The first two periods, History and Chemistry, dragged on like a snail frozen in molasses on the continent of Antarctica duct taped to an iron bar, connected to a heavy duty magnet. Ok, so, maybe not that slow considering the fact there aren't any snails in Antarctica, and if it was, it would dead, plus wouldn't the southern pole mess up the magnets pull and all that. I guess a lonely Eskimo could have found that slug, named it Squishy and brought it back as a pet and it ran away, but slowly like my classes…

The first two periods, History and Chemistry, dragged on like a snail frozen in molasses on the continent of Antarctica duct taped to an iron bar, connected to a heavy duty magnet. Trudging to the 'best' class ever, Biology, I poked my own friend Lexi in the hall, and rounded the corner into the classroom. Thrusting my books onto my desk, I spun around and landed in my seat, waiting for my cronies to arrive soon. Miss Justick was busing herself behind her desk, getting ready to start class. Finally, my friends came in one giant clustery cluster, sitting around me. Janelle was saying something about Jessica and her non-existent foot fetish, Cora started socializing with another friend, and me? I pulled out the homework I forgot to do and started to frantically scribble down answers.

'A spare ring of DNA inside bacteria is called-?' I froze, struggling to remember. After a few seconds of thinking, I gave up and wrote down 'Batman.'

What?! She never looks at the answers! Who are you, the angel on my shoulder?! Like you never bullshitted homework at least once!

Janelle spun around, flipped my book open to a certain page and made me stare at a creepy looking owl in our text book, demanding I looked at it. I gently pushed the book away, causing her to go into a "LOOKITTHEOWL" frenzy. So, I looked at it. Balance was restored, and that was that, as class began.

We were taking notes today. Joy. Mindlessly, I wrote down whatever Miss Justick wrote on her blackboard, which was really green by the way, and I started humming some songs, one of them being that 'Boom De Yadah!' thing from Discovery Channel. The teacher stopped writing, turned and went to tell two guys in the back of the room to shut up when her phone rang. Immediately, she leapt over with her Justick-speed and picked up the phone. Normally, she's say a quick "yeah!" or "Mmhmm!" or "Right away!" and that was it, but she stayed on longer than normal. She took a quick look at us, and moved out of the room into the hallway, stretching out the cord.

We all stopped talking and goofing off, wondering what was so important. We leaned foreword in our desks to try and hear; Alex hopped up from his seat and snuck over, listening intently to what she was saying. For our normally loud classroom, we could have heard a pin drop. However, we did NOT want to hear a pin drop, but what Justick was saying. We finally were able to hear some bits and pieces of it-

"No, no one is out… I don't know any girls wearing … no one walked by….on the roof?! "

Alex turned to look at us with a confused face; we looked back with wide, inquisitive eyes. What on Earth was this about? Some chick on the school's roof?! I know it's Nanticoke, but Jesus! That's crazy, even for this place! We leaned back in to hear more-

"-wearing pink shoes? I never saw someone with pink shoes here-"

Brian sneezed. We all jumped, and totally missed the rest of what Miss Justick was saying. She came back in the phone, looking at Alex suspiciously as he pretended to throw something out in the waste bin and return to his seat. She continued on, as if nothing happened, but we couldn't focus. There was some chick on our rood and Miss Justick just acts as if it's all cool?! HOW DID SHE EVEN GET UP THERE!? Our roofs are so high up, the only way you'd be able to get up is either a really big ladder! Or… to fly…

It hit me.

I looked out the window to see cars stopped beyond the elementary school's playground; some people were even out of their cars and they were pointing at something, mouths wide open. I seemed to be the only one to notice this when I saw something that looked like a shimmering light gently float by the window… then another… and another…disintegrating one by one…

GAHH! GOD DAMNIT!

I turned around, thinking about what to do. I prodded Jessica, who immediately stopped texting and looked at me. "What?" I replied in a hushed voice, "I need to piss like a racehorse. Can you take notes for me?" Oh so reluctantly, she grabbed by notebook and pencil and started to take notes… the first time in about 3 months. I thrust my hand into the air with a mighty, "MISS JUSTIIIIIK!" She turned to look at me, with a sweet but weird, "Yes?"

