Chapter 1: My PE teacher tries to eat me.

My name is Adin, Adin Peterson and Highschool stinks. There's Social pressure, academic pressure and the air pressure from a completely new hallway that appeared overnight. I've been told I don't pay attention mostly due to my ADHD, but I would have noticed a new hallway being built. What's even weirder is that it seemed like I was the only one who was shocked by it and other kids were walking down this new hallway like it was routine. I stared down the hallway lost like it was my first day again.

"Move Peterson!" a voice came from my right. " You're blocking the - woah" I turned around to see Cameron Harrington, one of the bullies in my sophomore class. It wasn't a special occasion for anyone if Cameron were to pick on you. He mostly just pointed out insecurities and embarrassing things about people. I was nobody. Not just to him but to everyone in the school. And I mean almost literally, ask someone for a pencil? Nope, out of the picture they just ignore me like I'm not even there. It would be a special occasion if anyone actually started up a conversation with me.

"Sorry" I said sheepishly and moved to the side. I've dealt with bullies, it's best to just ignore them if they do notice me.

"No, don't be!" He had suddenly changed his tone to be more upbeat and his expression seemed more surprised. "Uh I'll see you around dude." He patted me on the shoulder and walked away. I still felt like I was waiting for an insult or a punchline joke as he turned the corner, occasionally glancing back at me.

I started walking to my next class at good old Juliet Highschool. JHS was located in the middle of Michigan. As much as I hate high school, I have to admit the area's pretty nice with a forested area but with lots of civilization nearby as well. Although, in Michigan the weather can be crazy. One day it will be snowing, then the next day it will feel like a nice summer day. Usually the switching of weather so fast makes my allergies act up. Which in turn makes the other students here get annoyed by how much I sneeze.

When I walked into my first class I felt dread coming onto me, more than usual. The seat next to mine was empty; it belonged to one of my only friends I had. Her name was Sydney and she was one of the prettiest, smartest people I know. Her long black hair shimmered in the sun while that same sun also kissed her skin for generations. Sydney and I would hang out around our small town in the heart of Michigan. Go get ice cream after school and do school projects together. But all that changed a few weeks ago when she announced that she would be moving to California with the rest of her family. Most of her family moved there a few years back, but she wanted to stay in Michigan for high school. I guess that plan changed recently but I also understood, I love my family too.

When I heard that news however it was different my heart sank. While we started out with a genuine friendship, I had developed deeper feelings for her recently. Not going to lie, I messed everything up. I was upset, jealous and angry that she was leaving. I stopped talking to her for a while and when I did she gave me the cold shoulder. I deserved it. Then I made the mistake of trying to confess feelings to her. I didn't, but she's smart so I'm sure she knew what I was going to do and how I felt. That was embarrassing and awkward that day. I just stumbled over my words and tried to apologize for how I was acting. It was normal for a bit, but I definitely put a strain on our friendship.

The bell rang and my history teacher Mr. Super was taking attendance. His name threw people off. When you think of someone named super you might think of someone whose young, good looking and athletic. This super however was old and wore thick glasses, with white balding hair and a little of a hunchback. His eyes looked strained through his glasses trying to read the names of students he could never remember.

"Dan Suntow"?

"Here".

"Julia Gutierrez?"

"Present".

"Sydney A- that's right she doesn't go here anymore." that line made me frown. "Adin Peterson''? "I'm here" when I responded he looked at me as if I insulted him. His eyes went up and down inspecting me, inspecting every inch of me. Then other students started staring at me. The first thing I did was look down at my clothes, making sure I didn't have a stain. Also to make sure I was indeed wearing clothes. The anxiety of it all gave me the urge to bite my fingernails, a bad habit that I want to quit. Then someone finally broke the silence.

" Woah someone had a glow up" the voice could have been anyone.

"He just got a tan," someone else said.

"No he got a haircut"!

"Well whatever it is he looks good". I couldn't help but blush at every comment someone said. Even if this was some kind of elaborate prank, it felt good.

Mr. Super then got his class under control after minutes of talking. "Well Mr. Peterson it seems like you've taken good care of yourself. Now class-" He trailed off starting to talk about the lesson for today. I couldn't focus after everyone was talking to me and complimenting me. I had done nothing different today yet everyone looked and treated me differently. Class ended and I headed to the restroom and in the mirror, I saw nothing different. Black hair, brown eyes and white skin. Nothing new, this was some kind of prank and then another strange thing happened. Looking in the mirror a pimple that was on my forehead sunk into my skin. It didn't disappear instantly but also not slow enough for me to ignore it. I brushed my finger where it was and felt nothing.

The rest of the school day was the same as my first class, everyone actually noticed me. It wasn't until toward the end of the school day I had come to the realization that I did have a glow up. The glow up however was happening slowly in my eyes. Everyone else seemed to have noticed almost instantly. Then school had finally ended for the day. I just wanted to go home and rest, this day was weird. I started to exit the school only to be blocked by a large figure.

