"… and then her boyfriend came out and kissed her. I was just standing on the stoop, looking like some slack jawed idiot. Then she says "Sorry Merton, looks like Jake and I got back together." And she giggled, like it was funny or something." Merton finished his story, his head rested upon his hands. The weight of his head caused the skin on his face to be pulled back, taught.
"Don't worry about her Merton, maybe it just wasn't meant to be," Tommy attempted. Tommy wanted to help his friend, he really did. The cafeteria noise seemed to make Merton even smaller. Tommy picked at what was supposed to be peach cobbler, but looked more to be congealed pig fat.
"That's easy for you to say, Tommy, you're a football player, and you get girls, it's like a fact of life. Me, I'm just a sucker with no self esteem," Merton mumbled, letting his head finally pound into the table with a dull thud.
"Hey, isn't that a song?" Tommy asked, staring absentmindedly into the sickly yellow cafeteria ceiling.
"Yes, Tommy," Merton hissed, exasperated," It IS a song, by the Offspring."
"Oh," Tommy mumbled, returning to his plate of school food horrors.
An unsympathetic tone sounded from a speaker somewhere, and the dull rumble of students returning to class filled the cafeteria, calling the students in there to continue their day of "education." Merton stood slowly; shouldering his coffin shaped backpack as he picked up his tray of "food". He casually dumped its contents into the yawning mouth of the nearest garbage can. Tommy glanced up. He hadn't noticed Merton's departure, and rushed to catch up with his melancholy friend.
"C'mon Merton, cheer up!! There'll be another girl, and she'll like you…"
"Or she'll slap me, spit on my face, tear my heart out and dance on it, just like ALL the other times. Tommy, let's face it, girls hate me. Period," Merton muttered as he yanked his pale yellow locker open. He grabbed his book with a cursory action. He didn't notice the young girl walking towards him.
"Locker number 158, number 159, locker 160!" she grinned as she found it. She flipped her long, purply red hair behind her shoulder as she leaned down to try to figure out the code. In her arms a stack of books that seemed larger than the girl threw her off balance. She shifted her weight on her thickly soled platforms, trying to regain her balance. But to no avail. She dropped her books on Merton's toe and fell into his locker door, which connected with Merton's head. The double whammy of pain sent Merton howling. The girl stood her self up, stumbling over her words as she spat them out.
"Oh gods, I'm such a klutz, are you okay? Oh gods I'm sorry, here let me help you up." She offered her tiny, pale hand.
"No, no I'm fine, believe me, I'll survive," Merton muttered, dusting him self off with one hand as he held his tender head with the other. He blinked a few times before his vision came back. He saw possibly one of the most beautiful girls ever, before him, chewing her lip, as she looked him up and down for more injuries she'd caused. Her long burgundy hair snaked down her back, and a black velvet corset wrapped tightly around her midsection displaying her blossoming curves. Long lace sleeves sheathed her arms with black flowers, flaring out just below her dainty elbow, reminiscent of pre-Revolutionary high fashion in France. A long black skirt flowed down from her hips, ending just before her black pumps. Her face was pale, paler than the Goth himself. She had wide lips that were coated with fuchsia lipstick. But the most intriguing part of her was her eyes. They were large, like a doe's, and thickly rimmed with long black lashes. She'd lined them thickly with black, causing the corners of her eyes to turn up, just slightly. Her irises were deep purple in the center, sapphire in the middle, and crimson on the very outer ring. Deep red shadow dusted over her lids, giving her entire face a morbid shade. Merton gulped, he thought she was drop-dead gorgeous. Oh please, not again!
Merton realized he'd been staring at her for a bit longer than a moment. He blushed, "Uh, I'm sorry, I umm, hit my head, I mean, you hit my head pretty hard there, I couldn't see straight." He fumbled his apology out.
"Then maybe you should see the nurse if you can't see, concussions can be pretty bad if you don't treat them right away. I've had a few myself." The girl explained as she eyed Merton skeptically. What was he staring at?
