This chapter is a little bit longer- expect it to be a few days before the next chappie is finished. Thanks to my reviewer and the three people that have put Transpose Time on alert. If you have spare time, please visit this image that I made yesterday: http:/ /albums/s93/CanteringCane
Just minus the spaces. If the link doesn't work, PM me and I'll send it to you. Enjoy
I felt something inside of me drop to my shoes- my heart?
It was like a scene from a horror movie. I backed up slightly in my chair when he stepped towards me, chalk held in one hand like one would hold a spear.
Someone knocked on the door- the teacher completely forgot me and answered it meekly.
A guy walked in, probably a few years older than the teacher. He looked over the class and for some reason looked disgusted, curling his top lip like a pro. I felt a weird thrill when he looked at me- and the disgust disappeared at the sight of me, a tiny smile on his face. Then he looked away, and that weird feeling flew out the window.
Some kid followed him in, and he was powerfully interesting as well. He was taller than me, though that's not saying much, and he had this coal-black hair that sort of curled on his head but still grew out straight. He was fairly pale and his eyes were a cold brown, like the snowgums in the Snowy Mountains. A constant smirk was on his face and I suddenly wanted to slap it off, irritated by his apparent arrogance.
He stayed silent until the teacher introduced him as Conor Griffin- the first word of his name was pronounced weirdly, more like 'Coh-nore' than the traditional 'Coe-nuh'.
"Hello, everyone, I'm Conor," the boy said quietly. He glanced over everyone in the room, much like his father (I assumed he was his father, anyway- they looked quite alike) had done. The apathetic expressions on my classmate's faces seemed to make him amused, but like his father had done, Conor's eyes rested on me. The smirk disappeared and was replaced by cold determination. This thrill wasn't anything like before- it felt like danger, but at the same time, like intrigue. I wanted to know. What I wanted to know wasn't important, I just needed to know.
"Well, then. You guys won't notice me, I'm not important," he said with a grin; were those teeth in points? "Just go along with your everyday business and don't get in my way, okay?"
And the weirdest thing happened. Everyone nodded and suddenly glazed over, ignoring him.
Conor focused back on me. I involuntarily swallowed.
Then he went to sit in the back row and I was freed from the sensation of being pulled in and out at the same time. As if I was being pulled to pieces...
"Hey. What's your name?"
I jumped and slopped half of the stuff in my soggy sandwich down my front. Thankfully it was all dry chicken and lettuce, but I blushed furiously as the new kid laughed his head off at the sight of me picking the stuff out of my jumper. "Emilia. You're Connor, right?" I snapped at him. His laugh disappeared quickly.
"That's COH-NORE. Conor. And I guess it's nice to meet you, whatever. So wanna tell me what's up with this school?" He sat next to me, uncomfortably close, and pretended to be helping me fix myself up as the supervising teacher slowly walked past. I slapped his hands away from my chest and shoved him to the ground, ignoring the querying looks of the sheep nearby. "Keep your hands off me, you douche," I said angrily. Something about his attitude just pissed me off!
"Calm down, princess," he shot back, just as smug as ever. He brushed the dust from his uniform and flashed that never-ending smirk at me again. "I'm not going anywhere, and something tells me that you wouldn't want me to go, anyway. Just don't do something stupid like that again... you're drawing way too much attention to yourself," he chastised me.
Wait... he felt it, too? He noticed how everyone seemed to be fading into conformity?
I eyed him mistrustfully. How could I know if he was going to go away, too? Conor might act all tough now, but the fog over the school would get into his head, too. For that matter, why hadn't it happened to me yet?
He sat next to me again, but a little further away. He was probably afraid to get hit again. I giggled and buried my fixed sandwich in my mouth to disguise the sound; I don't think it fooled him, but he didn't seem to care, either.
"So what do you think is up with this place? And don't play dumb, I know that you've sensed something," Conor asked in a low, secretive voice. I stopped eating.
Could I tell him? Was it safe to talk to him? For all I knew, Ms Pond was doing this to spy out the opposition in the school. Maybe I should leave this alone, for my own safety. I looked over at him and found him staring at me. His dark brown eyes were intriguing, more in the sense that they were so dark and expressionless than in an '' way.
Heh. No spelling suggestions. Looks like I broke Word.
And yes, I am writing this with a laptop. I don't like writing on paper. It could so easily be accessed... but that can wait for another time.
I felt sort of like I shouldn't. It was that feeling again, being pulled in one direction but being held in the same place. Between a rock and a hard place, or more like between a wild horse and a titanium chain. I could see some dark hairs on his chin. I had no idea why that struck me as it did, but I felt myself give in and let out what I was thinking.
"I think... this place has been taken over by aliens!"
His face didn't fall, didn't lighten up. He just stared at me, looking faintly disapproving. "...Really."
It was awkward. "...Uh. Yeah. And, um, and Ms. Pond- our principal- is the head of them! Everything was normal before she came!"
Conor looked more interested now.
Our lunch went by quickly, now that we were both on a subject that we could talk about comfortably. Apparently Conor understood how I felt, aside from the 'aliens' thing. He agreed with there being some sort of conspiracy, though I myself could barely understand why or how something like that would happen to my school of all places. He discouraged me from being too outspoken in class or during breaks, as that would bring attention to myself. I agreed readily- I felt too nervous and shaky to attempt anything big for a while, anyway.
He was a godsend. I had someone that wasn't under some sort of spell to talk to, someone that didn't ignore me and throw me away.
I might be a bit bitter about my parents. Just a little.
"...So you think that aliens are using an invisible ray beam- from space, no less- to control every living thing in this school and the ray beam doesn't affect you for no apparent reason," Conor stated flatly. Something I'd noticed over the past half-hour was just how moody this guy was. He flicked from happy to depressed or cynical in a heartbeat.
"Well, um... you have to admit that there's nothing proving otherwise, right? I mean, something weird is going on, and I see no evidence to the contrary," I blustered, face going bright red.
He did something that startled me; Conor patted me on the shoulder sympathetically. Then, as I was still registering his fiftieth mood change, he up and left me as the bell for the end of lunch rang.
"Don't worry about anything, Emilia. We'll work it out together," Conor called over his shoulder. After all of his snootiness about being quiet and stealthy, I wanted to throw him into something as some nearby kids glanced at him emptily. He snickered at my expression and jogged from the courtyard.
