Electric Like Fire

The Awakening pt4

They were speaking amongst themselves quietly. One of them spoke up.

"Has this ever happened before?" they asked. It was a woman who'd said this.

"No," the principal replied.

"So, what are we going to do?" asked another.

"For now we will wait until the danger has passed. It will take a few days at the least. Weeks at the most."

"Wait? Really? What if it tries to break in? Chains and mere human security guards won't be able to suppress it," said a male teacher.

"We will hope for the best, but in the meantime, we need to prepare for the worst."

"Prepare for the worst?! We can't prepare for something like this! It would make more sense to send the students home. Especially that boy. If anything he's the danger. Shouldn't we-"

"What we should do is protect him and that's exactly what we will do," Mrs. Margrel interrupted, speaking sternly.

"What sense would that make?! That would only-"

The bell rang interrupting him mid-sentence. Everyone started walking to the door. The teacher that had spoken opened his mouth to say something but, the principal raised his hand and silenced him.

"I recall the bell signals the end of all meetings, Marcus." He gave him a stern look then gestured for him to leave. The principal looked in Zach's direction as if he knew he was there. Zach ducked behind the cabinet and held his breath. The principal turned and left the room. Mrs. Margrel sighed and walked out to greet the next class. Luckily, science was his next class. He came out as soon as he saw her look away. He sat down after the first ten students came into the room. Hopefully, she won't notice that I didn't come in. Everyone came in and class started. She took attendance and when she got to his name she stared at him then at the door, then right back at him. He smiled and said here as if he didn't notice. After that, through the entire lesson, she'd glance at him every five minutes.

The teachers were clearly hiding something.

Two days went by like that. Except for the awkward silences with all his teachers, everything went back to normal. After yet another awkward day in science, Zach walked around between classes looking for Rina and Ace. Come to think of it, I haven't seen them for a while. He went to his next class which was P.E. The gym was louder than usual. Almost everyone was yelling and they were all crowded around something in the corner farthest to him. Usually, he'd just walk away and ignore it but, amongst all the yelling he could hear his name being shouted several times. Am I always at the center of these fights? He walked up to someone on the outside of the group and asked what was going on. When they saw him they flinched and nudged the person in front of them. That person did the same. It went on and like a river being split by a rock, the crowd parted, allowing him a clear view. A pang of pain sprung up from his shin. Ah crap, why now? Logan, John, Treslo, leaders of the soccer, basketball, and football teams were all crowded around Evan. They were yelling at him and shoving him into the corner. Zach walked towards them. John pulled back his arm to punch Evan. Zach put his hand on his shoulder stopping him before he could swing. John looked back at him then at Evan.

"You are one lucky mother f*cker. I know you think you're important to the team, but the only thing that makes you worth anything is your height. Zach has a skill that you couldn't even dream of matching. If anything, he should be the one to take home the trophies 'cause he's the one that holds up the team when idiots like you are too busy drooling at the cheerleaders," he said with venom.

"Yeah, Zach may be kind of anti-social and a nerd, but he's the MVP for all of our teams. When you mess with him you mess with us," Treslo said stepping forward.