I arrived on my bus and sat in the first seat I saw open. It was the hottest and humid day in May and all of the windows were open, not that that really helped since there was absolutely no wind blowing outside. I slouched in my seat and my bright green eyes stared lazily out the bus window, at two boys approaching the bus loop. My attention immediately snapped at them, gone was that lazily feeling that was bubbling up inside me, now I just felt adrenaline coursing through my veins, but why? Surely these guys couldn't be nothing more than average middle school kids. But, as I squinted my gaze at them, they did not look like what I thought were middle school kids. Both of the boys were tall and built, a determined stance was held by both of them. I tried picturing any guy at my school that could look like anything like them but all I got was my gym teacher Mr. Geo, and the only time he had a determined stance to him was when they were serving lasagna at the school cafeteria. My ears picked up a loud grunt from someone, which snapped me back into reality; I stared around and found the source, my bus driver. Well, he was subbing for my actual bus driver who told us all last week she would be out because she would be on vacation, not that anyone cared since no one actually liked her. Hopefully this bus driver would be different. Because of my shortness, I had to stand up a little to actually see him but when I saw him, I shrunk back down into my seat. The bus driver was old, and he had black hair speckled with white hair showing that his age was around sixty or so, but that wasn't what scared me about him. Actually, I had no idea why I was scared of him, he was just a bus driver, and he couldn't do anything to me. I relaxed the tension I was holding inside of me, and tucked a lock of my curly red hair behind my ear, trying to ease myself. Again, I looked out the window, and my efforts of trying to ease myself were ruined. The two teenage boys were now sprinting across the school grounds, their eyes only focused on my bus, I glanced nervously around the whole bus, wondering if anyone else was noticing these two teenage boys. A girl sitting across from me who I guess had been watching me the whole time tried to look past me, her gaze curious. "What are you looking at?" she asked me. I knew who she was, her name was Adrianna and she was always getting caught up in others peoples business. She knew everything about everyone and if you weren't careful you could come into school one day and everyone would hate you because of her, and you wouldn't even know what you did. My friends had warned me about her. "You…you don't see that?" Adrianna's brows furrowed together as she continued to stare past me. "What? The fence? That's always been there… "I gulped slowly trying to stay calm, I was crazy… actually crazy. That was just Adrianna though, and who knew what was going on in her mind, she was the crazy one, not me. Or maybe you just both are, the back of my mind whispered to me, I gritted my teeth. There had to be someone else on this bus that could see what I could see and again, I glanced around the bus at kids enclosed in conversation. The only one who was watching the two boys besides me was the bus driver, his gaze was intense and his fists were clutching each other on the wheel. Were his hands sizzling? I leaned in closer trying to get a better look, at his hands, but he unclenched them and met my eyes in the bus mirror. His eyes were red, blood red. And then he began to change. His real face melted away leaving a puddle of goop and skin on the floor. I stared, horror struck, as things began to erupt from parts of his body, things I couldn't explain in detail. The monsters body sagged like mushy ice cream, he grinned a sickening grin at me, at least I hope that's what it was. The creature slammed his foot on the gas pedal just as the two teenage boys slammed their feet on the stairs, clutching at the railings as the bus roared past all the other buses and unto Middle East Road. Some kids shouted "Hey!" or "What's the deal?!" and some of the eight graders muttered words that would have gotten them suspended for a couple of days, but they were talking about the abrupt start of the bus, not the two boys. I could tell by their expressions. I eyed both of the boys cautiously, wondering if they were going to sprout strangely shaped body parts or sag like a lump of yogurt; thankfully they didn't at the moment. Each of them had black tattoo designs spinning and spiraling around their exposed arms and necks, the tattoos looked strangely familiar to me, I couldn't figure out why. The taller of the two boys had curly hair that was so blonde it had to be dip dye, it just had to be. He was wearing a tight black t-shirt that outlined his upper body muscle and black jeans with combat boots. The other boy was just a bit shorter than the dip-dye blonde and had jet black hair with piercing crystal blue eyes, he was wearing similar clothes. "You should watch out for the red-headed girl over there," My "bus driver" snarled unattractively, "She's one of you too," He took a sharp left turn as he said this, sending kids into chaos, I expecting this, gripped my front seat, my knuckles turning a shade of white I did not know I could make. The Blondie's and blue eyes guy's eyes swept the bus, until their eyes found the only red- headed girl on the bus, and our gazes all met, totally awkward. I let out an ear piercing scream as the monster flung one of his many slimy tentacles, pinning the boys against the bus wall. Oh my gosh what should I do, what