Disclaimer: I don't own Night World
Missing You
Chapter 1: A Change in the Winds
[The Night World Series]
It was February when it all began. I remember the date clearly because February is the month when there are still piles of snow on the sidewalks, yet at least half the kids in school wore summer clothing, either pretending not to notice the cold or the fact that it was winter just not registering in their brains.
But, alas, I'm getting off topic.
It was the end of the day and I had just received my report card. I skimmed over it, not really surprised at the grades I had gotten. (An even mixture of B's and A's, in case you were wondering.) I did scowl a bit at the C, Ms. Reynolds, my gym teacher, had given me. Well, at least it wasn't a fail, right?
Underneath it, she had tacked on a little comment: Effort needs improvement.
Thanks but no thanks and that was a nice thought, Ms. Reynolds, but I was one of those girls who liked to watch from the sidelines. Sitting or standing. Occasionally lying down, just to mix things up a bit. Let me explain. If I had tried to participate, people would've been embarrassed just watching me. Literally. I was that bad. The whole hand-eye-coordination thing just wasn't there.
"How did you do?" Cassie asked, a girl who I shared Science and Homeroom with and had become a sort of friendly acquaintance with.
I turned to smile at her. Cassie was short, cute, and nerdy in the mildest possible way. I mean, she wasn't geeky, per se, but had a kind of. . . bookish look to her, I guess. It must be her insane quietness. (I'm not exaggerating; she was so quiet that I didn't begin talking to her until mid-October. School started in the beginning of September.) Or it could've been the glasses she wore; the lenses covered half her face.
"Okay," I said vaguely, not really wanting to go into the details. Thankfully, Cassie wasn't the type to push. She just nodded and smiled a bit. "What about you?" I directed the subject away from myself.
"Okay," she echoed. I wondered if she was hiding anything (like me and my too-close-to-a-failing-grade in gym) or just didn't want to show off, in that quiet way of hers. But I didn't prod, returning the favor that she had given me earlier. We smiled politely at each other, and she shyly waved as she left.
As I walked to my locker, I wasn't surprised to have a brown haired girl nearly crash into me. I dodged her by less than a centimeter—an inch was too large of a unit of measurement to use to describe it. How had I dodged her, you ask? Certainly not from my complete lack of athletic abilities. Well, it was from pure experience alone. I'd seriously lost count of how many times she'd knocked me over in the hallways.
"Ohmygosh, Eliza! I finally found you—you would not believe what I've heard! I literally, like, ran here to tell you!" she gasped.
I looked in the direction that she came from and saw a clean line of knocked over teenagers, still groaning as they tried to stand up again. She ran here? It looked like she pretended she was bowling: our classmates as the pins and herself as the bowling ball.
I continued to head toward the direction of my locker, "Hey Karin, what did you hear this time?"
"You don't sound very excited," my best friend huffed, jogging to catch up with me.
"Because I'm not," I deadpanned. I finally reached my locker and opened it with three quick turns. 13-18-21. "You run to me every day saying you've heard something I can't believe."
Karin looked a little forlorn for a moment, but bounced back into her overly energetic mode almost immediately. "Fine, fine. I admit your comment has a grain—a grain! No more—of truth in it. But I bet that this will make you completely and utterly shocked."
I spared her a glance and raised my eyebrows, feigning interest. Not needing a single encouragement more, she eagerly launched into an elaborate account of what had taken place about an hour ago. In the beginning, I had been impressed with her journalist abilities of remembering exactly what people have said and the detailed way she described her 'witnessed adventures'. The first hundred times. Then the magic had kind of worn off, especially since she told me "something you wouldn't believe" at least every other day. And 99% of it wasn't even interesting. (I mean, sure, Ryan had finally worked up the courage to ask Olivia out, and she said yes. But seriously? He was a boy, she was a girl, and it was bound to happen someday.)
"So right before last period which, by the way, was Math for me, I almost ran in to Mr. Fern and our principal, Mr. Matthews," Karin paused for a reaction, and I 'hmm'ed a bit, but kept my hands busy by gathering up my things. Satisfied, she continued, "So, of course, I was curious, and I slowed down as I walked by them. Slow enough to listen to their conversation but not slow enough to be weird, y'know?
"Our principal was in the middle of saying something, and he was like, ' - know you feel strongly against this, but it goes against all regulations to petition against any student who is going to transfer in simply because of mere prejudices.'
"And then Mr. Fern got really quiet –but he was obviously still angry—and just said calmly, 'Mr. Matthews.'
"Then our principal went completely silent, but then it was super weird. He said, 'I cannot do that,' as if Mr. Fern had said something, except the crazy thing is, he didn't. Then Mr. Fern started freaking out, but one of those creepy, silent freak-outs where he didn't move or make a sound, but I could just tell that he was, like, fighting a war inside his head or something."
Karin paused to catch her breath, and I blinked. Wow. That was actually interesting. Not to mention creepy. I realized that I had actually stopped packing my stuff to listen to her story. With renewed vigor, I tried to cram everything into my too-small bag again. "What happened after that?" I asked, but with genuine curiosity this time.
Karin grinned, she knew she had me hooked now, "Well, then I had to get to class really fast 'cause that damn buzzer—the bane of my existence, I tell you—rang and I knew I had to get to class really fast. I was just lucky The Witch wasn't there, though, so she couldn't tell me I was late. Hah! But I think that was the end of their little conversation anyways."
I nodded, and noticed for the first time that she already had her bag packed and was ready to leave. "So we're going to have a transfer student, huh?"
"Yeah, I guess so! Transfer students are so cool, they're always mysterious and interesting. At least that's how they always are in books and stuff," Karin babbled excitedly.
"That's only in books, and books always make them good-looking," I argued, "plus, he's probably not even going to be in our class. I mean there are, like, a ton of other classes in the junior year. It's unlikely he'll end up in one of our classes. And by the way, is the transfer student a he or a she?"
Karin shrugged, "I dunno but..."
We shared a mischievous grin, "I hope it's a he!"
"I mean, seriously! We don't have any half-decent guys in our school!" Karin complained. Oh jeez, she was on this rant again. The best thing to do was just wait it out. We were shoved ungracefully out of the school by students who were eager to leave the prison-like building. I honestly couldn't blame them.
"—and none of them have any manners these days—"
"I rode my bike today."
"—where has chivalry gone? Aw, you did? Now I can't walk with you..."
"Yeah, I know. I'm sorry. I always run late, though, so I have to ride to get here on time," I explained apologetically.
Karin smiled, "I know. But I'll call you later, 'kay?"
"Sounds good. See you tomorrow!"
"Bye!"
I immediately spotted my dark red bike, waiting patiently among the other bikes on the rack. I buckled my helmet on and swung on to the seat, not needing to unlock it. I never had the time to lock up my bike in the mornings, anyways. Pedaling off home, I wondered briefly about Karin's creepy encounter with Mr. Fern and Mr. Matthews. Even more briefly, I wondered about the coming transfer student.
I hope you enjoyed!
-Rember