NOTE: Author's Notes: Hello everyone! To those of you returning to this story and thinking "What the hell happened?", don't worry. Long story short, I was unhappy with the way that my newest story was going, because I was limited by the standards that I had already set in my previous stories. This new version features many plot changes, with some new parts added in and other parts taken out. The main difference is that I switched the drugs from being a syringe to a pill, since it seemed kinda ridiculous that nobody in these stories has a problem with needles. I also dropped the diabetes subplot because it's not longer necessary, and therefore the first part of this story was redone entirely.
Also, I will say for the sake of saying it that my name is NOT actually Zach Bucek, for the one dumbass reading this who might actually think it is.
Aside from that, normal story rules still apply: All characters are fictional, all characters involved in sex are 18 or older, etc.
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I walked into the kitchen, not even bothering to turn on the light with all the late spring morning light coming in through the windows. I quickly pulled out a bowl and prepared some cereal, eager to get going before my parents woke up. They always made me help them with some chore before I left, which I really didn't feel like doing today. I gulped down the whole bowl in less than 5 minutes, and was just starting to wash the bowl when my sister came in.
She never bothered to make cereal, rather preferring to snack on my parent's energy bars for breakfast. She didn't say anything as she did, but instead motioned to the bottles of pills sitting on the window sill by the sink, before walking out of the kitchen towards the front door. I nodded, and finished cleaning the bowl before sticking it in the dishwasher.
Just as I did, the daily reminder on my phone went off, and I quickly pulled it out of my pocket. It read "Take pill". I pushed stop and put it back in my pocket. I leaned over and grabbed one of the bottles, the one with "For Zach" written on the cap.
That's my name, by the way. Zach Bucek. I'm a senior in high school, just turned 18 a few months ago. I'm a somewhat popular guy at my school, being the most likely Valedictorian candidate for graduation in a month or two. I'm not exactly a social butterfly type, so I don't have many friends, though I'm on good terms with most people at my school. I'm pretty fit, at least compared to many of my peers, and am in fact the captain of my baseball team this year.
I was thinking about how lucky we were to have Coach go on vacation this week (which meant no practice this week) when I unscrewed the lid of the bottle. Unfortunately for me, I must have gotten the recessive gene for acne, because I had some really bad acne on my face and back. I've been taking acne medication for years now, with mixed results.
I'd been using this specific type of medication for awhile now, so I was pretty surprised when I found an out-of-place pill sitting on top of the others. While the others were small and brownish-red, this one was yellow and much larger. At first, I thought someone else in the family must have put one their extra pills into my bottle by accident the previous night, but then I realized that no one in my family used pills like this. I stood there for a moment, perplexed as to what to do.
Honestly, I don't why I did it. Maybe it was curiosity. Maybe it was the anxiousness of being late to school that made me rush my decision. Maybe it was just fate. In any case, I plopped both this strange pill and one of my normal pills into a small glass of water, tipped my head back, and drank them both down. I quickly washed the glass out and went outside.
For a few hours, nothing happened. Me and my sister walked down to school (it was only a few blocks away), and went about our daily classes. Within an hour, I had already forgotten about the strange pill.
Then around lunch time, I started to feel a little dizzy. Nothing much, just a little nausea and a pain in my stomach that made me decide to skip eating lunch that day. Now, a normal person would probably have gone to the office, but I have a habit of ignoring problems. After all, I was aiming for the best attendance award, and so nothing short of vomiting or fainting was going to get me to go home. A little bit of nausea was nothing.
As the feeling of dizziness got worse, the lunch bell rang, and I headed off to English 12. English 12 wasn't the worst class I had that year, but it certainly wasn't the easiest. Still, at least I could usually pay attention in there.
Not today, though; today, it seemed almost impossible to listen. Sure, the teacher was always giving her lectures in that monotone voice of hers that wasn't exactly inviting, but that wasn't the problem today.
I've never experienced vertigo before, but I know a few people who have, and based on what they told me, I imagine this was what it felt like. I was just sitting there, staring blankly forwards, feeling like I was about to throw up and fall head over heels, and I had no idea why. I had been feeling fine just 20 minutes earlier, and now I felt like complete shit. I was now seriously considering asking if I could go to the office, but as stated earlier, I don't like drawing attention to myself, and that anxiety kept me rooted to my seat.
My great common sense, striking again.
At one point in the lecture, the teacher noticed that I wasn't paying attention and asked "Um, Zach? Earth to Zach?"
"Oh, uh, yeah, what?"
"Do you know how many plays Shakespeare wrote?"
I stammered an answer that I had memorized before, and the teacher responded "Good, now don't fall asleep on me." A few students chuckled at that.
Did she really not notice how sick I looked? Or did I even look that sick? No one else seemed to notice my discomfort.
After awhile, she gave us work time on a project we had started a few days ago, and while I wasn't quite as dizzy anymore, I still couldn't seem to focus on getting anything done. A few minutes in, one of my few friends, Sandy, came over and asked if we wanted to work together; Sandy can be pretty lazy. Usually, I would have said yes, but I could barely concentrate on my own project, much less do his too, so I denied his request. He frowned and asked if I was okay. I said I was, and he just shrugged and walked away.
I might not make the best choices when it comes to who my friends should be...
When the bell rang, I managed to pick up my things and get to my locker without colliding into anybody or falling unconscious like I feared I would. However, once there, I couldn't get to my locker; two people were standing in front of it. Even though she was facing away from me, I recognized Whitney first.
Whitney Hall was basically my counterpart; she was popular, funny (although usually by accident), athletic (she ran Track), and beautiful; she had shoulder length, straight blonde hair, blue eyes, thin cheeks, and a pretty nice rack and ass on a slim body.
However, she wasn't quite as bright as I was. In fact, over the years, her friends had given her the nickname "Whit", to poke fun at her intelligence. Hell, her boyfriend Caleb even called her "Whit-Whit", which I found really irritating, not because I thought it was mean, but because its just annoying to hear.