Chapter Title: Slayer School
Chapter Author: Ange
A/N: Thank you! You like me! You really like me! –Sob- Thanks for all of the reviews and keep 'em coming. Unlike all my other unfulfilled promises, I might actually continue writing this story because Matt keeps jabbing me for story ideas! –Jabbed- Ow!
Keira had yawned her way through yet another school-year orientation. Luckily, it would be her last—she was finally a senior. She looked over to the redhead to her left. She nudged her a little and she said, "I'm tired, Mia."
"Yeah," Mia yawned in reply, "We were out too late last night. My mom nearly caught me coming in." She smirked. "I had jumped into bed when she came in to check on me."
"Ugh," said the blond, Alaina, "My eyelids feel like cement." She closed her eyes and rubbed them softly to prove her point.
"Slaying will do that to ya," Keira said in a hushed tone, "Oh!' She took attention of the speaker, the principal. "New homeroom assignments!"
"I hope we get the new teacher," Mia said hopefully, "She's got a 'vibe' to her."
"What kind of vibe, Super-Wicca?" asked Keira, "Good?"
"Very good," Mia replied, "She seems nice, and I can sense something else about her. I can't quite place it."
"Mystical?" Alaina offered.
"Could be," Mia nodded.
"Keira Patrick through Mia Reynolds," The principal, a short, round, balding man announced, "You will have Miss Rosenberg. If you will, please follow her to the computer lab."
Select people stood and followed a woman with red hair that was brighter than Mia's. Keira, Mia, and Alaina filed out of the auditorium and did the same.
When everyone got to the classroom, the teacher stood in front of the students, and smiled, her face beaming with joy. She clapped her hands together and announced, "I'm Miss Rosenberg, and I'm the new computers teacher here at Pacific Grove High School."
"She's hot," A jock said, and his friend gave him a high-five, saying that he agreed.
Miss Rosenberg ignored them and started to pass out the class schedules. "Keira Patrick?"
Keira raised her hand, and Miss Rosenberg strode over to her. She glanced at the schedule before handing it to Keira. "From the looks of this schedule, we'll be seeing a lot of each other." She looked over to Alaina and Mia and said, "You two too."
Keira observed her schedule. She had homeroom with Miss Rosenberg, and 'Word Processing A' with her as well, and that class took up both of her sixth and seventh periods. Four more of her classes had the 'A' next to them, signifying that they were advanced classes. The only misfit of the group was Geometry. Keira growled. She hated math.
"Ooh!" Keira said after a minute, "We've all got sixth and seventh period together!" She smiled, "Wait… do you think that Melvin Stevens will be in there?" Her face shifted from excited to disappointed.
"He's got the hots for you, and he's such a dork!" Mia giggled as they headed out of the room. She stood to the right of Keira, and Alaina was at her left. She fixed her Harry Potter T-Shirt and her black chipped fingernails picked the lint from it.
Alaina, who was dressed in somber, earthy tones, snickered a little bit at the thought of Melvin breathing heavily and asking Keira to remind him how to do HTML.
"Shut up," Keira mumbled, "I've got to get to art." She walked off and headed out of the back door and to the art studio. She tucked some of her dark hair behind her ears, and revealed two piercings on her earlobes, and one on the cartilage of her left ear. She seemed to be into the punk style that is usually available at Hot Topic. She wore a spiked wrist band, a pair of red plaid pants with suspenders hanging at her waist, and a black Rocky Horror Picture Show T-shirt.
She entered the tiny studio at the back of the campus and took a seat near the back, behind a large drawing pad set on an easel. She ran her fingers through her hair, and spotted a boy she had never seen at school before, but he looked slightly familiar. He was headed right toward her, but turned and took a seat at the easel next to hers—to the right. She glanced over to him, her green eyes full of curiosity.
He was tall and lean, and he had shaggy black hair that hung in his face, but bright blue eyes peeked from beneath the dark fringe. He wore all black. He had on black pants, black boots, a black T-shirt and over-shirt, and his fingernails were painted black polis that had gotten chipped down to the middle of his nails. His eyes moved up to look to Keira.
She looked away very quickly and focused on the drawing paper on her easel. Very soon, she heard the door to the classroom close. The teacher was an old woman wearing a large, floppy straw hat, a flowery dress with a smock over it that was splattered in many colors of calm, neon, shiny, matte, dark and pastel paints. Her face was riddled with wrinkles, but by her mouth there were very pronounced smile lines. She pushed her copper-colored glasses up on the bridge of her nose.
