The Alpha's Little Nerd

One

~Devina's POV~

I awoke to the distinctive smell of pancakes and my favorite syrup, pecan. A huge grin settled on my face as I tore back my comforter. As I stood up, I overheard my mom humming a casual melody. Snickering, I walked over to my dresser and peeked inside Mr. Freddles' fishbowl, and grinned when he swam in a circle to greet me. Last summer, I spent hours teaching him whatever silly tricks I could. I had a lot of spare time.

"Hey, Mr. Freddles. How are you doing?" I'm not crazy, I swear. He turned around in a brief circle again and I reached over to feed him a few flakes of fish food. "There you go, buddy. I'll see you later." I stepped out of my room and made my way downstairs to the kitchen. My mom was flipping a pancake mid-air when she whirled around to greet me.

"Morning sweet pea!" She chirped. My eyes widened as they focused on the pancake slowly falling to the floor.

"Noooo!" I yelled and tried to dive for the unfortunate pancake, but it was too late. I'm not obsessed with food like most sixteen year girls, however, I love pancakes. I landed on the floor with a thud and frowned when I saw the pancake just inches away from my body.

"Five-second rule." My mom quickly responded and reached down to pick up the pancake, grabbing my hand and pulling me up at the same time.

Once my mom was done making a delicious breakfast, we both sat down at the cluttered kitchen table to eat.

"Hey baby, I was thinking tonight we could go watch a movie. You know like when you were a little girl we would go to the movie theater every Friday night?" She giggled as she thought of the past and I curtly nodded.

"Yeah sure." I smiled and shoved a forkful of pancakes into my mouth. I pulled out my phone and my eyes bulged as I read the time. "But I'm going to be late for school. Can you take me today? I don't think I can get there in time if I walk."

"Of course sweet pea." She smiled and grabbed her car keys.

Then I woke up to the blaring sound of my alarm, pulling me out of my dream. It's not just a nice tone to wake up, no, it's a siren with a male voice screeching to wake up. Usually, it works and I wake up and turn it off, other times it does its job a little too well and I believe there's an intruder in my room. Either way, I wake up.

I'm not a morning person.

I slowly started to peel back the covers but quickly pulled them back over my bare legs as soon as the cold air slapped them.

After a long pep talk, I stripped back the covers once again and ran to the shower, quickly turning it on. When I was done getting ready for school, I looked in the mirror once more and sighed, something felt wrong today.

"Hello?" I shouted as I walked out of the bathroom. "Anyone home?" I tried it again. Nothing. "Just another day in the Stavros residence." I laughed and walked back to my room then pulled open one of the drawers to my dresser. It was almost March, but the weather in Washington was still a little chilly.

"Does this look good Mr. F?" I held up the clothes and Mr. Freddles just swam in place looking at me.

"Thanks for the help," I murmured and got dressed. After bidding him a fair well, I left Mr. Freddles and hurried downstairs. I was already ten minutes behind schedule. I grabbed a water bottle from the fridge and a granola bar on my way out. Shutting and locking the front door behind me, I ran down the sidewalk hoping to cut my usual twenty-minute commute in half to gain back those ten minutes. I hurried towards the gloomy school but once it was in clear view, I saw no one outside. That means the bell has already rung. I silently cursed myself and slowed my pace, knowing I was already late.

"Nice of you to join us, Miss Stavros." Mr. Giles narrowed his eyes and motioned for me to come in. I glanced around the classroom. Great. Everyone's attention is on me. I threw him a shy, apologetic smile and made my way to the back of the classroom.

"Devina!" Mr. Giles pointed at me and smiled.

"Huh?" A few people turned their heads to glance at me but most didn't bother, they didn't care about anything except making up the so very needed sleep they were deprived of the night before.

"Who wrote The Odyssey?" Now this one I knew, we had read the epic poem in 9th grade.

"Homer." This pleased Mr. Giles

"Now what God killed Odysseus's men because they stole his cattle?" He quizzed me.

"Um, Helios, sir. The Titan God of the sun." He nodded and went back to the smartboard. I'm not a teacher's pet.

"Very good Devina." I smiled and dug in my backpack for one of my books. Looking down at my sweatshirt, I saw a little white stain. Freaking toothpaste.

"Mr. Giles, may I use the restroom?" He nodded his head and continued talking about the different Gods that lived on Mount Olympus. I closed my book and walked out of the classroom, making my way to the closest bathroom. When I finally made it, I let out a breath of relief because the bathroom was empty. I started patting the white toothpaste off of my sweatshirt when an ear-shattering scream made me drop the paper towel and look over toward the door.

"Help! Help! There's a-" The voice was cut off.

There's a what?

"Hello?" I almost whispered, but there was no reply. Seconds later there were hundreds of similar screams and pleas for help. I ran to the door and cracked it open. All the students and teachers were running in any direction they could.

What are they running from?

"Everyone please evacuate the building immediately there are wild-" Mr. Tanner, our principal's voice was also cut off making my heart race even more. I shut the bathroom door quickly and looked for something to block it with. I analyzed my surroundings and only found a big trash can. I lugged it towards the door and set it against the handle. Knowing that wouldn't keep whatever everyone was running away from, away I went into the second farthest stall from the door, and stood upon the toilet. I made sure not to shut the stall door completely so it wouldn't look suspicious and made sure to shut some of the other stalls completely so the thing would look there first and buy me some time.

I waited hours, enduring the screams of pain and sheer fear until I heard nothing but silence. Trying to focus on keeping myself together, I told myself this was just a dream. No, a nightmare. I carefully got off of the top of the toilet I was standing on and walked to the bathroom door. I moved the trash can and slowly opened the door, trying to hold in my gasp. There were bodies of students and teachers everywhere and even more blood. I closed my eyes took a deep breath and opened them again. Everything was still there, the bodies of people I'd been around for years. Making my way towards the staircase, I weaved around the dead bodies and tried to avoid the pools of blood, trying to force down the bile in my throat.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" someone laughed. I wasted no time, I ran as fast as I could towards the staircase and made it to the first floor. "You know, it's fun chasing you but I think I'm going to kill you now," he spoke and grabbed my arm, twisting it so I was facing him. His once-white shirt was now splattered in crimson red and his blue jeans were also stained, just like I imagine his soul. I certainly was not the first thing he chased today.

"Please I won't tell anyone, just let me go and-" He struck my cheek and pushed me against one of the already dented lockers.

"Boss said not to let anyone go," he growled and punched me in my stomach making me double over and fall to my knees.

"Please don't kill me," I begged.

"Daniel, stop," another voice ordered. The guy who was using me as a punching bag, Daniel, turned towards the other guy and laughed. "We can take her with us. Let's just go, someone's coming." He glanced behind his shoulder and Daniel turned back towards me.

"Night night," he said and punched me, this time in the head. A black curtain of darkness covered my body like a blanket and soon enough, I was out cold.