I'll Be Back (Great Uncle Dracula Fanfic)

Not Normal

He left potions class tense, without a voice, the upper-level students being somewhat overwhelming. He also kept his head down, his ears discerning comments about his name and the phonetic sound it started with, yet this time the words were different. "Why the fuck did that girl have to go and say what she thought of my butt?"

He felt a sense of relief when he finally found his way to Magical Theory class, setting his bag down and sitting down, letting out a deep sigh as he leaned back, his eyes closing as he did so, the heat in his cheeks leaving, fading, thankfully.

"Oh. It's you."

Wolfie sat up straight, turning his head to look at a familiar face near him, a frown on her face. He stared but then said. "Oh. Emily. Hi." The smirk didn't go away. "What?"

"I don't get it."

"What? What doesn't she get?"

"You knew how Wanda treated Winnie and me during elementary school, yet you were sitting with her yesterday in class," Emily said. "And you lied to me."

"Hold on. What did I lie to you about?"

"You pretended not to know me," Emily said. "And you didn't bother telling me it was you."

Wolfie swallowed. "Oh. And what was I supposed to say? Hey, Emily. It's me, Wolfie Johnson, and you didn't recognize me."

She glared. "Really? It was to spare me the embarrassment of not recognizing you or save you the embarrassment of talking to Wanda despite knowing what she did."

"That's totally unfair!" Wolfie said, trying to stay calm. "Totally, Emily."

"Normal," she insisted. "And it's completely fair."

"Oh yeah. It's completely fair that I'm expected to not talk to the one person who happened to recognize me when I moved back here? It's completely fair that I'm expected to not talk to the one person who took the time to greet me as a person they knew, rather than treating me like a complete stranger."

"Seriously?" Emily sighed. "This is just like then."

"Then what?"

"Good grief. Hector said something about you not remembering some of the crap that went on before you moved away. Still, you seriously don't remember getting on my case because I complained that my mom wasn't able to come to career day and that I was stuck with my dad instead. That hurt."

"That hurt," Wolfie looked at the ground. "At least..."

"Not listening," Emily said, turning to look at the front. "And not talking to you."

He turned his head, wishing she hadn't decided to sit next to him while also finding himself frustrated that Wanda's attempt to help had already backfired simply because of their interaction yesterday. And so he sat there, with his hands in the palms of his hands, wishing he could go and crawl under a rock.

"Cute ass, Asmodeus," one of the girls said as they passed him by, making one of their friends giggle.

"Oh fuck," Wolfie muttered, burying his face in his hands and wanting to crawl under a rock even more. And then—

"What was that about?"

"What?" Wolfie's head tilted up, his face red.

"Your name's Wolfie, so why did..."

"I thought you weren't talking to me," Wolfie said, wishing his brother had given him more coffee that morning.

"Can't you be civil?" Emily asked.

"And you think, as embarrassed as I am, that I want to answer that question?" Wolfie said, letting his head flop onto his desk. "Why me?"

There was silence, which was expected as she said they weren't talking. But then her chair creaked as if she were leaning back to look at something. Wolfie stiffened, suddenly bolting up, "Please tell me you're not..."

She was.

His face started heating up. "Normal, could you stop."

"Stop what?"

"Staring."

"At what."

"Don't make me say it."

"I don't get why they say it's cute."

"Jerk," Wolfie said.

Her head shot up. "You're the jerk."

"Excuse me?" he hissed.

"And you're the one so uptight about looking sexy for the girls and me saying you're not."

"Idiot!" Wolfie said.

"I'm not an idiot, Wolfie Johnson," Emily muttered, her face shifting, reminding him she'd won the scariest monster face during elementary school when her quarter-vampire blood kicked in, yet he wasn't fazed.

"Johnson! Johnson!" Suddenly, a girl was at his desk, leaning in, way too close for comfort. "Do you have a girlfriend?"

"Of course not," Emily said. "He's an idiot."

"Normal!" Wolfie said, wishing someone would rescue him.

"An idiot?"

"Well, didn't they move him to remedial potions?" one of the students said, which of course, caught the attention of their Magical Theory teacher.

"Um, I'm sure that isn't..."

"Are you kidding me?" The girl said, bubbling over. "He's not in the remedial potions class for our grade! He's in the advanced class."

He let his head hit the desk, wishing the bell would ring.

"Can't be. I'm in the advanced class with McWitch," Emily said. "Unless it's a later period they moved him to, though that doesn't make sense because the advanced classes aren't full."

"Not the advanced class for our year! It's the class for eleventh graders."

"I want to die. I want to die right now. I'm drawing too much attention to myself, but my relationships with my childhood friends are fucked. It's fucked, and there's no going back." He pulled up an arm, wanting to hide even more.

"You're joking, right?" Emily said. "I don't recollect his grades being like that back in elementary school."

"How would you know?"

"Everyone knew. He and Hector preferred goofing off rather than studying."

"Wait? He's friends with Spector," the girl said. "I thought they didn't get along. They didn't seem pleased to see each other in homeroom today." The girl laughed. "Yeah. I don't believe you, Normal. I mean, did you ever see his report card back in elementary school?"

"Well, no."

"Then you can't know for sure," the girl said.

"Hey. The bells rung, and I believe you're late to your class, young lady."

Wolfie sat up. "Wait."

"You just realized she wasn't in our class?" Emily said. "Boy, are you dumb."

Wolfie let out a groan, his head hitting the desk. "I can't wait for school to finish so I can go home."