Hunter in the Wild

Between the Volumes: King's Pawn

I don't remember a whole hell of a lot from my previous life.  In fact, a lot of it is kind of a blur.  I know that I was Human.  I remember growing up.  I remember having long brown hair and hazel eyes.  I remember high school. I remember learning Russian.  I remember taking the time and learning how to cut my brothers' hair.  I remember being the shy kid in public. I remember losing my brother.  I remember taking care of my mother.

But most of all, I remember him.

His name was Griffin.  His blonde hair was a shaggy mess that swept into his eyes and flipped outward, nearly impairing his vision.  His blue eyes sparkled when the light hit them at the right angle.  He was a beautiful human being that moved to the school district my senior year of high school.During that year, I noticed him and actually had a few classes in common with him. However, we rarely talked.  And even then it was for a group project.

In the midst of our school's winter break, I decided to become a little more daring.  After a talk with my parents, I was allowed to chop off my hair and go from a mane that fell to my ass to a style that barely touched my shoulders.  I felt liberated.  I felt exhilarated.  I started to be more outgoing.  Without my hair to hide behind anymore, I started to put myself out there more.

When school resumed, many thought I was a new kid.  But once I spoke, everyone was stunned.  Up until this point, no one really looked at me.  But now everyone wanted to talk.  Boys hit on me, tried to get my number, and a few even asked me onto dates.  I, however, turned them all down.

The other girls called me crazy for cutting all that hair, but a few were jealous I took the leap. Others hated their boyfriends were looking at me now.

But it wasn't until February when my whole world flipped.

During my 6th period Russian class he talked to me. Tapping me on the shoulder to get my attention before saying, "hey uh… you know… that hairstyle looks really good on you."

My face instantly turned red, before I could get a word in he introduced himself as Griffin.  I nodded and told him we had met before.  After saying my name he was the one with a red face.

"I am so sorry," he started, "I guess I didn't recognize you."

I smiled, "it's okay.  It was a pretty big change, I didn't expect a lot of people to actually recognize me."

"Well… it looks great!" I smiled as he continued, "would… would you like to catch a movie sometime?  I mean, I know you're probably busy but… if you ever have time, perhaps?"

"I…" my mouth spurted out before my head could even react.  I was fully prepared to turn him down but something deep within kept me from doing so.  My mouth went dry and my stomach was in knots.  I tried to swallow and regain my composure but nothing was working.  "I'm not busy," I finally managed to get out, "I'm free this weekend if you wanna go then."

His face lit up like a child on Christmas, "awesome!  I um… I guess I'll pick you up!  Here's my number," He proceeded to write on his notebook with a pen.  Tearing the page before handing it to me, "text me whatever day works for you.  We'll figure out the movie when we get there.

I nodded and turned back around in my seat.  Looking down at the paper, in amazement of what just happened. Slowly growing in excitement as the class went on.

-------

Our date went well, turns out he took me out to dinner too.  We went to a somewhat fancy place where we ordered pasta, went on our movie date and had an amazing time.

At the end of the night, he walked me up to my apartment door and stuck around a few minutes before I went inside.

He looked at me and smiled. "Tonight was amazing," he said.