"I need to empty my bladder."

"Well, good luck with that. Take the pass."

I hopped up, took the pass, and walked out of the room and made a sharp right and pressed myself against the wall. Waiting till I knew no one was watching the door, I casually walked past It, past Miss Marshalls room, and out into the staircase. I opened the door to the outside, sliding my sneaker off and placing it in-between the door and window so it wouldn't shut behind me, and walked out, making sure I wasn't in view of the windows.

"NiGHTS! GET DOWN HERE RIGHT NOW!" I scream-whispered. Almost as if on cue, his fat head appeared from the roof with a smile and a "Hello!" I sort of made an angry caveman face and pointed right in front of me. "Get here right NOW!" He soared down, arms extended and landed perfectly before me. I had the urge to just nail him in the 'Ideya's' with my foot, but he could probably deliver a mean bitch-slap, so I didn't risk it.

"What are you DOING here!?' I seethed, glancing back to make sure no one saw me with this guy. He replied sincerely, "I got bored! There was nothing to do at your house! I decided to come to school, just like you!" I chewed at the inside of my mouth, trying to keep my temper under control and maybe a little too much… I tasted blood.

Yum.

"Well, get out of here!" Now, this guy had the nerve to look SHOCKED, and point at himself with a meek little "Me?" I nodded violently, creepily enjoying the taste of my bodily fluids. "Well, alright…" He had a sad look in his eyes, and he slowly started to walk away.

I rolled my eyes, leaned foreword and cracked his ass like someone would to a horse to get it to move faster. He squealed and shot forward a couple feet, floating menacingly. "That hurt!" He whined at me. I made another face, and he finally got the signal to go right home. He darted off, a purple blur in the sky. I sort of watched him soar off, a sigh of longing escaping from my lips. I then realized I was standing out of the school building, longer than 10 minutes with one shoe off. I turned, snuck back in, put my shoe on, and darted back to class.

I walked in, and Miss Justik turned to me, one of her eyebrows raised. GOD, I HATE THAT. I can't do it, and it pisses me off that so many others can. Quickly, I whipped up a story, "I had to run to the nurse. Emergency. It was unavoidable." She nodded, understanding the female biological clock, and I returned to my seat. I started taking notes again, but my mind was racing. What if NiGHTS was caught by someone? What if he was dumb enough to land and ask what those camera-objects were?!

I was so lost in thought that the bell rang and I just sat there, writing the same sentence over and over till Jessica poked me. "Steph? The bell rang?" I snapped out of it, like I just received an electric shock, "Oh. Right. Okay. " Gathering my books, I stood up and walked out, a very confused Jessica following behind. I slowly drifted off to English class like I was trying to walk through a fog, only the fog was in my mind.

The day passed by and the next thing I finally noticed was that I was back at my locker, grabbing my homework and getting ready to leave. I pulled out my iPod, plugged myself up, dawned my cloak, and head off down the hall when I remembered I left stuff in French class. Damnit! I made a U-turn and ran back, finding Janelle and David harassing Mister Grisetto. As soon as he saw me walk in, he cried out, "Don't you ever go home!?" Madame Harbaugh, grading tests on her desk, snorted and smiled. We love picking on student teachers – Vince Grisetto was no exception.

After some picking on, we left. David offered me a ride home, but I couldn't chance him seeing NiGHTS being a retard and running to greet me like some possessed gay dog. "No thanks, I'll walk. I can try to burn off my thunder thighs." He smiled and turned, Janelle asking him about going for chicken wings later.

