Chapter 6: Hunter

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Throughout the day I went from classroom to classroom. I kept my sunglasses on whenever I went outside, and took them off when I was inside the classroom. The bright lights burned my eyes a little bit, but I didn't want kids thinking I was "too cool" or something and was asking to get beaten up.

The first day for every class was just getting to know the teacher and the kids in the class. The one motor bike kid was in my math class. His name was Kennith. He was six feet tall and had short black hair. He kept whispering to his friends in the back and being annoying. I could hear everything that they were saying. Mostly talking about what they did over the summer and who they banged from the school etc. One of the kids was lying when he said he banged six girls over the summer. I'm sure he was mostly being a lazy ass, eating salty chips and playing that new weird blocky game called Minecraft.

The girl who had been drawing dragons in my English class was in my math class too. Her name was Quin MacKraken. She preferred Quinny. She was a bit strange. I had tried giving her a compliment on her dragon drawings, she responded by turning to me and saying: "Western Dragons are known for living up in the mountains and eating mountain goats. I saw one eat a baby once." I stayed away from her after that.

Lunchtime was me just sitting alone. No one came up and tried being friends with me. I kind of wished someone did since I wasn't used to this school. Everyone already had friends and just glomped onto those friends. I didn't want to be the weird kid, just going up to groups and asking to join. I sat under a tree, just observing the kids as they ate and socialized.

I had been gone a whole summer. This sudden change of pace was weird to me. It felt actually nice. I wasn't needing to worry about aliens attacking. Not being thrown across acres of trees or being rammed into a building. My bruises can finally heal. My worries were now Math and Science since I sucked at those subjects.

The bell rang. I got up and threw my trash away before heading towards the next class.

My last class of the day was an art class, which made me very happy. I wondered if Monger saw my drawings and figured I wanted to be an artist. I'm glad I got an art class. The teacher was very nice and he gave us an assignment to work on. We had to draw our shoes, but with a different design on them. We literally had to take off our shoes and draw them. He showed us examples and I was immediately inspired. I drew my black and white sneaker to have tattered bat wings and sharp teeth where the toes went.

My teacher came up and looked over my shoulder. "Teeth? Dang. Do your shoes bite?" He asked. I blushed and nodded. He smirked and nodded his head. "I like it. Never seen anyone draw their shoes with teeth before," he said before looking at the other students' works. I took a deep breath and exhaled. The art class was the only class I felt better in.

The beginning of the day for me was not so good. I had a rough time figuring out where my classes were since I wasn't used to this school, I kept looking around for Hunter, and I was paranoid about thinking that John was suddenly going to show up in front of me...or be one of my teachers. That would have been weird. During the time in my new art class, I felt...normal. I felt calm. I wasn't a teen monster. I wasn't on a solo mission. I was just a normal teen trying to get through high school.

I was somewhat upset when the bell rang, indicating the first day of school was over. I wanted to just draw the rest of the day. I didn't want to go back to the base. I wanted to stay. I must have sounded weird saying that, but, it was the truth. I wanted to stay in this school. I wanted to continue pretending that I was normal. Doing normal teen things.

I was the last kid out of the class as I turned my assignment in. I placed my sunglasses on and walked out with all the other kids. Students shuffled and bolted out of classrooms, laughing and talking with friends. I caught snippets of conversations as I walked across the quad and out of the gates. Kids rode on bikes and skateboards past me.

I looked around seeing if there were any glimpses of John anywhere being all creepy. He wasn't around. I was starting to hope that John was officially gone and the photos were just a way for me to just go to school. I was starting to think that was the case. I didn't like being lied to by Monger, but he did give me back my life in some way. I just needed my family back and I'd be happy.

"Dude! Did you hear what happened at the National park yesterday?" a kid asked his friend a couple feet behind me. "Oh yeah, there was a fire and people had to be evacuated, nothing new," said the other. The first kid disagreed. "I heard that the government was involved I'm sure it was aliens or something."

"Aliens? Now you are starting to sound like that Hunter kid."

"Pfffttt. That Hunter kid IS an alien!"

The two laughed and walked past me.

Not a lot of kids talked about what happened at the National forest. Some said that nothing interesting happened around here, so I guess they didn't really believe that it was an alien that crashed landed and us monsters having to deal with it. I wonder if anyone believed it really was aliens, or even saw us. Would anyone believe? Would anyone be ready for us monsters?

I sat down on the bench and waited for Patrick to come and pick me up. Yellow wildflowers blew gently in the warm breeze around the legs of the worn bench. It was a hot afternoon. I could feel the make up starting to melt on my face. I reached behind my head and unzipped my backpack, rubbing my wings. My wings were sore being stuck in the backpack. Any time I needed to use the bathroom or "use the bathroom" I went to a secluded place to stretch my wings out.

"May I sit with you?" asked a voice, snapping me from my thoughts. I looked up. My eyes widened behind my sunglasses. It was Hunter. Before I could respond, he sat down awkwardly next to me on the bench. "I usually sit here and wait for my mom to pick me up on Mondays and Wednesdays," he said to me. I still didn't say anything, just listening to my heartbeat and the blood rushing in my ears.

