"Finally! School is over!" Mateo stretched his arms out but one of them was grabbed.
"Hey!" The boy looked over his shoulder and saw Zoey holding him.
"This is only the big break, remember?"
"Oh, I hate you so much."
"Don't blame me that the time in school is so stretched!"
"I'm blaming both of you!"
Zoey looked at him with eyes full of confusion:
"How does that make any sense-"
"Who's blaming who?" Mr. Oz chimed in.
"It doesn't matter." Mateo snatched his hand from Zoey and then whispered to her: "I'm so going all out on P. E. today."
The girl just looked at him with a face full of panic.
"Mateo, what did you just say to her?"
"Something about the upcoming lessons – so it's not important." The boy just shrugged and walked away, gesturing Zoey to walk with him to the cafeteria.
She quickly told Mr. Oz that she would watch over him and went after Mateo.
…
…
…
…
After the break, P. E. lesson:
"Who wants a ball to their face?!" Mateo shouted with excitement, his hair tied into a low ponytail, the vitiligo showing completely and this time he didn't even seem bothered by it, like, completely.
Usually Mateo tried to hide his eye or that part of his hair, which was covered in vitiligo, but now – he didn't care at all – his whole concentration went to the dodgeball game they were playing, even more unlike him.
A kid suddenly saw that Mateo was glaring at him and went into panic mode, running around the area in complete fear.
"Wrong choice!" And the guy threw the ball straight to the kid's head.
Everyone covered their eyes and let out sounds like: "Ouch!", "Uf!" and "Boom.".
"Poor kid." Zoey felt that that hit must've been painful.
The coach went near the kid to check for any serious injuries but only found a nosebleed, just like for the other half of the class.
"Dude, since when did you become such a beast in dodge ball?" Logan came closer to Mateo.
"Ever since I found out how to channel my motivation from drawing to other things… And it's been super useful, in more ways than one." The boy answered.
Logan didn't expect this answer and just blinked for a few times.
"Uh… Yeah, cool… I guess."
"Mateo! It easy to see that the injuries that were inflicted in this lesson were caused by you on purpose, go to the principal's office." The coach said.
Mateo shook his head in disbelief:
"Wait, why? It's their fault for not dodging it! Why do I have to pay for their stupidity?!" Mateo's vitiligo lit up a bit, barely enough for anyone to see, but it seemed like Izzie, Cooper, Logan and Zoey saw it.
"There's no need for fighting, Garcia, go to the principal's office." The teacher's tone deepened and Mateo let out an exasperated sigh full of anger, threw the ball in the air and kicked it with a pretty big force to one of the school's windows, his hair band breaking in the process.
Mateo shook his head and simply said:
"I…Uh… I guess I'll be going now…"
…
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…
…
Well after school hours, in the observatory:
"Mateo! What were you thinking, breaking the window like that?!" Mr. Oz shouted at him.
"Well, sorry, Mister-I-myself-broke-the-rules-and-left-Lunia-and-the-Night-Hunter-in-the-battle-field! I've got more important things to deal with, like how to explain this to dad!"
Mr. Oz backed away a little.
"I-I'm sorry, it's just waking up, barely being able to control my own body and having to still play the old me and coming here, wasting my time, has been… Taking a toll on me…" The boy took of his sweater and showed them weird lines that now surrounded his body.
"Woah, woah…Woah. What is that?" Logan tried touching the markings, but Mateo flinched away.
"You can't tell Izzie, please."
"But I thought she knew?" Zoey asked.
"No, she didn't. I've been trying to hide these… Whatever they are, from her, to keep her save… And the only way I could succeed doing that is by telling you…"
"You know she's bound to find out, don't you?" Cooper commented.
"I know! Why do you think I called you all here early? These things are dangerous." Mateo started uncomfortably scrubbing the lines, as if he saw them for the first time.
"What do you mean 'dangerous'?" Nova asked.
"I mean these things feed off of dreamers, I-I think… Because each time someone gets 'devoured' or their spark for their favorite thing taken from them, the lines get toned down, but they come back! They get more and more seeable and painful, I think that they react to how tiring my day actually was."
"And you're only telling us this now?!" Mr. Oz was panicking.
"At least I told you at all, geezer!"
"How many people were 'devoured'?" Nova wanted to know.
"If we're talking for the past month… Then about 152 people."
"WHAT?!" Everyone looked at Mateo in shock.
"I should probably tell you that those sparks refill my new powers and that the first victim was… Dallas."
"Well that explain his sudden loss of motivation for bein' a yarn dude."
"I guess so, but what about those 'new' powers you just mentioned?" Zoey questioned Mateo.
"They're… Terrifying-"
"Hello, everyone! How are you all doing this evening?" Izzie suddenly burst through the door.
"I'll try meeting you this night, but if anything, don't get surprised if I just disappear." Mateo mouthed to Zoey.
"So… What'cha talking about?"
"We're already done, so let's move out, Izz." Mateo grabbed her by her collar, dragging her out of the room.
"But I just got here!" Izzie complained.
"Good for you, now let's get out of this joint." He put his little sister on his shoulder and carried her out of the observatory.
Mr. Oz just looked at them through the window and sighed:
"I hope you two will be alright."