video is unrelated but I like it
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It takes about 20 minutes to get to high school but it passes by too quickly as Dr. Green fills it with funny stories about his shift. He's a doctor at a hospital and he was heading back from his night shift and going directly to school when he saw me on the street.
It's beyond me how he can be the school nurse, Japanese teacher, and a doctor at an actual hospital.
It's like he's the one with supernatural powers not me.
He doesn't seem that old either, maybe three or four years older than me. Does he even sleep?
Looking at him he's so playful and energetic it's easy to overlook the dark bags under his eyes. I'm worried he doesn't take care of his health but I keep this to myself.
He also offered me a few pieces of caramel which I found to be amazing. They taste like creamy heaven. I moan a bit at the taste. I notice Dr. Green's knuckles tighten on the steering wheel as something flashes in his eyes I don't recognize but he hides it quickly.
Maybe he's angry I'm taking all of his candy. I try to feel bad for taking them but I already want more as soon as they're gone. I don't remember sugar being this good but maybe that's because I rarely get the chance to have candy.
"Fan of sweets?" He asks, amusement replacing the previous darkness in his eyes. I nod slightly and cram all the wrappers into my pocket, feeling kinda awkward. I like listening to him but it's difficult to do the talking part.
He pulls onto the road that will lead into the parking lot. The traffic is insane, cars and people covering everything in sight.
Since the car is stopped he reaches into the pocket on his door and pulls out a big bag full of carmel. I can't help but grin.
"That makes two of us" He says while pulling a few out for himself as we wait for the cars in front of us to freakin' move.
"Are you sure it's okay?" I muffle through a mouthful of caramel while I stuff a huge handful of them in my hoodie pocket.
I'm amazed with how much candy this new hoodie can hold. All the pockets of of my other jackets where either made for girls which for whatever reason meant they could maybe hold half of an eraser, or they had holes worn through the bottom.
But these are huge! I could put anything in these! I excitedly grab more to see how much I can put in.
If he's having second thoughts about being my candy dealer it's too late now, they're mine. My eyes roll to the back of my head in pure ecstasy at the taste.
"You can have as much as you want if you reward me with that noise, pookie" His voice is deep and huskier than usual, my heart skips a beat.
I tilt my head, was I making a noise? I don't think I said anything?
He looks at me incredulously and shakes his head slightly, seeming to give up on something. I look at him curiously even as I continue stuffing more candy into my pouch.
He starts laughing as my jacket pockets bulge enough to look like they contain a small child. Ok buying this hoodie was the best idea ever.
"Just don't let Mr. Buzzkill catch you with that much candy, he'll take it from you" He says, pulling into his parking spot and turning off the engine.
His eyes lose their light as he looks morosely down at his hands "he'll take it every time"
My heart breaks for him and I solemnly say, "I'm sorry for your loss" while both of my cheeks are puffed full of candy, looking like a chipmunk.
I take an appropriate moment of silence and wanted to cry at the thought of all the glorious candy which has been taken away.
I'm stolen from my thoughts at the chuckles coming from Sean. Why does he keep laughing at me!? He looks very amused by something but tries to hide it by popping in a caramel of his own.
I'm confused by why he could find humor while talking about such a grave subject but a different question presses out of my lips.
"... who is Mr. Buzzkill?"
"Owen" He replies, still trying to compose himself.
Ummm I don't think I know an Owen..
Sensing my confusion Dr. Green makes sarcastic air quotes and says, "Mr. Blackbourne... be careful around North too."
oooooohhh
Mr. Blackbourne... Right. And North. For a moment I forgot about all the others but now the anxiety rushes into me full blast. Way to burst my bubble.
I'm going to have to see all of them sometime today, maybe Dr. Green is going to take me to them right now. Traitor!
I grab a few more caramels in retribution and try to prepare myself for the inevitable chaos that's about to happen.
He steps out of his door and quickly moves to my side to open mine but I beat him to it. He looks a bit disappointed but I don't have a chance to figure out all his weird behaviors as we're both pushed into the current of students.
We fall silent since we'd have to yell to hear each other over this noise. Students are clumsily filtering through the cars to get to the main entrance. I start to feel dread as the crowd starts to overwhelm me with the squealing girls and smelly guys.
I think about the blood I drank just this morning. Human blood. Looking around at the crowd of unfamiliar faces I couldn't imagine drinking any of their blood. Just the stench of BO and roar of sound makes shrink in on myself.
Once we get to the sidewalk the current of people grows more pushy and I feel the warm ginger presence Dr. Sean brought get clawed away with icey anxiety.
I have no idea how I'm going to get through the day with what happened yesterday. Dr. Sean was nice but I'm not sure how all the other guys will treat me after all of it.
Kota's face flashed in my head, his intelligent green eyes and tall cheekbones. I remember how sweet he was to me only for me to push him away and my not-mom yelling at him when he tried to drop off my bag. I remember Nathan's defensive glare when he pushed me away from Gabriel in the locker room.
Fudge there's no way I can face them now. Nope not doing this, I try to regulate my breathing as everyone seems to close in on me. fudge fudgity
Ok Sang calm down, here's the plan. I'll just act normal? No that wont work, maybe I can convince Dr. Green to drive me back. I look around but can't find him anywhere. Maybe I can crawl into the vent again to avoid them? I mean who is going to stop me?
I can just crawl to the vent in each of my classrooms and take notes in there. I could make creepy ghost noises and maybe they'll think the school is haunted and it'll get canceled.
Great! Sounds like a plan.