"Yeah, I guess I should go to the nurse, I mean, now I have a REAL excuse to get out of gym, right Tommy?" Merton looked behind for his only friend, only to find Tommy engrossed with a cell phone conversation with Lori.
"I catch your drift, I hate PE too," the girl smiled. "I'll escort you to the nurse's office, okay?"
Merton only could nod as the girl gently took his arm. "I'm a little new around here, so I don't know where the nurse's office is…"
"Then I'll show you the way," Merton smiled as he hunched so she could hold his arm. She was short, despite her legginess. He also noted she wasn't generating conversation. As a matter of fact, she was silent during the little trip to the nurse's office. Merton sighed when they stepped into the small powder blue room. The girls seemed ill at ease as she sat down on one of the vinyl-coated beds. Merton signed himself in, wincing at the fact that he'd been in here just about every day this week. The nurse and her aid would kill him; he was in here too often. He ambled over to the bed where the girl was sitting, placing himself politely next to her.
"So, you're new here, where are you from then?" Merton asked, leaning back on the cold bed, trying to give an air of confidence.
"No where you would have heard of," she answered, twisting her torso away from Merton's form.
"Try me, I've heard of a lot of places," Merton offered again, laying down the rest if the way on the bed. The girl looked over her shoulder at him with no expression on her face.
"It doesn't matter, I won't be here long."
"Oh," Merton mumbled. His mind was racing. This girl was new, a puzzle to solve. She had a presence about her that was intoxicating. Almost like an aura of danger, but there was more sorrow and fear than what you usually associate with danger. She was staring at her black vamp pumps, clicking the toes together.
"Are you gonna go to class?" Merton asked, still on his back.
"I don't know my way to class, when the nurse comes, I'll ask her to get me a friend to show me the way back…"
"What class do you have?" Merton asked, a faint hope almost cracking his voice.
"Honors Chem-Phys," she muttered as the nurse walked in. The nurse glanced at Merton who was making himself quite comfortable on the bed.
"Back again, are we Dingle?" she snipped off as she grabbed her stethoscope. Dingle grinned, shrugging as he sat up, bracing his head with his hand.
"Well, I think I belong here this time," he smirked. "This fine lady here gave me quite a conk on the head, and insisted that I see a medical professional, such as yourself, to assess my condition." The girl had whipped her head around to look at him when Merton had called her a lady.
The nurse snorted, "There's no need to butter me up Dingle, I'll be sure you stay out of class for the next few days for a "minor concussion" but you owe me, big time. But you really need to start attending class, you're getting a bit of a belly there," the nurse chided, causing Merton pale cheeks to flush with color. The nurse grabbed a pencil from somewhere behind her ear, pulling out a chart and began scribbling furiously. The girl stood up quietly; shouldering her messenger bag with a tad more grace than before, and walked over to the nurse.
"Ma'am, I'm new here, and really don't know my way back to class. Is there any way I could send for an acquaintance of mine to come and lead me to class?" She asked in her soft, quiet voice. She bowed her head to the ground as she finished her request.
"Sure, if you'll stop staring at the floor. You're making me nervous. You're the most demure girl to come through this office in a while," the nurse muttered as she picked up a pale gray phone, resting it on her ear. "Who is it that you want to come get you?"
"Um, Becky Dingle, I believe that's her name. She was the first one here to talk to me," the new girl trailed off as she sat, staring at the floor.
"Hello, yes, can we have Becky Dingle sent to the nurse's office? No, it's not for her brother again; it's for a new girl here. What? Oh, ok, thank you." The nurse set the phone back down on its cradle. "What's you name sweetie?" The nurse asked softly as she pulled out a pad of hall passes.
"Why do you need to know my name?" The girl asked, her tone sounded worried, and her delicate brow knitted together.
"To put it on the pass," the nurse answered curtly.
"Can't you just put Becky and an escort or something like that?"
"No, I need to have your name. It's just your name, what's so bad about it?" the nurse asked, resting her head on her fist, staring up at the girl from where she sat at the desk.
