The Demon in Class 2-A

Part One: New Student (1-4)

Four

The chime kicks in and the fourth class of the day concludes. Caelan lays his pencil on his notebook and he lifts his arms over his head and stretches. He smiles.

It's been a good day so far, he thinks, I'm actually enjoying this.

He rests his arms on the desk and watches his peers get up from their desks. Everyone is talking to each other loudly. Laughter and gossip erupts. Some students take their lunch out and begin eating at their desks while looking over notes taken. The girl in front of him, the brown haired girl with a ponytail, spins around in her chair and faces him with a grin.

"Hey there," she says.

"Hello," Caelan says, happy that someone is talking to him.

"How is your first day going?" she asks.

"Pretty well, thanks," Caelan replies, "Your day is going as well as mine, I hope?"

"Well," she says, "Math was awful. And social studies can be boring after a bit but other than that not bad."

Caelan gives a half smile.

"So, lunch is after fourth period then?" he asks.

"Yep! We have an hour before class starts back up at one."

"Good to know," he replies, "Thanks!"

"No problem! You can eat or just hang out pretty much anywhere on campus as long as you aren't late to class. People like to play basketball sometimes or study. Like Mila over here!"

Caelan looks past the girl and sees the school president pouring over her notes.

"She takes almost every opportunity to study," the girl with the ponytail says, "It's probably why she is every teacher's favorite."

"I see," Caelan says with a smidge of disinterest, desiring now to go to his locker to fetch the lunch his uncle made for him.

"Do you have a lunch?" the girl asks, "If you don't you can share some of mine."

"Oh, thanks," Caelan says, "But that's alright! I actually put it in my locker. So I just gotta go grab it."

"Oh," the girl says slightly disappointed as he gets up from his chair, "Well I am Rachel, by the way!"

She holds out her hand. Caelan takes it gently and gives it a small shake. Her hand is very soft and her nails look freshly manicured.

"Caelan," he says.

"See you later, new kid," Rachel says.

"Careful around her dude," the guy called William says to Caelan, "She always tries to sink her claws into the new dudes."

"You're just mad you weren't on my radar, William," Rachel retorts with a laugh.

"What!?" William exclaims, "Why would I even want to be on your radar."

"Because you think I'm pretty, obviously," she replies.

Caelan laughs at the two bickering like an old couple and leaves the classroom. He walks past students in the hall talking to each other, others studying or copying notes from someone else. He goes to his locker and pulls his lunch out. He does not feel like returning to eat in the class and being further interviewed by Rachel, as nice as she was being. He just wanted to be alone at the moment and enjoy his food. He walks outside, past the basketball courts where some of the guys are playing a pickup game still in uniform while girls cheer them on. Soon he finds a small stone bench in a patch of lawn under a tree. He sets the lunch sack beside him and looks up at the sky. He takes a deep breath and smiles.