowledged.
I shut my locker door and wheeled around. I guess it's more noticeable than I thought. I held my books up to my chest. I was up all night. I had the constant anxiety that something was going to happen when my guard was down.
"Didn't get much sleep last night. I couldn't stop watching the clock. Then I couldn't sleep in case this apocalyptic event felt the absolute need to start in the middle of the night!" I decided to shout.
"I don't think it would be in the middle of the night." She pointed out.
"Still. Tombutoo said it could happen at any time. He never specifically said day or night, but you can never be too careful." We walked into the science lab.
When I walked into the lab, everyone was staring at me. The room was quiet enough that I could hear whispers amongst two of my peeps in the front of the room. Otherwise, the room was silent, and the teacher hasn't even walked in yet. The school year has barely started and we already have a social issue. I've become the talk of the whole school, the center for all gossip. Great. Not where I wanted to be my senior year.
Chelsea and I rushed to the lab table as far in the back as possible to avoid any more attention. I set up my binder to block everyone's view of me. It worked until Miss Richards walked in.
Miss Richards is a very cranky human being. She's probably not even human. No human being could possibly be as grumpy as Miss Richards. She's been divorced four times and she's not even thirty yet. Nobody thinks she should even teach because she is definitely not a people person.
I heard at one point she used to be so nice. She used to teach elementary and middle school kids until she got divorced a second time. Apparently, her second divorce made her less patient with kids, so she thought it was a good idea to teach teenagers. High school kids can't tolerate her grumpiness any more than younger kids can.
She even looked the part of a grumpy spinster woman with messy blonde hair down to her waist and icy blue eyes. She was short too, which didn't help her case any. All of her clothes looked like they were from the 90's, and she had a dozen cats. She also yelled and complained. A lot.
"Packard!" She shrieked like a damn banshee. "Put the book down!" My binder fell over.
Thankfully, everyone was too scared of Richards to turn around and look at me. I could practically feel Chelsea shaking next to me. I mentally rolled my eyes.
"You, McMorgan! Which one are you?" She asked Chelsea.
"I'm Chelsea, Miss Richards. Hazel has economics this period." Miss Richards grumbled.
"I hate identical twins. You can never tell them apart. They're always switching places."
Miss Richards went on about why she hates identical twins for most of the class. It would've been a nice lesson, considering she teaches physics and the twins are a biology lesson. I heard thunder and saw a flash of lightening through the classroom window.
"Oh, goody. We're getting our bi0yearly thunderstorm." She complained.