Chimera (Book 2)

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

 It was finally lunch time and Sara waited in the Hall outside the cafeteria for the others to show up. She had spotted Joshua and Tony first, and then she saw Jennifer holding Joey’s hand as they walked towards her. They all got some food before sitting down at an empty table to eat.

 “How is your day so far?” Sara asked the others, but they were silent to reply. “Did any of you make any friends?” she pressed.

 Tony perked up. “I did.” He announced. “His name is Sam, I met him in my gym class.”

 “That’s awesome Tony!” Sara replied.

 “Actually there he is now.” He said waving toward a large boy walking out of the lunch line. Sam spotted him at once, and with a big smile on his face made his way to the table full of cats.

 “Hey Tony!” He said seating himself without the slightest hesitation.

 “Hey Sam!” Tony replied. “Have you met my family yet? This is my sister Sara, and my brothers Joshua and Joey, and the girl on the other side of Joey there is his girlfriend Jen. Everybody this is Sam.”

  “Hi everyone.” He announced. “You’ve all got to be the strangest family I ever met.” He said “But in a good way.”

 “Thanks… I guess” Sara replied.

 “I’m surprised you’re still here,” Sam said to Tony. “I thought they would have kicked you out of school for sure after what you did to Jason.”

 “Wait,” Sara interjected. “What happened? Why would you be kicked out of school Tony?”

 “It was nothing really.” Tony replied sheepishly.

 “Are you kidding, It was amazing!” Sam started and told the tale of the amazing feats Tony displayed in the second round they played, the whole while everyone at the table listened intensely without interrupting. “Jason was knocked out clean for a good minute before he woke again. After that coach sent him to the nurse and had Tony go to his office. I thought for sure he would get suspended.”

 “Wow, that’s incredible” Joshua said. “Did that really happen?” He asked Tony.

 “Something like that, I guess.” He replied.

 “No really it was exactly like that!” Sam said enthusiastically.

 “So what happened in the coach’s office?” Sara asked.

 “I told him I didn’t mean to hurt him and that I was just playing the way I saw everyone else play.”

 “So what did the coach say to that?” She asked.

 “He said he understood, and then asked me if I have ever played football. I told him never, and he told me I should try out next week anyway.”

 “So, are you going to?” Sara asked.

 “I got nothing better to do, so sure why not.”

 “You better practice; football is a bit different from dodge ball.” Sam cautioned. “But if you pick it up as fast as you did dodge ball you’ll be starting quarterback for sure.”

 “Well thanks for your confidence Sam, I’ll be happy if I just make the team and have something to do.”

 “Well that’s certainly some good news.” Sara stated with a grin. “Anybody else have any stories to tell?”

 Joshua sat staring into his food in obvious deep thought. “Joshua” Sara said in an attempt to wake him from his day dream with no luck. “Joshua,” she said louder “Are you ok?”

 “What, uhh yeah. I’m fine.” he said startled and a bit surprised.

 “Anything interesting happen with you this morning?” Sara asked

 “What, no.” He answered quickly. “Nothing happened, just a regular first day of school.”

  “Same here,” Sara replied “Just a regular first day of school where everyone either looked at me like I was some kind of freak or just looked at me curiously wondering what exactly I was.”

 “Yup same here.” Joshua agreed.

 “Nobody even had the decency to talk to me. I didn’t get so much as a hello or how do you do.” Sara continued.

 “Me either” Joshua said

 Just then a Blonde haired girl walked by their table carrying a tray of food. “I’ll see you later, my little koshka.” She said, and then winked at Joshua before sitting at another table and situating herself so she had a good view of Joshua.

  “Uhh, who is that?” Sara asked. “And what’s a Koshka?”

 “I have no idea.” Joshua replied, “I need to go.” And he quickly got up and left carrying his barely eaten food with him.

 Sara thought that to be very unusual behavior for Joshua. Looking around the table everyone else seemed to be thinking the same thing. Sara looked down at her own plate of food, she had eaten everything made out of meat already, and nothing else looked appetizing anymore, as it always had been since she turned into a cat.  “Well I’m done, and ready to go.” She said. Everyone else agreed and they gathered their trays before heading into the hallway to wait for their next class to start.

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 The rest of the day went on as usual and Sara decided she would walk home alone as it was a beautiful day outside and she had quite enough of people staring at her. The walk home also gave Sara time to think and ponder deeply about her thoughts. She was excited about Tony getting involved in sports and hoped that he did well. She loved the idea of going to football games and cheering him on to victory. She was happy that Tony already found a friend, and Sam seemed like a nice enough person.

 Her thoughts moved over to her concern about Joshua and what was going on with him? Who was that girl, and it seemed like they had already met. He had also left in quite a hurry after she got there. Yes, she would have to talk to him as soon as she got home and get to the bottom of this.

 Just as she began formulating a plan to get Joshua to talk a Van that seemed to come out of nowhere sped up to her and came to a quick halt just before two masked men jumped out, threw a bag over Sara’s head, and grappled her into the van before speeding off again.