I'm ready to find the nearest vent opening over the ocean of students to begin my high school attendance as a vent ghost when I'm pulled back by strong hands.
I bump against whoever yanked me back as a little sanctuary of space is created in the middle of the hall. I feel like I can finally breathe now that I'm not getting blown around the hallways like a leaf. The momentum of students curve around the two of us like the water of a river obeys a rock stubbornly seated in the center.
I look up and feel like a rock is a very accurate way to describe him. North towers above me and considers me quietly with dark eyes.
His musky scent takes my breath away and the skin that he's touching on my arm electrifies. The entirety of me gravitates towards him that I can hardly keep myself upright... this isn't how gravity is supposed to work.
He frowns and strengthens his grip on my arm, then types something into his phone with is other hand. He looks around while standing in the middle of the traffic, not caring that we're in the way of everyone else.
"Stop disappearing" He grunts
I have no idea how to respond so I just keep quiet and look at my shoes.
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North POV
North: Found him
Dr. Green: Good! I have no idea how he disappeared so fast. I just looked the other way and he was gone.
Luke: I'm telling you, he's some kinda spy. Or ninja
Kota: Luke this isn't the time to joke around
Mr. B: Good work Mr. Taylor jr, make sure both of you get to homeroom, Mr. Taylor senior, drop by my office to get Mr. Sorenson's bags so he will have them for homeroom
I type out: on my way
I keep a tight grip on him, determined not to let him slip away again as I head for our homeroom. We have to make sure not to let him out of our sight today while we gather information.
Victor and I looked all night but there's no record of Slate Sorenson on any databases, not in charleston or the whole nation. We ended up asking for help from a tech guy from the Toma team since the only thing we could pull up was his record for this year at the high school. Even after all that work nothing showed up. No medical history, no birth record, his parents don't even claim him for taxes.
His only fingerprint on this damn planet is one day at this school and the recordings we have of him from our security cameras.
My mind flashes to the tapes we reviewed in Mr.Blackbourne's office after we lost him. He got to a classroom on the second story across the entire school by climbing through a fucking vent.
Luke went crazy trying to convince us we should let him explore the vents too. "For educational purposes" he claimed.
Like hell I'd let him climb through those metal death traps.
We didn't have any cameras in the vents to know exactly what happened, but all the footage from the cameras in the classrooms of slate showed his moves were calculated.
He was always in the perfect spot at the perfect time to be out of all of our views. It's like he knew where we were without even looking.
We did a sweep for detectors or cameras other than ours in case he did get outside help but didn't find anything.
This shouldn't be possible, he isn't possible, he shouldn't exist yet I feel his soft arm in my hand. I can't stop from glancing back at him, just to be sure.
His big green eyes are glued to the backs of my shoes and my hand covers almost his entire forearm as his short legs struggle to keep up behind me. He looks so scared and I can feel his arm shaking slightly. But even so his other hand is occupied stuffing what looks like candy into his mouth.
My scowl deepens.
I can't help but become conscious of how roughly I'm gripping him, probably bruising his arm. I loosen my grip slightly and slow my pace so he can keep up easier. I have to pry my eyes from him to look at my phone when it buzzes from a new onslaught of messages from the group chat.
Gabe: there's no way he's a fucking ninja, when he fought yesterday his punches were too random to have any martial art training.
Gabe: He just fucking beat them with brute force. The whole 5 feet of him.
Luke: okay okay fine, he's not a ninja. I give up
Kota: thank you for finally taking this seriously
Luke: I bet 2 chocolate bars right now he's a superhuman.
Gabe: are we talking Marvel or DC?
Nathan: Guys! Stop joking around!
Anger boils inside me, how does Luke have candy on him even after I destroyed his stash this morning?
I pocket my phone as we arrive at the homeroom classroom. I stomp up to Luke as he holds Slate's bag out to me, his own bag dangling off of his other arm.
I stuff Slate onto him and grab Luke's bag instead. He's too caught off guard by the shorty that was flung onto him to stop me from grabbing his bag.
By the time he realizes what I'm doing it's too late, I flip the bag upside down as dozens of candy bars tumble onto the floor. I shake it and a few more drop down to join the pile.
Unbelievable, there's not even one vegetable or school supply in here. What is he thinking? Is he planning on taking notes with Butterfingers and Skittles?
I glare up at Luke as the color drains from him, he looks at the pile in despair knowing full well what's about to happen. Slate lights up next to him at the sight of all the sugar. But his complexion soon mirrors my brother's as he watches me move the pile into the trash. Where it belongs.
Slate looks devastated, I ignore how that makes me want to hug him. I stomp up to him and bring the trash can with me.
I grab his hand that's frozen mid air in terror, full of caramels. I pry his fingers open as one by one they drop into the trash. Then I grab his hoodie kangaroo pocket which looks like it's holding a watermelon but sure enough it's stuffed full of candy.
What is he thinking?? He's as bad as Luke! He's going to get cavities or diabetes!! How can someone so small even eat all of this?
I pull him by the pocket towards me, his entire body stays rigid as his shoes squeak across the tile floor until he's right next to the trash.
He tries to angle his candy baby away from me but the material stays in my grasp. He watches with wide eyes as I push every last caramel into the can.
I don't care if he's a threat, a looming danger to my entire team, no one is eating this much sugar on my watch.
I then pick up Luke's empty bag, and stuff it with spare notebooks and pens I brought for this very scenario, throw it into his arms and put him in his seat.
I do the same with Slate, he sits behind Luke.
I then move the trash back to it's appropriate spot and sit behind Slate. Folding my arms and keeping a careful eye on both of them as class starts.