I hate you Mr. Bowie

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As the kids all come in one by one, I'm having a mental breakdown. The teacher is very much getting on my nerves, mainly because I can't stop thinking about how I embarrassed myself in front of him. I also suspect that he is watching me, I feel daggers pointed toward me as I sit and read the book that I took out of my bag. The bell rings and all my classmates get quiet, some are still whispering to each other though. I pay no attention to the class but as I feel a tug firm from my hoodie I look to see a guy from my grade and his friends, snickering to themselves. I side-eye him and go back to reading. I see the substitute get up and go to the board to write something.
"My name is Mr. Bowie, I don't care what you do today, I will not be paying attention to anything you do. I do not care. I will be sitting here working on things, don't bother me." My mouth went agape and the room fell silent, but everyone started to go over to their friends and sit at the desks and just do whatever they wanted.


Mr. Bowie watched chaos run loose, I was upset to say the least. People were sitting at their desks and being very loud. Some people even left early, most likely to smoke in the bathrooms. All the while the teacher was blasting old 80's rock music and giving me the side eye. I turned my book to the page I left off, a daring scene of impending doom had fallen on the protagonist as she nearly got chopped up by the cleaners. Her dress getting ripped to shreds as the blades slowly crept in. Luckily, she makes a smart move to duck to the side where she discovers a ladder. As Sarah goes up the old ladder, she finds herself in a conundrum. The labyrinth was showing no signs of how to get to the center. I felt myself become the main character in that instance.
"I have to get out of here," I said to myself. I looked around the tall wall and shrubbery that was consumed all around me. Without any direction, I was lost at that point. My dress was torn to shreds and there seemed to be no hope of finding a way to the center. Yet, there could be a slight chance that I could hop on one of the walls. Using some of the fabric that was torn, I made a makeshift rope. Along with that, I tied my hair out of the way and randomly chose a wall. As I went up to the wall I shoved it to see if it would hold my weight, luckily it did. I pushed myself off the wall and climbed my way (with the rope) to the top. I saw the castle in the center and looked at the path I needed to follow. I stood up and looked to see if there were any goblins nearby, after successfully doing so I went to the ground to find myself in front of an old bird creature with a cup in his hand and a cloak on his back. He looked like a beggar of sorts.
"Excuse me, sir? I need to get around," I told him. He craned his neck and looked at me.
"Why are you in such a hurry?" He said in a raspy voice.
"I need to get to the center of the labyrinth before it's too late."
"Why hurry? A girl such as yourself should have all the time in the world."
"I only have five hours left sir, I'm losing time as we speak." I hesitated. "Do you by chance know the way to the center?"
"Me? Are you trying to cheat in this little game of yours?"
"I would never cheat, I'm just asking for a little help."
"If you weren't cheating then what on earth were you doing on top of the wall?
"I was- I was looking for north." The bird creature started to laugh and get taller and taller before taking off his cloak and transforming into Jareth. He glared at me, not in anger though, but in amusement.
"Looking for the north. I've heard many excuses, yet this has to be the most stupid," he exclaimed.
"You never said anything about climbing walls to find my way. You never explained any rules to this game, which is quite unfair if you ask me," I comment.
"If rules are what you want, that's what you'll get." The ground starts to shake around me and I lean toward the wall to keep myself from falling. The ground starts to crack and opens, while a small scroll rises from the ground into the hands of Jareth. Then the ground closes back in and everything stops shaking.
"These are the rules you requested." He opens the scroll and outcomes seemingly endless amounts of paper all rolling out onto the floor. I take the scroll and look through the rules.
"No saying the word Aardvark or you will lose five minutes off your time, eating jam is strictly permitted and we result in going back to the start, no mentioning the bog of eternal stench or else... What are these rules!?"
"All the rules you wanted."
"These are ridiculous, there are so many. I can't memorize them all!"
"You still have seven hours, plenty of time to look through all of them. Take your time, although, the more time your brother stays here, the more he becomes just like my faithful citizens." I imagined my brother for a second, him slowly turning into an ugly goblin and not remembering who he was. I felt more motivated. I threw the scroll to the side and pushed forward through the labyrinth, leaving Jareth in my dust.

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