My name is Scott.
But what I am is something else entirely.
No, I'm not some alien from the fringes of space or an animalistic creature – I'm human. Just like you, your family, or your friends. But I'm somehow less human than ordinary man. I'm special, a rare phenomenon. I am blessed and cursed – uplifted and damned at the same time. If that makes little sense to you right now, don't worry – I felt the same way when I found out. Confused, disoriented, lost in a brand new world I had no idea even existed.
The discovery of that new world had a precise date and time: Thursday afternoon, sophomore geometry at my local high school. It was the day my life went to hell.
Now of course I didn't know that at the time. If I had, maybe things would've gone differently. A lot differently. But as it was, I was trying to focus on the lesson on cosines and tangents Mr. Parker was droning on about. My friend Bobby was, as usual, slipping lewd notes to me, trying to get me to break a grin. We've known each other for years and have grown quite close despite our seemingly vast differences. He's a jokester type of guy – the classic class clown. I, on the other hand, was the complete opposite of that – stoic and unflinching. Or, as Bobby would say, stubborn and pigheaded.
As if Bobby's distractions weren't enough, I also had another major obstacle preventing me from focusing – the back of the head of the girl sitting directly in front of me. Her name was Jean, and she was the most beautiful woman in the world. For a high schooler, at any rate. Her very presence made you feel like you were standing in the shadow of a goddess. She had luscious red hair that seemed to float from the top of her head daintily to her shoulders. Her green eyes could captivate the heart of any man who dared to look at her. Sadly, I didn't get to see those eyes often – blame the seating arrangements, not my damned shyness!
Naturally, I was not the only one infatuated with Jean. With her looks and charming personality, it wasn't surprising that half the boys in my grade were attracted to her. Half of that half had made at least a move on her, and a select few had gone even further. Still, as far as I can remember, she hadn't had one single steady boyfriend. She certainly had a lot of friends who were boys, but never once had she continuously dated someone. This puzzled us guys, and many theories were drawn up as to why she was the way she was. She had impossibly high standards. She wasn't attracted to guys. She had a clandestine boyfriend, someone who was dazzling hot and of course mature past the realms of high school. Or she was secretly attracted to her one true love, Scott Summers. Kidding, of course.
I did not and could not ever belong to the same league as Jean. She was co-captain of the school varsity volleyball team, president of various clubs around campus, and most importantly, had her own car. Rumor also said that her family was rich. She had brains as well. Maybe not on an Einsteinium level, but she knew more than she let on.
So the closest I would ever get to Jean was her hair, located conveniently on the back of her head, which, I'm sure I've already mentioned, was alluringly displayed right in front of me.
A shake from Bobby brought me back to the real world. Mr. Parker had just finished saying something, and he was looking expectantly at me, awaiting an answer.
"Excuse me, sir?"
Even Bobby cringed at the confused tone of my reply, which made it obvious I hadn't been paying attention all along. Mr. Parker shook his head disappointedly. "Scott, I asked you for the tangent of 60 degrees."
I glanced down helplessly at my blank fill-in notes. "Um, you said 60 degrees, sir?"
Mr. Parker said nothing. It was evident that he wasn't going to help me out here. Neither was Bobby, who had retreated a corner of his desk, almost as if he was ashamed to be in the same classroom as such a slacker as me. Hypocrite.
As I sweated and fumbled through my textbook in pursuit of the correct chapter, a headache slowly grew. I've had bad headaches since I was a child – doctors eventually deduced that it was caused by stress. And at the moment I was certainly facing a stressful situation.
A sweet voice, the voice of angels broke my torment. It came from the desk directly in front of me. "It's the square root of three."
Mr. Parker nodded at Jean. "Perhaps Scott will now recognize the value in paying attention in class." Once he had turned away and resumed teaching the class, I breathed a sigh of relief. The pain in my head faded.
Suddenly – a flash of red hair as Jean whipped her head around, grabbed my notes, and whisked them to her desk. Her pencil flew. A few short moments later, she returned them, all the notes neatly filled in.
"Thanks," I said.
She flashed a smile. "No problem. Just wouldn't want you failing the end-of-class quiz."
My rational mind screamed, what! We have a quiz! My emotional side dissolved into bubbly goo, claiming heartfelt affection for the beautiful girl who had been so kind for me. For a couple of seconds, I felt happy, even elated. The calm before the storm.
The classroom door burst open. I flinched at the sound, and Bobby rose from his lethargic position, interested in this new development. Three men dressed in what looked like black military uniforms walked in, their gait confident, almost arrogant. Mr. Parker took offense to their untimely entrance, placing his hands on his hips and demanding in firm manner, "I hope you have what can only be an excellent reason for so rudely interrupting my class."
The men didn't seem intimidated by Mr. Parker's words. "US Special Services, Branch 6, sir," the man in the middle said, flashing an official-looking badge. "We're here to detain suspected accomplices of a major terrorist here on American soil."
My head began to throb.
Mr. Parker almost laughed before he realized the man was serious. "I'm sure you'll find none here in my class, nor anywhere else in the school," he assured them, "After all, they're only children."
"Sir, children are precisely what we're looking for," the man replied. "Now, I'm going to have to see the class roster."
"This is ridiculous," Mr. Parker muttered as he went off in search of the roster. The atmosphere in the class was tense – it was unnerving to see Mr. Parker in such a position of weakness. Not only that, but the pain in my head began to escalate.
From my vantage point I could see some of the students sneaking furtive glances at the men standing in the doorway. The sudden appearance of the men apparently provided them a welcome escape from the drudgery of school. But there was something odd with the way Jean was looking at the men. She was staring, hard, her gaze unwavering. She wasn't simply observing the men, she was focusing on them.
"Psst, Scott, what the hell's going on, man?" Bobby's normally carefree manner had given way to an air of concern and apprehensiveness.
I shrugged. "Damned if I know."
Back at the front of the room, Mr. Parker had finally dug up the class roster. He handed it to the man who had spoken earlier, "Now hurry up with your business so I can get back to teaching my students," he said, tapping his foot impatiently.
The men took a long gaze at the list. Then they took out a paper with images on it. Faces. Photo identification.
Some hushed, quick words between Mr. Parker and the men as they pointed out one of the images. I was too far from the front of room to accurately identify the picture they were pointing at, but I caught a glimpse of red. My head burned and I gripped my forehead. What was going on?
Mr. Parker looked up from the paper. "Jean Grey? I'm sorry, but you must have a made a mistake. She's not a terrorist – "
The man shoved Mr. Parker aside and pointed directly at me. No, not at me. The person in front of me. The person with the flowing red hair and beautiful eyes. "There. Get her."
Suddenly everything became a blur. The two men obeyed their superior's orders and ran up the aisle to Jean. They grabbed her roughly. She struggled. The class watched in subdued horror. Agonizing pulses shot through my head. I screamed. Fire consumed my eyes.
And then all I saw was red.