Today was the big day. The day he started school. The day he could live among his fellow humans again, without having cigarette butts thrown at him. He slunk up to the main door of the school with a little more grace than normal among flatscans, but he didn't notice. What he did notice was the so-called welcoming comittee. No matter what age or what place, it seemed there were always a few males intent on showing themselves to be rulers of the roost.

One of them called out to him, "Yo, freakazoid, where'd you come from, the ladies' room?" Behind him, his cohorts laughed as if this was the funniest joke on earth. After giving the boy a long, measured look, Zak responded.

"New York, actually. I just transferred in."

"What's with the funny accent? You a spy or somethin'?"

Ah, yes. Apparently there was one difference between these and the bullies he'd known as Luke. Apparently, as bullies got bigger, they also got stupider. Must have all their brain-power sucked away to power their showy muscles. Joy.

The jock started coming closer, and Zak came up with the perfect response. He gave the jock the same long, blank stare that he'd given any hadler who dared come too close to his cage in previous years, the one that had been known to make a few of them nearly wet their pants. The jock wavered for a moment, just long enough for Zak to slip by and get to the office to pick up his schedule.

"Yeah, you better run!" the jock called after him, in an attempt to pick up the broken shards of his dignity.

Zack continued on to the office. He knew who the secretary he should talk to was immediately because hers was the only scent that covered the entire office, but he still asked her who he should go to. Best not to appear as if he knew too much. Father had taught him all to well what being different could bring about. She told him that she'd be with him in a moment, and he struggled not to wrinkle his nose at her breath. Apparently she'd already gotten into her vodka.

In a few minutes he had his locker number, combination, and instructions on where to go to get his books. He'd have to hurry to get everything before school started. He asked directions from those around him, but took care not to seem friendly. That would just lead to trouble, until he knew what the score was around here. After many vague pointings and muttered directions, Zak realized that this wasn't helping. He started looking at the surrounding room numbers and searched out where he was supposed to go himself. He was only about ten minutes late when he finally found the book room, and only about half an hour late when he finally made it to his first class.

Once at the classroom door, Zak paused for a moment. He had to play this properly. Zak silently slid the door open and stalked to the back of the classroom with all the grace of a hunting panther. He managed to slide into his seat before the teacher even registered his presence.

The teacher informed the class, "It seems we have a new student among us."

No duh, Zak thought to himself. And just how did you figure that one out, Einstein?

"Perhaps you would like to tell us something about yourself..." the teacher paused to flip through his papers... "Jeremiah?"

"Name's Zak. I'm here. Deal." With that, Zak slid a bit further into his seat, flipped out his book and stared resolutley at it, intent on shutting everything else out. Instead of picking at him and trying to get more information as he'd expected, the teacher dove right into the course material.

Zak's head was spinning in instants. He'd entered himself in all the remedial courses, but that still didn't make up for sitting in a cage instead of a desk for the past four years. He merely did his best to figure out what the teacher was saying and resolved to spend as much out-of-school time studying as he could.

After listening to the teacher for long enough to figure out what he should study, Zak started dividing his attention between the teacher and the rest of the class. This was the only class he had where a remedial course hadn't been open, so he'd been forced to put himself in with the mainstream croud.

There was a perky redhead near the front who seemed to be paying perfect attention to what the teacher was saying, but her responses were just a little off. She was one of the few students who's managed to perfect the technique of looking like she was paying perect attention while dozing off. A moment later she seemed to return and he felt her start listening in his direction. He directed most of his attention elsewhere, and she left him alone in a few minutes.

One row over and two seats behind, there was a kid in sunglasses who was staring at the redhead without being obvious about it, at least to those with normal senses. Zac would have suspected his observations were wrone if he couldn't smell that particular mix of hormones coming off the boy. A moment later a blond leaned over to whisper something to the redhead, and he felt Sunglasses' anger flare. The blond turned around for a moment, and the two boy's eyes locked. This Zak understood perfectly. Two alpha males fighting over the same mate, while the female led them on.

Next, he watched the blond. This one was a pack leader through strength. It fancied itself a pradator, and a cunning one at that, but it was nothing but an overgrown cub. The other would be the one to take the female.

Closer to the back, there was a Goth female in a gauzy green shirt. This one he took a little more care with in his observation. Something about her screamed 'hunter' to him, and he did not want to be observed. After a few minutes watching her, he realized that she knew how to guard her body language so well that he'd get nothing more from her, for the moment.

His musings were interupted by the teacher. "Jeremiah, would you please answer the question?" Zak studiously ignored him. She walked up to his desk and repeated the question. This time, he'd collected his wits enough to respond.

"My name isn't Jeremiah, it's Zak," he calmly told the teacher. "I believed you were adressing somebody else."

"This isn't the place to show off to your friends," the teacher said, as his hand twitched for the detention slip.

"I don't show off. I speak what I know as the truth," Zak stated.

"Then perhaps you would like to tell us the answer to the question?" This time, the teacher smiled, convinced he had succeeded in flustering the new slacker.

"I don't know the answer."

"Why didn't you tell me that in the first place?" the teacher asked, trying very hard to resist the urge to bang Zak's head against the desk.

"You didn't ask." Zak deadpanned.

Duncan called out from the front, "Hey, Zombie-boy. You know the answer to this question?" he said as he held up his fists.

Zak seemed to consider for a moment, then stated, "You in a dumpster."

Zak calmly stepped out of his seat and out of the room. He still had that little trip to the principal's office to take care of. On his way past Duncan's seat, Duncan stuck his leg out in an attempt to trip him. There was only one possible answer to this.

Zak stepped higher and brought his foot down harder than stricly necessary right on Duncan's outstretched shin. Duncan yelped and drew his leg back under his desk as Zak continued on his way, carefully 'not noticing.' He didn't allow himself even the hint of a smile until he was in the hallway. Maybe now Duncan would learn to never try to trip anyone wearing steel-toed hiking boots.

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