Just Me, the Half-Faery

It's Him, but it's not

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Jaz's POV

There was a pre-dinner dance kind of thing on tomorrow after school. It had a few games on beforehand, and then we would get the whole 'dancing' thing down.

In other words, the teachers wanted to teach us to dance properly,so they don't get embarrassed by our lack of skills like last year. But that was a different story.

Come to think of it.... Zaid asked me out to that dance, yet his text said he was going away for a while. I'd have to ask him about it later.

I listened to the usual banter of my friends as we exited our english class. Emma was just telling me about her cannibalistic pet Axolotls and Emily was showing me where her calf muscles were hurting since her hugely intense cricket training the other day.

I was so pumped to see Jem as we walked down the hall. He should be coming out of his Sose class and we always passed him on our way. I turned to my left, where Abi was looking at me with wide, wild eyes, shaking her head this way and that.

"Abi... What on EARTH are you doing?" I asked. I always have believed in verbal communication. It always gets the message across properly. She just looked like she had some water in her ear, and was trying to shake it out. Being the amazingly smart person that I am, I got the gist that this was not the case about a full two minutes of her ear-water-dance and my gawking stupidly.

"Man, Jaz," she sighed. "Over there--Jem."

"Oh, right. Got it" I turned to see his profile, up against the wall. I couldnt see his face yet, as it was in the shadows of the building. I sauntered up to him, as he appeared to be waiting for someone (hopefully me).

As soon as I reached, him he grinned stupidly and waved at me. I just frowned. He looked so weird but vaguely familiar. What?!

"Hi Jazmine." he said. I swear he looked a little drunk. "Whataya doing?"

"Its Jaz, not Jazmine" I exaggerated the 'z' on my full name. Jaz was just a way more fun, short and quirky name. Jazmine was a flower or something.

"Do I look like a flower to you--" I stopped. I had just seen the weirdest thing happen. His head shook, and his eyes went all unfocused and then his back went poker straight, and his eyes looked like they did when I last saw him-- too focused and really familiar, but definitely not Jem.

"Sorry about that, Jaz. Im not feeling all that great. Do you want to go outside for some fresh air?" I tried to catch his eye as he lead me out of the english block but he just avoided mine. Something really weird was going on... For starters, this guy was not Jem. I dont know why it took me so long to figure it out, but something was up with him...

He opened the glass door for me and held his hand out in an 'after you' gesture. I went through. He strolled round the corner to where it was restricted for students, which was fine and all, but um... We were students.

He walked all the way into the middle of the neon green, un-mowed grass and simply sat, a little too gracefully, into the wonderful stuff. I followed suit, trying not to give off any of my 'i suspect you!' vibes.

"So, Jaz"

"So Casmire" I clapped my hand over my mouth, his eyes widened. So much for being smooth. We sat there staring at each other for a while, too long. In fact, he wasn't blinking anymore and he was hardly breathing...

"Hello, Jaz" came a male voice from way behind me. I resisted the urge to jump.

"Casmire" I said cordially, trying to look amused.

"What have you done to Jem?" I asked immediately. "Hes not moving." I gave him a pointed look.

"Alright. Just let me--" he started, but he cut himself off with a sharp intake of breath, his eyes widening. He looked like he was slightly amused, but disgusted. Not in the least bit scared, but surprised.

I looked behind me, to the source of his reaction, and saw another Jem, but this one looked like the Jem I knew, tall, intimidating and cocky.

"You!" he spat at Casmire. "I have been in that STUPID room for almost three days!" Casmire recoiled (i have no idea why) and performed one of his vanishing tricks, and he and the Jem clone disappeared in a cloud of quickly dispersing smoke.

I coughed and waved at the smokey air. Man, why did he have to do that? It SO wasn't impressive!

Jem turned to me with mocking eyes, a pleased expression on his face. "Oh, would you look at that. I'm your hero, your knight in shining armour." I rolled my eyes. Yep, this was the real Jem I had known for three years. I turned on my heal, my nose in the air, and stomped off to class, knowing he watched me with an amused expression on his face.