A Different Descendant: Freshman Year 1

Chapter 22

    The next morning, we left the house for the Henderson’s after my morning work-out with my dad. The plan was to simply to let them know about what Alexis’ pregnancy for Michael and know what courses of action to take.
Before we left the house, mom told us that we were to play thing cool. Like that was possible for her.
    It was about a thirty-minute drive to the Henderson’s at Gryphon Road. Their house was massive. Bigger than the other houses on that street.
    The butler led us into the living room where we met Mrs. Henderson and Daphne.
    “Hayden. What brings you and your family by?” she said, greeting mom with a warm hug.
    “Good morning Lydia,” mom replied.
    I liked how all of mom’s friends addressed one another by their first names.
    “Eric, Alexis, Henry, Heather, good morning to you,” Mrs. Henderson greeted.
    “Where’s Michael?” mom asked, getting straight to the point. In the back of my head, I knew things weren’t going to go smoothly. And I was certain my siblings thought the same thing.
    “He’s out jogging. He should be back any moment from now,” Mrs. Henderson replied.
    “Hayden, what brings you by?” a male voice asked. It came from a room nearby. Daphne’s father walked towards us with a woman that was about the same height as him. 
    “Scott, Ava,” mom greeted. She said the name Ava with a hint of disgust. From the looks of things, she didn’t like her.
    “There’s an urgent matter that our two families must discuss Scott. It involves our oldest children,” said mom.
The Mayor paused. “Why don’t we discuss it over breakfast?” he offered.
“We don’t have t--”
Just as mom was about to finish speaking, Michel came in.
“You know what? Breakfast sounds great,” she said and hurridely walked towards the dining room.
“So much for calm,” Heather whispered to me.
Mrs. Henderson followed and then Alexis and my dad. It was going to be one hell of a joint family breakfast.
Daphne and I were the last to leave the living room.
“What’s going on Henry?” Daphne asked.
“You’ll know when we get to the table.”
************
    We waited for Michael to wash up before we started any eating or talking. After about ten minutes, Michael came downstairs.
The Henderson family sat on one side of the table, while my family sat opposite them. Michael sat opposite me.
“So Hayden, what is the urgent matter?” Mrs. Henderson asked.
Mom stayed quiet and looked at all members of the Henderson family one by one.
    “My daughter is carrying your son’s baby.”
Mayor Henderson’s spoon dropped onto the chinaware in front of him. They all stared at my mother in awe.
    “There must be some mistake here,” said Michael.
All Collins’ stared- no- glared at him.
    “I agree. There’s no way my nephew got your daughter pregnant,” Ava added.
    “There’s no mistake,” Alexis said softly.
She stared at Michael and said;
    “I’m pregnant with your baby Michael.”
His eyes widened in awe.
    “It was just once,” he muttered.
    “Well that one time resulted in pregnancy,” dad said to him.
    I said nothing and just stared at Michael while playing with a knife that was next to my plate as words were exchanged.
    “When did this ‘once’ happen?” Mrs. Henderson asked, laying emphasis on the word ‘once’.
    “The night of the dance,” Alexis replied. Tears were already rising in her eyes.
    “Are you sure it’s mine?” Michael asked.
My temper rose by a lot and so did my family’s.
    “Little boy, if you dare ask that question again, you will regret it!!” dad warned, sending terror into Michael.
    “You’re implyong that my daughter’s a whore?!”
    “Calm down everyone,” said Mayor Henderson, restoring order to the table.
    “How can you ask me to calm down Scott?! You son took advantage of my daughter in a vulnerable state and got her pregnant!” mom yelled.
    “Took advantage of?” Michael asked silently, but we heard.
    “I was drunk on some drink you gave me. I wasn’t in my right mind!” Alexis cried aloud.
“That’s not wat you said when you were giving your all to me.”
Immediately he said those words, I sprang up, dragged him by his T-shirt and held the knife at his neck. A little pressure, and the knife would break the skin barrier and he would start bleeding.
His eyes pleaded for mercy from the deadly look from mine.
Everyone rose to their feet on sight of my attempt to gruesomely murder Michael.
“Henry, please let him go,” dad pleaded.
I stared at his scared face for a few seconds, then finally let him go. I dropped the knife in Dad’s palm and picked at my finger nails.
    “Alright everyone, please let’s be calm,” Mrs. Henderson pleaded.
    “Now, I understand that this is a real pain for you and your family, Alexis darling. Honestly, I am beyond disappointed.
But, whether we like it or not, this brings both our families together, and we cannot bear any form of enmity towards ourselves.”
    “What about school?” Alexis asked.
    “My husband and I will handle it. You’ll be able to attend classes.” Mrs. Henderson responded. She looked at her husband and he nodded.
None of us knew how she was going to attend classes with her being pregnant, but we had to leave it to Mrs. Henderson and her husband.
    “And most importantly, no one tells anyone about this. Not even your best friends must know,” mom added.
    “Yes, so Daphne, no baby related posts and minimize, if not cancel visitations.”
    Alexis was going to be on complete lockdown. She would stay with us during the week, and stay with the Hendersons on the weekends. And it my duty to make sure Katie and Sarah didn’t find out about her being pregnant.
