Haunting Dorian

01 - First Meeting

PAST

"Boo. Boo." The sounds ghosts were believed to make between wails and other haunting-crying sounds. But it was something she did only out of boredom. And when she did, it was directly in someone's face.

"Boo!" The teacher stopped speaking for a moment when she felt the air of her breath against the tip of her nose. But in no time she returned to the lecture she had prepared for this class already twenty years ago. Melinda narrowed her eyes at the teacher, shook her head in disappointment and began her rant over Mrs. Hoffman's monotone lecture.

"You have a little hair growing out of your nose there, Wendy. And when you talk, it's like a never-ending rain. You should go help those folks down in the South with their drought problems. Then there's the fact that you say the exact same thing, word for word every single year. How come your mouth doesn't fall off already?"

Someone in the class laughed and Melinda spun herself around on the edge of the teacher's desk. Her eyes zoned in on a pair right up front and she crossed her legs. Right in front of here, two noses were pressed together. Even with them sitting right up front, nothing was going to make Mrs. Hoffman stop her very interesting monolog.

Melinda's critical gaze studied the popular guy and girl interacting. "You know, back in my day, only girls wore blush like that. You're one awful dude," Melinda grumbled with distaste. "I know, I know. I'm being too stereotypical and this is the 21st century and things are different. But I guess it's hard to shake off the influence of my own time."

She appeared to be sad when she said that, but in no time a grin stretched across her face and she clapped her hands. Her pale eyes full of mischief narrowed in on a perfect bullseye at the back of the classroom.

But before anything could happen, everyone's blank faces turned to the opening door. To humor herself, Melinda slid into an empty seat at the front. In walked a tall, nervous looking boy. He peered around the classroom from under his mop of light brown hair. His eyes darting left to right and back to left again before returning his gaze to the ground.

What he saw was a hoard of faces with judgmental eyes and sharp teeth. They all looked ready to tear through his not-so-tough skin. In short, he saw a class filled to the brim with demon-spawns that were his new classmates.

Melinda gawked at him with vague interest. "Huh, look at that. I guess they do accept new students in the middle of March," she murmured into her palm.

Mrs. Hoffman stopped her lecture mid-sentence and peered at the new boy over her glasses. "Mr. Frauman, you are late." So there actually was something or someone that could pause Wendy Hoffman's twenty years in brewing monolog.

The boy, Dorian, sucked in a deep breath as if he had been assaulted and the words were a hot iron against his skin. "Sorry," he squeaked and looked up at the teacher. He cleared his throat and repeated the same thing. Melinda was sympathetic towards the boy, wiped evidence of it from her face.

"The principal wanted to talk to me for a bit longer. Ask me about my last school and such," he added with a small smile, but it fell when he saw Mrs. Hoffman's blank face. He had aimed for a bit heartier reaction but it wasn't going to cover up her nasty and cold glare. The cogs turned in his head as he thought of another thing to say. In no time he came back to the realization that there were a lot of people – about twenty-five – staring at him.

"Well. Whatever the excuses, don't bring them to my class. And if you'll be late any more, don't bother coming at all either, got it?" Dorian meekly nodded. "Get yourself a seat, Mr. Frauman. I assume you can get accustomed to the high school life of a small town yourself. It would be troublesome to assign you to a buddy for two weeks." Her voice was laced with sarcasm and it made Melinda boil with anger.