“This is so exciting!” Kristie exclaimed as we were driven to our first day of school. “High school seems like it’s going to be so much fun, isn’t it?”
I didn’t agree with her, even though I had no experience with it unlike our three other teammates. So I let them handle her while I just stared out the window and watched all the trees pass by,
When Hank and Nay dropped the six of us off at school Monday morning, it brought memories back of my foster parents dropping me off at school when I was a kid. Back then was a much simpler time, that was for sure.
“So this is a high school, huh?” I gulped as I looked up at the school. “It’s… big.”
It wasn’t as big as the DAU, but it was much bigger than my middle school had been. But I guess that was to be expected.
I started off the day in physics with Lena, who seemed bored out of her mind throughout the entire class period. I didn’t really blame her, considering our teacher spoke in a complete monotone voice and three people were asleep throughout the classroom.
If all classes in school were this boring, I didn’t think I’d be able to get through it. Even sitting in my room and learning off a computer had been more fun than that class.
Dex and I had Malicius’s class together. He taught history, and went as Mr. Grand. I knew that being in a classroom with him was going to be horrible, but since it was part of the mission, I was going to have to do it.
Malicius didn’t even react to Dex and I being in his classroom. He noticed that there were new students, told the class this, and then seated us. But other than that, we got no response from him. It was almost as if he hadn’t even recognized us.
I studied the kids in the class, like I had been doing in all my classes before this one. They were all different shapes and sizes, and they were all in separate groups. They were not all friends with each other, but with specific people.
“Violet,” I heard someone suddenly call out, and I snapped out of my trance to see that it had been Malicius from the front of the classroom. Though he was smiling at me, I could see the usual wickedness that was always in his eyes. “Violet is your name, correct?”
I nodded, fighting the urge to tell him he already knew my name. “Yes, it is.”
“Could you answer the question I asked?” he asked me now, and I felt my eyes go wide because I had no idea what the question was. Malicius saw this. “What was the Quartering Act?”
The Quartering Act? Was I really supposed to know what that was? I had no idea! This was US history, but I hadn’t gotten that far in my homeschooling, so I had absolutely no idea what the answer was.
A few kids in the class noticed that I had no idea, and I heard them snickering. The boy sitting in front of Dex was laughing so loudly that it was distracting me even more.
Dex suddenly kicked the back of the boy’s chair, and it suddenly broke and he went falling backwards onto the ground. Everyone’s attention now went to him and off of me, and I smiled at Dex to thank him.
While all the other kids were paying attention to the boy on the floor, Malicius smirked at me. He was finally showing his true self. “Do you not know the answer, Violet?”
I glared back at him, not backing away from this challenge. “No, I don’t, Mr. Grand.”
Suddenly, another boy across the room raised his hand and Malicius called on him. He said the answer like he was reading it out of a textbook, and I couldn’t help but be reminded of Anthony.
“Good job, Freddie,” Malicius praised the boy with a glance at me. “That is correct.”
And that was the only interaction I had with Malicius in class that day. It made me nervous for every day that would come after that.
The rest of the school day went by normally, at least I thought I thought it did. My five friends and I sat together at lunch, and classes were… alright. I was still very unsure about how human teenagers acted.
When the last bell finally rang at the end of the day, I let out a long sigh of relief. I could not wait to just go back to the DAU and sleep. It had been a long day.
I had only seen Lynx once, and it was strange. She was in one class with me, but she didn’t even look at me once. She had friends that she would laugh and talk with, and she almost seemed like a normal teenage girl. It was strange.
I didn’t really know about Malicius, though. I hadn’t paid much attention in his class because I was too busy paying attention to all of my classmates. Teenagers just had a very weird vibe to me and I didn’t like it. And since I could tell the relationships between different people, I could tell who liked each other and who didn’t.
Before I could get very far away from my last classroom of the day, I realized that someone was following me. Before I got the chance to spin around and confront them, they grabbed onto my arm and stopped me from moving any farther.