"Its, well, it just has a bad connotation, that's all. My name is um, Jade." The girl mumbled. A door slamming brought Jade's head away from the nurse. Becky stormed in, hissing in all her teen-aged-angst glory.
"What did my brother do THIS time?" Becky growled, sending a look of death at Merton
"He did nothing, I hit him with my locker door Becky, I'm sorry," Jade piped in before Merton could defend himself.
"What she said," Merton said, pointing at Jade.
"Well, apparently you didn't hit Freaker hard enough, he's still breathing," Becky retorted sharply. Jade winced. "Whatever you do, don't hang out with him if you want to be popular here," Becky ended with a cursory jerk of her thumb in Merton's direction. Jade looked to where Merton sat, holding the fresh ice bag the nurse had given to him to his tender head.
"Alright," Jade sighed, "If you say so, I'll stay away from him." Jade turned before she could see the hurt look on her fellow Goth's face.
"So why exactly am I here if I'm not here to bail out Freaker?" Becky grumbled.
"To help me get to class, you have Honors Chem-Phys now, right?" Jade asked, as she shifted her strap on her shoulder. It was cutting into her flesh, and it hurt.
"Fine, follow me, g'bye Freaker," Becky ordered as she turned towards the door. Jade mouthed "I'm sorry" before running to catch up with Becky.
Merton stretched the full length of the bed, annoyed at how it stuck to the material of his pants. The nurse walked over to where he lay, sitting on the bed next to him. He tried to hide the hurt of being rejected yet again, but the nurse saw through it.
"Don't worry Merton, maybe when you get to a place where the girls are a little older, you'll be appreciated more, ehh?" The nurse offered with a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah, sure whatever." Merton murmured as he rolled away from the nurse. She patted his back and returned to her desk. He heard the high pitched whine of a TV being turned on, and fell asleep as the nurse watched a cheap soap opera.
Tommy hadn't noticed Merton was gone until the teacher asked for that night's homework. Last night, being a full moon, he was a wolf. And being a wolf tends to make it hard to English work. Not that Tommy could do it that when he was human. Tommy had begun to count on Merton to have his homework done for him. Tommy turned to find Merton's seat empty.
"Dawkins!" Tommy winced.
"Yes Mr. Leiberger?"
"Homework?"
"Well, you see, there was this um, well you know how there's that place in the woods, and…"
"And you didn't your homework." Tommy winced; he hated Mr. Leiberger's voice, particularly when its shrill tone was directed at him.
"No, I didn't."
"Dawkins, I don't need to remind you that you have to keep your grades up to stay on the football team. No more of these excuses, do your work."
Tommy leaned back in his seat, defiantly ignoring the teacher's monotonous lecture. What did he care about… what class was he in again? History, American to be specific. Tommy didn't care about the mysterious Anasazi, or the ethnic Utes, and he could really give about the Iroquois and whatever their claim to fame was. He'd learn about them whenever a freak curse of theirs' showed up in Pleasantville.
"Alright class, I have an exciting announcement to make. We are going to be having some more learning mates for you guys! Okay kids, you can come in!"
The door creaked open slowly, and several people filled in, lining up at the back of the classroom. Three girls and five guys, all of them with a less than happy expression on their face. The girls all had black hair, cut in a china doll style; short and framing their pale faces. They wore matching leather skirts in tones of burgundy and black, and tight white t-shirts. One was obviously the leader, Tommy could tell because of the way she held her self. The guys were as pack like as the girls, wearing black jeans, white beaters, and black trench coats. The whole group was unearthly pale and very menacing. They made Tommy think of hyenas. He shivered, and wished to god that the teacher would sit them down and continue with class. He felt like they were examining him, Tommy didn't appreciate the extra attention. Tommy cracked his neck, turning back to face the front of the room.
"Didn't know you were so anxious to learn more about the pre-cursors to the American Revolution Tommy." Another snide remark from Mr. Leiberger was not what he needed.