"Alright," said the teacher in a pleasant, yet commanding voice, "Most of you I have had before, but I see a few new faces here. "She glanced around, her honey-colored eyes smiling out at her students. "Today, as a test of your skills, you will choose one of your fellow students to sketch, and at the end of this month, I expect a finished painting of your subject." She kept eye contact with each student, moving her eyes from one to the other, to the next.
She continued speaking, "Seeing that this is Advanced Art, I have the right to remove anyone I do not see fit to be in this class, so do your best because this is a test of your skill." She smiled at Keira, "Some of you I am sure I will not have to do away with. Now go ask for a pose from the person of your choice. You will be drawing for a week, and you will paint for three. Even some advanced artists have trouble with paints." She winked at Keira, who had always had problems with blending her colors. Her smile had such warmth that it made Keira feel happy to be in advanced-placement classes.
"Keira!" said a nasally voice from her left. "Can I sketch you?"
Keira glanced over and saw the embodiment of dork sitting right next to her: Melvin Stevens. He was about five-foot five, shorter than Keira, herself, and he weighed approximately one-hundred and twenty pounds. He had the classic cow-licks in his hair, and his glasses had lenses that were as thick as the bottom of a Coke bottle. He smiled, and Keira shuddered to see the lettuce stuck in his braces. She prayed that he had salad for breakfast, and that it wasn't a remnant of his dinner, but she knew what the chances of that were. All of the sudden, there was a tap on her shoulder, and she turned around.
The black-clad boy was standing behind her, and he asked, "Do you mind?" His voice was low, and sounded like he would be a good singer. He raised his face so that his bangs fell away. He had pale skin and prominent, but not too prominent, cheekbones.
Keira looked back to Melvin, who was already asking somebody else if he could sketch them, but not with the same enthusiasm he'd asked Keira, and she replied to the new guy, "Sure."
They took seats at the back tables, where everyone else was sitting, but their table was separate from everybody else's. It was the window farthest from the left side of the room, closest to a small window. Keira sat there for a moment before the guy spoke again.
"My name's Gavin," He said, taking out a set of drawing pencils. He offered one out to Keira.
She smiled slightly and took it, "I'm Keira Patrick." She noticed that he returned her smile only slightly, but his expression, she found, was spoken mostly through his eyes. "Do you want to go first, or should I?"
"You," He said, "if you want to." He seemed to be a very quiet person, but Keira would be fine with that. She never was one for extremely chatty people.
She started to make a soft outline of his face, and felt that the pencil he had given her was of very good quality. She was able to get to his cushy lips before the teacher, Mrs. Lawrence, announced after about twenty-five minutes "Switch. Time to switch!" Keira would have handed Gavin his pencil back, but he pulled another one out.
He took a quick look at Keira, and then focused on his paper, but glimpsed up to Keira every once in a while. The strokes of his hands were soft, and gentle. He kept his sketch pad up so that Keira could not see the progress of his work. He bit the tip of his tongue a little as he gazed at her face for a minute, and then decided on something. He closed his sketch pad when the bell rang.
"Don't I get to see what you have so far?" Keira inquired as he picked his backpack up. She grabbed her messenger bag.
"I don't show my work until it's done," He told her, a little smile play across his lips. He strode off, carrying his pad with him.
Keira was left behind, watching him, her heart melting. She couldn't believe she was crushing on him already. She readied herself for second period. She glanced to her schedule. Geometry. She groaned.
At lunch, the three slayers sat at a round table with five chair set at it. Their table was in the corner, out of the way of everyone else. The three had varying food choices. Alaina, who was eating the healthiest, had a Caesar salad with grilled chicken, and a bottle of water. Keira ate a turkey sandwich, a bag of chips, and had a bottle of Dr. Pepper in her hand, but Mia was at the other end of the spectrum. Mia had a chocolate-chocolate chip muffin, a Fruit Roll-Up, some of Mia's potato chips, and a root beer.
Alaina glanced from Mia's lunch to Mia, herself. She shook her head and asked, "How can you eat that without gaining an ounce?"
"Yeah," Keira said, "If I eat one chocolate muffin, I bloat up like a balloon…"
"How can you eat that?" Alaina asked again.
"Simple," said a boy from behind Mia, "She puts it in her mouth and swallows it." The boy had messy, dirty-blond hair, and he wore blue jeans, a black, short-sleeved, button-up shirt, and a loose red tie hung around his neck. He held a fedora in his left hand, and he set it on the table before putting his tray down. He leaned over and kissed Mia on the cheek, his blond stubble tickling her skin a bit.