I had to stop myself from hitting the boy that had grabbed me out of force of habit, who let go the second I turned toward him. I recognized him as one of the kids in my last period, and he may have even been in another class that I had had earlier that day. But I couldn’t have been sure.
“Hey, we met before, haven’t we?” he asked, looking intently at my face as he tried to recognize me. Was it normal for human teenage boys to just approach you like this? “Yeah… we did! Over the summer! We ran into each other on the street.”
I tried to remember what he was telling me, and though it took me a second, I finally did remember. He had shaggy brown hair and blue eyes, and I remembered looking at these blue eyes months before on a street that was lit by streetlights and stores.
I had met him when we went on the mission to find Regina the cat, and I had knocked into each other. Our meeting was brief, but there was something about it that caused both of us to remember in clearly.
“I’m Tom,” he greeted, reaching his hand out to shake mine. I took it.
“I’m Violet,” I responded.
“And I’m Dex,” a new voice suddenly said, and I jumped when I saw my teammate step beside the two of us. He seemed very intimidating, which he did best. His arms were over his chest and he towered over both of us, even though he was only an inch or two taller than Tom.
“Hi, Dex,” I greeted uncomfortably, since I didn’t exactly know what I was supposed to say to him at this moment. “What are you doing here? I thought you had gym.”
“I do, but I snuck out early because I wanted to see you.” He shrugged uncaringly. “It’s pretty easy for me to get out of class early.”
It definitely would have been easy for him. Because of the special clothes Hank and Nay had given him, they would also become invisible so you wouldn’t be able to see him at all. That was both cool and scary at the same time.
“Tom!” a new voice suddenly called out before any of us could say anything else, we turned to see a very pretty, dark haired girl making her way over to us. “Tom, where were you yesterday?”
I recognized her as the girl that had been with Tom when I had met him the first time. I didn’t exactly know if I was supposed to say anything to her, so I didn’t. She was obviously here for Tom, anyway.
“Where were you?” the girl repeated once she finally got up to us. “I was texting you and calling you all day but you never showed up at my house.”
Tom merely shrugged. “I was busy.”
This girl’s face was red, and she looked like she was about to explode. She opened her mouth to yell at him, but then turned to see that Dex and I were standing right there.
“Hello,” she smiled at my teammate, and I just blinked at her. “Who are you?”
“Dex,” he answered, not seeming very interested in her in the slightest. I was sure happy about that.
This girl did not seem deterred by Dex’s lack of interest, and she took a step toward him. “Are you new? I haven’t seen you here before?”
I turned toward Tom, who only rolled his eyes at the girl standing before us flirting with my friend. I stayed silent as Dex had a conversation with this girl, though he was obviously not interested in her.
“Well, anyway, Tom,” she finally began once she was done talking with Dex, turning back toward the other boy I was with. “You need to come over to my house later. I don’t care if you say you’re busy or not.”
Tom didn’t seem to want to, but he agreed with the girl before she turned away and started off, giving Dex one last smile before she was finally good. I still said nothing. She hadn’t even noticed that I was there.
Was Dex the one that could become invisible, or was I?
“Dex!” a new voice suddenly called out, and we turned to see that it was Kristie who was waving him over to her and Aiden. I couldn’t help but wonder where Anthony and Lena were. “Didn’t you have English with Mrs. Crawford earlier? Could you show me where her classroom is? I left my bag in there and I can’t remember where the classroom is!”
I made a face. I wasn’t really surprised that she had forgotten something.
Dex looked at me, and then to Tom. He did not look like he wanted to leave my side, but he knew he was going to have to go help Kristie with what she was asking for. Even though she could have asked one of the boys that had been ogling her all day…
“I’ll see you later,” I told him, waving him away toward our redheaded friend. “Go help Kristie. We all know she’ll probably get lost if you don’t go help her.”