Standing in front of me was a large man who smelled like garbage. It got worse as the figure turned around. In front of me was an ugly slob. That wasn't nice, I was deemed ugly by my peers until today. He did look like a slob though with an unshaven beard and sweat stains that would have made me puke if I didn't feel the creeps from this guy. Then to my surprise the slob spoke. "You're Adin Peterson!" he said. "I've heard great things about you, Im Mr. Backfisch." Mr. Backfisch just eyed me up and down, as if he had won a trophy. After what felt like an eternity I finally spoke.

"Oh uh, hi are you a new teacher"? He gave a small nod and it was only then that I noticed his lazy eye, which only added to the creep factor. "I'm the new PE teacher. I'll be teaching your class tomorrow". I was taken aback for a moment. From the looks of it this guy shouldn't even be allowed at the school, let alone teach.

"I don't have PE this semester".

"That's fine, we'll make arrangements''. That made a shiver go down my spine. He started to walk toward the side of the doorway to let me through. When I walked out the door I could still feel his gaze following me. I really hoped that this guy was joking, or hoping he got fired before tomorrow.

When I had gotten home I went to look in the mirror. My appearance had changed and I couldn't lie, I was looking good. I probably was in there for a while because I had heard my dad call for me. He was the coolest dad ever. He had loved my mom to death, literally unfortunately. My mom had died a couple years ago, she was the coolest too. Two of the best parents for a kid with ADHD. Both of them knew exactly what to say to me and how to cheer me up when I was down. They learned early on that the secret was to annoy me by poking me until I started laughing.

My moms death however hit him hard, it hit the both of us hard. It happened so fast. The first signs were her spouting nonsense like "Greek", "Champ", and "Promise" at random. Then she would get these kinds of seizures where her eyes would go white. I had seen it first hand multiple times and we took her to the doctors after she refused for a while. But as she was in the hospital she unfortunately passed. It was only after an autopsy that the doctors declared she had some type of brain tumor. We moved around a good amount before she passed, afterward I started high school and I seemed to stay at good old Juliet high school.

I snapped out of that memory quickly when I saw my dad as I walked into his office. Even though I said he was the coolest, at first glance you wouldn't expect it. Someone would have thought he was a stereotypical nerdy dad with his glasses on and a balding head. A few years ago I noticed my dad balding. I was worried for some reason that I was going to start balding too. I tried to mix different shampoo thinking that would help. I also tried online remedies, before my parents convinced me I wasn't balding.

"How was school"? He was staring at his work, he had a good job with some IT company that allowed him to work from home. That only reinforced the nerd stereotype. It would surprise many people when they found out he used to be a biker. He even had a bike with flames, leather jacket and a sleeve of tattoos he still showed off every now and then.

"It was alright". I really wanted to tell him about all the weird things that happened. I decided against it since he looked locked into his work. I really wanted to tell him I missed Sydney. Even if things were going to get better for me with my glow up, I still wanted her with me.

The rest of the night was the average routine. Do my homework which took a while without Sydney's help. Help Dad make dinner which consists of rice-a-roni, rotisserie chicken, and a side of corn. Then play video games and watch a movie with dad. We decided to watch a spy movie which was only chosen by my dad since it had his favorite actor, Tristan McLean.

I decided the next morning to put on some nicer clothes than I usually wear and when I looked in the mirror I had changed pretty drastically. You could tell it's still me, although it looked like I went through a year of change overnight. This had people gawking at me, if I had some magical glow up I wasn't going to waste it. Everyone was actually starting to pay attention to me, treat me like an actual human being. This will probably affect my ego, I thought. I'll have to deal with that later.

When my first class began and Mr. Super took attendance, he introduced someone who was in the corner. I hadn't noticed him before but he was tall. He had a slim build with curly hair and a goatee. He was also wearing a very nice suit, it even had elbow pads in the.

"Alright everyone this is Mr. Timber." Mr. Super said. "He'll be my new student teacher, would you like to introduce yourself". He rose from his seat with a briefcase in hand. "Ah well yes um, I'm Mr. Timber.." He looked around almost nervously. If I was in his shoes I would be too, teenagers are vicious.

He continued speaking. "... and well I'm from New York, I like musicals and". He was cut off from someone yelling "You don't have a New York accent"! Everyone couldn't help but laugh, even me. During the laughter his eyes locked on me and while staring at me he responded with a little bit more determination. "Well uh, let's start today. Who can tell me about the Trojan war"? After a minute no one responded. "Well how about you". He pointed at me while grabbing the attendance sheet. "Adin Peterson"?

Almost everyone turned their heads, as if Timber choosing me gave them an excuse to look at me. I froze for a second. I wished Sydney was here to whisper anything about the Trojan war. "Umm, wasn't there a giant horse that was involved"? Some of the students laughed. "Well it was a fake horse but yes. Is that all you know about the Trojan war?" Timber looked disappointed. Mr. Super decided to finally end this conversation by telling Mr. Timber that this was an "American History" class. Mr. Timber gave him a look like, Oh I wish someone would have told me that.

The rest of the day was the start of a new normal, despite everyone thinking I'm a new student and learning my name for the first time after almost two years. In the hallways, every clique would greet me and stare at me. The popular kids started to talk to me like I was an old friend. Even when I walked past a group of cheerleaders one of them winked at me. I could get used to this kind of attention. I thought to myself.

