Repairing the Hurt

Chapter 30

"Susan?" Mr. Peters calls out to me.

I've been staring at him for way too long. His lecture has gone in one ear and out the other. The only thought that's been on my mind is about that 14 year old girl.

"Mr. Peters?" I respond innocently.

"Just making sure you're with us," he says, a knowing look on his face.

I hate that knowing look. It makes me think that he knows something I don't.

He probably does.

My face turns red as I anticipate the other students looking at me, but nobody seems to care.

He looks at me again and smirks, then turns away and continues teaching.

The rest of class is spent with me silent in my chair.

Time was passing slowly, then all at once, and class is over.

I've barely talked to the guys all morning. After my nightmare, they must have wanted to give me some time, but I can tell it's frustrating some of them with the weary looks and tired eyes.

Why can't I get better? Why can't I be okay?

I want to stop having nightmares. I want to stop crying. I want to stop expecting bad things to happen.

I want to wake up.

The world is full of bad people, bad things.

I use to see the world in bright colors, but now all I see are people lurking in the shadows ready to hurt others.

And that's why I'm still in this chair in the classroom of a presumed enemy.

I'm one of the last ones in my chair again, waiting for the room to clear. This is risky, two days in a row seeming to seek him out, but he took the bait yesterday.

From the reports I've read from the other birds, they tried to make a move on him. The first bird was flirtatious, making her intentions clear. She was a sophomore, but he had done his homework on her, seeing the fake facebook page she had set up. He backed off after that night. Whether it was because she was too normal for a high school girl and he didn't want to chance exposure through her social media, or if he had changed his mind for another reason, no one knew. Another bird was sent in, another sophomore, and he had discovered a picture of her when she was younger under a different name and she had to be taken off the job immediately. No one was sure how he knew who to look for. The next bird that was sent in was a ghost, but she was a senior and he wouldn't even look her way, no matter how hard she tried. The theory was that she was too old. He seems to stay in the freshmen to sophomore age, the fourteen year old being the youngest one so far.

Despite me being almost 18, my face still looks young, and with the records that are attached to Susan Winters, hopefully he won't look too far into it.

"Susan?" He asks, approaching me.

"Mr. Peters?" I respond, nonchalance on my face instead of concern. I haven't been able to focus all day, my head raging with my concussion and thoughts being hard to hold onto. Maybe the guys were right when they suggested I wait until my concussion heals. At least that's my only injury at the moment. The last few weeks when I haven't been training with Raven, I've been resting for the most part, not having to exert myself when I work on jobs with Axel or any other analytical aspect of the Academy. My shoulder's healed for the most part, only a slightly yellowed bruise left. My stomach and arm healed just fine. This has been the first time since I've been back that I don't have an open wound actively trying to heal. Now all I need is for my head to heal, and unfortunately I'm too far into this job to take a break. As long as I can avoid getting hit in the head or having to look at the projector, I'll be okay.