I almost had to push him to get him to stop glaring at Tom and get a move on. But when he finally started walking, he didn’t look back at us and he left with both Kristie and Aiden.
“That guy,” Tom started, watching as Dex walked off. “He’s just a… friend?”
I didn’t exactly know how I was supposed to answer that. Dex and I were friends, yes, but we had kissed before. We had kissed quite a few times. It wasn’t like he was my boyfriend or anything, but was there something in between a friend and a boyfriend?
“We’re just friends,” I answered, since he was more like a friend than a boyfriend anyway.
Tom smiled at me, but said nothing more about the subject. I felt like talking about Dex continuously wouldn’t have been the best idea.
“So, that girl that was yelling earlier… Was she your… girlfriend?” I asked him, finding a bad taste in my mouth as I said the word.
Tom shook his head. “Ex-girlfriend.”
I blinked at him. I didn’t know much about exes, but did they usually still talk to each other after breaking up? I had no idea.
“We’re still friends,” he informed me now, as if sensing my confusion. “We’re partners for this project in English and we have to go over to her house to be able to work on it.”
“Oh…” was all I was able to say. I felt like this conversation was going turn awkward very quick, since I didn’t have anything else I could have said, but we were quickly interrupted before Tom could start talking about something else or before we could just stand there in an awkward silence.
“Good afternoon, Violet, Tom,” Malicius greeted us, a very smug smile on his face when he saw me. “How are you two doing?”
“I’m good,” Tom answered, glancing at me. “How do you and Violet know each other?”
I felt my throat close up, and I had no idea what I was supposed to say. How could I tell him I knew Malicius? Even if I somehow told him the truth, I highly doubted he would have believed me!
“Violet’s in one of my classes,” Malicius simply explained, and I stopped myself from letting out a sigh of relief. That would have been a believable excuse. “Along with her friend Dex, correct?”
“Yes,” I answered almost through clenched teeth. He didn’t mention Anthony, but I felt like he did this on purpose. “Dex and I were both in your class together.”
I hated that Malicius thought he could just talk to me in front of everyone else like we were actually student and teacher. Like he hadn’t tried to kill me before. It made me really angry.
“Well, I better get going,” our teacher finally dismissed himself, and I was glad. “I’ll see you both around.”
I let out a breath that I hadn’t known I had been holding once he turned the corner and was out of sight. Tom didn’t seem to notice how much I actually disliked Malicius, but that was a good thing.
“Mr. Grand’s a great teacher,” Tom informed me, but I didn’t really believe him. “It’s his first year here and the school year has only been going for a couple of weeks, but he’s definitely one of the best teacher’s I’ve ever had.”
I couldn’t help but wonder what kind of façade Malicius put on in front of all the other students. I hadn’t really paid attention during the one class period I had with him, minus when he had called on me, but obviously from what Tom had said, he definitely was not acting like the Malicius I knew.
“Do you know a lot of people at this school?” Tom asked me now, and I shook my head. Counting him, I knew a total of five people, not counting Malicius and Lynx. Tom smiled at this. “Then maybe you and I can hang out sometime and I can introduce you to a few people, or just show you around town.”
“Alright,” I found myself nodding. “That sounds like fun.”
And it was the truth. Even though I had just formally met him, there was something about Tom that made me want to be closer to him. And hanging out with him sounded fun, though it also seemed really terrifying.
We were both smiling at each other now in silence, though it wasn’t awkward like I was afraid it might have been if we stopped talking. We were able to just look at each other and it worked.
“Violet!” someone suddenly shouted, and a very familiar blonde was suddenly grabbing onto my arm and yanking me in another direction. “I have to talk to you!”
I tried to stop her from yanking me away so I could apologize to Tom, but he simply waved me away as Lena continued to yank. I was just glad he understood I couldn’t exactly get out of this situation, considering it was Lena.
“What were you just doing?” she asked, suddenly stopping dead in her tracks in the empty hallway.
