I'll Be Back (Great Uncle Dracula Fanfic)

Homeroom

He found his homeroom with ease, the teacher saying he could sit wherever he wanted. Yet, Wolfie also arrived in time to think over his run-in with Winnie, his mind mulling over not only how it didn't seem as if she'd changed but how his other friends from elementary school might not recognize him.

And—

As the other students drifted into class, Wolfie realized he didn't recognize most of them, being that most went to another elementary school than he did when he attended the town, which made sense given the fact their high school served quite a large region, and yet not seeing individuals he recognized was disconcerting.

Wolfie shook his head, wondering if there would be anybody in his homeroom class he would recognize when he happened to glance up and see a familiar face—that of Hector Spector. And yet—

"What are you looking at?"

He'd only looked up at Hector and his group of friends briefly when one of them said those words, yet Wolfie's head jerked away instantly, looking down at his desk while his hands went to clutching the edge of his seat, while panic for some strange reason started setting in.

"Come on! Hector's not a stranger to you! You know him from elementary school, so there shouldn't be no need to worry." And yet, he thought, "but there was the earlier incident with Winnie and a definite chance that he wouldn't recognize you."

"Now, now," the teacher said. "You just came into the classroom, so you don't have to be confrontational."

"No confrontation." Wolfie's fingers tightened on the seat. "Definitely no confrontation on the first day of class."

The teacher let out a laugh. "And to be honest, why wouldn't your classmates look up when another comes in."

"Because it's rude," the person said.

"Male, and on the football team, or at least one of Hector's friends trying out for the football team. Likely someone he played football with earlier on." His head turned to the side, flinching slightly, only for Wolfie to remind himself not to show any form of weakness which might make him a target.

"Come on," said someone making Wolfie turn his head, seeing it was Hector who was speaking, though he quickly turned his head back to his desktop, not wanting anyone to think he'd been purposefully looking in their direction and staring when they came in. "Stop making such a big deal about it. Nobody was staring."

"I didn't say that," the person who asked Wolfie, or maybe it was someone else who they were looking at that made them snap. Already, Wolfie didn't like Hector's new friends, or at least that one, which bothered him as he sat up straight, resulting in his entire body stiffening.

Nor could he forget how Hector and his older brothers were talking about something happening between the two of them, something that he'd tried brushing off as he made his way excitedly through the school halls. "Is there a need to worry? I mean, with the way this friend of his acts?"

He wasn't sure.

Nor did he pay attention to the group as they headed to some of the cleared seats, suddenly feeling too close for comfort as he'd decided to take a seat in the middle of the classroom to try and look less conspicuous so that he wouldn't stand out like a sore thumb and draw attention to himself.

Wolfie scraped the top of the desk with a nail, not leaving a mark despite the fact he could, knowing full well that might result in getting in trouble with the teacher, though sometimes —at least back in elementary school, they could be understanding. In the higher grades, they tended to be confused when strange marks showed up on the desk, with the one time a student noticed drawing attention to him that his family didn't like.

That resulted in them being shipped off to another set of family members, although Adolphus never blamed him. Never, not once.

He found himself drawn from his train of thoughts at the ruckus that Hector Spector and his friends were making, nor could he say he enjoyed how loud they were. "I hope they don't see me visibly flinching at their noise, or is it the topic of discussion?"

For they were talking about football, wonderful football, the one sport he'd never grown to like as he'd never liked the idea of smashing one's head in that manner at risk to what he considered a definite head injury despite the gear in question, mainly if one added monsters in the mix who were known to have greater strength than non-monsters.

Wolfie let out a sigh and turned his head, propping himself up on one elbow, wishing the bell would ring so homeroom could get starters. The teacher could talk about whatever they would need to know while also skipping the formalities of him having to interact with Hector's new friends despite the fact this would hinder him from interacting with Hector.

And—

He couldn't erase the feeling of dread, which arose from something he couldn't quite place, which had his mind puzzling, his body sitting up straight, muscles relaxed—thankfully—when the bell rang.

"So. Before I get into all the awesome stuff, you want to hear about your Freshman year in high school..."

Someone from Hector's group muttered something about the teacher being a bit too cheerful, which Wolfie found himself potentially agreeing with, though the first day of school was soon to decide such things.

"...I'm going to be taking attendance, alright?"

And some of the class muttered the affirmative.

"Oh, come on! Is it alright?"

The affirmative was less muttered, with even Wolfie joining in, deciding that the first day of school wasn't too soon to determine that this teacher was way too exuberant, at least for the first day of school. However, as he turned his head to look at the man, he had to admit there was a lack of enthusiasm for the first day of school.

"Did I end up in the class with those who don't like school?" Wolfie thought to himself. "Although, I have to admit I'm not fond of school despite the fact I like learning. School is..."

He'd never quite fit in, not since he'd moved away as he knew he would have to be absent from school during the full moon. Thankfully, nobody ever put two-and-two together regarding how the family vacations during the school year that pulled him out often happened during the full moon. However, he'd looked forward to moving back and going to high school for that very reason.

And the teacher started calling attendance, with Wolfie sitting up straight the moment he realized the teacher was calling students by their first names rather than their last, which felt a bit odd given students could very quickly have the same last name and the teacher not notice there was more than one student.

The worst part—the one that had Wolfie worried was...

"Asmodeus?"

Wolfie paled as the teacher said his first name was making him hate even more how his parents decided to name him, thinking the combination of Asmodeus with Wolfgang was just as adorable as the nickname of Maddie.

And immature boys found his name of Asmodeus absolutely hilarious because it started with the sound "ass."

Wolfie cringed, his hand slowly rising as he listened to Hector's friends—and Hector, laughing at his first name, with some of the other kids joining in while the teacher looked on in surprise. He felt his cheeks heating up, wishing he could hide. The teacher saying, "it's not funny," probably made things worse, but there was no way he would even try to approach Hector any time soon, but hearing that homeroom would be about building social skills made him cringe even more.