should I do? A million thoughts were running through my mind but the only thought I thought was important at the moment was the fact that as of today I would be remembered as the girl screaming at nothing, judging that Adrianna and a ton of other people were watching me carefully. The bus jerked violently to the right and since I was on the right side, lucky me, I got a metallic violin case flung right at me, which sent me sailing to the ground. An idea popped into my head as I fell to the ground, and as quick as I had fallen, I got back up. Don't think, just act. My godfather, Luke, had taught me that. I scrambled to my feet, clutching the heavy metallic case to my chest, and tried to focus on not falling down. Don't think, just act. I charged at the creature and slammed the violin case on the side of his head, just as the dip-dye blonde was pulling a knife out of his belt loop I hadn't noticed before. Apparently, my act of bravery had done nothing to the monster; all he did was flinch just because he wasn't expecting that. I gasped and dropped the violin case as the monster turned his head ninety degrees to look at me, he sneered as he saw me, his hungry red eyes sizing me up. The creature released the restricted boys, who fell to the ground, and turned the rest of his body toward me to tell me off… maybe even worse (Yikes!), "Filthy daughter of Valentine!" The monster screeched. I didn't pause to think about, or even consider the possibility of this Valentine man being my father, since my father and mother died when I was two, and that's why I had Luke, my Godfather. As the ugly thing stalked toward me, (Agh! Where was that dip- dye blonde with the knife!?) I thrashed my foot out at him, forcing all of my adrenaline into it. I was hoping to at least make a mark, but my hopes were crushed as the monster caught my foot and sank his teeth into it, just as the dip- dye blonde thrust the knife in his chest and turned it. The monster disappeared, but he did his damage, on me at least. I had the pleasure of falling to the dirty, hard, bus floor, (So getting my adorable lace white shorts ruined!) with my foot shaking and sizzling uncontrollably with pain. And, to add it all up, some screaming kid stepped hard on my face, making my weak nose burst blood from it. I was sobbing and experiencing the most pain I've ever experienced in my life, a fire was happening to the left of the bus (I think I smelled smoke) and I was probably going to die. You could say that this was the most interesting day ever. I let out a scream of pain as two people hauled me to my feet; I wanted to scream more as I realized that it was those two teenage boys. Both of them were firmly gripping my arms around their broad shoulders. "Relax, were not going to hurt you," The blue eyed guy rolled his eyes at me. "Alec, I think we already are," The blonde boy said. How can he be sarcastic at a time like this? I said furiously inside my head. "Jace," Alec said. "Shut up," Jace grinned at Alec, and he set his mouth into a tight line to keep from grinning back. I tripped over a back pack with my bad leg and bit back a scream of pain, I was going to die. "Were going to have to run now, do you think you can do that?" Jace asked me. Hot tears stun my eyes, threatening to pour down my face. Somehow, we had gotten off the bus and were now zigzagging around running people and cars; I was right about the fire. I looked sideways at Jace and managed to choke out a: "Yes," Since the smoke was practically suffocating me. Alec gave Jace a tight nod and we both started running away from the horrific scene happening, no one seemed to notice us which was odd, but I was in too much pain to think about it much more. The tears that were starting up in my eyes finally spilled and poured down my face, as we ran into the safeness of the evergreen woods.
The pain in my leg was increasing rapidly, now, black spots dotted my vision and my mind felt foggy. I barely heard Jace's question. "How are you holding up?" I blinked up at him as I tried to process what he had said. "Jace," I began. "I barely know you, and you barely know me. But most people can tell that when a girl has just seen her bus driver transform into a monster that bit her leg and is now being carried off by a dip- dye- blonde and a freaky blue eyes guy, that girl is certainly not ok," I stressed the last word with force, but Jace didn't seem to notice. "My hair is naturally blonde," He whimpers as he grabs for one of his blonde curls. I give him a defeated look; I was totally not going to put up with him. I instead tried to breathe in the sweet aroma of pinecones and blossomed flower. We had walked deep into the forest before heading straight. The whole time my leg had been painfully twitching and burning, I did not want to look down at it, I had instead asked Alec about it. "You'll survive," Was all he had said. He had muttered something after that that I couldn't hear, but it sounded a lot like: "hopefully," "You said that we barely know you, so tell us something about you," Jace said after a few moments of silence. I chew on my cheek. "Like what?" I ask. "Like…. What's your name? How old are you? "When I didn't answer after a few seconds, Alec jumped in and said: "Her mommy probably told her not to talk to attractive strangers," "I don't have a mom," I said through gritted teeth, which totally lightened the mood. Both of them had looks of bewilderment on their faces and were looking at anything but me. I cleared my throat. "My name is Avery, and I'm eleven." I said slowly, starring ahead at the clearing coming up ahead.