I nearly rammed right into her. “What?”
“What were you doing with that guy?”
It took me only a moment to realize she was talking about Tom, and I realized that I didn’t really have an answer for her. All we were doing was talking, but I highly doubted Lena would have accepted that as an answer.
“What about Dex?” she questioned now, not even waiting for me to answer her previous question.
I blinked. “What about Dex?” I asked as well, but for a completely different reason.
She rolled her eyes. “Why are you flirting with another guy when you have Dex?”
Before I could answer that question that I didn’t even really understand, we were then cut off by another set of footsteps making their way toward us, and we turned to see that it had been the girl that had yelled at Tom and flirted with Dex earlier. Tom’s ex-girlfriend. I thought she was going to walk right by us, but when she stopped right in front of me, I only blinked at her.
“You!” the girl called out, pointing right at me. “You were the girl with Tom and Dex!”
So she had noticed that I was there. I never would have known.
“Are you Dex’s girlfriend?” she asked me.
“Actually, for a matter of fact—” Lena began, but I then elbowed her in the side to get her to stop talking for me. She made a face at me and rubbed her side, finally letting me speak.
“I’m not,” I answered honestly.
This girl looked rather happy, and almost smug. “Alright. Good.”
I didn’t really like where this was going. Why was she saying this, and why did she look this way? All I knew for sure was that I didn’t like it. I didn’t like it at all.
There was something in this girl’s light eyes that I didn’t like. It wasn’t the same kind of thing I saw in Malicius or Lynx’s eyes, but it still was some kind of evil that made me feel very uncomfortable.
The girl seemed to notice what I was thinking and she smirked at me. Was this how high school girls acted, or was she different from the rest of them? I sure hoped that every girl at this school was not like her.
“What’s your name?” Lena demanded, taking a step toward the girl. I could tell they both didn’t like each other because Lena thought the girl was rude while the girl was jealous of Lena’s looks. They were both beautiful, so there was no point.
“I’m Vanessa.” She took a step from Lena, as if she thought she was too good to be standing so close to her. “And you two are?”
“I’m Lena, and this is Violet,” Lena scowled, and I felt very uncomfortable as I stood behind her. But I continued to say nothing. “We’re new here; today was our first day ,just like Dex. And we just so happen to be his best friends.”
I didn’t know if we were close enough to Dex to call him our best friend, but I knew there was no point in going against Lena. It was best to be on her side than it was to be against her, so I was glad that I was no Vanessa at that moment.
Vanessa did not seem to like the fact that Lena and I were apparently so close to Dex, so she merely humphed and spun on her heal, starting off down the hall without another word. I didn’t know what to say, which had been happening a lot that day.
“You can’t let that girl date Dex,” was all Lena said, and then she started down the hallway as well.
Like I had any control over that!
It took me a second, but I followed after her since we had the same ride. I sure hoped Hank and Nay weren’t too mad at us for taking so long after school was over. I already knew Dex was in a bad mood, and I was sure Aiden was as well, considering all the girls that had been staring at Kristie all day. Lena didn’t seem very happy, and I hadn’t seen Anthony since after lunch, so I had no idea how he was.
I didn’t know if I liked high school very much. Some of the people didn’t seem very nice, but then there were a few that did. And then there were Malicius and Lynx that we were going to have to deal with eventually. They were here for a reason.
I couldn’t help but think about Tom. Were we going to become friends? How close were we going to get? How close was I allowed to get?
I shook this thought from my mind. Hank and Nay had said themselves that I could not get too close to a human. It was a bad idea. I could be friends with Tom, but I couldn’t be anything more than that. We could only be friends.
But for some reason, thinking about that did not make me very happy.
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So... Tom and Violet. Dex and Violet. I hope you guys remembered Tom from his short appearance in the first book. xD
I think Lena is secretly the biggest Vex shipper...
Please COMMENT, VOTE, and FAN! :)