    *****************
At school on Monday, before classes commenced, Katie and Sarah came to ask after Alexis. I told them;
    “Alexis is ill and mom doesn’t want anyone contacting or visiting her.”
    “Will she be okay?” Katie asked.
    “Yeah.”
    That morning, Alexis’ education got an intervention from the Henderson family. Principal Powers spoke over the P.A.
    “Good morning Mystery Falls High. There has been an update to the educational system of this school. E-learning.”
    ‘So this is what Mrs.Henderson meant’, I said to myself.
    “For a while now, this school has been connsidering somehting like this. With intervention from the mayor, this is now possible but it is only available for the seniors. Seniors will be given more detail about this new system in their classes.”
    E-learning solved the problem of Alexis not being able to step into school. The major problem was having to keep Alexis; classmates in the dark about what was really happening. It was going to be hard, but it was for my sister’s sake, then i would do anything.
    **************
    During school hours, I ignored Blake’s questions about what I did about Misty as she was absent.
I faced him in the library before basketball practice and told him about what I did on Saturday night.
    “You What?!!”
    “Keep your voice down.”
    “I promised not to make any moves, and you make one? What kind of a friend does that?! After how hard I worked to figure out that ot was Misty.”
    “I’m sorry,” I apologized. “But I couldn’t let you tell your dad and--”
    “Cut the crap. You broke our bro code. That’s beyond unforgivable.”
    ‘When did we ever make a bro code?’ I asked myself
    “And you wouldn’t have done the same for Erica?” I asked.
    For a while, there has been the existence of a conflict in Mystery Falls. People born in Mystery Falls discriminated against those that weren’t.
They believed they were more righteous. The people that weren’t born in Mystery Falls commited some crimes, thus tainting the good name of the city. They turned Mystery Falls into a problem that Muggle borns in the Harry Potter franchise had to deal with.
    Fighting broke out, and Mystery Falls started to fall apart. After a long while of violence, Daphne’s father came into power. He splitted residents of Mystery Falls into two sides of the city.
One to be occupied by the pure and half bloods and the other side to be occupied by the impure bloods. The rich and influetial of Mystery Falls called them ‘Impure bloods’. A name that caught on.
Blake and Erica were ‘impure bloods’ and lived on the eastside of Mystery Falls. They had known each other for a long time and were similar to siblings.
Blake stayed quiet after my question.
“You guys might not like Misty, but I do. And I don’t need your validation to select friends outside the circle.”
I left the library and headed for the classroom where we held physics to get my backpack. Just before I turned the door handle, I overheard Ms. Lever on the phone.
“This teaching job is a perfect front, and you do not get to complain. Follow the plan and we will have no complications.”
I asked myself, ‘Plan?’
“Mystery Falls won’t know what hit em.”
That statement was accompanied by a sinister chuckle, bringing back the hellish vibe I got from the dream I had. My heart started to pound louder and faster and I became afraid. Out of nowhere, I felt beads of sweat, travel across my forehead.
    I opened the door, and moved as naturally as I could. I grabbed my bag and left the classroom.
    “Goodnight Mr. Collins.”
    “Goodnigt,” I replied without stopping to look at her.
    **********
    As the othermembers of the team ran laps, I stayed on the top-most seat of the bleachers, drawing out new tactics. As I drew, I was paid a visit by a goddess.
    “Hi,” she greeted. Katie stood on a seat in front of me in her cheer practice outfit. Her mesmerizing smile and brown eyes were enslaving. Being in a relationship with her younger sister wasn’t going to stop me from admitting that she was indeed beautiful.
    “Hey,” I replied.
    “Why aren’t you running laps with your team?” she asked.
    “I’m drawing game tactics,” I replied, keeping my focus on the tactics I drew.
    “So you carry us to victory by drawing circles?” she asked, with a small laugh following
    “Basically, yes.”
    “Hmm.”
She jumped over to my side and sat next to me. She kept her eyes on the paper I drew on.
    “Why don’t you add a circle here?” she asked, pointing at an empty space on the piece of paper I drew on.
    “That would make it eleven players on a court, instead of ten.” I replied.
    “Oh.”
Then, there was silence. The only thing that could be heard was some of the cheerleaders talking on the court.The members of the basketball team entered the court one by one.
Since there were basically two basketball playing regions, the cheerleaders used one while The Hurricanes used the other.
    “Hey, I was wondering if you wanted to hang out sometime.”
Katie’s invitation to hang out stunned me a bit.
    “Yes, I know, you’re dating my sister and it would seem inappropriate, but I just want to know you. You being my best friend’s sister and all.”
    I stayed quiet, not thinking about if I would agree to hang out sometime, but about how much of a fit, Freya would throw if I went out with another girl, not to mention her sister.
    “I’m sorry but I can’t,” I said, gathering all the tactics I drew.
    “Oh, okayy    ,” she said sounding defeated.
“I understand.”
“But if you want to know anything about me, you can always send a text. There’s nothing wrong with that now is there?”
    She stopped and smiled at me. “Cool. I’ll text you tonight.”