Tommy was relived to no end when the final bell of the day rang. He stretched as he stepped out of class. He decided to push the new kids to the back of his mind. Merton could worry about them. All Tommy wanted now was to go to the Factory with Lori and enjoy her company as long as he could before she got another boyfriend. He sighed a long sigh of want as he turned to where his locker stood, ready to accept his many books. Tommy's locker plastered with pictures of Lori, Stacey and various other girls. Tommy's locker, forever scented with sweat and dirty cleats. Tommy sighed as he opened his locker. His locker was one a few constants in his life, and he enjoyed it. He crammed the books he didn't need for homework back into his locker, shoving the one's he did need into his badly beaten backpack. He'd promised to meet Lori in the courtyard, but he had to find Merton first. Tommy was sure she would understand.
Tommy turned towards the nurse's office, the one place he knew he could find Merton. He passed Becky, who was gossiping as usual. But something was off. Another really pale kid was standing behind Becky, just watching the groups of girls talk. The girl looked like the new kids in his history class. But then again, she was different. She was smaller and more delicate looking than the people in his class. Tommy shrugged it off and plowed his way through the deluge of freed teenagers towards the nurse's office.
Tommy pushed open the frosted glass door, and strolled into the comfortably familiar blue room. The nurse kept the place organized, with little jars of white fluffy stuff, jars of disinfectants, and all sorts of other jars, neatly labeled and lined up in a row. And just as those jars where always where Tommy expected them, Merton was lying on the cot like bed-thingy, curled up and facing the wall.
"C'mon Merton, you're free of this place. Let us go to the Factory for food and fun," Tommy chuckled as he shook Merton awake.
"My head," was all Merton could say as he rolled himself up right.
"What happened to you?" Tommy asked, gently touching where Merton held a no longer icy ice pack. Merton winced and hissed.
"The new girl hit me with a locker door while you were on the phone with Lori," Merton thought of whining more, but his head hurt too much to do that.
"What new girl?" Tommy asked, "There are a few."
"Possibly the most gorgeous one to walk the earth," Merton muttered in response.
"You say this as though it were a bad thing," Tommy said, picking up Merton's backpack for him.
"It is," Merton sighed. "She's a freshman."
"Ouch," Tommy clicked in response.
"And she's friends with Becky, which means she'll hate me in a few days."
"Double ouch," Tommy clicked again, wrapping a big arm around Merton's shoulder.
"Why do girls hate me so?"
"I dunno, umm, ask Lori," Tommy offered, pointing to where Lori was waiting for them, taping her foot and staring at her watch.
"I don't think now would be a good time to ask," Merton answered back sarcastically.
"You guys are late," Lori scolded, pointing to her watch.
"Sorry, had to get Merton out of the nurse's office," Tommy answered, squeezing Merton into a tight, side-ways hug.
"The nurse's office? Again? What was it this time? Polynesian head cold?" Lori growled, folding her arms over her chest.
"Actually, it was real this time, I got hit on the head with a locker door," Merton groaned.
"By who?" Lori demanded.
"A new girl."
"We actually have a few of those now," Tommy added, pointing to the darkly clothed group. The group was by itself, staring down the students.
"God, it looks like they're checking everyone out," Lori said as she wrinkled her nose.
"Looks to me more like they're evaluating them, like lions do before a chase," Merton muttered as he tossed his useless ice pack into a dumpster.
"Yeah, they're in our History class now," Tommy continued, talking about the weird vibe they gave him.
"That's nice Tommy," Merton cut his friend off, "Lori, where have you been all day, I could have used female help, today of all days!"
"I was on a field trip for photography, why does it matter?" Lori retorted as the tiny group of friends began walking.
"Sarah dumped Merton before they even got a chance to date. She went back with Jake, in front of Merton here," Tommy explained for Merton
"Thanks Tommy," Merton muttered, annoyed.
"Just doing my job," Tommy smiled as he held open a door for Lori. Merton and Lori both sighed, Tommy wasn't very good at catching subtle sarcasm.