That was until I walked into my last class. "Sorry, you've been transferred". Was the only thing I was told by my geometry teacher and handed a piece of paper with my new class schedule. On the paper I had all my other classes and a new one, PE with Mr. Backfisch. The same cold shiver went down my spine from yesterday. What made it worse was that the paper had a map to the new hallway.

I approached the hallway and since it was already class time it was empty. The hallway had lights that were dimmer and unfinished flooring which made it resemble a dark alley. Looking into the hallway made every inch of my body tell me to turn around and just go home. To be honest I was going to just ditch this class but then I heard a voice. "Adin, I need your help". My heart jumped hearing Sydney's voice. I immediately entered the hallway looking around every corner. "Sydney!" I tried my best to have a little bit of a shout in my voice. I didn't want to be too loud to disturb any classes going on.

"In here" I heard her speak. Her voice came from the set of double doors diagonal from where I was. I rushed in and inside was an old empty auditorium. How did I never notice this part of the school before? I walked in and just as I did the double doors behind me slammed and when I turned around a large figure was in front of me. Mr. Backfisch was there staring at me with his one good eye.

"Haha thanks for finding me"! he said. Only it wasn't his voice, it was Sydney's. Now I don't know what was really going through my mind. The only thing I thought was, run, this guy is going to kill me. But before I was able to do any of that he grabbed me by both my arms. He forced both of them to the side of my body, clamping me in. I squirmed, struggled and screamed. I kept my eyes on him even though I tried to look away. That was when I noticed him growing a few feet taller and my feet raised off the ground.

"Haha pretty boys is gym teacher's favorite snack." said Mr. Backfisch. He also sounded more child-like.

"Let me go"! I shouted at him.

"Why should I let a half-blood go when they're so tasty"? I've been called a lot of things before like ugly, dumb and loser. But I had no idea why he was calling me a half-blood, or what a half-blood is. It was then I noticed both of his eyes merging together forming a giant eye. He opened his mouth slowly pulling me in closer to it. That made me scream even louder. Luckily someone heard me as I heard the door burst open.

I couldn't look over but I heard what sounded like a spring go off. Then an arrow landed on Mr. Backfisch, who turned out to be a cyclops shoulder. He yelped in pain, which caused his grip to loosen and me to escape. I landed on my feet and thinking quickly, pushed the cyclops to the ground and started running.

"Over here Adin ''! I looked up to see Mr. Timber putting a bow back into his briefcase. I started running toward him. If he had saved me from that monster I wasn't going to question it. He started running out the door with me behind him. Although it looked like he was limping, even though he was running fast. We ran out of the school and got into some type of electric car with the words 'eco friendly' on the side.

I finally was able to ask the question. "Was that a Cyclops"! I had about a million other questions but we were both out of breath from running. Mr. Timber only replied with a "Yea, don't worry about it". Mr. Timber sounded way more confident then earlier. He took out his keys and started the car. I looked back at the school. Mr. Backfisch, who turned out to be a monster, no a cyclops, was standing outside. He saw us and began sprinting toward the vehicle.

Mr. Timber started to drive toward the parking lot exit. I was looking at Backfisch and he looked mad. Backfisch with incredible strength picked up a student's car and held it overhead. He threw it toward us, good news he missed. Bad news, in front of us was a destroyed Ford Taurus with a 'Honk if you think i'm cool' bumper sticker. The car blocked the parking lot exit, and to our sides were rows of vehicles.

I looked at Mr. Timber and he just started nodding his head like he understood something. " Are you good with a bow?" he asked me and I shook my head. "Got it, then take the wheel," He started opening up his briefcase again and I took the wheel. I looked up to see the cyclops charging right at us and we were trapped. Mr. Timber then rolled down his window and started to accelerate toward the monster.

I held onto the wheel the best I could while in the passenger seat. Mr. Timber started firing arrows toward the cyclops. Swoosh, the first one missed. Then he fired again, this time Mr. Backfisch had blocked the arrow with his hand covering his belly. That didn't slow down the cyclops, but an idea popped in my head.

"Fire an arrow at his face." I told Timber as we were halfway toward Backfisch.

"Yea I know his eye is his weak spot but he'll just block it!"

"Exactly!" I shouted which made Timber seem to realize what I meant. He fired, and just as planned Backfisch blocked the arrow right over his face. Timber hit the gas while he fired one more arrow. We were only about twenty feet away when the arrow landed on the cyclops leg, which made him kneel. I got to the left side of the parking aisle and drove right toward his standing leg. We plowed right through the side of the cyclops and Backfisch seemed to go down behind us. The car scraped alongside some other cars which made an awful screeching noise.

Timber regained control of the wheel and I looked back. The cyclops was still moving, but seemed to stay down. We exited out of a different parking lot entrance and sped down the road. When the school was out of view, I let out a sigh of relief. "Let's get you somewhere safe Adin." Timber said. I laid my head against the seat and decided that I should probably buckle my seatbelt.