I decided to walk out one of the back doors, passing by the band room and auditorium. Everyone seemed to have left, except the sports teams – I heard the squeaking of sneakers in the gymnasium downstairs. I was just changing a song on my music player when it happened. I felt like my body was on fire, flesh melting from my face. I tried to scream out in pain, but nothing came out. I saw red flash before my eyes, slowly fading to black…

It all happened so fast that the next thing I knew, I was face down, my body twitching madly, pain surging through my limbs still. "What the flying-!?" I pulled my head up and saw that no one was around me. God, the ONE TIME the halls are empty… I was nearly up when a weird growl from my left made me pause completely. I slowly forced my hair to the left, moving my standing-on-end hair to the side and saw something that would have made me scream, but my voice wasn't working right now.

It looked like a little lion, only it had two paws, and saber fangs with a few red spike-looking things sticking out its back. Adrenaline pumped through me, and caused enough feeling for me to leap back from whatever this was. It snarled again, and put one of its clawed paws forward, a little jolt of was looked like lightning shot between its fur and teeth, though it looked really weak. This must be a Maren! I thought wildly to myself, because there's no Earthly animal like this here, but why was it here, and why did it only attack me?

Forcing myself, to my feet, telling my weak body to work, I saw the lion-thing take that paw he stuck out back, the volts of electricity slowly becoming brighter. "Do you have to re-charge?" I asked it stupidly, starting to feel like I had the upper hand. It seemed to understand though, and made a defensive sounding roar. Now seeing that I was many feet taller than it, I curled up my slowly un-numbing fingers, and flashed my oh-so-threatening teeth. "My turn, you creep!" I raised my bag, ready to beat the living daylights out of this thing when I saw at least three more of these lion things step out of the propped open locker room, along with a floating Kircle and a purple owl thing. I paused, mid-bag slaughter and swore I saw the lead yellow cat-thing smile.

Seeing I was horribly outnumbered, hurting, and mortal, I decided there was one thing to do. Thrusting my bag back on me, I darted to my right and ran down the hall to the back doors, hearing the padded thumping of clawed feet chasing after me, and the beating of wings. The padded stopped as soon as I reached the doors, and throwing them open, I glanced behind me, and finally let out a good shriek. All of them, lion things included, could fly, and they were nearly on top of me. I burst through the doors, hoping that they shut and blocked them. Lady Luck was really a bitch today, because they managed to swerve and get out. Everyone single one of them.

I ran down the back stairs, avoiding the metal hand rail purposely and starting running down a beasty hill. I felt a sharp stab-like grip on my shoulder, the same from this morning. I turned, seeing a Kircle attached to my shoulder, its other claw waving threateningly. I imitated NiGHTS and punched it between the eyes. It let go, but I felt my fingers crack as I did so – that shell was like punching concrete, and I'm pretty sure I broke my wrist. I was already in so much pain though that an added amount wasn't enough to stop me for running for my life. I heard the crackling of raw surging electricity and snapping of claws and beaks and knew I was done for. I was going to die right here, and I was still virgin! I wasn't supposed to die yet! I wasn't going to go out yet; I'd rather fight and die then just get beaten about like a pussy.

I turned to fight the other-worldly being when I landed on my ankle wrong, causing me to fall down backwards. I shut my eyes wincing; know that as soon as my back touched the ground, they would be upon me. I waited for the pain and a light to start shining, beckoning me to go toward it… but it never happened. In fact, I felt air slapping my face, my hair flying about. Is this what he feels like to die? It's a great feeling; maybe I should have just lain in the school hall.

I opened my eyes, only to find out that I was not, in fact, standing at the pearly gates of judgment, but flying through the streets of Nanticoke at the speed of what seemed like light. My lips were flapping, almost cartoon-like, and my eyes stung, but I forced them to stay open. How on Earth was I flying? I then felt something against my back, and I tried to look up. All I saw was a puffy white sleeve and a purple collar and I knew who had me. I don't know how he got there or where he came from, but I was damn glad NiGHTS found me. I finally turned my head to glimpse his face, and stared. His eyes were narrowed and in thinner slits than I've seen, and his lips were curled, revealing his pearly white fangs. Either he was really determined, or I weighed about the size of a gorilla. I hoped it wasn't the later one.

