Silver Eyes

Creatures of Darkness

Hal winked at me when I passed him in the hallway the next morning at school and I managed not to cringe in its wake. I just tried to maintain an even composure and ignore it. His personality and body language wasn't what I was used to at all. He fancied himself a 'player' or a 'ladies' man' but his body movements and gestures bordered on queer to me. I mean, he had features that could be attractive to some girls. His face wasn't ugly in any obvious way. His dull blond hair that he always ran his fingers through was a few inches too long, and his naturally tan skin and athletic build made him popular. Like other boys at the school he always wore expensive clothes in tans, whites, and other bright colors. It was the mainstream style, although I couldn't see why. I found it deeply unappealing. It was amusing to compare Jack's dark punk style to the gay, preppy 'typical' that had emerged from modern fashion.

Inwé took no notice of me entering English class to my relief. She had her nose in a notebook that was on her lap. She was writing in it and her frizzy brown hair fell all over the place. I sat down in front of Pearce, in the front row.

It turned out to be another day our teacher made us go to the library except this time, he wanted to supervise us while we did our research for our paper and he wanted to go over our rough drafts. I had done my paper on Feng Sui the night before it was due, so I barely remembered how it turned out. Mr. Dobzhanski had sat on them for a week before starting to grade them and it was nearing the final draft due-date. I was dreading it.

"Silver," Mr. Dobzhanski said, jolting me out of my daydream. I had been staring blankly at the empty search bar for about five minutes but it felt like an eternity. He handed me back my paper and my eyes moved like magnets to my grade. The butthole graded in black pen, so I had taken it from him before I found it. I stood still my face pulled into a type of snarl as I looked down at a lower grade than I expected: a C –

"I don't think you're taking this paper seriously. It's worth 25% of your grade. You should put more time into your research and not write it the night before." He said to me, with his beady brown eyes looking down at me sternly. His words were biting and made me feel insurmountably guilty. He caught me. I did do it the night before and I think he would've given me a lower grade if I didn't put the whole night into it. If I wasn't a Lycan, I wouldn't have been able to pull it off. I would've needed six pots of coffee to stay as alert as I did and I still would've gotten too hyper and unable to focus.

"Inweh." He mispronounced <In-way>'s name. Her hair swayed back and forth like two curtains hiding the periphery of her face as she lumbered over to him. She had a big grin on her face like she was excited.

After a brief moment of celebration, she lumbered back to her seat next to Pearce. I was still standing, looking after her with a scowl.

"Silver, why are you still standing here? Go sit down." Mr. Dobzhanski ordered with unprofessional annoyance in his voice.

I moved without a word and retook my seat, two away from Inwé, who was all excited because she got an A.

"Pearce, what did you get?" she asked him.

"A-plus. What do you think?" he said in an oddly not-so-robotic voice. He sounded arrogant and I stole a glance, seeing him put his paper aside and set to work typing.

I looked back at my blank search bar and typed in the subject of my paper and some unhelpful key words. I sighed and got up, making a split decision to approach Inwé and Pearce, closing the gap between us with determination.

"Silver!" Inwé said in surprise. I stood with my eyebrows pressed down and my floppy paper in my hands.

"Can you help me with my paper? I'm stuck." I told her.