"There may be some swallowing somewhere in there too," Mia said. She smiled and her cheeks turned a pinkish color, "Hi, Sam."
"Hey, Sam," Alaina and Keira said at about the same time, only slightly staggered.
"Well, my ladies," Sam said, "What's the plan for tonight?"
"They're going on patrol," Alaina motioned to Mia and Keira, "and I'm spending the night in my basement…"
"Oh," Sam said, a bit of an English accent on his voice, "Full moon, eh?" He took a French fry from his tray and dipped it in the ketchup, "Horrible luck."
"Yeah," Alaina said, "but I'm used to it. Just as long as I don't get out…" She turned a shade paler, "Like last month..." She set her fork down.
"No one was hurt, Laine," Keira said, rubbing her friend's back, "I checked every hospital in the county." She patted her a little. "You'll be fine. I'll be on the look out for someone, big, hairy, and growling."
"Maybe I only bit someone, and there'll be another werewolf out?" Alaina seemed slightly panicked.
"It's alright," Mia told her, "We'll take care of it if—if—there's another werewolf. We'll get them, and bring them to you. Your parents won't care, will they?"
"Nah," Alaina said, "They don't mind. My mom always jokes about putting out the Kibbles and Bits for me every month…though, last time, she may have been serious…Gross, huh?"
"No judgment," said Sam with his mouth full. He swallowed his bite of hamburger and leaned back into his chair, "I've eaten some of those dog treats…"
Everyone stared at him oddly. Mia coughed a bit, and Keira laughed.
"What? I thought it was a Slim Jim!" Sam exclaimed, trying to prove his innocence, or rather ignorance. He threw his hands up, but then put them back down. "It actually…wasn't that bad…"
"Oh! Gross!" Keira giggled. She covered her mouth to keep from spitting out her chips. She wrinkled her nose a bit.
"Tasted a little sweet and meaty," He continued, smiling broadly, showing his slight cross-bite. His eyes beamed with laughter.
"I'll just forget you said that," Mia said, her eyes turning from the remains of her chocolate muffin to her boyfriend. She patted him on the shoulder and said, "Are you coming with us tonight, Sam?"
"Sure," He said, "As long as you guys don't abandon me like you did last time. That was a real pain."
"Yeah," Keira laughed, "We found you curled up in the fetal position behind a mausoleum and crying for your mommy." She took a sip of her Dr. Pepper.
"Not true," Sam protested, "I was sucking my thumb a little too." He smirked and raised his eyebrows a little bit.
Keira, Alaina, and Mia entered the computer lab for the second time in the day. Miss Rosenberg was seated at her desk, and she rose to her feet when she spotted the three girls entering. She strode over to the door and shut it behind them. She smiled brightly and said, "Take a seat." She motioned to a circle of four chairs in the middle of the room.
The girls, slightly puzzled at the fact the computers were all shut down and covered in their plastic coverings, sat down in three of the chairs. Miss Rosenberg took the other seat.
"First of all," she said, "Please don't call me 'Miss Rosenberg', that's for students, and we're going to be friends…I hope." She raised her eyebrows. "You can call me Willow."
"That's a pretty name," Mia said, "but we are students. In case you've forgotten"
Willow nodded slightly. "Yeah, I know." She said, "…let's go."
"Go?" Alaina asked, "Where?"
"Off campus for something to drink? Maybe coffee?" Willow offered, "I mean, if you guys want to stay cooped up in here, fine. I'm all for a little learnin', but I thought you guys might like to get out of here."
"No!" Keira exclaimed, "We can go. School's fine and everything, but I'd prefer something to drink."
"Yeah," Mia added, "I'd rather be out than in." She smiled broadly at Willow. It was obvious she was stoked to have a teacher that would take them off-campus.
"Alaina," Willow said, "What do you think?"
Alaina nodded eagerly, "You had me at 'Maybe coffee.' I'll take coffee over school anytime."
Willow stood and grabbed her bag. "There's a door at the back of the room that leads right off the campus. We shouldn't be spotted."
"Wow, you're a cool teacher," Keira said.
"Oh yeah," Willow grinned, and she said to herself, following the girls outside. "I'm bad."
A/N: Tell me if you liked it, and -winks at Anna- I'm sure you can tell who Sam's based off of...Dom-cough-Dom...