I saw houses zooming past me, and the pressure on my eyeballs caused them to tear up and stream like sprinklers. We went left, right, up, down, barrel rolls, loop-de-loops, and much more. Within what seemed like seconds, he came in for a landing on my front porch. He gently helped me find my footing, but that didn't matter. I fell onto my porch anyway, and just stared up at the ceiling. He sighed, bent over and picked me up like a baby, and took me into the house and upstairs, almost as if we just got married. He floated upstairs and laid me out on my bed, sitting next to me and just looking at me, almost with what seemed like concern filling his eyes. After a few minutes, I was able to sit up and remove my coat, but that was about it. I fell back on the bed, and coughed. I smelled like cooked bacon… I'm guessing it was because of that lion thing.

"Are you okay?" He asked me, cautiously taking me by the hand and helping me up into a sitting position. "Y-Yeah, I think so…" I barely squeezed out, officially finding my voice again. It was a very touching moment, but of course, he had to ruin it. "Well, that's good. You owe me."

I sighed, too beat up and battered to even make a snippy remark. "Well, let me know what it is someday, and I'll make it up to you." Honestly, I couldn't tell if he was joking or not, but more pressing matters were pressing in on me. "So, NiGHTS, what happened back there?" I really wanted to know what happened; I practically played Doorbell-Ditch on Death's Front Porch and I don't think he appreciated it.

"Well Steph, you were attacked by what seems to be three Gao, a Hollow, and a Kircle." My brain fried for what seemed like the 3rd time today. "Okay, wait. The hermit crab looking one was a Kircle…" because I remembered the two encounters I had with them already. "- and the purple one was a Hollow?" I guessed. He nodded. Oh! Oh! Point for Stephy! "Then the lion thing must have been a Gao!" I said that almost too excitedly, and went into a coughing frenzy. I never knew being electrocuted would suck as much as it did. I suddenly felt bad for using a Pikachu when I was small in Pokémon battles on my Gameboy.

After my fit was done, something else floated across my mind. "Wait, how did you know I was in trouble? Did you just happen to know hanging out here?" NiGHTS seemed to look down at the bed, a little devilish smile on his face. "Well, I really didn't go home when you told me to…"

I looked at him, sorta looking pissed I guess. "What do you mean?"

"Well, no one was behind the school, and I was curious, so I poked around the school grounds a little…" I seized up immediately, "Were you seen?" Quickly he shook his head, "No. Not since you told me to go home." I sighed out of relief, and flopped back down on the bed. "So, those things, where are they?" I asked, afraid to hear that they were outside waiting for me or something.

"Oh. They're gone." NiGHTS said with a smirk. "When we were on the fourth run-around of the city, I paralooped some. Sorry; I didn't know if you could handle going upside down or not. I should have asked first, but, well, it was more important that your human stomach." My fried mind spun. "Wait, fourth run of the city?! Are you saying we went around the city four times?"

"Five, actually."

"Holy shit!" Sorry, it sort of slipped out. "How fast were we going!? You were only flying me around for seconds!" He shrugged. "I dunno. I never really kept track of my speed. Oh, and one more thing-" I looked at him, "Yes?"

"The next time you get into a fight with low ranking Nightmaren like that, please, punch or kick you way out. When you fight back, they tend to be wearier of you. So, you know, put them in their place. I can't be flying you around like that every single time you get into trouble. It seems you're in this war now, so you're going to have to fight back with me."

I winced, not wanting to go through a shocking ordeal like I did minutes ago. Ha-ha, shocking ordeal, did you see that pun there? Probably. However, the fact he mentioned I was now part of a war kept echoing through my head. "NiGHTS, why am I part of this?"

Shrugging, his response was, "I don't know." He then shut up, and looked at me, obviously seeing that I still wasn't in the best of conditions. "Go to sleep, you need it." He cooed, almost like a mother telling a little kid to take a nap. Happily, I followed suit, shutting my eyes. I only heard him say one more thing before I drifted off to a much needed nap…

"Sweet Nightmares."