Bloodlines [3]

Lose Control

Today was the day of the PSAT's and Malia is completely freaking out. She looked all jittery and nervous as we stood in line, waiting for our turn to get into the classroom where we would take the test.

"Where's Lydia?" Kira asked when she noticed that our favorite strawberry blonde-haired banshee was nowhere to be seen.

"She took it her freshman year," Stiles told her.

"Does that mean I could have taken it some other time?" Malia asked nervously.

"Well, yeah, if you were a genius like me," I said, and she glared at me, but it didn't bother me.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Stiles looking at me, and I thought it was weird because he was looking at me like I grew two heads or something. Actually, he, Scott, and Kira were acting a bit strange. Weird.

"Malia, you studied harder for this than any of us," Scott said, trying to help make her feel better.

"Doesn't mean I'm gonna do good." She said in response."

"Well..." Stiles and I said, correcting her at the same time.

She looked at us. "Well, what?"

"It's do well, not good," Stiles explained, and she rolled her eyes.

"God!" She exclaimed.

"Okay, okay." He backed off.

"You're doing this because while we're trying not to die, we still need to live," Scott told her. "If I survive high school, I'd like to go to college. A good college."

"It's only three hours. We can survive three hours." Firass said.

We all keep waiting by the lockers until it was our turn to go in. As we entered, we all had to get our fingerprints done and put our phones into a yellow envelope. When it was my turn, I did the same as everyone else, but I felt uncomfortable when the teacher sitting at the desk was staring at me creepily and almost knowingly.

I tried not to pay attention to it as we were all seated alphabetically.

"Please do not open the test booklet until you are instructed to do so." The teacher said, and I look over at Stiles to see him closing his immediately, making me chuckle. "This test is two hours and ten minutes. There will be two 25-minute critical reading sections, two 25-minute math sections, and an essay writing portion that will last thirty minutes. There are supposed to be two teachers monitoring this exam." He said to Ms. Martin.

"I know. It's Coach. He's not exactly punctual." She said. "Um, let me just try him again." She then left the room to call him.

After a few minutes, she finally came back and said, "I can't find him, but Mr. Yukimura is upstairs grading papers. Do you want me to try him?"

"We have to start." He said. "We can ask for his assistance during the first break." She nodded in response as he touched a watch that was on his desk, and the time for the test began. "You may now open to your test booklets and begin." And with that, we all began to take our tests.

I smiled as I took it because it wasn't even that bad. I was practically flying through the English part of it. I was almost done when, suddenly, I heard this loud thump to my right. I look over to see that Sydney fell from her chair and looked a little out of it.

"Sydney!" Ms. Martin ran to her aid. "Sydney, are you all right?" She helped her up.

"I'm okay. I just got kind of dizzy." She told her, and I noticed how she looked a bit sick.

"Sydney, how long have you had this?" Ms. Martin asked her when she saw her wrist, but I was too far away to see what she was referring to.

Sydney looked down at her wrist, shaking her head. "I don't know."

"Ms. Martin, do I need to stop the test?" The creepy teacher asked her.

"No, um, it's fine. Everybody stay in your seats. I'll, um, be back in a minute. Nobody leaves the room." She said, acting a little strange. She walked out of the room, and we were all wondering what was going on.

She was only gone for a few minutes when suddenly I heard, "Get back! No! Do not come in here. Get back outside!" We all immediately got up from our seats and went to see what all the commotion was. We saw Ms. Martin with her back pressed up against the school doors, and I noticed that she locked them.

Why would she do that?

"Back to your seats. Now." She told us all. "Please." I didn't want to leave. I wanted to know what was making her act like this.

"Casey, let's go." Stiles pulled me back into the classroom, and I huffed in annoyance.

-

We all watched as people in yellow hazard suits with equipment in their hands came walking into the school. Turns out that Ms. Martin ended up calling the CDC because she thinks that whatever is happening to Sydney might be spreading.

"Bet they're thinking smallpox," Stiles said, taking a wild guess as we sat around the desks.

"Not likely." The creepy teacher and I said at the same time. He motioned for me to continue.

"Smallpox was eradicated worldwide in 1979," I said.

"We've only managed to completely eradicate two viruses in history. The other was rinderpest." He told us. "It killed cows."

"So we should be comforted by that, right?" Firass asked him.

"Unless it's something worse." The teacher said, almost like it had a second meaning to it. But right as he said that the room began to feel warmer, and I saw everybody fanning themselves, rolling up their sleeves, or taking off their jackets.

"Why is it so hot in here?" Kira said, fanning herself, and the others were doing the same except for me. It didn't really affect me as much as it did them.

"Oh, my god. Casey, your eyes." Scott said. "They're glowing." When he told me that, I screwed my eyes shut, breathing heavy.

"Ow!" Stiles cried when he touched me, but he played it off. "You're literally hot to the touch. Stop it."

"I'm trying," I said, feeling my eyes burn as I took a few deep breaths, trying to concentrate on getting back control, and soon the rising temperature began to die down. I open my eyes when I felt them stop burning.

"What was that?" Firass asked me, and I shrugged.

"I don't know," I said honestly, not understanding why I lost control.

"I should probably call my dad." Stiles suddenly said, and he went to grab his phone.

"Don't bother." The teacher stopped him. "They would have shut off any access to all outside communication by now. No cell service, no WiFi. No starting a panic. Looks like we're all just going to have to wait here and see what happens." He then licked his finger before turning the page to his book and began to read again.

This doesn't feel right. And whatever it is, I think it's going to get worse.