It had been a few days, three to be exact, since Merton ran into Jade. He had almost forgotten about her. Almost. But when he closed his eyes, it was she who he saw. Why did he have to do this to himself? Why did he fall so hard for girls who wanted nothing to do with him? What was the point? He glanced idly around his lair. How odd it was, that the only person who truly seemed to understand him was him room. The sun shone through the small window by his door, through some leaves outside, casting a spider web of shadows over his desk, cluttered with papers. He stood slowly, plucking a book from the crowded bookshelves, leaning against the structure. He slowed down, smelling the book, and the dust, and the ink, and everything there was to a book.
"Book, you my only friend," Merton smiled at his own weak joke as he cracked open the volume. He was soon lost in the colorful story about vampires, nobility, and another dimension. He missed the first couple of bangs on his door, and was shocked when Tommy was suddenly taking his book from him.
"Merton, remember, you, Lori, me, F-A-C-T-O-R-Y??" Tommy scolded.
"Sorry, guess I lost track of time."
"Guess you did," Lori smirked as she rested herself behind Merton's desk. "That girl really got to you, didn't she. Pretty pretty freshman, all ripe for Merton have," Lori teased softly as she spun in his swirly chair.
"She did not, it's just a good book," Merton retorted, getting defensive.
"If it was so good, what was it about?" Tommy asked, tossing a ball up and down.
"Okay, so maybe she did get me, a little, only a little," Merton tried desperately.
"Whatever, listen, it'll probably get her off your mind if you come with us to the Factory now. You could…play video games and stuff?" Lori offered.
"Or I could stay at home and read like I wanted to," Merton rebutted.
"C'mon Merton," Tommy laughed as he grabbed Merton by the shoulder, dragging him up the stairs out of his room.
Merton was smiling for the first time in a few days. He was excited about Biology, as always. They were picking out research partners for a huge paper, and Merton was pretty sure that he and Tommy would be lumped together. And because the class had an odd number, Lori would probably be working with them. Merton readjusted his waistcoat's collar, enjoying the feel of the old fabric on his skin. He knew he only had a few more moments in it before the teacher asked him to remove it. He glanced over at Tommy who was balancing a pencil on the bridge of his nose, and Lori was timing him. A pang of jealousy ripped it's way up Merton's spine. Why did she like him? Why was he always left out? Not good to think of those things, makes you angry.
Tommy was enjoying Biology more than usual. None of the creepy new kids were in this class; it was just him, Lori and Merton. Well, yeah, there were other kids, but none of them were important to Tommy.
"Five minutes, wow Tommy, you're doing great!" Lori encouraged. Tommy smiled back. Lori had been paying more and more attention to him. Was it a sign? He hoped so.
"Good morning class," the young teacher was leaning against the lab table in front of the room. "Tommy, I know how important the balancing act is to you, but please take it up on someone else's time. We have quite an exciting day today, and I'd like for it to start now."
"Yes Ms. S," Lori and Tommy answered in unison.
"Good, now students. We have a new addition to the class, quite a little gem."
Tommy winced; they were going to be in this class too, was there no escaping them?
"Tommy, do you have a problem?"
"No, Ms. S."
"Good, now she's is supposed to be a freshman, but she tested this far, and probably is advanced for this class too. SO I want no snide remarks about her age," the teacher threw a meaningful glance and TnT, " she is just as smart as many of you, and shall be treated as your contemporary."
"You mean a freshman here is smart enough for this class?" Lori asked, not even attempting to mask her disbelief.
"Better than that, she's going to be participating in the harder enrichments we do for Merton."
At this Merton looked up, he hadn't really been paying attention. All he heard was his name. "Pardon?"
"I was just saying that our new student will be joining you in the enriched courses." The teacher reiterated without a hint of annoyance.
"Oh great, that's just what I need, a smart female freshman to give me hell," Merton murmured as he shifted in his seat.
"Merton, please take off your coat, you know it's a lab hazard. Now, class, your new student."
The door opened slowly as the class shifted in their seats to face the newcomer.