"Huh?" Turning around I see a young boy standing in front of the door. His red hair was longer, but still shorter than mine. He might be six or eight at the most, his cheeks were puffed out and he stood looking at us with an emotionless expression.
"I was beginning to worry about you, don't wander off like that anymore. Mommy won't be able to bring you to work if you keep doing that." The boy looked down and whispered,
"Sorry momma," The boy kept his head down until Ms. Muller smiled and said,
"It's alright, want to come say 'hello' to my new student?" The boy glanced up at me, then looked down again. Before the teacher could say anything I took a step forward and extended my hand.
"It's nice to meet you, I'm Sherry." There was a long pause and I was considering dropping my hand and try to figure out how to kill the awkward silence I created, until the boy slowly raised his hand not looking up and whispered,
"I'm Jake.." I gently wrapped my hand around his very small one, as if I could easily break it, and we shake hands. Jake glanced up at me as I smiled, his cyan blue eyes held mine for what seemed like forever. He broke the gaze as he looked back down and released my hand. "Beautiful.."
"What-?" The bell rang and students flooded the room. I lost view of Jake as he headed to the back room, must be Mrs. Muller's own little office.
"Okay class, let's get seated and take attendance." I wanted to turn back to the stand to sit with the others, but my eyes sat on the door Jake disappeared behind.
We went over keys, and writing of older music, sang a song or two, the school had ended. I asked Miss Muller why Jake hadn't joined the class, she said that Jake was too young for this school, so he was taught at home. That he wasn't allowed (by the principle) to interact with students during class, but he was allowed between, before, and after. She let me say bye to Jake, then I hurried out the class to the exit when I heard Piers call from behind,
"There you are!" I stopped and waited for him to catch up, then we both walked out of the school together.
"Hey, you wouldn't know anything about Ms. Muller's kid?" Why did I just say that?
"Not much, just that his mother is the new choir teacher and that they had both moved from some European country. Edonia I think. Why do you ask?"
"No reason." There was something in Jake's eyes… I hopped each step and I heard a familiar voice,
"Well look at her, she seems to be enjoying herself." Immediately looking up I see two beautiful smiles. "Oh, here she comes." The blonde jokes, he slugs the red-heads shoulder as she waves at me.
"Leon! Claire!" Running towards them Leon scoops me up first, spins me around, and lets Claire give me an extra-long hug. "I thought you guys were-"I started but they both cut me off in unison,
"We wanted to surprise you." I smiled so hard my face actually begun to ache. I looked back at Piers and called him over. He looked pretty confused, and to admit it his face looked pretty funny.
"Piers, this is Leon and Claire. They are my closest friends." Piers smirked as he said,
"I thought this was a family reunion, these guys look kinda old."
"OLD?" Leon gasped as everybody else laughed, but he soon joined in. Strange, Piers actually was right. This basically was a family reunion. These two are all I have.
"How did you guys even meet anyway?" Piers asked curiously. I laughed and opened my mouth to tell him, but I stopped myself remembering what happened this morning.
"Now Sherry, you are being given this opportunity for two reasons. One, because the head of this facility thinks it would be beneficial for a young one such as yourself to socialize." He walks towards me with a syringe in one hand, pulling my forearm out in front of him. "Two, because we believe the 'threat' has been lowered. So now you can walk about in a school and not take online academics." Basically stabbing into my arm I felt the slight, daily pain of drawing blood. He continues, "Now Sherry before we let you begin school we must make things perfectly clear to avoid confusion. You are not to speak of the Raccoon city incident to anyone, not to teachers or friends. Here at home feel free to talk about it all you want to Claire when she visits, but not out of this facility." Pulling the large needle out of my arm he turns around from me, "Next, you mustn't speak of your family, their occupation, or why you came to this public school specifically." Blood started to pull up to the surface. "Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes, Mr. Simmons…" There was only dried blood to show where I had my blood taken. "I'm very happy I get this opportunity." Simmons scoffed, then nodded as he opened the door. He stopped in the doorway, looking ahead he whispered.
"As your adoptive father I'm responsible if anything happens, don't disappoint me."
"Leon and Claire are friends of the family." I sputtered out, I couldn't really think of anything else to say. Claire made a face, but when she looked at Leon she just nodded her head. "Well I gotta go, I'll see you later Piers."
"OK, see you later!" Piers said as he dashed across the street and Claire walked me to Leon's car. It was a smaller vehicle, a dark blue, and it had nice black seats. Leon sat in the driver's seat and Claire took the passenger seat, I sat in the back.
"Wait, shouldn't I dri-"Claire started but Leon just held his hand up and he then pulled out his keys. Claire chuckled as Leon started the car and pulled out of the school.
"I'm not as bad a driver as everyone thinks." He muttered. Claire smirked then looked back to me.
"How was your vacation Claire? You said you got to see your brother right?" Claire looked out the window then back to me as she said,
"Yeah, Chris. He lives in New York, I took a two-day trip to see him..then he was called into a base. But we talked for a while, he's doing really well. He said he has a girlfriend now, Jill I think her name was. She sounds nice. What about you Sherry?"
"Everything is the same.. but now they are thinking of seeing how far my regenerating abilities can go." Leon glanced at the mirror and whispered,
"What do you mean?" I looked down, and there was a silence and I coughed then spoke up, "I think it's just paperwork…nothing like that." But we all knew what I actually meant.
"Hey Leon, what about you?" I needed to change the topic, I hated it when I made everyone feel bad. Like they had to do something to get me out of that horrible facility, when nobody could do a thing because I was research.
Leon talked about his advancement form one job to another, and now he might get a position in with the president. He said he might have to protect the daughter but how hard could that be? Claire chimed in with how her and her boyfriend Steve are doing. They moved in together awhile ago, got a dog named Cleve (I don't know how they came up with that name) and she talked about their small business is doing.
I smiled the whole time, just listening to our back-and-forth conversation, until my mind was brought back to the little boy in choir today. Jake, what his story was. Why he couldn't go to school, and I wondered how he felt about having restrictions with his freedom.
I wondered why he looked at me the way he did.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sorry it took me so long to write this chapter, I've been really busy. The chapters are going to be slightly shorter until the events of Re6. Well, feel free to leave reviews, I'd be glad to take suggestions for this story.
