𝗜'𝗺 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘅 𝗵𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝘆𝗹𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿

10.

"And that is how you knit a sweater!" One of my classmates finishes her speech and everyone starts to clap unenthusiastically.

"Very good Andrea. Did you hear how she enunciated and projected her voice so you could hear her all the way in the back right?" The teacher tells us and Emily looks back at me, rolling her eyes with a smile.

I cover my hand over my mouth to keep from snickering.

"And now... Hunter it's your turn-"

A guitar chord riff blasts through the room, startling the students and Hunter makes his way into the classroom with his guitar making a grand entrance.

"Death closes all. But something ere the end, some work of noble note may yet be done. Not becoming men that strove with gods..."  he declares dramatically, walking through the rows of desks.

I watch him in awe as he passes by me, looking down and giving me a wink.

"Tennyson's 'Ulysses,' you might know it from your English class." He continues cockily.

"This speech is about metal." He plays another electric guitar riff, showing off a little bit.

"Metal is about what Ulysses was about. Striving with gods. Striking out for unknown territory. The people that crossed the Bering strait twelve thousand years ago?"

Another heavy metal riff. It startles some people every time he does it with how loud he's cranked the speaker.

"Metal.  That Kon-Tiki guy?"  Another guitar riff, and I smile in amusement as I watch him perform.

"Metal. The people on the mayflower...would've been Metal if it weren't for all that Jesus crap." A couple students laugh and the teacher shakes her head at Hunter's comment.

"So... achieving your dreams with fellow badasses, and going to hell if you have to. That sounds great, right? But it wasn't so easy for Ulysses." 

I notice as he stops in front of Emily's desk, looking down at her. She's looking very uncomfortable as he singles her out.

"See, he had umh, he had Penelope. Mrs. Ulysses, keeping him down."  Hunter smirks and my smile fades at his reference as he continues to glare at Emily.

"Stay home. Be king. Go to work every day..." he puts on a horrible Scottish accent, and I clench my jaw as I watch him mock my friend.

"He wasted decades of his life on that shit."

"Stop it." Emily speaks up, clenching onto her pencil so tightly her knuckles are turning white.

"Hunter..." the teacher warns, but he doesn't listen as he continues to speak.

"But one day, Ulysses decided that he was finished with his woman."  Hunter leans down above Emily and I finally speak up.

"Fucking quit it." I tell him, my voice low in warning. But he doesn't so much as glance over at me as he persists.

"It was inevitable. Sooner or later, the metal inside him was bound to rise up and crush whatever stood in its path!" He yells at Emily bitterly, which causes Emily to snap.

"Fucker!! Fucking cunt!! I'll kill you!!" She yells, breaking the pencil in her hand into splinters.

I watch on horror as my friend fights my boyfriend, until the teacher ushers me out of the room to deal with the two teens.

𖤐

Rushing down the hall my eyes scan for a particular head of long brown hair.