"My name is Hunter by the way," he said. I remembered to breathe and said my real name by accident. I coughed and quickly said my fake name, trying to cover up what I said. He gave me weird look before shrugging and saying he liked the first name I said, making me blush.

He sat there on the bench, talking to me. He practically told his whole life story to me. His name was Hunter Thorson, he was seventeen years old, and he's an only child. He was a total geek. He knew all the names of the Greek gods and goddesses and their backstories. He loved playing video games, mainly Batman: Arkham Asylum and Assassins Creed. His dad worked in taxes, his mom is a doctor. I didn't really care, but he was really wanting to talk to me. I guess he didn't have any friends.

He said they had to move recently because his dad lost his job. His dad had worked for a business pitching ideas to help the company or something. His dad worked really long shifts and late nights so he rarely saw his dad. Same with his mom, but she would come home late for dinner on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays and they would watch documentaries on aliens.

Hunter's main hobby was into looking for cryptids. For his birthday, he got a car when he finally got his license. Since then, he's been driving around the town looking for cryptids. Him going on about cryptids somewhat interested me. I was into cryptids for a while. My favorite was the Mothman. Hunters favorites were Bigfoot and aliens.

"I went to the town's popular National Park over the summer. There were rumors about a UFO sighting that crashed in it and I wanted to see it first hand. Everyone was leaving, but I hid behind trees and in a hollowed out log for a while till the coast was clear," he said.

My heart was beating heavily in my chest. "Oh," was all I could say. This was it.

Hunter looked around before pulling out a folder from his backpack. His backpack was black and green and had a Cryptozoologist patch, as well as a UFO patch.

"This is top secret. You can't tell this to anyone. Ok?" he said. I stared at the folder.

"What's in there?"

"I can't show you until I know I can trust you."

I stared at him. He was acting like an elementary school kid. I sighed and nodded my head, playing along. "You can trust me," I lied. He smiled at me and opened the folder. "I found a UFO craft! It looked like it had crashed into the lake," he said as a ton of eight by ten photos spilled across his lap.

"But this is nothing compared to what I saw after!" he said excitedly as he pulled out a couple photos from the bottom and showed me. I felt the blood drain from my face. If I could blanch even more I would've. Right there, on twelve eight by ten colored photos, were images of me. Some were blurry, but you could make out what it was. Me. My paper white skin, my light brown ears and wings. If Hunter saw what my eyes looked like he would've been over the top geek excited.

"I saw this bat girl!" he said. I didn't say anything as I stared at my pictures. The blurry ones reminded me of the famous bigfoot picture. Hunter was very proud of his photos of me. Oh if only he knew. I was very scared that Hunter was going to take these pictures to the newspaper company and make money off of them. I would become a headline the next morning. Weird Bat Monster In National Park. I wanted to rip up every single photo. But I didn't. I just stared at them.

"What are you going to do with these photos?" I asked. Hunter smirked. "I've been trying to submit photos to the local newspaper, but they keep denying my findings." That gave me a little bit of relief. He must be known by the town as The Kid Who Cried Monster or something, seeing everything as a monster and taking pictures or reporting to the authorities, only for it to be a false alarm. Hunter slapped the photo he took of me in mid flight through the trees. "Once they see these beauties, they will have to believe me!" he said excitedly.

I gave him a half smile.

He looked at me and smiled. "I'm happy I can trust you. I've never had a female friend before...also a pretty one," he added under his breath, and of course, I heard it. I blushed and looked away. Shit. He liked me. I had mixed feelings. I mean...he was kind of cute, and he liked cryptids, but he was kind of annoying.

The black Nissan came rolling up. I sighed with relief and got up. "That's my ride, I'll see you later," I said as I quickly walked to the car and opened the door. I heard Hunter quickly get up and walk after me. "W-wait! c-could I...um..." he went quiet. I hesitated and turned. "What?" I asked.

"Could I give you my number? S-so we can text each other?" he asked. I felt my heart skip a beat. I've never had a guy ask to exchange numbers before.

"Um...I don't have a phone," I said, which was the truth, I didn't have my phone anymore and Monger never thought of giving me one. Hunter's face looked crestfallen.

"Oh...well...um. Could I give you my email?" He asked. I hesitated.

"Um...I don't have an email." Hunter's sad face changed to confusion.

"You don't have an email?" He asked.

"Uh...well. I do. I just don't have a computer."

"How do you have an email but not a computer?"

"Uh...um...for school. Had to get one...I check my emails when I'm here at school...my parents...are against computers," I lied. Hunter nodded. "Oh, ok," he said, finally giving up. I'm sure he thought I was turning him down harshly. Feeling bad, I told him that I was asking for a computer for my birthday. He seemed somewhat happy to hear that. With that, I said goodbye to Hunter and jumped into the car, pulling the door closed behind me.

"That could've gone worse," Patrick said as he drove us away. I sighed and slumped in the backseat. "I'm so embarrassed," I admitted. Patrick smirked and shrugged. "First days are always the hardest," he said. I looked out the window and watched the trees and houses go by.