The Demon Inheritance

FOUR

Gary Bluethorne, noticing me especially for the first time since the excessive Croma-daydreaming started, glared at me from across the room. The two miniature abysses he called his eyes flickered in hatred, as if I'd been the person to piss in his cereal this morning. Normally, I kept to myself, not giving teachers a reason to hate me (besides when I had debates with them, but that wasn't a real reason to hate me...). I wasn't sure what exactly I had done to deserve his hateful glare, but whatever it was, it must have been bad.

Since the bell hadn't rung for class to start yet, Mary turned around to face me. "Romeo and Juliet is today, Emma! Are you excited?"

I glanced from returning Gary's evil gaze to see my friend's happy, promising one. "You bet I am. Fango's playing Romeo, if you hadn't heard. He'd better be a good one." I smiled, attempting to forget about the man glowering from across the room over my friend's shoulder. "Then we have Dillan's... thing... to go to. Are you coming?"

"Duh. I'm not letting you get kidnapped alone; I wanna go to Mexico with you!" She looked at me very seriously and said, "That's where all the kidnapped children go."

I sighed in relief. Dillan's pointless Welcome Home party was the only shot at privacy we had, other than having Mary over at my house. At said pointless event, I'd find the perfect time to tell Mary what was really going on with me. Even if she couldn't help, even if she couldn't console, I believed this would help mend our bond and erase the fact I had once distrusted her. "Gary Bluethorne is staring at me over there." I hid my words by leaning forward and hissing with faint breath.

Mary gave a tight, forced smile. "I know, Em. I've been trying to ignore it. Oliver is giving him the stink eye, too, if you hadn't noticed."

I glanced over to find that Mary was right. Much unlike himself, Oliver had on a hateful expression, icy eyes narrowed at the math teacher from over his knuckles. The raw hatred I saw in my face made me flinch; I'd never seen him make any other expression besides curiosity, sadness, or joy. He was innocent and kind, and the weirder group of people deemed him a "cinnamon roll" from some sort of internet term. Whatever caused the murderous rage on his face must have been something awful.

"That face..." My best friend shuddered. "It's almost like Mr. Bluethorne, like, murdered Oliver's family, or something... I've never seen anyone make a face like that... Gary and Oliver, both of them haven't even blinked yet... It's scary..." Mary blinked a couple of times, as if she could do it for them.

Before I could respond to my friend, Oliver pushed his chair out, most likely going to talk to Mr. Bluethorne. I pulled a piece of paper out of my back pack and said, "Throw this away and see what Oliver is saying to Gary. You haven't been stared at, yet."

Mary snatched up the paper, dipped her head, and rushed up towards the trash can by the classroom's door. Oliver bent over Gary's desk. I couldn't hear what he said, but I could tell that his tone was venomous.

Mary made her way back.

"So?" I asked.

"Oliver said, 'Don't think I don't know who you are'," the black-haired girl revealed, taking her seat again. "And Bluethorne said, 'Don't think I don't know who that girl is, either. You'd better not be dangerous this time around.' No lie! You could ask anyone in the first row."

This time around? I slouched over onto the desk, gritting my teeth in worry. I wondered for a moment if it could be my wind that Gary knew something about, or maybe even Croma. Then, I began evaluating their words. Apparently, our teacher saw Oliver as a threat, not me. Yet, anyways. And who was Gary, in Oliver's mind? Who was I, in both of their minds? Then, I pushed that concern away. Those dreams I had were getting in the way of the reality that actually mattered. They weren't real. Even if they were real, they were mine. No one else should have been able to know; it didn't make sense.