Into the Deep Read Online Free PDF Page A

set my sight back on my reflected image.
     “Get it together, Ivy. You’re hearing voices,” I said as I looked into the reflection of my green eyes. “And, now you’re talking to yourself too.” I sighed, and ran my hands through my hair.
     This was ridiculous, I laughed, realizing that I had to have imagined it. Taking a few deep breaths, I convinced myself that it was nothing but my imagination.
     The bell rang shortly after that and I went to my next class, Psychology. I took my usual seat at the far end of the room, three seats back. Mrs. Rochester was already writing on the board. I looked around as the rest of my classmates filtered in. My nerves were still feeling frayed from thinking I was hearing voices, but I was calm and shook off the thought. I was tired and the bump on the back of my head from my near drowning accident had essentially gone away but the memory of it remained. I concluded that my odd experience was simply a result of fatigue. That was until I heard something again.
     Fuck detention , the male voice practically yelled, but I looked around and could tell that no one else had heard it. You couldn’t go around saying the ‘F’ word at Alta Ladera, or probably any other high school for that matter, without getting sent to the principal’s office. I wish I had a smoke , the voice said again and I looked to my right to see Brant Everett slump into his seat.
     He looked tense. I watched as his fingernails lightly scraped across his scalp and his eyes rolled up to stare at the ceiling. He was twitchy, almost as if he were fighting the cravings of nicotine addiction. He skipped this class often and the look on his face made him appear as if he didn’t want to be here now.  I wondered if maybe he’d gotten caught smoking on campus again and had been forced to go to class, or maybe he’d been given detention for all his absences. Could what I heard have been his thoughts? Had I been hearing Christy and Tiana’s thoughts earlier? It sounded completely crazy. Brant looked at me then and it jostled me from my musings. He caught me staring and his frosty blue eyes narrowed in on me. I looked away.
     Mrs. Rochester turned around, finished with her whiteboard notes for the moment. I saw her notice Brant in the seat beside me.
     “How nice of you to join us today Mr. Everett,” she said.
     “Pleasure,” he said smugly.
     I looked up at the board then and my heart began to thump like the foot of frightened rabbit. Today’s subject of interest was written in caps in bright red marker, Schizophrenia . It was underlined. Beneath it was a bulleted list of its key symptoms: Delusions, Paranoia, and finally the last point on the list, Hallucinations, seeing or hearing things in which others do not experience. I felt my stomach twist and began to wonder if I was truly losing my mind. People can’t really hear other people’s thoughts, but some crazy people think they can. I slouched down in my seat and listened intently as Mrs. Rochester started her lecture.
     “I thought we’d delve into a little abnormal psychology today. Now, schizophrenics will tell you that the hallucinations they experience are just as real to them as I am to you. While the cause of schizophrenia is often under debate we do know that it tends to occur in people during late adolescence or early adulthood. Also, we tend to see that hallucinations are worse when a person is under stress…”
     I started to zone out as Mrs. Rochester continued. I felt like I had just gone down a check list of my own and marked every box. Are you between 15 and 25? Check. Have you recently been under stress? Check. Are you by chance hearing voices that are not really there? Big check.
     This class bites , I heard someone say and it rattled my thoughts.
     I looked to my left and saw Timothy Nelson put his head down on the desk. I didn’t know what to think.