The Athena Effect Read Online Free PDF

it was amazing its victims could function at all. An incredibly alienated boy made her catch her breath with his bitter hateful thoughts, and sad, lonely kids haunted the halls in blue mists, beaten down and defeated by life. Like her, they slipped quietly through the hallways, trying their best to disappear.
    She navigated the labyrinth of high school in a mist of bluish purple misery, sitting in the back of her classes, nodding with her head down when her teachers introduced her as a new addition. She could see curious eyes size her up, take note of her unfashionable clothes, and dismiss her.
    She expected school to be something out of “Little House on the Prairie”, but she couldn’t have been more wrong. The classes were undisciplined, the teachers harried with overwork or disinterested. The ones who put in an effort mostly played to the front row, and a late entrant who didn’t look up or speak up did little to attract their attention.
    No one spoke to her at the lunch hour, and she couldn’t bring herself to go into the cafeteria. Her head ached from all of the falseness, and she wandered around the school grounds aimlessly, ending up in the back of the complex by the dumpsters.
    She rounded a corner and stumbled across a boy kissing a girl passionately up against the wall. She had her hands buried in his shaggy black hair, pulling his face down to hers. He was grinding into her body, his hands up under her skirt. Cal stopped in her tracks, shocked.
    The boy had a sleeveless shirt on, and she could see that a swirling black pattern had been tattooed on his shoulder, winding down past his bicep to cover half his arm. She couldn’t stop staring, thinking of Queequeg from Moby Dick. The way he was working over the girl’s face he might as well have been a cannibal.
    The girl glanced up and saw her. “What are you lookin’ at?” she snarled. The boy turned around, and once again, she found she’d run into the bus station biker. She bolted away, listening to the girl’s cackling laughter trail after her.
    The rest of her day was filled with worry and wonder, and by the time the final bell rang she was exhausted. She walked home slowly, giving motorcycle boy’s house a wide berth. She was relieved to see her aunt was home when she walked in the door. Phil didn’t look up from the basketball game he was watching.
    “How was your first day at school?” Angie asked, calling to her from the stove where she was cooking.
    Cal came closer, “Fine, thanks.” The food smelled good, and she realized she hadn’t eaten all day.
    “When’s it gonna be ready?” Phil grunted from the other room.
    Angie got back to work, responding, “About a half an hour or so.”
    “Can I help?” Cal asked her aunt.
    “No thanks,” Angie smiled. “I’m the only one who knows how to make it the way Phil likes it.”
    Cal nodded, retreating to her room and busying herself with a reading assignment, trying to ignore her growling stomach. After a while there was a knock on the door and Angie poked her head in.
    “I’m leaving for work now. The mac and cheese is in the oven, why don’t you come down and have dinner with Phil?”
    “Uhm, sure… Thanks.”
    Her aunt paused for a moment, “So school went alright? You got there okay and everything?”
    “Yes, just fine… Uhm, Angie?” She asked her casually, “Do you know who lives in that house up the street with all the motorcycles?”
    “The one with the pit bull out front?”
    “Yes.”
    “What a dump! Stay away from that place– They’re a bunch of biker losers. Cops get called out there every weekend.”
    “What for?”
    “Loud music, dope… Who knows? Those people are trash– They outta lock ‘em all up and throw away the key.”
    “Oh.” Cal was confused, wondering how people could be garbage.
    “Gotta run… I’m closing up tonight, so I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.”
    Cal stayed in her room, waiting and listening, as the sky outside her window